She is still smiling, but her upper lip twitches, and her eyes seem to bore right through me. I reposition myself from one foot to the other as I feel the weight of her assessment on my shoulders pushing me down and making me feel small.
I need to escape, and yet I have no place to go. No place to run to.
I also don’t want to stand on the pavement near the large jet any longer. I wish I could flee and go hide in a corner somewhere out of sight. I need to breathe someplace that is all my own, and yet I can’t. I release Christopher’s hand, which oddly briefly frees me from the stare of Mrs. Davenport when I do.
“You both look like prison inmates,” she says with a wrinkle of her nose as if we possess an odor.
Rather than being offended, Christopher chuckles, and for the first time, I see laugh lines around his eyes and a look of genuine… glee. It’s foreign to me, and that fact smacks me hard with what our reality was and what it is now.
“Fitting, since we both were in a prison of sorts for months.”
I don’t like Christopher referring to our life in Hallelujah Junction as a prison. I understand why he does, but it doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t feel right. And even though we are both dressed in clothing given to us by the police, I don’t like being compared to an inmate either.
She looks at Christopher, finally breaking her searing stare on me. “Is she coming with us?”
I look at Christopher for an answer as well. Am I?
Christopher swallows hard and nods. “There’s… something… that happened while I was held captive.” He looks at me and places his palm on my lower back, which gives me a sense of comfort. “The man holding me there forced me to marry Ember. She’s my wife, Mom. We’re married.”
Her fingertips flutter to her lips as her eyes widen. “Your wife? He forced you to marry? You can’t be serious.”
He nods. “There’s a lot I have to tell you about my nightmare, but right now, Ember and I really need to get on the plane, eat something, and get some rest. I also really want to get the hell out of Nevada and never step foot in this godforsaken place again. I can tell you everything once we’re in the air. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but I could sure use a stiff drink.”
I look at the jet with the door open and stairs leading up to it, beckoning us to enter. I can’t imagine how something so big and what looks so heavy can possibly get in the air and not fall out of the sky.
“Ember?” Christopher prompts as he breaks me from my thoughts. “You ready?”
Without waiting for an answer, he leads me to the plane and up the stairs. His hand stays touching some part of me the entire time, and I realize just how much I need it. I cling to it. I focus on it to try to calm the flutter in my chest and tone down the ringing in my ears. My legs feel weak as I walk up every single stair, and when we enter the jet, I try not to focus on the thin metal walls that surround me. It’s as if I’ve been swallowed up, and it suddenly seems harder to breathe.
“It’s going to be just fine,” he says softly from behind me. His lips are near my ear, and it takes all my might to keep walking forward to some seats he’s guiding me to. “I know this is all new and maybe scary, but it’s going to be fine.”
“You’ve never flown before?” Mrs. Davenport asks as she takes one of the leather seats.
“Mom, I told you. Ember was held captive just like me. She grew up in Hallelujah Junction. Richard—the man responsible for my kidnapping—held her there since she was a young child.”
I want to correct Christopher. I wasn’t captive. I wasn’t held there. Papa Rich is my father. Hallelujah Junction is my… was my home. But I remain quiet. Mrs. Davenport is glaring at me again, and I can’t help but get the feeling that the woman doesn’t care for me. By the way her eyes keep darting to Christopher’s touch on me, I can clearly see she doesn’t like him touching me one bit.
As we take our seats directly across from his mother, Christopher reaches over my lap and buckles a seat belt over me. Mrs. Davenport doesn’t like seeing this either. I miss the smile she had painted on her face before. She’s not even trying to hide her distaste now.
“So let me get this straight,” she finally says as the plane starts to move. “The man who kidnapped you—Richard—forced you to marry Ember, who he also kidnapped?”