Stan

“I just don’t understand what happened Stan. I mean, what did the judge say when you guys were up there talking? I need to know. Where’s Callie? Are they letting her go?”

She had too many questions and I didn’t want to really answer any of them. It had gone like I had thought it would go the whole time. Callie was going to take the fall and had been sentenced to spend some time there. Up to three years it looked like and that was rather lenient.

Eve was getting out of it, but I had to pay a substantial amount to make it happen. It didn’t bother me though because I had came here knowing that it was going to be a possibility. If it meant that she got to go home, it was worth it. The money was not a problem at all.

“Callie is going to have to stay here for a little while Eve. I couldn’t save you both and I told you from the get go what I was going to do. You’re free and we can all go home tonight. I think your brother is getting us all a flight now.”

Eve just shook her head like she wasn’t going for it and I sighed to myself. While she’d said that she wouldn’t leave without her friend, a part of me had believed that she would anyways. I knew that she wasn’t going to want to, but I had no idea that she would when push comes to shove. What was she going to do, I mean really?

“I told you that I wasn’t leaving without her Stan and I meant it. What kind of friend would I be if I left her here all by herself?”

“Do you really think that she wants you in there with her?”’

“Is that possible?”

I shook my head that it wasn’t and didn’t want to find out if she was willing to go the whole way. I liked to think that she wasn’t prepared to do that, but I couldn’t say that I was one hundred percent sure. Eve was unlike anyone that I’d ever met before and I couldn’t help but admire her loyalty. Had anyone ever been that loyal to me before? I didn’t think so.

“No Eve, its not possible unless you did another crime. As your lawyer, I would highly recommend that you not do anything stupid. You don’t have permission to be here, so leaving Cambodia as soon as possible is your best bet. I don’t want to see you locked up like her.”

She wasn’t really listening to me and I knew that she was going to do what she thought was right. The idea made me worried and even when I had Carl try to talk some sense in her, there was nothing that he could say that would change her mind. He had foreseen this all happening before, but I’d hope that he was just talking to boost his sister.

“Carl, I can’t stay here any longer. I got to get back to work. I’ve been here several days now, and I can only push back my appointments and court proceedings for so long.”

Carl knew what I was talking about and thanked me again for helping her. “I know that she is hard-headed, but she will come around. Hopefully we will be on our way home in a couple of days when she realizes there is nothing else we can do. When she exhausts all her options, then and only then will she be able to get on a plane and leave her.”

I thought it was honorable, but at the same time it was rather foolish. I had done what I set out to do. I should be happy. I won an international case that I shouldn’t have and when it was all said and done, I was proud of the way it all worked out. But there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind with the idea of her staying. There was also regret that we hadn’t been able to find time to be together after his brother showed up. I had seen things going so much more differently in my head.

When I got on the plane later that evening, I hoped that everything was going to work out for them, but I was satisfied that I had done the best I could. I had gotten one out, guilty as sin in the court’s eyes and that was going to have to be enough. As the day wore on and I was flying home, I knew that it just wasn’t enough, no matter how much it should be.

I called Carl when I got off the plane and he asked me what was going on. I shouldn’t be calling. I did what I said I was going to do, but there was still a part of me that knew that I should have done more.

I should have felt good about it. I had done a good deed, but at the end of the day I felt rotten about it all. I had left a young woman wasting away in a Cambodian prison that I knew was innocent.

“Not much Carl. You’d said that you were going to go see Callie. I guess I was just wondering how she is holding up.”

“Not too good Stan. Eve said she doesn’t think she is going to make it too much longer and she said she has a plan. I can’t tell you how much it scares me to hear it. When Eve gets a plan… Well I guess we will have to see what happens.”

I thought about what I had suggested before and the change of look on her face. She’d hadn’t thought about recommitting a crime until I said something, and I hoped that she wouldn’t be stupid enough to go to those lengths to save her friend. It wouldn’t save her, not really. It would just put her in there right along beside her and I don’t know how that was supposed to help anything.

“You’re not going to let her do something stupid, are you Carl?”

“I can’t really stop Eve. She is a very determined person when she wants to be.”

I knew intimately that very thing, but I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to press upon him how much trouble Eve could get into, but I didn’t want to make him aware of how much I cared. It was a tangled web that was weaved, and I was across the world now and really couldn’t help. I had to ask myself why I came home at all when everything was all still up in the air.

About that time, one of the partners was calling me and I knew that was the reason I was home. I had a life to get back to and I didn’t want to jeopardize that.

“Look Carl, I got to go. The partners are on the other line. Keep me up to date on what is going on and keep Eve from getting in trouble. She could get in big trouble and I don’t know if they are going to be as lenient the next time. Keep an eye on her, I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“I don’t either Stan. She is my sister.”

He said it in a way that reminded me that I wasn’t supposed to care so much. So why did I?