Eliot Strange and the Prince of the People

32) First Comes Love

"What on earth was that?" asks Torin jolting awake, "That racket was enough to wake the dead."

"Hells Angels," says Chloe matter-of-factly. She must have seen them go by too.

Torin looks confused. "What is an angel from hell doing here?" He answers his own question. "Oh, you mean like the motorcycle gangs, must have been riding their Harleys. They are quite loud." And then to Chloe, "How do you even know what an Hells Angel is?"

Chloe shrugs her shoulders. "Uncle Leroy was one. He was in the KKK too, but I'm not supposed to talk about it, don't tell Jamie."

"I forget we are in the South sometimes," says Torin and then flashes that two-dimple grin at me like he just noticed me here and is glad to see me, and he did not, in any way, just insult my Southern heritage.

I know what he means about the South, but all stereotypes about the South aren't true. There are harmless misconceptions about people from the South like - all Southerners drink sweet tea - but these are not like the harmful generalizations about us that stick like glue. Organizations, like the KKK, occasionally rear their ugly head just when you think they've gone away. The fact that Chloe even knows what it is and is not to talk about it in public, tells me it is probably still around, along with the Hells Angels. Those chaos creators are probably having the time of their lives these days.

I am worried about Carli and Jack, and even more worrisome, they are headed towards our base camp. They were in the center of the pack of riders when they went by. Are they being protected, or guarded, or is that just a coincidence? Who knows?

Torin is out of the truck and busy helping children off the side with his good hand. I tell him I saw Carli and Jack with the riders. He bows his head touching the side of the truck like he is praying and then says, "Thank God."

I am still on the truck bed, and I help lower Chloe out of the truck so she can, in her words, "go take a tinkle". I can see down Torin's shirt, and I catch a glimpse of his scar that goes down, down. I am momentarily distracted as I think about that scar and where it leads. And last night. I shake off the intruding thoughts and ask, "Did you hear what I said? I saw Carli and Jack."

Torin is distracted too because I think he just looked down my shirt too. "You look quite alluring today, my lady." He pats his pocket where the remaining condos are stashed. And then, in case I think he did not hear what I said, he adds, "They were on a motorcycle when we last saw them. Maybe, they have made some friends." Torin is annoyingly optimistic.

I, on the other hand, was raised by wolves, know danger when I see it, and am perfectly equipped to stay on the immediate task at hand. Though, I will admit that all the children are back behind the tobacco barn or the nearby woods, and I find myself staring at those lips and that tongue that did unmentionable things to me last night. I never noticed Torin's tongue before, and suddenly today, it seems like the most lovely tongue I have ever seen.

I am my father's daughter, and so I stay on task. "Well, either Carli and Jack have made friends, or they have been captured by a street gang."

"Oh, I see your point. Maybe, they have been captured by a large group of enterprising criminals who seek to wreak havoc and destruction and destroy what is left of our already fragile world," says the man who has me captured in his spell. I am stopped down, squatting in the bed of the truck, and we are face-to-face.

Torin touches my face and pulls it to him and says, "Good day, my lady, it is so good to be finally alone with you again." Torin kisses my lips and teases them with more to follow. I think of last night, but I am not thinking about his kisses. I think about something that makes me blush here in broad daylight, but the spell is broken by:

HHHHOOOOOONNNNKKKKK!

And then Luke screams, "Come on guys! We gotta go. Our ride is leaving." And then again: HHHHOOOOOONNNNKKKKK!

Geez, that horn is loud, and it works because here comes what seems like a thousand screaming, squealing kids who jump, crawl, and climb all over Torin to load the bus heading to camp. I don't know who is laughing and having more fun, the kids or Torin. He says:

"Your instincts are impeccable, my lady. I suspect you are right and my cousin and yours are in danger. We need to leave post haste."

Torin swings his leg over the back and a thousand little hands pull him up. He falls in beside me, leans over and kisses me to a chorus of screaming kids making kissing noises and then we get to hear a round of:

"Elie and the prince, sitting in a tree,

K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

First comes love,

Then comes marriage,

Then comes Eliot with a baby carriage."

I look at Torin who seems the happiest I have seen him in a while.

First comes love. I like the sound of that.