Tin Soldier: a short story (3 page)

###

They made it
back to Houston by late afternoon the next day.  Rick sat on the edge of Abby’s
bed, turning the tin soldier in his hands.  “Do you think he knew about the
baby?” Rick said.

Abby sat in
bed, propped up by several pillows.  She shifted her body, trying to find a
comfortable position.  “Who?  Finneas?”

Rick stared
into the tiny painted eyes of the Minuteman.  “Did he come back because he
knew?  Or did he find out when he got back?”

Abby smiled
wistfully.  “I compared the birth date of Finneas’s first born with the time
Finneas went to war.  It’s only a guess, but I think Hannah couldn’t have been
more than two weeks pregnant, maybe three.”

“Hannah.” 
Rick repeated the name, letting it sink in.  “So she didn’t know?”

“And if she
didn’t know,” Abby said, “Finneas didn’t know.”

“But he came
back to her.”

“Yes,” Abby
said softly.  “He must have loved her very much.”

Rick didn’t
want to take the tin soldier home.  He didn’t want Shelly to see it, to ask
about it, to know it existed.  He placed it carefully on the nightstand next to
Abby’s bed.

Abby’s
forehead crinkled in worry.  “Don’t you like it?”

Rick smiled at
her.  “Finneas wants to stay here with you.  He wants to stand guard over you.” 
Rick didn’t notice Abby was frowning until her face relaxed.  “OK?”

Abby gazed for
a long moment into Rick’s eyes.  “It’s fine,” she said.  “Just fine.”

###

November 30

Shelly
straightened the comforter on Abby’s bed.  Rick walked into the bedroom.

“Rick, I’m
glad you’re here,” Abby said from her bed.  “There’s something I want to
discuss with both of you.”

Rick sat in a
chair next to her.

“I’ve changed
my mind,” Abby said.  “I don’t want to travel as much as I used to.  Once the
baby comes, I’m going to do more work from home.  When I do travel, the baby
will go with us.  So, Shelly, I’ll be letting you go as soon as the baby--”

“No!” Shelly
cried.  “I mean, I’m the nanny.  My job is to take care of the kid, right?”

Out of habit,
Rick readjusted the stance of the tin soldier on Abby’s nightstand.

“I’m sorry,
Shelly,” Abby said evenly.  “I’ve decided against having a nanny.  But I’ve got
a couple of good contacts for you, and I’ll be glad to recommend you--”

“But I don’t
want another job!” Shelly said.  “I want to stay here!  I want to work for
you.  I have to work for you.”

In the long
awkward silence, Rick counted to stay calm.

One... two...

Just as
planned, he had brought up the subject of hiring a nanny to Abby.  He had
recommended Shelly.

Three...
four...

They’d told
Abby that Shelly was Rick’s cousin.  It was easy enough, because Shelly lived
at Rick’s house with the rest of his family.

Five... six...

He’d taken a
chance.  He hoped Abby would trust him enough not to check the facts too
closely.  Shelly was motivated to play it cool in the few weeks she’d worked
for Abby... but had Abby noticed the certain familiarity between Shelly and
Rick?  Had she found out Shelly wasn’t who she pretended to be?

Seven --

“Rick,” Abby
said.  “Call the midwife.  Call the doctor.  Something doesn’t feel right.”

###

Shelly flailed
as the ambulance attendants pulled Abby from her bed and onto the gurney.

When Abby
reached back, Rick knew immediately what she wanted.  He grabbed the tin
soldier from the nightstand and put it in her hand.

“What do we do
now?” Shelly said to Rick.

Rick was on
the verge of panic.  Everything was going down the tubes.  It wasn’t what they
had planned.  Abby was supposed to have the baby at home, not at the hospital. 
Shelly was supposed to stay on as the baby’s nanny.  When Rick took Abby on her
first business trip away from the baby, that’s when everything was supposed to
go down.  But now--

“What do we
do?” Shelly shouted.

The doctor
looked up from his video call to the hospital.  “You can come to the hospital.” 
He turned his attention to Abby. “Do you have any family--”

But the
attendants were whisking her away on the gurney.  The doctor hustled to keep up
with them.

Shelly turned
in agony to Rick.  Her face twisted as she cried.  “Do something!  You promised
me a baby!  How am I supposed to get anywhere in life?  How am I supposed to
get respect?  That baby was my ticket--”

“Let’s go to
the hospital,” Rick said.  “And call your cousin on the way.”

###

In the early
hours of the morning, Rick pressed his face against the glass window of the
nursery.  He knew what to do.  It was going to be ridiculously easy, all
because of Abby.  She’s the one who found Finneas.  When Rick registered after
the baby was delivered, a chip was embedded in his hand.  The chip gave him a
father’s access within the hospital.

Rick glanced
at the clock in the hallway.  Two twenty-two a.m.  The only nurse in sight
disappeared into the Ladies room.

Rick held up
his hand to the door of the nursery.  The security light blinked from red to
green.  Rick opened the door quietly.  The security light changed back to red. 
He unhooked the ID chip from the hospital tag around the baby’s wrist and
dropped it on the floor.

He scooped up
Abby’s son -- his son -- in his arms.  Rick hesitated as he opened the nursery
door.  Was there anything other than the baby’s ID chip that could trigger the
alarm?  If so, would there be enough time to reattach the ID chip, return the
baby to his rightful place in the nursery, and plead ignorance?

Rick crossed
the threshold.

The security
light blinked from red to green, then back to red again.

Every security
checkpoint in the hospital was just as easy. The one time Rick was stopped by a
nurse, he gave Abby’s name and room number, saying Abby had just awakened from
the C-section and wanted to see her son.  The nurse had questioned Rick no
further.

Rick took the
baby up the stairs to the rooftop parking.  Shelly was asleep in the back seat
of the hovercraft.  Rick had had enough of her hysterics for one day.  There
was no need to wake her until they reached the Mexican border.

Rick slipped
the baby into the passenger seat next to him, then drove the hovercraft up
silently into the night.

###

They landed at
the border by dawn.

“Wake up,”
Rick said.  “We’re here.”

Shelly was
groggy for a moment.  “What?”

And then the
baby cried.

Rick picked
him up from the passenger seat, but the baby only cried harder and louder.

Shelly came
fully awake in an instant.  She screamed and cried as if she had a winning
lottery ticket.  “Oh, God!”

The baby’s
screams matched Shelly’s.  Rick climbed out of the hovercraft with the baby
cradled in one arm.

Shelly
followed after him and buzzed around him like a hummingbird with a million
questions.  “How did you do it?  What time is it?  Are we really here?”

“I got
registered as his father when they did the C section.”

He’d parked
the hovercraft on a strip on United States soil. It looked like a long trek
across the paved lot to the border patrol station.  Rick started walking.

Shelly hustled
to keep up.  “Registered?  She registered you?  Why didn’t the bitch tell you
before it happened?”

Rick focused
on the station ahead.  Although he’d kept the sound muted, he’d kept the TV screen
in the hovercraft on during the flight.  Within the past half-hour, he’d seen
his photo displayed on a news bulletin.  “She did.  I found out a few months
ago.”

Shelly stopped
in front of him, making him stop, too.  “A few months ago?  Why didn’t you tell
me?”

Rick walked
around her.  “I don’t know.”

Shelly stood
her ground behind him.  “It would have been easier just to kill her.”

A cold chill
ran down the back of Rick’s throat.  Instinctively, he held the baby closer. 
He stopped and turned to look at Shelly.  “What?”

“I said it
would have been easier to kill her.”

Rick was so
stunned he could barely speak.  “But that was never the plan.”

Shelly was
pissed.  “So?  Screw the plan!  It would have been so easy -- all we had to do
was wait instead of getting her to the hospital so fast.  She almost died
anyway, right?  The kid’s yours, and her money would’ve been yours, too.  You
idiot!  What were you thinking?”

All Rick could
think of was what was printed on Abby’s license to have children.  What his
mother had said.  What Abby believed.  There is only one good reason to have a
child -- to put another good person on the planet.  But if Shelly was his son’s
mother, what would he learn from her?  What kind of child would she make him? 
What kind of man?

“I don’t know,”
Rick said.  For the first time, he was afraid of Shelly.  “I don’t know what I
was thinking.”

Bright blue
searchlights rose from the horizon behind them. Helicopters from State side.

Rick gazed
into the piercing blue lights.  “They’re looking for us.”

Shelly snapped
to.  She grabbed the baby from Rick’s arms and sprinted for the station.

Rick couldn’t
stop looking at the searchlights.  Part of him wanted to be found.

Without
realizing what he was doing, Rick suddenly caught up with Shelly at the border.

A United
States patrol officer stepped out of his booth.  “Hold it!” the officer
shouted.

“It’s all
right,” a Mexican officer shouted behind him.  “They’re pre-approved.  I’ve got
them covered.”

Rick reached
out and caught Shelly’s arm in his hand for just a moment, but she slipped
through his grip and ran into the safety zone between the borders.

The United
States officer was confused.  “Where’s the approval?”

Shelly’s
cousin -- the Mexican officer -- put a protective arm around her shoulder.  “Check
your monitor.  I just sent it over.”

The United
States officer stepped back inside his booth.

The
helicopters landed close to the border patrol.  Rick ducked reflexively, even
though the blades were nowhere near his head.  The sound of chopping air filled
his ears and stung his eyes.

Rick stared at
the lines painted in black and yellow on the pavement.  The countries were
enormous, and yet this one thin line separated them.  Mexico was where the gene
tattoos could be removed from their faces without a trace.  It was where they
could wipe the slate clean and start over again.  It was the first step toward
a bigger and brighter future.

But his son
was screaming.

Footsteps
pounded on the pavement behind him.  He thought he heard the click of guns. 
Poise and cock firelock.

Rick pushed
past the United States officer who sprang from his booth.  Rick ran across the
black-and-yellow lines, past everything he’d ever known, and pulled the baby
from Shelly’s arms.

Rick turned
his back to her, and held his son toward the silhouettes charging out of the
blue searchlights.

“You idiot!”
Shelly screamed behind him.  “You Goddamn idiot!”  But she ran to the Mexican
border where no one could touch her.

As the men
from the helicopters took the baby away from him, Rick waited to be handcuffed.

Everything
looked unusually beautiful to Rick.  The pinkish glow of dawn.  The piercing
blue searchlights.  The uniformed men and their guns.

And the baby,
safely guarded by them.

He was glad he’d
left the tin soldier on the nightstand next to Abby’s hospital bed.  He wanted
his son to know about Finneas Brown and why he returned from the war.

Rick was
blinded by the searchlights.  All he could see was light.  Sweat beaded on his
forehead and ran into his eyes.  As Rick wiped the sweat away, he felt as if he
were melting in the heat of the light.  He’d heard a story once, long ago, of a
tin soldier thrown into a fire, and now he felt like that soldier, melting into
a lump of metal when the fire was through with him.

Rick couldn’t
remember exactly, but he thought it was a story of a toy soldier who loved a
paper doll.  When the soldier melted, it was in the shape of a heart.

Just the
thought of it was enough to make Rick feel brave and strong and true.  He hadn’t
felt that way in a long time.

In the midst
of the deafening roar of the helicopter blades and the shouting of the men and
Shelly’s wails and his son’s cries, growing more distant by the moment, Rick
stood erect and still.  He was ready to take responsibility for everything he
had said and done.  It was worth it, knowing his son would have a better life.

At last, Rick
stood steadfast.

The End

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