Fort Lupton (32 page)

“
So, yes, they are
dangerous,” Agent Muniz said. “But then, with your help, so am
I.”

Unsure of what the agent was saying, Dionne
and Yvonne simply stared at her.

“
I’ll call you a cab,”
Agent Muniz said. Got up and left the room. From her bedroom, she
yelled, “Don’t want you to miss your spa appointments.”

“
Thanks,” Dionne yelled
back. Yvonne shrugged.

“
One day at a time,”
Yvonne said in a low voice.

Dionne nodded.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday evening — 6:01 p.m.

“
Any word from Jake?”
Sandy asked Jill when she came into the kitchen with Bladen in her
arms.

Sandy set a stack of cloth napkins on the
counter. Jill gave a quick sniff to hold back her tears and shook
her head. Edie came into the kitchen carrying Tanner.

“
I haven’t heard anything
either,” Edie said with a smile. “But I think there’s some kind of
mist or fog around our queendom. My father used to generate it
around our land, and my brother . . .”

Edie’s eyes flicked to Jill.

“
Fin said that he and Abi
were protected from the rot inside the queendom because they were
here,” Jill said. “So Jake . . .”

Jill gave a quick nod of her head. She
picked up the stack of cloth napkins and left the kitchen.

“
Her father, Perses, is
with them,” Edie said. “He’s ruthless, fair, and . . .
I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“
But you don’t know,”
Sandy said.

Edie’s eyes expressed their worry and
sorrow.

“
I don’t know either,”
Sandy said. “That’s life. Can you carry the bread to the
table?”

“
Of course,” Edie
said.

Sandy stared off for a
moment. She whispered a quiet prayer for their loved ones, who had
scattered to the wind.
One day at a
time.

“
Just come home,” Sandy
whispered. “Please.”

“
What can I do?” Aden
asked.

Aden appeared in the kitchen. Honey rolled
in right behind him. As Sandy’s prayer floated to the heavens,
dinner was served.

Everything’s
new

Monday morning — 7:30 a.m.

New York City

“
Yes, ma’am,” Noelle said
to the school administrator.

Not sure what she had agreed to, Noelle
shifted uncomfortably in the hard wood chair. She glanced at Seth,
who seemed deeply focused on the conversation. Noelle’s head had
started buzzing the moment she woke up. Even with Sissy there, she
had been too nervous to eat. Noelle winced and wondered what would
happen if she threw up right here.

“
I’ll show you to your
locker.” The administrator stood from her chair.

The woman smiled, but Noelle was too nervous
to see any warmth in the smile. Noelle stood at her chair and
followed the administrator to the door. Seth put his arm over her
shoulder and pulled her into him. They reached the door just as a
bell rang.

Students filled the hallway. The
administrator waited for the crowd to pass.

Art students. These were REAL art students,
not fake artists who train with a guy whose studio is in the garage
behind their house.

Noelle swallowed hard.

“
What’s wrong?” Seth said
in a low tone in her ear.

“
They’re all wearing
berets,” Noelle said.

“
Didn’t you see that on
the website?” the administrator asked. “We need to keep your hair
out of the paint.”

“
But—” Noelle
started.

“
It’s a school
requirement,” the administrator said. “If you don’t have one
. . .”

Horrified, Noelle moved closer to Seth. A
teacher called to the administrator. She threaded her way through
the wave of students to where the teacher stood.

“
What am I going to do?”
Noelle asked.

“
We’ll get a beret,” Seth
said.

“
But she won’t let me go
here and . . .” Noelle’s voice dropped to an angry
whisper. “Mike said berets were A-R-M-Y! That’s not art; that
spells a
rmy
.”

Seth gave her an amused look. Spotting
movement in the swell of students, Seth nodded down the hall.
Noelle followed his gesture to see MJ moving toward them.

“
What’s
he
doing here?” Noelle
asked.

“
He was in town for work,”
Seth said. “He called this morning and I told him your
schedule.”

“
Does
he
have a beret?” Noelle
asked.

Still amused, Seth raised his eyebrows and
started to respond. Just then, the administrator waved them over.
With Seth’s help, they managed to cut through the students to get
to the other side.

“
This is your
teacher-advocate,” the administrator said. “He will track your
progress. If you have any problems, first go to your teacher
advocate.”

Something else caught the administrator’s
attention, and she moved farther down the hallway.

“
O’Malley,” Seth said and
held out his hand for the teacher to shake.

“
Louis Bellerose,” the
teacher said. “It’s a real pleasure to meet
the
Seth O’Malley.”

The teacher looked at Seth for a moment.
Seth gave him a guarded smile. The man nodded to Seth before
turning to Noelle.

“
Norsen,” Noelle said in
an imitation of Seth. She held out her hand for the teacher to
shake.

“
Nice to meet you, Ms.
Norsen.” The teacher shook Noelle’s hand.

“
Just Norsen, sir,” Noelle
said. “My grandfather and I, we just go by our last names. It’s a
family thing.”

Noelle gave the teacher such a sincere nod
that the teacher had to look away not to laugh. When he looked
back, he noticed Noelle’s bare hair.

“
No beret?” Mr. Bellerose
asked. He scowled. “You’ll have to . . .”

“
Sorry I’m late.” MJ was
suddenly towering over them.

Surprised, Noelle gave a little squeal.
She’d forgotten all about MJ. Seth raised his eyebrows, and MJ
nodded. Before Noelle could ask what was going on, Seth nodded his
chin to MJ.

“
Did you bring your
beret?” Seth asked.

“
Oh, right,” MJ said.
“Does it matter what color it is? I got this green one.”

MJ took a dark green beret out of his
pocket.

“
It’s one of the LC’s,” MJ
said. He set it in Noelle’s hands. “See, it has the ‘F’ on the
back. She wanted Noelle to have it.”

“
What’s an LC?” Noelle
said in a low voice.

“
It’s Alex’s,” Seth
replied.

“
Really?” Noelle grinned.
She tugged the beret from MJ’s hand and stuck it on her head.
“That’s wonderful! Thanks!”

“
You don’t mind if Noelle
wears an active duty Special Forces beret, do you?” Seth
asked.

“
I . . .” Mr.
Bellerose said. “I’m not sure we’ll have to
. . .”

The hallway had almost cleared of students.
The teacher pointed to the administrator, and she moved toward
them. She was a foot from them when she saw Noelle’s beret. Her
hand came up to touch the black Vivaldi script “F” on the back of
the beret.

“
Where’d you get that?”
the administrator asked in a low tone.

Her eyes flicked to look at the teacher
before noticing MJ was standing next to Seth. MJ gave the woman a
firm nod of his head.

“
You must be Sergeant
Scully,” the administrator said.

She shook MJ’s hand. MJ nodded toward his
black jacket with the Vivaldi script “F” on it. The administrator
gave an acknowledging bounce of her head.

“
This is Alex’s beret,”
Noelle beamed. “She’s the bravest person I’ve ever met. I’m going
to wear it every single day and be brave like Alex.”

“
I . . .” the
administrator scowled. “Uh . . .”

“
Alex gave it to me,”
Noelle said.

“
I knew you’d understand,”
Seth said with a smile. The administrator gave a slow nod. “Now, we
were going to get Noelle’s locker set up and purchase her books.
Can you point us in the direction of the F-wing? That’s where
Noelle’s locker is located.”

“
Down the corridor to your
right,” Mr. Bellerose said. “I’ll check in with you later,
Noelle.”

“
Norsen,” Noelle
corrected.

Noelle gave Mr. Bellerose a wave before she,
MJ, and Seth went to find her locker. With Alex’s beret on her
head, Noelle felt like a new person. She was actually excited to be
here. To be nice, she let Seth help her with her locker.

She only had a few minutes before her live
model class. They jogged up the stairs to a large open classroom
with a hundred easels set up around a small platform.

“
Oh great, you’re here,”
the painting instructor said.

Thinking she meant her, Noelle swallowed
hard. Noelle stepped back into Seth, and MJ stepped forward. The
instructor shook MJ’s hand.

“
What’s going on?” Noelle
asked.

“
MJ’s going to stay with
you,” Seth said. “When your instructor heard, he asked if MJ would
model for this class.”

“
Naked?” Noelle’s voice
rose with anxiety.

“
His leg,” Seth said in
her ear.

Noelle nodded. She knew MJ had lost his leg
in the war in Iraq.

“
You must be Noelle,” the
instructor said.

“
Norsen,” Noelle
remembered to correct him.

“
Very well.” The
instructor smiled. “Norsen, your easel is over here.”

Seth gave her a little push. She stumbled
before catching her footing. She found herself at an easel between
a teenaged boy and a girl about her age. She smiled at them before
turning her attention to her easel. The easel was larger than she
was and made out of plain wood. There was a thick pad of sketch
paper attached to the easel. Basic art supplies lined the shelf
below, and a drawing pencil was sitting on the top of the thick pad
of paper.

“
Your attention, please,”
the instructor said.

The students stopped speaking to each other
and the room became very quiet. Noelle looked over to see that Seth
had found a chair and was sitting near the door. Noelle looked up
at the front of the room to see that MJ had stripped down to
shorts. He had taken off his prosthesis.

“
In this exercise, we are
looking at how life interacts with the perfect human figure,” the
instructor said. “I want you to take special note of Sergeant
Scully’s scars. Some are deep.”

The instructor gestured to MJ’s back and
belly.

“
And some seem
superficial.” The instructor waved his hand near MJ’s missing calf.
“And yet the injury is clearly profound.”

The room was silent as the students stared
at MJ.

“
Take it all in,” the
instructor said. He paused for a moment. “Pick up your
pencils.”

He paused and looked around the room.

“
Go.”

Noelle’s hand sped across the page. Her
anxious thoughts slipped out of her head. She was clear, focused,
and drawing. At some point later, she remembered Seth. Looking
toward the door, she realized he was gone. MJ caught her look and
winked at her. She smiled, adjusted her beret, and went back to
work.

~~~~~~~~

Monday morning — 9:58 a.m.

New York City

“
Right, but the thing is,”
the girl next to Sissy whispered to the girl on her other side, “
. . . he’s really mean.”

They were sitting on a metal bench in the
girl’s locker room. Sissy was setting up her locker, so the other
girls just ignored her. Seth had returned from dropping off Noelle
in time to take Sissy to school. This morning, she was scheduled to
take a class that focused on only one ballet form each session. It
was supposed to be equally grueling and necessary.

“
No toe shoes?” the girl
on the other side of Sissy asked.

“
No toe shoes.” The other
girl nodded. “Not until he’s sure of the strength of our feet. Our
feet!”

The girls gave each other sincere but
panic-filled nods.

“
What if we hurt our
feet?” the girl to Sissy’s right asked.

The girl on Sissy’s left gave an overly
dramatic shrug. A few minutes later, the girls left to use the
restroom. Once they were gone, Sissy looked down at her own feet.
Sandy had taken her to get a pedicure on Saturday. Looking at the
clear polish, Sissy remembered Ivan’s words.

“
Clear polish only,” Ivan
had said. “You must be able to see the health of the nail bed. It
is the only way to test your circulation and the health of the
toes.”

“
Healthy toes make healthy
dancers,” Sissy repeated Ivan’s words under her breath.

Sissy felt a wave of longing for her
teacher. Missing Ivan led to missing Sandy and home and Charlie and
Nash and precious Rachel and everyone at the Castle and Buster the
ugly dog. She wished she hadn’t sent Seth away.

Sissy dropped down to the bench to stare at
her feet. They were the most important thing to her career. She
could have a bad car accident and overcome it. But if she injured
her feet, she would never dance again. Sissy nodded. At least
that’s what Ivan always said.