“Call me as soon as you land in Kimberely, Dru,”  Marilyn demanded.

“I always do, don’t I?” was Dru’s response.

They were standing near the corridor that led to the airplane.  Ivey was going through something similar with her mother next to them.  The plane was scheduled to leave in exactly a half hour, and the lady at the desk was calling for general boarding already.  Cade and Mrs. Kincaid had come to see Ivey off, as Dru’s mother had come to see her.  Thankfully, Drake hadn’t come.

“We better go,” Dru reminded everyone, pointing to her watch.

With a wave of hugs they said good-bye.  Ivey and Dru turned around, leaving solid ground behind them.  Dru’s premonition from the night of graduation grew stronger with every step she took.

“Dru, wait!”  Cade called to her.  “No hug?”

Every time she heard those words her mind was transported back to the first night she heard them, in January.  Dru knew it would be a long time until she forgot them.  They echoed in her head.  Dru. . .wait!

Dru shook her head, coming back to the present.  By now Cade had reached her, and both of their mothers were out of sight.  He wrapped her tiny frame in a big hug.  He whispered in her ear,  “Think about what we talked about at graduation.”

Then he did something totally unexpected.  He leaned down and kissed her.

How dare you!  Dru cringed noticeably and involuntarily.

He pulled back immediatly.  They didn’t need words, just one look was enough.  His look said,  ‘I can’t believe you are still afraid of me.’

Dru turned quickly and fled down the corridor.  Dru heard Cade’s voice reverberate through the corridor behind her.  “You can’t always run away, Dru.  One of these days everything will catch up with you.”

Ivey was standing, waiting for her.  Her face was just as expressive as Cade’s.  She had seen them.

“What was that?”  Ivey asked, struggling to keep her laughter under control.

“What’s so funny?”  Dru demanded.

“You.  And Cade.”  She paused.  “I saw you that night in January in the car while I was supposedly making tea and I saw you Friday night at graduation, along with countless times in-between.

Dru was silent.

“I’m not stupid, you know.  I’m not blind, either.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

After they sat down in their seats and were situated to their liking, she answered.  “I’m sworn to secrecy on this, but, well, you need to know.”

“Is this about Cade’s mission, which he refers mysteriously to?”

“That will have to wait for another day.”

Dru had enough sense not to press the matter.  She returned to the previous subjuect.  “Ivey, do I want to hear this?”

Ivey gave a look that would be best described as reproachful.

“Ah, I see,” Dru mused.  “I’m going to hear it whether I like it or not.”

“Correct.”

“Well, get on with it.”

“Do you even have a clue as to what I as going to say?”

“Yes, though very vague.”

“Good.”

Dru was starting to get impatient.  “Well. . .”

“Cade has liked you since the first day he met you, and I can see that you like him, too.  Now, stop.  Don’t even try to give me that look.  I’ve seen it happening for weeks, and I’m not the only one that’s figured it out.”

Well, at least I know what I have been suspecting for weeks, Dru thought.

“Ivey, if you’ve ever been more wrong than you are now, I’d be surprised.  The truth is that I don’t like Cade in the way you’re talking about and I couldn’t even if I tried.  I have a feeling that I will never be attracted to anyone  again.  Cade and I are are just friends, if even that.  We’re probably more what you would call amicable adversaries,” Dru said sadly.

Ivey looked disappointed.   She’s lying to me, Ivey thought.  She’s probably even lying to herself.  She probably hasn’t even figured it out yet!

Dru changed the subject.  “Now, there are a few things you need to know about our destination.  Number one:  always be ready to fight.  Number two:  never go out alone, there are wild animals very near the village.  Number three:  be careful of the villagers, they’ll be suspicious of you at first.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Just making sure you’re prepared. You’re going to have to deal with some major culture shock.”

There wasn’t anyone waiting for them at the airport so they hired a cabby to drive them out to Britstown.  The drive wasn’t so bad for Dru as she was used to it, but Ivey had a hard time keeping her stomach.  Hairpin curves and a bumpy roads is not her favorite way to travel.

When they arrived Dru saw Maimu waiting with a wagon and she introduced him to Ivey as her neighbor.  Seeing Maimu obviously shocked Ivey.  He was missing two fingers on his left hand because of a plowing accident years ago, and did not keep up with his hygiene.  Actually, Maimu was one of the villagers most like what Ivey and the rest of America would consider normal.  Dru wondered what Ivey would be thinking when she met the rest of the people from the village.

A few days passed, and contrary to Dru’s prediction, all of the villagers accepted Ivey immediately.  Ivey was bewildered in the beginning, but very quickly became accustomed to the ways of the village. Dr. Burke had been called away on an emergency but should probably be back soon, they were told.  Everything apperared normal, but the premonition Dru had experienced at the graduation dance had still not gone away.

Dru brought Ivey to all her favorite places and knew Ivey understood why she liked this place so much.  They slipped into a comfortable pattern.  Dru knew this trip was good for her.  Though she still wasn’t the same person she was before that fateful January afternoon, she was much more content and peaceful, and she knew that by the end of this trip she would be back to normal.  And they had only been there six days!  Yes, coming here was definetly good for her.
 

Two days earlier Dru had thought she had a chance at being the Dru everyone else wanted her to be.  The Dru that ‘glowed’ as Brian had told her months before.

Now, On the twenty-sixth of June, she knew that would not be possible ever again.  Tragedy dumped upon tragedy took its effect on a person after awhile.  Not only had she been assaulted, given a concussion, found she was mysteriously pregnant, and learned of her father’s death in the last few months;  she had also been given more deaths to deal with.

Eight days after the girls’ arrival at South Africa, they had been notified of an urgent call from Cade.  They called Cade back and were told they needed to come home immediatly.

The cheapest way to fly was to fly into Los Angeles, then on to Oakland, California.  Cade met Ivey and Dru in L.A. and they stayed at a hotel a night before going home so Cade would have time to tell them the news.

The best way to describe the news they had flown 9,000 miles to hear would probably be grievous.  Upon hearing it Dru knew that fifty years later, she would still remember the scene clearly in her mind.  It was when she realized she wasn’t a kid anymore.  She wasn’t playing for fun anymore; she was playing for life. There was a force much greater than her that was playing a cruel game, a game that included life and much more than death.

Cade had said he should tell them the news when they were out of the eye of the public.  Dru had just gotten into Cade’s hotel room and had told him Ivey was locking their door.

“Amicable adversaries, huh?”  Cade had said.

How did he find out about that?  Did Ivey tell him; has Ivey told him everything I’ve ever told her?  What’s going on here! Dru was near hysterics. Too many changes were happening too quickly.

Ivey walked into the room.  As soon as Ivey and Dru made themselves comfortable he began.
“Tuesday night there was a fire in our house.  Drake and I made it out safely.  As soon as Drake saw I was safe he ran.  I haven’t seen him since then.”

He stopped talking, for reasons known only to himself.

In the cruelest tone Dru could muster she said,  “So that’s the important news you cut my vacation short for, to tell me Drake ran away!  Frankly, I’m glad he’s gone!”

“What about Mom?” Ivey asked.

Dru hadn’t thought about that.  Mrs. Kincaid was always far from her mind, because she rarely saw her.  She was never home during the daytime, and when she was home she was sleeping.  Ivey said it was because her job had irregular shifts.

“That wasn’t all of it.  I said that Drake and I made it out safely.  I had inhaled a lot of smoke and was sitting on the street coughing when people came up to me and asked what happened.  I told them a fire started and Drake and I made it out safely, but our mom was still inside.”

He paused again.  Dru glanced at Ivey and noticed her knuckles were white and her face anxious.  She had evidently guessed what Cade was going to say next.

“Several people tried to run in and get her, but others held them back.  Only two people actually got inside.  About a minute later there was a ear-splitting crash and someone came running out.  He said that the girl and the mother got caught under a falling beam, that he had just made it out.”

“She’s-” Ivey stuttered.

“When the firemen got to them there was nothing left.  The funeral is tomorrow.  I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”

Ivey was obviously shocked.  She was sitting on a chair, motionless.  Then, her face went pale and she fell over within half of a second.

Dru stared at Ivey and then turned to Cade.  “She fainted,” she said.

The look on Cade’s face was one of bewilderment, and Dru knew why.  Ivey had always been the strong one, the person able to handle anything.  He had thought Dru would be the one to faint, or at least something more drastic.

She left the room and went into the one she and Ivey were sharing.  She returned to Ivey and Cade with the smelling salts she always kept around as a ‘just in case’ type thing.  Ivey was soon sitting up normally.

After a few minutes of silence and awkwardness Ivey asked,  “What are we going to do?”  It was then that Dru knew she would do whatever it took to help Ivey.  Ivey had been patient and never got upset with her when her father had died, and now was her chance to help Ivey.  Above all, Dru didn’t want Ivey to become bitter like she had.

“We’ll go to sleep and get a good night’s rest so we’ll be fresh for tomorrow,” Cade answered her. That was not what Ivey meant, but she didn’t press the matter.

Dru took Ivey to their room where Ivey fell asleep seconds after laying down.  Dru layed on her bed but couldn’t sleep.  There was too much to think about.  Dru went over the last two days in her mind.  By the end of the replay she had three main questions.

Before Ivey came into the room Cade had mentioned two words Dru had told Ivey a week and some days before:  amicable adversaries.  How and why did Cade know about that conversation?  Did Ivey tell him about all of it?  If she did, does she tell him everything Dru told her?

The second question was a bit different.  Who was the girl that went in to find Mrs. Kincaid?  Why hadn’t Cade told them who she was, and did it even matter?

And the last, how was the fire started?  It was too much of a coincidence that Drake disappeared immediatly after it, and she knew he was capable of being in enough trouble for someone to try to kill him.  Did Drake have something to do with it?

Dru decided to find out some of the answers to the questions.  She quietly left the room and knocked on the door to Cade’s.  He looked relieved when he saw it was her.

“I’ve got some questions,” was her unneeded explanation for the late-night visit.

“I figured you’d come by,” Cade said.

They sat down as Dru began her first question.  “You said that a guy and a girl went to get your mom, you also said that the guy came out and the girl didn’t.  May I ask who these people were?”

“The man was our neighbor, a Mr. John Koath.”

“And the girl?”  Dru was afraid of what the answer  might be.

“Jill.  Jill Anson.”  Dru was horrified.  When she had left Jill was a healthy, young woman, and now. . .dead!  Jill’s death took much more of a toll on her than Mrs. Kincaid’s had.

And now Dru had one more question, this one was one that no one could answer, though.  Who’s doing this?  Why does everything happen to me?  IT’S NOT FAIR!

Cade must have read her thoughts.  “Life’s not fair.”
 

The next morning the three of them were on the plane heading home, all very different from their normal selves.

Ivey, understandably, was in shock.  She took the news well, compared to how Dru was when her father died.  Sometime in the middle of the night she had woken up from a nightmare, screaming.  When Dru had tried to console her she just shook her head saying,  “It was my fault, all my fault!”  Dru tried to assure her she couldn’t have stopped it, to no avail.  Now she was exhausted and sleeping on Cade’s shoulder.

Cade wasn’t anywhere near shock,  but he, of course, had had a few days for the realization to sink in.  Since the time the girls had met him at the airport Dru had only seen three emotions cross his face:  surprise, relief, and the blank espression which was most common.

Cade was subdued, very subdued.  Dru looked over Ivey’s angled head at him.  He was not sleeping, but staring ahead of him.  He had been doing that for forty-five minutes.  Last night all he had done was look at her strangely, today he hadn’t looked at her once.

Dru was not shocked, though she should be, considering all the emotional stress that had been piled on her.  Jill was gone, and not ever coming back.  Forever, just as Father was.  Forever, just as Mrs. Brinton was.  Forever, just as all those people on the news are, never to be seen again.

Dru was not shocked or scared, and not sad, either.  She was only angry.  Angry at who?  She didn’t know whether she was mad at Drake and his enemies, electricity, nature, or even Cade and Jill.  After all, Cade was a big guy, he could have stopped Jill from going in and Drake from running away, if he wanted to.  Jill could have stayed put instead of running around inside of a burning house.  If (that one-in-a-million chance) the fire was started by a malfunction in the electric system or the wind had brought a tiny spark to their house, then she would hate nature, too.

Dru was also frustrated with herself.  There was nothing she could do, and there was no way she could have prevented what had happened.  Then it hit her:  Don’t get mad, get even.  It was a phrase Jill had often used.

Now Dru would put it to use, she would track Drake down.  It was quite obvious Drake knew something about the fire, for why else would he have run away?  Drake would tell her what happened, or she would make him tell.

Dru’s mother was auspiciously in Virginia at an aquarium.  She planned on being there for the next four weeks, thinking Dru would be in South Africa.  Dru would not tell her of the early homecoming.

Dru thought about the little person inside of her.  What would she do with it?  Nobody knew about it, and she was almost into her sixth month.  Soon she would be showing, and then they would all know.

Early that morning they had left the hotel and returned to the airport.  Ivey, who was not yet fully awake, continually muttered,  “I want to wake up in my bed at home and find this whole year a nightmare, I just want to go home.”  After she had said that Dru started wonderering where Ivey’s other home was.

In every conversation Dru had ever had with Ivey, she had always avoided her past, except that destructive day in January.  Where was Ivey’s old home?  Moreover, where was Dru’s?

Home.  That word was a continuous puzzle to Dru.  Where was her home?  There are a lot of sayings about home.  ‘Home sweet home;’  that did not do her any good if she didn’t know where her sweet home was in the first place.  There’s no place like home;  exactly, there wasn’t a place like home for her!  Home is where your heart is;  Dru had to think about that one.  Where was her heart? Dru thought,  Where is my home?

Dru look down at her belly, which was just a small amount larger than it normally was.  At least the baby had a home.  No matter what, Dru would always make sure her child had a home.  If it wasn’t with her, then it would be with a nice family waiting for a child.  It was the least she could do for it.  She rubbed her stomach protectively, and then stopped because she felt she was being watched.  Dru looked up into the curious eyes of Cade.
 

As the trio walked out of the airport into the bright sunlight Dru couldn’t help feel a little bit better than she recently had been feeling.  The sun was shining, the morning breeze blew in her face, and the birds were chirping (at least those that braved the noisy and polluted airport).  Soon, though, the effect wore off and she was back in the melancholy mood which had become more and more familiar to her over the last six months.

Ivey and Dru silently followed Cade to a parking lot where the Kincaid’s car was parked.  “It was parked on the street at the time,” Cade explained.

The drive home was the same as the plane ride and their short walk:  silent.  Dru did not even try to liven things up.  Eventually they arrived at Dru’s house.  She grabbed her luggage and carried it into the house after Cade told her the information about the funerals.

Dru went inside and looked through the mail while she ate some breakfast.  All the routine things.  After breakfast she went to her room and slipped into a simple black sundress.  She pulled her hair up into a bun and put on a little bit of make-up, taking care not to look too cheerful.

As she looked into her mirror at the finished product all the anger that had built up inside of her turned into an oppressive sadness.  She slumped and started shaking, but did not cry. To cry would be to admit the ultimate defeat. It would mean they had won. Dru sat there shuddering for a long time.

That was how Merry found her nearly a half-hour later.  After Dru wiped her eyes she asked Merry how she knew Dru was there.

“I saw Cade and Ivey drive past the . . . rubble from Jill’s house and asked them where you were.  They told me so I called you.  No one answered.  I came over and the door was open so I came in and heard you crying.  And, here I am.”

“Thanks.”

The Anson family had generously offered to have Mrs. Brinton and Jill’s funerals be together, so Cade and Ivey wouldn’t have to worry about all of the many funeral arrangements.  This arrangement was good for Dru, too.  She wouldn’t have to steel herself for two different funerals.

The turnout surprised Dru.  There were many people, but Dru knew all of them except about ten.  Nine of them were introduced to her as relatives of Jill’s.

The last, though, aroused her curiosity.  Dru wouldn’t have even noticed him if it hadn’t been for Ivey.  At the funeral she was looking around and gasped;  Dru followed her eyes and ended up seeing a man who quickly looked away.  At the graveside service, the funeral, and the burial he was always the last to enter and the first to exit.  It was almost as though he didn’t want to be seen, which he accomplished because Dru never once saw his face.

Murderer!  In all of those psychology books it says that murderers often show up at the funeral of their victims, and that is backed up by many cases.  I’ve read too many detective books and they are starting to affect my rational thinking, Dru thought.

Dru only heard a little bit of what the minister was saying.  Everytime she focused, her mind would wander again, only to refocus ten minutes later.  She thought it was her way of coping with all this tragedy.  Even while Merry delivered the eulogy for Jill she couldn’t pay attention.

“Gillian Anson was known to us as Jill,” Merry started.  “She was my best friend, along with being a good friend to a great many of other people.  Although we will all miss her terribly, we . . .”

I wonder where Merry bought that dress?  It is gorgeous!  She looks very good in it, especially with all the greenery in the background.  I hope Jill can see us all down here. . . Dru thought.

“So as we put her to rest, I would like to say . . .”

Do people who aren’t religious go to heaven?  Jill wasn’t anything close to religious.  Heck, I’m not either.  Would I want to go to hell if I die?  I’ll have to think about those things!

“Thank you.”  Merry left the podium and sat down in her seat.

Then was the long procession from the church to the cemetary.  Dru’s mind was still far from her surroundings.

Once they were all seated in folding chairs the minister began again.

If Jill were here right now she would be whispering all sorts of rude and funny comments to me, while I would be turning blue in the face trying not to laugh!

“Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.”

What is this with ashes.  It fits for this funeral with the fire and everything,  but what if the dead person had died of a heart attack?  What do ashes have to do with anything?  What a stupid phrase!

Merry, who was sitting beside Dru, elbowed Dru’s ribs.  When she had her attention Merry nodded towards the front.  They were lowering Mrs. Kincaid’s coffing into the ground.

Somewhere to the left of her she heard muffled crying.  She knew even before she looked; it was Ivey.  She was sobbing into Cade’s chest.

After they finished lowering the first, they started lowering the second coffin, which was Jill’s.  A horrible pain started shooting through Dru’s body and she felt like she would explode anytime.  She got up and ran away from the crowd of people.  Where she was running to, Dru didn’t know.

Dru ended up at the entrance to the cemetary.  She looked around and decided that she would visit her father’s grave before she went home.  It didn’t take long to locate it as she had been there often.  Dru sat down before the tombstone and closed her eyes.  In her mind she visualized the words long since memorized.
 

Robert James Keieva
 born August 8, 1938
 died January 14, 1995
To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the sun:
a time to be born, and a time to die.
My time is gone, but yours has just begun. . .

Dru’s father had it written in his will that he wanted that written on his gravemarker.  When Dru was younger her father showed her a book called the Bible and in the book was part of the inscription.  Father had changed it around and added some things into it.  The inscription is how it had ended up.

Once again Dru started shuddering; her body shook for a very long time.  When she looked up she saw a man hurrying towards the entrance of the cemetary.  Dru recognized him from the funeral.  He was the man that always turned away whenever she looked at him.  Dru decided to find out who he was.
Dru started running in the direction of where he was headed.  “Excuse me, sir,” she yelled when she was closer to him.  He turned around slowly while Dru ran closer.  When she was within conversational range she slowed to a walk.  The man looked into her face, and she looked at his.
She recognized him.  He was Dr. Burke!  At that moment he identified her, too.  He turned away and ran to the parking lot during the time she stood still, absolutely shocked.

How would Dr. Burke know either Jill or Mrs. Kincaid?  How did Dr. Burke even know they died!? Something was terribly wrong.

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