and, even more surprisingly, understood why Mary was coming.
Together, neither of them had any good ideas, but both knew it wouldn’t be healthy for an infatuated teenage girl to stay with him. He could control himself, but not her. In the end, they decided that Mary would stay with Kelly, but only so long as it would take to talk sense back into the girl. A week tops. Mary would be disappointed, but it might be just the experience she needed to bring her back to reality. Later that night, Mary sent a text message with her schedule to arrive on Amtrak at about one in the morning, day after tomorrow. It was too late to get anything that night, but she could leave tomorrow morning and transfer through Boston in the afternoon. It gave them more time to prepare, even if it did mean they’d lose some sleep. He would call Gort tomorrow night, when Mary was in transit.
The next night, when John was alone again in his apartment, it was time to call Gort. He welcomed the chance to talk to his friend, but dreaded the subject. He couldn’t put it off any longer and pressed the numbers. It rang several times; then he answered with a single word, “Gort.”
“Hey, Gort, it’s John, John Hollis.”
“John! Good to hear from you so soon. You callin’ to say I won the lottery or somethin’?”
Without much polite chit chat, John explained about Mary and their plan for her to stay with Kelly.
Gort was quiet for some time then spoke. “We kinda had a fight, John.” John didn’t say anything. “We got kinda tangled into a discussion that I don’t think either of us wanted. John, we know she don’t wanna spend her life here. It ain’t for everyone. But, I guess I just came on too strong about her future, and she took it wrong. She figured I was tryin’ to make her come here after she’s done with school. Honestly, John, I don’t want her unhappy. We’re lonely, sure. Our boy is gone, and maybe he’ll come home, and maybe not. Anyways, we miss our kids. It’s lonely here like you know.”
John really didn’t want to meddle any further. “Look, Gort, it’s really none of my business. You all are my friends, and I don’t want anyone hurt. I know Mary is confused. Hell, I couldn’t wait to get away to the Navy when the time came. Kelly will talk to Mary -- girl talk. She’s my special friend, and I told her how you took me in. I think Mary just needs someone to lean on, and Kelly will be great for that.”
Gort’s voice seemed to tremble slightly, just enough for John to picture the big rough man with a tear in his eye. At that moment, John felt what it must be like to be a father of a daughter he might not ever see again. It probably wasn’t true, but John could feel Gort’s pain. Gort appreciated the call and knew, in the end, that Mary would be safe and maybe even understand things better.
Driving from the train station at BWI at nearly two in the morning was surprisingly like any other hour of the day. There was plenty of traffic on the roads. She’d arrived with a very large suitcase, which he guessed contained everything she’d taken to school. She was mixed up and taking each day, one-by-one and wasn’t making plans about anything. If she didn’t go back, she wasn’t leaving anything behind. He glanced at her. “So, are you tired?”
“No, I slept on the train.”
“How about food?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Okay, well we’re headed to my friend’s house. Her name is Kelly. She’s…”
She stopped him. “Wait … I want to be with you. You said I could stay with you!”
They bantered back and forth, but there would be no change of plans. He told her that he and Kelly worked together, and he would be around most of the time. He just wasn’t sleeping at Kelly’s. She pouted for the rest of the way to Kelly’s, but she was polite and grateful when the girls met. He was taken aback when Kelly quickly asked him to leave so that she and Mary could “get to know each other.” He hoped it didn’t mean any kind of confrontation was coming. He was invited to come for breakfast in about five hours. He didn’t know what to think after that, but he was tired and wanted a few hours more to sleep.
He was back at seven for breakfast. “Where’s Mary?”
Kelly said nicely, “She’s sleeping.”
They didn’t talk about their visitor again until they were in the car for the short drive to GHI. He asked, “So, what did you two talk about last night?”
She looked at him with a kind of “none of your business” stares. “She’s a nice girl, John. She just doesn’t get along with her father right now. It’s not too surprising at her age.” He just nodded as she continued. “She doesn’t think she can talk to her parents as an adult … sounds like dad’s a hard case.”
He smiled to himself. “Yeah, Gort’s like that, pretty domineering. So, what kind of feminine advice did you give her?”
“I told her about my father and mother. They had my future all laid out from the time I was born. I wasn’t strong either. One day, after I finished my sophomore year in college, my dad and I got into a shouting match. It was the first time I stood up for myself.”
“What about?”
“He wanted me to be an engineer. He even knew that I should major in mechanical because there weren’t many women in it, and companies were scrambling to balance their workforces. To him, everything had to fit some kind of blueprint. Anyway, I stood my ground. I was quitting engineering and going into life sciences. He didn’t know anything about it. All of his associates were engineers. Even my mother was an engineer. He wanted me to be like them, and I said NO!
“It was crazy. I hated myself for hours after that and stayed in my room. He wouldn’t even talk to me at dinner; but afterword, an amazing thing happened. He mellowed out and said he just wanted me to be happy. I think he and my mother must have had a talk. After that, I was able to show him the kind of career options I could have. He was really interested. Now, today, we’re very close, and he’s proud of me. He tells me so all the time. It was just that one time when everything changed between us. He’d always controlled my life, forever. Then it all changed. I stood up to him and he changed completely.”
He looked at her. “You had that discussion with Mary this morning?”
“Yep. She seemed to relax a lot. She thanked me and went to bed. She’s sleeping like a baby.”
“Well, I’ve met her father. He’s no pussycat.”
She gave him a sideways glance, “We women have our ways.”
Ambush
Two days after Mary arrived, the three of them had become great friends. Mary was ready to go back to school and feeling a little embarrassed for having brought them into her mess. But, it also served to reset the relationship between her and John. Her fantasies dissolved after Kelly became her friend too. She would leave the following afternoon back to Portland. She even had a brief call with her father that never reached the mellow point Kelly had described with her own dad, but they were at least being civil. John was sure she was leaving with a new sense of self-worth and self-confidence. Kelly could do that.
That morning, Mary was going to GHI with them to see what they did for a living and how it benefitted humanity. John and Kelly had discussed it when they were alone the day before, and Kelly made the point that Mary needed to understand a much broader scope of options ahead of her. She’d grown up on an island with a single industry. Men fished and girls got pregnant, many before finishing high school. Any sense of another reality was totally artificial. Her only exposure to any other options was through television, and it had never really influenced her. She’d seen all the cops, lawyers, and doctors that producers could conjure up, but it wasn’t real society. She’d lived in her own real, albeit weird, society. On the mainland, she’d seen people behaving normally without the violence on screen. Her problem was that she couldn’t imagine anything outside of Matinicus; everything else she’d been exposed to was artificial. She needed to broaden her perspective, and it was the one thing John could do, with Kelly, to repay the Swensens.
They had som
e bagels and juice that John bought on the way to Kelly’s that morning. Mary was animated about the prospect of seeing the real world of science with her two friends. She realized how the work John and Kelly did could change the world. They talked a great deal about school and how they had chosen their careers before leaving for the Institute.
Outside, a rusted grey Ram pickup was parked nearby with the tailgate facing toward the apartment. The owner had watched it for several mornings when the man and woman left for work around the same time each day. Their morning schedule was predictable. He had climbed into the bed of the truck under the decrepit camper shell and sat on some junk with a folding chair in front of him for balance. He was more nervous than he had imagined and his palms were sweaty. The money was good, and he had a job to do. He told himself repeatedly that it would get easier, but he had to do the first one.
He’d lied to his client. He lived in an old camping trailer on an abandoned lot near the Chesapeake Bay, over twenty miles away. His wife was gone, his house, his kids; hell, even the dog. It might have been