Surviving the Fog (39 page)

He borrowed a clear plastic bag from the
kitchen.  “Bring back the bag and the twist,” he was told.
 He went looking for flowers, and he gathered an assortment of
red monkey flowers, yellow marigolds, blue gentians, and pink
violets.  He cut off the ends of the stems near the bottom,
and then he stuck the stems in the bag along with a small amount of
water and used a plastic twist to hold in the water.  He
gently wrapped the bouquet in one of his clean t-shirts and put it
in his bag.  He was ready.  After their next run, as Yuie
was about to return to the Lodge, Lincoln asked her to wait for a
second.  He pulled out the bouquet and gave it to her.
 She stared at the flowers.

"These are for me?" she asked.

"Uh, yes," he replied.

"Oh.  Thank you, Linc.  I'm sorry.
 I meant to say, ‘Lincoln’," Yuie said hastily.

"You're welcome," said Lincoln.  "Yuie,
you can call me Linc, but just when we’re alone together,
okay?"

"Oh.  Alright, Linc," Yuie said.

For some reason, she liked having the
permission he had given her to call him something that no one else
could.  Yuie left him and went straight to Desi, who was in
her room lying on her bed.  Yuie showed her friend the flowers
Lincoln had given.

"They're nice.  Where did you pick
them?" Desi asked.

"I didn’t pick them.  Lincoln gave them
to me," Yuie said.

"Really?" Desi sat up. "He gave you flowers?"
 Her voice was suddenly excited.

"Yes.  What do you think it means?" Yuie
asked.

"Dummy, it means he likes you," Desi
exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

"Are you sure?" Yuie asked, giving her friend
a look filled with doubt.

"Yes!  Did you praise him?  Did you
touch him?" Desi asked.

"What?”

"Did you tell him that the flowers were
beautiful, and that he has good taste?  Did you touch him?
 Did you, like, put your hand on his arm or something?
 Like I told you," Desi reminded Yuie.

"Oh.  I forgot.  He might not like
to be touched.”

"You'll never know unless you try, Yuie,"
Desi said.

Lincoln and Desi made their usual run the
next day, but afterwards Yuie did not walk away as she usually did.
 She lingered until she had gathered her courage.

"Linc," she asked.  "Can I touch
you?"

Lincoln’s look was a puzzled inquiry.
 "Uh, sure.  Right now?"

"Yes, if it's alright with you.”

"Okay."

Yuie raised her hand, and she placed it on
Lincoln's bare chest.  She rubbed him.

"So hard," she murmured.

Lincoln was trying desperately not to get
hard.  He was learning something.  Sometimes a girl’s
touch can be torture, and sometimes torture can be sweet.  He
broke out in a sweat that had nothing to do with his run.
 Yuie stepped back.

"Thank you," she said.

She turned and ran away.  Lincoln
stopped holding his breath and expelled, wondering what had just
happened.  Yuie went to Desi, and she told her friend what had
happened.  Desi was puzzled by her account.

"You asked Lincoln if you could touch him?"
Desi asked, trying to understand.  Yuie nodded.

“And then you touched his chest.”

Yuie nodded again.

"How did he like it?"

Yuie frowned.  "I don't know.  I
wasn't watching,” she confessed."  Desi sighed.

"Well, did you like it?" Desi asked.

"Yes, I liked it.”

"How much?  Did you really like it?"

"Yes, I really liked it,” Yuie said.

Desi’s eyes narrowed in frustration.
 "Did you really, really like it?" she demanded through her
gritted teeth.

"I loved it," Yuie admitted.

"Yes!" Desi exclaimed, making her fist
pump.

Lincoln had really, really
liked Yuie touching him.  
I should
give her another gift.  
He thought of
the various things that he had heard girls liked.  Then it
came to him.  Lincoln Kennedy had a dark secret.  It was
a secret that no one at the Army post knew about; not even Major
Collins.  It was a secret that no one here in Petersburg knew
about; not even the Chief.  He could share his dark secret
with Yuie.

Yuie was surprised when Lincoln approached
her after dinner.  They usually avoided each other, except
when they ran.

"Meet me behind the dining hall during
Meeting," Lincoln whispered.

Yuie was surprised.
 
What’s this all about?
 She thought about ignoring his command, but
she was much too curious.  When Meeting started, she slipped
away.  He was standing apart from the dining hall, near the
trees.  When he saw her, he gestured to her, so she approached
him, cautiously.  He looked around to make sure no one else
was watching.

"Yuie," he whispered.  "Will you trust
me for one minute?  One minute.  That's all I ask.
 I promise you won't regret it."

Yuie stared at him.
 
No Yuie
, her
mind screamed.  
Don't trust
him.

"Alright," she heard herself say.

"Close your eyes," he said, and after
hesitating another second, she did so, but she was even more
nervous, now.

"Open your mouth.”

Trust him
.  She opened her mouth, and then felt the intimacy of
his fingers as he placed something in her mouth.  She closed
her mouth.  It was too dark to see her expression, but Lincoln
could feel her amazement.

"Don't chew," he warned her. "Suck on
it."

Yuie sucked until she couldn't stand it any
longer, and then she bit down.  It was heaven.  It was
absolute heaven.  Too soon, it was over.

"Lincoln," she said, breathing out the word
softly, amazed that he would give this to her.

"Don't tell anybody about this, Yuie,"
Lincoln warned her.  "It’s our secret."

"All right," she said, and then she went
straight to Desi.

Desi knew immediately that something was up.
 "What?"

Yuie shook her head.  "I can't tell
you.”

"Is it about Lincoln?"

"Yes.”

"Did you have sex with him?”

"No!" Yuie exclaimed.

"Hmmm... did he give you something?"

"Yes."

Desi frowned.  "Hmmm... he already gave
you flowers.  What else?  Maybe something to eat.
 But where would he get it?  Oh, your head is
bleeding.”

"It is?  Where?"  Yuie put her hand
on her head, feeling for the wetness of blood.

"Here, let me look at it," Desi said.

She leaned close to Yuie's head, and then she
sniffed Yuie's breath.  Shocked, she sat back on her bed, her
eyes wide.

"Chocolate," she whispered.  "You ate
chocolate.  Lincoln Kennedy gave you chocolate.  I hate
you."

"And it was good," Yuie said smugly. "It was
really, really good."

The next day, Gabby said to Tyler, "Did you
hear?  Lieutenant Kennedy gave Yuie a piece of chocolate."
 Soon the whole village was abuzz.

"I'm so sorry, Linc," Yuie wailed. "She
tricked me.  She got close, and she smelled my breath.”

The Lieutenant clapped his hand to his
forehead.  "Damn.  I should have warned you.  You
have to drink some water afterwards to get it off your breath."

He gave her another piece.  She hoarded
her chocolate.  She kept it close.  Someone searched her
bag.  Finally, one day, she decided to eat her precious piece.
 She went to Chief’s Headquarters.

"Hi, Chief."

"Hi, Yuie."

"Uh, Chief, I'm tired and the Lodge is noisy.
 Can I take a nap in your loft?"

"You want to take a nap in my loft?"

"Uh huh.”

“Where you’ll be all alone?”

“Uh, huh.”

Mike scowled.  "Just eat your damn
chocolate, Yuie," he barked enviously.

Chapter Fifteen The Lodge and the Retreat

The election for Mayor was just a few days
away.  It was July, and the grain was tall in the meadow.
 Their valley had received rain and a light snow at the right
times.  The flow of water in the river had decreased, but not
enough to prevent the showers from flowing.

Hector and Kathy made a trip to Davis Brown
Farm and came back to report that the new barn was finished.
 He and Ralph were designing a remodel of the solar barn which
was being converted into studio apartments.  They were trying
to decide how many people the new apartment building could
hold.

"Digging the outhouses will be the hardest
chore," Hector said.

“No, cleaning them will be the hardest
chore,” muttered a girl who had broken one of the rules.

Two days before the election, in the late
afternoon, a guard came running down from the guard post at the top
of the hill.

"Someone's coming," she gasped.

Minutes later, four bicyclists rode over the
rise, and a stir went up in the village.  The bicyclists
coasted down the hill to the parking lot, where they were met by a
small crowd that included Lieutenant Kennedy.  By the time
Mike arrived, the Lieutenant was conversing with the new arrivals.
 Kennedy introduced Mike to one of the bicyclists.

"Hello, Sir," the cyclist said as he extended
his hand.  "I'm Corporal Cody Carson, Ranger, United States
Army.  Major Collins extends his greetings.  We're here
to form a regular Army guard unit.  I know you and your Spears
have done a great job, Sir.  We are not here to replace them,
just to supplement them."

Corporal Cody introduced the other two
members of his squad, and then the fourth cyclist came forward.
 He was wearing a black suit, a white shirt, and a black
tie.

"Hi," the man said.  "I'm Don.”

“Mormon?” Mike asked.

“Methodist, actually.  Good guess,
though.  I am a minister.  I hope you won't mind my
visiting.  I've heard so much about Petersburg that my
curiosity was killing me, so I begged Major Collins to let me go
with Corporal Cody.  The Major told me to tell you that if you
don't want me here, then you should send me right back."

"It’s cool for you to come here, Don," Mike
said.

"Where did you get the bikes, Corporal?"
Kennedy asked.

"We found them in one of the trucks on Evil
Hill," Cody replied.  "After you and the Major left, Sergeant
Jenkins sent a detail to scrounge everything we could find.  I
led the detail.  We found these four mountain bikes
unassembled in one of the campers.  We put them together and
presto!  You can tell they have a lot of miles on them, but
they’re still in great shape."

"I bet Major Collins was happy to see these,"
Kennedy said.

"Yes and no," Cody replied. "He was happy to
see them, but he was pissed that we hadn't found them before you
and he left.  We used them to establish an outpost at the
junction to Evil Hill road.  Major Collins said to tell you
that he wants two of them back."

"How long did it take you to cycle from your
post to the Brown Farm?" Mike asked.

"Seven days," Cody answered. "This morning,
we stopped at the Brown Farm for breakfast and then came on. We
were only going to stop for a quick ten, but Mrs. Brown can be very
persuasive.  Then we left and came here."

Mike and Kennedy exchanged glances.
 "Seven days," Mike murmured.

"Seven days?" Eric exclaimed.  "Chief,
we have to make some bikes."

"Yes," Mike agreed. "See what you can do,
Eric.  How were the tires, Corporal?"

"They're solid foam.  No tubes, no
flats.  They did fine."

Mike saw John talking to Don; both of their
faces very serious.  It dawned on him why.

"Eric, find Lily," he said.  "Tell her
to get a shingle from Hector and start working on a marriage
license for John and Desi."

"Huh?"

"Go.”

After talking to John, and after seeing
Desi's condition, Don agreed to perform a wedding.  A little
stiffly, Don explained that he usually required the couple to
undergo some counseling before he would agree to perform a wedding,
but in this case it was obviously too late.  Lily hastily
designed and drew an elegant marriage license on the best of
Hector's shingles.  The marriage took place the following
afternoon, and it was held on the grassy area below the Lodge.
 Almost every inhabitant of Petersburg attended.  Yuie
was the maid of honor, and Eric, not Mike, was the best man,
because at Desi’s insistence, Mike gave her away.

“You sure can hold a grudge, Desi,” Mike
groused, but Desi just laughed.

Afterwards, Mike and Howard insisted that the
couple take over Chief’s Headquarters for a few days.  When
John pointed out that it was a little late for a honeymoon, Howard
smacked him on the head.

Corporal Carson had a present for Mike from
Major Collins.  As soon as Mike took the soft present, which
was wrapped in an expensive linen bag, Mike knew what it contained,
but he peeked inside to be sure.  The day came for the
election.  The vote was held at Meeting, and the votes were
counted immediately after.  Howard received thirty votes.
 Eric received sixteen votes.  Mike declared that Howard
was the winner, and that at midnight, Howard would be the new Mayor
of Petersburg.

As midnight approached, Mike asked the
excited audience for silence.  When it was completely quiet,
he and Howard opened the package that Major Collins had sent to
him.  Carefully, they unfolded the cloth.  Using push
pins, they tacked it to the wallboard behind the podium as the
silent crowd watched.  When they were finished, Mike and
Howard stepped away from the wall but faced it.  Mike cleared
his throat, and then he placed his right hand over his heart.
 The soldiers surged to their feet, salutes in place, and most
all of the residents of Petersburg rose also.  Kathy removed
Hectors hat from her head and held it over her heart.  Mike
began to speak.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag..."

Most of the assembly joined in, many
remembering those they had lost.  At midnight Mike embraced
Howard.  Mike was no longer the Chief.