South River Incident (22 page)

Sarah turned her back to
everyone and whispered to me, “You can put the gun away, dear.”

I had forgotten I still had
the gun clutched in my hand by my side. I quickly stuffed it into my purse and
out of sight. When I looked back again, Claire had the kids calmed down and
they were sitting by the fire, listening to the chief tell one of his stories.
Sarah met me as I walked over to them.

“I need to talk to you,
Jesse. May we go to another room?”

“Sure,” I replied, leading
her to my bedroom, and then closing the door. I had no idea where this was
going, and was almost afraid to ask.

“The chief is worried. He
says there’s trouble ahead. He sees danger coming your way. He wants you to
know about his fear.”

“You’re starting to scare
me,” I caught my breath.

It was no secret that
everyone in Billy’s family respected the chief. If he said something was going
to happen, it usually did. He was a man of few words, but they were powerful
ones. Yeah... but he also said that I was going to have a baby. I guess he
can’t be right all the time.

That last thought snapped
me back to the real world.

“The chief doesn’t have a
thing to worry about. We’re fine.”

“He wants you to be careful
and keep your eyes open. He says there’s a trespasser roaming the woods. He
found tracks leading to this house.”

Her statement triggered an
alarm in my head, but I pushed it aside.

“Perhaps it was one of
Billy’s brothers.”

“That may well be true, but
there was one set that belonged to a woman.”

“How...”

“The chief knows,” she
announced with pride. “He’s a wise man.”

“But...”

“I know you don’t
understand the way of the Cherokee, but in time you will come to see the great
pride and strength that makes them who they are. I am proud to be one of them,
even if it’s only by marriage.”

“Let me ask you something,”
I begged. “What’s this thing they share that makes them so insightful? They
seem to communicate in a way that the rest of us cannot. I’ve seen it in
everyone in this family. It’s like a...”

“Spirit?” she suggested.

“Exactly!”

“You are a quick learner.
You see things for yourself. Listen to your heart. Trust in the chief. He will
not lead you astray. Beware, and heed his words. Watch your back. Be very
careful.”

“I will. You can bank on
it,” I said. “I will be extremely careful.”

I wanted to avoid the subject
of my relationship with Billy. It was personal, and I was still trying to
figure out how I could manage to fall in love with a man, and decide to marry
him in only a few days’ time. Has it just been a few days or has this been in
the making for a while?

Sarah wasn’t going to let
me off the hook that easily.

“Since we have the matter
of your safety settled, let’s talk about your wedding. Is it true that you and
Billy have decided that you want to get married on Christmas Eve?”

I felt a lump in my throat.
A rush of happiness filled my heart as I saw a vision of Billy’s face. I
decided it was time to make a commitment. I said out loud to others that I
would marry Billy in a moment of confusion and insecurity, but it was time to
say it in my heart. I had butterflies in my stomach and I was tired of them
being my only companion. I wanted to fill that space with Billy’s love.

“Yes,” I admitted. “Billy
and I want to get married Christmas Eve.”

“Do you love him?”

“Yes, I do.”

“That’s all I need to know.
I’m not going to ask you any of the questions I have in the back of my head.
That’s your business.”

“You have questions about
Cole, and we can talk about them if you want to. I know this happened fast, but
let me reassure that I am not in love with Cole. Like all the other men in my
life, he was filling a void until the right one came along. Billy’s the right
one. I love him and I want to spend the rest of my life with him.”

She clapped her hands
together and said, “I guess we have a wedding to plan! I have some very good
ideas. When you’re ready, I can go over them with you.”

The shrill of a telephone
ring blared outside the bedroom door.

“I need to go answer that,”
I said, leaving her behind.

“Hello,” I said, grabbing
the phone after the second ring. My fears began to rise at the prospect of who
might be at the other end.

“Jesse,” Mom’s crackled
voice blasted in my ear. Our phone connection was poor and I could barely make
out what she was saying.

“Mom, you’re breaking up,”
I yelled into the phone while placing a hand over one ear. “I can barely hear
you.” Then the static cleared.

“I’m on my cell phone. Is
that better?” she asked.

“Yes, it’s much clearer.
Where are you? Where’s Billy?”

“You’re not going to
believe this, but Billy ran off the road. The truck’s in a ditch, and we can’t
get it out.”

“What?” I screamed. “Is he
hurt? Are you hurt?” I started to cry.

“Jesse, we’re both fine.
We’re not hurt, but I’m not so sure I can say the same thing about the truck.
I’m going to give Billy the phone. He wants to talk to you.”

His voice was music to my
ears.

“Don’t cry, Jesse. We’re
both fine, but we will need some help getting the truck out of the ditch.”

“Is your truck damaged?” I
stopped the flow of tears, relieved to know they were safe and unhurt.

“It might have a scratch or
two, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”

“Where are you?”

“We’re at the bend in the
road in front of the church at
Turkey
Ridge Road
. I hit a patch of ice and
slid down the embankment. The front end of the truck’s sitting in the stream. I
can’t back up and I can’t turn around. The incline is too steep. I’m afraid the
truck might turn over. It’s a pretty precarious situation. We’re going to need
some help.”

“Do you want me to bring my
Jeep and a rope?” I was ready for action.

Billy let out a chuckle. “I
don’t think that’s going to cut it. I think we’re going to need more brut power
than what you have in that Jeep, and a line stronger than a rope. I’ll call the
chief. His truck has a winch. He can come and pull us out of the stream
easily.”

“Wait a minute, he’s here.”
I motioned to Billy’s father and then handed him the phone. “Billy needs to
talk to you.”

Their conversation was
brief.

After hanging up the phone,
the chief turned to me and said, “I am going to help your mother and my son. It
might take a while since I have to go to Stanardsville, and the roads are bad.
The traveling will be slow.” He glanced at his wife. “You will stay here until
I return.” His eyes wandered around the room. “They do not need to be alone.”

His wife stood by his side,
nodding in agreement. “I shall do as you wish. I will stay here and watch out
for them. Do what you have to. Don’t worry about us. We’re pretty tough women.”

“This, I believe.”

Once the chief was out the
front door, Claire surprised me with her outburst. She was to the point of
being livid.

“I can’t believe you would
let him push you around like that,” she said to Sarah. “I’d never stand for
that kind of treatment. If a man told me what to do all the time, I’d go
insane. What gives a man the right to think that he can tell us what to do?
They’re all the same. Once you marry them, they turn into whiny, crybabies,
with a mother complex. They live to boss us around.”

I had no idea where all
that came from, but it was obvious to me that Claire’s opinion of Carl and
their marriage had sunk to an all time low  and it wasn’t just because of his
infidelities.

“You interpret incorrectly,
my dear,” Sarah responded. “He leads, he doesn’t push. His manner of speech is
what you don’t understand.”

“You can call it whatever
you want to call it, but to me, I’d say he’s a control freak.”

Sarah shot a questioning
look at me.

“She didn’t mean that he
was a freak. She meant... ah...”

“I just meant that he had
to be in charge.”

“You’re right about that,
but only to a point.”

“I can promise you that
nobody pushes Sarah around. She can take care of herself. She might be small,
but she carries a lot of weight.”

Sarah winked at me. Her
voice was soft when she spoke to Claire.

“He talks in a funny way,
but I know what he really means. Once you get to know him, you will, too.”

“As long as you can deal
with it,” Claire said and seemed to relax a little. “I’m not the one who has to
live with him.”

“We have a wedding to
plan,” I blurted out. “Since we have a little time on our hands maybe the three
of us can put our heads together and come up with something.”

“That’s a great idea,”
Claire beamed. “I was just getting ready to put the kids down for their
afternoon nap.”

“I noticed little Carrie
had a hard time keeping her eyes open while the chief was telling one of his
tales.” Sarah smiled adoringly. “They’re such beautiful children.” She stared
at Benny and Carrie as they rolled around on the floor with Athena and Thor.
“They love those two dogs, don’t they?”

“Yes, they do,” Claire
admitted. “What is it about kids and animals?”

“They’re young and
restless,” Sarah responded. “They see the world as one big adventure. They
don’t see any danger. They’re innocent ones. We must always protect them. The
world can be a harsh place.”

Instantly, as if an alarm
went off, Claire and Sarah turned to me and smiled. They had a devious look on
their faces.

“What?” I suddenly became
aware of their gist. “No, I’m not ready for that responsibility just yet. Give
me time to get married first and then I’ll consider it. I’m afraid that
children will have to wait. We’re not starting a family any time soon. We’ll
get married and then in a few years we’ll have a few kids.”

“Maybe you don’t plan on
having a baby right away, but plans change,” Sarah said. “Be open to the idea.
That way, when the chief’s prediction comes true, you won’t be surprised.”

“Yeah,” Claire said, going
along with her cohort. “Have an open mind. You never know what the future
holds.”

Immediately, they turned
their backs to me, put their heads together, and went over to gather up the
kids. They laughed and made silly sounds as they hustled the kids upstairs for
a well-needed nap.

Did I miss something? What
was going on in their heads? Were they conjuring up another one of their crazy
ideas? No, I knew what they were thinking. I would prove them wrong. Just wait
and see!

“You don’t know
everything,” I yelled at them. “You can talk about me behind my back, but in
the end you’ll see that I was right all along.”

My protests fell on deaf
ears.

I needed a cigarette. I was
tied in a knot. Ah, a cigarette and a drink would do the job just fine.

T
he house appeared
to take on a chill as I walked over to the kitchen sink and looked
underneath for a bottle of liquor. Isn’t that where men usually put the booze?
Bingo! I grabbed the bottle of bourbon and began my search for a glass. Was
today Sunday or Monday? I had lost all perception of time. This would be a
Thanksgiving weekend that I would not soon forget. Where are the cigarettes? I
rummaged through Claire’s purse that she had left on the kitchen counter. Two
Marlboros and one shot glass of straight bourbon later, Claire and Sarah
accosted me.

“What is that smell?” Sarah
turned up her nose as she walked into the kitchen. “Jesse, you shouldn’t be
smoking!”

“I don’t want to hear it,”
I said as I drank and puffed away.

Claire and Sarah hissed and
said bad things behind my back as they scolded me. They were determined to give
me a hard time.

I ignored them. Besides,
what could one good stiff drink and a handful of cigarettes hurt? I was not
pregnant. Leave me alone.

Some hours later, I had a
terrible headache and felt sick to my stomach. I smelled like an ashtray.  I
was subject to throw up at any moment.

“Where’s Billy?” I pulled
back the curtains on the front door. “He should be home by now. I’m worried.”

The sky had grown dark and
small flakes of snow had begun to fall at a rapid rate. Another storm was
headed this way. I was tired of the snow.

“I’m sure he would call if
anything was wrong,” Claire coddled me. “Try to relax, Jesse. Oh, never mind, I
forgot, you have been relaxing.”

“A couple of drinks,
Claire, that’s all I had.”

“I can see we’re all
getting a little tense,” Sarah tried to smooth things over. “Why don’t we go
sit by the fire? It’s so cozy.”

The three of us had
gathered by the fire and were discussing my wedding plans, when I heard a noise
at the back door.

I put my finger to my mouth
to silence them.

“Did you hear that?”

Sarah and Claire both
nodded their heads.

“Jesse’s just getting a
little nervous,” Claire smiled at Sarah and said. “Making wedding arrangements
can do that to you.”

“I know,” Sarah responded.
“I’ve planned a few weddings in my lifetime.”

“I’m serious,” I whispered.
“I heard something.”

I got up from the sofa and
went to get my gun. When I returned, Claire and Sarah were huddled together by
the fireplace.

“We heard a noise, too,”
Claire cried. “We were afraid to move. It sounds like someone is trying to get
in. What should we do?”

I checked the cylinder of
my Rossi to make sure it was loaded. It was the first thing I was taught to do
when handling a gun; check it for bullets. With my weapon fully loaded and my
arm pointed straight out, I went in search of the noise. My hand shook as I
slowly made my way to the utility room. Sarah and Claire stuck to my backside
like glue.

“Open the door on the count
of three,” I told Claire. “Then jump back out of the way.” I could see she was
scared, but she nodded in agreement.

“One... two... three.”

Claire jerked the door back
as I jumped in front of her with the trigger cocked. Nobody was going to get
past me.

The three of us stood there
with our mouths hanging open. A tiny calico kitten sat balled-up on the steps. 
A second later, a black kitten appeared.

“What is this?” I
screeched. “Go home, both of you. I don’t need any cats. I have two killer dogs
in here so you’d better run away.”

“No!” I screamed at Claire
when she picked up the calico kitten.

Sarah bent down and whisked
up the black one in her arms.

“No!” I yelled. “Put them
back down!”

“Jesse, you can’t just
leave them out in the cold,” Claire hissed. “It’s obvious they got separated
from their mother.”

“That’s why they’re called
strays,” Sarah added. “They strayed away from their mother and now they need
someone to raise them.”

“Well, my plate is full.
You two can take them home.”

“That’s exactly what I’ll
do,” Claire said.

“I will, too,” Sarah
agreed.

“Good! Now that everyone is
happy, I’ll close the door.”

I went to shut the door and
noticed the wind had really picked up. The trees were bending to the force of
the gusts, and more snow had begun to cover an already white landscape. A chill
ripped through me. Off in the distant, I heard a tree snap. Where was Billy?

Surprisingly, Athena and
Thor welcomed the two kittens into the fold. The four of them made themselves
at home in front of the fireplace, and sniffed and licked each other until I
thought I was going to gag.

“Where were you two when I
heard the noise at the back door? Neither one of you barked! Some guard dogs
you are.” I tossed them one of my mean looks, which they both ignored.

At
six o’clock
, I dialed
Mom’s cell phone number. We had waited long enough. By that time, the kids had
been fed dinner, given a bath and put to bed; the two kittens had low-fat milk
in their bellies and were snoozing by the fireplace; and Athena and Thor were
down for the count while the rest of us waited.

“No answer,” I said,
hanging up the phone.

“Did the recording come
on?” Claire asked.

“No, it didn’t.”

“That means Mom’s phone is
on, but she’s not answering it.”

“I’ll try again in a few
minutes. Maybe she’s busy at the moment.” I tried to act undisturbed about the
call. Unfortunately, anxiety had begun to set in. My heartbeat began to pick up
momentum, and my hands shook. I had a bad feeling. I was going to need a paper
bag soon.

The storm intensified as
time passed. Windows rattled and the wind banged against the house, sending an
unrelenting surge of vibrations throughout the room. Off in the woods, I heard
another tree snap.

“Is this a hurricane?”
Claire cried out when a tree limb slammed against a window. She clutched her
hands to her heart.

“No, it’s just a
snowstorm,” Sarah consoled her. “It’ll be over soon, I hope. I don’t like it
when the wind howls. I can handle almost anything, except that wind. High winds
can be so dangerous. When a tree blows over, you don’t know where it’s going to
land. If the tree is close to the house, where do you run to? Maybe it won’t
last long.”

“I hope you’re right,
Sarah,” I said. “Frankly, I think we’re in for a long night. We better settle
in and ride it out.”

“We had a really bad
snowstorm a few years back that lasted for several hours. Afterwards, people
were stranded in their homes. Some people died.”

“Yeah, I heard about that
one. Billy told me.”

Claire couldn’t stand it
anymore. She walked over to the phone and said, “I’m going to try Mom’s number
again.”

“Go ahead,” I urged. “I
think it’s time to call everyone we know until we find out where they are.”

“I’m with you,” Sarah said.

Sarah and I stood next to Claire
and waited while she dialed the number.

“Hello, Mom, where are
you?” Claire ranted. “We’ve been worried sick! Yes… Sure… I’ll tell Jesse.”
Claire stood and listened for several minutes before responding again. “We love
you, too... See you then.”

“What’s the deal?” I asked
when Claire hung up the phone. “You’re not screaming or crying so I can only
assume they’re all right. I mean, they’re not dead or lying in some ditch
somewhere, are they?”

“They’re fine. They had a
little car trouble, that’s all.” Claire put her arms around Sarah and me,
guiding us to the living room. “Let’s go warm our tootsies by the fire and I’ll
tell you all about it.”

Claire’s calm was
contagious and her laid-back attitude was infectious. I noticed how she was so
much like Sarah. One minute she could be uptight and scared, and the next
minute, she was as cool as a cucumber.

I chewed my nails while
Claire gave us a full account of Mom and Billy’s excursion. She didn’t leave
anything out.

“They got Billy’s truck out
of the ditch and when he went to start it, smoke came out from under the hood.
The engine made an awful noise. They called Daniel, and he sent out one of his
tow trucks. The guy towed Billy’s truck all the way from Stanardsville to
Daniel’s car lot in
Charlottesville
. Mom said something about a radiator and a fan, but I
was barely listening to her by then. Anyway, the chief took them to get a bite
to eat at the Lafayette Hotel in Stanardsville. Mom said she was starving and
didn’t want to wait until they got back here to eat. She once told me that she
was told by a couple of the neighbors that the
Lafayette
’s restaurant served
the absolutely best meals, and the guys who ran the hotel were so friendly. We
were going to take the kids there once, but Carrie started running a fever, and
we didn’t get to go. That was a little while back when she came down with that
nasty cold, remember, Jesse? Poor little thing, she was so sick. Anyway,
they’re going to have something to eat, and then they’ll be heading back.”

“Yes, I remember,” I
answered, rolling my eyes at Claire. She could go on and on sometimes. “When
may we expect their return?”

“Mom said they’d be home in
a couple of hours.”

“A couple of hours?” I
raised my voice.

“When you’re in the
mountains, nothing happens fast,” Sarah said. “The living is easy. Things move
at a much slower pace, especially in this kind of weather.”

I lay my head back on the
sofa and tried to tune out the roar from outside and the nauseous feeling
within me. I broke out in a sweat, but this time I didn’t faint. The wave
passed. Neither Claire, nor Sarah noticed.

“If it makes you feel any
better, Jesse,” Claire grinned. “Mom said she was having the time of her life.
She said it’s been a real adventure. Can you believe it? She’s truly amazing.”

“It’s funny how people
change,” I reminisced. “I guess Mom is no exception. I remember a time when she
wouldn’t go outside if there was more than an inch of snow on the ground. Just
look at her now. You can’t keep her tied down.”

“What was that?” Claire
asked.

“I didn’t hear anything,” I
lied.

I had heard a noise at the
back door, but I wasn’t about to let another kitten in the house. This one
would wind up being mine, because everyone else already had one of their own.
Two dogs were enough for me! There was not enough room in this house for
another pet.

“Shame on you,” Claire
rubbed one finger over the other at me. “We can’t let the poor thing freeze.”
She got up from the sofa and headed to the utility room. I guess two kittens
weren’t enough pets.

“No! Claire,” I yelled. I
jumped up and ran after her. “Don’t open...”

An explosion of wood and
hinges echoed throughout the house. Claire screamed. Her limp body hit the
floor just as I rounded the corner. Blood ran down the side of her face.

“What the ...” I screamed,
looking up at a man and a woman standing in the doorway. Instantly, I
recognized them from the picture. It was Laura and Brad Westover! They were on
a rampage!

“Shut up!” he said. He
stuck a gun in my face.

Thor came charging into the
utility room barking wildly, and immediately sunk his teeth into Brad’s leg.
Brad responded by kicking Thor in the head. The crack sounded like thunder.
Thor released his grip and fell over in a heap. His body twitched for a couple
of seconds, his breathing labored, and then he lay motionless.

Athena was nowhere in
sight.

Sarah peeped around the
corner at us. “What...”  She turned to run.

Laura was fast on her
heels. She sprinted past me and Brad, and had Billy’s mom pinned up against the
wall with a gun pointed under her chin before I had a chance to blink. 

“Please,” I begged Laura.
“Don’t hurt her.” I looked back at Brad. “I’ll do whatever you want. If it’s
money you want...”

“You’re such an idiot,”
Brad snapped. He grabbed me by the arm and dragged me toward the living room, his
gun jammed up in my ribs. “If you had just stayed out of it everything would’ve
gone off as planned. But no, you had to go and stick your nose in something
that’s none of your business. I’m going to have to shut you up.”

“I don’t know what you’re
talking about,” I cried, trying to stall for time until I could figure out what
was going on.

The possibility of Brad or
Laura being capable of murder had crossed my mind more than once. I knew we
were in trouble. I didn’t know why or what we had done, but there was no doubt
in my mind that tonight we could all very well die. The aggressive behavior of
our captors had convinced me of that. The gun in my ribs was a sure sign of the
danger we faced. I had to do something. I couldn’t let our lives end this way.
“Just tell me what you want,” I pleaded.