Who We Are (33 page)

“Johnny, where is Desire?” he asked.

“She said she felt tired sir, so I escorted her home. Mrs. Proctor was waiting for her outside and promised to keep an eye on her. I thought I would come back here and offer to tidy up the chairs and tables. I am sure most folks want to go home to be with their families and you sir, with all due respect, look pretty worn out.”

“Yes, well losing a loved one is never easy.” His response sound somewhat scripted and unemotional. “Thank you for your offer. I shall take you up on it and head home to console my daughter.” He shook Johnny’s hand and left.

Johnny puttered about, moving and folding chairs and tables. Before long, he was all alone in the Hall. He reminded himself that he was probably being watched somehow so he tried to be as inconspicuous as possible as he searched for a way out.

He ruled out escaping through the windows right away since they did not open and the thickness of the glass was remarkable. Next, he inspected a door at the back of the hall behind a partition that led to the restrooms and storage areas. He noticed the thickness of the door and the tight seal around the door and the frame. It appeared as though there was some sort of electronic box on the back side of door. He felt sure this was a remote control door operator. Presumably the doors would be closed and secured remotely prior to gassing and torching them all. He that the front door of the hall had a similar device on. The storage room behind the door held the racks for the chairs and tables. It had no other exit doors and no windows. The restrooms too proved useless as there was no windows. All the ceilings in the hall were solid and there were no vents visible that were big enough for people to climb through. 

Johnny started to worry. If they attended the Celebration in hopes of getting out, they ran the risk of getting trapped. How would they escape?

Johnny played out different scenarios of escape in his head as he headed back to his house. None of his plans were ideal. Escaping at any other time had a significant consequence for them. They would be identified as missing. He was sure they would not even make it out of the forest without being captured. He had mapped out the escape route through the forest and the quickest he ever made it out was 36 hours, including a few breaks to rest and regain their strength. He had scoured the forest looking for areas that would provide suitable coverage for rest and had found a few where he felt confident they could sleep undiscovered. Forcing themselves all the way through the forest without stopping would probably take about 24 hours, but without any rest, he knew they would put themselves at risk of making mistakes that could prove deadly. If only he knew how They would make sure that everyone was in attendance, he could work with that.

Johnny went upstairs and fell onto his bed. He reached for the little flask of gut rot and took a few swigs. He closed his eyes as the whiskey calmed him and he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Chapter Twenty Eight

When Desire work up, she hopped out of bed, dressed quickly, tied her hair back, and then left her room to go downstairs to make breakfast. Before she took her first step down, she could smell freshly brewed coffee and heard the skillet sizzling. When Desire entered the kitchen, she found Mrs. Proctor making breakfast for her and Papa.

“I hope you don’t mind, dear,” Mrs. Proctor said, “but I didn’t think you would feel much like cooking today so I thought I would come over and help.”

“Of course, we don’t mind.” Papa had come down the stairs behind Desire.

“Good morning, Mr. Winthrop. How did you sleep?”

“Very well, thank you,” said Papa. “It’s very thoughtful of you to help us at this difficult time. Indeed, Desire should take it easy today. She can resume her chores tomorrow.”

Mrs. Proctor nodded and smiled and continued fixing breakfast. Before long, Desire and Papa were sitting at the table staring down a feast. There were fresh biscuits, eggs, bacon, ham, pancakes and fruit. Desire looked at all the food thinking there was enough to feed about a dozen people. They politely thanked her and asked her to join them. Mrs. Proctor declined and returned to her home.

Looking at all the delicious food, Desire realized how hungry she was. She hadn’t eaten for two days. She filled her plate and ate every bite. Then she filled her plate half again and ate all that too. She washed it down with a few cups of coffee and a tall glass of orange juice. She expected Papa to comment on her veracious appetite, but he was too busy eating his third plate of breakfast. When they were done, the food that she thought would feed a dozen people was almost all gone.

They both looked at the empty plates and then at each other and smiled. As they sat in silence, Desire looked at Papa closely and actually felt pity for him. He was a non-person; just a fleshy robot created in a lab with invisible puppet strings inside his mind. She wondered if he was capable of experiencing true emotion or if he only executed programmed responses.

She flashed back to the morning after Mama died, seeing Papa haggard and a little drunk mourning the loss of his wife. That was real emotion and that was real pain. Sadly, he went to clinic to take care of some business and when he returned he seemed to once again to behave according to scripted responses to his environment. Besides pity, she also felt fear, knowing now what They were capable of.

“Papa, will you be home for dinner tonight?” she asked.

“Yes, I will, and every night after that. I cannot leave you here alone after dark until I find a suitable new wife.”

So that was it. His mourning period for Mama had ended.

“Desire, the ladies here in the community filled our icebox with far too much food for the two of us to eat and I certainly do not want to be disrespectful by throwing any away. When you finish your chores today, why don’t you go find Johnny and invite him to dinner tonight. Just remind him that he will need to wait on the porch if I am running late.”

Desire worked to conceal a rush that would rise in her just thinking about spending time with Johnny. She tried to remain mechanical. “What about Bible study, Papa?”

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, and then spoke. “You are the woman of the house now, Desire. As such, you will have no time for Bible study. You will take on the responsibilities that belonged to your mother. Do you think you can handle that?”

“Yes. Papa. Don’t worry, I will make you proud.” Desire felt secretly delighted. Being excused from Bible Study would give her and Johnny much-needed time to continue planning their escape from Hemac. 

“Good girl. Now, I know this may be difficult for you, but I want you to gather your mother’s things so that we can dispose of them. I left two sacs on the bed and that should be more than enough. Leave the sacks on the porch and someone will pick them up this afternoon.” He said this very matter-of-factly without a trace of emotion. He got up from the table, kissed her forehead and left for the day.

After tidying up the kitchen, Desire went upstairs to Mama and Papa’s bedroom. She went over to Mama’s wardrobe and opened the doors. There hung all of her skirts and blouses. Most were everyday clothes, but there were a few Sunday dresses as well. Desire pulled them out one by one and began folding them and placing them in the canvas sacs.

When she finished, she inspected the inside of the wardrobe for secret compartments, but found none. Then she opened the large drawer at the bottom of the wardrobe and removed Mama’s sweaters and underclothes and packed these too. .

She looked around the room to find any other items that might belong to Mama. She spotted the nightstand and went over to look in the drawers. In the top drawer, Desire found lace handkerchiefs. Putting one in her skirt pocket, she placed the rest in the sac. In the middle drawer, Desire found a Bible; she left that in the drawer. The bottom drawer was empty except for a few loose pieces of paper. She inspected them, but they were all blank.

She then went into the bathroom and removed Mama’s hairbrush and toothbrush and put them in the sac. There was a full bottle of lavender bath oil on the side of the tub that had never been opened. When she opened the small cabinet on the wall beside the sink it was full of unopened bottles of lavender oil. There had to be at least three dozen bottles. Desire thought that the smell of the lavender must have brought back terrible reminders of the horror in the City that followed her first tub bath full of lavender her first night in the City. Not sure what to do with all these bottles, she threw them all in the second sac. She felt certain that all of this would be destroyed, but given the imminent events in the community, worrying about waste was futile. Desire then reached for Mama’s little tin box that held her beautiful hairpins and combs. One in particular had a large metal butterfly on the top of the comb with beautiful gems and colours. These items seemed so personal, she could not fathom throwing them in a sac to be destroyed. She left the tin in the bathroom. She took the robe and nightgown hanging off the hook on the bathroom door and folded them neatly into the second sac.

Desire carried both sacs downstairs, tightened the tops and tied the strings. She went to the front porch and put the sacs on one of the chairs. And that was it. Desire knew that once the sacs were gone, it would be as if Mama never existed.

Although her heart was hurting for Mama and all she had been through, Desire knew she needed to stay strong. There was too much at stake right now and allowing herself to feel vulnerable would jeopardize both her and Johnny. She took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes. She forced herself to picture all that she held dear. She saw Patrick as a toddler calling to her and running across the grass in their backyard to hug her. She pictured her and Aedan at his senior prom. She pictured her parents. She pictured herself at a Patriots game with her dad and him slipping her sips of his beer. She pictured her mom making her famous football Sunday chili and nachos. She filled her mind with pictures of happy memories.

Sarah Jane had warned her and Johnny that they would not be able to step back into their lives and deep down she knew this to be true. But she refused to accept the fact that she would never again see her family if she made it out of Hemac alive. What They may not have realized when They launched the experiment is the Irish remain deeply connected to their roots. This included the strongest blood blonds that reached way back to their homeland of Ireland. She felt positive that they would reconnect.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Aedan woke up early but remained in his bed, trying to figure out how they could escape the night of the Celebration after they had been accounted for and before the hall was sealed off. Originally, Aedan had expected that he and Darby would have to live on the run, looking over their shoulders constantly. But since Sarah Jane shared what she knew about their scheduled demise, Johnny knew he had to think differently. Now they had to escape knowing that They would seek them out.

He pounded his fist on the bed. “Damn! Damn! Damn!”

His anger had been bubbling just below the surface and he was not sure he could control it much longer. He felt angry that he and Darby’s life had been cruelly ripped away from them. He missed his parents, he missed his brother and he missed his life. He should be in Boston right now halfway through his law degree and Darby should be in nursing school!  But most of all, he felt haunted by Nathaniel’s attack on Darby. It was violent and cruel and it would haunt him until the end of his days. He had been so careful to watch over and protect her, and when she needed him most, he had failed her.

He got up from his bed and went into the bathroom to splash water on his face. He decided to take a shower and turned the water on extra hot. He stood under the steaming hot water for a long time. Although the water was almost too hot, it soothed at the same time.

When he finally shut the shower off, he wrapped a towel around his waist. He walked over to the window at the front of the room and all his anger dissipated. Darby was approaching and to him she looked like and angel from Heaven to save him from himself. He quickly dried off and dressed so he could greet her at the door.

Before Darby could knock on the door, Aedan opened it. They both stood there for a moment and smiled at each other. They could both sense the fear in each other’s hearts, but the love overpowered this fear and without speaking they silently comforted each other.

Conscious of being watched, he greeted her politely and invited her in. Darby, also conscious of watchful eyes, declined but did extend the invitation to dinner on behalf of her father. She explained to him that she needed to tend to the vegetables as it was now her responsibility to assure that their gardens were intact. She told him that this would be consuming the majority of her days for at least the next week as it was almost time to harvest and start preserving.

He understood. They bid each other a good day and Darby walked away towards the town.