![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Cantata
Wells watched them go. It appeared that Laura was already starting to tell Kaylee the error of her ways to the tune of headshaking and finger waving. Kaylee wasn't a silent participant, either, her own younger tones joining in with the slightly deeper voice of her mother.
"Only in Italy could two women argue and no body would notice." Wells muttered. He considered for a second and then added, "Maybe in Jersey."
He watched the women until they were inside, then he leaned back against the Fiat, and thought. After a long moment watching the crowds mill about, seeing the panhandlers and the drifters, the pickpockets and the average shopper who was oblivious to them all, he sighed, walked across the street to stand in front of the little kiosk that held the Il Giulia Directory.
He quickly ran his finger down the listings until he found what he wanted. He turned and walked into through the doors, keeping his eyes alert for what he had told Laura to watch for anyone, anything suspicious.
He followed the directions he had memorized from the directory and located the shop he was looking for. "God love Radio Shack," he said.
After leaving the electronics store, he located the shopping mall's business office. What he was looking for was public internet terminals. The business office told him that they were located in the civic center.
At the civic center, he stowed his packages on the floor at an empty kiosk much like the one he had used back in the States. He swiped his credit card, and bought twenty minutes of time.
Typing furiously, he launched an email system and sent a message to Sarah. He was greeted with the now familiar password screen. He typed in his password and Sarah responded, "Is this secure, Richard?"
"No," Wells typed, "But what I'm going to say doesn't have to be. In an hour, I want you to do a background check on Sylvester and Fred Goins. You will find a distant connection to Hamilton, but I want you to ignore that. I want you to trace their direct family history; back to before they came to the United States."
"All right," responded Sarah.
"Then I want you to send that information to Hamilton," Wells typed. "Encoded and for his eyes only, all right?"
"All right." A pause. "Is this information also not for Laura?"
Wells didn't respond immediately, and the delay was long enough for Sarah to ask if he was all right.
"Yes, Sarah. I'm fine, thank you for asking." He hesitated again, briefly, then typed, "Sarah, revoke the access I gave Laura and Kaylee. If they contact you, then you may communicate with them, but they are to know only the barest surface information, please." He thought a moment, and then typed, "As for Kaylee, revoke all of her access to any knowledge of me, please."
"Very well, Richard," Sarah responded. "I felt she was a risk all along, you know."
"Yes, Sarah," Wells typed. "I know you did. She's not a risk, Sarah. She's just a child wearing grown up make up." He paused. "One, no, two more things. Send a cab to the Il Giulia, will you?"
"Very well, Richard," Sarah said. "And the second?"
"My name is Herbert George Wells, Sarah." Wells typed before closing the connection, gathering his packages and leaving.
Two hours had passed before Laura and Kaylee got back to the Fiat. They carried four large bags apiece. Laura looked for Wells as they got near the car, and not seeing him, ran the rest of the distance. When she got there, she dropped her bags, turned to Kaylee and let loose a string of Italian invectives that caused the younger woman to back up a step.
"Mama!" Kaylee cried out, "What is wrong? What has happened?"
"He's gone!" Laura started to cry. "He's gone," she said softly through her tears.
"Maybe he's just gone shopping, mama," Kaylee comforted.
"Look!" Laura said, pointing to the front seat of the automobile.
Kaylee walked up to the Fiat, unlocked the front door and leaned in. When she straightened back up, she held two packages. "This one is for you, apparently," she said with a question in her voice, as she held out a slim package wrapped in blue to her mother. "And this one is for me."
Laura tore the paper off to reveal a long key, a chess piece, and a letter. She held the key up wonderingly, looked briefly at the knight, and then raised the letter to her wet eyes.
"My darling Laura," she read aloud. "I have figured it all out, as I said. I could have stayed and gone picnicking with you and Kaylee. I could have told the two of you about what is going on and what needs to be done. I believe it's not a necessary thing any more to include you and Kaylee in the danger."
"I have taken steps to stop the action before it has started. Expect Hamilton to contact you. He knows about you and me, and he has researched your past as well as Kaylee's. He's one of the good guys, you can trust him."
"The key is not a key. It's a pretty little USB memory device that will allow you to locate me through Sarah. The true key is in the bottom of the knight." She turned the chess piece over and saw that the bottom was open. She reached awkwardly into it with her little finger. What she felt caused her eyes to grow wide, and she pulled her finger out wearing a sapphire ring. The stone was cut in the shape of a heart.
The letter continued, "Tell Kaylee that I understand." Laura started to sniff, the tears not being able to be held back any longer. "Tell her that I wish I had known her years ago, that I could have been something other than a stranger to her. She doesn't trust me, and I don't blame her. She has no reason to trust any man, but I hope that in time, she'll move past the scars of the rape. I love you both. Queen's Knight's sacrifice."
Laura dropped her hands to her sides. "Rape?" she asked in a shocked tone. She looked at Kaylee through leaky eyes. "What rape?"
Kaylee was crying, too. "I'm so sorry, mama. He's gone and it's all my fault."
"What rape, Kaylee? What is he talking about?"
"How could he...? I never said..." Kaylee started to deny it, looked at her mother's face, and then looked down at her shoes. "It was something that happened long ago." She looked up at her mother, tears streaming in free flowing rivers. "I didn't want to tell you. I never wanted you to find out..."
Laura asked in hushed tones, "The Underground? The two weeks?"
Kaylee nodded and burst into new tears.
Laura walked over to her daughter; put her arm around her and the two sat on the hood of the Fiat. "I have an idea," she said. "Let's go get some of that icecream and go sit in the Boschetto and we'll have an old fashioned mother daughter talk." She raised her daughters chin and looked into teary blue eyes with teary brown eyes. "You think you have a secret? I have some as well, daughter of mine."
As Laura took her daughter's hand, she stopped and asked, "What did he get you?"
Kaylee lifted her present, and through tears and sobs said, "This." She handed her mother a book. It was The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Laura opened the inside cover to find the words Wells had written there.
They said, "What's important is invisible to the eye."
"I think... Tuti Fruiti." She said, hugging her daughter.
no subject
--------------------------------
"Yes, Sarah," Wells typed. "I know you did. She's not a risk, Sarah. She's just a child wearing grown up make up." ((make-up))
-----------------------------
*bursting into tears (and having to re-type this three times cuz i couldn't see where my fingers were)* That's magnificent, Chet....
no subject
I actually included that semicolon, but the spell checker didn't like it. Why? Cuz it's Microsoft!!
Thanks for the make-up thing.. that darn hyphen.
Now I know why Kaylee was acting so horrible. I didn't know any of this until I got around to writing it. It was an unknown factor until the story told it to me.
Wells is on his own now, except he has Sarah, of course. The story has played itself out for me, and I have one of two directions he will go. Which one remains to be seen.
As always, thanks for your help, Capitani. (You might notice that this area also address some of the concerns you addressed. Kaylee does indeed have issues. - I suspect this would not have happened if not for my able bodied Proof Reader telling me that she just wasn't reacting normally. The story actually demanded she act like that to Wells. I literally could NOT change it without damaging the fabric that was being woven. Now I know why. )
no subject
no subject