by Mark Lashway
He turned around and began walking back to the field. To hell with this, he thought. No matter what it costs me, I still have my honor and professional integrity, goddamnit! At least I’ll be able to look at myself in the mirror, even if I do wreck my marriage and career.
It was only a few minutes before he was back in the field, but Trub was gone. Where they had spoken there was a small piece of paper on the ground which read, “I knew you’d come back. See you sometime, friend.”
-28-
Shauna was in the tent when he arrived. She said nothing to him at first, simply watching him as he grabbed his travel bags and began stuffing all of his belongings into them. He seemed lethargic as he did so. Finally, she asked softly, “What are you doing?”
“Leavin’,” he muttered. “I know that you probably want nothin’ to do with me anymore, honey. I’m sorry that this turned into such a disaster, I really am. I need to get the hell out of this place. If you want, I can arrange transportation for you….”
“Why do you assume that I’ll stay if you leave?”
“Does that mean that you haven’t completely given up on me?”
“You’re on very thin ice with me, mister, but I’m still willing to work on it through a marriage counselor, or do you still think we can do it ourselves?”
“I still do. But for now, I simply want to hit the road, leave this place in the rear-view mirror and go home to get back to normal, OK?”
“OK,” she murmured. “It won’t take me long to pack up, then we’ll load the vehicle before taking down the tent. There’s just one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“Why the change, Cam?”
“I’m heartily sick of this goddamned place, honey, with all of its political bullshit, conspiracies, deceit and games. Outside of Helen, Sonny, Reuben, Bobby and our Germans, I don’t really know anymore who’s trustworthy or not. GWIBE is dark to its core!”
She knew not to press for more. Maybe with time he would explain it more fully. For now he had given enough. Cam looked well enough physically, but she could tell by the flatness in his eyes that she was looking at a defeated man. She was not the kind of wife who would use this to gain an advantage over him. Merely giving him an acknowledging nod, she turned away and went to work packing her belongings for the trip home.
Within half an hour everything had been packed up and loaded into their vehicle. They took a short break to go say goodbye to Sonny and Helen, asking them to pass the word along. Helen was surprised at the abrupt, unexpected departure, but Sonny wasn’t. Cam regretted not taking the time to say goodbye to the Germans, and Reuben, but his sense of urgency in leaving GWIBE grew by the minute.
They returned to take down their tent, which took longer than it had putting it up. It didn’t help that several GWIBErs who saw what they were up to stopped by to ask questions. Cam, unable to restrain himself any longer, got a little short with a few of them, drawing some hissed rebukes from Shauna, who apologized for him. He knew that he would hear about it once they were on the road. It was going to be a long ride home.
He had calmed down a little by the time the curious-looking group of Abbot John and the Four Horsemen arrived at their site. The abbot walked up to him immediately while the horsemen hung back a bit.
“We hear that you’re leaving,” the monk said, “and I just wanted to get to say goodbye before you left. I’m sorry about the earlier circumstances, Cam, and I had hoped to get to know you better….all of you.”
Cam shook the abbot’s hand and gave him a wan smile. “That would have been nice for us, too, but we really need to leave. We’ve had enough. What’s important, though, is that in the end the bad guys lost, you know?”
“Yes, they certainly did, although there was great tragedy surrounding it. But it is not for me or anyone else to question it, since it was God’s will. When we leave here in just a little while and return to the abbey, life will resume to what it once was.”
“Umm, Abbot John, what do mean exactly when you say ‘we’?” Cam asked, his curiosity aroused now, since the abbot was clearly the only abbey resident in sight. He can’t possibly be talking about….no way!
“I will let my companions explain,” the monk said, motioning toward the horsemen.
“Cam, Shauna, it’s like this,” Ralphie Quinn sighed as he stepped forward. “As much as GWIBE needs us, we all took a good, hard look at ourselves through lengthy discussion and decided that we didn’t like what we had become. Every man knew deep down that our lives needed to be devoted to a higher calling, to provide us with a far more noble purpose. When it just so happened that this year’s GWIBE landed right next to the abbey, we took it as a sign from the Lord that the abbey was where we needed to go. Therefore, we are going with Abbot John and entering into the life.”
Cam just stood there, mouth agape, a numbness spreading throughout his body. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Shauna staring at them with a warm look of clear approval. Oh my, he thought, I’ll be hearing about this all the way back. She’ll use it to lecture me over how even the most seemingly incorrigible types….the Four Horsemen….can change and take the straight road to a cleaner, more meaningful life.
Abbot John couldn’t keep himself from gloating, a triumphant smile on his face as he said, “During the few public interactions that I actually have, I always dream of nabbing at least one soul for our abbey to help ensure the future of the place and its service to God. I had no inkling that GWIBE would turn out to be a mother lode, providing us with four young, energetic and eager souls. Now, I must return to our home with my haul of new recruits. Shauna, Cam, we are leaving now. May God be with you.” He looked like a cat that had eaten a canary.
When they were gone, Cam continued standing there, his mouth open, still not believing what he thought he’d seen. Shauna rubbed him in the small of his back and murmured, “Cam, dear, let’s finish and head on out.”
“Cam! Shauna!” came the familiar voice of Gerhard Streicher in its usual boom. They turned to see him and Johann strolling into their site. Despite his stupor, Cam cracked a tiny smile. The Germans inexplicably looked relaxed and like they were at peace with things.
“We received word that you two are leaving immediately,” Johann said. “I can see that the story was true.”
“Yeah,” Cam sighed as he walked over to shake their hands. “We’re out of here. We’ve had enough of this place for this year.” Actually, I think I’ve had enough of it forever.
“Ja, we understand, Cam. This has been a bad year for GWIBE,” Gerhard said.
“There has just been something off about it the whole time, completely apart from our own misfortunes,” Johann added.
Cam kept his mouth shut at the German’s perception, merely nodding. Don’t give away even the slightest hint of a clue, he reminded himself. Trub was right. I’ll not only cause total wreckage for myself, but far worse for Shauna. Honor and integrity be damned, I’m not going to risk destroying her. I know that I can make her happy, and that’s what I’ll do. I was actually lucky that I didn’t find Trub again after all.
“You guys look happier than at any time since GWIBE began,” Shauna observed. “By the way, where are your companions?”
“Oh, we have no idea where they might be, since we dumped them,” Johann told her.
“Ja. Cam was inspirational to us when he said that we had to go back to our original practices in order to become great again, and he was absolutely right!” Streicher exclaimed. “We needed to get our focus back on our beers, thus no time for love, so we jettisoned the girls.”
Cam’s face showed pure horror as Shauna wheeled around to look at him, her brown eyes filled with mounting anger. He swallowed hard as he painted a mental picture of the hundreds of miles to drive and the many states to cross before they made it back to their place. It was going to be a very long ride home.
-THE END-
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