Dark Coup (11 page)

“I don’t know yet,” Kyle said.  “We were only able to talk for a couple of minutes, but I’ll be there again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day until we can figure something out.”

Chapter Eleven

Amanda had to check herself and keep from looking too often towards the end of the row she was working to see if she could catch a glimpse of Kyle.  He was getting better at staying still, and yesterday she hadn’t seen him until he moved on purpose to get her attention.  She found herself thinking about him more and more often, certainly more than anyone in the group she’d been living with for the last year–which was odd, considering she had just met him and had barely even seen his face.

“You are persistent, aren’t you,” Amanda said when she saw that Kyle was there again, but a couple of rows over, so that they could talk longer as she worked at hoeing and breaking ground on more rows.

Kyle smiled, but knew that Amanda couldn’t see him so he replied, “I’ve been called worse.  What are the chances that you could get out of camp at night for awhile so that we could talk like normal people?”  He asked.

Amanda made a face, but didn’t answer right away.

“Is security that tight,” Kyle asked.

Amanda sighed, “It isn’t that.”

“I’m not proposing anything,” Kyle blushed under his face paint, realizing for the first time how his suggestion might have come across.

“No, no,” Amanda said quickly.  “It isn’t that, either.”

“Then what is it?”  Kyle asked, but before either of them could say anything more, they heard a vehicle approaching, and Amanda hung her head and kept working to the end of the row and turned around.

A man climbed out of the dirty pickup truck and started walking across the field.  He was fairly careful not to step on the plants, but he was obviously heading straight for Amanda.

“There’s my girl,” he said when he got close enough, and pulled her into an embrace that Amanda appeared to return, and then he slapped her on the butt.

Kyle missed most of what was said between them, but she refused to leave with the man because she said it would set a bad example.  “There’s too much work to do,” she added.

“Your choice,” he said, pulled her into another embrace, followed by a kiss, walked back to the truck and drove away.

Kyle didn’t move the entire time; he wasn’t sure he breathed from the moment the guy said “there’s my girl” until the truck started back up.  He couldn’t leave, it was the middle of the morning and he would be seen.  He was stuck until they all stopped for lunch at the earliest.

Amanda kept working on her current row, got to the end, turned around and started back Kyle’s direction in the next row…closer to him.  Every time she looked up he felt like she was looking right at him, and laughing.

“Kyle,” Amanda said softly, as she tried to peer into the tall grass beyond the field she was working in without being obvious, once she got close enough to the end of her row for him to hear her.  “Are you still there?”

Kyle didn’t say anything, and didn’t move to give away his position.

“Please still be there,” Amanda said.  “Please don’t leave me.  That was Clint, and he’s…taken an interest in me.  Ever since…”

Amanda stopped talking because she was afraid she sounded like a fool talking to herself if Kyle wasn’t there anymore, but then decided to talk about it anyway.  She had to get it out.

“Ever since the meeting where Clint killed William’s father,” Amanda said, “William is the boy I’ve sort of adopted, ever since I took William in, Clint has been trying to, I don’t know what, but really I’m afraid I do.  He’s an animal, Kyle.  I don’t want to have anything to do with him but it’s not like I have any choice!”

Amanda looked around to see if anyone was close enough to have heard her.

“Why didn’t you say something before,” Kyle said from straight in front of her, both startling and relieving her.

“Because I hoped he would just stop,” Amanda said.  “Because I didn’t want you to know and because I didn’t want you to think I was just using you or leading you on.”

“Is that why you can’t get out at night,” Kyle asked.  “Has it gone that far?”

Color rose on Amanda’s cheeks.  “No,” she said.  “Not yet, thankfully.  Not ever, hopefully.  I just don’t know how I would get out of camp or where to go.”

“I can walk you through what you need to do,” Kyle said.  “And we can figure out a place to meet.”

…

Kyle had been at their arranged meeting spot for three nights in a row before Amanda showed up, and even then it was after midnight when she finally arrived.  The first night it had drizzled almost all night with a brief break for a minor thunderstorm.  Kyle refused to leave in case Amanda showed up using the weather for cover.

“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to come after all,” Kyle said when he stepped out from behind a couple of trees after getting an all-clear from Eric.

“I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to make it tonight either,” Amanda said.  “William was restless the night before last and woke up every time I moved around in the trailer, and last night,” Amanda turned away and it looked like she shuddered.

Kyle wanted to reach out to her, put his arm around her and hold her, or do something, but, they didn’t have that kind of relationship, or any relationship, really; maybe someday, maybe, but not now.  Instead, he moved to the side and ducked his head so his face was in front of hers and she was looking him in the eyes again and could see that he was concerned.  They only had the moon for light but that would be enough since it was just past full.

“Is everything okay,” he asked.  “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she said, trying to brush it off.

Kyle wasn’t going to let it go that easily, though.  He very gently put his hands on her upper arms and then on her face to make her look at him again, and then took his hands away.  “No, not
fine
.  Did he hurt you in any way,” he asked, “or William?”

The intensity in Kyle’s eyes, the fact that he obviously really cared, and that he had asked about William, brought tears to her eyes.  She took a step closer to Kyle, and then another, and put her arms around him and her head on his shoulder.

Kyle hadn’t expected a hug at this point, but returned it gently as Amanda was now crying softly.

“Thank you,” she said.  “I’m really okay, and thank you for caring about William.  You’re the first person to ask about him since…I guess you need to know what happened.”

She pulled away and Kyle was loathe to let her go, but didn’t dare try to hold on.  He nodded to a downed log at the edge of the clearing and they walked over to it, but ended up sitting on the ground with their backs to it instead.

“What happened,” Kyle asked.  “Every time you mention William and his father you get, I don’t know, quiet and distant.”

Amanda nodded and wiped her eyes.  Kyle wished he had some tissues or a handkerchief, but realized he had a clean bandana and gave it to her.

“It happened about two months ago,” Amanda said, “before we had any real gardens or farming going on.  Clint had finally had it with people not pulling their weight or doing their fair share.  Don’t get me wrong, there’re a lot of useless leeches that really don’t do anything around camp, but to lump everyone in together with them is just…”  She took a deep breath to calm herself down.

“Anyway,” she continued, “Clint called this big meeting in the middle of the camp.  He had Coop, that’s Cooper, gather everyone in the center where there’s a big fire pit, and a picnic table Clint can stand on, and a flag pole we don’t use.  I was about a third of the way back into the crowd and I heard him yell for everyone to shut up, but nobody did.  He yelled a second time and everybody just kept talking and joking around and that’s when he fired the shotgun into the air.”

Amanda shook her head in disgust at about the same time that Kyle did.  “He shouldn’t have had to, but it was just such a childish thing to do,” Amanda said.  “It got everyone’s attention, and the guy next to me actually pulled out his gun until he realized what Clint was doing.  Then Clint went off about how he was sick of being ignored and that when he called a meeting and told everybody to settle down, we needed to
shut up!
”

Amanda’s eyes were growing watery again and she wiped her nose.  “That’s when William’s father, Jim, piped up and hollered ‘You can’t talk to us like that’,” she said.

…

“Clint got a look in his eyes,” she continued.  “He went off about how he
was
in fact in charge and he
could
in fact talk that way to us.  Jim couldn’t let it go, though. He yelled out something like ‘And what if we don’t
want
to do it your way?’”

Amanda swallowed and closed her eyes for a second.  “Clint hopped off the table and walked through the crowd to where Jim was standing, with William right next to him.  Clint said something like ‘And just when did you become the spokesman for the group, Jim?’ and then asked him if he would come up front with him.  Jim figured he would be safe up there, in front of everyone, so he followed him up and climbed onto the picnic table with Clint.”  Amanda reached out and took Kyle’s hand. Kyle was pretty sure he could guess what happened next, and not only because of the fact that Amanda was taking care of William now.

“I remember exactly what Clint did next,” Amanda said.  “He said, ‘Jim here has a question.  What if you don’t
want
to do it my way?  Simple.  You leave.’  Jim turned to Clint and started to say he wasn’t going anywhere, but only got as far as ‘I’m not go…’.”

Kyle closed his eyes and softly muttered a curse.

“Pretty much,” Amanda said.  “Clint had reloaded the shotgun while he was telling us to shut up.  As soon as Jim started to talk back, Clint leveled it at his chest and pulled the first trigger.  It blew Jim right off the picnic table.  Clint’s finger was still on the trigger and he turned back towards us, all casual, shotgun pointed right at the crowd.  Then he said, ‘First, I
am
in fact in charge because, second, this is
not
a democracy.  Third, there are going to be some new rules around here, and they
will
be enforced.  Fourth, if anyone doesn’t like the first three rules, leave now’.”

Kyle squeezed Amanda’s hand.  “Nineteen people left after that,” she said, “including a family with two young kids.  Even some of the real leeches couldn’t stomach what had just happened, but where were they going to go?  It’s not like Clint let anyone walk away with any food or supplies or anything.  And then there was William.  His father had just been murdered in cold blood, right in front of him, and
nobody
wanted anything to do with him.”  Amanda shuddered.  “I think that’s what caught Clint’s attention.  The fact that I didn’t think William was somehow tainted by what his father had done while everybody else apparently did.”

Kyle nodded in understanding.  He didn’t agree with it if it was true, but could see where she was coming from.

“And all of this was because people weren’t pulling their fair share of the labor,” Kyle asked.

Amanda nodded.  “Clint had tried to set up community gardens and they were all dying because hardly anyone was working in them.”

“So how were you surviving,” Kyle asked.

Amanda pursed her lips and looked down.

Kyle reached out and gently lifted her head back up.  His initial assessment a week ago, that Amanda was really just a girl, was obviously mistaken.  She was a woman, proud, and in a situation truly not of her choosing.

“The group,” Amanda said, and then paused, “…gathers resources.”

“I think I see,” Kyle said.  “Do you participate in the…gathering?”

“No,” Amanda said, “it’s always the men, but I’m just as guilty.  I use what they steal and that’s what it is.  They raid other groups. There, I said it.”  Amanda pulled her hand back into her own lap.

“I’m not judging you,” Kyle said.  “Although it probably sounded like it just now, and I’m sorry.”

Kyle twisted and took off his rucksack and reached in for his water bottle.   Time to change the subject.  “Again, I’m sorry,” he said.  “Where are my manners?  Are you thirsty, hungry?  I don’t have a huge selection but I’m happy to share what I’ve got.  Chocolate?”

“Don’t tease,” Amanda said.  “Never tease a woman about chocolate.”

Kyle held up two foil-wrapped packages.  “Milk or dark?”

“If William were here I’d run away with you right now,” she said with a small smile.  “Dark, please.”

“So,” Kyle said, “what was life like for you before…” he looked up at the trees and made a big sweeping motion.

“I was a teacher,” Amanda said.  “Elementary school. I taught third grade.  I was, am, single.  I’m a Pisces and I like an occasional pretty sunset, but I do
not
like long walks on the beach.”

“Okay,” Kyle said, drawing out the ‘ay’.  “Did that come out like a pick-up line?  I really didn’t mean for it to come out like a pick-up line.  If it came out like a pick-up line I’m sorry, because it really wasn’t a pick-up line.”

Amanda giggled and took a bite of the chocolate that he handed her.

…

Kyle’s radio chirped twice in rapid succession and he stopped Amanda for a second.  “Go ahead,” he said into the microphone.

“It’s going to be sunrise in about half-an-hour,” Eric said.  “She needs to be getting back, like, now.”

Kyle looked at the radio in disbelief and then checked his watch.  4:52.

“Roger,” Kyle said.

“I had no idea it was this late, or early,” Kyle said, apologetically.  “How are you going to be for working in the field tomorrow?”

Amanda smiled.  “I’ll be fine,” she said.  “Sometimes William has bad nights and I’m up with him and still have to work the next day, so it’ll be ok.”

Kyle got up, helped Amanda up, and then put on his rucksack.

“Besides,” Amanda said, “it was worth it.”

She leaned in and kissed Kyle on the cheek and then stopped and kissed him again.

“Thank you, Kyle,” she said.  “Next week, let’s try for Wednesday, okay?”