John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

There was a momentary pause in her monologue before she went on. “The second she was over the birth deal, she was back out on the town. I think she lost the extra weight in about a month. Oh, she would breeze in and out making a big show of fawning over Maxwell, saying ‘Mommy this’ and ‘Mommy that,’ but I was the mother. There were only two times that she would really hold him and spend any time with him — when her girlfriends were over and they were carrying on about how cute her baby was, and when she breast-fed. And I think the only reason she kept breast-feeding was that it made her boobs bigger for the guys.

“The rest of the time it was all me. I got up at all hours of the night, every time he cried or was sick. I loaded him in the stroller and we went for walks. I dropped out of school so I could take care of him. I don’t think she even noticed I was out of school. I took him to the doctor. I did everything.”

Tillie paused, her eyes closed as if she were trying to block out an image. As she began speaking again, her voice was so soft that the three men had to strain to hear her words. “I wanted to take a real shower. That was it. That was all it was. Just a shower. I always kept Maxwell with me. Every minute of every day. He was never out of my sight. I even took him in the bathroom with me every time I went to the toilet. One evening, as usual, my mother was out on a date, and Jason had come over to hang out with me. We were going to watch a movie and eat some popcorn while we stayed home with Maxwell. Fun date for an almost sixteen-year-old, huh? Anyway, before we started the movie, I picked up my brother and asked Jason to carry the little playpen into the bathroom. I was going to take a shower, and that was what I always did. Maxwell would be in the playpen right outside the shower stall.

“I couldn’t ever take a long shower. As soon as I closed the glass door and the little guy couldn’t see me, he would start to fuss. So I would always rush. Jason knew this and suggested that I leave Maxwell with him so that I could take my time. The thought of a long, leisurely shower, the first one I would have had in almost a year, sounded wonderful. But I wasn’t sure. I argued, but Jason promised me over and over again that he would watch Maxwell.”

Elias, sensing the direction her story was going, began to tense.

“He convinced me that it would be fine. I started to put my brother in the playpen in the living room, but Jason said he wanted to play with him, so I handed Maxwell to Jason and went to take my self-indulgent shower. My God, it felt great. There was a little voice in my head telling me that I should hurry up and get out, but it felt wonderful. I stayed in there for almost half an hour. Then I toweled off, blow-dried my hair, got dressed, and even put on a little makeup for my date with Jason.

“I came out, and Jason was sitting on the couch, talking on his cell phone to some friend of his! Maxwell wasn’t on the couch with him. He wasn’t in the playpen. I freaked. Jason dropped the phone, and we both started running around looking for Maxwell. But we couldn’t find him anywhere. I was going totally crazy. Screaming at Jason. Calling him every name in the book. He just kept apologizing and giving me some crap about how he was only on the phone for a minute before I came out. Later on, afterward…I checked his call history. He lied to me. He had been on that damn call for almost the entire time I was out of the room.

“Maxwell was quite the crawler and could have gone anywhere. We checked the whole house twice. All the outside doors were closed and locked. It was one of my habits. I locked them after Jason arrived. We looked under the beds. We called my brother’s name a hundred times. Nothing. I was totally panicked and didn’t know what to do. I went into the kitchen to call 9-1-1. As I was dialing, I looked down at the bottom of the back door and saw the doggie door. I had never given it a thought while we were looking for Maxwell. We hadn’t put it in. We never had a dog. It was there when Mom and Dad bought the house, and I had forgotten about it completely.

“I dropped the phone, screamed for Jason, and ran out back.”

Tillie’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut, her mouth twisted into a grimace. “Did I mention before that we had a swimming pool?”

“Oh, Tillie,” Wilson murmured.

Talking slowly, almost trance-like, Tillie continued, “I must have finished dialing 9-1-1 before I dropped the phone, because the police showed up within a couple of minutes. One of them had EMT training and took Maxwell away from me and tried to revive him while the paramedics were on their way. But it…it was too late.”

She fell into silence, vividly reliving the scene she had spent the last sixteen years running away from. Her shoulders began to heave, and a series of racking sobs burst from her. Elias was the first to move and sat on the sofa next to her. As soon as she felt his arm on her shoulder, she twisted toward him and threw her arms around his neck, the sobbing intensifying.

They sat holding each other for minutes, neither speaking. The crying gradually ebbed off to a gentle weeping, which diminished to a muted series of sniffles. Lifting her head from his shoulder, Tillie looked up at Elias, her eyes bright red. “Well, now you know the answer to both of your questions — why I’m here and why I don’t trust anyone else.”

Elias struggled to find something to say. He wanted to tell her that he was not Jason, that she could count on him. He wanted to promise her that he would make sure everything turned out all right. It was a combination of her very rawness and her abject vulnerability, as well as his own lack of certainty that he would be able to keep such a promise, which stopped him. All he could think of to say, he said. “Tillie, I’m so sorry.”

From across the room, as if reading Elias’ mind, Wilson again spoke soothingly. “Jason is not in this room. So much time has passed since then, Tillie; you are older now and you must learn to trust your insights. You have already had some time to get to know Elias, haven’t you? I’m not saying that any of us are the heroes from some blockbuster movie. In fact, as of this moment, I have no idea who will prevail. I don’t believe that we could hazard a guess in that regard. But, Tillie, the effort will be made, and you must trust in that. And if I am wrong, if I have so grossly misjudged the situation, then I am a bigger fool than I thought.”

Tillie swayed back, away from Elias, dragged the sleeve of her shirt across her face, and sniffed. She looked at Wilson, lingering on his face for a moment, before she glanced briefly at Stone, who had moved to the front edge of the bed, and finally returned her eyes to Elias, quietly asking him, “Promise something?”

“I will. What is it?”

“Promise me that you’ll at least try to be Bruce Willis. Just till this thing is over.”

He smiled at her and nodded. “I promise, as long as I don’t have to shave my head or sing.”

“He’s bald?”

A subdued laugh came from Elias. “You have been out of touch for a while, haven’t you?”

She smiled back. “Deal.”

They had agreed that this might be their last opportunity to get some rest before facing the ordeal ahead. The sun had gone down long ago and the florescent lights had come on, so the battery and electrical system seemed to be functioning. Since Stone had been resting in his quarters before they rescued him, he offered to stand watch as the others slept.

Tillie, exhausted from the day, as well as from her emotional outpouring, crawled into her bed and fell asleep almost immediately. Wilson, maintaining his unruffled composure, propped his feet on the coffee table and tilted his head back, commencing a sonorous symphony of snores within minutes.