Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama Of Those Left Behind (19 page)

“Really?”

“Absolutely.” They continued walking. “‘Course, I’m gonna need to find out who’s sending you flowers.”

“I’ve been thinking about that, and I have a suspicion.”

“Who?”

“It’s kind of embarrassing, because that might have been my fault too.”

“Your old boyfriend?”

“No! I told you when we first met, we dated when I was a freshman and he was a senior. He graduated and I never heard from him again. He’s married.”

“Then it had better not be him. Any other guys at Stanford who wish you would come back?”

“Nobody with the style to send flowers.”

“Your dad?”

“He already denied it.”

“Who does that leave?”

“Think about it,” Chloe said.

Buck squinted and thought. “Bruce!? Oh, no, you don’t think … ?”

“Who else is there?”

“How would you have encouraged him?”

“I don’t know. I like him a lot. I admire him. His honesty moves me, and he’s so passionate and sincere.”

“I know, and he has to be lonely. But it’s only been a few weeks since he lost his family. I can’t imagine it would be him.”

“I tell him I enjoy his messages,” Chloe said. “Maybe I’m being more friendly than I need to be. It’s just that I never thought of him that way, you know?”

“Could you? He’s a sharp young guy.”

“Buck! He’s older than you!”

“Not much.”

“Yeah, but you’re on the very end of the age spectrum I’d even consider.”

“Well, thank you so much! How soon before you have to have me back to the home?”

“Oh, Buck, it’s so embarrassing! I need Bruce as a friend and as a teacher!”

“You’re sure you wouldn’t consider more?”

She shook her head. “I just can’t see it. It’s not that he’s unattractive, but I can’t imagine ever thinking of him that way. You know, he asked me to work for him, full-time. I never even thought there might be an ulterior motive.”

“Now don’t jump to conclusions, Chloe.”

“I’m good at that, aren’t I?”

“You’re asking the wrong person.”

“What am I going to do, Buck? I don’t want to hurt him. I can’t tell him I don’t think of him in that way. You know this all has to just be a reaction to his loss. Like he’s on the rebound.”

“I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose a wife,” Buck said.

“And kids.”

“Yeah.”

“You told me once that you were never serious about anyone.”

“Right. Well, a couple of times I thought I was, but I had jumped the gun. One girl, a year ahead of me in grad school, dumped me because I was too slow to make a move on her.”

“No!”

“Guess I’m a little old-fashioned that way.”

“That’s encouraging.”

“I lost whatever feeling I had for her real quick.”

“I can imagine. So you weren’t the typical college guy?”

“You want the truth?”

“I don’t know. Do I?”

“Depends. Would you rather hear that I have all kinds of experience because I’m such a cool guy, or that I’m a virgin?”

“You’re going to tell me whatever I want to hear?”

“I’m going to tell you the truth. I just wouldn’t mind knowing in advance which you’d want to hear.”

“Experienced or a virgin,” Chloe repeated. “That’s a no-brainer. Definitely the latter.”

“Bingo,” Buck said softly, more from embarrassment than from braggadocio.

“Wow,” Chloe said. “That’s something to be proud of these days.”

“I have to say I’m more grateful than proud. My reasons were not as pure as they would be today. I mean, I know it would have been wrong to sleep around, but I didn’t abstain out of any sense of morality. When I had opportunities, I wasn’t interested. And I was so focused on my studies and my future, I didn’t have that many opportunities. Truth is, people always assumed I got around because I ran in pretty fast circles. But I was backward when it came to stuff like that. Kind of conservative.”

“You’re apologizing.”

“Maybe. I don’t mean to be. It’s kind of embarrassing to be my age and totally inexperienced. I’ve always been sort of ahead of my generation in other ways.”

“That’s an understatement,” Chloe said. “You think God was protecting you, even before you were aware of him?”

“I never thought of it that way, but it very well could be. I’ve never had to worry about disease and all the emotional stuff that goes with intimate relationships.”

Buck self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck.

“This is embarrassing you, isn’t it?” Chloe said.

“Yeah, a little.”

“So I suppose you’d rather not hear about my sexual experience or lack of it.”

Buck grimaced. “If you don’t mind. See, I’m only thirty and I feel like an old-timer when you even use the word … sex. So maybe you should spare me.”

“But Buck, what if something comes of our relationship? Aren’t you going to be curious?”

“Maybe I’ll ask you then.”

“But what if by then you’re already madly in love with me, and you find out something you can’t live with?”

Buck was ashamed of himself. It was one thing to admit to a woman that you’re a virgin when it seemed to put you in one of the smaller minorities in the world. But she was so straightforward, so direct. He didn’t want to talk about this, to hear about it, to know, especially if she was more “experienced” than he. And yet she had a point. She seemed more comfortable talking about their future than he did, but he was the one who had decided to pursue a relationship. Rather than respond to her question, he just shrugged.

“I’ll spare you the mystery,” Chloe said. “My boyfriends in high school, and my boyfriend my freshman year at Stanford and I were not models of, what did my mother call it, propriety? But I’m happy to say we never had sex. That’s probably the reason I never lasted with any of them.”

“Um, Chloe, that’s good news, but could we talk about something else?”

“You are an old codger, aren’t you?”

“I guess.” Buck blushed. “I can interview heads of state, but this kind of frankness is new to me.”

“C’mon, Buck, you hear this and a lot worse on talk shows every day.”

“But I don’t put you in the category of a talk-show guest.”

“Am I too blunt?”

“I’m just not used to it and not good at it.”

Chloe chuckled. “What are the odds that two unmarried people are taking a walk at midnight in America and both of them are virgins?”

“Especially after all the Christians were taken away.”

“Amazing,” she said. “But you want to talk about something else.”

“Do I!”

“Tell me why you had to go to New York.”

It was after one o’clock when Rayford stirred at the sound of the front door. It opened but did not close. He heard Chloe and Buck chatting from just inside the door. “I’ve really got to get going,” Buck said. “I’m expecting a response from New York on my article tomorrow morning, and I want to be awake enough to interact.”

After Buck left, Rayford heard Chloe close the door. Her footsteps on the stairs seemed lighter than they had earlier in the evening. He heard her tiptoe to his door and peek in. “I’m awake, hon,” he said. “Everything all right?”

“Better than all right,” she said, coming to sit on the edge of the bed. “Thanks, Dad,” she said in the darkness.

“You have a good talk?”

“Yeah. Buck is incredible.”

“He kiss you?”

“No! Dad!”

“Hold hands?”

“No! Now stop it! We just talked. You wouldn’t believe the offer he got today.”

“Offer?”

“I don’t have time to get into it tonight. You flying tomorrow?”

“No.”

“We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

“I want to tell you about an offer I got today, too,” Rayford said.

“What was it?”

“Too involved for tonight. I’m not going to take it anyway. We can talk abut it in the morning.”

“Dad, tell me one more time you didn’t send those flowers just to cheer me up. I’ll feel awful if you did and I trashed them.”

“I didn’t, Chlo’.”

“That’s good, I guess. But it wasn’t Buck, either.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive this time.”

“Uh-oh.”

“You thinking what I’m thinking, Dad?”

“I’ve been wondering about Bruce ever since I heard Buck tell you it wasn’t him.”

“What am I going to do, Dad?”

“If you’re going to work with the man, you’ll have to have a talk with him.”

“Why is it my responsibility? I didn’t start this! I didn’t encourage it—at least I didn’t mean to.”

“Well, you could ignore it. I mean, he sent them anonymously. How were you supposed to know who they were from?”

“Yeah! I don’t really know, do I?”

“Of course not.”

“I’m supposed to see him tomorrow afternoon,” she said, “to talk about this job.”

“Then talk about the job.”

“And ignore the flowers?”

“You sort of already did that, didn’t you?”

Chloe laughed. “If he’s got the guts to own up to sending them, then we can talk about what it all means.”

“Sounds good.”

“But, Dad, if Buck and I keep seeing each other, it’s going to become obvious.”

“You don’t want people to know?”

“I don’t want to shove it in Bruce’s face, knowing how he feels about me.”

“But you [_don’t _]know.”

“That’s right, isn’t it? If he doesn’t tell me, I don’t know.”

“G’night, Chloe.”

“But it’s going to be awkward working for him or with him, won’t it, Dad?”

“‘Night, Chloe.”

“I just don’t want to—”

“Chloe! It’s tomorrow already!”

“‘Night, Dad.”

Buck was awakened midmorning Tuesday by a call from Stanton Bailey. “Cameron!” he shouted. “You awake?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You don’t sound like it!”

“Wide-awake, sir.”

“Late night?”

“Yes, but I’m awake now, Mr.—”

“You always were honest to a fault there, Cam. That’s why I still don’t understand your insisting you were at that meeting when—ah, that’s behind us. You’re exiled; I’m wishing you were replacing Plank here, but hey, what’s done is done, huh?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, you’ve still got it.”

“Sir?”

“Still got the touch. How does it feel to write another award-winner?”

“Well, I’m glad you like it, Mr. Bailey, but I didn’t write it for an award.”

“We never do, do we? Ever craft one just to make it fit a category in some contest? Me neither. I’ve seen guys try it, though. Never works. They could take a lesson from you. Thorough, long but tight, all the quotes, all the angles, fair to every opinion. I thought it was real good of you not to make the alien kooks and the religious wackos look stupid. Everybody’s got a right to his own opinion, right? And these represent the heartland of America, whether they believe it was something green from Mars or Jesus on a horse.”

“Sir?”

“Or whatever imagery that is. You know what I mean. Anyway, this thing’s a masterpiece, and I appreciate your usual great job and not letting this other business get you down. You keep up the good work, stay there in Chicago for an appropriate amount of time so it still looks like I’ve got some control over my star guy, and you’ll be back in New York before you know it. When’s your lease up?”

“A year, but actually I like it here, and—”

“Very funny. Just talk to me when they start pushing you on that lease, Cameron, and we’ll get you back here. I don’t know about executive editor, because we’ve got to fill that before then and it probably wouldn’t make much sense, you going from the wilderness to the saddle. But we’ll at least get your salary back up where it belongs, and you’ll be back here doing what you do best.”

“Well, thanks.”

“Hey, take the day off! This thing’ll hit the stands a week from yesterday and you’ll be the talk of the town for a few days.”

“I just might take you up on that.”

“And listen, Cameron, stay out of that little gal’s hair there. What’s her name?”

“Verna Zee?”

“Yeah, Verna. She’ll do all right, but just leave her alone. You don’t even have to be over there unless you need to be for some reason. What’s next on your plate?”

“Steve’s trying to get me to go to Israel next week for the signing of the treaty between Israel and the U.N.”

“We’ve got a slew of people going, Cameron. I was going to put the religion editor on the cover story.”

“Jimmy Borland?”

“Problem?”

“Well, first, I don’t see it as a religious story, especially with the one-world religion meeting going on in New York at the same time, the Jews talking about rebuilding the temple, and the Catholics voting on a new pope. And this is going to sound self-serving, but do you really think Jimmy can handle a cover story?”

“Probably not. It just seemed like a good fit. He’s been over there so many times on his beat, and just about anything Israel does can be considered religious, right?”

“Not necessarily.”

“I’ve always liked that you talk to me straight, Cameron. Too many yes people around here. So you don’t think this is a religious thing just because it’s happening in the so-called Holy Land.”

“Anything Carpathia is involved in is geopolitical, even if it has some religious ramifications. A great religious angle over there, besides the temple thing, is those two preachers at the Wailing Wall.”

“Yeah, what’s with those crazies? Those two said it wasn’t going to rain in Israel for three and a half years, and so far it hasn’t! That’s a dry land as it is, but if they go that long without rain, everything’s gonna dry up and blow away. How dependent is that scientist guy’s—uh, Rosenzweig’s—formula on rain?”

“I’m not sure, sir. I know it requires less rain than if you tried to grow without it, but I think there still has to be water from somewhere to make it work.”

“I’d like to see Jimmy get an exclusive with those two,” Bailey said, “but they’re dangerous, aren’t they?”

“Sir?”

“Well, two guys tried to kill them and wound up dropping dead on the spot, and what was this thing the other day? A bunch of guys got burned up. People said those two called down fire from heaven!”

“Others were saying they breathed fire on them.”

“I heard that too!” Bailey said. “That’s some kind of halitosis problem, eh?”