Her Chance Encounters

by Caine,Ruby

  Not bothering to see if there was any damage to her car, she rushed to find the child. A part of her wanted to turn around and rush home to the safety of her apartment and pretend nothing had happened. Another, stronger part of her needed to do everything possible to help the child. "Please let her be okay," she prayed over and over again.

  Following the skid marks, Adrienne attempted to prepare herself for the worst. The child was probably dead. All the praying in the world could not erase that fear. Why had she turned her head away from the road? Adrienne cursed herself for even coming here in the first place. If only she had waited to meet Chance tomorrow, the poor girl would be safe right now. Adrienne wished Chance were with her right now. He might be able to help her deal with this. Maybe she could call him for help.

  The principal expected to see the crumpled body of the child every few feet. The farther she rushed down the road, the more convinced she was that she had somehow missed the body. She almost gave in to the urge to start back tracking, when she spotted the area she had first encountered the child. A small figure clad in a long, flowing nightgown waited for Adrienne there.

  Adrienne stood transfixed for several moments. There was no logical explanation for what she was seeing. Her car had to have struck the child. She might not have actually seen it, but Adrienne knew it was inevitable. The girl was standing directly in her path. The car had been going far too fast to avoid her. But there the child stood, looking straight up at her.

  "Are you alright?" Adrienne finally found her voice. Slowly moving toward the little girl, she tried not to frighten her away.

  "Are you hurt, honey? I would like to help you, if you will let me." Inching her way closer, she bent down directly in front of the little girl. Giving her a friendly smile, Adrienne's eyes ran across the child's small frame, looking for any signs of injury. The girl seemed pale and cold, but unharmed by the whole incident.

  "Will you help me find my mommy?" The pitiful plea forced Adrienne's eyes up to the girl's white face. "Please help me find my mommy."

  "Are you lost, honey?" Adrienne asked, reaching over to run her hands across the girl's shivering arms. The girl's skin and clothes were soaking wet. Worse, her skin was deathly cold. "What's your name, honey?"

  "Cherice," the girl answered, her eyes never leaving Adrienne's face. Her small hand hesitantly reached up to touch the principal's cheek. Adrienne was a little startled by the gesture, but she forced herself not to grimace at the child's icy touch. "I need to find my mommy. He's trying to keep me from her."

  "Who's trying to keep you from your mother, Cherice?" Adrienne looked around the dense fog for a possible threat. She realized they were still standing in the middle of the road. Taking the child's freezing hand, she walked toward the levee.

  "My daddy," the child whispered. "He does not want me to be with my mommy, but I have to. I have to find her!"

  "Why don't we go and sit in my car, Cherice? Then we can try to figure this whole situation out." The poor child must be the victim of divorce. Countless students at her school suffered the same fate. Marriages that lasted were few and far between these days.

  "It is too late now. Mommy is already gone."

  Adrienne smiled gently down at the child. "Why don't you tell me where you live so I can bring you home? I am sure your father is worried sick about you."

  While allowing herself to be placed in the front seat, the child still looked forlorn. "I do not want to be with Daddy, Adrienne. I want to be with my mommy."

  Pulling the seatbelt across the child's cold frame, Adrienne stopped when she realized the child called her by name. "I don't remember mentioning my name. How do you know who I am, Cherice?"

  "I heard my daddy talking about you."

  Mulling over her answer, Adrienne walked around and took her own seat. "Your daddy was talking about me?" Talk about confusing. This night had more twist and turns than the Mississippi River. How could the child's father possibly know her? Her school was forty miles away. As far as she knew, only one person from this parish even knew her name.

  A sharp pain filled Adrienne's heart as a new possibility occurred to her. "Cherice, is your father Chance Breaux?" Damn the man, surely he would have mentioned if he had a daughter. Then again, why would he do that? He only contacted her to discuss River Oaks. Until this afternoon, he never actually attempted to pursue a personal relationship with her.

  Cherice giggled, "Chance is not my daddy. My daddy does not even like Chance very much. He makes my daddy even madder than my mommy did."

  Adrienne sighed. "Chance makes a lot of people mad."

  "You are very pretty, Adrienne." The child reached over and touched her long, thick hair. "My mommy had hair like this..."

  A faint blush warmed Adrienne's cheeks and neck. "Thank you. You are very pretty yourself."

  "I look like my mommy. Even daddy says I do. Will you promise to help me find her, Adrienne? I miss her so much."

  "I promise to try." The pleading tone in the young girl's voice tore at Adrienne's heart. It was impossible to turn her back on this child. Despite being May, the chill in the car made Adrienne switch on the heater. The smell of burning metal was so intense, she nearly started gagging. Driving slowly, they searched for the child's home. The fog outside was so thick. Visibility was nearly impossible. Again she considered pulling over and waiting for it to clear up.

  "There it is!" Cherice pointed to a dirt road a few feet ahead.

  Pulling the car into the drive and following the dusty trail, Adrienne finally saw the outline of a large house emerge. Even through the fog, she found something very familiar about the place. Impossible, she told herself. Until tonight, she had never even been to this area before. "I don't see any lights on, Cherice. Are you sure this is your house? It's so foggy and dark right now."

  Surely the child's father would be up looking for her. Then again, maybe he did not even realize the youngster had snuck out. The closer they got to the house, the clearer it became in the headlights. No matter how impossible it seemed, there was something very familiar about it.

  The car came to a stop and the lights lit up the structure. It was two stories, very old and in shabby shape. Even the gutters were rusty and looked ready to fall down. There was an ugly statue of a pelican on the front porch. The bird looked creepy. The beak looked oddly shaped, almost as if it was oozing with bubbles.

  Gradually it downed on her where she had seen this house. Reaching down to fetch the map Chance had drawn, Adrienne groped for the interior light. As she did, Cherice mumbled something about Adrienne promising to help her. Then the child quietly opened the door and disappeared in the fog.

  Adrienne looked down at the map with astonishment. This had to be a bad dream. Reaching down with her left hand, she pinched her right arm. All she got for her trouble was a red mark. Cherice's laughing voice called out to her from the front porch. "Are you coming, Adrienne?"

  "Wait a second," Adrienne muttered, concentrating on the map in her hands. "There's something weird going on, Cherice. This can't be your house.... I think it's mine."

  The sound of a slamming door warned her the child had already disappeared into the blue structure. Stepping out of her vehicle, Adrienne was astonished to discover the fog had completely vanished into the night. The cold breeze and musty smell left, too. Cherice was nowhere to be found.

  Knowing the child was probably hiding somewhere in the broken down old house, Adrienne decided she should find her before the child got hurt. "Cherice, where are you? It's too late to play games, honey. This isn't your house. Come back outside. Your poor father is probably going crazy with worry looking for you. I have to get you home."

  When no reply came, Adrienne took a step toward the house. Stopping short, she opted to study the structure first. The plantation style building was old and decrepit. If Cherice was hiding inside, she certainly was well concealed by the blackness. The child must not be spooked easily. Even though she was a grown woman, Adrienne could not he
lp but feel threatened. It was almost as if a powerful force was guarding the house, warning off all strangers.

  Adrienne made herself push past her concern. There was a young child roaming around the old house. She had to find her. The lumber of the rickety old front porch groaned as she ventured up its stairs. Half expecting to fall through a rotten piece of wood, she let her eyes adjust to the light provided by her car.

  "Cherice, this house does not look safe. You really need to come out of there right now, before you get hurt." She used her principal tone, honed from years of training to deal with children.

  Adrienne's fingers reached up to clasp the door handle of the old oak front door. She swiftly yanked it back when a rather large spider scampered across the cool surface. Swallowing back a curse, Adrienne stood back so the lights from the car shone directly on the handle. It was covered with cobwebs and dead insects. No one had used this entrance in quite a while. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Something was extremely strange about this whole situation. How did the child get inside if she had not used this doorway?

  "The window," the principal reasoned. There were several large, framed windows along the wooden porch. Adrienne carefully examined each of them. They were infested with cobwebs and showed no signs of being disturbed recently. "Okay, not the windows," she muttered, refusing to give into the urge to flee.

  She probably went through a back entrance. Without the car's headlights, the back of the structure was pitch black. Far off the flares of the oil refinery shone in the distance. She had to use her fingers to guide her. This entrance was on the ground level. A double glass door was positioned near the middle of another porch. The glass felt cool against her damp forehead as Adrienne pressed her face against it to study inside. It took a while for her eyes to adjust, but she did manage to discover old furniture cluttering the main hallway. Cherice could be hiding behind any number of things there.

  The glass doors proved to be locked shut. The rear windows had been sealed by wooden hurricane shutters. Adrienne felt defeated. Even if she did manage to get inside, without a flashlight, it would take her hours to search the old house. Things really were looking hopeless. Her only hope was to get the child to come back outside on her own accord.

  "Cherice, this is ridiculous. Stop playing games. Come out here this instant." Many a student and quite a few adults rushed to listen when she used that authoritarian tone. Knocking on the glass panels, Adrienne's eyes scanned the shadows inside. "You don't belong here."

  Behind her, a tall figure slowly moved toward Adrienne's location without a sound. Unaware of the danger, when the person addressed her in a grave tone, she screamed and jumped several inches. "You are the one who does not belong here," he spat back. Adrienne spun around so fast, she nearly lost her footing. "Who are you, lady? What the hell are you doing on my property?

  Blinded by the glare of the intruder’s flashlight, she instinctively raised her arm to shield her eyes. Would the craziness of this night ever end? "Your land?" she stuttered. "Unless you're the ghost of Stanislaus Hymel, I really don't see how that could be." The last comment was more to herself than the person standing in front of her.

  "Adrienne, is that you?" the voice boomed.

  "Uncle Stanislaus?" Adrienne whispered, wishing she would wake up from this horrible dream.

  Lowering her arm, she attempted to focus on the face of the man. The beam of his flashlight bobbed up and down as he approached. Recognition finally dawned, and she threw herself into the man's strong arms. "Chance, oh, thank goodness. I am so glad it's you. You had me terrified for a moment." Then his earlier comment sounded in her mind. She pulled away and raged at him. "What the hell do you mean 'your property’?”

  Instead of going on the defense, the tall man turned the tables on her. "What the hell are you doing sneaking around this place in the middle of the night? Do you have any idea how much danger you put yourself in coming here? I would have thought a principal was intelligent enough to stay away from precarious situations like this."

  "It's my property, Chance Breaux. If I want to sneak around it day or night, I have a legal right to do so." She used her finger to push on his chest.

  "Legal or not, if you ever do something so dangerous again, I will..."

  "Smack my hand with a ruler?" she hissed, hands on her slender hips. What was it about this man that had her ready to snap? He always seemed to be telling her what she had to do.

  "I don't need a ruler and my target is a bit larger than your hand, lady."

  Her lips pursed tightly and she started to challenge his threat. Then she remembered Cherice and forced herself to back down. "Stop trying to intimidate me and help me figure how to get inside this house."

  "To hell with going inside," he said. "You have two choices, Adrienne. You can get in your car and go home, or you can let me drive you to my place. Either way, you are not going inside that house until morning. There is no telling what kind of trouble you'll get yourself into in there."

  "I am not going anywhere." She insisted just as forcibly, and he took a threatening step toward her. "There is a child hiding somewhere in there."

  "A child?" He studied her face. "Adrienne, have you been drinking tonight?" Stepping up so the toes of their boots were touching, she slanted her dark head and glared up at him. "No, I have not been drinking, but even if I was, it would be none of your business."

  "Good Lord, woman, you are soaking wet."

  "The fog was very thick," she muttered.

  "Fog?" Chances eyes narrowed, and he bent down to sniff her breath. She smelled clean and fresh, not of alcohol. "Look around, babe. It's a clear night. There is no fog around."

  "Not now," she stuttered. She could not believe she thought having him here would help matters. He was making her dafter. "Dammit, Chance Breaux. There was a dense fog just ten minutes ago. Why the hell are you here anyway? River Oaks is still mine. What are you doing sneaking around the place?"

  "Protecting your property, you little sassy woman. I was on site at the plant tonight when I saw lights shining over here. Trust me, there was no fog. I would have noticed."

  "There was a fog. I was caught up in it since I arrived on the West Bank. How else could I have gotten my clothes so wet?"

  Chance studied her wet things. The snug jeans clung provocatively to her subtle curves, and disappeared into sleek, high heel boats. By far, the most interesting part of her attire was her shirt. The damp material fit her like a second skin. Obviously she had neglected to put on anything under it. She was a bit chilly from the wet material, if he was not mistaken. Following his gaze, Adrienne let out a small gasp and immediately crossed her arms in front of her.

  "Only someone not in their right mind would try it, but it looks like you tried to take a swim in the river."

  "What the hell would I be doing swimming in the muddy Mississippi River at midnight?"

  "Probably the same illogical reason you decided to arrive at some deserted, run down property for a nighttime tour?”

  It took her several deep breaths, but she managed not to go for his throat. "I do not have enough time to argue with you about the fog or why I am here. Right this moment, there is a little girl lost inside this dark house. Her name is Cherice. I am pretty sure she's a runaway. I almost hit her with my car tonight."

  "You almost hit someone with your car? Do you see now what I mean about putting yourself in danger? Tell me everything that happened from the beginning."

  At least he seemed to be listening now, instead of jumping all over her, so she complied. "Cherice was standing in the middle of the road about half a mile down river. I didn't see her until it was too late. The fog was so thick... Don't even tell me there was no fog, or so help me I will scream! I will admit I was not concentrating on the road like I should have been. The riverboat sort of sidetracked me for a second or two."

  Chance's lips formed an unreadable line. "A riverboat?"

  Nervous, sarcasm seeped in her voice. "Yes, a
riverboat. You've heard of them, I'm sure. Large boats powered by a huge, turning paddle in the back. Don't you dare make some macho comment about needing a paddle right now to use on me, either."

  "Calm down." Pulling off his work shirt, Chance carefully settled it around her shoulders. Lifting her long hair from underneath the material, he set it free to blow in the night air. Bending his head slowly, he brushed a quick kiss across her smooth forehead, down her small nose, before claiming her lips.

  The warmth of his embrace settled over Adrienne, and she pulled herself tighter into his arms. Solid and strong, Chance was at least one part of this horrible night that was consistent and predictable. Reaching her cold fingers up, she wrapped her arms around his warm neck. In the dark, she could not see what he looked like without his shirt, but she could imagine he was all muscles and smooth skin. What would he do if she reached down to run her hands across his chest? Would a mat of hair greet her or was he smooth and hard there?

  The sound of a childish giggle invaded Adrienne's thoughts as Chance’s hands started exploring. Suddenly, she remembered where she was and what she needed to do. Pulling away abruptly, she rounded to look at the glass doors. The dark shadow of a little girl stood there briefly, then disappeared quickly from sight.

  "Cherice!" She banged on the window. The strange odor was back. Turning back to Chance, she demanded, "Did you see her just now?"

  "You probably saw a curtain flutter or something," he told her, scanning the area with his flashlight.

  "There is a little girl in there. She was just standing at the door. Her name is Cherice. She's got waist length black hair. Her white nightgown shouldn't be too difficult to see with your flashlight." Realizing the girl mentioned Chance, Adrienne decided the huge man beside her probably knew exactly what Cherice looked like.

  "You know her, Chance. At least, she knows you. She lives around here. Think about it. Which of your neighbors has a little girl who's about six or so?"

  "I don't have any neighbors. The only properties around here, besides the oil company are my place and River Oaks. Trust me. There aren't any children living within miles of here."