Those Children Are Ours

by David Burnett

  Then it was college. He’d refused to pay for it and dang if she didn’t get a scholarship and a part-time job. Then she’d met Thomas. Then she’d married him. The thought of it made him feel sick just as it had twenty years ago when she’d told him what they had planned. Thomas was worthless. He taught English, wrote books, took pictures, sailed a boat, and drank wine. Why couldn’t she find a man who worked hard all day with his hands, who hunted and fished, who liked whiskey and was partial to ’shine, who might chase an occasional woman but who would always come home to his wife in the end? A real man.

  At last, Jennie had come to her senses and had moved out, but then she’d let Thomas have the children. My grandkids, he thought. He swore under his breath.

  He’d told her to bring them to him, but she’d refused. Didn’t want her children brought up like that she’d said, whatever that had meant. When she had finally gone to court, he’d thought she had come to her senses. But no.

  If Jennie had just cooperated, he wouldn’t be driving down this deserted highway tonight, running from the law. The wail of a siren cut through the silence. The blue lights seemed to be flying toward them.

  “Askins, what do we do?” Kenny and the others were all staring at the approaching car.

  “Sit up, Christa. Scream. Wave your arms.” Alexis let out a wail and banged against the window as the lights filled the rear window.

  “Hide them. Cover their mouths,” Askins ordered.

  The car raced up from behind, almost rear-ending the van. Then it jerked to the left and whooshed past, disappearing around the curve ahead. Kenny did not even have time to reach for Alexis.

  “County cop,” Askins snorted. “Told you they would know nothing.” He heard Christa heave a deep sigh. Glancing in the mirror, he saw Alexis settle back in her seat, a scowl on her face.

  He’d made mistakes with Jennie. Not as many with Sarah. He’d get it right this time. He glanced at Alexis again. She was going to be one tough nut to crack.

  As they approached Atlanta, the traffic grew heavier. Reaching Snellville, they were in the suburbs. Crying shame what happened to a fine little town, Askins thought. He recalled when he would see a single traffic light as he drove through, just as he reached the Methodist church. Now, there was one on every corner and you could shop in every chain store known to man.

  Used to be able to breeze through in fifteen minutes. He looked at his watch. It would likely take forty-five tonight.

  ***

  Emma tracked Christa as she moved to intercept. Knowing it was a blue van would make identification easier. At least it was not a white four-door! She felt confident she could locate the vehicle. After that, she was not so sure.

  She imagined running it down and forcing it off of the road. Bond might do it that way, she supposed. A better plan might be to follow the vehicle until it stopped and to rush it when someone opened a door. She wished she knew who had taken the girls, how many people there were—there would have to be more than one in order to force them into the van and to control them once they were inside. Her pistol was in her glove box and she had to suppose that whoever had her children would be armed too.

  At the moment, though, her plans didn’t matter. For the past half hour she had not moved two feet. The Stone Mountain Expressway resembled a parking lot more than it did a highway. A man in the car next to hers had told her that a pile-up had occurred ahead, blocking traffic in both directions.

  The only point of light in the situation was that the other vehicle was not going anywhere either. She had watched it on the screen as it slowed, approaching from the other direction. She toyed with the idea of walking along the shoulder, finding the van, and extracting her children. It was not a totally bad plan—the van would have stopped when she arrived, be surrounded by other vehicles, be unable to flee. She would have the element of surprise and tons of witnesses. Had she known how far away the van was, whether she would be able to slip through the accident site, and, primarily, how long traffic would be at a standstill, then she would have set out already.

  ***

  “Damn.” Askins pulled to a stop behind a white Corolla. The road ahead was a sea of unmoving automobiles.

  “What’s wrong?” Kenny called from the back. “Road block? Are they checking cars?”

  “Doubt it.” Askins rolled down his window and called to a woman in the car beside him. “Any idea what’s wrong?”

  She looked over and smiled. “Accident. A friend saw it happen. An eighteen-wheeler ploughed into a group of cars.”

  “Not good. Not good.”

  “My friend tells me that the wreck itself is eastbound, but all of the lanes are pretty messed up.”

  Askins thanked the lady, raised his window and turned around. “Okay, it looks like we’ll be here awhile. I don’t want any trouble. No screaming, no waving, nothing.” He glanced at Christa and Alexis in turn. “Got it?”

  Christa’s body remained slumped against the door. She gave a brief nod.

  “Alexis, you hear me?”

  “Answer him.” Kenny reached across and popped the back of her head, retreating quickly to his corner.

  “I hear you,” she shouted. “Doesn’t mean I’ll obey,” she added under her breath.

  “What did you say?” Askins turned almost completely around and glared at her.

  “I said you can go to…Nothing.” She looked at Kenny. “Do that again and I’ll scratch your eyes out.”

  “You could try.” He gave a little laugh. “But then you’d have to get close to me.”

  “Downside to everything.”

  Askins shook his head and turned away. Bickering like they’re already married. He killed the engine.

  ***

  Jennie screeched to a stop, leaving her car in front of her house with the door open. Dashing inside, she snatched the receiver from its cradle and called the campus police.

  “No, Ms. Bateman, we have no additional information. The state police have taken over the case. An Amber Alert will be posted within the hour.”

  “I think I know where they might be going.” She told the officer about the cabin. “My mother gave me the address.”

  “I’ll pass along the information, Ms. Bateman. If they are in Alabama, that’s a different jurisdiction…”

  “Officer, if the state police can’t find my children, I’ll have to do it myself.”

  “Ms. Bateman, the best thing for you to do is to stay at home where we can locate you. You need to allow the police—”

  ***

  Another half hour passed and the sun was setting when Emma’s telephone rang. She recognized the number as Jennie’s and she hesitated before answering. If Jennie was involved with whatever had happened to the girls, then any information she might provide would be useless, perhaps misleading. Plus, if she was involved, then Emma didn’t want her to know what she knew. She allowed the call to go to voicemail.

  As she switched back to her app, she noticed movement in the other lane. Westbound traffic was beginning to roll past. She checked her phone. Christa was getting closer. Eastbound cars remained stationary. Emma opened her door and walked to the median. She could at least get a tag number.

  The cars were creeping past. The dot on her screen was almost over her. She looked up, studying the cars. There, up ahead. A blue Dodge van followed a white Corolla. She peered at the van. An older man was driving. There was a boy in the second seat, a person slumped against the window and forms, perhaps people, in the third. Suddenly, the person in the second seat sat up, shouted, and pounded on the window. Her face was caught in the last rays of the sun, but then the boy sitting beside the person grabbed her—grabbed Christa—and pulled her down.

  “Chrissie,” Emma screamed as the car moved away.

  ***

  As the van began to pick up speed, Christa suddenly lunged at the window, waving and calling for help. Billy placed his hands on her shoulders and slammed her down onto the seat, clamping his hand over her mouth.r />
  “Don’t hit me,” she begged.

  “Don’t hurt my sister.” Alexis reached across the seat and shoved Billy away.

  Kenny yanked her back, while Christa launched herself toward the window and pounded on it, shouting.

  Billy pushed himself off the floor and pounced on Christa, pulling her away. “I’ll punch you if you make another sound.”

  “Chrissie,” a woman screamed.

  “What was that?” Askins slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the Corolla. His head whipped around. “Did someone call Christa?”

  A horn behind him blared and a man’s voice demanded that he move on. He caught a glimpse of someone standing in the median, one hand waving wildly. He glanced back as he tickled the accelerator.

  “Who was that, Christa? Who was that woman?”

  Christa turned toward him, her face blank. “I don’t know.”

  “Of course you do. You were smiling like a Cheshire cat.”

  “You mean the cat in ‘Alice and Wonderland?’”

  “Of course that’s what I mean. Big grin on your face. Who was she?”

  “I don’t know. She certainly looked funny, didn’t she? Jumping around? Waving her arms?”

  “She called your name.” Billy shook her. “Who was she?”

  “She yelled Chrissie. That’s not my name.”

  “Leave her alone.” Alexis popped Billy on the forehead and turned quickly toward Kenny as though ready to attack him. Kenny kept his distance.

  “Doesn’t matter anyway,” Askins snorted. “She’ll be tied up in traffic for an hour. We’ll be on the other side of town by that time.”

  ***

  Jennie descended the front steps two at a time. She had the address of the cabin and she entered the data into the GPS. The officer had promised to relay her information to the state police, but she doubted that he had taken her seriously. He had told her to stay at home, but there was no way.

  She cranked the engine, then killed it, and rushed back inside. Somewhere she had a pistol, one her father had insisted she take when she bought her house. “A single woman, living alone needs protection,” he had told her.

  She found it in a shoebox at the back of her closet. Six bullets lay in the box, and she paused long enough to insert them into the cylinder. All I do is point and shoot, she thought. Jennie was not sure she could actually shoot someone, but having the weapon made her feel better. While her father would not seriously harm her, she feared that the boys might. Kenny’s father was a violent man and Kenny might take after him.

  ***

  Forty-five minutes later, the van had made it through Atlanta. Emma was still tracking it as it headed west. The highway ran to Douglasville, near Jennie’s house, and she guessed that to be their destination.

  When the eastbound traffic had finally started to move, Emma had located a route to the interstate, and she was now speeding west in pursuit. She was traveling faster than the van, their routes were almost parallel, and she was just slightly behind them.

  As she maneuvered along the interstate, speeding through town, she passed the state capitol building, its golden dome gleaming in the light of the full moon. Ahead, a sign stretched across the highway. Normally, it displayed travel times to the next major intersections, but tonight, there was an Amber Alert. “Two teenaged girls…brown hair, blue eyes…dark blue van…”

  “Yes,” she screamed. “Yes, yes, yes.” Jennie, someone, had reported what had happened. Now, when she found the vehicle, she could call the police without sounding like a crazy woman. She pressed her accelerator. “Speed limits in Atlanta are simply suggestions,” she mumbled.

  ***

  “How much longer,” Christa wailed. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

  “I do too. There’s a service station ahead.” Alexis pointed.

  Askins gave a deep sigh as he pulled in to the Circle K, stopping on the side of the building, the engine idling.

  “Alexis, Christa, Kenny will take you inside while I fill up. No funny business, you hear? No talking to anyone. Get that? Try to run and when I catch you…”

  “I get it. Let’s go.” Alexis crawled out.

  She stretched as she stepped outside. It felt good to be able to stand and move around. Kenny was still in the van and she took two quick steps before Askins caught her arm.

  “Ow, that hurts.”

  “I’m not as stupid as you think. You’ll learn that.”

  “Why are you doing this to us?” Alexis swung around to face Askins. “What do you want?”

  He looked at her for several moments. “You’re my granddaughter, my kin, my flesh and blood. You belong with me. We need to be a family.”

  She started to argue, but Kenny gripped her other arm.

  “Be careful with this one,” Askins told Kenny. “She tried to run just now.”

  “I’d have been disappointed if she hadn’t.” He laughed. “I’ll watch her like a hawk.”

  Askins handed Kenny a twenty. “Pay for the gasoline and buy some crackers or something for everybody. We’ll have dinner at the cabin.”

  Kenny grasped Alexis’s arm in one hand and Christa’s in the other and steered them through the door. They turned away from the clerks and walked toward the back.

  As they reached the restroom, Kenny opened the door and glanced inside. “There’s a window, you see? It’s high and it looks locked, but I’m going to time one minute and you’d better be finished, because I’m going to check. Or…” he smirked, “would it be better if I just stayed with you?”

  Alexis sniffed and pulled her arm free. “Open that door before I’m finished and you’ll never have children.”

  He laughed again. “Your minute…starts…now.” He held up his arm, looked at his watch, and closed the door.

  ***

  Never thought a girl could do it in a minute,” Kenny said as Alexis opened the door. He pushed Christa into the restroom and grasped Alexis’s arm again.

  “Major disappointment, huh?” Alexis jerked away and started toward the door, but Kenny lunged and caught her. “Try that again and I’ll bust your sister’s face.”

  A minute passed and Kenny banged on the restroom’s door.

  “Let’s go. Come on out or I’m coming in.”

  A few seconds later, the door slowly opened. Kenny reached for Christa’s arm and hauled her out. Then, he led them around the store, having them collect packages of crackers, cookies, and potato chips, As they walked up to the counter to pay, they could see that Askins had finished filling the tank, and he was leaning against the van, staring at them. An older man and a woman stood behind the cash register, talking.

  “I’m going to let your arm loose so that I can pay,” Kenny whispered to Alexis. “Remember what I said about your sister.”

  “Pump number one. And I want these,” he told the clerk, motioning for the girls to put the food on the counter.

  A television set hung from the ceiling. The local news was on. The store was quiet, and they could hear the announcer. “An Amber Alert has been issued tonight for the greater Atlanta area for two teenaged girls. Alexis Lindsay, age sixteen, and her sister, Christa Lindsay, age fourteen…”

  Alexis recognized the photograph that Jennie had taken of them on their first visit.

  “That’s me,” Christa screamed, pointing to the picture. “Me and my sister. Help us.” She pulled her arm away from Kenny, but he caught it and jerked, throwing her off balance.

  “Help us. Please help us.” Alexis kicked Kenny and headed for the door.

  Kenny slapped Askins’ money on the counter, stepped in front of Alexis to block her path, and pulled Christa toward the van. “Keep the change,” he called over his shoulder. As he opened the door, Christa grabbed the handle and held on.

  “Please. You’ve got to help us.”

  As Kenny pried her hands loose and flung her toward Askins, Alexis slipped passed him and began to run across the parking lot.

  “There’s an A
mber Alert on TV,” he yelled. “She started screaming.”

  “Call the police,” Christa shrieked.

  Alexis looked over her shoulder as she reached the highway, just as Askins drew back his hand and slapped Christa, knocking her against the van.

  “Get Alexis,” he ordered.

  Kenny dashed after her, tackling her as she prepared to leap across a ditch on the other side of the road. They tumbled to the ground, and Kenny pinned her shoulders.

  “You’ll pay for this. You’ll pay, big time.” He slapped her across the face, then flung her over his shoulder. She pounded on his back and screamed as he marched back to the van, heaving her inside.

  The tires screeched as Askins pulled out of the lot and turned toward the on ramp. “We need to make time. It’s dark and no one will notice us.”

  ***

  Jennie turned off the interstate near Tallapoosa and drove slowly through town. Five minutes later, there was a sign to Ward’s lake, and her GPS told her to take the turn. Her car jostled over the hard rocky pavement. She heard gravel pinging against her car, and she braked, hard, continuing at a crawl. Rounding a curve, she caught sight of the moon reflected in the lake below like a giant search light. Ordinarily, she would have pulled over to look, but not tonight.

  She passed several cabins, a couple with lights in their windows, then she made a sharp turn to the left before climbing a small rise and finding herself on a dirt road. A mile later, she spied a cabin, set off by itself. She had arrived.

  She turned off her headlights before swerving in and allowed her car to coast down the long driveway. The cabin was dark. No van was to be seen.

  Jennie felt her stomach drop. They should be here. They’d had a head start and she’d had to stop in Whitesburg. They should have arrived already—unless they had taken another route. Perhaps her father had guessed that the police would be looking for him and had taken a back road. If so, he would not have been able to drive as fast as she had, and the trip would take longer.