Chapter Two
“I know.” Kayla massaged her protruding belly as her little boy kicked. “I shouldn’t have hung up on your daddy.” She was wrong in not telling Jack that she was pregnant. She wanted to surprise him with the news, but she had a little complication with her hypertension and couldn’t fly until after the baby was born.
She’d been blessed and cursed the day Jack was dropped into her life. She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t turn her back on him…on them and she definitely couldn’t do it now. The first time she looked into his hazel eyes, she was captivated by the man that reminded her of a bible character. Jack was badly hurt, barely breathing. He was nearly bones and his brown hair was below his shoulders matching the length of his beard. Now he wore his hair a little long on the top and tapered on the sides with a medium sexy beard. After months of recovery and intense workouts, the man became a sexy motherfucker. Jack looked like one of those firemen women drooled over.
Many times, she wondered if he hooked up with her because of a savior complex. Like if it were under different circumstances, would he still love her? Jack made her feel special. He listened to her wants and needs, and shared his with her. There were no secrets between them, until now, since she’d gotten pregnant and hadn’t told him. Kayla leaned back placing her feet on the pillows. “The only way he can properly heal is by fixing what is broken inside him. He needs his family,” she said to herself.
Kayla knew what she was getting into by being involved in a relationship with Jack. He had more than baggage, he had a lost past and an uneven future.
Now, the memories of the day she found him resurfaced…
Kayla had been part of a volunteer missionary mission in Afghanistan to help kids in need. It wasn’t the safest thing she’d done in her life, but she wanted to make a difference in someone’s life, even if it was one child. She was covered up like the local women in the town that was right outside Afghanistan. Kayla told herself she wasn’t in any danger—however danger was her middle name. She loved excitement in her life. She was warned multiple times by family, friends and strangers that any mission in this area could cost her life. She taught the local kids how to speak English.
Then one day, three little boys waved at her to follow them. She’d hesitated at first, it could’ve been a trap, but they insisted. She followed the boys behind the house to a sallow well.
Kayla touched her waist where she hid a gun as she slowly moved over to look at whatever had the boys’ attention in the hole. She looked down into the well, but instead of seeing water, she saw a man wearing scraps for clothing. His hands were behind his back. He groaned in pain. “Sir?” She dipped her head further down. “Can you hear me?”
He didn’t move. He probably didn’t know English.
“Tammy!” Kayla screamed at her friend. They’d been best friends since middle school, like sisters. She tagged along with Kayla on all her crazy ideas.
Her friend came running. “I’m coming!” She aimed her weapon at the boys. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” Kayla raised her eyebrows. “Put that shit away. I need your help getting him…” She pointed into the well. “…out.”
“Who?” Tammy walked over and peered down. “And how are we going to do that? And why do you want to get him out? He might be in there for a reason Kayla. Please stop trying to save every stray puppy you see.”
She ignored her friend and looked around trying to find something to help her get him out. Kayla couldn’t just leave him to die alone down there. She prayed he wasn’t a bad guy.
One of the little boys pulled on a rope, and pointed at the man.
Kayla lowered the rope. “Sir, can you grab onto the rope?”
He shook his head no, that meant he understood English.
“Tammy, I’m going to jump in and help him out.” Kayla sat on the small wall.
“Are you crazy?” Tammy asked.
“Yes.” She jumped in hurting one of her ankles in the process. It was a very tight fit. Kayla wasn’t skinny, and the stranger wasn’t really responding. “Sir.” With her fingers, she combed back his dirty brown hair out his face. “I’m trying to help you.” He wasn’t from Afghanistan. “How did you get in here?” He was barely breathing. She could see his exposed ribcage under the flimsy material he had covering his body. “What’s your name?” The stranger resembled the pictures of Jesus hanging in the Catholics churches.
“I’m an… American,” he chanted over and over.
She softly gasped when he slowly opened his eyes and stared at her through red-rimmed hazel eyes. His skin was bruised and deeply tanned from the sun and his lips were chapped.
“They are going to kill me,” he whispered. “Hide me… hide me… please… don’t trust no one.”
Kayla carefully undid the rope wrapped around his fragile wrist.
“Please… help… me?” He pulled on her garment.
“No one is going to kill you today.” Kayla watched him and cupped his face trying to give him hope. “Do you believe in God?”
“I did…” He took a deep breath.
“Well…” She wiped his cheek. “From this day on, you will again.”
He swallowed and closed his eyes.
“Tammy, please get help,” she yelled up. How was she going to pull this off? Tammy had some pull with some of the local people. They might help them if they gave them enough money or they might betray them and have them all captured or worse killed. Kayla had to take a chance.
Tammy disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a few local men. She spoke to them in their language and soon after, they helped take him out of the sallow well and laid him on the ground.
“Who is he?” Kayla asked the local man.
The man shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “He, not there yesterday.” The man extended his hand asking for his share and as soon as Tammy handed him some bills he ran away.
“Kayla.” Tammy stared at her concerned. “He said we need to leave now.”
“I can’t leave him here like this!” She got down on her knees, trying to help the stranger up. “Sir, I need you to stand.”
“I… can’t…” he mumbled.
“Tammy, get him some water.” Kayla searched the area and saw a few more men running away. They must have temporarily thrown him in the hole when they heard the military convoy passing by. “We need to move him fast.” She was always getting herself in trouble and this time wasn’t any different. “I’m an American too.” She placed her arms around his chest and began helping him up. “Like you, I don’t trust these people. I have to move you somewhere safe. I need to think fast.”
“I know that look.” Tammy helped get him on his feet. “Trouble is your middle name.” She opened her bag pack and handed Kayla a bottle of water.
“You know it.” Kayla grabbed the bottle of water and opened it. “Here.” She placed the bottle against his chap lips, and he gulped down the entire bottle in less than thirty seconds. “Are you hungry?”
He rapidly nodded his head.
“I have plenty of food too.” Kayla grabbed a pack of cheese and peanut butter crackers, and was about to open it when Tammy tugged her upper arm.
“We don’t have time for lunch,” she rushed her words. “We have to leave this area now Kayla. Leave him.”
“Tammy.” Kayla pulled her arm. “I know, but we need to get him on the plane to Dubai.”
“What? Are you crazy?” Tammy searched the area.
“He said they are going to kill him. We can’t just leave an American to get killed,” Kayla whispered. “No one has to know. We’ll drop him off at the Naval base.”
“Really! Why can’t we tell the ones here?”
“I don’t want to take a chance.” Kayla examined the village. The men that helped them were nowhere in sight. They’d disappeared, which meant they probably went to tell someone that they found a prisoner or American.
“What if he’s a traitor, a spy, or enemy?” Tammy asked. “Then what?”
“Are you going to help me or not?” Kayla covered her face ignoring her. “They’re coming to get us soon and those men are going to come back to finish the job. Please Tammy…” She could feel that the stranger wasn’t a threat to anyone, especially in his condition. “I hear the vehicles.”
“Fine, but if we get caught.” Tammy stared at her. “I’m blaming you.”
“Don’t you always.” Kayla chuckled. “He is part of our mission.”
“Let’s see how you’re going to pull this off.”
“They don’t know who they’re picking up.” Kayla coughed at the blowing dust. “But that were Americans. He might be one of the missionaries that went missing last month. This is our good deed for the year. If we make it out alive. I’m never leaving the US again.” She could tell Tammy was scared, she was too. Her heart was beating a mile a minute.
“I hope so, I’m done putting my ass on the line because you need a friend to tag along,” Tammy said out of breath. “These people don’t really like us. Why don’t we tell someone about, this Jesus-Moses look alike?”
“I will.” Kayla watched as the convoy of vehicles came in. Thank goodness, they didn’t come with the US military this time. “Tammy, you go first and let me know when the vehicle is empty.”
“This is the last time, I’m going anywhere with you,” Tammy pointed at her as she walked over to the missionaries.
“How many of you?” one of the men in charge of the mission asked.
Tammy looked over at Kayla as she answered, “Seven.”
“I thought it was six.”
“Another volunteer was with us and for some reason she wasn’t counted,” Tammy lied. “She was sleeping when you did a head count.”
“That’s not good,” the man said leaving the area. “Let’s go get the other before dark.”
Tammy joined the others to help gather the volunteers.
“I need to—call home…” Jack mumbled. “My family…” His eyes spoke a painful untold story, filled with suffering.
Kayla supported him as they made their way toward the van. “First, we have to get you out of this town before they come back looking for you,” she said as she placed him on the backseat of one of the vehicles. “I promise your family will know you’re okay as soon as we can. If someone asks, you are part of my team, do you hear me?” He nodded his head as she began dressing him in her extra clothing. Kayla covered his head with a niqab, and then wrapped black garment around his fragile body. “Your name for the day is Tamika.”
“Does he look like a Tamika to you?” Tammy walked up shaking her head again. “He looks like a damn crossdresser. This is never going to work.”
“Watch.” Kayla fixed the cloth over his face making sure only his eyes were shown. “Much better.” She smiled.
“I pray this works,” Tammy chimed in. “You are freaking crazy. I’m done traveling with you.”
“How many times are you going to tell me?”
“Until you get it.”
“I get it.” Kayla sat him in the back of the van and then she sat next to him as they waited for the rest of the missionaries to come back. “This will work,” she whispered in his ear. “I know you’re weak, but I need you to be strong…”
“Is everybody accounted for?” the leader asked looking in the van.
“Yes,” Kayla answered holding the poor man’s hand.
***
Present day…
“Was that him?” Her mother asked entering the living room, bringing her back to the present. “He keeps you away for months at a time and doesn’t want to show his face.” Her mom sat next to Kayla. “Why is he hiding from your family?”
“He’s not hiding mom.” Kayla positioned her feet higher on a pillow on the ottoman. “I told you, he’s from another country.”
“Are you excusing him because he’s a foreigner?” Her mother grabbed her drink and took a sip. “He knocks you up and doesn’t have the decency to come meet me face to face. Is there something you’re not telling me?” Eyes mirroring Kayla’s stared back at her, trying to figure out what she was hiding.
Kayla sighed, she couldn’t continue listening to her mother bash the man she loved for no reason. “He doesn’t know about the baby.”
“What?” She rapidly stood from her seat. “You didn’t tell him he’s going to be a father Kayla! Are you crazy?”
“I was going to surprise him.” Kayla laid her head on the cushions behind her. She would never keep her baby from Jack. It wasn’t in her, even if he chose to go back with Cindy.
“And?”
“I’m stuck in the states, because of my blood pressure.” Kayla pulled on her t-shirt.
“That’s still no excuse not to tell him you’re pregnant,” her mom scolded her. “Pick up that phone and tell him.”
Kayla stared at her cell and then at her mother. “I will after I take a nap. I’m tired.”
“Now you’re tired.” Her mom watched her closely. “My grandchild deserves for his father to be here when he enters this world.” She smacked Kayla’s thigh. “You say he is such a dream, then show me.” She walked out of the living room. “Tell him Kay…”
When her mom left, she picked up her phone and listened to his many voicemails. Jack was honest with her from the very minute he woke up. In the eyes of the law, he wasn’t technically married anymore and Cindy did remarry. Jack had a family that cherished his memories. Kayla was front and center to how much his family loved and missed him, his mother called her once in a while to share childhood stories of Jacky. It hurt, that she couldn’t share the amazing news that Jack was still alive with his loved ones.
She called Jack, and it went straight to his voicemail, that was strange. He always picked up the phone when she called, no matter what he was doing. “Babe…” She sighed, thinking of what to say… I’m pregnant and I wanted to surprise you, but as you know, my high blood pressure has been an issue and it’s been getting worse with the pregnancy. Don’t worry, everything is okay. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. Instead, she said, “Call me when you get a chance. I love you…”