Tessa shook as Gina held the gun. Her hands had a death grip on the sheets of the bed, and she said silent prayers for safety. All of this was getting to her. She was in a motel in Eagles Nest, New Mexico, snowed in, with a crazed woman waving a gun around. Her own sanity was beginning to fray.
“Gina, please, put the gun down,” she pleaded. “Let me go.”
“I can’t do that,” Gina said, smiling softly. “Please don’t ask me to again. I can’t let you go. You need to be safe.”
“We’re fine,” Tessa said, a tremble in her voice. “Riley and I, we’re fine. Owen left us enough to help. We’re fine.”
Gina shook her head. “He’s not here to protect you. Someone has to watch over you, keep you safe.”
“We can keep ourselves safe...”
“No! No you can’t! There are too many people out there who will hurt you. People like the man who killed Owen.”
“Gina, please.”
“I saw it happen. Camera 5, Store 214, Fairview, Oklahoma. I still remember it.” Gina paused. “Owen was scanning the man’s items. Some bread, some milk. Then the man moved. A switchblade to the throat, quick and clean, almost ninja-like. Never said a word. Just sliced open his throat and ran.”
Tessa cried. Gina reached out a hand to comfort her, but the battered woman drew away from her.
“Don’t you understand, Tessa?” Gina asked. “I saw him die. I was with him. That gives me a responsibility. I have to watch out for you and Riley.” She motioned towards Tessa’s son with the gun.
Tessa growled. “Don’t point that at him,” she said. “Don’t you dare.”
Gina smiled. “I won’t. But please, understand.”
“I won’t. I refuse to.”
Tessa crawled to the head of the bed and sat there. Riley still sat in the corner and clutched his Transformers toy, his eyes wide with fear. Gina looked at the both of them.
“I’ll be back in a moment. I need to get us some things.”
She kept the gun on them as she walked to the door. Riley got up and walked over to his mother. Gina froze, watching him intently.
“Please, stay,” Riley said to her. “I’m not going to say anything to you, but I want you to be here for a moment.”
Gina smiled and nodded, pleased at Riley’s acceptance of her. “Of course.”
Riley turned and looked at his mother. For a moment, she felt hurt, betrayed. But he looked her in the eyes. She saw his were filled with sadness, and age, as though he had seen many things in his short life.
“Mom, do you remember what I was playing with, on the day that Dad died?” Riley asked.
The question was out of place in so many ways. Tessa was thrown off balance. “What?”
“I was playing with my G.I. Joes,” Riley continued. “With Snake Eyes, Cobra Commander, Firefly.”
“Riley, what is this? Why are you saying this?”
“Dad spanked me the night before. I was bad. I kicked Lady twice. He was angry. He spanked me. I was mad at him. Very mad at him.”
Tessa was confused, her mind screaming at her. A crazed woman with a gun had kidnapped her, and here Riley was babbling about his toys and being punished. “Riley, don’t bother me with this. It’s not important.”
Riley didn’t listen. “It hurt so much. I...I didn’t know. I didn’t know how or why. I kept it hidden ever since. But I can’t. I think, once more, things can be right.”
Riley held his Transformers toy close to him, then looked back up at his mother. “Optimus Prime was always my favorite. I always felt he was like Dad. I’m sorry I did this, Mom.”
“Riley,” Tessa said, her voice wavering, “what is this?”
“I’m making this right.”
The door burst open, slamming into Gina and knocking her aside. The gun went wild and hit the wall on the opposite side of the room. Tessa screamed and buried her face in the bed, hiding from whatever this was. The wind whistled outside. Footsteps approached the bed. Tessa kept sobbing, afraid of this new development.
“I’m sorry,” Riley said. “I’m so sorry.” Then he began to cry.
“I forgive you.”
That voice. She knew it anywhere, had spent many long hours in the night wishing to hear it again. Without a pause she looked up. Owen was there. Somehow, beyond all hope, beyond all possibilities, he was here, back from the dead. She jumped up and rushed to his arms, clinging to him, dampening the shoulder of his red coat with her tears.
“I thought I lost you,” she said, choking and sobbing.
He held her. “It’s all right. I’m here now. Everything is all right.”
Tessa felt something tugging at her pant leg. In her wonder, she looked down. Riley smiled.
“All are one,” he said.
