Page 42 of Caleb's Cause
“Yeah?” the other woman answered, but didn’t look up from her phone for several moments, when she did, she frowned. “What’s up?”
“Can I ask you something? You can tell me to mind my own business, but I’ve noticed things and I’m worried.”
“About?”
“You. Well, you and Lloyd.”
“What are you talking about? We’re fine.”
“But are you?”
“Whoa,” Pru said. “What are you talking about, Katherine? I may be a little slow at times, but I’m even confused by what you’re saying.”
“I’m sorry, maybe it’s not my place to say anything.”
“No, speak,” Marcia said. “I’m confused as to why you think there’s something bad between Lloyd and myself. I love that man with all my heart.”
“Oh.” Katherine deflated. “I’m sorry, maybe I’m reading it all wrong then.”
“Reading what?” Erin asked. “Tell us what you’re seeing.”
Katherine drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, I’m not pointing fingers, or accusing anyone, but I’m a little concerned and worried. Because I’m helping Naomi with the bunktels, and now I’m doing background checks on the potentialclients, I’ve been observing how everyone works. I want to see how you act with the horses, and the clients.”
“Which every person with their weight should,” Marcia agreed.
“Okay, now, onto my observations. I’m not accusing anyone of anything, it’s just what I see.”
“What’s that?” Naomi asked.
“I see Marcia constantly on her phone. She’s sending text messages, and she has a smile on her face as she does it. I thought the messages were from Lloyd, because your face would light up. However, I looked up from watching you and saw Lloyd glaring at you. Hedid nothave his phone in his hand. Every time you got a text, he would glare at you. Again, I’m not accusing, but from where I see things, it’s almost like you’re having an affair.” The entire room went silent and it was Marcia that jumped to her feet and swore.
“Son of a bitch!”
“What? What’s wrong?” Everyone asked.
Marcia turned in several circles before she sighed heavily and sat down just as heavily. She looked around the room at all the women present and nodded. “You guys know my story, right?” Everyone agreed except for Katherine, and Marcia took the next fifteen minutes telling her what had happened to her.
“Holy shit, that’s a lot to take in.”
“Yeah, try living it.” She looked at Erin with a nod. “I was going to come to you in a month to talk to you about Jacobs.”
“Who?” several of the women asked.
“Sargeant Anthony Jacobs. We joked that he was my older, younger brother.”
“How can that be?” Pru asked.
“Chronically, by birth, he is three years older than I am. That’s the older brother part. However, I don’t know the correct terminology for this, but as a ranking officer, he became aSargeant three years after I did. That’s the younger brother part.”
“Holy hell,” Pru said on a laugh. “I even understood that. So, Jacobs is your older, younger brother. I know I know this, but it escapes me, what happened to him when his parachute didn’t open?”
“He didn’t have as many broken bones as I did, but what he did have were worse.”
“How is that possible?” several of them wondered.
“While I broke almost all of my bones, and it took two years before I was ready to get on with my life, my breaks were clean. Jacobs wasn’t so lucky. He twisted when he hit that mountain, so he had a hip and shoulder on one side, as well as the knee and ankle on the other. However, they weren’t broken, they were shattered. It took at least ten operations over the course of three years to repair all the damage.”
“Holy hell,” everyone said as one.
