Four Times Blessed (38 page)

Lium starts humming.
 

“Why are you so happy?”

“I’m always happy.”

I march right over, toe to toe, and start inspecting. There’s a lightness about him that wasn’t there this morning. An ease. I keep scouring. A shade falls over just him, it seems, and makes his eyes get big. Not like this morning.
 

“What are you up to….?” I take a step back.

He leans forward and tells me, “Working on my plans, love.” When he kisses my ear, he’s scruffy. 

“You have plans?” I whisper.

“Yes, I have plans now. I’ll tell them to you, if you want.”

My mouth hangs slack.
 He laughs, then finds that mouth with his. There’s pressure everywhere. Crushing me, pounding in my ears, my heart. As if I’ve been plunged down deep, deep, deep, and held. I remember it’s Lium, and somehow I can suffocate and live all at once. I hold on to him like I’ll drown him too. For a moment, I worry, but then I feel his heart and I know he’s alive too. 

             
“Hey!”

             
I kiss him again and he pulls me in more.

             
A fierce tweeting pierces my ears and I jerk, my hands fly to cover them. Hale yells something. Then there is a splash and a long, heavy hiss. The tweeting stops. I think I’d fall over if Lium wasn’t still against me, stroking my side.

             
“Fire, you guys.” Hale drops an arm over the side and comes up with a bucketful of water. He then dumps it over the small stove. 

             
“We should go,” he says, scanning the yellow sky and steel waters around us. He puts his head down and climbs back into the wheelhouse. 

             
After some moments, Lium moves to clean up. I keep strategically at his back while I help. I’m afraid it’ll burst into flames again or something. I eyeball it warily. 

             
“I’m not sure I’m going to like burnt up fish as much as I like burnt up marshmallows,” says Lium, dangling a charred tail with half a spine. I make a face. 

             
We decide to try that again. And this time we promise not to distract each other with any talk other than that which is related to the precarious task of cooking fish on a pitching and rocking boat that’s made of flammable materials. 

             
“I think Hale is hiding from us,” I say, nudging the last little fish onto the piece of wood. Lium takes the platter and then my hand, “Don’t worry about Hale, little Crus. He’ll get over it.”

He kisses my forehead, and I remember what we just did. He can’t seem to decide if he should push me ahead or pull me along as we make our way to the little bolted down table in the cabin. I end up climbing under the platter, his arm, and the table in order to find a good spot in the alcove. Hale appears just as the food is set down.
 

             
“Where we’re going, people will expect it.”

             
“What do you mean?”

             
“We’re married, love.”

             
“What?”

             
“Yeah, I followed you today, and then I followed a guy named Mark. Lieutenant Mark Sanchez. Who you married last weekend, after the whole thing with the other guy. Then Mark volunteered for deployment.”

             
“I married Mark?”

             
“Yes, and now that you two have marital status, your request to be deployed to the same area was granted,” he says, pretending to have a New York accent. “They at first didn’t want to give it to me, but when I mentioned who my wife was, they got all helpful. The guy couldn’t get us in the same unit, sorry babe, and we have to stay in separate barracks, but we’ll be stationed at the same base.” 

             
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

             
“Nope,” he grins. 

             
“Oh. My. God.” I stare at him. “What does Mark Sanchez do?”

             
“I don’t know, something about diffusing.”

             
“Oh my God, Lium, you can’t just do that!”

             
He shrugs, “Mark’s teaching me.”

             
“What?!”

             
Lium takes a sip of water. “I’ve got him up on the island. Actually, your brother has him, so don’t worry, he’s safe. He promised to teach me everything he knows.”

             
I groan and slide under the table. I crawl over the boys’ feet and, with one last scathing look, I march off to the bunk.

             
Approximately twelve minutes later, I pad my way back. I lean against the bulkhead and watch the boys eat.

             
Lium stops. “Yes, my dear?”

             
“Don’t,” I plead. “Just because you said so doesn’t mean I’m your wife…wife.” I slouch further into the wall.

             
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be, hon,” he says. “But I didn’t want you to go alone. And even though you said I was yours, you weren’t going to take me. So I had to get creative.” I’m overwhelmed.

             
“So…you’re really coming?”

             
“Yup.”

             
I let out a gust of air I didn’t know was in me. I go over and kneel on the bench and hug Lium’s head nice and close.

             
“It’ll be dangerous,” I say.

             
He grins, “I know.”

             
“You need to be careful.”

             
“So do you.”

             
I’m quiet for a few moments, trying to put together a good strong argument. This boy’s instincts are far too generous for his own good. He’s too confident, too. It makes him self-sacrificing in a way that’s hereditarily baffling. But it’s him and me together.

             
Somehow, I end up saying, “I’m glad you’re coming,” and I hug him some more. 

             
“Hale’s coming, too.”

             
“What?”

             
“Oh, yeah. I’ll be there. Just somebody tell me when we’re leaving.”

             
I wince. “Whatever happens, I just want you to know, I’m sorry, thank you, and I love you.” Lium goes still, but having him all around me and under me, I feel that it’s a still like he’s about to jump.

I turn, sinking back against the big warm boy. I look to Hale, still slouching there across the table. “Both of you guys.” I glance up to find Lium watching me with heavy, half-closed lids.

              He squeezes around my stomach and says, “No matter what, I promise you, we’ll go through it together. Do you believe me?”

             
“Yes,” I say. He nods. Tightens his hold on me and kisses me gently. It’s wonderful.

             
“Hale?”

             
“’Course,” he says gruffly.

              My entrance time is at eight. The boys’ unit is designated a higher number, so their time isn’t until nine-thirty. We say we’ll see each other soon, and I cross the airfield by myself.

             
I have some errands to run before lining up in the courtyard. I run down to the AIS labs to pick up my good headphones and some new field equipment they sent to my mailbox down there.

             
I’m just walking back into the stairwell, when the sirens first wail.

End of part one

             
People tell me:

My zizi was in the garden, when it happened. Kneeling, pulling up potatoes, she heard the bells clanging, and a faint blaring she could have sworn, from above. Her heart stopped.

She ran inside to get everyone together.

Eleni was at the fish market. My Uncle Groton carried her piggyback, up towards the meetinghouse.

Cassie hustled onto the green with her mother.

My brother Milo was sweeping up the shop, he didn’t even put down the broom when he ran into the street. He didn’t realize he ran with it, nor did he take off the heavy leather apron until he was crouched in the shelter with the rest.

The boys were where I left them, more or less. They ran into the airfield, just before the earth shook.

Some of the others saw the top of the belltower drop, and they knew. Others heard the bells stop, then gentle thunder.

Hale said, from where they were, they saw it all. It fell neatly, he said. In order. On top of itself, like an acrobats’ tower. Then it was vanished,

just blue sky and dust.