Water, Water Everywhere

Carol's day went as usual; the ER was either boredom or chaos and chaos reigned. She went home at her usual time after a grabbing a to go bag from the cafeteria. She ate her dinner at a little park across the street from her apartment and then went home. The air had a hint of a sea breeze to it and she wondered how close the ocean was. She went to sleep early and was back at work the next day with plenty of time to spare.

The day went well until the afternoon when she was called to the supervisor's office. "Someone wants to talk to you, "she was told by a receptionist and Carol's stomach was in knots. She had done everything she could to avoid being someone that people would notice.

She opened the door and found General Mason Summers waiting on her. "Come on in, Carol. It seems we meet again." He looked bigger in the small office and more powerful.

Carol walked in and he waved her to a seat. "Why did you come here, Carol?" He sat down in chair beside of her. Close enough to touch her. Too close.

Carol had her story ready. "Rick got bit on a run. I didn't have anywhere to go. I wandered around a bit. Couldn't stand to be alone anymore. I got caught by a patrol. End of story."

Mason said, "That wasn't very nice of you to kill my men and let the prisoners out of jail."

Carol shrugged, "I didn't kill anybody or let anyone out of jail. These Black guys blew the door open and killed the guards. We ran. Sooner or later you have to run. They led us out of town by a path along the river. They went one way and we went the other."

"The town was attacked the next morning by rebels. What do you know about that?" Mason was still being accusatory. He could believe her or not. He had the power.

"Rick and I walked all night to get away. We stayed put the next day in an old barn way back in some field. We stayed there that night and the next day we took off again. Just wandering around until Rick got bit about a week later. I had to put him down and I lost track of time after that. One day just like the other before it. I got picked up by a patrol and I was given a job and a place to stay."

"Poor Rick, he just couldn't catch a break. I know you carried about him. Why did you put your name down as Peletier?" Mason didn't sound sorry about Rick.

"My first husband's name was Peletier. I wasn't really married to Rick. My legal name would still be Carol Peletier." Carol could feel tiny beads of sweat throughout her body, but at least her body was cool.

Mason seems satisfied at last, "So how do you like Savannah?"

Carol relaxed, "It is a beautiful city, at least the part that is blocked off. I like my job. It still feels strange to be walking around outside but I am getting used to it."

Mason stood up and walked to the window, "I wouldn't have hurt you, you know. Allanvale was a complete cluster fuck but I did find you. I don't like to give up good things that I find." He was speaking in his matter of fact voice.

"You are back here in Savannah where you have your choice of pretty young women. I am twenty years older than those girls. Leave me alone, Mason. I'm nothing special." Carol wasn't begging yet.

"I have two young mistresses, Carol. They have young lithe bodies and empty vapid minds. I want you because you have a firm strong body and a firm strong mind. You can ditch the dowdy clothes because underneath is a vital interesting woman."

"How did you find me?"

"I was reading a report on an officer's death in the ER. The man had a bad heart but he persisted in taking little blue pills to make him feel like a man. He died here at the hospital and a Carol Peletier had testified that she saw nothing. Usually people want to feel important and say that they saw more than they really did. I kept looking at the name and I decided to come on over here and check it out." Mason was feeling almost jubilant. He had found Carol again and she was in Savannah. He wanted her in his life. He was going on a long trip and he deserved some fun before he went.

He smiled at her and it was almost a sincere smile, "We are going on a little trip this afternoon. Go home and pack your bag for a few days. I'll meet you at your place in twenty minutes. If I find out that you are the boring middle aged drudge that you keep promising me you are I will bring you back and leave you alone forever. You really don't have any choice, but let's keep up the façade that this is a lover's long weekend. Now go my sweet little drudge. I will tell your supervisor that you will be back safe and sound on Monday."

Carol stood up in a daze and walked to the door. She walked home trying to think of a way out. Daryl would never forgive this. He would never forgive her for putting herself in Mason's hands. Mason was leaving for the mountains soon and she had thought that she had escaped him. She wasn't going to jump out a window because she was carrying Daryl's baby. Mason would tire of her once the novelty wore off. She was going to let him have his way and when he left she would find a way out of Savannah. She felt calmer after she made up her mind to accept what would happen. Carol packed her clothes and went downstairs.

Mason pulled up in an old jeep dressed in shorts and a sweatshirt. He looked younger and less dangerous and she opened the door and slid in. He waited until she fastened her seatbelt and then they roared off in the afternoon sun. They were soon at a dock and Mason nodded at the guards, "I'm taking the boat and we'll be gone several days. Don't worry. It is stocked up right?"

The guards nodded, "Sir, we always keep it ready for you."

Mason said, "We'll be back Sunday or Monday". He moved closer to the boats and parked, "Come on, Carol. I will show you my real home." He grabbed their bags and she followed him onto a long elegant sailboat.

Carol was back to being in a daze. She hadn't been on a boat for a long time. One of her stepfathers had a sailboat and he had taken her and her mother out sailing while the marriage lasted. She had loved it. He had been one of the better stepfathers too.

Mason stowed their things away and she could see that the boat was well made and expensive. She hoped Mason knew what he was doing. He handed her sunglasses and some sunscreen.

There was a motor on the boat that Mason used to maneuver out to deeper water. He turned it off when they were well clear of Savannah. "I am the captain but I do need a first mate. Do you know anything about a sailboat?"

Carol confessed, "The only sail boat I have been on was much smaller."

Mason spent the rest of the afternoon teaching her how to sail the big boat which almost seemed to fly across the waves. He was a good teacher and didn't get irritated when she made mistakes. The air got cooler as the day wore on and he went downstairs and got her one of his sweaters. "You look adorable. Your hair is all askew and your cheeks are pink." He kissed her cheek. "Can you possibly cook? I had some steak sent over before we got here and we should use it tonight."

Carol went downstairs and found enough food for several days and plenty of fresh water. There was liquor and wine but not a lot of it. She figured out the stove and made dinner. They ate outside watching the sun set. Mason had lowered the anchor and the sails were down. She ate some of her dinner and Mason ate all of his. She cleaned up the dishes and then came back up to their chairs. It was getting darker and the stars seemed closer than she had ever seen.

They talked. Mostly Mason talked about sailing. He had grown up in Georgia and he had always loved the sea and sailing. He hated speedboats, but loved what he called "graceful ladies". The name of this boat was Graceful Lady. Carol thought it was a good name. The boat was a work of art and deserved a fitting title.

They went to bed very late. Mason took her clothes off carefully and she closed her eyes and thought of all those horrible times she submitted to Ed. Mason was gentle and considerate and he was strangely enough not disappointed that she had been as responsive as load of bricks. He continued to talk and she was beginning to realize that Mason wanted pillow talk as much as sex. She began to listen because information is always power.

She fell asleep with Mason still talking. She woke up early and eased out of bed and dressed. She went on deck and watched the sun come up. Mason came up later and handed her some t shirts that were his that she could wear. They sailed and fished and he taught her how to navigate and steer. That night she wore one of his shirts to bed and he made love to her as if making love to a mannequin was fine. He pulled her close to him before he went to sleep and she thought about how long it had taken Daryl to do that. She wept into his shirt at the thought of Daryl ever finding out about this.

The next two days were filled with fishing and sailing and talking. She felt free to talk about her life before the ZA. He had seen the scars and was curious. He confessed that he had been abusive to his wife in their marriage when he drank and there had been a time in which he had drank way too much. She thought of Matthias's terror at the sight of the uniform and knew that Mason's view of his marriage was probably very different from Melinda's.

Mostly they watched the sea and the sky and let go of their world. She caught more fish than he did so he had to clean them. He swore that she was trying to capsize the boat when she was in charge. They were almost friends.

They were comfortable with each other. Carol let her wayward curls go and occasionally disagreed with him. He told her that the biggest mistake of his life was falling in with the Nazis. He thought that he could control them but little by little they were taking over. He worried that he would be overthrown if he went against the policy of taking no Black prisoners. The boat was his bug out transportation. He was going to take his son out when he got back and then he was going to stage a coup and weed out the Nazis for once and for all. Carol knew that Mason had sold his soul for power a long time ago and the devil never does a redo. Hitler had been kind to children and dogs and still supported the genocide of Jews.

Carol let him ramble. Daryl was going to keep Matthias from him. The Nazis were more likely to crush him than the other way around. She was getting out of Dodge before he got back.

He wanted to make love to her on the morning that they started back to Savannah. She submitted as always and she watched him for the first time. He looked at her with love in his eyes and she realized that he did love her in his own way. He collapsed into her and held her for a long time. Mason had a cowlick in front like Matthias and he was her son's father and she let him hold her without squirming away.

They packed up and Carol noticed that she had a new collection of freckles and Mason had gotten very tan. He put some of his shirts in her pack and a pistol that he kept in a locker. "You might need this while I am away." He showed her how to bring the boat in and she watched him put the key to the motor on a hook. He laughed at her as she tried to walk on the dock. It felt strange to be on land again. They stopped at the guardhouse and Mason requested that the boat be restocked tomorrow. The guards nodded. General Summers would probably send someone down tomorrow morning to check. He liked to go out on the sea at strange times and he might stay for an hour or a day. You just better have the boat ready.

He drove Carol home slowly and dropped her off at her door. "I'll see you tomorrow morning before I leave," She had a cold and very brief shower and got ready to work the evening shift.

That evening she met a nervous David Hakim in his office. "Where have you been? The scuttlebutt was that you met with General Summers and then went off with him. Were you just playing us?"

Carol said, "He is leaving on a campaign soon. I need for you to put on cast on a soldier's leg and pretend that it was badly broken. Tonight. I want him admitted so there is no confusion about him leaving with his men."

David left to get Blaine Parker and bring him to his office. Poor Blaine had taken a serious fall on some steps in his apartment building and the X-rays showed a bad break. A message was sent to his garrison that Blaine would be in traction for two weeks and would not be able to travel.

General Mason Summers left the next morning with one hundred men of the Army of the Carolinas. There was a walker herd sighted a good distance away and the other generals had insisted on keeping most of their forces to protect Savannah. He had stopped by the ER to tell Carol goodbye and let her have the keys to his old jeep. He had it filled up with gasoline and she might want to use it while he was gone. He kissed her goodbye and she responded with more affection than she really felt. She knew she would never see him again and his own way he had been an instrument of deliverance. Mason smiled at her, "Let's take a slow boat to China when I get back."

Carol kissed him again, "That sounds wonderful. Maybe I can teach you how to fish."

Mason laughed, "You got lucky". She had walked him to the door and she held it open for him. "Goodbye, Graceful Lady," and he walked down the steps toward his waiting guard. She waved goodbye to the man who had fathered her son and wished that Mason had been the man he could have been.

AN

Well, do you hate me yet?

I know nothing about sailboats.

Tell me how you really feel about this chapter. A review please.