3: Help Arrives

Elena has gone to visit Ryo. Stepping into the main room she encountered the cleaning crew removing the evidence of the former night's activities. As she worked her way around all the activity she saw the huge black trash bags set up on the dock to be thrown away. She identified herself as the owner's aunt and asked if anyone had seen him but the answer was no. They were just there to do their job.

Not to be deterred, Elena walked around the outside perimeter, stepping over the buckets and mops shrewed across the deck, to peek into in Ryo's window. His room has a private exit that bypassed the main room. She saw him stretched out on his bed. He was easy to perceive with the contrast of his evening clothes against the pale coverlet. She sighed, got out her own set of keys and let herself in. She then proceeded to dress him in a t-shirt and shorts before tucking him in and giving him a kiss on the forehead as if he were a small boy. "Oh, Ryo. Don't you realize how much we love you." She picked the bottle up off the floor as if it were a contaminated specimen and as she left flung it out into the bay in anger.

She couldn't force him to seek help since he was an adult.

Ryo's parents travelled a lot and so did she. He frequently stayed with a great-aunt who required assistance. He was such a reliable young man that he really didn't need someone to look after him, his ambition was to make his parents proud of him. But how could he not? He was the apple of his parents' eyes.

She remembered hearing news of the accident and hurrying to Ryo's house grateful to find him so quickly. The mysterious circumstances surrounding their deaths and at the funeral when his own family disowned him for being a child of common criminals, he knew other people thought the same thing. When Elena took him in, he stopped living with his great-aunt, who was eventually shipped to a nursing home. When he walked the halls of his high school he was no longer a model student. His grades plummetted and he eventually dropped out and took his GED, his dreams of a scholarship dashed and meaningless. At first when Elena or her husband Rick would go on assignment, he would anxiously ask when they would be back but after months of having no purpose he eventually decided to enroll in the military. He learned skills, he earned money towards his education and he learned what it meant to be a man. Unfortunately when he returned after being discharged, the less positive influences and characters he had encountered seemed to follow him home.

Later that afternoon, she found herself walking down the street towards a structure she hadn't gone to since she was a child. The Scottish clan of the Macleans had been Catholic but that had distilled through the generations; his late brother said that his religion was in nature. As she stood before the stone facade she vaguely remembered going to mass with her grandmother.

Maybe she was too worldly, as she thought back to the rituals. Is she suppose to say Hail Marys, confess her sins, light a candle? No! None of that mattered except that she was watching her nephew destroy himself. So as not the disturb the few other people near the sanctuary, Elena worked her way into a pew from the side aisle.

She was a photographer. She's taken pictures of places of worship all over the world, elaborate Cathedrals and the most humble of altars, but she never really thought of what they represented. She looked around the modest church to see the religious symbols that had determined world events and then turning her eyes towards the front with her head bowed in reverence, she began to pray. "Please, God. Save him. Give him meaning and purpose in his life. Give him something to hang onto. All I'm asking for is guidance."

There was a sense of relief with the realization that she could no longer deal with it alone. Her husband was currently working undercover on a documentary and though she knew he was safe, communication was limited. She raised her head and paused to enjoy the peace a little while longer before leaving when she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see a nun in the traditional black and white habit looking at her with sympathetic eyes. "I don't mean to disturb you but do you need someone to talk to, my child? I'm Mother Maria Lane."

"I don't know what compelled me to come here. I hadn't set foot in a church since I was a child but it's not about me, it's about my nephew." Elena considered herself a tough woman but she was trying so hard to remain under control and her shoulders started to shake. Mother Lane's experienced eyes recognized the signs of distress and encouraged her to accompany her to the back garden.

It was cloistered and private, filled with the fresh odor of lavendar and verbena. Vines were growing up the brick wall. Elena breathed in the pure scents as Mother Lane sat her down on one of the stone benches.

Elena told her about her nephew and how he reacted since his parents died. The self-destructive path he had set himself upon. The enormous guilt he carried within himself and the rejection he encountered. And the guilt and helplessness she felt not being able to do anything for him but remind him he was loved.

Her voice had been getter softer and quieter through physical strain. The combination of confessional and emotional drainage was taking their toll. Finally she stopped.

Mother Lane gave her a few words of keeping the faith but she was also a woman of action. She may be a nun but she was also a shrewd, practical, and perceptive woman well aware of how volatility of the human spirit affected one's decisions. She gave Elena a reassuring smile. "I think there's someone I know who can help you. He grew up in the orphanage here. My pride and joy that one. He's currently in college because he wants to be a police officer. The person who found him abandoned in an alley and brought him here was a police officer who treated him as a son and then was murdered protecting the boy."

Elena protested. "I don't want to put him in any danger."

Mother laughed. "That boy seeks out danger. He has a lot of sense and a huge survival instinct. I trust him to do what's right."

Elena was willing to try anything but most of all, she trusted Mother. "When can we meet?"

Mother stood up and Elena followed. "He's in the back playing with the children. Let me show you where the pantry is. There's fresh coffee and cookies. You can bring it back here while I talk to Dee."

As the two approached the garden deep in conversation, Elena could see he was followed by a line of small children just like a mother hen with her chicks.

He stopped abruptly causing the first one in line to bump into him. "Hey, we've got to talk about 'adult stuff' so you guys scatter. I see cookies so go ask Sister Beth for some."

At the mention of sweets the children scampered off towards the kitchen.

Elena had mixed feelings. The handsome young man resembled the unsavory hanger-ons with his rakish attitude and yet she couldn't deny that he had a magnetism that drew people towards him. She saw how good he was with the children, who he considered his brothers and sisters and, in return, obviously worshiped him.

In return, Dee had given Elena more than a passing glance, memorizing her face in case he had to identify her in a line-up. It made her a little nervous to be so closely scrutinized.

"Penguin told me you needed help." His ear was tweaked. "Sorry. I mean Mother."

She could see the obvious affection between the two but 'What obnoxious behavior. And he's got nerve calling a Mother Superior 'Penguin'.'

There was bound to be a big party next weekend. They sat down to arrange the details and set up a cover story along with arranging for new clothes and jewelry funded by Aunt Elena. Dee protested but there was an increased probability of high-rollers being present. It would improve exposing their intentions if he dressed the part. Dee had contacts from childhood friends in the 'hood and could name-drop with the best of them. He would have no trouble integrating himself with any crowd, of this she had no doubt.

As Elena was leaving the church after expressing her gratitude with tears in her eyes, she lit a candle and placed a generous donation in the collection box.

TBC.