The Army Comes Calling (23 page)

Chapter 39

     The fish fry was a resounding success. Helen battered the fish and rolled it in a corn meal breading, seasoned with a mix of Cajun spices and herbs that she refused to divulge to anyone else.

     “It’s an old family recipe,” she said. “I will leave it to you in my will, I promise. As long as I’m alive, though. No one will know the recipe except me. It’s my insurance policy.”

     Sami asked, “Insurance policy?”

     “Yes. If the world ever goes to hell in a hand basket again, and we all have to resort to cannibalism to survive, this will ensure my survival. You’ll eat me last because no one else will know how to cook a decent batch of fish.”

     The group looked at Helen as though she’d lost her mind.

     And perhaps she had.

     But insane or not, she cooked up one wicked batch of fish.

     Glenna was beginning to socialize occasionally and showing signs of coming out of her shell, but she was still a deeply troubled woman. Most of the time she sat silently, barely noticing the hustle and bustle of the world going on around her. Although her children were adjusting fairly well, and spent most of their time playing with the other children, at meals they tended to stay close to their mother.

     It was as though they felt a need to insulate her from the world outside her own mind.

     Hannah had taken to sitting with Glenna at mealtime. Glenna was most comfortable with Hannah and with Sarah. Although all the other women in the compound tried, they just hadn’t been able to break through the hard shell that Glenna had built around herself in the three years she was Castillo’s captive. To Hannah and Sarah, it was important that one of them was always available to Glenna, to provide a shoulder to cry on and a pair of loving arms to help Glenna get through an occasional meltdown.

     Marty sat with John, Mark and Little Markie, and had no qualms about going back for seconds, and then thirds.

     No one minded. He was not only a guest, but had become a close friend. And everyone knew that the food they consumed on a daily basis was a luxury for most of the rest of the world.

     After Marty finished, he excused himself and walked over to the table Glenna and Hannah shared with Little Steve and Amy.

     All four of them looked at him as he said hello. In the children’s faces he could detect a hint of sadness, but also a hope. A hope, perhaps, that the days ahead would be brighter than the ones they’d left behind.

     In Glenna’s eyes, though, he saw something else entirely. It was as though he could see directly into her soul. He could see the blackness that through circumstance had replaced her very being with… nothingness. There was no emotion in those eyes. No spark, no sense of purpose. Nothing. It dawned on Marty that these were the saddest eyes of all, and the humanity within him wept.

     He reached out his hand to her and she timidly took it.

     I’m Marty. Hannah says you don’t remember me, but we met the day you and the children left Eden.

     Glenna hesitated before speaking, as though the world was a grand concert and she was a single beat of the music behind everyone else.

     Or perhaps it merely took a moment for Marty’s words to register.

     Hannah was afraid that perhaps this wasn’t a good idea. Perhaps she’d only bonded with Hannah and Sarah because her abuse by Castillo and his friends had made her afraid of all men. Perhaps she no longer had the capacity to tell good men from bad. Perhaps they were all now evil in her mind.

     But when she spoke, it was slowly and deliberately, with no hint of fear.

     “You look vaguely familiar, sir. But that day was… still is, a blur. It was almost like a dream. I’m still not sure it wasn’t. I fear sometimes that I will wake up, and that everything will be like it was.”

     He held her hand longer than necessary, something that didn’t escape Hannah’s attention.

     “I assure you, it’s not a dream. These good people have taken you in as one of their own. They will provide you all the love and support you need to get through this. And they are patient and kind and will let you work through things on your own time. And even though I don’t live here with Hannah and her friends, I’m at your service as well. If there is anything I can do to help, you need only ask.”

     Glenna paused again. Hannah noticed she still hadn’t released Marty’s hand, and wondered if Glenna was conscious of it.

     “Hannah and Sarah tell me that you are the one who saved my children and me.”

     “Well, that’s not entirely true. There were a lot of good men who were involved in freeing you. I merely recruited them when I learned that you and the others were in trouble.”

     “But if you hadn’t done that, we never would have been rescued. Isn’t that true?”

     “Well, technically…”

     “Mr…”

     “Haskins. But call me Marty, please.”

     “Marty, would you mind sitting with me for a bit?”

     Glenna wasn’t even sure herself why she asked. Perhaps she needed to satisfy in her own mind that not all men were savages. Or perhaps she saw a kinship of sorts in Marty’s eyes.

     Marty was willing. His hand was still tightly in her grip, but he made no effort to extract it.

     Hannah said, “I’m going back for seconds. Do you guys want anything?”

     She was totally ignored by Glenna and Marty. Little Steve looked at her plaintively and asked, “Please, ma’am, can I have some more apple pie?”

     “Well, certainly.”

     Hannah looked at Amy.

     “And would you like some too, little princess?”

     “Yes, ma’am, please.”

     “Okay, but I can’t carry back three pieces. Why don’t you guys come with me and we’ll see if there’s any left?”

     Both of the children got up and each took one of Hannah’s hands. Amy, though, looked at her mother plaintively and hesitated. It occurred to Hannah for the first time that the young child felt a need to help protect her mother from the evils of the world. That perhaps in previous months the three had learned to provide a protective shell around the others. Perhaps that in the absence of help from anyone else, they learned to protect each other.

     “She’ll be okay,” Hannah whispered in Amy’s ear. “Marty is really Superman in disguise.”

     Amy’s eyes grew as big as saucers and she exclaimed, “Wow! Really?”

     Hannah vigorously nodded her head and then held a finger to her lips. Amy nodded in agreement, and the two shared a secret that would never be disclosed to anyone.

     The three left the table and Marty sat down in the chair that Hannah vacated.

     When returning with their pie, Hannah saw that Marty and Glenna were deep in conversation.

     She suggested, “Why don’t we sit over here and eat, and you can tell me all about how you’re doing in school?”

     Amy smiled. Little Steve rolled his eyes and said, “Oh, gee whiz…”

     Hannah took that to mean that Amy was the more studious of the two.

     They sat at a table halfway across the dining room from Marty and Glenna. Far too far away for Hannah to catch even a snippet of the conversation.

     As Amy droned on and on about the things Miss Helen was teaching her about grammar and spelling and geography, Hannah couldn’t help but wonder what on earth Marty and Glenna were talking about.

Chapter 40

     Hannah never found out what Marty and Glenna had been so engrossed in. After half an hour of what appeared to be a very intense conversation, during which time Marty’s hand never left Glenna’s, he finally got up to leave.

     Amy and Steve left Hannah to rejoin their mother, and Marty rejoined Mark and John to talk about fishing techniques.

     Hannah moved on to other things. It was time to take Little Markie home to get his bath and prepare him for bed. She knew that Mark would show Marty to the guest apartment and make sure that he had everything he needed to get him through the night.

     Hannah was excited for another reason that had nothing to do with Glenna’s first steps in coming out of her shell.

     In just a few hours, at ten hundred hours the next morning, Colonel Travis Montgomery would be returning to collect her and John for a second tour of Montgomery’s greenhouse and livestock facilities.

     The colonel had felt bad because John had taken ill and hadn’t been able to go on the first trip.

     And the colonel had also heard there were others in the compound who’d wanted to see the facility.

     Despite his gruff exterior, Colonel Montgomery was an accommodating sort by nature. And it didn’t hurt that he was passionate about his work and loved showing it off.

     At the conclusion of the first tour, he’d told Karen and Frank that he’d do as many tours as he had to until everyone had a chance to go.

     And of course, Hannah was ecstatic. She’d never been on a helicopter, and was looking forward to her first trip. And she, like everyone else, was tired of being cooped up in the compound, after being held prisoner in the salt mine for seven long years. There was a great big world out there, and she wanted to experience it again.

     Mark asked her, “Are you sure you’re not just gonna run off with this colonel? Maybe you’ve always had a secret desire to be an officer’s wife, and go to all those fancy dinner parties and mingle with the high society and such.”

     “Don’t worry, honey. I saw the colonel on the monitors, and he’s not my type. He’s tall, dark, handsome, and sophisticated. Everything I never wanted in a man.”

     “Good. That’s nice to know.”

     Then her words sunk in.

     “Hey, wait a minute…”

     Hannah laughed.

     “Don’t worry, baby. You’re one of the only two men I will ever love. And Colonel Montgomery isn’t the other one. He’s way too grouchy for me.”

     “Well, just who is the other man you’ll ever love besides me?”

     “Our handsome son, silly. He’s got the other half of my heart, remember.”

     “Oh. Okay. Good answer. Have you talked to Karen today?”

     “No, why?”

     “She told me not to let you get on that helicopter before you saw her first. She said she has some yellow squash and poblano pepper seeds that Colonel Montgomery’s people didn’t have, and she wants you to give them to him. Also, she has a list of questions she wants you to ask his agronomists.”

     “Oh, goody. A work assignment. That takes all the fun out of the field trip. What kind of questions?”

     “I don’t know. Questions about growing plants and stuff. Stuff she said she forgot to ask them when she was there before.”

     “Did you tell her I charge a dollar a question?”

     “Nope. You tell her. I want to stay on her good side.”

     “Why?”

     “Because she’s the one who grows strawberries and grapes. And I love strawberries and grapes more than life itself.”

     “More than me?”

     “I love nothing more than you.”

     “Ooh, good answer. Are you going to miss me while I’m gone?”

     “I’ll count the minutes until you return.”

     “Good. I only have one more question. Before Marty left, did he happen to tell you what he and Glenna talked about?”

     “No. He just said that they had a great conversation, and that he wanted to come back next week and visit with her again.”

     Hannah smiled and pumped her fist.

     “Yes,” she exclaimed. “It’s about time!”

Chapter 41

     “Mommy?”

     Hannah tried her best not to respond, hoping maybe it was a dream.