'Til the End of Time Read online

  “I don’t know, Laura. I’ve been thinking about it for a few days. I’ve gotten pretty fond of her and, like you, I hate the idea of leaving her here. I’ve talked to Betta about her and I think she’s figured out Rhen’s not just any kid.”

  “That would be perfect, Chris. She adores you, and Betta would be a great mother. And I’d happily settle for another granddaughter.”

  “Laura, don’t get your hopes up yet. Betta has been hurting about not being able to have a baby of our own. I don’t know if she’s ready to consider adoption.”

  “At least talk to her Chris. She might surprise you. And I’ll sound out Taylor, too. One way or another we need to give this little girl a good home.”

  * * *

  As afternoon came on, the clouds returned and the temperature began to drop. Laura and Chris walked Rhen back to the orphanage. The little girl was very tired from her busy day and soon asked to be picked up. Laura held her and she snuggled her head onto Laura’s shoulder and promptly fell asleep.

  On the way back to the orphanage, Laura saw a dress in a store window. “That would be perfect for Rhen. Would you take her while I go in and buy it?” She transferred the sleeping child into his arms then ran lightly across the street and into the store.

  Chris leaned back against the wall, enjoying the afternoon sun. Rhen was pleasantly heavy in his arms and he thought more about the idea of taking her home. Tonight he’d talk to Betta. Maybe she could fly over to meet the little girl.

  He didn’t pay much attention to the nondescript car that parked across the street from him. A man got out and strolled away, on his way to a meeting or picking up some groceries, Chris mused as he waited.

  Then, with a terrifying roar, the car disintegrated and the world went dark around him.

  Chapter 8

  When Chris came to, all he remembered was the roar of the explosion and a cloud of dust coming toward him. The shock of the blast must have thrown him against the building and knocked him unconscious. Laura!

  The air was filled with the sounds of sirens coming closer. He pulled himself up and started across the street but there was nothing there. The shop was gone—only a pile of debris remained to be seen through the heavy smoke. Screaming Laura’s name he started across the street, then remembered. Rhen!

  Turning back, he saw the little girl near where he had been. He ran back and knelt down beside her “Rhen! Rhen! It’s Chris. Wake up! We have to find Laura.”

  Her eyes fluttered but remained closed. A wound on her forehead was bleeding and she was very still and pale.

  A police car tore around the corner and came to a screeching halt followed by an ambulance. The police officer ran to Chris, babbling in Bosnian, and Chris shook his head. “American,” he said. “I’m American.”

  The ambulance crew came over and quickly checked on Rhen. They put her on oxygen and moved her to a stretcher. One of the attendants took Chris’s left arm and pulled him toward the ambulance.

  “No, I’m fine. I can’t go. My friend was hurt. She was in there!” He felt a sharp pain as he tried to raise his other arm to point and looked down in puzzlement at the blood dripping from his fingers. Once again the attendant tugged and mimed bandaging him. Chris tried to resist but the police officer began to push at him, too. “No! You don’t understand! There’s a woman, my friend, she’s under that stuff!”

  The officer looked over at the pile of debris then back at Chris. “She was in there,” Chris said, “when the explosion happened. She must be under the debris!”

  The officer seemed to understand and started for where Laura was buried. Then, with a groan, the remaining lower part of the wall shifted and collapsed, adding another layer.

  “No!” Chris cried. “Laura!” He didn’t feel it as the ambulance attendant gave him a shot. The last thing he saw was the ambulance doors closing and Laura’s tomb receding, as they pulled away for the hospital.

  Chapter 9

  Taylor put the phone down slowly, carefully, as if it might shatter. Or as if he might shatter from the smallest impact. As he stood there he knew that he had never felt pain like this in his entire life. Not even the loss of his parents, or Meg’s mother’s death, had prepared him for this paralyzing pain. “Laura,” he whispered, “Laura.”

  He heard a key in the front door. Thank God, he thought. It’s all a mistake. She’s home! He moved to open the door, to take her in his arms. But it was Betta standing there, her tearstained face testimony that she had heard the news.

  “Oh, Taylor…” she said as she stepped into his arms. The two of them held on tightly in silence, sharing their fear and loss. Finally, Taylor came to his senses enough to draw her in and close the door. He took her coat and led her to the sofa where they sat facing each other.

  “They called you?”

  “About Chris,” Betta said. “But they told me about Laura, too.”

  Chris. Taylor had been so stunned by the phone call that he had never given a thought to his son-in-law. He vaguely remembered the caller saying that Chris had been hurt but by then the pain had taken over and he really hadn’t heard.

  “Chris. I’m sorry. How bad is it? How is he?”

  “He’ll be fine, Taylor. He has a broken shoulder and some cuts and bruises. I’m leaving for Bosnia to bring him home as soon as I can make arrangements.”

  “No!”

  “Taylor, he’s my husband!”

  “It’s too dangerous, Betta. I’ve already lost…” He couldn’t bring himself to say her name.

  “Taylor, I didn’t come here to ask permission,” she said gently. “Chris is my husband. I’m going. But we have to tell the others.”

  “The others. How are we going to tell your sisters? And grandparents?”

  “And Rosina,” she added. “And Aunt Beth.”

  They heard a key in the door and both looked up as Meg burst into the room closely followed by Jamie. She ran across the room and took Betta in her arms. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered as the two of them cried.

  Taylor looked at Jamie in confusion. How had Meg heard already?

  “Betta called before she came over here. She asked us to meet her here so she didn’t have to go over everything more than once. We stopped and woke Rosina on our way up. She’ll be here in a few minutes. Does Annie know yet?”

  “Does Annie know what?” She was standing in the doorway, dressed for school, her backpack over one shoulder. The dogs were with her, and unusually silent when so many people were around. When she realized her sisters were crying, a look of fear came over her face. “What’s going on? What’s happened?”

  Meg got up and went to her youngest sister. “It’s Chris. He was hurt in an accident in Bosnia. Betta is here to tell us what happened.”

  Taylor looked at Betta. “I couldn’t, Taylor,” she answered his unspoken question. “I couldn’t.”

  Rosina bustled into the room. “Megan says there is bad news.”

  Everyone began to talk at once. The noise was excruciating to Taylor. He realized that as much as he needed to be alone, he had a responsibility now to tell them what he and Betta knew.

  “Quiet!” They all fell silent as Taylor used his stage voice to be heard. “There’s more than Chris to tell you about. He’s been seriously injured but it’s not life threatening. Betta will be going to Bosnia to bring him home.”

  “Betta?” Meg interrupted. “Won’t Laura bring him home?”

  Taylor took a deep breath. “Laura won’t be coming home.”

  His words were met with a stunned silence.

  “There was evidently an explosion. Chris was hurt. Laura…Laura was killed.”

  Annie was the first to break the silence. “Daddy?” she said in a soft voice, sounding like a little girl. “Daddy, are you telling us that Mommy is dead?” Her voice rose on the last word and she burst into tears as she r
ealized that her mother was gone.

  Taylor went to her and held her as she cried. Looking at the others, he went on. “Laura was in a building and Chris was waiting outside when a car bomb exploded…the building was completely destroyed.”

  Meg, leaning on Jamie for physical and emotional support, asked, “There’s no hope she might still be alive?”

  “The man who called me said she was missing and presumed dead, but that no one could have survived.”

  “Caro Dio,” Rosina said as she crossed herself.

  Taylor stood in silence as he held one daughter and watched their world crash around the others. There was nothing he could do.

  His strength was gone.

  Laura was gone.

  Chapter 10

  “Have you told Abuelita?” Meg’s voice shook as she asked.

  “There hasn’t been time,” he said as he held Annie close to him. “I only got the call just before you all got here.”

  “Would you like me to call them, Taylor?” Rosina asked.

  “Thanks, Rosina, but it’s a call I’d better make…and soon. It may be on the news.”

  “Someone has to tell Aunt Beth,” Betta said.

  “I know. I’ll call your grandparents then call Beth.” Taylor took a deep breath. “Princess,” he addressed Annie by her childhood nickname, “you stay here with Rosina and your sisters. I have to go make these calls.”

  Rosina took the still sobbing girl and led her to the couch where her sisters were. The three of them joined into one sobbing huddle as Rosina spoke quietly in Italian, assuring them that it would be all right, even as tears poured down her own face.

  Jamie sat on the arm of the couch, his hand on Megan’s shoulder. He met Taylor’s eyes then nodded as if to say he’d stay with them while Taylor made the phone calls. Taylor turned away and went down the hall to their room.

  He stopped in the doorway and noticed all the little things about it that were Laura’s. The bedspread she had chosen because it was the blue of the New Mexico sky, the garnet colored pillows for his birthstone, the Mark Shenfield photographs of Venice, the computer where her unfinished novel was waiting for an author who wouldn’t return.

  He called on everything within himself to not break down and cry out his grief, scream out his anger. Not yet, he thought. Not yet. I have to get through this. I have to be strong for my girls.

  He sat in the chair beside the bed where he’d so often found Laura laughing on the phone with her mother or Beth. There would be no laughter in these calls. There would never be laughter ever again.

  Chapter 11

  It was very early in Albuquerque. The sun was only a glow behind the Sandia Mountains to the east of the city. The bosque—the forested area along the Rio Grande below the Collins’ home—was beginning to come alive with the sound of birdcalls. The air was crisp and clear.

  Sean Collins was in his study doing some early morning work on the computer. He hadn’t been able to sleep last night—a feeling of disquiet he couldn’t pinpoint had kept him awake. Even now, it felt as if something was wrong in his world.

  Maria had been restless, too. She’d tossed and turned and muttered in her sleep. It was unlike her and he knew that she was probably feeling the same disquiet he did.

  The last time he’d felt this way was when Tomás, their son, had died so many years ago. While the boy had been fighting the leukemia that killed him neither Sean nor Maria had slept much.

  The ringing of the phone shattered the stillness and he knew with a certainty that this phone call, so early in the morning, had to do with his agitation. His hand trembled as he picked up the phone.

  “Hello?” He heard the click of the extension picking up and his “hello” echoed by Maria’s voice. There was only silence for a moment then they heard Taylor’s voice.

  “Sean, Maria—it’s Taylor. I have bad news.”

  “Madre de Dios,” Maria whispered.

  “It’s Laura. There was an accident. Chris has been hurt and Laura…” Taylor’s voice trailed off and Sean knew, even before he continued, that his beloved daughter was dead.

  “How badly is she hurt?” Maria asked.

  “Oh, God, Maria, there’s no other way to say this. Laura was killed. She died in an explosion.”

  Maria began to cry and they both heard the sound of the receiver crashing down. Sean could hear her keening, her high, inconsolable cries filling the house. He knew he had to go to her.

  “And you? The girls?” he managed to ask.

  “We’re fine. Go to Maria. Call me back when you’re ready.”

  Sean put down the phone and walked to their bedroom where his wife had begun the grieving for their daughter.

  * * *

  Taylor hung up the phone and dropped his face into his hands. He knew that their loss was as great as his own. There had been no gentle way to tell them.

  There was still one call to make. Beth was Laura’s best friend, her “sister of the heart”. The girls had been inseparable since they met and Beth would be devastated. There would be no easy way to tell her, either.

  * * *

  Beth was painting in her studio. She wanted the early morning quiet to work in and the new painting was coming along well. She was working toward a one-woman show in the Taos gallery she and her husband, Jason, owned. Laura had promised she would be back from the Balkans in time to attend.

  When the phone rang, she barely heard it. It stopped quickly and she knew Jason would call her if it were important. She slid back into the creative zone and gave it no more thought.

  * * *

  “Hello?”

  Taylor knew he’d wakened Jason, but he was relieved that he had answered, rather than Beth.

  “It’s Taylor.”

  “Taylor? What is it? It’s only six o’clock here.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. It’s bad news.”

  “What’s happened?”

  “It’s Laura. There was an explosion. Chris was hurt but Laura…” would it ever be easier to say the words? “Laura was killed.”

  “Oh, Lord, Taylor. I’m sorry.”

  “We don’t know much else right now. And I need to get back to the girls. Jason, I need you to break the news to Beth. I already spoke to Sean and Maria and it nearly killed them. I can’t face telling Beth.”

  “No, man, it’s…you’ve got enough right now. I’ll tell her and we’ll call later. Taylor? They’re sure?”

  “They’re sure. Call when you’re ready.”

  Taylor hung up the phone and stared at the bed they’d shared. She’d never be there again. If she’d only listened when he tried to talk her out of going! For a moment his rage was directed at Laura for leaving him, for leaving all of them. He looked at her pillow and said, “Why? Why weren’t we enough, Laura? Why’d you have to leave?”

  There were no answers and he knew he had three daughters to console. He got up and went to rejoin them, to face the longest day of his life.

  * * *

  In Taos, Jason got out of bed and slipped into a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. As he went toward the studio where he knew she would be working, he tried to get his thoughts in order to break the news to Beth. She’d be devastated. And he knew that there would be nothing he could do that would console her.

  He stopped inside the studio door. Beth was lost in her painting, a half-smile on her face, as she inhabited the imaginary world she was creating. The studio lights touched her blonde hair and made it almost white.

  Rather than startling her, he turned off the soft music she was using as background noise. As soon as the music stopped, she turned around. “Jason! Did I wake you?”

  “No. The phone rang. Did you hear it?”

  “I think I did,” she said as she raked one paint-smeared hand through her hair. “It’s still early, isn’t it?”
>
  “Not yet six,” he said as he crossed the room and removed the paintbrush from her hand. “It was bad news, love.”

  Beth’s eyes widened with apprehension. “Mom? Dad?” she whispered.

  “No, they’re fine as far as I know. Come sit down.”

  As he led her to their living room and sat on the couch, she asked, “It’s not the boys, you’re too calm.”

  He sat facing her, holding her hands in his. “It was Taylor.”

  She gasped and one hand broke free to fly to her mouth. “Laura. What’s happened to Laura?”

  “There was an explosion where she was on assignment. Laura didn’t make it, love. She’s gone.”

  Beth’s face was whiter than Jason had ever seen it and her hand was ice cold…both of them, he thought, as he reached up to take her hand away from her mouth.

  “Laura? Laura’s dead? No, Jason. You must have misunderstood. You must be wrong. Maybe Chris is dead and Laura injured?”

  “Beth, I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you it wasn’t true. But it is. Laura is gone.”

  With that, he drew her into his arms and held her while she cried.

  Chapter 12

  Betta was on the phone when Taylor came back into the room. Annie and Meg were still crying together, but Betta was strangely calm as she checked flight information. “No, my husband has been badly hurt and I need to get there as soon as possible…tomorrow? There’s nothing sooner? Then book that, but keep checking to see if there are cancellations. You can call me at Taylor’s.”

  “Wait, Betta,” Taylor said as he walked over and took the phone from her. “Kathy?” His long time travel agent confirmed her identity. “I thought it would be you. Are there two seats on that flight? There are? Good, book me, too. I’ll be going with Betta.”

  When he turned around, the room was quiet. “What? I can’t let you go alone, Betta. Laura would…”