The heavy rain continued all night. When the downpours slowed somewhere in the middle of the darkness, I couldn’t wake Brit. She was exhausted from the last several days. I decided to let her sleep. That’s what she needed most at this time.
I was glad she didn’t wake up because within ten minutes the rains came again. The amount of moisture that the storm released was amazing. It had to have rained over two inches during the night. As morning’s first light broke in the eastern sky and darkness gave up begrudgingly, the rain kept up. There was just too much of it to head back on the road. We would have to stay put for a while.
About 11 o’clock, Brit roused briefly. She was soaked and still sleepy. She cried a little as she realized our predicament. I knew she wanted desperately to get going, but weather was not cooperating. I wound the watch and realized I had forgot to do so the previous day. I set it a half hour ahead to make up for time it might be losing. I had nothing else to do in the rain; playing with the watch at least kept me entertained for a while. A man can only watch it rain so long before he goes crazy. Three hours was my max.
Shortly after 1 o’clock, I saw movement on the main road some eighty yards away. It looked like a group of people. I relaxed as the last of them passed and moved east. What were they doing out in weather like this? Apparently road bandits deserve or need no rest. I thought of the old saying, “No rest for the wicked.” How true. Now if they could just take care of their wicked neighbor John, things might start to look up.
A loud clap of thunder woke Brit about an hour later. She sat up and surveyed our surroundings. We were both soaked all the way through by this time. The only thing that wasn’t wet was the seat of my pants. I’d been sitting, on guard, so long and the rain hadn’t reached that exact spot, not yet at least. Brit looked up at me sorrowful.
“Do we have anything to eat? Anything?” I shook my head at her. I couldn’t bear to look at her face. She sounded so sad. “Is this rain ever going to let up?” I shrugged. I didn’t have any answers. She scrunched her nose and looked closely at me. “Are you mad at me?”
“Of course not.” Why would she think that?
“You aren’t answering me very well.”
She had a point. “I just don’t have anything good to report yet. No food miraculously appeared overnight, the sky is still dark in the west, it’s been raining cats and dogs for hours, and we’re both as miserable as two humans can be. Did I get it all?”
She shook her head and pouted. “We’re still alive. That must count for something.”
I leaned back. “Yes we are, Brit. Yes we are.” I stared at the road. I thought I caught movement in my peripheral vision. I stared hard at the spot I had seen movement. A small deer walked down the dirt road next to us in the rain. I lifted my gun. Maybe we’d have dinner. Brit pulled at my arms.
“No. Not some little Bambi. That’s not right.” I guess she wasn’t starved enough yet for me to kill what she viewed as innocence in this crazy world. Maybe another twelve hours would change her mind. We probably didn’t need to give away our position to anyone who might be out there either. Like anyone was out in this storm. Well, except the road bandits.
Shortly after 4 o’clock, the rain let up enough to think about moving. With a lot of light still left in the day we would have to stick to the cornfields and its edges for safety. This meant getter wetter, if that was possible. We stood and carefully plotted our surroundings. The main road was a few minutes walk to our north. We could sneak along the west edge of the cornfield nearest us and take a peek on 280th, the main road. If it was clear we could carefully stay in the ditch and make our way back to the main highway, 35. I thought about it hard, we were at least a mile down to the east of 35. God only knows what we’d find when we got to that road.
We carefully retraced our steps out of our hiding spot. I found it amazing that the pines were hardly wet with rain. Now, the brush in the ditch was an entirely different story. It didn’t matter, though, we were wet as wet could be. We stood on the dirt road, now mud, silently and examined carefully in all directions. We started cautiously for 280th and had gone ten yards when we saw movement ahead. Back into the brush we scampered. I peered out from our hiding spot. It was the same group of idiots I had seen earlier. Like it or not, we had to stay put for a while longer.
“I saw them earlier, while you were still sleeping,” I whispered as I watched them congregate at the corner of the two roads. “I had hoped they just kept going east. Probably isn’t much down that way, though. I suppose they don’t want to get too far off of 35.” Brit was unresponsive. Nothing had changed while she slept. Just the day on the calendar.
“I’m so wet,” she whined as I watched the group choose their path. “I wish I had a pair of pants instead of these stupid shorts.” She came over and knelt in front of me to watch the group decide their fate. “My feet hurt. I think I have something in my shoes.” We took our previous spots and stared at one another. I motioned to her.
“Let’s see them then. We have nothing but time.” She slipped off her sandal and lifted her right foot to my hands. I saw the issue immediately.
“You’ve got several small cuts on the bottom of this foot. Let me see the other one.” She repeated the process with her left foot. Same thing. With the open design on the sides of these shoes small rocks and other items had made their way between the sole of her foot on the padding in her shoe. These irritants had caused blisters that had now erupted, and her feet were raw and starting to get bloody in several spots. I looked at her closely.
“You’ll have to take my socks. At least my sneakers have sides so they don’t let in foreign objects. But those feet of yours are going to hurt for a while.” I peeled off my wet shoes, followed by my equally soaked socks. I rang the water from them as best I could and handed them to Brit. She looked skeptical.
“They were fresh two days ago. Plus the rain has washed away any of my germs. It’s not like you have a choice,” I whispered to Brit.
It almost looked like the road idiots were going to head our way. I signaled for Brit to get lower on the ground.
“Why are they coming this way?” Brit was frantic. I shushed her with a finger to my lips. I could hear the bandits close by our position.
“That guy said they have to be close. So keep your eyes peeled. We find them, we get a night in his house and all the food we can eat. That’s what he said, right Thomas?” The person speaking sounded like a female. Brit and I exchanged an odd glance.
“Yep. He claims he has plenty of meat and sweets.” Thomas had a low gravelly voice. He sounded mean. “He just wants his daughter back. We can do whatever we want to the guy. Maybe he’s got cash, maybe goods. Either way he’s a dead man when we get through with him. Just gotta find them now.” I closed my eyes and hung my head. Instead of one man looking for us there was a group of six or seven. Just great. And it sounded like no one was too concerned if I was taken dead or alive. For some reason I thought of Jessie James. I rubbed my brow tightly. Bad to worse, Bill, bad to worse.
I felt Brit staring a hole through the side of my head. I glanced over. She was scared again, very scared. What did this girl have that every man seemed to want so badly? She was small, immature, only 14 and a royal pain most of the time. I knew what they saw – youth, sweetness, innocence and a lithe young shape. Was this happening everywhere? Or was it just a regional phenomenon?
I needed to say something to prevent Brit from losing it completely. I crawled over and spoke quietly. “You understand that in other cultures it’s common for men of various ages to be attracted to and to desire younger women?” Her eyes opened wider. “My point is that here in our country we have social mores and laws that discourage that type of behavior. But some people, well men, still think those thoughts.” She stared harshly. “With the breakdown of society, with no one to enforce these laws or mores, some people act on their urges since there is likely no repercussions for their actions.” She still wasn’t pleased with my story. “It’s n
ot you in other words, it’s society. A perverse society, but society nonetheless. You understand, right?” She looked seriously at me. Perhaps I said too much.
“You’re going to protect me, right? You’re going to use that gun however you have to to protect me, right?”
I nodded. “Of course. I’m just telling you why you seem so popular all of a sudden.” She looked at the road and then back to me.
“Let me enlighten you, Mr. Counselor. I’ve been fighting off old creeps ever since I got boobs. Every girl my age knows they like the little ones. That isn’t news to me. I just want you to understand, I’m not going back to John’s under any circumstances. Shoot me if you have to, just don’t let them take me.” Brit rose slightly as the group went further down the dirt road.
I pondered her words. “Brit, why is it every time there’s an issue you feel it’s your job to remind me to protect you? Don’t you think that’s what I’ve been doing all along?” We rose to our knees. “I mean I gave up my supplies for you, left my pack in John’s house to get you out of there, I’ve altered my whole trip just to be sure you’d get to where you’re going safely. You don’t need to remind me what to do. I’ve been a father long enough to know my role.”
She stared hard at me and bit on her lower lip. “My dad would sell me off for a six pack and a carton of smokes. You realize that don’t you?” I continued to stare and made no sign of acknowledgment. “Call it force of habit. I know you say you’ll protect me, but I get worried sometimes.”
I looked away. “I’m not your dad, Brit. I don’t do things like that. That should be pretty damned obvious to you by now.” I was pissed, and she didn’t seem to care. Just a teenager, thinking only of herself. “I gave you my socks, Brit, I’ve given you everything, Brit. What else can I possibly do or say to convince you I’m here for you?”
Her expression softened. She had a plan, plain as day. “I want you to stay when we get to my grandparents’. I want you to stay and be my dad, a real dad, like I deserve.”
Of all the things she could have said, this was the one I never ever expected. “No. We both have families to find, Brit. And even if your mom doesn’t show up, Grandma and Grandpa will know what’s best for you.”
Her jaw dropped. “They’re old, Bill. They’re like 60 something. Like they know how to take care of me. You can’t just dump me there and expect everything to be fine. And like you’re ever going to see your family again. You said that much last night. You know it, and I know it. You need a family, and I need a dad. I have a family, and all it needs is a dad. Hello? Duh?” She spun away.
I kept my voice down. “That’s not fair, Brit, and you know it. I have to try. I owe Sharon and my kids that much. If I don’t at least try to get there, I’ll always wonder. I’ll always be haunted by that shadow of doubt that they were there waiting for me, and I just never showed up. I can’t take that chance, Brit. Even a selfish little brat like you understands that much, don’t you?”
She twisted again and swung, barely missing my left shoulder. “You bastard, you awful selfish bastard. You can’t do this to me. You have everything. I have nothing.” Brit’s voice rose, I looked to see if the road bandits noticed. They hadn’t. I held my finger to my lips. “Oh let them find me, what do you care? At least they’ll just kill you,” she shouted, way too loud. Fortunately it was raining again so that helped muffle the sound.
I grabbed her by her left arm firmly, maybe too firm. “Show me your back. Show me just how awful your life is. Prove to me you’re not playing me. Do something for me for a change, how about.” Her faced showed fire. She spun and raised her green T-shirt up high enough to expose her wounds.
I froze. I felt my blood turn cold. I couldn’t help but stare. Stare at what I prayed didn’t exist, and now saw was painfully real, twice as bad as I ever could have dreamt. Some marks were fresh, others were in various stages of healing. I stopped counting at ten. It was lucky I hadn’t eaten in a while, I would have lost it all right then and there. Brit spun hearing my deep sigh and lifted the front of her shirt exposing a deep black bruise on her left ribcage.
I dropped my head and rubbed my brow. I sniffed a time or two trying to collect my thoughts. I dropped onto a tree windfall, still staring at the ground. Brit came and stood in front of me.
“Happy?” Her voice was soft and solemn.
Without looking up I answered. “Not in the least, Britney McMahon, not in the least.”
Chapter 31