American Heroes Series - 03 - Purgatory (8 page)

Gas was piped in from a big
propane tank on the side of the house, one that appeared as if it hadn’t been
used in eighty years. The only gas pipes ran to the water heater and the stove,
and neither of them apparently worked. It was one more thing for the contractor
when the man came on Monday. Until then, as Alec had repeatedly said, they
would have to live like pioneers.

Clad in a pair of silky pink
pajamas and her white socks, Elliot used the rest room, brushed her teeth, and
made her way from her bedroom through the second door in the bathroom which led
to the opposite end of the hall on the other side of the winding staircase. 

Her bathroom backed up to the
stairwell, making it a long and skinny room. She’d intended to use the
backstairs down to the kitchen but ended up wandering around the three additional
bedrooms she really hadn’t paid much attention to yesterday.

 All three of the rooms were
twice the size of a normal bedroom even though they were considered ‘smaller’
rooms.  Newspaper and old print were taped up on the big floor to ceiling
windows and she immediately set about tearing down the newspaper. She was sick
of seeing it.

As she ripped it away, an
entirely new world was revealed.  The enormous windows on the northeast side of
the house looked out over the gigantic garden that backed up to the Black
Bayou, which was glistening golden and green in the early morning sun.

  Over to the north, she could
see what looked like rows of sheds buried deep in the heavy trees and it took
her a minute to realize that they were stables. She paused in her ripping,
realizing the view, the landscape, was absolutely heavenly.  She felt at peace
simply gazing out over the gently flowing waters, a view that stretched out as far
as the eye could see. 

 A smile crossed her lips as she
drank in her lush green lands and the depression she had felt when she had
awoken was vanished, replaced by joy and hope. There was a new life down here
waiting for her in the bayou and she was ready to embrace it.

 Ripping down the rest of the
newspaper, Elliot went into the other bedrooms and did the same. Sunlight once
again began to pour into the chambers of Purgatory, filling it with light and
warmth the old house hadn’t seen in years. It was a glorious sight.

Alec’s bedroom was empty, the
covers all jumbled up on the mattress. Elliot ripped all the newspaper off her
son’s windows and the early morning sun blasted into the room.

As she pulled off paper, she also
inspected the windows themselves, seeing that all of them needed reglazing or
replacement. She wasn’t surprised.  As she passed by the enormous window that
faced the front of the house, she happened to glance at the driveway and
noticed a sheriff’s unit parked there. It didn’t take her long to realize it
was Nash’s car.

Curious, she took the backstairs
down into the kitchen. Alec was there, eating granola cereal out of the box. 
He lifted a granola-dust covered hand at his mother.

“Hi,” he said, mouth full.

She smiled at him. “Good morning,”
she replied, looking around. “Is Nash here?”

Alec shook his head, tipping the
granola box into his mouth. “Not here.”

She thought about that a moment
and, shrugging off her curiosity, began to peel off the newspaper that covered
the big window next to the kitchen door.

“How did you sleep?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Great, I think,” he
replied. “It’s, like, nine o’clock in the morning. You
never
sleep this
late.”

Elliot pulled off the last of the
newspaper and shoved it into the same trash bag that contained last night’s
barbeque bones.  Then she moved to the boxes to hunt around for the coffee pot.

“I’m exhausted,” she said.
“Yesterday was a pretty crazy day.”

“Heck yes, it was,” Alec agreed.
“The sheriff was parked in the driveway all night.”

She looked at him.  “All
night
?”
she repeated. “How do you know?”

Alec had a mouthful of granola.
“Because his car is in the same spot it was in last night when I went to bed,”
he said. “It hasn’t moved. He hasn’t been in it, either.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I could see his
flashlight moving around the yard,” Alec pointed to the window. “His deputies
were here most of the night, too.  All of them were wandering around all
night.”

Elliot looked at him as if he was
crazy. “Are you kidding me?” she set down the coffee she had just found in the
box. “They didn’t have to do that.”

Alec shrugged. “Nash said they
would.”

She threw up her hands. “I know
he did, but I didn’t know he meant that
he
would be here all night.”

“I think he feels kind of bad
about what happened. Maybe he feels guilty.”

Elliot shook her head,
exasperated. “I don’t know why he would. It’s not his fault that some crazy
person threw a fire bomb through my front window.” She began to grow agitated.
“I need to feed those guys breakfast but I don’t have a damn stove.  Is there
any place around here to get them some breakfast?”

Alec shrugged again, peeling off
the newspaper from the window near the sink so he could see outside. “I don’t
know,” he said. “I think there’s a McDonald’s near the highway.”

Elliot made a face. “Not that
place,” she picked up the coffee again and stuck her arm into the box, pulling
forth the percolator. “Well, maybe I’ll just make them all coffee right now and
then take them out to breakfast. I feel so bad about them spending all night
wandering around my backyard.”

As Alec shoved down half of a box
of granola, Elliot made coffee in her expensive percolator.  Coffee came out
smooth and delicious, and as it brewed, she went upstairs and braved a very
short, very cold shower in the roomy copper shower enclosure.

 The water came out in sporadic
bursts through the mineral-encrusted showerhead and Elliot squealed more than
once when cold water suddenly shot into her face. But she washed her hair,
soaped her body, and even managed to shave without cutting herself. All in all,
it had been a horrific experience in primitive bathing but she was very glad to
be clean. Her first shower in her new home, a big milestone as silly as it
seemed.

Dressing in yoga pants and a
tank-style camisole that clung to her like a second skin, she put her socks
back on and proceeded to put on her makeup. The blue eyes got bigger, the
cheeks pinker, and the lips became a soft, luscious rose. When she was finished
with the war paint, she took a moment to stare at herself in the mirror,
wondering if she looked any different now that she was starting her life all
over again.

At forty-one years old, people
always mistook her for someone ten years younger. She never had looked her age.
After yesterday, however, she felt every year of those forty-one. She was still
exhausted, struggling to overcome it because she knew she had a heck of a lot
to do and she wouldn’t back down. She couldn’t.

Elliot pulled out her little
butane-powered blow dryer and began to dry her long hair. It was cut in long
layers and she ran a brush through it as she dried it. Since the house only had
two outlets, she didn’t want to burn the place down with the wattage from her
flat iron so she had to settle for just the blow dryer. Thank the Lord it was
butane. Soon enough, her hair was acceptably dried and styled, hanging long
down her back, so she packed everything away and headed back down to the
kitchen.

As she was coming down the
stairs, she could hear voices.  Peering down into the kitchen, she could see at
least three bodies, two of them being Alec and Nash.  She thought about running
back to her room and at least changing her camisole shirt, which really wasn’t
meant to socialize in, but they spied her and she didn’t want to look like an idiot
running away. So she descended the stairs and smiled.

Nash was standing closest to her,
coffee cup in hand. He just stared at her for a moment as she came down the
stairs before breaking into an easy smile.

“Good morning, Ms. Ellie,” he
said, sounding rather pleased.

She smiled in return. “Good
morning,” she looked around the room at Ken and Steve, the other two deputies
who had big mugs of coffee in their hands. “I heard you guys played watch dog
last night.”

Nash was having difficulty
looking her in the face.  In fact, it was so difficult that he was starting to
sweat.  He could see that she was trying to fold her arms in front of her chest
to provide at least a measure of modesty, but no amount of arm folding could
detract from the most amazing body he had ever seen.

In her clingy black pants and
equally clingy white camisole, the woman had a figured that put all other women
to shame.  Looking her in the face and not allowing his eyes to trail to her
spectacular cleavage was the hardest thing Nash had ever had to do in his life.

“Uh…,” he cleared his throat,
struggling. “I told you I was going to leave some deputies here and I just
decided to stay along with them.”

She fixed on him with those big
blue eyes and he could feel himself slipping. “Alec said your car was in the
driveway all night.” She looked around to the other deputies. “I can’t thank
you enough for making sure Alec and I were safe. That just means the world to
us.  I’d love to make you some breakfast but without a stove, that makes it a little
tough. Can I please take you out to breakfast and at least feed you for being
so nice?”

Ken was the first to speak. “No
need to feed us, ma’am,” he told her. “The coffee is good. That’s payment
enough.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have
to insist,” she countered. “I feel awful that you were up all night patrolling
my yard. You have to let me do something for you.”

The deputies waved her off. “My
wife will kill me if I don’t get on home,” Steve said as he set the coffee
down.  “But thank you for the offer. It’s very nice of you.”

Elliot made a face; she had an
animated personality that was beginning to spark up. “I’ll let you go this
time,” she said, wagging a stern finger at them. “But next time, nobody leaves
this house until they are full of pancakes and eggs. Agreed?”

The deputies grinned as they set
the coffee cups down and headed for the door. “Yes, ma’am,” they muttered, one
after the other.

She smiled brightly at them, just
to let them know the stern routine was a joke. “Okay,” she said as they opened
the door and headed out into the early morning. “Thanks again for everything. I
really appreciate it.”

The men waved her off as they
headed towards the driveway and their patrol cars.  Alec closed the door behind
them as Elliot turned to Nash.

“I suppose you have to get out of
here, too,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “Are you going to hurt my
feelings, too, and not let me buy you breakfast?”

He grinned, scratching casually
at his neck. “I wouldn’t dream of hurting your feelings.”

“Good!” she cheered up, turning
quickly to Alec. “Go get dressed. We’re going to go eat.”

Alec waved his mother off. “I
just ate that whole box of granola,” he groaned. “I don’t want to go anywhere
right now. I want to go back to bed.”

He wandered off in the direction
of the central hall and Elliot shrugged, turning to Nash again.

“Looks like it’s just you and
me,” she said. “Are you okay with that?”

He cocked his head curiously.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”

She lifted her shoulders. “Well,”
she said thoughtfully. “You have a reputation to uphold. People might see us
together and they might talk.”

He couldn’t tell if she was
serious or not. He decided to go with his gut instinct on his reply and hope it
didn’t get him into trouble.

“Look here, Ms. Ellie,” he said
in his best Louisiana drawl. “People will think I’m the luckiest man in the
world if they see me with you.  Hell, I already think I’m the luckiest man in
the world simply to have met you.  It has been a true honor and a privilege,
ma’am.”

Elliot had only been teasing him
but his reply was not what she had expected. It was warm, honest and
flattering.  A genuine smile spread across her lips.

“That’s a really sweet thing to
say,” she said sincerely. “After the craziness of yesterday, I was sure I’d
never see you again.”

He gave her an expression that
suggested she was insane but, not wanting to incriminate himself further with
an even more flattering reply, he simply shook his head and pointed to the
stairs.

“Go get yourself dressed,” he
said, sipping at his coffee. “I’ll wait here.”

With a very sweet smile that had
him completely entranced, Elliot slipped up the backstairs.  When Nash was sure
she couldn’t see him, he watched her shapely round butt as it disappeared up
the steps.

Thinking sexy, dirty thoughts he
hadn’t entertained in years, he focused on his coffee, watching the sun rise
over the bayou and not at all sorry he had been up all night.  The reward, this
morning, would be well worth it.