Introductions In Order 4

The rain began to fall steady and slow.The fall rains that ushered in the real drop in temporatures. Having assembled her pine boughed canopy to dissipate and scatter the plume and the partial entrance covering the tree line did not conceal she had built an open fire happily popping away amid its rock ringed walls.She has placed the cooking trivet Arlis had welded over it and was cooking a stew of smoked ham and beans with a few onions and carrots for flavor and color. In the crisp air it was making her aware it had been almost twenty hours since she ate last. Suzanne saw the light dodging through the forest before she heard the low rumble of the bike .Her heart racing she began to pace in anticipation tinged with fear as it was not a given that it was him.The single minded path the bike was taking though soon relieved her trepidation. When he pulled up to the caves entrance she ran to meet him finding that he was not alone.Behind him sat a young woman and sandwiched between the two a young child. Her relief that he at last was here was all she Could concern herself with at present .He hustled all to the fires perimeter telling her the young girl was Francis and the child she now saw to be a boy was Donny. Grabbing a cup of the coffee from the pot at fires edge he told her to grab two thousand dollars from the stash.Feeling disoriented she meekly obeyed returning to find Arlis and the girl huddled in conversation. Suzanne I know you have a lot of questions but I really have to go.I am supposed to meet a man to get a solar generator that we will need . I will sort it out when I return but I have to go now. Having said this he walked to the Harley cranked it and left.The haste of this, a ten minute reunion and swift departure ,felt more like escape than mission. Uneasily so. Turning to Francis A slight built girl with wavy walnut hued hair and large hazel eyes she did not fully comprehend her situation till she really got a look at the small boy.His parka now removed, he stood at the fire in jeans and a flannel shirt as she realized he was Arlis in miniature .Except for the color of his eyes which were hazel where Arlis' were blue he was identical to her husband. Toasted complection,caramel haired ,stocky built.The dimples that immediately appeared when she asked him what he thought of his bike ride.A beautiful boy of three that should have been her own but wasn't. The parentage apparent she looked at the girl as a common thief.