By Air Mail Ch.02

"You're not going back there but one time," Marjorie told her that day, "and that's now so that you and I can pack a suitcase. You're leaving him today."

Amelia remembered bursting into tears, "But he told me that if I left him, he'd kill me."

"He'll be too busy hiding and shitting himself," Marjorie said, "scared to death because Harry and Deke will be looking for him. Don't you worry yourself, Baby."

As Amelia thought back, wondering why she'd tried so hard to be a better wife to someone worthless and not going for the help of her two mothers long before, Marjorie and Rebecca were having their own flashbacks.

---

When Bobby got home that night, the flat was dark and he began to curse, railing about what he was going to do to that pissy little bitch wife of his. He stopped in mid-sentence then, thinking that he might have seen something and he turned to feel for the light switch.

He was doubled over the next second after catching a fist in his gut out of the darkness. While he stood bent over, someone grabbed a whole hank of his hair and lifted his head up at a painful angle.

Before he could figure out what was even happening, there was a flash of pain and he was doubling over again in spite of losing some of his hair to that iron grip. His balls felt like they'd been hit by a train and he began to retch.

Just as he was beginning to think that he could ride through the heavy ache, it happened again and he felt himself struggling to breathe and beginning to pass out. Whoever had done it had kneed him in the pills from close up and he smelled a little perfume.

But the hand didn't let him go and he was dragged forward so that he toppled onto his face. Before he could curl onto his side, he cried out when he felt a knee land in the small of his back very cruelly and his head was lifted up again. A different hand was pulling back on his forehead.

He heard his own vertebrae grinding for a moment.

Something cold was pressed against the side of his throat, ready to be pulled across. After a second, it began to feel more like a very thin line of fire as his nerve endings told him that it was being pressed there just a touch more so that he could feel the edge.

There was no tremor to what he felt. Whatever held that thing had absolute, calm control, so there was no shake to what he felt.

None.

"She's not coming back," Marjorie said in a low, menacing tone from somewhere in front of him, "and that's a skinning knife at your throat, by the way."

She bent down a little to look into his eyes, "Also, that's your VERY unhappy mother-in-law who's holding it, so you ought to try hard not to move."

She chuckled in a soft yet threatening way, "You oughta see how fast she can gut a deer with that thing."

He felt something cold being pressed up against his head down low behind his left ear when Marjorie gripped his hair tightly again as he heard her move around to that side on her knees. The pressure increased until his jaw began to ache.

"And this is a Derringer," her voice said quietly in a pleasant tone.

He wanted to cry.

He heard and felt the hammer being drawn back, "Only a .22, and this close up with only a short cartridge in it, well it's really quiet, Bobby - and there won't even be any blood - just one little hole and your scrambled brains since the bullet won't leave your poor little skull."

She leaned on it a little and he thought that she'd tear the cartilage in his ear. He began to whimper.

"You'd better hope that it kills you, because if it doesn't," she chuckled, "you're right back to wearing diapers, aren't you?

But that wouldn't happen. Who would come looking for you before the landlord came about the smell - or the rent - in what, two weeks?"

She jammed the small pistol up against his head even more and the bottom molars in his jaw on that side began to throb.

"Don't you dare piss your pants, little boy," she growled at him, "I'm not exactly known for my patience and understanding when I'm feeling this crampy. I've shot bears because they were in my way when I've been less achy than this."

The first sound that he heard out of Amelia's mother from behind him was when he heard her chuckle then, "I remember."

He felt her ease up on the blade's pressure as she dragged the edge up until it was just about under lower barrel of the Derringer.

"I'm not crampy," Rebecca whispered as she dug it in a little, "I just hate you."

"I got him," Marjorie said, "Do it, Rebecca."

It was a bit of struggling, mostly his, but they pulled his arms back one at a time and tied his hands. The one time that he fought them a little, Rebecca bounced up and drove her knee into his back again. He didn't try to move his feet, though they tied them too - with just enough slack to be able to hobble. Marjorie yanked his hair again to be sure that she had his attention.

It was working, because Marjorie saw that he had tears in his eyes as she leaned in again.

"Now, you're going on a little trip. You're going to meet some people in Boise who want you back very much. Your bag is already packed and it's over there by the wall. It's pretty empty but for a razor and a pair of socks.

You might have fooled Amelia with that shit talk like you believed that they don't take married men in the army. I know that you never went and reported and they told you that down in Boise like you told her. You never went at all because you don't dare show your face in a place like that draft office. They might just figure out who you are."

He tried desperately to get free, but they were ready for it. Rebecca punched him below the ribs and he was still - except for his struggles to catch his breath.

"I don't doubt that the very first word out of your mouth in your life was a lie," Marjorie said, "I was here with Amelia while you were at work. I read the notification myself. It says all men between eighteen and sixty-four have to register and they'll take them up to forty-five.

ALL men. It didn't say shit about married or not or not wanting you if you're just a cold little prick who kicks the shit out of Rebecca's daughter to make himself feel big and tall.

Deke called down there and they don't want to see you at all anymore. The induction center people, I mean.

Because you're already in the army, aren't you? They gave Deke another number to call and he learned that you jumped the fence and ran all the way from Georgia. You're not from there, and you're not from here like you told all of us. You're from Ohio and the army wants you for desertion.

Now you're going back, and if you think you've just gotta make big fuss over it, well I've got a couple of words for you.

One father, one uncle.

You remember them, don't you? I've seen each one wrestle a full-grown steer down just for fun. They're some mad at you, boy. I wouldn't give either one of them a reason to get any madder."

The hammer on the pistol was eased back down and Marjorie slipped it into her pocket. She and Rebecca pulled Bobby upright fairly easily. He looked around, weighing is chances to get free and run, but even that lasted only a moment before Rebecca punched him over his solar plexus and he was on his way back down gulping air like a fish on a beach.

Harry walked in and picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of grain. Deke slipped a burlap bag over his head and they walked out to throw him in the back of a car.

By the time that Bobby really had much of a clue about anything, there was a loud droning roar all around him which went on and on. He had it pretty much figured out by the time that they landed in Boise. Harry walked him out in the darkness of the airfield by the hair and told him to piss if he had to because they had to wait a little while. Two hours later, he was handed over to three men, all of them in uniform.

"He was fixin' to run again, huh?" one of them said, "We've found out all about his record.

You wouldn't want to hear much of it." he sighed in a slightly bored tone, "We see a few energetic cowards like him sometimes. We're just glad that you found him for us, that's all. It's saved Uncle Sam from having to put out wanted posters for a professional liar, thief ... well, there's no need to mention any more than that. We'll take him from here."

They untied him, but not before letting his see that they were all armed and one man's pistol was right there in his hand. His ropes were exchanged for handcuffs.

"Where's he going?" Deke asked.

The head man shrugged, "This is the first time that he's been AWOL for long, though it's been well over a year. They'll offer him a chance and he'll either wise up and go with the flow or he'll go to Leavenworth and they're not handing out less than five years if that's his plan.

Since he's been AWOL this long, they'll dangle ten years over his head - fifteen if he runs again, though if he decides to fly right, he might get a month in lock-up and then he'll get posted to a training camp that's made just for ones like him with real high fences where they beat you with rubber hoses if you take too long to think about anything. For today, he'll be in a cell and one way or the other; he'll be far away by this time tomorrow."

Harry stepped up and growled into Bobby's face from an inch away, "Don't you ever show up near my daughter again, boy."

In a little time, Amelia began to get letters from Bobby, saying how sorry he was and that he was turning his life around. She never looked at them once. He told of his training and that he was learning to drive a tank. The letters kept coming and Amelia kept refusing to read them. Only Rebecca did, and only once each one, wanting to feel him in his words for a different reason.

The letters stopped for a time and one day, Rebecca looked up from her dinner and said only, "He's dead. It took a long time."

"What took a long time? Harry asked.

"He was in a tank, I think they are called," she said tonelessly. "His commander fell for a trick and they drove after some .. cars or something. But it was a trap and they used big guns to punch through all of the tanks. What came in was hot and the tank burned inside. He was not dead. No one heard him inside."

She looked up, "Two hours, maybe longer."

Amelia and Marjorie looked at her for a few seconds and then it was as forgotten as Bobby.

----

Marjorie smiled as her own memories of it passed, "That's ancient history, Baby. What is it that's on your mind now? I'm not as gifted as your mother, but even I can see that you've been carrying a weight on you this last while."

Amelia hesitated, using the necessary delay of eating carefully as a cover for it. "When I was a kid, I was always so much in awe of Tad. He was always so ... good-looking and ..."

She shook her head, "Well, you know how he is. At the time, I never thought of it being a little strange, since he's like one of my brothers to me and he always has been. Somehow, after a little time - well, a couple of years, I found ..."

She wrinkled her brows for a second as she thought, "You know how you can get to thinking when you're a girl about who you'll end up marrying - even though it's pretty much all a daydream?"

Marjorie nodded carefully, but Rebecca just chuckled, "Not such a daydream sometimes. My people say that a girl often knows the one long before he takes the first step on the path which will lead him to her arms. So, that was the time that you knew that you wanted Craig?"

They both looked at Rebecca and Marjorie shook her head, "There you go again, speaking profound things as though they were the same thing as knowing it's going to rain by looking up and sniffing a little. Where did that come from? I mean, I've always held it as a pleasant little thought, but only in my heart. I didn't ever think that I'd hear -"

She stopped there, because she saw that Amelia was nodding a little. She leaned back on the big pillow behind her in some wonder. "Tell me how that came to be."

Amelia felt a little stuck for a moment, but then she reminded herself who she was sitting with. Marjorie was both wise and shrewd and her mother was plugged into the doings of the planet in some way.

"I think that I've always loved him. I mean, I know that we grew up together and sure, in our way as a family, we were always like a girl and her brothers anyway. But one day, I just knew that he was the one. I think it happened - or it started that day when Craig and I accidentally locked ourselves into the shed outside when you sent us out to get the bag of onions.

By the time that we figured out that we were stuck in there, Craig began to look like he was gonna have trouble breathing in a minute. I couldn't think of a thing to do so I kissed him to keep his breathing smooth, since I was worried that he'd take one of those fits that he used to get back then.

But even though we only kissed a little and it was just two kids kissing, after you came to get us out of there, I felt different and then I just knew. I've known ever since."

She thought about things and then she looked up, "But then I got tired of waiting for him. He's so shy - he always has been. I ..."

She looked down, "I didn't know that it was me that he was waiting for. I just had to let him know and I never did. I never saw the signs in him that I can see as clear as day now when I look back.

I guess that when I met Bobby, I thought about it and decided that Craig would probably think of me as his sister and he'd never ..."

She looked down at her plate and began to torture the last piece of beef as though it was her dead husband, pushing it around in the gravy slowly, as though she wanted it to know it's fate, but she wanted to prolong things for another minute.

"I did about the worst thing that I could have done to Craig. Bobby made me think that he thought that being a husband would get him a pass at the draft board - though he only told me that lie after we were married. I didn't know anything about it then, and he pushed so hard to get married and I ..."

"You married him while Tad - who would have sent Bobby on his way - was gone and while Craig was up on Iron Mountain for the summer," Marjorie said with an understanding and slightly sad expression. "He never said a word about it to anyone but me - I guess because that was just his way anyway and also it was the way that Tad had taught him to be.

But I knew that he was hurt."

She reached out and touched Amelia's knee, "He wasn't hurt by your actions, Amelia. He understood in his way. The one time that he said anything to me about it, he was cursing himself for being the way that he was and for not saying how he felt to you. But I know that he carried it around for a long time. He only got the cold front put together properly when he came back down from the mountain after the next summer."

She smiled a little weakly at Amelia, "He's always loved you. He's just always lived in Tad's shadow whenever Tad was around and before he left, though he's loved Tad forever too."

Rebecca looked over in that very piercing way that she sometimes had, "I saw something in him as you three began to come together. He saw you much differently than he must have seen his own sister where he came from - or even any other girls that he knew here.

Say it, Amelia. Say what you carry now."

"I know the one," Amelia said, as a statement to them both which she knew would mean more to her mother for the way that it was spoken.

"Good," Rebecca nodded, taking up the seriousness of it, "At twenty-two, it is time. Who is the man - or woman who will kiss your flower to bring you joy?"

It was then that Amelia smiled a little mischievously at her mother, pleased that she held the means to surprise the all-knowing-one just a little bit.

But she shook her head then, "I was just about to try to surprise you, but even so, it still makes you right. Bobby never, ever did that for me. He thought that part of a woman was dirty.

Actually, nobody has ever done what you're talking about, Mom.

They say that you can never go back," Amelia said, almost as a whisper. "I think that's the way that it is most of the time and for most people.

But I have to go back. It might be too late, but I want more than anything to try.

Tomorrow is the day that Craig is supposed to come back from his job on the mountain."

She nodded once just as her mother often did, "Tomorrow is the day that - if I only get one chance - I'll fix this for him and for me."

"Good," Rebecca said.

"We're hoping for you," Marjorie nodded, "you probably won't get much arguing out of him. Craig just needs to see that you're being heartfelt. That boy had always been yours, really."

Amelia looked from one to the other with a small smile, "So that's it? That's all you're gonna say? I just told you that I want Craig - and he's been like a brother to me. Isn't that maybe a little too close?"

"What do you want to hear?" Marjorie smiled, "I don't much feel like arguing - especially since I agree with you."

"You do?" Amelia asked and Marjorie nodded, "You've finally figured out that you want Craig. I've known that forever. You've just never seen it the way that you are now. I was also afraid that I never would hear it."

"He is not even related to you by blood," Rebecca nodded, "Why look for problems? You have always lived together in this family and I can't think of one argument or fight that you ever had with each other. Few people get that chance.

Now stop trying to pick a fight and go have a hot bath Amelia. I can see the tightness in your shoulders from here. You need to relax more than you need to try to fight with us. Go."

In the bath a little later, Amelia still thought about things because she couldn't help it.

She remembered so much of their times, the three of them. She didn't know why she'd never thought of it, but she guessed that everything has to end one day.

After supper, the evening before Tad left, she'd been getting ready for bed, since she was going to sleep over at Marjorie's house that night. She remembered pulling on a flannel nightgown and walking to the boy's room. She knocked softly and walked in when Tad said to come in, and she heard Craig's soft sniffling as they sat on the bed.

"It's just me," Amelia said, looking about as sad as a lost kitten over Tad's upcoming departure. There was a moment where they just sat and looked at her.

They sat on the bed together and Amelia did her best not to cry and she knew that Craig faced the same struggle. Tad was straining manfully to put a more mature face on it, saying that they'd see each other again.

But Craig and Amelia had only shaken their heads. "No matter what," Craig whispered, "We won't ever be the same again."

It was the breaking of the trio, the last day for three kids who'd have done anything for each other. At that time, Amelia had been fourteen, Craig was fifteen, and Tad was eighteen.

They looked at her and she smiled through her tears, "I've always felt so lucky that I've had you two and I've always known how much we all care about each other. Nobody could have better brothers."

They reached for her and the three of them just tried to hold on, though all of them would have wanted to cry.

After that, things just fell still between them and Amelia got off the bed and after a tearful goodnight kiss from them both, she went to bed in her room.

The next day was awful down at the train station with them all saying goodbye to Tad. Deke had offered to fly him but he said that he wanted the time on the train alone. Amelia held it together, though barely. She did fairly well, considering, just as Craig managed to do.

But after the train pulled out and the end of the caboose on that mixed freight with one coach faded from sight, it signalled the end of an era. Marjorie held up, but you could see the cracks in her dam. Rebecca wasn't much better and even Deke and Harry looked rough.