The Third Ten

by Jacqueline Druga

  Nothing.

  He stopped, and was readying to leave when he saw the laptop. It was on. A cigarette was still burning in the ashtray, he put it out and ran his hand over the mouse pad. An image of a worn torn Jason was on the screen. Looking at the little triangle, Elliott pressed play.

  We were not prepared. Here’s what begins the chain of events. In a very short time from now, noon, On Frank’s wedding day, Joe will be murdered. This causes Hal to assume leadership position.

  He gasped at the shock of it, looked at his watch, and raced from the apartment.

  “Dad,” Robbie sighed out when he reached him. “Oh, God, Dad, where are you?”

  “I’m in my office right now. You aren’t gonna believe this Robbie, in fact …”

  “Dad listen to me. Just ….” Robbie paused. Tell him? Don’t tell him? Keep him on the line until Frank arrived. “You’re in your office?”

  “Yes, I was working on something when …”

  “I love you, Dad.”

  Joe chuckled. “I love you, too, Robbie. Where is this coming from?”

  Robbie closed his eyes tightly. “From the heart.”

  “Wow.”

  “Dad, talk to me. Okay?”

  “Robbie I can’t, I’ll be seeing you in a bit. Wait till you hear what I have to tell you.”

  “Dad, please talk to me. Please.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I just … I just am feeling funny.”

  “Is it the wedding?” Joe asked.

  “Yeah, sort of.”

  “Robert. Listen can we talk in a bit. Meet me and Jason at the Social Hall. Okay, right now I have to …”

  “Dad, I just need to talk. Right now. Not then. Not about anything, I just need you to talk to you. Please.”

  There was a slight hesitation, then a breath, and Joe calmly replied. “Absolutely, talk.”

  “Almost there!” Frank blasted over the phone climbing up the rungs

  “Us, too, Frank,” Hal said. “We’re full speed.”

  “Meet you there,” Frank said.

  “With Dad.”

  “Absolutely.” Frank hung up, placed the phone in his pocket. He felt a sense of relief, he could see the line of utility buildings in the distance. His dad’s office. He looked at his watch. Two minutes to spare.

  “The line of utility buildings. Very important decisions are made here.” Jenny walked backwards like a tour guide, leading a group of children. As they made their way up the grade. “Now, we’re gonna go see the leader, Joe. Our President. Davey, you may want to save the battery power on the camera.”

  Little Davey lifted the camera, at seven years old it was quite the chore. “No, I’m good. Miss Jenny.” He went from her to the buildings.

  Billy’s voice carried out. “Holy cow.”

  “What honey?” Jenny asked.

  Billy pointed to the trees. “Why is Uncle Frank running so fast?”

  “Why is Uncle Frank running so ….” A look of fearful revelation took over Jenny when she heard that. Frank running meant one thing. Slowly, she turned her head to see him barreling their way. “Maybe we should all back …”

  Boom!

  “No!” Frank cried out, first shielding his eyes then hitting the ground when the end of the building just exploded.

  “Dad!” Robbie called out. “Dad! Dad!” The line was dead. Nothing. “Dad!” He felt it, heard it, and he raised his eyes. He saw the fireball in the distance. Dropping the phone he took off.

  Frank got up, without missing a beat and charged to the burning building. Only the end around Joe’s office was engulfed in flames.

  The kids were screaming in the distance “Keep them back!” Frank yelled. “Keep them back.” He charged to the office, but it was useless. He tried the archway, which was seared in flames. But the rest … the rest was smoldering. A portion of the office was in splinters. Tiny flames singeing the ends of the matchbox frame... He lifted the radio, a sad desperation filled his voice... “I need … I need a fire crew STAT at the utility building. My dad’s … my dad’s office.” He slammed down the phone to the ground. And then Frank, after taking one more step, despite the realization of his defeat, raced into the office.

  Robbie arrived in minutes, running his top speed over the hill, and to the grade. Jenny was escorting the kids from the way.

  “Robbie,” She squeaked out. “Robbie, it was …”

  “Were you there?” He asked. “Were you?” He grabbed her shoulders.

  Jenny nodded.

  “Please tell me my father got out. Please tell me.”

  Jenny closed her eyes.

  Hands brushing from her shoulder, Robbie moved in a daze toward the building.

  Hal and Jimmy screeched the truck to a stop.

  “He got him out,” Jimmy said. “It was Frank. He got him out. He had to. It was Frank.”

  Hal opened truck door and stepped out. His eyes shifted to Robbie who had just arrived as well.

  Jimmy looked at Robbie. “Frank got him out, right?”

  Robbie could only swallow. He didn’t have an answer. None of them did. Until they saw Frank emerge from the building.

  At that moment, the brothers didn’t need to ask, they had their answer simply by the look on Frank’s face and the fact that Joe was in his arms.

  Face with a stone expression, black streaks smeared across him. He walked only a short distance and stopped.

  The lump in Hal’s throat made it hard for him to speak.

  “No.” Jimmy shook his head. “No. Frank?”

  It was a suspension of time; neither Hal, Jimmy nor Robbie moved or breathed. For that split second, time stood still as they stood there watching Frank.

  Joe’s arm fell down and then Frank, Joe in arms, dropped to his knees.

  Hal, Jimmy, and Robbie raced over.

  His huge hands, bloodied and burned, gripped his father, spreading, expanding, clenching. With a roll of Joe into his chest, Frank’s neck tensed and arched, as he bellowed out one long, heartache filled cry before dropping his head and burying it into Joe.

  He held onto him, grasping him with his life and soul.

  “No!” Hal sobbed. “Not our father. Not him.” He dropped down to the ground by Frank, laying his hand on Joe, and moving closer into his big brother.

  Robbie fell to his knees, as did Jimmy.

  And the brothers, who all shared a lifetime bond with a father they adored and loved, huddled together, sharing not only in that final embrace of their father, and each other, but sharing in the greatest heartbreak they, as a band of brothers, would ever experience.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  No one could function. It had only been four minutes since the explosion, but those who arrived to aid, couldn’t function couldn’t move. There had to be some mistake. It wasn’t happening. Joe hadn’t died.

  Four minutes.

  It seemed like a lifetime. It moved so slowly.

  The fire crew arrived and stopped. There really wasn’t anything to put out. They arrived and stood there. Each expressing immediate and intense grief.

  Dan from security, anguished in his scream.

  The same sentiment was expressed in hardened sadness. “No. God no. Not Joe. Not Joe.”

  It wasn’t just the sons who had lost, it was an entire community and it was evident by each and every reaction of those who arrived.

  No one knew exactly what happened, nor did they think about it.

  Frank sniffed long, running the back of his hand under his nose. “We have to ... we have to get him to the clinic. Dan …”

  “Yeah, Frank.” Dan couldn’t speak.

  “This does not get out until … until we tell Andrea and Ellen. Understand.”

  “But …”

  “Understand!” Frank blasted.

  “Yeah. Yeah. I’ll put the call out. This is handled.”

  Frank nodded. “Thank you.”

  Hal just shook his head. “Who tells Andrea?”

 
; Frank looked at his brothers. “Hal, you can tell her. You, Robbie, and Jimmy. I ... I have to be the one who tells El.”

  “I don’t want to tell Andrea, Frank.” Robbie stood up. “I can’t be there, I can’t be there to see the look on her face when she finds out Dad is … when she hears.”

  “Well, little brother, you have to. We’re her family. She needs you, all of us. Understand?”

  Robbie nodded; a tear fell down his face. “This isn’t real. This isn’t real.”

  Hal slowly stood. “It’s real.”

  Jimmy leaned down to Joe’s body, whispering. “I’m sorry, Dad. I am so sorry.” He kissed him.

  “Okay.” Frank cleared his throat. “We have to get moving on this. Before El or Andrea find out.” Before standing, he ran his hand over his father one more time. “What went wrong?” he spoke in a breath. “I swore I was fast enough.”

  Robbie whispered. “It happened two minutes early. We weren’t expecting an explosion.”

  “Anything else …” Frank said. “We planned on a shot, on an attack, on … oh my God.” His head cocked. “Oh my God.” He stepped away.

  “What?” Hal asked.

  “Darrel.” Frank wisped, and then shouted. “We have a man down! We have another man out here!” he yelled to the men. “We need to find him.”

  “Someone else was here?” Hal asked. “What …”

  “Iffy suit,” Frank said. “He was wearing the suit. Was with Dad the whole time. He had to be on that office. He’s here. We have to find him.”

  Dan stepped forward. “We’ll find him, Frank. We’ll find him. You … You have other things right now to take care of.” He laid a hand on Frank.

  Frank nodded.

  Hal couldn’t look anymore. Hand smearing across his face, he turned.

  Elliott was stepping from a truck. The hopeful expression fell when he paused by the open truck door. “Captain.”

  Hal walked to Elliott and with no words, received an embrace from his best friend.

  “I am very sorry. I … I am very sorry.”

  “We all are, Elliott.” Hal sniffed and stepped back. “From this moment on, nothing will ever be the same.” For the first time, Hal took in the scene, and he took it in from a different perspective.

  His eyes went from Frank and Robbie lifting Joe, to the men standing around. Strong men, crying …broken. A complete symbolization of what the community as a whole would be.

  ****

  “Sift through every piece of wood,” Dan ordered out. “I need three men around this perimeter ... especially …” He paused when he saw the truck containing Joe, pull away. “Especially … Frank?” he asked in surprised when Frank neared. “What are you doing?”

  “I want you to make sure, put your most trusted man on this. Seal off this area until we can get an investigation team up here.”

  “I know this, Frank, go talk to Ellen. That radio call isn’t going to wash for too long.”

  “I know.” Frank hands on hips looked about. “Where are the infrared goggles on the search team?”

  “They have them,” Dan said. “I’m not real sure Frank they’ll need them. I mean, if enough smoke hits that suit you know as well as I do, it’s gonna leave a mark.”

  “You’re right. How many do you have searching?”

  “Three.”

  “Put a fourth out front here. Tell them to look …” Frank assessed as he stood by the charred door frame. “Tell them to go about twenty feet out. I think he may have been blown that way, and hopefully, by the grace of that suit he was protected.”

  “I have a good feeling. Now, take care of what you need to take care of. I have things here.” He gave a firm squeeze.

  “Call me as soon as you find anything, and seal it. Collect nothing from this area. Got it?”

  “Roger that, Frank.”

  “Thanks again,” Frank gave a single, nod, stepped back, and turned. He walked away, but not without looking back a half dozen times before heading off to find Ellen.

  ****

  Tap-tap-tap-tap

  Henry’s hand came down connecting to Danny’s, stopping him as he tapped his pencil in a nervousness from end to tip. “Please.”

  “It didn’t sound right,” Danny said, as they sat in communications. Henry showed up a minute or two after Frank and Robbie left. And that wasn’t even fifteen minutes since the call from Jimmy. They had cracked the code. They had six minutes. Six minutes had passed. Nothing. Nothing but a radio call placed over the ‘all call’ channel.

  Danny thought about that radio call.

  The exchange of two male voices were clinically calm. Usually, over Beginnings radio they didn’t stick with radio protocol, they joked, had emotions to their tones. Not that time.

  “Roger that, just an incident. Situations under control, over.”

  “Black eye, you’re coming through on the all call, are you aware, over.”

  “I’ll switch to secure channel, out.”

  It was like nothing Danny had ever heard on Beginnings radio. He probably wouldn’t have made a deal about it had he not been on pins and needles regarding Joe.

  “It didn’t sound right," Danny repeated. “Almost like it was set up to keep people calm. Something happened, Henry. I have a feeling.”

  Henry swallowed, stood up and walked to the door. “You coming?”

  “Where?”

  “To find out for ourselves. I can’t live off of the ‘no news is good news’ thing right now.”

  Danny shook his head. “No.”

  “No? But you’re the one going nuts.”

  “Yeah, I’d rather go nuts right now, Henry, than know.”

  Henry understood, but unlike Danny, Henry had to know.

  ****

  Ellen tried again, but with no success. Dean wasn’t answering the phone. Not like she expected him to. It wasn’t all that long ago he left to take a nap. But she wanted to share the genuine looking cell divisions that were occurring.

  “Damn it.” She placed down the phone and watched the computer. “This is brilliant work, Dean. Brilliant.”

  “El.” Frank called out softly as he stepped into the lab.

  Ellen could hear the click of his boots and slow movement. “Hey, hon. just one second, I have to mark this down.”

  “Ellen.”

  She immediately stopped. He just called her Ellen? Glancing over her shoulder, she immediately dropped her pencil and stood when she saw him. Frank was a mess. His face black, clothes dirty. Her eyes cased him and she spotted the burns on his hands. “What happened?”

  Frank’s lips puckered as he neared her.

  She knew him. Better than anyone could know another human being. Ellen’s heart sunk. His brown eyes were dark and glazed.

  “Sit down, baby.”

  Ellen literally stumbled back. ‘Baby?’ when had he called her that. She caught her breath. “Frank, what happened?”

  Frank swallowed, his entire neck moved. “There was … there was an accident. I didn’t want you to hear it from anyone else but me. Okay? I … I … don’t even know where to begin to tell you.”

  She locked eyes with him. Locked. Waiting and hanging on his every word.

  “My dad …”

  “No.”

  “El.”

  “No. Frank. I see the look on your face. Your … no.” Ellen shook her head and covered her ears.

  Frank grabbed her hands, lowering them. “He’s gone, El.”

  “No.” Ellen spun from Frank and grabbed a pencil. She stared at the computer. “He’s not.”

  “El.” Frank walked up behind her. “I’m sorry. He’s gone.”

  Ellen dropped the pencil and froze. Her head lowered.

  Frank wrapped his arms around her from behind. The second he touched her, embraced her, Ellen folded. She crumbled, bodily and soul. “Not, Joe. Not Joe. Tell me, not Joe.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “No, Frank.”

  It took Frank to hold her u
p. And he held her. Clenching to her for him and her. Ellen’s knees gave away as she buckled, and began to sob.

  All Frank could do was hold on, burying his lips to her head, bracing her as she just broke. Frank was prepared for her reaction, he didn’t expect any less. How could she react less? It was Joe.

  ****

  Once they had moved out of the sight of the line of utility buildings, Hal pulled the truck over. Stopping briefly to come up with an agreeable plan.

  How they would tell Andrea, what the best approach was. They had it planned; they would take their father’s body to the clinic, and then head over to the house to break it to Andrea. All was going as planned, until they found out, the hard way that Andrea was not at home, but in the clinic.

  “My goodness, if it isn’t my sons. Three of you all together.”

  Hal, Jimmy, and Robbie, just about at the clinic doors, stopped when they heard Andrea call out from the other end of the hall.

  Robbie slowly look at Hal. “I can’t face her.”

  Hal nodded and squeezed Robbie’s shoulder. Both he and Jimmy turned around.

  Hal could barely talk. “Andrea …” He cleared his throat. “What are you doing here?”

  “Oh,” She walked to them. “Tina went into labor. I’m finishing up. She delivered a healthy, happy boy at 11:58 am. What are …” She stopped walking and looked at Robbie. “What’s wrong?”

  Hal moved closer.

  “Hal?”

  Gripping Andrea’s hands, Hal locked into a stare with her. “Where can we talk?”

  ****

  Jenny Matoose rode to Bowman with Elliott Ryder, simply to find her husband. Very little was spoken in the truck. Elliott was returning to keep Bowman in order. It was unknown how long Hal would be occupied. Jenny sniffled a lot. She was still dirty from the day, shaken from the experience. She didn’t have time to stop. She returned the children and kept the news of Joe’s death a secret, until it could be announced. Hence another reason she went with Elliott.