KIDNAPPED -Love Finds A Way

TWELVE

After dinner Clayton was lying on the couch with a hand over his eyes and Sia was standing in front of the TV flicking through the channels.

" Ugh! Is there nothing good to watch ? Not one decent movie? Trash , trash ,trash"

She was still flicking "ewe babylon 5 nope...Arghh. damn it" she turned the TV off  and looked over to Clayton.

"Clay ...clay ? "

He did not respond . She moved closer to him. He was asleep. She turned to leave when he caught her wrist.

"Did you call me ?"

"Um yea ,its nothing ...im going to sleep"

"Okay"

She whispered a good night and left. She could feel his grip on her wrist she could still feel the heat of his hold. She softly stroked her wrist, a tingly sensation ran down her arm.

****

She was sitting on a chair facing the wide open window. She could hear the distant crashing of waves on the rocky beach,she could feel the cool salty breeze tickling her cheeks.

She was absent -mindedly stroking her wrist. Growing up she didn't have a lot of male admirers, she did find a few cute guys back in college but none of them were interested in a relationship, rather they wanted to use their girlfriend as a tool for  stress release. That form of intimacy didn't do well with her. She had kissed her fare share of boys but she hadn't laid with any.
At the age of 28 she was still a virgin. It was an embarrassing thing to say out loud but she couldn't really help it.

She had wanted something like her parents had . A loving relationship. Her father had come all the way to America to find his lady love, he had wooed her and finally married her. Her mother not only loved her father but she also had a huge respect for him and his close knit family. He too had the same feeling towards her.

Growing up she had believed that one day her life would turn out to  be like a british romance novel ,like she was a wallflower  who is swept off her feet by a rakish duke . He would then take her far far away and make her his.

She laughed at herself.  She was so foolish back then. She couldn't ignore the fact that just like the Duke in her dreams ,Clayton had swooped in like a hawk and taken her far away too. But he wasn't her duke, he wasn't going to make her his instead he was going to deliver her to the demon himself.

She wanted to go back to Cheltenham, to catch butterflies with her mom, play in the lake with her dad and steal cookies from her grandmother. Soon  lost her in childhood memories she dozed off to sleep.

******

A few days later , she was up early as usual. She had make some pancakes and Clayton had devoured them with an appropriate gusto.

She was now wandering into the backyard and Clayton as usual was sitting on the backporch sipping ice tea instead of beer. He was hesitant to try it at first but when she had pulled the puppy eye trick on him he had taken a gulp and now he was hooked on it.

She had now walked to the edge of the farm when she heard a small squeal. She snapped her head in every direction to find the source of the sound. She took a few steps ahead and heard the sound again.

The hell is the sound coming from. Huh? Wait hold one....oh my God!.

It was a small grey coloured  puppy sitting behind an old rusted drum.

"Aww baby ,come here. Come to mama. Here boy ,here"

The pup walked over to her and jumped into her lap and started licking her hand. She started laughing. She picked him up to take a closer look and he etched ahead to lick her nose.

"Ahhh..Hahaha " she burst out with laughter. "Aww my little devil. Lets take you home."

She carried him towards the house. He was trying to stand up to lick her face and she started ticking his tummy. He was wiggling around and wagging his tail.

"Clay ?"

*****

Clayton was enjoying his ice tea. He actually hated tea so he had never once tried any alternate form of it. Sia on the other was bragging of how refreshing Ice tea was. She had asked him to try it but he had backed away to which she had given him a pleading look with her big doe eyes. 

But now he had to apologise for hating tea cause this thing in his hand was elixir. He could drink this all day long. Sia had made them lemon flavoured Ice tea and he was enjoying every sip of it.

" Oh my this amazing. The vixen sure does know her way around the kitchen" he said taking a long slurp from the straw.

He went inside to get a refill when he heard Sia calling him out. He walked outside sipping his tea.

"What is it ?" He quickly gulped the tea when he saw something wiggling in her arms.

"What the hell is that?"

"Its a puppy . Aww look at him, isn't he adorable. I found him back there."

"Yea good and go leave him"

"What no ...look at him. He's hungry and alone.......Yes my little baby mamas gonna feed ya..what do you want ? Cookies ? Or a sausage? Yea sausage ha? Num num". 

He saw her talking to the pup.  What the ? Is she actually trying to talk to him? What is ...

" Sia put him down this instant"

he walked toward her in long strides.

"Oh come on Clay.  Look at him. He's a small boy, he needs someone to look after him, to care for him, to make him feel belonged "

" He's an animal, no one cares if he lives or dies. "

" How could you say that.Do you know what it's like to witness these innocent creatures die? I've worked with lab animals for years now Clayton and I know what it's like for them to feel alone and scared and in pain. I've tried to voice my thoughts against animal cruelty and all they did was shut me down. I was forced to separate weaning pups from their mothers and cage them up and inject them with drugs . I could hear them crying out in agony. And after they were dead I had to cut them open for display. It tears your heart apart when you see them suffering.  And I'm done with it. I'm fostering this pup  and before you set me into Roy's hand I'll see that he gets a good home." She walked away from him with determined strides, tears welling in her eyes.

He was out of words. Her outburst had rendered him speechless. He was totally clueless. He walked back into the house and found her feeding the dog some bread, she had laid a small bowl of water for him. He just walked back into the living room and slumped on the couch. After some time she walked in there with the pup at her heels.

******

She felt bad to have yell at him like that.  He wasn't her friend. He was her goddam kidnapper,he could kill her if he wanted but she somehow felt that he wouldn't abuse her in any manner. She walked back into the living room and sat besides him on the couch. His head was laid back and his eyes shut.

"Clay" she touched his arm. He turned to look at her. His eyes showing no emotion.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you. I shouldn't have done that. If you don't want this puppy than maybe we can look for someone who might adopt him"

She was about to leave when he caught her arm and asked her to sit down. " Tell me about it ,about your animals"

Tears had gathered in her eyes again, she quickly wiped them and started talking.

♤♧♤♧