Page 47 of Freeing Hawk
The day wouldn’t last forever and soon I’d had to open my arms for her to fly free.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been lying there with her, but I couldn’t sleep. After an eternity, I placed her on the cot and climbed out. I stopped long enough to pull my coat I had tossed over us, up to her shoulder and walked from the room.
Cadmus and I decided to take a walk around the compound.
“What is this place?” I asked as we descended the steps.
“We call it El Hogar.”
“The home.” I translated.
Cadmus nodded. “The people here were suffering. The drug cartels moved in and started a war over the area. Most of their sons were forced into the war, their daughters into prostitution. Some of them went willingly—I mean, jobs around here weren’t easy to come by. People were starving…so, a few of us bought this property, fenced it around and we started a little something. We teach the kids as much as we can, grow most of our own food, raise animals…”
“What’s the catch?” I asked as we wandered down lanes of vegetables and fruits.
“No drugs in these walls—ever. No fighting amongst each other.” Cadmus paused to pick a couple bananas and handed me one. “There will be disagreements, but we settle it like adults. If they can’t, I will. I’m hoping if I teach a man to fish…”
“They’ll be able to sustain when you leave.”
“Precisely.” He called out to a man farming and the farmer waved back. “I won’t be staying here forever. I just felt like I needed to do penance, you know?”
I knew all too well.
“Tell me about you and Hawk. Was she the girl you told me about after the explosion?”
I nodded again. “It’s new. I don’t even know if she will still be mine when this is over. She’s from Tulsa.”
“Oklahoma.” Cadmus mused. “I see your worry.”
“Yeah.”
We walked for a bit more then turned and headed back the way we’d come. We ate the bananas and discarded the peels to rot back into the soil.
“Don’t overthink this.” Cadmus told me. “When the time comes, both of you, together, will know what the right thing to do is. Now, you have to focus on what’s coming tonight.”
I agreed with a grunt. Cadmus left me to go back to our area on my own as he went off to talk to someone close to the gates. I watched him walk away—his dark hair had grown longer than I’d known it to ever be, his shoulders a little more tired that in the rangers and his steps a lot heavier than it should have been.
It wasn’t hard to see he was tired.
Jogging up the stairs, I wondered if it wasn’t time for him to make his way back State side. Then again, he’d been gone for so long, locked in his ever present need to do good to cover the bad he’d seen. Hawk was awake and snacking while playing a came of chess with Dude. She smiled at me when I entered to grab a drink. After drinking half of it, I sat on the floor and rested my head on her thigh.
Hawk caressed my cheek down to my neck but neither of us spoke. The heat of Dude’s stare landed on me and I met his gaze.
“You okay?” Dude asked.
“Why?”
“The times when I go home to Cheyenne and sit the way you are—those are the days that threaten to bring me down.” Dude told me. “Usually after some bad times.”
I smiled. “Just tired.”
Dude nodded before making a move on the board.
“The worse peart of this, is the waiting,” I said.
“Don’t worry. Darkness will come soon enough.” Dude replied.
He wasn’t lying. We took moments to ourselves for the next few hours. Ghoul made a call through Tex to Eris to let her know we were okay. I knew he was worried about her and the baby. Maybe we should have left him behind and taken Nikau. But it was too late for that thought now. The streetlights had began shimmering on outside the walls and dusk had settled.
