HELPER12 by Jack Blaine (latest ebook reader .TXT) 📗

flashing tonight.  I cradle Jobee in my arms, even though I know he is held securely by the baby sling.  He sleeps on, breathing regularly.  I know the sleep med was necessary, and I’ve given babies similar meds during my time at the Ward, but it still makes me nervous.

“What would you have done, if I’d said I wasn’t up for this?”  I’ve been thinking about what he said to me in the courtyard.  About if I didn’t want to be with him.

He stops, and faces me.  “I’d have done just what we’re doing now.  Except at the end of our trip, I’d have left you, safe where you were, and gone somewhere else.”

“Where would you have gone?”

He tilts his head at me.  “Are you having second thoughts?”

I shake my head.  “Where would you have gone?”

He shrugs.  “It wouldn’t have mattered.”

Thomas looks up and down the street to make sure nobody is observing us.  Then he knocks on the door, twice fast, twice slow.  After a minute the door opens just a crack, then wider.

“Come on,” says Deen.

We slip inside.

Deen closes the door and leads us down the hall.  We pass the door to the room where we ate on our trip to the city.  At the end of the hall, Deen opens a different door, and stands aside to let us enter.  Inside there is what looks like a complex cube, only larger.  There’s a cot on one side of the room, and a dresser.  A table with a couple of chairs.  There’s a small bathroom off the main room.

“There’s no place to cook, but I laid in some food for you there,” says Deen, pointing to the table.  There are covered dishes there and two glasses with a carafe of light wine.  “I’ll bring you some breakfast in the morning, too.  You’ll need to have energy.”

“Deen, I don’t know how to thank you.”  Thomas puts out his hand to shake, but Deen hugs him instead.

“You were good to Gregory, Thomas.”

“He was my brother.”

“Still, many would not have been as good to him as you were.”  Deen looks at the floor.  “I just wish we had gotten them out in time.”

Thomas is silent.  Deen looks at him and seems to realize something.

“You couldn’t have known, Thomas.  None of us could have.”

Thomas nods.

“Well.”  Deen looks at me.  “Have you got all you need for the boy?”

“I think so.  Thank you so much for helping us.”

Deen shakes his head.  “It’s nothing.  Just a room for the night.  I wish I could do more for you.”  He looks weary.  “That,” he points to a dresser drawer that’s been pulled out, “is the best I could do for a crib.”

“It’s fine,” I say.  “We shouldn’t keep you.”

“I’ll lock up.  In the morning, the cook will be here earlier than me, but he doesn’t have a key to this room.  I told him I had friends in from out of town.  It should be fine.”  He goes to the door, and just that fast, we’re alone.

I sit down on the cot, faster than I mean to sit.  Thomas is at my side in a second.

“Are you okay?”

I nod.  I felt so dizzy for a minute.  I start to unstrap the baby sling.  I want to get Jobee settled.  Thomas helps me and when Jobee is free he carries him to the dresser drawer.  He checks it to see how sturdy it is, and it seems solid.  Deen has lined it with a soft blanket.  He lays Jobee in the drawer, tenderly, and covers him.  Then he goes to the table, and lifts the cover off one of the dishes there.

“Cheese,’ he says, “and some fruit.  Come have some.  Deen’s right that we’ll need our strength.”

I join him at the table.  He pours us both some light wine.  A smile flickers on his mouth.

“What?”  I smile back at him.

“Remember?”  He holds up his glass of wine.

I tilt my head at him.

“Like we’re lovers having a little fight,” he says.  “That’s what you said to me the first time we were here, drinking wine.”

I laugh.  I do remember.

We both eat some of the cheese.  I feel fatigue slipping into my limbs, and I eye the cot longingly.

“Tired?”  Thomas eats a grape.

“I am.”

He nods.  “It’s been a long day in a series of long days.  We should try to get some sleep. You can have the bathroom first.”

When I’m done in the bathroom, I find Thomas asleep in the chair, his head resting on his arms on the table.  I touch his shoulder and he jumps.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

He looks around, bleary-eyed.  “It’s okay.”  He stands up, stretches, and heads for the bathroom.  “I’ll be right out.  You go ahead and get to sleep if you can.”

I check on Jobee one last time.  He hasn’t stirred, and it looks to me like he’ll sleep all night.  I walk to the cot and fold back the blanket and slide between the sheets.  I’m so tired, but somehow I can’t relax.  I turn toward the wall and try to get comfortable.  We’re taking such a risk.  If we’re caught, it’s the labor camp or worse for Thomas and me, and if that happens, who knows what they’ll do with Jobee.

The bathroom door opens, and Thomas comes out.  He turns out the light in the room, and comes over to the cot.  I hear him take off his shoes, and then he sits on the edge of the cot, ever so carefully.  I can just picture him trying to figure out how to get in bed without waking me, so I take pity on him.

“I’m awake,” I say.

He jumps, again.

“Sorry.  I do seem to be scaring you tonight.”

He chuckles.  “You’re a scary girl.”

I feel his weight shift as he lies down with his back to mine, and suddenly I feel his body, warm all along the length of mine.  I gasp in spite of myself.

“You all right?”  Thomas sounds extremely innocent.

“I’m fine,” I say.  “Your feet are