Chapter 15 #2
Daniel and Cristie nodded at each other, guzzled the rest of their coffee, and stood in preparation of leaving.
“Thank you, Shaun. I think this may be where we find him,” Cristie said.
“You’re welcome. Might help if you do find him, you don’t tell him it was me that thought of where to look,” Shaun said.
He watched as Daniel and Cristie hurried out of the coffee shop.
Daniel turned around at the last minute and made eye contact with him.
“How did you know this place was there?” Daniel asked.
Shaun shrugged sheepishly. “We didn’t always have somebody like Brandt to take a chance on us.
We just did the best we could. I’ve been thankful for a place like that many times in my life.
I’m in a better place now, but I always make sure to find out where the people who are struggling are taking shelter no matter where I am.
Even if all I do is take them a little food when I can, and coats and blankets in the wintertime, I do it.
Most of the people there didn’t do anything to end up there, life just sucks sometimes. ”
Daniel nodded slowly. “Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Was a time we were more aware of the goings on in our town. I figure it’s time we made sure to be like that again, and to offer a hand, too.”
Shaun nodded.
“I’m glad you and your family found us,” Daniel said.
“Thank you, sir.”
Daniel gave him a single nod of his head, then hurried out to join Cristie.
~~~
Daniel led the way through the woods, but both he and Cristie were focused on the sounds and scents wafting to them on the air.
As they got closer, they finally got a look at the encampment.
There were a couple of tents, small ones for just one person or two.
There were ropes strung between trees with blankets hung across them that offered at least some type of shelter.
Broken and bent chairs were scattered here and there, and everywhere you looked was somebody watching them suspiciously, while others slept on the ground blissfully unaware of the fact that outsiders had found them.
A couple of people quietly disappeared into the shadows, obviously not wanting to be found for one reason or another, and others who were so high they couldn’t even focus, waved and called them over to come share in whatever it was they’d managed to get their hands on to feed their habits that day.
As they moved through the camp, they came across a couple of well maintained camp sites set away from the rest, and very little kids were hurriedly ushered into a tent while their mother, who couldn’t have been more than 20 or 21 herself stood outside it, daring them to come closer with no more than the strength in her eyes.
“Why didn’t we know this was here?” Cristie whispered. At first she thought Daniel wasn’t going to answer, and when he did, she almost wished he hadn’t.
“Blissful ignorance,” he said softly. He stopped far enough from the campsite that belonged to the mother and kids that she wouldn’t feel that he was intruding too terribly much, and offered her a smile.
“Hi, I don’t mean to bother you, but I’m looking for my son.
He’s a little taller than me, a little thinner, shorter dark hair and brown eyes. He’s most likely drinking — a lot.”
The woman eyed him suspiciously, obviously weighing her answer. Finally, she shook her head. “Haven’t seen anyone like that.”
Daniel nodded, sensing the lie she told him. “If he happens to turn up, please tell him that his father is looking for him. Tell him we love him, and we just want him home. If he doesn’t want to come, that’s fine. But we want to help him, whatever it is that he might see as help.”
The woman looked at him silently, until Daniel and Cristie started walking again.
The woman cleared her throat and Daniel looked back at her. She pointed to their right, then went into the tent with her kids.
Daniel and Cristie changed direction and walked through the woods littered with old rusted tin cans, broken bottles, and fire barrels that had been used to build fires so many times they’d rusted out and collapsed onto themselves.
Eventually they heard voices and laughter.
A few minutes later they walked up on three men leaning against an old fallen tree trunk, each holding a bottle, telling each other wild tales. One of them was Remi.
“I’m telling you, just ‘cause it looks human, don’t mean it is!” Remi said.
“Here, trade bottles with me, boy. I need some of whatever it is you’re drinking,” one old man said.
The other man laughed and offered his bottle, too. “Yeah, me, too. But on second thought, maybe not. Whatever you got in yours has you imagining all kinds of crazy shit.”
Remi laughed, and so did the two old men.
Daniel stepped back and gestured for Cristie to proceed. He went far enough back into the woods that none of them, maybe not even Remi in his condition, would notice him, but he could still be there in less than a heartbeat if Cristie needed him for backup.
Cristie circled around to the side so they’d see her approaching, rather than walking up behind them. Common sense said it was safer not to surprise somebody. Her presence alone would be surprise enough.
When she stepped into the small clearing they were in, Remi’s head swiveled unsteadily toward her. “Like her! See her? She’s a puma. You see a woman, but not me. I see a puma.” He nodded to emphasize his point. “And a heart breaker.”
“I don’t know about a puma, but that’s a mighty fine little lady. She can break my heart. I volunteer as tribute,” one of them said, which sent them all into cackling laughter, which died down only long enough for them to take another swig from their bottles.
Cristie smiled and chuckled a little with them. When their laughter finally tapered off, and their comments stopped, she focused on Remi. “Hello, Remi.”
Remi turned his head toward her to try to focus on her again. “Shouldn’t have come, Cristie,” he said, his words slurring together.
“When have I ever been one to do only what I’m supposed to do?”
“Pretty much all the time,” he said, giggling as he drank from his bottle.
“Maybe once, but you don’t know me anymore.”
“Can’t know you when you deny me and run back home,” he said.
Cristie was suddenly standing in front of him, leaning over to grab him by the shirt and press her nose to his so fast both old men got a little freaked out.
“How’d you do that?!” one of them asked.
“You a track and field kinda gal, ain’t you? I knew it when I saw you!” the other said.
“Damn that’s fast! You needa go to the Olympics!” the first said.
Cristie ignored them as she stared into Remi’s eyes.
“Let me be perfectly clear here, mate. You denied me. I told you I’d be leaving and I wouldn’t wait forever, so you needed to decide how you wanted to proceed.
You made no effort to get in touch with me at all, not even to tell me you didn’t want me.
In fact, you avoided me completely, including when I went looking for you to tell you I was leaving the next morning. It is you who denied me.”
Remi turned his head briefly to the side and brought the bottle to his lips, taking a swig while looking her in the eye. After he swallowed he grinned at her. “Fucked that up, too, didn’t I?”
She dropped him, shoving him away from her as she did, but she remained standing over him. “What are you doing here, Remi?”
“Hiding,” he said without hesitation.
Cristie looked around then back at him pointedly. “You didn’t do a very good job of that, either.”
“Obviously,” he grumbled as he rearranged himself to recline against the tree trunk.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What are you hiding from?” she asked.
Avoiding her question, he smiled up at her. “These are my new friends. They don’t care what I do, they still like me. Don’t you?” he asked.
Both men nodded. “Yep. He ain’t bad. Ain’t bad at all,” one of them said.
“See? I ain’t bad,” Remi said.
“Remi, you have people worried sick about you. There is no reason for you to be hiding here.”
“My people have turned their backs on me.”
“Your people got enough of your disrespect and disruption and gave you an ultimatum. You chose to leave. You could have cleaned up your act and stayed.”
Remi looked away from her and shook his head, as he took another drink.
“I really don’t understand how you ended up here, Remi. Not here,” she said, lifting her arms to encompass the woods they stood in. “But in this situation, estranged from everyone you love, and hating them because they dared to have mates.”
“I don’t hate them!” he shouted. “I’m pretty pissed off at them, but I don’t hate them,” he said, his voice calming.
“Why?”
“Because none of them understand.”
“They do, believe it or not. But you withdrew so far into yourself you didn’t give anybody time to try to be there for you. You went straight to all out blinding drunkenness, and dare I say, a whole crew of women.”
“Women are nice,” one of the old men said.
“Yeah, very nice sometimes,” the other agreed.
“I’m not mated, I can have women,” Remi said sullenly.
“That’s on you, dude,” she said.
“And you,” he said.
“What did I do?!” she asked.
“You made me lose Bailey.”
“I hate to break it to you, but that, too, was all you. And even if it hadn’t been you, eventually, you'd have lost her.”
“That’s ridiculous! We were happy!”
“Yeah, you were. But do you know who her true mate is? I mean, born and destined for?” Cristie asked.
Remi focused on her as best he could, his expression one of serious doubt. “She doesn’t have…” he stopped as his brain began slowly clicking into motion again. “No. Don’t tell me it’s Shaun.”
Cristie nodded. “It’s Shaun. And they are so deliriously happy.”
“Bullshit, otherwise he’d have challenged me for her way before you got here.”