The Search (17 page)

     “They told me today that I can go home tomorrow.”

     “I know. I heard. I told them I wasn’t sure whether I was going to let you go. That I might steal you away from Mark and hide you under my bed.”

     “Mark would find me. Because he loves me.”

     “No doubt. But if he finds you and tries to take you, I’ll clobber him over the head with one of my wooden legs.”

     Mark said, “Uh… you don’t have wooden legs. They’re aluminum.”

     “I know. But wooden legs sound cooler. They have kind of a
piratey
sound.”

     “Piratey? Is that even a word?”

     “It is if I say it is. And besides, have you ever gone to a baseball game where they use aluminum bats instead of wood? They make a very satisfying
ping
sound when they connect with a fast ball.”

     “Yeah. So?”

     “So, my aluminum leg will make the same satisfying ping sound when it connects with your head, if you try to steal my Hannah.”

     “Um. She’s my Hannah. I have the marriage license to prove it.”

     Hannah interjected.

     “Okay, you two. I’m flattered and all that you’re fighting over me, but I have a solution to the problem.”

     Joel didn’t miss a beat.

     “Ooh, ooh. We’ll cut you in half, just like in King Solomon’s days. I want the top half. I know that Mark will get all the fun parts, but I’ll get your pretty face.”

     “Nobody is cutting me in half, bonehead. No, when Mark and I leave tomorrow we’re going to take you back to the compound to visit for a few days. We’ll introduce you to the rest of our friends and feed you well and just let you get away from things for a few days.”

     “Will you rub my feet and feed me grapes?”

     “You no longer have feet, remember?”

     “Oh, yeah. But how will you sneak me away from Nurse Ratchet and the physical therapy demons from hell?”

     “I’ve already talked to Nurse Ratchet. She says your stumps have blisters on them and you need to take a few days off to let them turn into callouses anyway. So she says the timing is excellent. They were gonna stop sending the van to our compound when I got released, but she said she’d make sure it came back to pick you up in two or three days.

     “And she said not to worry. That your break will give the physical therapy demons from hell time to sharpen their claws and repair all of their torture equipment. And that it’ll all be waiting for you when you come back.”

     Joel pondered the offer and then asked, “If I come with you, can I sleep with you every other night?”

     “No. But you can sleep with little Markie. He’s a great snuggler, but he likes to steal the covers.”

     “Okay. You drive a hard bargain. But I’m in.”

Chapter 34

     The following afternoon Hannah, Mark and Joel arrived at the compound. Everyone had been told the Snyders were bringing a guest, so it wasn’t just Hannah’s homecoming.

     It was also a celebration in honor of the man who saved Hannah’s life.

     And they held nothing back.

     The seven children who attended elementary school classes in Miss Karen’s one room schoolhouse took a break from reading, writing and math all morning. Instead, they pulled out crayons and made huge banners, which they then hung at the compound’s entrance.

      “Welcome Home, Hannah,” said one. Another said, “Joel Hance, You Are
Our
Hero Too.”

     When the honorees were ushered into the dining room, everyone cheered. Each of them was presented a bouquet of flowers and some homemade fudge.

     The adults toasted the homecoming with bottles of wine, and the children did likewise with freshly squeezed orange juice from the citrus greenhouse. It was a rare treat for all.

     For the evening meal, the group had slaughtered a hog for a good old fashioned barbeque, with pork ribs, pork steak and corn on the cob.

     The only thing that put a damper on the festivities was the fact that Bryan and most of the other men were missing. They were still out searching desperately for Sarah.

     The final toast, made by Hannah herself, was “This one is for my best friend Sarah. May God keep you healthy and safe until we find you and bring you home for your own celebration.”

     Then Mark led the group in a prayer for Sarah’s safe passage home.

     Through the course of the next three days, everyone went out of their way to make Joel feel welcome. The children fought for his attention. The women were flattered by the compliments he heaped upon them. The few men who were left in the compound were impressed by his bravery.

     Mark and Hannah’s plan was working. They were falling in love with the guy.

     One person was particularly enamored with Joel.

     Rachel had been a child of sixteen when she and her sister Roxanne were brought into the mine some five years before.

     Their father was shot dead before their eyes when he stopped their pickup on Highway 83 to help a stranded motorist. The motorist and his partner then stole the pickup, leaving the girls stranded and alone alongside the highway, screaming in agony and trying desperately to revive their dead father.

     The man who murdered their father was Nathan Martel.

     From their vantage point inside the mine, John and Karen had seen the murder on a long range security camera.

     They hadn’t seen it coming. Even if they had, there was nothing they could have done to prevent it. It was over within seconds.

     The best they could do for the girls was to rush out to the highway and bring them into the mine. To comfort and console them.

     To make them part of the family.

     Now, five years later, Rachel was tired of being alone. She was twenty one now, and mature enough to know that if she never broke free from the compound, her chances of finding a man of her own were extremely limited.

     Almost all the other women in the compound had someone. Even her sister Roxanne.

     She was tired of waiting and hoping for a knight in shining armor to show up to take her away to a fairy tale castle far, far away.

     Enter Joel Hance, and Rachel fell head over heels.

     She wasn’t sure exactly why. She hoped it wasn’t just desperation.

     But for some reason, she and Joel seemed to hit it off famously from the very beginning.

     And the strangest thing happened.

     By the end of his second day in the compound, Joel stopped flirting with the other women.

     Hannah took it just a wee bit personally.

     “You haven’t made a pass at me in several hours. What in hell is wrong with you?”

     Joel smiled.

     “I’m sorry. Does that hurt your feelings?”

     “No! Maybe… I don’t know.”

     “If I made another pass at you now would you give into my demands?”

     “No. I’m happily married.”

     “Then why does it bother you that I’ve stopped making passes at you?”

     “I don’t know. I guess that it was fun, you constantly trying to get into my pants and me constantly getting to shoot you down in flames. I love Mark more than I’ve ever loved anyone, but we’ve been married for a very long time and he doesn’t have to pursue me anymore. He knows he has my heart, so that’s one aspect of our relationship that has slipped away from us.

     “I suppose it was fun being pursued again, even if I knew you weren’t serious.”

     “Who said I wasn’t serious?”

     “I don’t know. Maybe the other three thousand women you flirted with besides me?”

     “Touché.”

     “So seriously, why the big turnaround? Why have you stopped flirting with everyone?”

     “Do you believe in love at first sight?”

     “Yes. I fell in love with Mark the first time I saw him, laying on the sidewalk in front of Baylor University’s administration building.”

     “Huh?”

     “Long story. So who did you fall in love with?”

     “Can you keep it a secret?”

     “Sure.”

     “Rachel. She told me her story. It’s so sad. But she’s come through it so well. She’s everything I ever wanted in a woman.”

     “I thought I was.”

     “Nah. I just wanted you for a sex toy.”

     Hannah laughed.

     “Oh, so now the truth comes out. Have you told her?”

     “No.”

     “Why not?”

     “Because long distance relationships never work. I’ve got three more months of physical therapy at Wilford Hall, and I’ve already told the Army to ship me back to Atlanta when I’m done.”

     “Are those plans set in concrete? Can they be changed?”

     “Anything can be changed. But even if I stayed in San Antonio, she’d be up here. I might get to see her occasionally, but that wouldn’t do. It’s probably better to just drop the whole thing.”

     “Don’t drop anything yet. Do you think she feels the same way?”

     “No. I didn’t ask.”

     “Why the heck not?”

     “Look. I flirt with every woman I see because it’s fun. But the down side is, I get shot down a lot. An awful lot, in fact. And it doesn’t bother me. It’s part of the game. I take it in stride.”

     “But I haven’t felt this way about anyone in a very long time. And if she were to shoot me down, I don’t think I’d take it well.”

     “So you’d not even try?”

     “I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

     “And I thought you had balls.”

     “Excuse me?”

     “Out there at the crash site. I thought you weren’t afraid of anything. I considered you my superhero. My Superman. And now I find out you’re afraid of some words that she may or may not say to you?”

     “Well, I guess since you put it that way…”

     “That’s the only way I can put it. Tell her how you feel. Otherwise you’ll never know.”

     “Know what?”

     “Whether she feels the same way about you.”

     “Do you think she might? I mean, I’m a cripple.”

     “Don’t you dare use that word in my presence.”

     “Why?”

     “Because I don’t like it. And it’s not who you are. You are a brave and wonderful man who just happens to have lost your legs in a terrible accident. It doesn’t change what’s in your heart, and it doesn’t change the type of man you are. You’re a hero not only to me, but to the dozens of women whose faces you brighten each and every day. The Joel I know and love is anything but a cripple. He is one of the finest people I’ve ever met. And if you call my friend a cripple again I will beat the ever-loving crapola out of you.”

     “Have I ever told you that feisty women turn me on?”

     “Oh, shut up. Now, here’s what we’re going to do…”

     The next morning, as Joel rolled his wheelchair to the dining room to eat breakfast and say goodbye to everyone, the atmosphere was considerably more subdued.

     In the three days he was a guest in the compound, he’d bonded with everyone.

     Some more than others.

     Karen even shed a tear as she handed him a backpack filled with homemade cookies and muffins.

     “Now, I know because of the kind of person you are, you’re going to share most of these with your friends at the hospital.

     “But you be sure and eat some of them yourself. Do you understand me, young man?”

     “Yes, ma’am. I promise.”

     Several other women came forward to hug Joel and wish him well. Several of the men shook his hand or patted him on the back.

     But as Joel looked around the room, he noticed that the one person he really wanted to see before he left wasn’t in attendance.

     And it broke his heart.

     Hannah, on the security desk, called over the radio.

     “Okay Joel, your van is out front.”

     Debbie, sitting beside Hannah at the desk, asked her “Aren’t you going to go tell him goodbye?”

     “No.”

     “But why on earth not?”

     Hannah smiled slyly.

     “You’ll find out.”