Treasure

The church was packed to overflowing by the time they arrived.

Rea was numb, still reeling from the loss of her father two days earlier. Dressed in a long-sleeved black dress with matching overcoat, her red hair pinned back, she was first out of the limousine when they arrived. Jenny was next, she had stayed with her the whole time and had kept her from completely losing it a few times already. She leaned on Jenny as they climbed the steps, passing the assembled law enforcement officers who flanked the area between their car and the doorway. She held tight to Jenny’s hand as they walked through the hundreds of officers from Minnesota and a dozen other states that had come to pay their respects. Behind her, Dawn and Grandma were escorted by State Patrol officers in their full-dress uniforms.

Mom hadn’t broken down yet, she was holding it together for her family, but Rea knew how much she was hurting. For over twenty years she had lived with the fear of him not coming home, and when he got Command she thought he would make it. Desk duty instead of constant patrols, much safer. Instead, only a few years before his retirement, he had been taken from her. She paused at the base of the steps, looking at the officers, and nodding her thanks to them before slowly mounting the stairs.

Her mother was last up the steps. She had been the one who held them all together; organizing the house, planning the funeral, making sure the two of them kept going. Her heart broke for her daughter, but inside she was mad at them all. Where were they last week, or the past few years? The friends that wouldn’t stop by, the ones who looked at them with pity, parents who wouldn’t bring their children over because they were afraid of Treasure, but now they were all here like nothing happened. The past few years had taught them who their true friends were, and it was a much smaller group than those who had been in their house this week.

They were escorted to their seats in the front, and a few minutes later the service started. An Honor Guard came first, then the pallbearers brought his casket forward. The casket was closed and covered with the American flag at the front, the damage from the accident too great to allow for a viewing. Instead, two large photographs had been framed and set on easels on each side of the casket; one of her father in his dress uniform, in the official photo for when he took command of the Rochester headquarters, the second with Dawn and a young Treasure at a waterfall on the north shore. Treasure sat quietly crying, her hands holding her mother and her best friend, as the Pastor talked about death and his friends and coworkers talked about his life. She knew well how this went, having been to a few funerals in her life where her father represented his unit.

The eulogies finished and the honor guard and pallbearers came back down the aisle, lifting the casket and starting the procession back out. The ladies were escorted back out by Patrolmen from her father’s command as the bagpipes played and everyone watched them pass. They followed the casket out to the hearse, watching it be loaded before being escorted to their waiting limousine.

The funeral procession was half a mile long, over three hundred police cars with lights flashing, plus friends. They made the short trip to the cemetery, where he was laid to rest with full honors. She jumped a little as the seven patrolmen fired the first of three volleys, then lost it completely when the bugler played Taps. She couldn’t even look up as the Colonel, the head of the Minnesota State Patrol, presented her mother with the folded flag that had covered his coffin.

It took almost an hour for the mourners to file past, each tossing a handful of dirt on the coffin before saying something to her Mom. She had stopped crying and was supporting her Mom, and then it was their turn to say goodbye.

“I love you Dad. I miss you so much,” she said as she looked down at the coffin. “I’ll make you proud of me,” she said as she tossed the handful of frozen dirt on top of it. She hugged her Mom from the side as she said her words, then they were led back to the waiting car.

Their house was full of friends and family when they returned, and food was everywhere. It was late afternoon, the sun was nearing the horizon already, and she just didn’t have the appetite to eat anything or be around all these people. “Hide out in your room?”

She nodded at Jenny and they made their way upstairs. Even in her room, she could still hear them downstairs and she couldn’t stand the pity any more. A common theme was sympathy about how her Mother would now have to deal with her daughter’s ‘issues’ on her own.

Jenny didn’t hear a thing, and for that Rea was thankful. Her amazing hearing ability was more of a curse than a blessing to her in crowds.

Jenny unzipped her dress for her and Rea went to take a shower, eager to get comfortable again. When she came back out, Jenny had changed into sweats from the bag her parents had dropped off for her yesterday, and Rea put on jeans, a shirt and a sweatshirt. She flopped down on her bed and Jenny rolled over and hugged her. “Doing all right?”

“I’ll be all right,” Rea said.

“I’m going to get some food, I’ll bring you some back,” she said. She was out the door before Rea could stop her, but when she returned with a couple plates, her stomach won out. They listened to music and ate the appetizers.

“These venison sausages are the bomb,” Rea said. “I want more, but…”

“You don’t want to spend time there.”

“I do need to make an appearance,” she sighed. “Walk with me tonight?” The weather had been decent, it was in the 20’s tonight with snow expected by morning.

“Sure. Let’s raid the food table, mix long enough to be polite, then slip out the back,” she said. Sticking together, they went back downstairs and each made a plate. Jenny could see why Rea didn’t want to stay, the people were nice and polite in front of her but would talk about her when she left. They ate their fill, grabbed their jackets and went out the back, walking past the smokers huddled on the back deck.

The trail was her escape, and by the time they were a hundred yards away it was like they were in a different place. The woods were empty, a thin coating of light snow over the leaf littler and frozen ground. The trail was easy to follow in the light of the quarter moon, so Rea put her flashlight in her pocket next to the pepper spray she had started carrying after she was chased by the dogs a few days ago. “What is your Mom going to do without your Dad around,” Jenny asked.

“I don’t know. With me graduating early, there’s nothing keeping her in this town anymore.” As if her school couldn’t have been done anywhere. “I haven’t applied to colleges yet, and I know Grandma is going back to Florida. At least she was planning to after this.” She kicked a pine cone as they walked the trail. “You’re the only friend I have, Jenny. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you being here for me.”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else. Besides, I needed a place to hang out without being reminded of Mike.” Mike had been her boyfriend for the last two years, a senior quarterback on the football team. She thought it was serious until she caught him in bed with a cheerleader. She had pulled off the promise ring he had given her and whipped it at him before leaving his house. He kept trying to get her back, but she could never trust him again. “Are you going to move?”

She nodded. "I think so. The house is too big for Mom and I, and I heard her talking to Grandma about buying a place in Florida we could all live. She doesn’t want to be in the cold weather with her arthritis,” Rea said. “Mom’s nursing license can transfer pretty much anywhere, and she gets Dad’s life insurance and survivor benefits. We will be all right.”

“I’ll miss you, but I guess it won’t be that much different than the last few years, talking on the phone and on texts. My parents still don’t want me hanging around you, but even they wouldn’t be so heartless as to keep me from being here with you now. I can’t wait until I can graduate, get a soccer scholarship and move away from this frozen wasteland.”

“You’ll have to come visit, I’d love to…” She froze, the low growl ahead of them scaring her. Grabbing Jenny’s arm, she pulled her behind her as her hand reached in her pocket.

“What was that?”

Rea pulled the two cylinders out of her pocket, letting go of Jenny as she moved the flashlight to her left hand. She clicked it on, and the big black wolf stood just ten yards away from them on the trail. It’s eyes glowed yellow, and it shied away from the bright light. Its teeth where large and white as it growled even louder this time and moved around to their left. “Stay behind me,” Rea said as they started to back up. Holding the pepper spray out and never taking her eyes off the threat, they were herded off the trail until she ran into something solid.

A hand wrapped around her neck as she was pushed forward towards the hard ground. She dropped her flashlight as she tried to get away, but the man holding her was strong. Dropping to her knees, she broke loose from his grip long enough to bring the pepper spray up and loose a stream into his face. “BITCH,” he cried as he let go.

She scrambled to her feet and went to help Jenny, who was being held in a chokehold by another man. She shot the pepper spray at him, succeeding only in getting it into both their eyes. Reaching up with her left hand, she moved the flap open on her tracker and pressed the panic button just before something hit her hard from behind. The chain broke, and the tracker flew into the leaves right before she hit the ground.

The wolf was on top of her, it’s big paws on her shoulder as its jaws gripped her right shoulder through her thick coat. She was still struggling against it when her attacker grabbed her by the hair and yanked her face up. “STOP struggling or she’s dead,” he told her.

Rea looked up, the second man had Jenny in a choke hold from behind. She was terrified, her hands were trying to move his arm so she could breathe, and she couldn’t. Jenny could be dead if she didn’t comply, and with the man and the dog above her she had no chance. “You win,” she said. She stilled, and when she dropped the pepper spray he kicked it into the woods.

The wolf moved off her and he pulled her to her feet. “You’ll be coming with us, Charlotte. You belong with us.”

Rea looked back at her friend and started to yell and struggle again at what she saw. Instead of letting her go, the man kept choking her. Rea watched in horror as her eyes rolled back and she went limp before he dropped her to the frozen ground. “NO!”

Her headache came back in full force, and she embraced the blackness that came over her for the first time in years.