Escape from Bondage (4 page)

The two of them would have a lot to
learn, especially her. The thought of making a mistake and doing
something stupid and irrevocable made her chest tighten and her
blood pressure rise.

She wondered when he would
speak.

Maybe it was her responsibility this
time.

“
So.”

He must have been waiting for
it.

He looked over, having shoved his
plate away, and sat up a little straighter.

His arm snaked over and wrapped around
her shoulder.

“
So, what?”

An involuntary smile crossed her face,
changing her outlook in spite of all her misgivings.

“
So, what did you want to
do today?”

He cocked his head and looked at her
with interest.

“
Oh, I don’t know. What
did
you
want to
do today?”

Her smile was broader this time, and
her tightly-knotted abdominal muscles began to relax.

The shivery feeling of not quite being
warm enough began to go away.

#

They agreed on a walk in the park,
chilly as it was after the freakish warmth of the previous night.
The path took them up a hill and out of the town proper until they
arrived at a big open space. Strong sunlight beat down and the damp
trail of dark wood chips steamed.

“
This used to be Churchill
Steel.” A hundred metres away lay a huddle of buildings, the
two-story block walls and flat metal roofs punctuated by the gaping
black holes of horizontal window openings up high.

Scrub, trees and bushes, all naked now
in winter, provided a maze of cover. There was no snow, and
underfoot were visible the cracked and crazed patterns of an
asphalt surface, tilted every which way and missing in many places.
Piles of rubble and debris rounded out the picture of
post-apocalyptic decay.

“
Let’s go look!” Heather’s
mood had lightened considerably once the shock of his proposal had
a bit of time to sink in.

It wasn’t the end of the world. She
could always confess, repent, and make the act of contrition. Go on
with her life. Her choices were clear, much as she might resent
them.

“
Sure. I’ll bet it’s all
covered in graffiti.” Even from where they stood, the signs of
previous vandals and trespassers were all too visible.

The words were there all right. All
the kids knew them, and some of them had spray-bombs.

She took his hand and led him
on.

“
I’ll give you a kiss when
we get in there.” There was a larger promise in her eyes. “I’ve
never seen a set of ruins before. It’s very romantic, don’t you
think?”

He laughed out loud and shrugged,
happy enough to be with her.

Her face glowed with some resolve of
her own and Braden willingly went along, taking over the lead,
picking their way and checking the trail for holes and dead vines
and things that might trip her up. The possibility of kids fooling
around, or transients living in there came to mind.

The pair stood in an opening. What had
once been a busy and thriving factory floor now held nothing but
desolation. The wind soughed through gaps in the roof and through
the doors, all since smashed or fallen in by now. A few frames held
remnant panes of dirty glass.

Holding hands, they walked out onto
the factory floor, pale sunlight slanting down in bright beams
through the skylights, falling among the tall I-beam roof supports,
and throwing the metal trusses and their geometric patterns into
sharp detail.

He stopped and pulled her around. They
hugged, not saying anything, and with Heather unable to look into
his face.

They wandered further, into a smaller,
one-floor set of former offices. Along one wall was a blackboard.
There were still two battered metal desks in there, with drawers
missing. Those and their contents had been scattered about the room
along with other incomprehensible junk. Letting go of Heather,
Braden wandered absently around the room, stooping low and coming
up with a teacher’s pointer of all things. He strutted around with
it under his arm like Patton and she laughed in spite of their
present serious mood and the horrible dilemma he had presented her
with.

It wasn’t unbearably cold. Sheltered
by the wind, the place was a kind of portal into the mind of a
child or a world that existed only in the imagination. Kids must
play here all the time, she realized.

Looking around, Braden’s eyes lit up.
There was a piece of chalk.

“
So. General Patton,
sir.”

He turned and tilted his
head.

“
Huh?”

“
Ah. What’s the plan,
sir?” She stood at attention, with her arms at her sides and her
chin up. “Your all-encompassing plan for world—no, you’re too
clever for that. No, it must be your plan for all-encompassing
sexual domination.”

He grinned tightly. He nodded, looking
at Heather anew. She would surprise him yet.

“
Very good then.” Braden
handed her the stick and she tucked it under her arm with a salute.
“General Montgomery. Listen carefully, please, and then I shall
strive to answer any questions.”

He picked up the small piece of chalk
lying in the blackboard’s aluminum trough and began to go over the
points, one by one. He drew lines like a football play, all arrows
and x’s and dotted lines. He put in a couple of streets, marking
his own house with his name. He drew a little house on the board
with a squirrely arrow pointing towards it. That represented her
place.

“
Your best bet is to go
back tonight. That way, you can say you got up early, and went out
to have a look at the town. You did some shopping. You bought plain
old black socks and baggy, sensible underwear. You had lunch and
supper already and you just want to go to bed—”

“
Hmn.” Braden had hit the
nail on the head.

The odds of anyone discovering her
absence were very small last night, and fairly slim this morning,
but grew worse with every passing hour.

“
Go on.”

“
We can have sex before
then. Good sex. Great sex. Right after dinner. Then I drive you to
the vicinity. I know just where to park. You go in the side door,
after dark, using the key provided by Intel. Then I climb up and
bring you your bag. Or, I could just tie a rope on it and throw up
a grappling hook. It’s just spare underwear and socks anyway.
Pajamas and stuff.”

“
True.” So, he had thought
it all through, then.

“
That’s how you’ll be
going in tomorrow night, anyhow. That was my original
plan.”

The only problem was that second day.
Surely she would be missed by then. She would love to pull it off,
though.

“
What else?” She was
gratified by his easy capitulation, but didn’t really trust him
either.

A thought struck her. Birds chirped in
the underbrush and sparrows flitted around the roof beams. Time was
on his side. It hit her like that. She was right in town
now.

“
And then, first thing
Monday morning, you set up an appointment with your Mother
Superior.”

“
What? Oh, Braden!” Her
mood was suddenly spoiled, but there was more.

“
Seriously. You’re asking
me to carry on an affair with a nun. Sooner or later it must
backfire, and blow up in both of our faces. You must know this,
Heather.
Sister
Heather. The only right thing to do, considering how I feel,
is to either marry you—or leave you the hell alone.” A crow cronked
and cronked fifty metres away, seeming to laugh at them.

It was for her own good, as well as
his own good. He hoped she understood. Trucks moaned up the hill,
heading for the bigger cities far to the south.

“
So you’re
saying…”

“
I’m begging you to think
about it. Please, Heather.”

There was a long silence as they
looked into each other’s eyes and wondered what was going to happen
next.

Braden went on with
finality.

“
Otherwise, I’m offering
to make mad, passionate love to you, all night long if you want.
One last time. We can take you back shortly before dawn at the
latest.”

He put the chalk back on the ledge.
There was a certain inexorable logic in it. She had to give him
that much.

The pair clung tightly, unable to
speak or look at each other, and then Heather pulled him out of
there and they made their way back in the wan light of late
afternoon. Neither could think of a single thing to say and so they
didn’t say much at all.

#

Braden had errands to run and his
vehicle needed an oil change. He had a little household shopping to
do. They agreed it was an unnecessary risk for her to go with him,
as he would be in and out of the car, sitting in the waiting room
and such. Heather settled in on the couch. For what seemed like the
first time in her life, she had hours to kill, no responsibilities
and the TV to herself. The notion that Braden was giving her a
chance to run for it did cross her mind after a while.

She set that thought aside with a kind
of contempt. One way or another, this had to be settled.

She flipped through the channels, idly
watching one show after another and finding nothing that really
seemed relevant in her life. Women’s shows were only barely
tolerable to one so disconnected. Reluctant to think too much, she
eventually laid out flat on the couch and promptly fell
asleep.

The sound of Braden coming in the door
and stomping snow off his boots woke her with a bang. She sat up,
blinking in the strong light of the open front door. The living
room curtains were still drawn, which seemed to be one of his
little idiosyncrasies.

The glare would have ruined the view
of the TV. That had to be it. She knew so little of normal people,
normal life. Braden had a TV in his room and one in the basement.
Braden would have a stereo in the garage.

“
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
to wake you.” Braden took off his coat and hung it up, then sat on
his home-made boot bench to remove the footwear.

“
That’s all right. I
shouldn’t have slept so long anyway. Is it snowing out
there?”

“
Yeah.” His cheerful face
turned her way as he stood.

She looked at the clock in the
wedge-shaped curio cabinet, off in the far corner of the
room.

“
Oh, my.” It was twenty to
five.

She got up off the couch.

“
I’ll put the coffee
on.”

“
Thank you, honey.” Braden
came over and they hugged, almost diffidently.

It was like they didn’t know where
they stood, which was true enough she supposed.

He really did deserve some kind of an
answer.

The only problem was that she had no
idea of what she was going to say. She had no idea of what was
going to come out of her mouth and so silence was
golden.

They exchanged a kiss.

“
I was thinking we could
order a big pizza from Mama Laguna’s, the number twenty-one.” This
had all been in Braden’s original plan.

Why waste time cooking, when time was
so short to begin with?

“
That sounds
good.”

He nodded and gave her pat on the bum
upon release.

Braden watched her ass carefully as
she went to the kitchen to deal with the coffee.

There was definitely a seductive
wiggle in there. He wondered if she was aware of it or if it was
completely subconscious. Heather was all woman, and a woman is a
terrible thing to waste.

Hopefully she would figure that out in
time.

Strange thought, but it was all he
had.

#

Heather waited on the couch until the
pizza delivery fellow had left. Braden put the box on the boot
bench and locked and bolted the door. He snapped off the light over
the front door and then turned off the hall light. Taking the pizza
out into the kitchen, he found that Heather had put a red
tablecloth on for them and found a couple of his better plates.
There was a single white candle burning in a simple glass holder in
the centre of the table.

Braden grinned at the sight. What was
on her mind? She was moving around out there. He heard the bathroom
door close.

She had also discovered a few bottles
of lager in the back of the fridge. Open ones stood in front of
each plate. Braden put the pizza box on the counter. He pulled
paper towels off the roll and put them on the table.

“
Why don’t you sit down,
honey, and I’ll take care of that.”

Her musky scent washed into the
room.

Turning, his heart flipped to see her
in a costume he’d been planning to surprise her with, but she must
have found it on the upper closet shelf while he was mucking about
with the furnace filter.