CHAPTER 16
1321 Words
CHAPTER 16
“What are you doing?” Roger hadn’t expected to see his wife awake. It was past midnight. He had spent another long day at the office. His back ached from hunching over the pile of paperwork on his desk. If he was lucky, Juliette would come with him one day to help him organize since she had more free time now. Roger put on his pajamas and sat down on the bed next to his wife. “How was your day?” He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.
She put her glasses on the nightstand. “Not much to report. I taught Eve how to make fudge.”
He grinned. “Then it must have been lovely.” He reached over and fingered the knots in his wife’s shoulder. When she sighed, Roger tilted his head to the side. “You doing okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Just having a hard time falling asleep, that’s all.”
“You sure?” Roger reached under her pillow. “Tell me the truth. How many Godiva bars have you had tonight?”
Juliette shoved his hand away playfully. “None.” He stared down at her with furrowed eyebrows. She held her hands up high. “I mean it!”
“Wow. I guess you really are doing okay.” He tousled his wife’s hair.
“That’s what I told you. You just wouldn’t believe me.” She smiled and lowered her voice. “Besides, we’re out of Godiva.”
Roger grinned. “That makes more sense.” He stretched his arms and sighed. Tonight, he could rest. The shipment to New York finally made it out. The Secret Seminary graduates had moved on. Juliette was still by his side, and their daughter was adjusting to college life back in the States with grace and charm. Roger leaned his cheek on Juliette’s dirty-blond hair. “Are you happy, Baby Cakes?”
“Mmm.”
Roger studied his wife. “I can’t tell if that’s a yes or a no.”
Juliette rubbed her temples. “Yes.”
“Doesn’t sound too convincing.”
She shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”
Roger made his voice rise to a falsetto. “Yes, dear. In fact, I’m so happy to be married to such a sexy hunk like you that sometimes I feel like my heart is just going to beat its way right out of my chest.”
That at least brought a soft laugh. “What you said, then.”
Roger buried his face into Juliette’s mess of curls and breathed in the sweet scent from her shampoo. “That’s more like it.”
She drifted off to sleep, and he drank her in with his eyes. What had he done to deserve someone so caring and selfless? She was an intelligent partner, devoted mother, passionate lover. She was always putting others’ needs above her own. He dozed off, thanking God for such a perfect gift.
Several hours after midnight, Juliette’s piercing cry woke up him. “What’s the matter?” He jolted upright in bed and turned on the light. “What is it? What’s wrong?” He shook his wife’s shoulder, but she continued to sob even once her eyes were wide open.
Juliette took a choppy breath. “They got her.” A desperate howl gurgled out from her throat. She had wailed like that at her mother’s funeral. It was a sound Roger hoped to never hear again.
He clutched her arm and shook her gently. “Got who? What are you talking about?”
She grabbed her hair in both fists and clenched her eyes shut again. “Hannah. They got her. They have her now.”
Roger wrapped both arms around his wife to stop her from rocking back and forth. “Everything’s fine. You were just having a bad dream.”
She shook her head and tugged on her hair. “It’s real.”
For a moment, Roger wondered if his wife was still asleep. He remembered a few times when Kennedy was a toddler and had cried — no, sobbed — in her sleep as if tormented by the devil himself. Was Juliette having the adult equivalent of night terrors? The New York pediatrician had suggested they place Kennedy in a cool bath tub to snap her out of her fits. Roger could hardly do that to his wife, but he had to find a way to stop her. He put his face close to hers. “Juliette!” He barked out the word. “Juliette, look at me.”
Her eyes fluttered open. “What? What’s wrong?” Her crying stopped, and her words were coherent.
Roger was too surprised at first to say anything, but Juliette kept staring at him expectantly. “You were having a nightmare,” he explained. “Sounded like a pretty bad one.”
She wiped her cheeks. “Was I?”
“You were crying.”
“I can hardly remember it.” She smoothed out her hair. “Did I wake you up?”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about that. What were you dreaming about?”
Juliette paused for a moment and pouted. “You know, I think it had something to do with Kennedy. Something about her missing her flight and not being able to visit us next summer. An empty-nest nightmare, I guess.”
“Yeah.” Roger rolled over. “I guess.”
***
“Did you have a hard time sleeping last night?” The voice startled Juliette. She looked up from her novel as Eve glided into the den with two cups of tea, the morning sun streaming in and lighting her up from the side.
Juliette motioned for her to sit down. “Just for a little bit. How could you tell?”
“I found some of the hot chocolate mix you left on the counter.”
Juliette grinned. “You caught me.”
“You know, I only had chocolate once before meeting you,” Eve commented after taking a cautious sip of tea.
“Was that back in North Korea?” Juliette tried to imagine life without her Godiva bars.
Eve nibbled on her pinky. “No, it was after I got to Yanji.” She lowered her eyes. “It was a gift from a customer.”
Juliette tried to mask her curiosity. Eve never talked about her life before the Sterns rescued her from the hotel district. Back before they got so involved with the Secret Seminary, Roger would sometimes pose as one of the hundreds of nightly callers, seeking out the younger girls. If they passed his initial screening, he would return for further visits and eventually give them advice on how to escape. Sometimes the girls told their friends, which is how Eve arrived at their home.
“I’m glad I found you,” Eve remarked, “because now I can have all the chocolate I want just about every day.”
“How long did you say you lived at the hotel before you came here?” Juliette often wondered where Eve would be if the Sterns hadn’t taken her in. Eventually, Roger got in enough trouble with the inn managers he had to stop his work. By then, they had already conceived the idea for the Secret Seminary and didn’t have the time to give the hotel district a second thought.
“Too long,” Eve answered.
Juliette sipped slowly. She didn’t want to run out of tea too soon for fear that Eve would jump up to make more and never finish her story. Juliette never forced the refugees to talk about their pasts, but she was dying to know more of her housekeeper’s history. “How exactly did you hear about us?”
“The girl from the room next door to me. Mr. Stern visited her one night, and she told me about it the next day. I memorized the directions he gave her and got out about a week later.”
“I remember the night you came.” Juliette smiled.
“Me, too.” Eve returned her grin. “I had never met an American before. I was surprised when you spoke to me in perfect Korean. I couldn’t believe it.”
“I’m so glad you made it here.” Juliette wondered how much emptier her life would be if Eve had never come to them, especially now that Kennedy and the Secret Seminary students had moved on. “Whatever became of the other girl? The one who gave you directions here?”
“I never saw her again.” Eve bit her fingernail and frowned into her empty cup. “I left a lot of friends back at that hotel, you know.”
“Maybe God will show us a way to help some of them.”
Eve giggled behind her hand. “Maybe Mr. Stern should visit there again.”
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