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Company. The unwelcome Kind — Chapter 43 — Abel’s Journey

Alexis believes her life is back on track, back inside the U.S., safely cocooned in her parents’ home… but is she?

A Collaborative effort by Medium.com/@toddhammerrick and Medium.com/@evelyngaede

[embed]List: Abel's Journey | Curated by Evelyn Gaede | Medium Abel's Journey · 2 Sisters from S.D. USA visit Africa, are followed by a tall black man, soon discover that blonde hair…medium.com

Chapter 43

Abel closed the chat box on facebook with a heavy sigh. Alexis looked Happy. Her sister was back home in South Dakota, living with their parents in the same bedroom once shared with Alex, had now completely taken it over. ‘Guess I won’t be using that space again, any time soon. She might as well spread out, enjoy that space.

It had once been a constant source of contention, two sisters always fighting for more privacy, more space. It had been a long conversation...

“Did the parents jibe you about the abduction? Or that I chose to stay here?” As the words clicked across the screen of her laptop, Abel felt tears choke her throat. She didn’t want Alexis to know, that’s why she’d typed the words and not voiced them.

That extra delay of voice, from Ghana Africa to South Dakota America… texting, not voicing… meant there was time to choose her words or hide emotion, whichever explanation was needed if in future hours or days she was questioned about why she’d gone silent.

Today it was to hide emotion, but Alexis knew her sister too well for that ploy to work. She too was close to tears but didn’t mind if Abel… or anyone else knew or realized she wanted to cry.

“Abel, I’ll show you what I’ve done to the room… soon as I blow my nose. I can’t help heartbreak tears watching sweet little Ordin. He is too damn cute. What name for his brother?”

“Zandar.”

“Isn’t that a video game? Maybe that movie “Big” with Tom Hanks?”

“Yes, it is!” Alexis giggled to hear her sister say that with the same vehemence as their school days when Abel wasn’t a bit nervous of going against fad or fashion. “Don’t laugh, Alexis. I like it. So does Omar.”

“It’s not meant to be mean. It just brought back memories.” “I know. I remember laughing when you named our rabbit that. But… Wait! I have pictures!”

Abel put some of the latest, a very happy baby with a touch of Old-World Mysticism about him.

“The name fits him.” Alexis sighed through a long pause. “I fucked David today. I’m still his slave, Alexis, even over here. He had me show Pyra how to blow him. He’s tired of her teeth scraping his cock. She had whip lashes on her back, and I thought he reverted to his overseer role but then she dropped to her knees, begged him to use his barbed whip on her or have me do it for him.”

“Can I tell Omar about that?”

Alexis shrugged. “Sure. I don’t see why not. I received lashes too. One hundred-thirty-five of them.”

“Did they scar your back?” “Just superficial. He wanted to bring pleasure, not pain.”

“Do you like Pyra?” “Oh! Yeah. I do. She had a horrible boyfriend back in Norway. She begged David not to apply for a passport, doesn’t want the psycho back in Norway to know her married name, begged David to change her last name before they did wed so he couldn’t one name to the other.”

“Did he?” “Nope.”

That single syllable popped from her mouth like a gunshot. “I don’t know why. Neither does she. And Pyra wants to return to Africa. She felt safe over there. She doesn’t here. Some kid followed her through Walmart yesterday, hysterical when she got home.

“That’s when David sent for me… What David called a ‘good cheer’ or ‘brace-up-sex delivery!’ Sex for or in lieu of, a ‘brace-up’ pep-talk.”

Abel jerked back, her body’s natural reaction to sudden mystery. “Why hysterical?”

Said she recognized him. Told us about a night in Norway when that no- good boyfriend made her accompany him on visit a friend of his. The friend had company, who she swore, was HIM! That kid in Walmart.”

“Today, both of us waiting for David to join us at Dottie’s Tacoria, Pyra pulled out her phone, went on facebook, showed me a video with him…that psycho. As I watched I got that feeling…”

“That tells something weird is threatening our safety?” “That’s the one.” Alexis sighed, waited for Abel to calm Zandar’s desire for a breast.

When her sister returned, Zandar greedily sucking at her breast, Alexis confided more. “She showed the fb video, then one shot today, obviously he was following her. Same guy in both videos. Same hoodie advertising Texas A&M.

“‘Alexis!’ A panicked whisper as she pointed to her phone, then a guy in a black Texas A&M sweatshirt. ‘That kid…! He’s here!’

“And THAT! I’m telling you, Abel, Was fear. Sheer. Unadulterated FEAR.

“When David walked up behind her, joining us in that crowded dining area, she didn’t know. Hadn’t see or hear him approach. She jumped out of her skin when David tapped her shoulder but once she realized it was him, I could see the relief. her entire demeanor changed.

Instantly. Her posture, demeanor, voice, manner, humor, chatter. All of it. Instant return to normal.

“Wasn’t that kind of weird? Like… crazy weird? Making her as scary as he is?”

“No. It demonstrates how safe she feels with David, How terrified she is of her previous lover-boy-friend. I made her tell David. Right then. While I was there to give and bear witness. The cops of this town more prone to believe me since we went to school with, I swear, two-thirds of them... or rather, their sons & daughters.”

“That’s no lie. We had to be the most well-behaved class ever seen.” The sisters may have been born one year apart but their mother pushed Alexis into school one year early afraid the girls would lose the close relationship they’d always shared if Alexis wasleft behind.

“David calmed her, enough at least to slow down and list explicit details accurately. Even stuff she believed might make her a raving idiot.” Alexis paused to give Abel time to absorb what had been related thus far.

“David got real serious. Told us not to look around, not to search the guy out. David could see him, never took his eyes off. I know him so well I knew what that steal gray and squished eyebrows meant.

“When lunch was done, he waited for the guy/s attention to be divirted. Three teens prancing around in three-inch heels and short shorts, he had us sneak out of there without being observed.

He drove me home, stopped me from going in, pulled away from the curb having suddenly changed his mind. ‘Did you see something?’ Pyra tensed even as she asked that question.

‘No.’ David growled it… you’ve heard that tone. How it rumbles as he stretches that one word. ‘He took us a very long detour, making several stops… gas… the bank… a junk yard… he knew the guy. I’d bet my last dollar David was there to solicit help with Pyra’s problem.’

“Gone in 60 Seconds kind of solution?” What Alexis described had instantly put the identifying icon for that movie in Abel’s head.

He stopped by his own house, their house I should say… meant to have us wait in the car, changed his mind and had us go inside with him, but made us stay behind him as we searched each room.

I helped Pyra pack enough clothes for an extended stay at my house.” “No! He’s put Mom and Dad in danger!”

“I thought of that. But straight down the block from our house in the new Police station.” “Not the main one. Just the subdivision satilite.” “Still keeps patrol cars running a constant stream, day and night.”

“When the referendum asking taxpayers to fund that station, dad was one of the loudest, most stubbon protesters. Wonder how he’ll feel about it now?”

Both girls were silent for more than a minute before Abel reached her own conclusion. “Not good enough! You have to…”

“What am I to do? I can’t tell him no. And if David did accept that no without pulling the slave card, I’m setting Pyra up, daring that guy to kill her.” “He’s going to end up killing both of you, maybe David too.”

“David’s ex-cop. She’s his wife. You know our Police force here. Very clannish. Outsiders unwelcome until thoroughly vetted and approved by all. David’s still an outsider, not yet here long enough to have earned trust or respect. At this moment, David… Pyra… now me… too… more closely watched than any mother with her newborn!”

This last had come prompted — the sight of Abel with her second son, Zandar.

“I hope you’re right. I don’t want anything bad happening to any one of you!”

Once we were all back here and safe inside, David called Omar. Abel, I think he’s seriously considering a return to Africa. You wouldn’t know, would you, what exactly the two of them discussed?

“Nope. I don’t know if Omar even talked with him. Once he was done, Shaman came to use me…”

“That old man must use native Shaman magic… potion… to get and keep that stiff boner as often and long as he does!

A long pause ensued as Alexis considered divulging what she knew as truth. “David wants me to go with them when they return to Africa.” A deep sigh signaled relief at having confessed that.

“I’m tempted. But… I was gone so long, haven’t yet matched it. Dylan hated it here. Hated that everything was so familiar while at the same time, nothing was the same.

“Finally gave up trying to hide it. He was leaving, back to Africa. I could go with him, be with him, or stay behind, live without him because he’d never be back.

“Right now, he’s on his way… his flight left D.C. four hours ago. I don’t know if he told Omar he was coming, or even Rolf. I don’t even know for sure whether he meant the Fortress to be his final destination.”

Why didn’t he tell you? Aren’t the two of you an item?” “We were. I kept begging him to stay. He’d drop it. Always come back to it.”

Then a very softly whispered, “I can’t leave them. Mom and dad.” There was a sigh, heavy with tears. “I can’t leave them right now!”

When Abel tried to argue, Alexis talked over her.

“They’re older! Dad has respiratory symptoms. He won’t trust his health to Shaman or collect help from health insurance inside the Fortress! And mom! I have to help her in and out of the shower each morning. I can’t leave them! Our abduction aged them.”

“So bring them here. Listen to me, Alexis! Omar did a profile when they first grabbed Pyra. That man is bat-shit crazy! Without David right there to look after you…even if you are half a block from our hick town police force…we’d never know. Never find your body! And that’s saying something considering who grabbed us off that tourist bus!”

“I know. Pyra filled me in since we got back from the mall and extended ride home. I am scared. Bat-shit crazy scared! But… seriously.

“Abel. Can you visualize…OUR parents in Africa?”

Swallowing a lump, Alexis ended the face-time call, closed her laptop.

Dylan had asked her to marry him. To then return to Africa. With him.

She’d turned him down, not willing to leave her parents. Now she ached with need to have him there, in South Dakota, with her. His strength. His courage to keep her safe. He made her feel as if nothing mattered more to him than she did.

She’d allowed that sentiment to slide past, unacknowledged. A pivotal moment allowed to slide past, probably never to come again. Too late, she’d realized how easy it was to lose yourself in Africa. No one would ever find him unless he wanted to be found.

He hadn’t specifically said he was going to Ghana. Or to Omar and the Fortress.

Yet, she knew he felt deep loyalty to both men, owed them a debt that needed paid. He’d helped mediate the father-son war between father and son, confident now that both would welcome him back to the umbressa of Omar’s African Fortress, employ his services as mercenary.

That was the hope she clung to.

‘Please, Dillon, return there. Stay safe. Stay where I can reach out to you, with Rolf and Omar.’

As safe as any member of an outlaw gorilla band in Ghana Africa** **could be.

With a sigh and heavy, Alexis waited for David and Pyra to get settled in the guest room then made her way to the bathroom for long soak in a very hot bath. As she reached for the light switch, the silhouette of a man glided past the bathroom window.

‘That’s the ying and the yang of living in a house built seventy years ago. I saw you.’

Very carefully she stepped back, into the short passage between bedrooms, took the three short steps to the guest room.

“David,” The voice was low, hardly more than a whisper. “We have company. The unwelcome kind.”

[embed]List: Abel's Journey | Curated by Evelyn Gaede | Medium Abel's Journey · 2 Sisters from S.D. USA visit Africa, are followed by a tall black man, soon discover that blonde hair…medium.com