“Well, I know who I want for my assistant teacher,” Andie said.
Melissa smiled, concealing her disappointment at losing Forrest’s undivided attention.
“How’s the wine?” Forrest asked.
“Very good,” Andie replied.
“How’s Trinity getting along?” The kids were playing on the swings.
“They’re all wonderful children,” Andie said. “I don’t know how you’ve managed to pull this off, Jack, but you’ve done quite a job.”
“I only get a fifth of the credit… and we’re a long way from pulling this off.”
He turned to see Melissa walking toward the house. “Hey, kiddo!”
She turned around quickly.
“We’re gonna talk some more, right?”
She smiled big and nodded, then trotted toward the house.
“I think I chased her off,” Andie said. “I didn’t mean to.”
“No, she’s fine,” he said, taking the ball from Laddie and throwing it.
“That dog loves to play fetch!”
“My son and he used to play for hours,” he said, turning the burgers. “And Danny was always the first to get tired.”
“Where’s Danny now, with your ex?”
“No, he was killed in a car crash two years ago.” He set his beer aside and started to remove a batch of hot dogs from the grill. “Laddie’s all that’s left of him.”
“I’m sorry, Jack. I had no idea.”
“It’s okay. I’ve dealt with it, for the most part.”
“Is that what… what ended your marriage?”
“In a nutshell… but the life of an army wife isn’t easy. You know that.”
“No, it isn’t,” she said. “But I understood that Kevin had a job to do.”
“Monica did too.”
“Is it soup yet?” Veronica asked, coming up from behind with her empty wineglass, touching him on the shoulder.
“Just about done,” he said, giving her a smile.
Andie saw the look and realized at once that Veronica had a very definite lead. Oh well, she thought. There’s time, hopefully. “Excuse me. I’m going to go and get the kids ready to eat.”
“If you need help rounding them up,” Veronica said, “give me a shout.”
“Will do,” Andie said.
“So what’s up?” Veronica asked, looking Forrest in the eyes.
“Dunno,” he said, taking the ball from Laddie and hurling it back out into the grass. “What’s up?”
“You’ve been avoiding me today. How come?”
“Just keeping things in perspective.”
“Have I done something wrong?”
“Nope.”
“Have you called Monica?”
He looked at her. “Veronica… please.”
“You should at least call her.”
“With respect… you need to mind your own business.”
“You’ll regret it if you don’t, Jack.”
“Are you going to press this until I say something rude?”
She set the glass down. “I won’t say any more.” She stood for a moment with her hands in her pockets. “I think Michael’s found a girlfriend.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“He’s bonding with Karen.”
“Oh, Christ.”
“Well, I’m just saying… I can’t really help being fascinated by this dynamic.”
He took a moment to light up a Camel, tucking the Zippo back into his pocket. “Yeah, well don’t forget that you’re a part of this dynamic too. How are you getting along with your new friends over there?” He pointed over his shoulder with the tongs at Erin and Taylor. Taylor was lying on her back now with her head in Erin’s lap, looking up at the sky, and they were laughing themselves silly over who knew what.
“I like them,” she said warmly. “They’re… real.”
“They always have been.” He took the burgers from the grill and stacked them one at a time on the tray. “Did they fill you on all of my juicy gossip?”
“They care about you and Monica very much.”
“Yes, they do,” he agreed, offering her the tray of hamburgers. “Mind taking these over to the table for me?”
She paused before accepting the tray. “It’s going to be a long two years, isn’t it?”
He grinned. “Yes, ma’am, it is…”
Eighteen
“Oh, my God, look at that!” Susan gasped, pointing out the windshield at a mob trying to overturn a school bus. “That’s a dead cop in the road, Marty!”
“I see him,” he said, making a sharp right turn down a side street.
They had made it almost as far south as San Diego by noon on the day after his release, and this was the most trouble they had seen so far.
“It’s all coming unraveled now.” He made a left and continued parallel to the street they had just turned off of, both of them glimpsing the mob down the side streets as they passed. They couldn’t tell what started the riot, but the mob was comprised of men and women of various races.
“What do they hope to accomplish?” she wondered in dismay.
“Nothing,” he said. “They’re angry and afraid and they don’t know what else to do. They’ve been lied to and they know it.” He swerved around an empty delivery van sitting in the road, then had to slam on the brakes to avoid running over a man pushing a shopping cart filled with bags of dog food.
“Watch where the fuck you’re goin’, muthafucker!” the man shouted, aiming a revolver at them.
“I’m sorry!” Marty said. Then he pointed behind the man. “Look out!”
Another man hit the dog food man in the back of the head with a pipe and snatched the revolver from the pavement, running off down the street with it.
“Jesus Christ, Marty, get us out of here!”
He had to drive up onto the sidewalk to get around the dog food man who was now lying in the street with his skull cracked open. Someone else grabbed the front of the shopping cart and ran off in the other direction. The street was blocked up ahead by a burning police car, and there were hundreds of National Guard troops marching in echelon past the flames. It was unclear where they were headed, but their rifles were fixed with bayonets and ready to fire on anyone attempting to impede their progress. Marty made another right turn, driving up onto the sidewalk once again to get around more deserted cars blocking the side street.
“We’re never going to get out of the city,” she whined. “We should have stayed at my place.”
“We’ll find a way through, Susan. There’s lots of road.”
The next street over was passable, with half a dozen cars racing east toward the highway, ignoring traffic lights all the way. Marty pulled out behind them and drove as fast as he dared, trying to keep up with them, an uncertain herd mentality telling him there was safety in numbers. The cars at the front of the pack mowed down any pedestrians audacious or careless enough to cross the street in front of them, and the sound of the bodies thudding against the bottom of the car—as Marty was forced to run them over as well—made Susan sick to her stomach.
“Marty, I’m going to throw up.”
“Roll down the window or use the backseat, honey. If I stop now, they’ll kill us!”
She powered down the window and leaned her head over the passing pavement, holding her hair and retching twice into the wind at sixty mph. She pulled her head back in and grabbed a bottle of water from the backseat, rinsing her mouth and spitting it out the window.
Marty followed the car ahead of him up the on-ramp to the highway and merged with the speeding traffic. “Well that was definitely surreal,” he said, relieved to be in traffic for the first time in his life.
“You scared the piss out of me!” she said, hitting him.
“But I got us through.”