Kyle Pratt - Through Many Fires

As Caden entered the office he saw two men. A silver-haired general sat behind the desk. Ribbons on his uniform told of battles fought and won. A lieutenant, a few years younger than Caden, stood to the side of the desk. On his chest were a mere two ribbons. Caden looked squarely at the General. “Thank you for seeing me, sir.”

The General nodded and gestured for Caden to sit. Looking at a file he said, “I hadn’t planned on seeing you, Mr. Westmore. Frankly, I have more important things to do.”

He bounced Adam on his knee. “Well, I appreciate you taking the time.”

“You’re here because we have a mutual friend.”

“Oh?”

“Governor Monroe called me yesterday afternoon.”

Caden was pleased his message had gotten through.

“The governor and I have known each other for some time. We talked for nearly an hour about the terrorist attacks, establishing refugee camps, emergency food distribution, coordination with FEMA and,” he paused, “your wife.”

A momentary urge to tell the General they weren’t married was quickly suppressed.

The General picked up his coffee cup. “This morning I was still drinking my first cup when his chief-of-staff called me.” He took a sip. “The only thing he wanted to discuss was getting your wife released.”

Caden stifled a smile.

The General leaned back in his chair. “That’s when I decided to get this sorted out early.” He opened a file on his desk then gestured toward the lieutenant. “CID can’t find a marriage certificate. Now, that doesn’t surprise me considering all the cities that have been attacked, but something does confuse me.” He looked Caden square in the eye. “The Lieutenant here tells me that just days ago you were working for Senator Stevens in Washington DC and that at about the same time the young lady we have in custody was a student at the University of North Florida.”

Caden’s heart pounded.

The general looked carefully at Adam and then at Caden. “And is this your child?” He leaned back in his chair, but his eyes remained fixed.

Blood pulsed in Caden’s ears.

“Care to put all those pieces together for me, son?”

How many times had his mother told him, “If you tell a lie you have to tell more lies to cover it up?” He had forgotten her words for a time and now he was faced with a decision, either tell a whopper of a lie or come clean and face the consequences. Caden was not worried about his own situation. What could the General do? Tell the Lieutenant to cuff him and throw him in the stockade for lying about being married? The military had more important things to do right now. Maria was the one in jail, the one without proper documents. She might be labeled a security risk. Her freedom might well depend on what he did in the next few seconds.

The General stared with an emotionless gaze.

God help Maria. Caden took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He looked at the baby on his knee. “Adam’s mother was a refugee. She was walking along an Alabama highway with thousands of others when she was hit by a car. We tried to save her, but she died. I found the baby near her body and have been taking care of him since.”

No emotion crossed the General’s face. “Go on.”

“The first time I saw Maria was when she saved my life—and Adam’s.” He went on to explain about the robbers and that he later found out they had killed Maria’s parents.

The general’s eyes narrowed. “She tracked down and shot one of the killers who murdered her parents?”

Caden nodded.

A hint of a smile flashed across his face. “Go on.”

“Maria…well, she developed a bond with Adam that night. She’s as protective and attached as any mother. I think for the first few days she stayed with me because I had Adam. By the time I met up with Governor Monroe’s staff everyone thought we were a family. It’s my fault everybody assumed we were married. I should have said something, but….” Caden leaned back in the chair and sighed.

The General nodded. “My parents taught me that there are two kinds of lies, those of commission, where someone voices a lie, and of omission, where someone remains silent and allows others to believe something that is not true. You have managed to do both and in the process attempted to deceive me and my friend, Governor Monroe.”

Caden felt like a child caught and scolded by a teacher. He wondered if, telling the truth, he had done the right thing for Maria.

General Collins looked through the pages of the file then at the Lieutenant. “Is that essentially the story she told you?”

“Yes sir, except she said it was her fault she had no identification and that people believed they were married.”

The smile returned to the general’s face, but this time it remained. “That’s some woman you found. I wouldn’t cross her.” He stared at Caden for a moment. “You owe Governor Monroe an explanation.”

“Yes, sir.”

The general closed the folder. “Frankly your petty deception is a waste of my time. I don’t care whether you are married or single or shacked up or whatever. I just need to know whether the people on my base are a threat to security or not—and I think she is not.” He turned to the Lieutenant. “Release her and get them both off my base.”

A cold, gray sky greeted Caden as he followed two military policemen to a jeep outside the building. He sat in the back with Adam as the soldiers drove to the barracks. Drizzle dotted the windshield. He stepped from the vehicle and shivered. Adam whimpered. In his room he pulled out a jacket for himself and wrapped the still whining infant in several blankets.

Caden dropped the duffle bags into the jeep and in moments was whisked out to a main road, past the Post Exchange and then by a closed gas station.

“Why is the gas station closed?”

“There hasn’t been a delivery since the day before Seattle was hit,” The driver said.

“Within minutes of that attack the line at the station stretched for over a mile,” the other MP continued. “By the end of the day there wasn’t any gas left.”

As they approached the main gate, Caden remembered that he had been required to leave his pistol behind when Maria was arrested. He asked the driver to stop. “I need to get something from the MPs.”

Grabbing his duffle bags from the back of the jeep Caden asked, “Will my…ah, Maria be brought here?”

The driver shrugged, “Maria? I was just told to get you to the main gate.”

He nodded in understanding.

“Good luck,” the driver said and drove off.

Caden soon stood in a long line in the lobby of the building. That gave him too much time to think. He was sure that General Collins would talk to Governor Monroe in the next few days. I really want to talk to the Governor first and explain, try to explain, what’s going on between Maria and me. What is going on between us? There was no denying that his feelings for her were growing. He wasn’t sure he wanted her to be his wife, but he didn’t mind people thinking she was. He needed to slow down, think things through. How do you take things easy and slow when the world is falling apart around you? As he thought about it he decided that the best way to explain their relationship to the governor was the way he did with the general. Tell the truth? Maybe it is just that simple.

Mom and Dad always said the truth was simple. Mom and Dad! He pulled out his phone and punched in the number. All he received in return was a rapid busy signal. He tried several more times without success.

“The best time to try is late at night,” a women behind him in line said. “The phone lines are usually busy during the day.”