The Search (20 page)

Chapter 38

    “Nope. Forget it. You ain’t going anywhere.”

     Sami was adamant. She was sitting at a table in the dining room with Hannah and Rachel, and Hannah had just told young Rachel that she’d drive down to San Antonio with her.  

     “But Rachel never learned to drive. And Mark has gone to join the search team with all the other able-bodied men. And she’s much too sweet and innocent to go alone.”

     “And you can’t go either, ding-a-ling. You just got out of the hospital. Have you forgotten that you almost died?”

     “No. I haven’t forgotten at all. But who will go with her?”

     Sami said, “I will. That’s who.”

     “Well, I have to admit, that idea does have merit. I mean, who better to off-set Rachel’s sweetness and innocence than someone who slept with the entire University of Texas football team and the marching band?”

     “Very funny. I’ll have you know that I only slept with half the football team and only a couple of dozen of the band members. After all, I’m not a slut, you know…”

     “Never implied that you were. Slut is such a strong word. I would have used ‘shameless hussy’ myself.”

     Rachel interrupted.

     “Oh, stop it, you two. I’m a grown woman now. Just show me the basics of driving and I’ll get there myself.”

     Sami and Hannah looked at each other. Sami said to Rachel, “You think driving is something you can just wing until you get used to?”

     “Well, the men all drive. Most of them can’t lift a toilet seat or pick up after themselves. So if they can drive, it can’t be too difficult.”

     Hannah considered Rachel’s words.

     “Well, she does have a point. The trouble is, it’s on her head instead of in her argument. Rachel, there’s nothing hard about driving. It’s kind of like riding a bicycle. You start out and learn from your mistakes and the more you do it the better you get.”

     Sami took over.

     “Yeah… but the
difference
is, when you fall off your bike you scrape your knee. When you hit something with your car you or somebody else gets hurt.”

     “But you yourself said there was very little traffic on the roads these days.”

     “That’s true. But there are a lot of other things you could hit besides other cars. And from the way you told Joel goodbye, I got the impression he’s quite fond of you. He’d probably be pissed if we let something bad happen to you before he moved up here and had a chance to do bad things to you himself.”

     “What do you mean?”

     “Never mind, sweetie. That’s a whole other conversation.”

     “Well, please work it out. I want to get down there to tell him. And I want to do it tomorrow. I don’t want to wait for weeks until your little pissing contest is over.”

     Sami turned to Hannah and said, “My, she’s gotten quite bossy lately, hasn’t she?”

     “Yes, she has. I almost miss the way she was when she first joined us five years ago. Remember, when she was as timid as a mouse and never talked to anybody?”

     “Those were the good old days, for sure. Now it’s hard getting her to shut up.”

     “Very funny. I’m serious, you too. Please decide so we can leave in the morning.”

     Hannah said, “Okay, since you’re serious, I will be too. But only for a moment. Sami, honey, you know I love you. But you’ve been through hell the last two weeks and you’re an emotional wreck. That’s one reason you need to stay here. A second reason is, you’ve never been to Wilford Hall Medical Center. You might get lost. And third, if you had a flat tire and four men stopped to help you, you’d probably jump on them and they’d never get the tire changed.

     “Okay. So that last one wasn’t serious. But I couldn’t resist.”

     Sami said, “Is it my turn?”

     “Yes.”

     “You’re right. I have been through hell. And I haven’t been able to escape it. Almost everyone else in the compound has been outside those gates, either to visit you or to search for Sarah. I’ve been stuck here, and I’m going stir crazy. I need desperately to get out of here, even if it’s only for half a day. Because if I don’t get out of here soon, I’m going to be as crazy as you.”

     Then she smiled a sweet smile to let Hannah know she still loved her.

     Rachel turned to Hannah and said, “She does have a point. If she became as crazy as you, the world would never be the same again.”

     Sami continued.

     “Besides, you’ve been through an awful lot yourself. I’ve been watching you. Partly because I’m nosy by nature, but mostly out of concern. I’ve noticed that you still have to reach out for the wall occasionally when you have a dizzy spell and need to support yourself.

     “What happens if you have a dizzy spell when you’re driving to San Antonio? There are very broad stretches when you have cliffs on the side of the highway, and you might get dizzy and drive over one.”

     Rachel looked at Hannah and said, “Another good point. I don’t want to ride with a dizzy broad who’ll drive me over a cliff.”

     “Uh… that’s not
quite
what she said, Rachel.”

     “It was close enough.”

     “Besides, honey, Markie has been missing you a lot. He had a rough time of it too. Now that you’re finally home, you need to stay home and spend some makeup time with him.”

     “Oh, sure. Pull the Mommy card on me.”

     “Hey, if it’ll help get me out of here I’ll pull it in a heartbeat.”

     Finally, Hannah relented.

     “Okay, okay. I’ll stay here and let you go. But only under one condition.”

     “What’s that?”

     “You watch this one like a hawk. Don’t leave her alone with Joel under any circumstances until we have time to set her aside and have
the talk
.”

     Rachel asked, “The talk?”

     “Yes. The talk.”

     Sami laughed.

     “Deal.”

Chapter 39

     Sarah lay chained to her bed for two long days, patiently waiting for Nathan to come back for her.

     Halfway through the second day she was out of water. She wondered if he left too little on purpose.

     She tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, as so many abused wives are wont to do. She tried to convince herself it was her fault. After all, she reasoned, he saved her from certain death. He provided her food and shelter and security. Was it too much for him to ask for her to cook and lean and hold her tongue?

     Another side of her suggested that maybe she wasn’t so secure after all. How safe could she be, really, if she had to purse her words for fear of being beaten? And what kind of marriage was she in, where she spent a good portion of her time rolling around in her own urine and feces?

     She felt trapped.

     Surely, if she struck out on her own, the evil neighbors would kill her on sight. She had no doubt about that. For as vicious and moody as Nathan was, she’d never caught him in a lie. She had no reason to doubt him, as he’d seemed a man of his word.

     As difficult as it was to accept, she decided it was up to her. She’d have to modify her own behavior. She’d have to be careful to watch her words, and to follow his instructions to the letter.

     For as miserable as she was, she wanted to continue to live. She recalled someone telling her once that one had to make the most of life, regardless of the circumstances.

     She could very clearly see a face in her mind. A pretty face of a woman about her age, laughing as she said, “Live as long as you can. There’s plenty of time later to be dead.”

     It was Hannah’s face she saw. It was one of Hannah’s favorite silly sayings.

     As she lay in her own waste, shivering against the cool air of her bedroom, she wondered about the woman in her mind. She looked vaguely familiar, yet she couldn’t place her.

     Was she one of the relatives who Nathan said didn’t make it? A sister, perhaps? Maybe it was her dead sister sending her a message: “Don’t give up, Becky. Life sucks, but at least you’re still alive. Hang in there until it gets better, and remember that Nathan has a good side too.”

     She tried to focus on that. Yes, she decided. Nathan did have a good side. He saved her life, after all. He said so, so it must be true.

     And he protected her from the neighbors who would gang rape her or kill her. So there was that.

     And he went out and got the food and shot the meat so she wouldn’t have to.

     Her stomach growled again, reminding her that she was very hungry. But she dare not eat more trail mix. It would fill her gut for a while, sure. But it was dry and salty and made her even more thirsty.

     She wondered why Nathan had chosen to leave her trail mix to eat, and not something else.

     She wondered if he did it intentionally, to torture her. She’d already decided he left her just half the water she needed. Perhaps he wanted her to run out of water, and wanted the salty trail mix to make her thirst unbearable.

     Perhaps his plan was to torture her so she’d never forget the two days he was gone in search of his deer.

     Maybe to drive home the way she’d disrespected him, and to make her vow to herself never to do it again.

     But she’d already done that… vowed never to sass him again, that is. She swore it before him, before he left, and she’d been chained up anyway.

     She began to wonder whether he was a sadist.

     Or a psychopath.

     She didn’t want to believe it. It would have said as much about her as she did him. For what kind of woman married a sadist or a psychopath?

     A pathetic and insecure woman, maybe?

     She heard the back door close.

     And footsteps on the stairs.

     She was half filled with joy, for her husband was finally home.

     And she was half filled with dread. For she feared another beating.

Chapter 40

     Mark was filled with guilt for spending several days at Wilford Hall at Hannah’s bedside. He shouldn’t have felt guilty, for as her loving husband that was his place. But he couldn’t help it. Sarah meant just as much to his brother Bryan as Hannah meant to Mark and she’d been missing.

     A big part of Mark’s brain kept telling him that Hannah had plenty of qualified medical people watching over her.

     And that he should be out helping in the search for Sarah too.

     He’d remedied that by joining the search team as soon as his Hannah was back home in the compound and settled in.

     Now he was on his fourth day, paired with Rusty, driving a brand new Land Rover from ranch to ranch in southern Kerr County.

     Actually, that wasn’t quite true. The vehicle had been brand new before Saris 7 collided with the earth, and was sitting on a dealer’s lot in Kerrville. For almost ten long years it sat there unused, gathering dust, waiting for someone to come along and drive it away.

     Mark and Rusty did just that, after replacing a battery that no longer worked and a tire which stubbornly refused to hold air.

     So the Land Rover, almost ten years old, couldn’t technically be called new anymore.

     But with only seven miles on its odometer, it couldn’t exactly be called used either.

     And it ran like a champ, taking the rutted and cratered dirt roads of Kerr County with ease.