Face Blind by Len Melvin

Author:Len Melvin [Melvin, Len]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: El Mel's Tales
Published: 2020-06-20T22:00:00+00:00

“Oh, my God.”

Beaux sat straight up in bed. She grabbed Malouf with both hands and gave him a hard shake. “Wake up.”

“What?” Malouf sat erect, alert. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Beaux reached over and flipped on the lamp. “With everything you told me I didn’t even think about it.”

“What?”

“My uncle is Secret Service. He’s supposed to be protecting the President. He could be killed.” Beaux flipped the covers and jumped out of bed. “I’ve got to tell him.”

Malouf grabbed Beaux’s arm and pulled her back into the bed. “Settle down. Okay?”

Beaux tried to pull her arm from Malouf’s grasp. “I’ve got to tell him. He’s my only uncle.”

“Beaux…”

“Let me go. I’ve got to tell him.”

“Beaux, you can’t do that.” He twisted around until he was sitting upright, gripping her arm a little tighter. “Listen to me.”

“I’ve got to,” she insisted. “He could be killed. Oh, my God. I didn’t even think about him working for the Secret Service.”

He let go of her arm and stood, taking her by the shoulders. “Just relax, okay?”

“Okay.” Beaux took a deep breath. “It’s just that…”

“Listen to me, Beaux. It’s important. Real important. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“First of all, the event is not for three days. We have time to talk about this, okay?”

“But—”

“Second, I told you this in confidence and…”

She stepped back out of his reach, then picked up the pants she’d thrown onto a nearby chair. “But, I didn’t know that my uncle…”

“You made a promise to me. Remember?”

She stuck a foot into her pants. “I didn’t know my uncle could be killed when I made that promise.”

“Shhh.” He stepped forward, took her arm again, and urged her back to the bed. “Look, just sit for a second. Nothing’s going to happen tonight. Let me tell you a story.”

She resisted, then relented and sat down, her pants trailing on the floor next to her. “What kind of story?”

“A true one.”

“Okay.”

Malouf took a deep breath and was silent, trying to think where to begin. “Where I’m from, things are okay now. Not great but okay. For more than two decades there was a war of unprecedented horror and viciousness. Now, there’s a truce between the warring factions. A truce born of exhaustion with war and conflict. But it’s a tenuous truce. Different philosophies on governing have been put aside for the moment. There is the hope that a final peace can be achieved and that our differences can be resolved without more conflict. That the constitution can somehow be reinstated and that the rule of law be once again observed. There is hope that what has happened may be put aside in some sort of grand reconciliation. The leaders on both sides continue to bicker and there is still an undercurrent of dissent and those on either side who still seek to foment trouble, but as I said, there is hope.”

“What does that have to do with my uncle and the event?”

“Beaux, it’s not a given that that world will happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“The world I am from is dependent upon history not being changed.

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