This installment written by
Mary Ann
continued from Monday…
We all know that things aren’t always what they seem. Over the past two years I had learned to distrust much of what I saw, most of what I heard. I trusted Prentice, and he trusted LW, his longtime friend.
Prentice telephoned LW from a phone booth inside the Student Union building. There wasn’t as much privacy as we would have liked, but it was out of the cold. Whenever Prentice would call me during the months when I was alone in Georgia we would be interrupted every three minutes by an operator asking that he insert more quarters to continue the conversation. Prentice had been on the phone for almost ten minutes, and I noticed that he hadn’t put any quarters into the coin slot since he’d initiated the call.
Prentice had reversed the charges, something he normally would not have chanced. A collect call would show up on LW’s phone bill, and the location and phone number from which the call was placed would appear on the bill as well!
Prentice was figuring that it didn’t matter, that our whereabouts were already known, but I wasn’t so sure who knew. It was obvious from the events of the past few days that someone had found us, but that did not necessarily mean that they… we weren’t even sure they were still looking for us anymore.
While Prentice was talking to LW people were passing by in both directions. I was standing a few feet away against the wall watching everyone who approached. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I wasn’t frightened anymore. I was just feeling weary of this struggle that seemingly had no end. All we’d ever wanted was one another—to be together and be left alone. It hadn’t seemed too much to ask. It hadn’t seemed anyone’s business but our own. In all my life I had never imagined I would ever be a refugee… literally, compelled to find a new life in a new place.
My thoughts kept turning to a time four years earlier when I first met Prentice. He was a strange boy, a strong boy with little to say. It was hard to get to know him, hard to draw him out, hard to learn anything about him or anything of his past. I had pieced together a picture from scraps of information I picked up here and there in our conversations, just a patchwork quilt made of small random facts and buckets of speculation. I hadn’t meant to fall in love with him. I never imagined he’d fall in love with me.
There was nothing ordinary, nothing standard about Prentice. There was nothing ordinary about our love for one another. From the moment I fell in love with him nothing had been normal or ordinary about my life. I was swept along by an irresistible current of unimaginable events that lead me to places I never thought I’d be, situations I never imagined would ensnare me. Everything I thought I knew had come into question.
I was better for it. I knew that, but I still longed for a bit of the ordinary, a moment of a normal life. I wanted peace, calm and safety. I could find them only in Prentice’s arms.
As Prentice placed the receiver back onto the cradle he motioned to me to follow him toward an empty corner of the building near an exit on the northern wall. I walked a half-step behind him across the dining hall, saying nothing until we reached the empty far corner.
“Did he have anything for us?” I asked Prentice, leaning toward him with my head just beneath his chin. I was standing close to him so that I could speak more quietly and not broadcast my questions.
“He doesn’t know who the girl might be, but there’s a good chance that the two guys at our apartment were just what we thought—two freelancers out to harass us,” Prentice said. “There has been a lot of activity out of the blue house over the past two weeks, and LW says that at least one crew has been hired. They’ve been paid, and it’s almost certain they know where we are. The thing is, they aren’t likely to mess around with nonsense like hitting the door with bricks when they’re ready to get down to business.”
I knew it was all true. The brown envelope had been a calling card.
“Has LW seen any of them?” I asked. “Does he know how many? Does he know where they are?”
“He’s pretty sure they aren’t here yet. They won’t be in a hurry. We’ve got to assume these people know what they’re doing, and we’re gonna have to know what we’re doing too. Fortunately, I think we have a little time,” Prentice responded.
“What about tonight? Do we meet the girl?” I questioned him. I couldn’t decide what would be the smart thing to do.
“Somebody is going to meet her at nine o’clock, but it isn’t going to be you. You aren’t going near that place tonight,” Prentice said. “I told LW to call Robert. We’ll meet Robert at the Italian restaurant at 7:30. After we eat you’ll leave with Gwendy, go back to her dorm room with her.”
“I’ll go with Robert,” Prentice continued, “and see if I can spot the girl without anyone spotting me. If I can spot her, I’ll point her out to him. He will approach her alone, and I’ll sit across the street at the bus stop. She might not talk to him, but if she runs I’m gonna follow her and see where she goes.
“Either Robert or I will meet you at Gwendy’s dorm room. If it’s Robert, he’ll tell you that I’m following the girl, and you should wait until you hear from me. Spend the night with Gwendy if you don’t hear from me.”
“If I don’t hear from you by ten o’clock I’m going to be out of my mind, Prentice,” I told him. “I can’t just sit up there in Gwendy’s room wondering if I’m ever going to see you again. This is dangerous. If she runs just let her go,” I urged him.
To be continued…
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Unlike some others who want you to get to the part about why people are after you and find out the end of the story, it is ok with me if this goes on forever. I enjoy reading it every time to write more.