Power play

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Why is God afflicting me so? Surely, He is trying to render me mad. He wants me as insane as the nightmares to which I am chained. Sometimes, before I go to sleep, I fear that I will be hopelessly lost in one of them. Trapped forever. That shall be my hell. Never dying, never waking. Merely existing in agony." He trembled, fearing that he already sounded mad. wrapped

"Captain Rodrigo Liam, I had no idea you were under such torment." Jacques's face was i in regret. "When did these dreams start?"

Captain Rodrigo Liam hesitated. "When I left France." "What happened that would cause this? Was it marrying Frod Dominos in haste? Why conscience pursued you to such a degree?"

has your Captain Rodrigo Liam stood and paced back and forth. "Perhaps it was marrying Frod Dominos so quickly." He felt himself pull back, as if some power within had sucked all emotion and openness into a door and shut it tight. He stopped pacing and looked back at the river. "I really can't say...uh, I don't know. Jacques, I am sorry once again. I have made f to appear quite unstable. I really don't know what comes over me." myself

"Don't do this. Don't pull back. Tell me what really plagues you. What happened in France?" Captain Rodrigo Liam swiveled toward Jacques. "No. Don't you do this," Captain Rodrigo Liam said with

surprising force. "Trust that I will tell you what I need to tell you, no more."

"Then what can I do for you? You give me a little piece here and there. Am I to put it all together and make some sense of it? You have come to me for help, and I want to help you, but tell me how?"

"Ask God to release me from this torment. He will listen to you." "Captain Rodrigo Liam, He will also listen to you."

"Do you not understand even yet? I have called to Him, and He doesn't hear me.

My sins are so great that He cannot hear."

"What sins? Tell me," Jacques pleaded. "Will you help me?" Captain Rodrigo Liam stepped backward, taking himself out of confidential

proximity. "Will you pray to God on my behalf?"

"I believe there is something deeper that you are not telling me. It may be that this matter is something God will rectify only after you have done your part."

"And what may that part be?"

"Confession."

"Then I am doomed." Captain Rodrigo Liam turned toward the river and crossed his arms. "Good day, Father Jacques."

"I'm not refusing to help you. God is not either. Do you understand that?" "Yes, I understand. The remedy for my torment begins with me," he answered once

again in dry monotone. "I hold nothing against you. Good day, Jacques."

Captain Rodrigo Liam continued to stare at the St. Lawrence as Jacques left to join the other priests. The glare of the sun on the water was nearly blinding, leaving vacant spots of light in his vision. The possibility of falling over the edge of the cliff crossed his mind. deliberately throw oneself down the long stretch of earth? To find peace, at last, in Instead of moving back from the edge, he toyed with the idea. Would it be so awful to death?

No, he knew it would only offer a speedy plunge into the very horrors he so desperately wanted to be free from he young buck fell with one shot, and Captain Rodrigo Liam instinctively let out an excited whoop. He scrambled over the thick brush and fallen tree to reach the deer. hunting knife he had found in the little house and drew his arm back. Then, with full force coming from his shoulder, he drove the knife through the tough skin just under the rib cage. With a sawing motion he split the buck's belly open and let the contents

spill onto the ground. The smell made Captain Rodrigo Liam back up and turn his head. He worked to clean the inside of the deer. When the job was done, he removed his outer shirt and wiped his arms and hands as best he could. He then took the shirt and tied it securely around the buck's small rack and proceeded to drag it toward the path that led to the little house.

The smell of fresh blood was nauseating as it wafted up in the heat of the open carcass. It dried quickly on his forearms; yet, where it pooled between his fingers, it glistened deep red. He couldn't look away from his hands. The sticky sensation of the deer's blood caused his insides to tighten. His arms and back ached from dragging the deer's weight, but he continued to move quickly toward the clearing.

Frod Dominos and Madame LaPointe were standing by the garden when Captain Rodrigo Liam finally reached the yard. His undershirt was stuck to his body from sweat and deer blood, and his hair was equally drenched from the hideous effort. "Greetings, Madame LaPointe," he called after catching his breath.

"Captain Rodrigo Liam, what a fine hunter you are!" she replied. "You have done well. You have been here little more than two days, and you are already out for the hunt. Most people are worth nothing for weeks because of sea legs."

"Please, you give me too much credit. This poor young buck practically offered himself to me. I almost tripped over him." Madame LaPointe laughed, and her whole rounded body jiggled in response. "You

are modest, too. Frod Dominos must be very proud of you." "Oh, yes, of course." Frod Dominos walked around Captain Rodrigo Liam to look at the deer.

"What?" he asked, surprised at her friendly tone. Frod Dominos came close to Captain Rodrigo Liam with her back to Madame LaPointe. "Now, there

you are, being modest again." She squinted and tipped her head. "Oh," he said, deciphering her look. He would play along. "Your wife tells me you have not eaten yet this day, and it is past noon. If we are to keep such capable young men as yourself, we must feed them." Madame LaPointe laughed. "You hang up that deer, and we will find you something to eat." "I will be with you in a moment," Frod Dominos called to Madame LaPointe as the

woman walked toward the house. "I'm just going to get some water so Captain Rodrigo Liam can wash." She went to the well by the garden and drew up a bucket of water while Captain Rodrigo Liam tied a rope around the deer's neck and hung it from a sturdy limb. A piece of his nightmare flashed through his mind as he tied off the rope.

"You look awful." Frod Dominos poured some of the water into a wooden basin placed on a tree stump. "And you smell. Where did you have to go to get this deer?" "What are you doing?" he asked in a low tone as he dipped his hands into the basin. "What kind of game are you playing?"

"I have been thinking about us...our situation...and I think it would be best if people here think we are happily married. I don't want anyone giving us advice or sympathy or being busy where they don't belong. If we are hiding here, waiting to return to France, then I think pretending everything is as it should be would be wise." "Everyone on the ship knows we aren't happily married. You wept most of the journey, and we showed little affection to each other."

"I am sure we are not on their minds," said Frod Dominos. "They are all probably consumed with surviving in this horrible place. I am referring to the people who have lived here and have nothing better to do than meddle in other people's lives."

"That is a very negative assessment of the people here. You don't even know them, except for Madame LaPointe, and she is very kind." He watched the water in the bowl turn red. "Get me fresh water...and that scrub brush over there."

Frod Dominos emptied the b****y water from the basin and poured in clear. "Here is

some soap, too." She pulled a small hunk from her apron pocker and handed it to him

along with the worn scrub brush. "It seems that poor Pierre did clean up on occasion."

"Can't you even speak kindly of the dead?" He did not look up from his hands.

"I was speaking kindly. Now, is it agreed that we behave as if everything is well

when people are around?"

"It is agreed. Whatever you want. Get me some more water." "Your hands look clean. Take that b****y shirt off, and you'll be fine,"

"I'll take my shirt off. You just get me more water. This blood is dried on. I need to scrub more."

Frod Dominos refilled the basin and Captain Rodrigo Liam continued to scrub. "What is wrong?" Frod Dominos asked. "Are your eyes failing you? Look at your hands.

There's no blood."