20 Years

Author’s Note:

Heads up: THIS IS GOING TO BE BAD.

The writing slump has been real bad and I need to finish something.

I am starting this prompt at 8:01pm Friday night, with only loose unfiltered notes as a guideline.

I have successfully responded to every email waiting in my inbox, and even preemptively sent a few. Normally, a Herculean task. The avoidance to start the writing is strong.

So I ask for grace, for understanding, and positive feedback only. Pump a girl up, because this fills my soul in a way I cannot explain. Yet I avoid it in a way I can’t explain.

*20 Years*

September 25, 2018-Central Africa- Dusk

The smoke was everywhere, burning everywhere. Hayden’s nostrils, his eyelids, his whole body on fire. Not literally, but it sure as hell felt like it. The ringing in his ears was short circuiting every nerve in his body as well. It did drown out the screams of the dying though, which was nice.

The first blast had come about…well he guessed 5 minutes ago. Sitting with his back against the wall, contemplating his circumstances, trying to figure out what was coming next when a something metal bounced on the ground in the middle of their kidnappers.

The world froze and then it exploded.

A bright light lit up the room, as smoke filled the room. Two more explosions followed. He couldn’t see them, but he could feel them through the floor.

He pushed Ann back into the corner, grabbed Jeremy’s arm to create a protective cover over the woman, digging his back into her knees.

The silhouettes of their kidnappers, some rebel group’s minions angling for ransom, running through the smoky room.

One by one they began to fall, though from what he couldn’t tell. Were they fighting among themselves?

After a few moments, a single survivor stood in the middle of the room, the one with the nasty eye scar, though Hayden couldn’t be sure with the smoke. Suddenly he turned toward the hostages taking refuge in the corner. The coward had found something to hide behind.

As the man rushed toward them, Hayden saw the bugged out, wild, desperate look in his eyes. Hayden pushed away from the wall, he couldn’t let the man use Anna as a shield.

The man lifted his gun towards Hayden. Heather, I love you.

A booted foot arose from the smoke and kicked the man to the ground. Christian almost fell over trying to stop himself from barreling into the solider.

Black pants, beige t shirt, covered in gear, including a face wrap and goggles.

She glanced his way quickly, gun rising from her side before her head had turned his way. Finding no threat, she turned back toward the man groaning in pain on the ground.

He began to scramble as she approached, rising his gun.

She kicked it out of his hand and slammed a punch into his rising face, and faster than Hayden had ever seen anyone move had him in a chokehold. Her left hand across his throat, holding her right hand. She pulled tight.

Hayden couldn’t remove his eyes from the scene before him. He couldn’t move. Part of him screamed, he was a doctor and a life was perishing in front of him. Half of his cells screamed to step in as the man’s face turned red and his lips began to swell. Another part of him still felt the sting of a beating in his ribs.

In a desperate attempt to survive, the man reached for the solider’s face. Pulling down her face mask, most of her face still obscured by goggles and his head.

The women moved her right hand to back of his head and twisted. The ringing in his ears had finally dimmed enough for him to hear the snap. Lucky him. Another sound to haunt his attempt at sleep.

The body slumped to the ground as she rose, smoke still dancing around her.

Raising her goggles, she wiped sweat from her brow as she turned toward the front door, back towards him. “All Clear. Attendance.”

Her voice was firm and commanding. Something about it had him standing a little bit taller.

Voices filtered through the smoke. A “2!” from the right, a “3!” from the left. A pause. A “5” from outside the window beside him.

She whipped her head toward the back patio door, “Skittles?”

Nothing.

“Skittles?” A little louder, a little panicked as she moved toward door.

“Yeah, Yeah, 4. Sorry, little fucker tried to bite me.”

The solider relaxed her rising shoulders, “Pssh, you know you would have liked it. Alright, Milky Way and Skittles secure the permitter. Nerd, scan the house for hardware. Gobstopper, grab the hostages and take….count.”

While giving directions for the hostages, the woman had turned towards the doctors huddled in the corner, and Hayden finally got a good look at the woman who had saved his life.

This time the explosion was in his chest.

Charlotte Pike.

The first time he had seen Charlotte Pike was 20 years ago when he was 9 years old.

Standing on his front porch backlit by the sun in a purple dress with gold glitter swirls offset with black army boots.

8 years old, distracted his raging father with a sweet smile, an outstretched hand and the inability to hear the word no.

20 years ago she had saved his life. Sprinkled some sunshine in his dreary world.

Today she did it again. This time she snapped a man’s neck in army fatigues.

What a difference 20 years can make it in a person while keeping them exactly the same.

July 18, 1998-North Carolina-6:30 PM

First week in the new house.

Three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a small backyard.

Really close neighbors.

Sounds travel far in sleepy rural suburbs.

Hayden was an expert in his parents’ arguments, a tale as old as time, a recipe written on a crumpled index card in faded ink.

Step 1: Father arrives home from work and a certain chore isn’t done.

Step 2: Mom adds apology.

Step 3: Mom doesn’t add the right amount of apology (there is never a right amount.)

Step 4: Dad starts to yell…quantity and quality varies based on weather, hunger, the

moon.

Step 5: Mom pours wine. 1-2 bottles depending on the weather, hunger, the moon, the need for silence.

Charlotte arrived at his door 9 minutes after the first class of wine had been poured.

“A man works all day, providing for this family and now he has to answer the damn door like a maid…”

Hayden heard the mumbling as he sat in his room, his always slightly cracked door letting in the sound. Basic alarm system.

A booming “Hayden!,” made his heart pound.

What was going on? He had taken out the trash and made sure to tie the bag in such a way that it wouldn’t fall open. Did he slam the trash cans and one of neighbors got angry? He swore he put it down softly. He had learned that lesson in Nevada.

Peaking his head out his door, he found his father standing at the open front door. A small silhouette surrounded by the setting evening sun.

“C’mon boy, we don’t have all night. Always moving so slow.”

As Hayden trudged to the door he discovered a small girl with pigtails, a purple dress with gold glitter swirls and black army combat boots waiting on the porch. She also wore the worlds biggest smile he had ever seen.

“Hi!” She waved, “Wanna go play outside?

“Do you know this girl?”

“I…”

“We met yesterday when Hayden was taking out the trash cans. I promised to take him to the park down the street.”

He had never seen this girl before.

She turned the smile on his father.

“Oh please, can he play? We still have lots of sunlight left, and I promise to have him back before dinner. And we won’t even get dirty and..”

The girl had reached out to take Hayden’s hand and began to pull him through the door. Never breaking eye contact with his father.

“Fine, Fine. Be back before dinner. If it’s ever ready.”

The slam of the door cause Hayden to jump a little. The girl continued dragging him all the way down the driveway and into the street. Her hand gripped tightly in his, not letting him go.

“Lets go find rocks. I am trying to find flat ones to paint. It’s tricky because they have to be perfectly flat on one side. The other side I don’t care too much about but I don’t love it when they are too bumpy or crazy shaped. I like to paint them and then hide them back in the park for people to find. My favorite one I’ve painted a little flower with a bee. The rock was shaped just like a daisy. I try to paint things that kinda resemble the shape of the rock. My dad got me special paints and a clear coat that covers the rock so it doesn’t wash away in the rain. Do you like to paint?”

She turned her dark brown eyes on him, raising an eyebrow at his lack of rapid immediate response to his question, as though she had been waiting for an hour. He had been a little lost in the sound of her speech. Her voice like twinkling wind chimes.

“I can’t paint..but I like to play the piano,” he finally rasped out.

“Well that’s nice,” she whispered back, continuing her march down the street.

“I’m not sure how that translates with rock painting, but we can figure it out together. Maybe we can create a rock with piano keys. That means you are gonna need a wide rec—“

“Who are you?”

She stopped and assaulted him the full force of her smile.

“Oh, sorry. I forgot we hadn’t actually met. My Aunt let me know a kid named Hayden had moved next door. She met your mom yesterday when she was checking the mail. She was checking for a package from my Dad who is stationed in Germany. He sends the best chocolate. He should be bac—”

“Who are you?”

The girl laughed and released his hand, only to hold out it in front of him. Her eyes sparkled with her dress.

“Charlotte Pike.”

He shook her outstretched hand, “And why did you…”

“C’mon, the sun is gonna set soon.” she groaned, releasing his hand only to grab his other and and continue dragging him down the street.

“Why did-”

“Rock hunting…okay and well I could hear your Dad yelling last night and it seemed like he was going to do it again. Honestly, no offense he seems like kind of dick. But I saw you take the trash cans out last night through the window and you really made sure not to run over my flowers. And I thought, he probably isn’t a dick like his Dad. I helped my Aunt plant those flowers. Don’t tell my Aunt I said dick, she hates it when I curse. Dad gives me one curse word a day. Auntie doesn’t like it when I do it. She is the best, you will meet her tomorrow at dinner.”

Charlotte chattered all the way to the park, and down the little path to the creek. She had decided that they would try to find a piano shaped rock for him, and a circle rock for her. She was in the mood to paint the sun.

He spent most of the next 3 years hunting for rocks, planting flowers, teaching her piano, and eating dinners at her house. When her father was stationed in Texas, she moved with him, but she wrote once a week.

He wrote back. A letter a week until he was 15.

After that their friendship got lost in endless address and phone number changes.

September 26, 2018-Central Africa-Late Evening

“Oh, really, that’s how you wanna play this?”

The glare emanating from Charlotte could cut glass. Just melt into it a burning puddle.

Brown eyes burning with rage, that little crease in her eyebrows, arms crossed.

A flashback to his living room. She wore the same expression when he told her she had less patience than a butterfly and he wouldn’t teach her the piano.

As a doctor, he knew it wasn’t scientifically possible for her to radiate heat, especially at a temperature that he would feel through the wall to his hiding spot, but he could feel it all the same. He felt it that afternoon in his living room.

“Do we need a little reminder who is the fucking leader of this team?,” she spat.

Charlotte, or PB as the fellow soldiers called her, took a step towards the giant of the man.

“No, do you need a little reminder of what we do?” His giant back muscles, and tree trunk biceps shrugged in nonchalance. As if he wasn’t afraid of the human volcano he was quite literally poking with a stick.

“What did you just say to me?”

Charlotte took a step towards the man the others had referred to as Milky Way, inches apart now.

“Fucking say that again, I dare you.”

Another flashback. “Fucking say that again,” she had hissed when his 19 year old half brother had mocked his dream of becoming a doctor. Raylon had been visiting for the summer, taking a break from drinking at his mothers’ house to drinking at his father’s house.

She said it right before she decked him.

Raylon still carried the scare underneath his right eye. Hayden hadn’t seem him since after they left the fall of his sophomore year.

He knew Charlotte would have no problem hitting Milky Way but his chest tightened at the thought of the damage those biceps could do. For the love of God, did that man bench press cars?

Milky Way’s quiet whisper didn’t quite reach his ears, so he shifted in the cot to place his ear closer to the crack in the door while never letting Charlotte out his sight.

“Oh, alright you mother—“

Milky Way uncrossed his arms and raised his hand and Hayden’s heart froze.

And then ripped in half though as a doctor he knew it wasn’t physically possible, but what else could have caused that level of pain in his chest.

As Milky Way reached up and booped Charlotte on the nose

Booped the angry human tiger, like one would a naughty kitten caught on the counter.

Another flare of pain as Charlotte burst into laughter. A smile so bright it caused his eyes to burn worse than the flash grenade.

He would kill to have her smile like that at him again, to be the reason of her laughter. One of life’s greatest gifts. A gift he would be forever waiting for someone else to give him. Would he ever hear it again?

Charlotte leaned her head forward, resting it against Milky Way’s awaiting forehead.

“You scared me on that one, you big piece of shit. Don’t ever do that again.” Her words broke a little on the whisper.

Milky Way bummed his forehead against hers, “Pinky Promise.”

An arm squeeze, and Charlotte booped his nose right back. Little confetti pieces of his heart decorated his rib cage.

“I’m gonna walk the perimeter, check on Skittles would ya. We need him up and walking in 18 hours. No more detours.” The click of the back door was heard through the shuffling of gear and whispered directions.

Hayden leaned against the wall for another moment, just to make sure he didn’t miss the chance to hear her voice again. How long could a perimeter check even take? Milky Way found him asleep 10 mins later.

20 Hours Later

“Go, Go, Go,” Gobstopper mouthed. The helicopter made it impossible to hear her.

His knees hit the hard bottom of the cabin floor as Charlotte shoved him forward.

She gave him a quick nod and a little smile as she raised her hand and placed a rock in his outstretched hand that had been waiting to lift her inside. Inside to safety.

Then she lifted a finger and twirled it…motioning the pilot. The helicopter started to rise.

“What, wait….WAIT. CHARLOTTE!”

Who knew if anyone heard his screams over the sound of the propeller. The helicopter rose higher.

He had been trapped in that jungle for 23 days. Watching her shrinking form, moving farther and father away from him, he wanted nothing more than to go back. Less than 2 stories up, the fall wouldn’t be that bad, maybe he could land on Milky Way to soften the blow. Hands gripped his shoulders, pulling him back, away from her.

“Sir Sir sit with me plea…..”

A shot ran out.

Charlotte’s shoulder snapped back with quick jerk. She started to fall, the team scrambling as more shots ran out.

‘NOOOO!”

Hands gripped his shoulders, roughly pulling him back from the open door. The helicopter veered sharply right, causing him to fall on the floor with a solider on top of him. The pain from the drop would be worth it, he just had to get to the door.

“Charlotte!”

Hands lifting his shirt. A little pinch in his upper arm. The last thing he saw before the darkness spread through him was blue of the sky out window. The white light of the sun warming his face.

Later, in the hospital, he stared down at the rock cool against his palm.

An almost perfect gray oval sphere decorated with a small black sun.