Journey Into Darkness – Chapter 6

“So, tell me what happened.”

“Don’t you think we should get some sleep?”

“No, I think we should talk.”

“Well, what happened was a young girl, Cassidy Monroe, the girl who doesn’t need your pyjamas, came out of the bushes with her hands up and told me that a man called Diamond and his two dirty-jobs boys had killed her parents up in Butte and then shot her brother dead out in the National Park. Since then we’ve been trying to outdistance this man, Diamond, who is desperate, it seems, to get the girl before she can testify against him. And we needed a place for the night to rest up and plan our next move, and that’s about it.”

“I see. Now tell me what happened to that phone call you promised me.”

“Oh, that tell me what happened.” He was hoping that the conversation would not have gone there.

“Yes, I’d like to hear your story. You’ve had plenty of time to rehearse it.”

“I don’t have a story, Eva. I fell in love.”

“I thought we were in love?”

“So did I, but I was wrong. We had something special, Eva, but it wasn’t love. Not the kind you’re thinking of.”

“Are you in love now?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Are you right, this time?”

“Yes, Eva, this time I’m sure.”

“And where is the object of your desire right now? Did you leave her out in the National Park?”

“She’s with her mother.”

“Your wife has gone back to her mother?”

“No, my daughter was taken to New Zealand by her mother.”

“Your wife took your daughter to New Zealand?” He nodded. “When did that happen?”

“Last July. Jessica, that’s my wife, decided that the world of anthropology needed her expertise to determine the purity of the Maori race, or something along those lines.”

“I heard you’re no longer with the Force?”

“Who told you that?”

“That’s not important. Is it true?”

“It’s true.”

“The Force was your life. Why did you quit?”

“Because the Force was my life.”

She digested that for a moment. “I see. But now you’re doing who knows what in the wilds of Montana with a young girl in tow and your wife is still taking blood samples in New Zealand. Is that correct?”

“You’ve got the picture.”

“And you miss your daughter?”

“Terribly.”

“So now you have, what? a seventeen-year-old girl, going on thirty, wearing your shirt and sweater and looking to you to be her guardian angel, and a lot more, from what I saw. It doesn’t sound like you’ve landed on your feet, Bradford.”

“I’m hoping my luck is going to change.”

“Starting when?”

“In about six to eight hours.”

“You always did have great expectations, Bradford.”

“Are they unrealistic?”

“I think so.” She looked intensely at him. He could almost feel her eyes piercing his soul. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”

They were silent for a long while, looking at each other, wanting to speak but not sure of the words. Eventually, he broke the silence.

“Did you ever marry, Eva?” He was looking at her hands. She wore no rings.

“No.”

Such a simple word, one of the shortest in the English language, but containing such a depth of unspoken emotion.

“I’m so sorry, Eva.” There was a deep sadness in his voice.

“Are you really, Bradford?”

The words cut him like a scalpel. He rose from his chair and walked to the window. Pulling back the curtain just enough to see the night outside he was surprised how dark it was. He looked at his watch. It was just after four a.m. The sun would be getting up soon to prepare for a new day. And then he remembered the words of that song that said that the darkest hour was just before the dawn. He had never been able to understand that one, but now he was prepared to believe its truth. This seemed such a dark hour. He felt her hands on his back.

“Would you like to come to bed now?”

“Desperately. But I can’t let that happen, Eva.”

She was silent for a moment.

“I was thinking only of emotional comfort, nothing more.”

 He doubted the truth in that, but he understood that she might not want him to think she had been waiting all these years hoping he might just ring her doorbell one day at two o’clock in the morning. How many beautiful young women would have been so faithful to a shattered dream?

“I know you were, Eva. But I can’t let Cassie think that everyone behaves like animals. She’s seen enough of that in her short life.”

“I understand.”

He was sure he detected disappointment in her voice, and he realized her pain was no less severe than his. It was just the circumstances that were different.

She kissed the back of his neck, such a soft caress of her lips, and disappeared down the hallway.

He lay down on the couch, but his eyes would have no acquaintance with sleep this night.