Page 51 of Chaos Destiny
“Come on.” I took his hand and headed for the door. “Let’s get you something to eat. Then, we’ll get you settled, and I have to ask Tayler about available space for Gage.”
“Gage was staying with you and the baby?”
“He never left our side,” I said.
“Ari, how do I repay him for something like this?”
“Would he ask you to?”
“No, but…does he realize what he did?”
“Had the shoe been on the other foot, would you have done the same for him?”
“Of course.”
“And what would you ask for in return?”
He said nothing.
Meanwhile, Thandie continued to shoot daggers.
The last picture she saw of him was months ago when we were sheltering in place in Virginia. While Julien put on a brave face, I knew he wanted his daughter to know who he was.
“Ari, wait.”
He tugged on my hand and pulled me in for a hug. A tight hug. The kind of hug that made me close my eyes, rest all of my worries on him for a moment, and soak up what I’d been craving for months.
“You smell like the castile soap and,” I inhaled, “river water. I love it.”
He squeezed even tighter. “And I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Thandie broke us up again.
In a gesture that reminded me of the Julien I knew, he quickly kissed the top of her head before backing away. While she fussed, he graced her with a smile clearly meant to reassure me that there was no hurt—that it didn’t matter to him that his daughter’s initial response to him was disgust.
“You might hate me,” he began, “but I love you, baby girl. Daddy’s heart is full enough to block the hurt.”
She set her head on my shoulder.
I continued down the long hallway, doing my best to hide how much his pain was now creating a gnawing ache deep inside me.
Some of the deer meat was transformed into “chicken fried steak” made from flax meal, which we ate with a side of instant mashed potatoes and green beans. The solid source of proteinlifted everyone’s spirits to the point that as rain fell outside in rigid sheets, no one griped or groaned. There was laughing and merriment. Yet, as I looked around the cafeteria, I didn’t get the sense of peace I’d hoped for.
This plague was the start of something, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what. It was hard to imagine something worse than this, yet it felt incomplete—as if there was more to come.
This wasn’t the fall.
This was simplythe first sign.
While we cheered and ate our meat and potatoes withgravy,of all things, somewhere, someone—or something—was lying in wait to take it all.
Dana stood and broke out into a dance, undoubtedly to put on a show for her not-so-secret lover. We were all seated at long rectangular tables in the school’s small cafeteria under dim, flickering fluorescent lights. Candles around the room made up for what the overhead lights couldn’t provide. As the days grew shorter, there was less solar energy at our disposal.
Rather than watch Dana, Allen studied Gage’s every move with an unhidden malice, but Gage didn’t notice, too busy studying Tayler. The entire night, Tayler barely looked at anyone else but him. I knew about their kiss, but something else must have transpired between them. If it hadn’t yet, it would before the end of the night.
“You’re off in your thoughts,” Julien said, nudging my shoulder. “What’s going through that pretty head of yours?”
