The Cries of the Butterfly - A LOVE STORY (68 page)

Suddenly, she came to life. She thrashed out with her arms and leaping to her feet, she began to scream hysterically. “ROBINNNNN…!”

Sweet shit!
Wolf clasped her again. “Calm down…for god’s sakes! Where’s Robin? What’s wrong with her? TELL ME…SPEAK TO ME!” he roared in her face.

She stared at him wildly.

He snatched her cheeks. “What’s wrong with Robin…where’s she?!”

“They…they…they…kidnap…kidnapped…the…the…Home…Home…called…” And she collapsed in his arms.

He lifted her and lay her down on the settee again, simultaneously yelling for his bodyguard.

“Have you summoned help?”

“Yes, Mr. Butcher. They should be here any moment.”

“Look, I’m going to the Children’s Home. My daughter’s in some trouble or something. I want you to stay here and look after Ms. Burns until help arrives.”

“But, sir, I ought to stay with you. Those are my orders.”

“Damn you! You fucking do as
I
say or I’ll toss your arse in the sewer!”

“Yes, sir.”

Wolf gave the man a cruel glare, then tore out of the house.

.

“
S
he’s been taken hostage. They’re…on…on the terrace,” Sister Blessing stammered. Her face was a white sheet.

Wolf ignored the elevator and sprinted up the steps, four steps at a time, followed awkwardly by the head of the St. Teresa Children’s Home. Young girls were strewn all over the place, faces grim, and Wolf sliced through them, knocking a few down when they couldn’t get out of his way quick enough.

He reached the terrace lobby and could go no further. A host of policemen and Home staffers crammed the place. He began ramming through them, but was stopped.

“Mr. Butcher, you can’t go in,” a uniformed copper said, putting out his arm.

“Look, my daughter’s in there…” Wolf protested.

“Let him through, officer,” the voice of President Butcher came through the terrace door.

“What…what happened?” Wolf muttered reaching Grant. Seeing him propped Wolf up a little.

Grant clapped Wolf’s shoulder. “Chief Hart is negotiating. But you need to stay calm.”

“I want to see her.”

“I think we should let the police handle it.”

“No, you don’t understand. Robin needs me! If she knows I’m here, she’ll cling on much better. I need to show her support. Please, sir!”

Grant saw the logic of that immediately. “I guess you are right. Come with me.” He led Wolf into the terrace.

There were more policemen, many more, all over the place.

Grant and Wolf went westward, and then Wolf saw her and he caught his breath sharply.

In the corner against the parapet on the far side was Robin. Holding her from behind, one arm around Robin’s midriff, the other holding a knife to her throat, was her best friend, Moon-Moon. Robin was trembling, her eyes wide with terror. When she saw Wolf, her eyes lit up for a second, as if suddenly a corridor of deliverance had opened up before her. But then she seemed to realize the hopelessness of it all, and utter helplessness came into her face. She chewed her lip and began to cry.

Wolf’s first instinct was to rush over to his baby, but the knife to her neck froze any such intentions. He couldn’t believe the scene before him. A ten year old holding an eight year old at knife’s point. It was beyond bizarre. A tight feeling formed in the pit of his stomach and made breathing difficult.

Chief Hart was on his haunches. He glanced up when Grant and Wolf joined him. The shock on his face was loud and he could say nothing.

“What…what’s happening…WHY?” Wolf spluttered.

Chief Hart got to his feet. He shook his head in disbelief. They stepped back.

At last, the copper found his tongue. “She says she won’t let Robin go. Says something about it being most unfair that Robin gets parents and a nice home and she gets nothing, after all the years that they’ve been best friends.”

Wolf looked at Moon-Moon. Her hair was disheveled and her face was puffed up and burnt to a crimson crisp in the sun. Her lips were bloodless and her bloodshot eyes shone strangely.

“You talked to her?” he asked.

Hart nodded. “It only makes her wilder.”

“What exactly happened?”

“Well, we’re told the two girls were on the grounds initially. Then Moon-Moon took Robin to the terrace at knife point.”

Wolf began to feel unsteady on his feet. “How in hell did she get the knife in the first place?” he yelled in a whisper.

“From what I hear that wouldn’t be a problem. She loves cookery and is ever in the kitchen helping the cook and generally messing around.” The police chief’s voice was now serene and professional—he had quickly got over his initial shock.

But then it isn’t his child on the line,
Wolf thought acidly.

He looked closely at Robin and his heart stopped. His baby was bleeding slightly from the neck where the knife’s edge grazed from time to time.
Oh, my god…no, no!
he thought, his hand going to his mouth. He felt his chest heave and he gritted his teeth, as he desperately held back the surging emotions. He had to, for Robin’s sake. For her, he had to remain strong, at least on the outside.

“Let me talk to her,” Wolf said to Chief Hart. Hart looked at Grant and Grant nodded.

“Why don’t you two move out of sight? So many people can only make her more nervous and more dangerous,” Wolf added.

Yes, they agreed, there was sense in that too. They all pulled back.

Wolf glanced around him for a moment. The terrace was baking, and the light so blinding his eyes smarted. Summer in New Halcyon was on its last leg. But it was the hottest, brightest period, like a flame that is most brilliant before it goes out. He looked at his Butterfly again. She had stopped crying. And she was desperately trying to be strong, he could see.
For you. For you.
And yet, the fear and the pain that was inside her was all too plain in the whites of her eyes. That, she couldn’t hide try as she may and she was trying valiantly. Wolf’s heart jammed with affection. He was so proud of her, oh, so proud. But he felt so helpless, so useless, he bit his lip hard. He looked at Moon-Moon now. In the harsh light of the afternoon sun she was a hideous sight, and he now understood how one might come to believe in Satan. She looked like the possessed girl in the ‘Exorcist’—the feral eyes conjuring up an image of looming disaster. Wolf felt himself quail again.

He knew he had to be tactful. Very, very tactful…and delicate. He could not allow the overwhelming emotions inside of him to even peek out. It could be fatal for his girl. He took a long, deep breath, filling his lungs to capacity. No good. Instead of making him feel better, he only felt his trachea sizzle in the heat. There was only one thing to do now. With a mighty effort, he tapped deep, deep within him and brought up all the actor’s skills he possessed.

He sat down of the floor and crossed his legs. He didn’t want to tower over Moon-Moon and make her feel insecure. The floor was singeing, and Wolf recoiled. But he toughened himself and smiled.

“Robin, I don’t want you to worry at all, okay? Moon-Moon is your friend, your best friend, and she’s
not
going to hurt you, not one bit. Do you understand?”

Robin looked at him but said nothing. Wolf continued.

“Moon-Moon’s just upset, that’s all. You’ve seen what a great heart she has, haven’t you, Robin? That’s the reason why she has always been your best friend. But she is more than just your friend—she is your sister.”

He paused for a second. It hurt. Shit, it hurt so much, watching his baby like this. It hurt at the innermost depths of his soul. But he kept a stern check over his feelings. His mind worked frantically.

“Perhaps you forgot to tell Moon-Moon what we’ve planned for her. Yes, we have decided to adopt her together with you. Your Momma and I shall now be Moon-Moon’s parents as well and she will come and live with us. The two of you shall be sisters and share a room at Butcher Garden. Now how’s that? Great fun, ha? The two of you can swim together in the swimming pool all you like and you can play with Bruno and run around the garden whenever you feel. And you can pluck all the roses you want. You’ll have a new school and you shall go and come in a beautiful car. You can play computer games and watch movies in your own private room and eat as many chocolates as you like and no one will ever stop you. How’s that? But of course, if you get too naughty, Daddy and Momma will then scold you.” He smiled wide, and it stung. The words were forced. Why, the whole fucking act was forced, and stung. “Now think of the great time you two sisters are going to have from now on.”

The sun was baking his head. His ass was burning, like a pair of eggs in boiling water. His skin was seething and sweat streamed down his face and chest and back like smoking rivulets. But he swallowed and withstood it. He looked back at the girls. They were sweating too and the knife dazzled in the rays of the sun and chilled Wolf’s bones. He took another longish breath and realized his throat was an incinerator.

The words were automatic now, like the act. An actor’s professionalism to the fore despite the ravage within him. “Then we shall all go to the beach on picnics and the two of you can run around and build sand-castles and even go into the water. But mind you—no going into the deep, understand? We don’t want our little Butterflies to drown or be eaten up by sharks, do we? Oh, no, we don’t! The two of you are very precious to Mom and me and we wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you.” Somehow he managed to keep his tone pure velvet.

“Then we shall travel to distant lands on long vacations—all of us, you and Moon-Moon and Mom and me. We shall go to Japan, and to all the European countries, to Australia and New Zealand, and to Africa to see all the wildlife, and to the Amazon in Brazil and to China, then to the Arctic to see the seals and the polar bears, and many, many different places…the whole world. Just imagine what fun that would be! You two sisters can sit together on the airplane, okay?” His shirt stuck to his torso like a peel of skin. Robin’s clothes were drenched and she was visibly shivering, and Wolf shivered with her.

“But all this can happen only if Moon-Moon’s anger goes away.” He looked at the big girl. A flicker of interest had come to her eyes. The knife had moved a quarter inch away from Robin’s throat.

Should I jump her?
Wolf thought. He guessed he was about thirty feet from them.
Too fucking risky.
He addressed her now. “Moon-Moon?”

The girl didn’t say anything, just kept staring at him.

“You want to come home with us?” he said.

Caution leapt into her eyes for a moment, then the knife suddenly flashed and dug back into Robin’s throat. Wolf gasped and almost leapt to his feet.

“You’re lying!” Moon-Moon hissed. “You’ll never take me with you! You want only Robin. You’re saying all this only so you can get her back!”

Wolf studied her. How could a ten year old be this way?
What is the fucking world coming to—children barely out of their nappies are losing their fucking innocence.
How worse could it get for the human race?

“I’m not lying,” he said, making a fresh effort, drawing upon his reserves.

“YES, YOU ARE! How do you suddenly remember me? You have never before taken me out even for a ride!” she bleated, a grating bitterness in her voice.

Wolf tried not to look at Robin, for it hurt too much. He wasn’t sure he could hold himself back anymore if he kept looking at her, so he focused on the bigger girl.

“Well,
you
tell me how do I convince you? Whatever I’ve said is the god’s honest truth. Do you want it in writing? I can do that, you know.” His hair was crackling in the sun; he could almost hear it.
I must end this soon.
He felt he was on fire. “But if you continue with your anger and do something stupid, no one can help you then. Not even God.”

He slowly rose to his feet—couldn’t take the roasting anymore. He saw Moon-Moon instantly tighten. Wolf immediately put up his hands, in an ancient gesture of submission, then took a step back.

“It’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you. But you must now decide what you want to do. Do you want to harm Robin and your friendship, or do you want to be her sister and come home with us? It’s your choice.”

The big girl was looking at him intently. There was a strange mixture of hope and suspicion in those large eyes.

What I need is an Oscar act,
Wolf told himself. One final killer effort to beat all efforts. He straightened his back. His face turned utterly earnest and kind as he looked at Moon-Moon, and warmth and fondness flooded his eyes, as if he wanted to take the little big girl in his arms and hug her and give her all the love of his heart.

It worked.

He saw Moon-Moon’s face begin to slowly disintegrate. The body started to slacken. Then she made a despairing gesture and the knife hand went limp. And she broke down and began to cry, mumbling unintelligibly.

“What did you say, my baby?” Wolf said taking a step forward.

Moon-Moon fell completely apart now. She began sobbing big sobs and the knife fell out of her hand and clinked to the floor.