Ben sat back in his chair and cracked his knuckles, one at a time. He was thinking. “By ‘we,’ you mean you three?” He was going to make her ask.
“And you and Jim, if you want to come.” There, she thought. Nothing more than a simple offer.
He looked at her for a long moment, which made her uneasy, and she wondered if he knew that he could affect her that way.
“I’ll ask Jim when he gets up,” was all he said.
Andy merely nodded. There was nothing more to say, so she asked to see the road map.
“Yeah, it’s in the truck. I’ll grab it.”
“No, I can get it…”
But Ben was already back on his feet and walking toward the door. He reappeared a minute later with the map. Instead of handing it to her, he returned to the table and laid the map out flat. He leaned over and began to study it.
“You don’t have to do that,” she insisted as she moved toward the table. “I can look at it later.”
“I’m just curious,” he said, then gazed at her with a mixture of suspicion and amusement. “Maybe you don’t want to tell me where in Colorado you plan to go.”
“I don’t know where we’re going yet.” Her eyes moved from the map to Ben’s chest and then quickly she turned toward the kitchen counter. She noticed a blue T-shirt lying in a pile and picked it up and threw it on top of the map.
Ben looked at the shirt for a second and then looked back at Andy. He smiled and picked up the shirt. “This isn’t mine. It’s Jim’s.”
“I’m sure it fits.”
“Am I making you uncomfortable? Not wearing a shirt?”
Andy’s hand clamped around the edge of the countertop. “You look cold,” was her feeble reply.
“It’s like a hundred degrees out.”
“Well, you’re making me cold just looking at you.” She knew how stupid she sounded, so she reached for the map and snatched it off the table. “I’ll bring it back later.” She bolted out the front door without looking back.
Not ten seconds after Andy returned Morgan was hammering away with questions. “So what’d Ben say?”
“He said he would talk to Jim after he woke up.”
“Did he say if they’d be interested in going?”
“If Jim says yes, then I think they will.”
Charlie emerged from his bedroom and entered the living room where they were sitting. His hair was disheveled and his steps were uneven. “Good Lord, what are you two babbling about?” he mumbled before plopping down next to Morgan.
“Sorry,” Andy said before filling him in on the morning’s events. When she finished, he simply blinked his eyes a few times, then stood up.
“I’m starved,” he said stumbling into the kitchen. “I need to elevate my blood sugar levels before I can even think about Colorado.”
Andy began to chuckle, which provoked Morgan to laugh as well. “Your brother says the funniest things sometimes.”
“I know…so technical.”
“What are you two saying about me?” Charlie called back from the kitchen while opening a can of peaches. “I need to spend less time with girls. I’m surrounded by too much estrogen.”
When he returned to the worn sofa with his opened can of peaches, Morgan reached inside the can, plucked out a slice of peach, and put it in her mouth. After swallowing, she smiled with satisfaction.
“Get your own food!” he whined, making Andy giggle so hard that her sides hurt.
“See, this is exactly what I’m talking about!” he cried before gobbling up any remaining peaches. He threw the empty can down on the coffee table and headed to the front door. “I’m begging Ben and Jim to come with us to Colorado…for
my
sake!” The front door slammed behind him, its echo resonating throughout the house.
Andy looked over at Morgan. “Well there you go. They’ll definitely come with us now.”
Morgan looked at her with hopeful eyes.
Andy looked away toward a window next to the front door. The sunlight was intensifying. It was going to be another hot day. “I really don’t understand why Ben and Jim chose to come here.”
“Me neither. It’s hard to believe that just a few weeks ago we were in Bermuda. This place is so different from anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s like being on Mars or something.”
“What’s even stranger to me is that in the two thousand miles we drove to get here, we never once ran into another person until we met Maria and her brother and sister. Every town we passed was like a ghost town. I know we didn’t stop anywhere long enough to see much, but still...” She turned away from the window and sank back into the sofa. “Where could everyone be?”
“Well, they aren’t in this town,” Morgan replied with a weary sigh.
“Right now, at this moment, I actually miss Bermuda.”
“So do I, which scares the hell out of me.”
“You know,” Andy began slowly. “You should just tell you brother about being pregnant. You might feel better.”
“You’re what?!” Charlie had walked back in the house.
Morgan stood up with urgency. “I thought you went to talk to the guys.”
“I forgot my…wait, Morgan, you’re pregnant?”
She looked at Andy then back at Charlie. “Yeah…”
“But…but how?”
Morgan made a face. “You really need me to explain it to you?”
Charlie looked away with embarrassment. “No, of course not. I know how but…was it…” He didn’t finish. Morgan’s body had gone rigid. “Okay. Then we’ll figure it out,” he recovered and looked to Andy for help. “Right?”
She managed a smile. “Right.”
Chapter VIII
D
espite all doubts, the group of five left Santa Rosa headed to Colorado. Maria and her siblings stopped by to bid farewell, bringing with them a large box of food, both canned and fresh.
“If it doesn’t work out, we might be back,” Andy said to Maria before hopping in the truck.
Wearing a sad smile, Maria replied, “For my sake, I hope you do. For your sake, I hope you don’t. But you know where I’ll be, at least for the next year and a half.”
***
The ski towns of Echo, Arapahoe, Loveland, Keystone, and Copper were all utterly vacant, while Breckenridge and Vail weren’t interested in acquiring more residents. “Not enough food,” was the reason. And as explained by three male residents who gave Andy and Morgan uncomfortably long stares, Beaver Creek had a shortage of women in town and was only interested in new female residents.
“Thanks, but we’ll pass,” Andy told them before slamming down the gas pedal until the tires squealed.
“Whoa, don’t make me regret letting you drive!” warned Ben from the passenger’s seat.
“Can you believe those guys?” she went on.
“Yeah, it’s shocking,” he said sarcastically.
“What, you don’t think that was just a bit…misogynistic?”
“Get used to it,” he muttered under his breath.
“What?”
“Nothing. Turn left up here.”
“I know,” she snapped.
The rest of the ride was silent until they reached Aspen. Upon entering the town from the north, they were stopped by a barricade similar to the one outside Beaver Creek. This one was guarded by four male teens, each armed. It seemed as though everyone was armed these days. Two of the young men approached them.
“Morning,” said Jim, who was now behind the wheel. “We’re looking for a place to stay for a while.” It was direct and to the point. They were all too exhausted for pleasantries.
The guard on Jim’s side glanced at his very expensive-looking watch. “It’s afternoon, actually. Twelve-fifteen to be exact.”
“Alright, good afternoon then,” he muttered, unsure of what to say next. He turned to Charlie, who was sitting next to him. Equally confused, Charlie shrugged, so he looked back at the guard who had yet to say anything else. “So, uh, any chance we can go through?”
Instead of responding, the guard reached behind to his back pocket and unclipped a push-to-talk radio. He turned away from Jim and began communicating with someone, taking the conversation out of earshot.
“What the hell is going on?” Andy whispered in the back.
“Don’t know,” Ben said.
A minute later, the guard returned and clipped the radio back onto his pocket. “You can go through, but you have to leave your weapons here.”
“Sorry, not going to happen,” Ben called out, preempting any response from Jim or the others. “Our weapons stay with us.”
But the guard stood firm. “Those are the rules. Either you leave your weapons here with us, or you turn around and head back to wherever you came from.”
The tension in the air lingered until Morgan spoke. “Why don’t two or three of us stay here with the weapons and the rest go through and see what the deal is?” Her voice was weak from fatigue but her words were resolute.
“Alright, I’ll go,” Andy quickly volunteered. She was losing patience with these towns.
“I don’t like it,” Ben said with a shake of his head.
“Well, what choice do we have?” Morgan snapped back loud enough for the guards to hear. “They don’t know who we are or what our intentions are. You can hardly blame them for being careful.”
“She’s right,” Andy said. “I’ll be fine.”
Biting his lower lip, Ben turned away in defeat. Meanwhile, Jim and Charlie got out of the truck to join the discussion.
“Andy, I’ll go with you,” Charlie offered.
Morgan opened her mouth to protest the notion of her brother venturing into the unknown before realizing she was about to contradict her own argument.
“Alright. Let’s get this over with,” Andy said brusquely. “The two of us will go,” she called out to the guards and gesturing to herself and Charlie.
The guard standing nearest to the truck radioed ahead to some unseen person, telling them that a male and a female were coming their way, along with a brief description of Andy and Charlie.
“Where exactly are we going and how far is it?” she demanded of the guard.
“Walk along this road for about two miles. You’ll see more guards waiting there. They’ll show you to where to go.”
Andy and Charlie exchanged uneasy glances, and she wondered if they should take the truck and just leave the others with the weapons to save time. But then if they got into some kind of trouble, their friends would be too far away to help. No, best to leave all their resources in one place.
“If we don’t come back in two hours, come after us,” Andy muttered to Jim, who was holding her rifle. “We’ll walk quickly, so it shouldn’t take longer than that to find out what the deal is.”
“All right, we’ll stay in the truck just in case,” he replied.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Morgan said to both Andy and her brother as they began the two-mile trek.
Andy glanced over her shoulder and gave her friend the most reassuring smile she could manage.
***
Nataliya Ivanova stood watching through the enormous second floor window of her home as the two strangers approached the front gate. She had already instructed the gate to be opened, and as they passed through and headed up the long driveway, she was able to get a good look at them. The male looked to be a little younger, with the build of someone still in the midst of adolescence. The girl was older. It was difficult to tell yet if the girl was pretty, but from a distance, the possibility was there. Nataliya didn’t mind pretty girls, as long as they weren’t prettier than her.
Once the two strangers reached the front door, she headed toward the top of the large spiral staircase to greet them. She waited until they were let inside by her guards and were standing in the expansive foyer before she took her first step down the stairs. She liked how people were forced to look up at her as she made her way around the staircase, as though she were on stage and everyone else was the audience.
“Hello,” she said, her accent immediately noticeable after one word. “My name is Nataliya. Nataliya Ivanova.”
She approached the two strangers and extended her hand. They each shook it as she gave them a quick once-over. Though it pleased her that they both looked dreadfully dirty and tired, she hated to admit that the girl was indeed very pretty. She would clean up well, she thought with dismay.
“Andy.”
“Charlie.”
Nataliya tilted her head to the side and gave Andy a questioning look. “Andy? That is a boy’s, I think?”
“It’s short for Andrea,” Andy said. “Where’s your accent from.”
“Russia,” Nataliya replied curtly. “So, come in and sit down.”
She led them to the living room, which was large and beautifully furnished. Adjacent was a kitchen that even the pickiest gourmet chefs would have been hard-pressed to find fault with. Her father had bought the house when she was nine-years-old while still living in Moscow during a time when foreign entrepreneurs began taking an interest in American real estate. The multi-million dollar home was one of the largest in Aspen, and it remained occupied by Nataliya and her younger brother, Mikhail, after their parents’ death.
“This is a beautiful home,” Andy commented.