Page 80 of Marlin's Faith

“Of course I did and I made six, I figured each of you boys would want to take one home.”

“Shit, we came on the bikes,” Marlin muttered and Eileen gasped, a scandalized sound.

“Jimmy! Language at the table, and in front of your niece and nephew no less!” she turned to me, “I’m so sorry dear, I raised him better than that, I surely did.”

I laughed lightly, “You think that was bad, you should meet my sister Hope.”

Of course, that turned the topic of conversation to me, and of my family, which invariably led to sympathetic coos from Eileen over my mother, and admiration for my older sister for raising Char and I the rest of the way like she did.

“I’m pretty lucky,” I agreed.

Then came the dreaded question from Marlin’s father, “So what do you do for a living, Faith?”

I smoothed my lips together and thought on how to best answer the question, Marlin squeezed my knee under the table and I said the only thing that came to mind, “I was a full time college student two years ago.”

Craig, Marlin’s father, frowned, and sat back in his chair. Johnny stood up, his children by far done eating and more playing with their food than anything, waiting for the adults to finish their meals.

“Okay, kids! How’s about we go outside and play?” Bobby asked and Johnny shot him a grateful look.

The two men took the kids out the back door and I sighed, Marlin helping me out, “What happened to Faith, isn’t really something that the kids need to hear,” he said quietly.

Eileen and Craig both looked worried, so I took a deep breath and spilled my truth, believing in Marlin that they wouldn’t judge me.

“Two years ago, I took a trip to New Orleans with my college roommate…”

I spared the excruciating details, keeping it simple, that I’d been sold by Tonya into sexual slavery, that the men that’d held me had used heroin as a method to keep me both in line and close and that it’d taken two years for my sister to find me. That when she did, it had been her and their son, Marlin to come and get me and that Marlin had been instrumental in my recovery, both from addiction and working my way through the mire of psychological after effects my time in captivity had caused.

Marlin’s fingers had found the spaces between mine beneath the table, and I clung to his hand as if it were a lifeline. Eileen was in tears by the end of my story, and even Craig’s eyes shone as he looked at his son like he’d never seen him before. Craig stood up and came around the table, Marlin and I stood up too, in reflex.

Craig captured his son in a bear hug and said to him, “Boy, I have never been prouder of you than I am now.” He looked at me over Marlin’s shoulder and sniffed, saying, “I’m right sorry for what happened to you, Faith, but I’m glad my son has been there for you. That he gives you some peace.” I smiled faintly and nodded.

Marlin pulled back and looked his father in the eye, “The thing is, Pops, Faith gives me peace, too.”

Eileen came around the other side of the table and swept me up into a tight hug of her own which startled me, “Sounds like I should welcome you to the family, my girl,” andthatis what started the tears inmyeyes. Tears of absolute relief.

The pie really was as phenomenal as all the men had said.

43

Marlin…

“What ‘cha thinkin’?” I asked her, and she stirred against my shoulder. We were laying in the hammock out back of my parent’s place while Johnny and the kids chased lightning bugs, and Bobby talked with my parents, laughing, around the fire pit.

“No bad days,” she whispered and I chuckled, kissing her temple.

“Not today, anyways.”

“I love you,” she said spontaneously after a long silence.

“I love you, too, Firefly,” I murmured, using the Captain’s nickname for her.

She smiled and gave a little laugh, she was staring drowsily out at the kids and my brother chasing the little bugs in the deep twilight. “I’ve never seen them before. I grew up in California, remember? We don’t have them there.”

“Kind of a sight to see, ain’t they?”

“Mmhm,” she agreed.

We were quiet, swaying gently back and forth when she just as suddenly asked, “What happens now?”

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