Dead Hunger IV: Evolution (63 page)

The dogs had plenty of room to run, and one day a Sheltie wandered up, looking hungry and starved for attention, too.  His eyes were blue, so they named him Sky.

Shortly after the birth of Flex Maxwell,
when everyone was relaxing in what had become a more and more common night of peace,
Dave and Serena came in to speak to the group. 

Dave had
put on weight from all the venison, but kept his hair and beard long – maybe just so he’d still look like Dave.
  He and Serena had become as close a couple as any of them, and Gem loved that.  Dave deserved all the love he could get, and Serena got it right back from him.  Gem often thought of how she’d misjudged him when they first met, and it still made her feel bad.

“We need to talk to you guys,” he said
.

Everyone looked up, expectantly.
 

“No you don’t,” said Gem.  “
Not really.  We know it’s time
.”

Dave nodded and put his arm around Serena, who stood beside him.  She slipped her arm around him.

“It’s that awkward moment when you’re about to make a big announcement and everybody already knows what you’re going to say,” he said with a smile.

“You’ve only been talking about your uncle for months,” said Charlie.  “I knew it was
only
a matter of time until you had to go.”

Dave smiled at Charlie and walked to where she lay reclined on the couch.  Her belly was as high and ripe as a championship watermelon, and she was ready to deliver her baby any day.

“
Would
you mind?” asked Dave. 
“One last time?”

Serena smiled at him and sat on the arm of the couch.

“Not at all,” said Charlie.  She lifted her shirt, exposing her protruding belly button.  “She’s moving right now.”

“
He’s
moving,” said Hemp.

Dave knelt down and put both of his open palms on her stomach, and rested them there.  He looked at Charlie’s face as he waited. 

“Wow.  There it is,” he whispered, his face beaming.  “God I love the feel of life beneath my hands.”

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” said Charlie.  “But I’m ready to get it out of me.  This one likes to play at night.”

Dave’s eyes glistened, and
he sat back and sw
iped at
his tears
with his shirt.  “Charlie, Charlie,” he said.  “Hey Hemp … how did you and I get so lucky?”

“Flex is lucky, too, you
bastard,” said Gem.

“Goes without saying, Gem,” said Dave
, smiling at her
.

“When do you leave?” asked Flex.

“Tomorrow morning,” he said.  “We’re taking that old pickup that was here, and we’re picking up bikes at the first Harley store.”

“Perfect,” said Charlie, her own eyes welling up.  “You’ll write?”

“US Mail went out of business,” said Dave.  “Fucked up organization anyway.  It was just a matter of time.”

Charlie stood and walked up to Dave.  She held open her arms, and he stepped into them, accepting her gentle kiss on the cheek.  When she was done embracing him, she pulled Serena in for more of the same.

“I’ll miss you, Charlie,”
said Serena.  “I’ll miss all of you.”

“Take care of him, Serena.  
He’s kinda helpless.”

“We have to get to
bed
.  We’ll do this good
bye thing again in the morning,” said Dave.

Everyone said good night
and they walked slowly upstairs.

*****

The next morning, when Gem got up to make coffee on the propane stove, she
pulled back the kitchen curtains and
saw the old Ford truck was gone.  She looked by the door and saw that
Dave and Serena’s
gear was gone, too.

The
quiet
tears came, and didn’t stop until she heard
little
Flex in his crib, telling her he had awoken from his latest two-hour slumber.
  She thought of Charlie,
whose water could be breaking before coffee
, and wondered if little Flexy was destined to have a brother or a sister … they were all family, after all.

A smile touched her lips
at her son’s strong lungs
, and she began to hum
Elton John’s
“Can You Feel The Love Tonight
,”
as she lifted him from his crib
.
  The song would forever remind her of their new beginning after marrying in that little green church.  When she, Trina and Flex all sang it together.  Wow, did she feel the love.

So i
t wasn’t new, this
feeling of contentment.  It had had its trials and tribulations, and nothing was certain still
. 

As for the Lion King anthem,
Trina loved it, and
it
always
seemed to put a smile on everyone’s faces and hope in their hearts.

If it didn’t, then fuck ‘em if they couldn’t take a joke.

She
held up her little boy and gazed
into
little Flex’s
bright, brown eyes
.  She kissed him gently
and nuzzled his face with her nose.

She
didn’t hear him approach,
but
she
sank into
Flex’s strong arms as they wrapped around her waist from behind, and she turned her face up to kiss him.

He
then
leaned forward and kissed the top of his son’s head. 
“Elton again,” he said.  “Good call.”

“It fits,” she said, pulling the curtain aside.  “But some of the love left early this morning.”

“I’ve got a feeling they’ll be back someday,” said Flex.  “Mr. and Mrs. Gammon, I’ll bet.”

“You are so fucking mushy,” she said.

“You make me mushy.”

Gem started singing the song softly, and dancing with her baby in her arms, and Flex put his arms around them and danced
and sang
along.  A few minutes into their makeshift waltz, Trina’s voice joined
theirs
,
and
Gem
looked down to see the little blonde’s tired, smiling face looking up at them as she held onto each of their arms and danced along.

I fucking love this family,
thought Gem, and she wanted to explode with happiness. 

Smiling and crying at the same time, her voice broke, but she kept singing with her husband and daughter
as they moved across the floor together
. 
Gem’s
tears of joy melded with her tears of sorrow as she
thanked God for the blessings of her beautiful family, while at the same time realizing how much she would miss Dave and Serena – her family that had traveled on.

Yes, Elton
.  Yes, God.
I feel the love.  More strongly than I ever have in my life.

And while it had only been thirteen months since the world went mad, that solid, powerful love had once again returned beauty to all of their lives.

And it was illustrated in that very moment.

T
HE END

Eric A. Shelman lives in
Southwest Florida
with his wife, Linda, and
their
Whippet, Beau
. 
Eric
was born in
Fort Worth
,
Texas
, and left there as a teenager
in the early 1970s
when his widowed mother remarried and his new stepfather moved the family to southern
California
.

Eric has always written poetry and when he was a young longhair living in
Laguna Beach
and Dana Point, California, he’d write ridiculous short stories with no plot and no end, all with his friends’ names in them.  In fact, you’ll find the names of many people Eric knows today in his stories and books. 

Eric has an author fan page on Facebook – and it’s the best place to find out when his next release is coming – just search for Eric A Shelman Author, and you should find it just fine.
  You can also check out his website – what else?  www.ericshelman.com.

If you enjoyed this book, please do the author a
BIG
favor and visit Amazon.com to write a review! 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-tex
t
&field-keywords=eric+shelman

From The Twisted Mind Of

ERIC A. SHELMAN

(
AND DOLPHIN MOON PUBLISHING
)

O
ut of the Darkness: The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson

Case #1: The Mary Ellen Wilson Files

Dead Hunger: The Flex
Sheridan
Chronicle

Dead Hunger II: The Gem Cardoza Chronicle

Dead Hunger III: The Chatsworth Chronicles

Dead Hunger IV: Evolution

A Reason To Kill

Generation Evil

Keep an eye out for

Dead Hunger V: The Road To
California

Coming in 2013

ATTENTION
READER
:

Look. 
I know you’re sick of us independent authors hounding you to write reviews
after you finish one of our damned books. 

I get it.  You’re tired.  You’ve been reading, and you just can’t lift another finger.

But you gotta understand.  We don’t have Penguin or Random House or Pocket Books behind us.  All we have is us
and you
, and if
you
don’t tell people what you thought of our work, we’ll never gain new readers.
  We can tell people, but they just think we’re full of shit.  Biased and all.

So I’m asking you.  I’m begging you.  I’m threatening you.

(Okay, I’m not threatening you. 
Or am I?
  Guess you won’t really know, huh?)

Find me on Facebook and like my Eric A. Shelman, Author page.  Find me on Twitter, for God’s sake, and you’ll never hear a word out of me.  Find me at
www.ericshelman.com
and keep up on what I got going – even buy some shirts or autographed books. 
(
They make gre
at shirts and autographed books!)

So th
at’s pretty much it.  T
hank you for reading this series, and YOU are the ones who make it fun for me to do. 

~ Eric A. Shelman