Chapter Eleven: Glutton for Punishment
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he explosion of the bomb rocked the van as we were sitting there waiting for Vanzyl. I heard Autumn cry out in a wounded animal’s wail. Me, I felt totally numb inside. All of the wires connected to my emotions were disconnected completely. My mother was dead. I was an orphan at twenty-five. I was nobody’s little girl anymore. And poor Senator DuVall, losing his wife and daughter…dear God…
* * * * * * *
“JAMES! JAMES!” Dwight called out to his son, fearing the worst.
“I’m all right! I’m okay, Pops!” Jimmy came back to the room, no worse for wear.
“Jesus Christ! Are you all right?” Dwight looked him over.
“I’m fine, Pops. I threw the bomb into the river.”
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph! You could’ve gotten yourself killed boy! Are you crazy?” Dwight grabbed his son by the collar and shook him.
“Pops, I only did what I had to do.” Jimmy hugged his father.
“Boy, if you ever scare me like that again, I’ll kill you myself! Jesus, don’t you ever do that again!”
“Maggie, are you all right?” Senator DuVall asked his wife after pulling the hated gag from her mouth.
“He’s got our daughter, Michael! You have to stop him!” Joshua knelt down and undid their chains using his own handcuff keys. When Mrs. Ryan was finally free, she pulled her son into her arms.
“Oh, my baby boy! Oh God, Richard, thank God that you came! Are you all right?”
“Mom, I should be asking you that! Did they hurt you? Did they do anything to you?”
“I’m fine. But these men have your sister!”
“Come on, we’ve got no time to waste!”
“I know a shortcut out of here,” Jimmy said, leading them to another entrance to the warehouse…
…It had been done. How could life be so cruel? What had I done to deserve such a horrible fate?
“Where in the hell is Vanzyl?”
“Here he comes!”
“Listen, we’ve got to high tail it out of here! That bomb didn’t go off in the building!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Somebody threw it in the river!”
“It’s that damn cop! He’s found out about our little operation and now he’s after us,” Vanzyl said.
“FREEZE! OUT OF THE VAN! ALL OF YOU!”
Was it…yes it was! The voice of my Joshua! He’d found us, and now he was here to rescue us!
“What should I do?”
“Shoot him!” NO! Anything but that! I squeezed my eyes shut when I heard gunshots being fired. Someone started the van’s ignition, and we started whizzing forward.
“I SAID STOP!” More gunshots. The van lurched to the right, and then to the left. Our cages were being slammed into each other, intensifying the pain in our chained bodies. It swerved again before it came to a halting stop. I heard a horrible crashing noise, and then I smelled smoke. The back doors of the van were flung open.
“Caitlin!”
“Autumn!”
“Rena!” Together, Joshua and my brother lifted my cage out of the van and set it on the concrete.
“Hang on, Miss Ryan, I’ll get ya out in a jiffy!” Jimmy Mac? What was he doing here? I was too tired to ask. He undid the lock on my cage and then set to work unlocking my chains. Joshua came over to help.
“Easy now, easy…” He undid the strap gag on my mouth. When it was pulled free, a gusher of saliva ran down my chin and onto my chest. I felt like I was about five years old.
“Caiti…I’ve got you baby.” Joshua very gently lifted me out of the cage and into his arms. I threw my arms around his neck.
“Oh Joshua…I thought I would never see you again…oh my love…oh Papi, I love you!”
“Caitlin!”
“MOM!” My mother, disheveled and dirty, but alive, came rushing over to me. She took me from Joshua and held me and we both burst into tears.
“Oh my baby! My little girl!” She kissed me all over my face and hugged me tightly to her body.
“Mom, I thought you were dead.”
“No honey, thanks to that young man over there.”
“Jimmy Mac? How’d he…”
“Oh sweetie pie, it’s a long story. I’m just glad that you’re safe.”
“Are you all right, Mom? Did he do anything to you?”
“No, but I’d like to do something to him!” By that time, the police had arrived and they were handcuffing Vanzyl and the Dark Knight and the bozos that were stupid enough to take up with them.
“Mom, you and Caiti really should go to the hospital and get checked out by a doctor.” Joshua came up and took me from my mother’s arms.
“Sure,” she said with a smile. Rick came up behind my mother and put his jacket over her shoulders.
“Hey Ma?”
“Yes son?”
“If you want to stay single for the rest of your life, it’s fine with me!”
“Are you kidding? Dating hasn’t been this much fun in years!” They laughed all the way over to the waiting ambulance.
* * * * * * *
Three days later, we were all sitting around the parlor in DuVall Manor, along with Jimmy Mac and his parents, and Stacey Van Dyke, who’d just presented Jimmy with the chance to intern with Lots of Love Foundation for the upcoming summer and every summer thereafter until he finished college, and the senator had given him and his father a very handsome cash reward for their bravery and quick thinking. And I am also happy to say that my mother and Stacey were at last, getting to know each other quite well. She’d even invited him for Christmas dinner!
At the moment, over tea and scones, Stacey had his arm around Mom, and she was snuggling closer to him.
“Jimmy, I have to hand it to you. You are as quick on the field as you are in a perilous situation,” I said in between sips of tea. Rhonda Wells, his girlfriend and one of my squad’s co-captains, leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“He is so brave, just like those boys on Third Watch,” Rhonda said in a perky voice.
“Comes from being raised on a farm. My boy is something special,” Mr. McCarthy spoke up.
“Thanks to all of you,” Stacey spoke up, “a lot of children are going to be very happy on Christmas morning.”
“I don’t get it Stacey,” Senator DuVall said with his mouth full of scone, “how’d you get mixed up with that guy Vanzyl anyway?”
“Believe it or not, he and I used to work together a long time ago. He was a world renowed medical researcher, and then he was in a bad car accident that messed up his face. Then, he just changed. He stopped caring about what was really important and started worrying about money.”
“Yeah, that’s probably how he got into that white slavery racket,” Rena deadpanned.
“Well, he won’t be bothering anybody else for a long time,” Joshua said, putting his arm around me. “And that Dark Knight fool…I hope he meets some big guy named Bubba in prison.”
“There’s something I don’t understand,” I said. “Ricky, why did you think that you saw Autumn being carried off when she was probably downstairs in that basement with us?”
“He’s a very fine illusionist,” Stacey said.
“So it wasn’t really there?” Rick said.
“Precisely. He did it to trick you.”
“He’s also a fine scientist. I would love to know what he slipped to me so that I couldn’t use my powers on him.”
“It has a long name,” Stacey said, “but I can assure you that it’s not on the FDA’s list of approved drugs.”
“I am so glad that this whole mess is finally over,” Autumn said, buttering another scone. “I just want to be able to enjoy Christmas with the people I love.”
“Oh, that reminds me…Mr. Van Dyke, how do you think the kids in Children’s Memorial would like a little party on Christmas Eve?”
“What did you have in mind, Caitlin?” I smiled.
“Just a little something to bring a smile to those cute little faces. I know that they’ll have the toys, but I think that they might like some singing and a few games and stuff to go along with their presents.”
“Caitlin, I think that’s a wonderful idea!”
“I thought of it the night of the banquet.”
“Miss Ryan, can we help too?” Rhonda perked up. “We’ll call the other cheerleaders and get them to pitch in.”
“Rena and I can be Santa’s helpers and give the toys to the kids!” Autumn said.
“And I can be a roving minstrel to the kids who can’t get out of bed,” Eric said. “I’ll play my guitar and sing carols to them.”
“I’ll dress up like Mrs. Santa Claus,” I said.
“Sounds like you’ve got a full crew there, Caitlin. I think the children will be very pleased. You know, Thelma, you’ve got a very special girl there. She’s just like her mother.” And then, he kissed my mom, in front of all of us!
And all I could do was smile…