Chapter 13 –
Time to leave
I had never been hospitalized before, and I hope I never am again. It is impossible to sleep there. Some nurse came into my room every hour to wake me and shine a light in my eyes. By the tenth time I demanded a certificate of achievement in ocular contraction. She claimed she didn’t understand my accented French. I told her I was an American and we sue hospitals for harassing patients. She told me I was too grumpy to have a concussion and she would have the doctor discharge me. I guess that proves crabbiness can be a virtue.
Elise came and got me around noon. I made a big show of walking across the parking lot on my own. She made a big show of not noticing how badly I was shuffling and weaving. Gustav was waiting for us. He would be our companion for a while until they determined who had come after us and why. All they knew so far is there had been three unidentified men, now all dead. Gustav and his squad had been paying attention to the motion sensors and were waiting. The grenade that hit the back of the house surprised them, but the rest had been pretty straightforward – or at least it was in his version of events.
Who they were attacking was a mystery. If Elise, were other ministry officials also targets now? If me, was my family at risk? Maybe it was both of us since we had both been at the rescue of President Jolliet and had been photographed many times. I asked for a phone to call my family, but Elise said her mother had already done that. And that the family already knew something was up since a squad car was parked in front of every family member’s house. Someone was protecting them. My thanks to the mysterious guardian.
Gustav took us to the home of Elise’ parents. Our house was uninhabitable. I could see that as I got out of the car and looked across the back yard. A huge stretch of blue canvas covered the section of wall that had been blown out. Across the backyard there was police tape in several places, presumably marking where they were still gathering evidence. I was concerned to see the tape was spread over the backyards of six or seven homes. We had brought trouble to the entire neighborhood. I wondered what kind of reception we would get the next time we walked around the block.
Inside the DuPry house we found the girls busily packing for us. Well, actually for me. The police had allowed Marie and the girls to go into the house and grab clothing for us. Elise had selected most of the clothing for herself, with Marie and the girls helping carry it down stairs. Then the girls decided they should pack for me while Elise carried her clothes across the yard. They had two suitcases and most of my clothes spread across the living room couch, and now they happily showed me where they had put my underwear, and which outfits they had selected for me. They had an explanation for every color combination and every possible occasion. They did have some concerns about my fashion sense, but they thought if I carefully wore the clothing in the combinations they had selected, I should not be too embarrassed to be seen in public. Of course what they really meant was if I wore what they thought I should wear, Elise would not be too embarrassed to be seen in public with me. I shuffled over to a chair, thanked them, and let them get on with their apparel matching.
I may have been suffering a mild concussion, but I was still bright enough to deduce that luggage meant travel. We were going somewhere. Everyone was so excited about the preparations, it took a while before anyone got around to telling me where we were going. The destination turned out to be pretty logical. We couldn’t stay here. Contractors had already been hired, but it would be over a week before the house would be fixed. You will be pleased to know I kept my mouth shut about the contractors. A week? For French contractors? We would be lucky to be in by Christmas. Besides the repairs that were needed, there was the question of our security. It might be safer for us if we were out of sight. Okay, so where were we going? Kaskaskia. That actually made some sense. Elise had been cleared to go there on vacation, though they had never set an exact date for her travels. Now seemed like the right time.
I settled back in my chair, watched the girls put shirts and pants in appropriate pairs, and quickly dropped off to sleep. Since the room was gratefully free of nurses, I was allowed to sleep. Things were getting better.
While I slept, the finishing touches were put on the plan. We were to leave in the morning. Gustav would drive. Lots of people were informed of our location, and some preparations were made at the other end. Elise also talked with my mother to tell her of the plan. Meanwhile, I got hours of sleep. Finally they woke me for dinner. Marie is a great cook, but I found I didn’t have much of an appetite. That bothered Elise’ father a bit so I got yet another light shined in my eyes after dinner, but apparently I contracted appropriately.
Eventually it was time for bed. They had determined we would sleep in Elise’ old room. I thought that might be interesting and I was right, but first I had to get there. It was on the second floor. I spent a lot of time studying the photos that covered the stairway walls, and checked out the wall paper patterns, and complimented the quality of the banister. Meanwhile, I took one stair at a time, caught my breath, and then took another one. By the top of the stairs I was drenched in sweat and really ready for bed.
But first let me tell you about her room. Apparently she had put a major effort into decorating it when she was about fifteen. There was lots of pink, and some stuffed animals, and posters of Canadian boy bands. I walked into the room and started laughing. But it was a good laugh. I felt like I could see her now as a teenager, just a normal girl doing normal stuff. “Dr. DuPry” would not arrive for another dozen years. This room captured the girl that was, the girl who had enjoyed a very normal, very happy childhood. Elise let me laugh. She was comfortable with who she had been.
She closed the door behind us. “I used to dream of having a boy up here.” She said. She helped me get undressed and pushed me back on the bed. “How does it feel to be a dream come true?”
“I like it.” Good thing I had taken an afternoon nap and was feeling much better.
It was logical, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. It made perfect sense to get going before dawn so there would be fewer eyes around. But dawn in June came around five, and I had really liked being with Elise in that little room. No matter. Up before dawn and out the door we were. The girls gave me one final lecture on what to wear when, and Marie gave us coffee and rolls to take on the trip. And we were gone, headed down the highway to Kaskaskia.
While Gustav drove, Elise and I sat in the back seat and planned. We brought up a map of the city, and studied the main features. Of course the most important feature was the Mississippi. The river had moved many times over the years, and like a snake, it had first tossed a coil over one side of the town, and then over the other, so that the older part of town was essentially an island. But the town was so important, it had docks on both sides of the river, and grain elevators lined up for miles. Then there were the train yards, the airport, and endless warehouses. We might be able to walk around the older part of town – the island, but the working parts of town were massive. We would be driving through those sections.
What would we do in Kaskaskia? Now that we had finally found the time to go, what was the point of the trip? Let’s admit, part of this was vacation. Elise and I had spent very little time together over the last year. For people slated to get married, we weren’t having time to ourselves. Another reason for the trip was to hide out. That sounded bad, but apparently someone wanted one or both of us dead. Who would think to look for us in Kaskaskia, the truck stop capital of Illinois?
Then there were professional reasons. I wanted to walk the streets where the first Jolliets had created the trade that united the two colonies. Important things had happened in that town. Trade in corn and squash had become trade in so many things that two colonies had become one country. I wanted to see that place.
Elise had her own professional reasons for the visit. While I wanted to see how trade had united a country, she wanted to
see how trade was being impacted by a divided country. The local barge people could give her current tonnage going in and out of the port, but she could also talk with river boat pilots and hear their stories. What were they encountering on their trips?
It occurred to me, I got the better end of the deal. I got to study the good old days. And they had been very good. They led to three centuries of nationhood. Elise, meanwhile, had to review the bad current days, where people fought over churches. Unless, maybe, someone turned this all around. Maybe in Kaskaskia. Maybe Elise.
So we drove south, reviewing the maps on her laptop computer. We laid out our initial agenda, picking our priorities. We could not be too certain of our time frame. We were pretty sure the Ministry would give Elise a week. We might even get ten days (since our home contractors were certain to be behind schedule, I could use them as an excuse). But it was unlikely we would get more. So we picked and chose with care. The one thing we were certain of is that we would stay together. We would both be present at every interview, at every historical site, at every social event. We could not control what was happening around us, but we could control our choices. We chose to stay together.