Hope you enjoy
Chapter 40
A wrench in the machine
A week has pass since the incident at the Beach Front Inn. Time enough for Joe to have recovered and act on Maddie's request.
"I know we won't be interrupted." Joe sips the off-white coffee mug.
"I hope not. Hope has become," leaning back on the metal chair she pushes her palms forward on thighs covered in blue jeans. "She has become very friendly. Almost too friendly." She scratches the parquet floor with the chair's legs as the anxious young woman tries to adjust her position.
"Comfy now?" Joe asks through a smile.
"I'm sorry, it's just like I'm living with a timebomb…"
"I'm sure Ryn has laid the law down." He glances at the waitress at the counter.
"Oh yes, I am thankful for that." The young woman's voice is strained. She fumbles the silverware. As the knife and fork clang on the metal tabletop, Joe's hand reaches for her trembling fingers.
"We are far away from that now." He whispers.
Situated a few miles from Interstate 5, near the town of Mount Vernon, this off-road breakfast nook has come to welcome the frequent visitor. A lavish tipper, even for an order of coffee, Joe's friendly and polite attitude has endeared himself to the two elderly owners. And inspired a fluttering heart in their redheaded waitress and granddaughter whenever he arrives.
"How did you find this place?" Maddie puts her hand together as she leans a bit closer to him.
"Well, I got tired of having lunch with that Martinez. All she does is work, work, work." He sighs. "Every word out of her mouth is about this program."
"She's been a good friend." Maddie adds.
Joe tilts his head, "I guess she'll be an admiral someday."
"Well, I know Xander's happy. Of course you know that." She shrugs slender shoulders. "You guys know everything about everybody."
Realizing he has no intention of asking the obvious question.
"Joe, after our last little…talk." She inhales slightly. "You must wonder, why I agreed to meet you?"
"It has," his head bobs slowly. "crossed my mind."
"Joe, have you ever been in a relationship that you can't leave. You can't live without?" Her eyes appear ready to explode with tears. "A relationship that was tearing you up inside."
"Well no, but I have read articles." He continues to grin, hoping his lighthearted words bring the young woman some relief.
"You have a smart comment for everything…" She starts to stand. "Maybe someday you'll find someone that appreciates it?"
"No, Maddie. Please forgive me. I just wanted to…I don't know what I wanted to do. But yes I do. Maddie I know. I know what it's like. It's like some drug that literally enslaves you."
She looks at his expression. The usual calm and confident front has disappeared.
The redheaded waitress decides to spin on her white converse sneakers and return to the register. Her grandmother lowers a head full of white hair to hear the young teen's report on the very touching scene at the corner table.
Joe's eyes drift downward, as if the weight of his head is too heavy to bare.
He speaks in a beaten tone. "I know all too well."
"Joe, you don't have to explain. But don't you think we are better than this?"
"You mean…the realization that we can never be what they want," he closes sparkling jade-like eyes and slowly shakes a head of dark wavy hair. "Or need? I mean, we can never give them what they demand. Or what is essential for their happiness?"
Maddie sports a grin. She notices the older woman and her granddaughter trying to look too preoccupied to pay attention to the conversation.
They fail.
"Joe is it just me or are all your conversations with women that are hot for you draw an audience?"
He turns his head and lets out a soft laugh.
"And, think of me and my situation." She snorts a gust of air to show her disgust. "I have it doubled."
"Wait, you're hot for me?" He whispers.
A silence hangs over the despairing couple.
"Joe, let's forget about breakfast." Her sparse eyebrows move up and down.
"You mean," he halts his words as she continues.
"There's a little motel we passed when we came here."
The man in the V-neck black cashmere sweater remains motionless.
"Come on you big bad government agent, let's finish what we started in the car."
She rises from her seat.
Joe follows.
An empty beach within walking distance of the Inn
For those at the small beach front residence, the figure with ashey beige blond hair strolling on the sand is Angel Torello. Though, should anyone involved in this top-secret program hear her words, they would agree Tia has returned.
Looking out onto the ocean, she looks at a group of photos taken from the folder marked, Bristol Cove Project.
Her nostrils flair as salt-flavored mist travels down nasal passages igniting a fury most humans have never heard.
"Ryn, Hope, Helen, and all the Pownalls." Her screeching tirade needs a moment to recuperate. "I don't care the age. They must die." Her light brown eyes become encircled by a fiery red colored iris. "And you two whores, that dare to desire my Joe. You will die slow miserable deaths." Putting her hands to the heavens, "that bitch's Ryn's death will look merciful compared to yours."
Sneering as she begins to walk back to the Inn, "and Joe will allow me my vengeance. He will do what I say. He loves me." Her next statements appears to be aimed at herself.
"When this is all done. I will be different. I know it. When Ryn and all of them are dead." She takes a deep sigh. "I will be Angel forever. I will live with my husband and son," she giggles as if the pass few minutes had never occurred.
"Our son."
Approaching the front of the building, she waves to a couple standing on their balcony overlooking the sea.
Her expression is one of pure joy.
Notes to the reader:
If you are enjoying this work, and I check the views and visits so some of you are.
Please tell me your opinion.