December 22nd. Hildersham, Mulberry Cottage
Jack got up at seven a.m. He felt irritable, having had a night of horrific nightmares about earthquakes and thousands of men and women screaming in agony. Still yawning, he threw some clothes on, made his bed — military habits die hard — and left his room. He knocked on Mina’s bedroom door but she didn’t answer. After a slight hesitation, he pushed the door open and went in. He sat on her bed, and waited until she opened her eyes. She was as beautiful asleep as she was awake. He brushed a strand of hair from her face, and caressed her cheek. She woke up, gently. ‘Jack?’ She murmured. He smiled. She looked at him, blinking her eyes, as if to make sure he wasn’t a figment of her imagination. When she was quite satisfied it was Jack, she put her warm arms around him, and pulled him down by her side and curled up facing him. They kissed gingerly at first, and then more tenderly. For a moment Jack felt like tossing all his worries to the wind and losing himself in Mina’s arms, but he stirred away from her embrace and sat up again.
‘Sorry. Mina. It’s not you. I’m worried.’ He ran a hand over his weary face.
‘Why? You look tired, Jack. Did you manage to get hold of your mother and sister last night to let them know you’re bringing a guest?’
‘No. They weren’t in. I’ll leave a message at their hotel, telling them we’re on our way.’
‘I’m sure they’re fine. Don’t worry,’ she said.
‘They’ve never travelled before. Of course I worry.’
‘What flight did you find?’ she asked, changing the subject.
‘I managed to get two seats with Thai Airways, but the flight was overbooked. We might be on standby today and tomorrow.’
‘That’s good, isn’t it?’ Mina said, sitting up, her hair flowing down, covering her breasts.
‘It’s alright, but I’d rather be there already.’
‘Me too!’
He kissed her, ‘I’m going downstairs to have breakfast.’
After a short drive through the countryside, Jack and Mina had joined the M25, the infamously congested ring-road, which would take them all around London, westward to Heathrow. The departure from Hildersham had been an emotional one. As British as the Bamarts were, they had hugged both Mina and Jack for a long time and wished them the best of luck. They agreed to meet after the New Year to discuss future plans concerning the tablet.
‘I wanted to ask you something,’ said Mina, ‘when you said your mother and sister had never travelled before, you meant abroad?’
‘Yes. They’ve travelled a few times to Philadelphia, to see my dad’s brother and his family, but that’s about all.’
‘So where are we going in Thailand?’ asked Mina.
‘Well, our final destination is Phuket, but we have a stopover in Bangkok.’
Jack thought about the last time he had travelled to Thailand. It was a covert operation in cooperation with the D.E.A. and Thai military forces. The operation had been successful in uncovering a drug smuggling ring with international connections. He had been sent as a military liaison officer, to make sure that their coordinated efforts would run smoothly. After the happy conclusion of the operation, he had spent a wonderful holiday travelling on a chartered boat in the Andaman Sea, stopping here and there in secluded coves to swim to his heart’s content. He had been to Thailand a few times before for other, more personal reasons and always felt at home there. He smiled to himself, remembering his last conversation with his mother.
‘Jack? A penny for your thoughts, as the Brits say?’ asked Mina.
‘I was just thinking of the efforts I had to make to convince my mum to go to Thailand.’
‘And?’ asked Mina, quizzically.
‘It was so funny. How often do you have to convince people to go on holiday?’
‘You didn’t have to talk me into it!’
‘Well, it was quite different with my mum. She could’ve stayed in any remote spot, without another tourist on the horizon. But instead, she preferred to be somewhere where other Americans stayed.’
‘Ah?’ said Mina, ‘not very adventurous, is she?’
‘Yeah. In the end, I bought them a package holiday to Phuket. She’s terrified of anything new and exotic. Jen, my sister, is hardly different. Anyway, that’s why I sent them to Patong beach: even if you’ll find as many sex shows as restaurants there, she wanted to be somewhere full of tourists, rather than one of Phuket’s more secluded beaches.’ A few more miles and Jack had to slow down almost to a halt, as they were stuck in traffic. Mina had been thinking of her own situation for a time.
‘I’m not sure I want to return to Iraq when we get back from our travels. I think I have enough material now to wrap up my PhD at Columbia and surprise the academic world.’
‘You might want to be a little careful.’
‘Why? Now that we’re pretty sure that something will happen in a decade, and the secret will be out in the open before long, won’t everything sort itself out?’
Jack looked at her. He didn’t want to disclose his fears about Wheatley, so he chose his words carefully; ‘I don’t think the Intelligence services would appreciate us going public without preparation,’ he said.
‘I wish you hadn’t contacted your… friend,’ Mina said, speaking through gritted teeth.
‘Who? Stella?’ Jack asked.
‘Yes Jack, Stella. Don’t play dumb with me.’
Jack could not believe his ears. With everything they had gone through, Mina was fishing for information about another woman. He responded with just a hint of a smile. ‘She’s just a friend, a really old friend in the service.’
‘Oh. That’s it, just a friend?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Was she more than a friend, years ago?’
‘Alright. We had an affair but it didn’t work out. Come on Mina, don’t tell me you’re jealous?’
‘You’re right. Why should I be? First you put me on a train to Cambridge on my own and then you run off to meet some wonder-woman in a pub in London. Hey, why should I be jealous of an operative who was previously your superior officer?’
He laughed and she punched him in shoulder.
‘Why are you laughing?’ she asked.
‘I never thought I’d enjoy fighting with you so much.’
‘You’re impossible,’ she blurted.
Heathrow airport. Thai Airways check-in desk.
Mina crossed her fingers, and prayed they would make the flight that evening rather than the next day. Unfortunately, around eight p.m. the final call for passengers sounded in the departure zone and their names weren’t announced. Jack was quite dejected.
‘Don’t worry, Jack. I’m sure we’ll catch tomorrow’s flight and you’ll find your mum and Jen are just fine. They probably went off on a fishing trip or something.’
‘Yes, you’re probably right,’ he replied absent-mindedly.
The airline offered them a double room in a four star hotel near the airport at a reduced price. They accepted the offer, picked up the vouchers and walked out of the airport to hail a cab.
Heathrow airport, four star hotel.
After a quick but delicious dinner, Jack and Mina went up to their room. Mina had tried cheering Jack up throughout the meal, but he seemed out of sorts. ‘Not a great start to the holiday,’ she thought to herself. He seemed so remote. She wondered if he’d soon snap out of his mood. He sat on the corner of the bed, his arms hanging by his side. Mina sat down next to him.
‘Jack? Please talk to me.’
He sighed and then looking away from Mina, began to speak.
‘I know it might sound stupid, but I didn’t really keep in touch with my mother and sister for almost a decade, until I quit the army. And even then, I only went to see them for the first time six months ago. That’s when we decided to spend our first family reunion holiday together in Thailand.’
‘So where’s the problem?’ asked Mina.
‘I guess I feel guilty for not being there already.’
‘Is something else bothering you, Jack?’ she asked.
‘Why do you say that?’
‘You’re not used to doing nothing with your time, are you? Wasn’t it Daniel who called you an Action Hero?’
‘Maybe. I felt at peace when I started my engineering work at the village.’
‘You were still doing something.’
‘So?’
‘So, I think that instead of worrying for no good reason, you should embrace this time to think about where you’d like to be going.’
He searched her face for any signs of pity and found nothing but an inviting smile. Jack felt the wisdom in Mina’s words, and understood what she meant, but he still couldn’t shake off his worry. Where were his mother and sister? He still hadn’t been able to get in touch with them. But maybe Mina was right and he was worried for other reasons. His family history didn’t usually bother him that much. He just tended to avoid thinking about it. But right now, he felt that his tough guy act was crumbling under Mina’s penetrating gaze.
She sensed he wanted to speak but couldn’t find the right words.
‘When did you stop speaking to your family?’ she asked.
‘It’s complicated,’ he muttered.
‘Try me,’ she continued, softly.
He sighed, ‘When I left home. I was sixteen.’
‘Where did you go?’
‘I had a choice: jail time or the army. I don’t regret my choice.’
‘Why? What did you do?’ Mina asked, a little taken aback.
‘I hurt a guy pretty bad, outside a bar. He was drunk, he insulted me and it made me angry.’
‘Why were you so angry?’
‘Hey. Should I lie down? Do you need a note pad?’
‘I’m not your therapist Jack, but I would like to know.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, sincerely. ‘I suppose I had been angry a long time, ever since my dad died.’
‘How old were you?’ she asked, trying to keep her questions short.
‘About eleven.’
‘What happened?’
‘He was gunned down in a drive-by shooting.’
She squeezed his hand softly.
‘My dad could barely make ends meet at the best of times. When he died, we lost the house to the bank and ended up in a trailer park. I was angry at my dad for leaving us like that.’
‘You must have missed him a lot?’
‘I guess so.’
He felt something begin to thaw inside him. He had a sudden vision of his father returning from the mill early one summer’s day and playing baseball with him in the nearby school yard. He remembered his dad’s large rough hands and the smell of freshly-sawn cedar wood on his clothes. They hadn’t spoken much, but it was a good memory. He felt lighter at heart. He looked sideways at Mina, wondering what she was thinking now that she knew a little more about him. He hoped he hadn’t driven her away. But she smiled up at him and he knew he was alright. Slowly, she put her arms around his neck and stroked his hair. He pulled her closer into him, feeling the swell of her breasts against his firm chest. He caressed her lower back. She pulled back to look at him, and then kissed him passionately. He lowered her down carefully onto the bed and started undressing her, removing her clothes, piece by piece, progressively kissing every newly bare area of her silky skin. Since the day — was it only a few weeks ago? — when Mina had seen him walking towards her in the desert with his shirt open wide, she had dreamed of Jack’s firm body pressing hard against her own. Looking deep into his smouldering eyes, she undid the buttons of his shirt. They both breathed in unison, one last gasp before the leap, one last thought before losing themselves to the pleasure of the long-awaited moment.
Mina was curled tightly against Jack’s warm chest, their naked bodies still intertwined.
‘You know, after all we’ve been through, getting shot… I should be a total wreck, but there’s something about being around you Mina, I feel I could do something amazing now.’
‘You already have, Jack.’ She said with a mischievous grin.
He laughed softly.
‘So,’ she said, ‘are you ready to introduce me to your family?’
He held her in his strong arms and kissed the top of her head.
‘Sort of.’
‘What do you mean “sort of”?’ she said, tensing up.
‘My mum is quite sweet and so is my sister, but…’
‘Yes?’
‘They’ve never left their trailer.’
‘So what?’
‘Mina, they’re not very sophisticated.’
‘Please, don’t been embarrassed by your family, not on my behalf!’
‘Alright. What about your parents?’ he asked.
‘Oh. That’s another story. They were polite on the phone of course.’
‘But what?’
‘You’re a soldier you know, you’re not a doctor or a lawyer… It might not work out.’
‘You’re joking, right?’ said Jack, raising himself on his elbow.
She looked at the shocked look on his face, enjoying every second of it, and then kissed him hungrily as she climbed on top of him.
‘Of course I’m kidding! They’ll adore you, but not quite as much as I do.’