Dictator s Daughter (3 page)

Sean went out the back door to offer help to
his father.

“Go back in the house, Sean!” Paul nearly
yelled.

Sean turned around and went back inside
feeling more than a little slighted. He sat in the living room in a
chair facing the open staircase waiting for everyone to come in.
After about ten minutes of waiting, the doctor and Paul carried the
injured crosser up the stairs and into Sean’s room. Sara went up
with them, too. Even from the ideal vantage point Sean had, he
couldn’t see the new crosser’s face.

As the night hours ticked by, Sean grew more
irritated. He and Chandra could have gone somewhere and been back
by now. They hadn’t needed him at the house all this time; it
aggravated him to no end.

“What are you doing down here?” Sean’s
younger brother, Ryan, asked as he came in the front door.

Sean rolled his eyes in abject frustration.
“I’ve been kicked out.” Ryan was the last person he wanted to talk
to right now. It wouldn’t matter what Sean said, Ryan would find a
way to tick him off. Sean seemed to always be frustrated with Ryan
these days due to the fact that Ryan constantly shirked his
responsibilities; forcing their mother and father to pick up the
slack. And for a twenty-year old young man, it was simply
unacceptable behavior.

“Why have you been kicked out?” Ryan was
intrigued and a half smile lit up his face.

“Not sure. Dr. Randall is helping Mom and Dad
with a new crosser. They don’t want me up there.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know! Weren’t you listening?”

“I’m asking ‘why they don’t’, but you’re
saying ‘they just don’t’. What is the reason, Sean?”

Ryan’s idiotic way of thinking was what
irritated Sean the most. “Why don’t you go ask them, Ryan?” Sean
hoped his brother would feel egotistical enough to actually do it.
Then Sean could enjoy a good laugh when Ryan was reprimanded.

“Well, if I were you, I would. But since I’m
not you, and the crosser isn’t
my
responsibility, I have no
reason to go ask, do I?” Ryan seemed to love this trite
conversation with his brother.

“Don’t you have anything else to do instead
of sitting here pissing me off?”

“I already did and I must say, she was fine,”
Ryan was already exiting the room as he gloated in his
conquest.

That was Ryan in a nutshell; conceited,
irresponsible, annoying and rebellious. Ryan’s very DNA seemed to
be dissenting. His appearance was nothing like the rest of the
family. His dirty dishwater blond hair and light hazel eyes stuck
out wildly in the family portraits and he was short; he only stood
five foot five inches. There were enough familial traits such as
his facial bone structure and hooded eyes to confirm he was a
Cutler, he just caught all the other recessive genes.

Ryan’s good looks made it easy for him to
find girls, but his over confidence and arrogance pushed them away.
Paul often joked that neither of his sons could keep a girl; Sean
was always too concerned with other people, and Ryan was always too
concerned with himself.

Dr. Randall left at ten o’clock PM and Sean
was finally allowed to enter his room. His attitude preceded him as
he sauntered in, but when he saw the new crosser on the bed, Sean
became speechless. All prior frustrations melted away as he
examined the badly beaten young teenage boy not more than fifteen
or sixteen.

The boy, Sean would later find out was named
Eli, appeared incoherent and in a daze. His face was covered with
bruises, the side of his mouth inflamed, and one eye swollen
completely shut. They had him lying on his back in the bed wearing
a blue jogging suit zipped up to his chin. Dr. Randall had inserted
an IV into his right arm and the other hand was wrapped in a
splint. His left leg was splinted to the ankle preventing the knee
from bending.

The anger and aggravation of the hours before
had slipped from Sean’s mind as he wondered what had happened. Who
had beaten this boy, and why?

“Is he going to be alright?” Sean asked.

His mother wouldn’t say anything and Sean
knew better than to press the issue. Sean inspected Eli’s one good
brown eye. Eli looked back at Sean without blinking. For a second,
Sean wondered if he had a pulse, until Eli closed his eye and let
out a slow breath.

The night played out like Sean expected. He
tended to Eli by keeping cool packs on his eye and changing the IV
bag when necessary. Sean had been given strict orders not to touch
any of the bandaged wounds. Dr. Randall would be back in the
morning to clean the wounds and re-bandage them. Sean couldn’t
remember the last time Dr. Randall had been so involved with one of
their crossers. These injuries must be life threatening to demand
this much attention.

Sean kept up with his responsibilities and
tended to the injured teen all through the night. He couldn’t
imagine what had happened and what kind of trouble Eli must have
been in to get these serious injuries.

Early in the morning hours, Eli’s body
started shaking and trembling. Sean wasn’t sure how to handle it.
He didn’t know if it was a seizure or a nightmare. Should he get
help?

“Stop, Stop! Nooo!” Eli yelled out in a high
pitched voice, waking himself from the now evident nightmare.

“It’s alright, you’re safe,” Sean calmly
placed the cool washcloth on Eli’s face and watched as his rapid
breathing and shaking began to relax.

At six-thirty in the morning, Sean’s mother
came in the room to spell him off. “Sean, you’re tired. Go down to
the spare bedroom and sleep. Dr. Randall will be here soon. I’ll
care for Eli today till five tonight, then you can take over.”

Sean did as she said, and once he settled
into bed, he turned on the television to watch the news reports of
missing or wanted people from Rendier. If he could piece together
Eli’s past life, it would help him to communicate better.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any reports on the news about a
missing teenage boy, so he turned it off and went to sleep.

The next few days carried out quite the same
with Sean taking the night shift and his mother the day. Dr.
Randall came twice a day, giving medications and changing bandages.
Eli’s swollen eye had reduced and the smaller cuts were
healing.

Sean kept watching the news for any clue
about Eli, but nothing stood out, no reports of missing individuals
or abductions, and nothing to imply scandal or illegal activity.
Sean’s father had said the heat on Eli’s head would be huge, but
Sean couldn’t see any. Usually missing persons reports preceded the
arrival of a new crosser or were posted shortly after; but not this
time.

In the meantime, Sean’s older sister Lyndee
finished up with her crosser, Janice. After Janice had been shipped
off to parts unknown, Sean found a moment to talk with Lyndee.

“What did you find out about Janice?” Sean
watched his twenty-six year old sister go into automatic mode. She
had assisted crossers two years more than him.

“Janice felt secure enough in her position to
question Victor Rawlings about dubious activities happening in the
palace,” Lyndee’s brown eyes closely resembled her mother’s.

“Did she give you details?”

“A little. She said she was Victor’s personal
secretary and her responsibilities included making appointments for
wealthy men and collecting money. She was to place the money in a
certain bank account. She started to question Rawlings about the
appointments, not even knowing what they were for or why money was
paid up front. He dismissed her for questioning his authority.”

“That sounds like Rawlings.”

“Right, but before the end of the next day,
she had to go into hiding because a death warrant had been issued
on her head.”

“Clearly, Rawlings didn’t want her blabbing
what she had discovered,” Sean deduced.

“I never got the skinny on your crosser,
James.”

“Oh, well I’m kind of thinking Janice and him
were involved in the same thing. James said he suspected Victor of
money laundering. He was on the accounting team and the other
accountants told him to look the other way and not say anything,
but James couldn’t. So he questioned Victor about the origins of
the many deposits of large amounts of money, and the next day he
had to go into hiding.”

“So what do you think they stumbled upon?”
Lyndee asked.

“I don’t know, but Rawlings sure is going
overboard by telling the world his country is financially secure.
Why he’s laundering money is a mystery to me.”

“What do you think happened to your new
crosser?”

“I don’t know yet. I’m almost afraid to find
out.”

“Janice told me most people who work in the
palace or around the dictator have an escape fund set aside for the
moment they realize there’s a bullet with their name on it.”

“Huh, we save money for college or new
trucks, in Rendier they save money to escape.”

It had been a week since Eli arrived and his
injuries were mending well. He hadn’t had any more nightmares since
the first night and Sean had coaxed some conversation from the boy.
Sean could hardly wait to learn more about Eli and ask him detailed
questions; not just questions about comfort or hunger like, ‘can I
get you a drink?’ or, ‘are you warm enough?’ So far, the only
conversation they had centered on was the subject of the king-sized
bed and evacuation procedures. Eli had asked Sean why there was
only one bed in the room and it was clear to Sean that Eli was
uncomfortable with the two of them sharing a bed. Sean explained
that if a raid took place, it wouldn’t look as suspicious. Separate
beds in an adult’s room was a surefire sign of housing crossers.
Sean used the opportunity to explain the evacuation procedures to
Eli.

“In the event of a raid, your safety is
number one. If I say jump, you do it. No questions, no hesitations,
agreed? We have a number of escape routes out of the house and, in
the event we need to flee, I’ll choose the safest one. You’ll need
to trust me completely and not question.”

“Have you ever been raided?” Eli asked in his
timid voice.

“Well, not in the sense that men have stormed
into the house with guns or anything, but we’ve had some close
calls where I’ve had to run with my crosser. Don’t worry about it,
Eli. If I sense danger, I won’t hesitate to do whatever is
necessary to keep you safe.”

The next day, Sara asked Sean to remove Eli’s
IV as per Dr. Randall’s orders. His condition had stabilized now
and his fluid intake pleased the doctor. Sean pulled a chair over
to the right side of the bed and propped pillows behind Eli to help
him sit up.

Sean positioned a Band-Aid and cotton ball
where they could be easily reached and he sat himself down and took
Eli’s arm. He straightened it out and started pulling on the tape.
Eli winced.

“So how old are you Eli?” Sean attempted to
get Eli’s mind off the pain.

“I’m, um, not supposed to say,”

“Oh, OK,” Sean pulled another strip of
medical tape off of Eli’s arm. “No one will tell me anything about
you. Where did you get all of these bruises from?”

“I was beaten while in hiding.”

“Who beat you?”

“I…I can’t say.”

Sean looked at Eli who promptly turned his
head away. “You can’t say because you don’t know? Or because you
know, but don’t want to say?”

“Yes,” Eli said quietly.

Sean stared at Eli for a moment and decided
to let it go. Sean figured questions weren’t exactly the way to go
at this point. “Well, generally, defectors are on the run from
Victor Rawlings, so I’ll just guess you are also.” Sean pulled the
rest of the tape off of Eli’s arm. Then he used a cotton ball to
apply pressure as he pulled out the catheter.

“That would be a safe guess.”

“Alright,” Sean kidded in a sarcastic tone,
“I guessed something right.”

Eli didn’t say anything he only looked at
Sean.

Sean noted Eli had interesting light brown
eyes with copper shimmers in the right light. His dark brown/black
hair had a coffee bean color and was a bit on the bushy side. Sean
could tell Eli wasn’t ready to talk about the ugly details of his
life, so he approached from a different angle. “Do you play
sports?” Sean stretched a band-aid over the cotton ball.

“A little.”

“What’s your favorite sport?” Sean gripped
his large hand around Eli’s small forearm and held pressure on the
band-aid.

“Baseball.”

“Mine too. I’ll get you better and we’ll get
out of here and throw a ball around. Deal?”

“OK.”

“There, we’re all done with that. I’ll go see
what we’re eating for lunch. Be right back.” Sean scooped up all
the tape and tubing and threw it in the trash can on his way out
the door.

As Sean exited the room and closed the door,
Eli let out a painful heave of air. For the first time in about a
week, Eli was alone in the room. He had an intense need to scratch
his chest but that would prove to be difficult. Eli wore an
elaborate padding over his torso to aid in his disguise. His
disguise was of the utmost importance. The longer Sean believed him
to be a fifteen or sixteen year old boy, the better.

The fake name of Eli was short for Eliwese
and Eliwese
really
needed to scratch her chest. She had many
wounds and injuries under her custom-made padding; the complex body
suit which hid her breasts and shaped her torso like a boy. Luckily
for her, she didn’t have much in the breast department to try to
hide. However, she did have a slim, delicate waist and round hips.
The padding filled in her curves nicely, making her a boy; making
her Eli.

Eliwese decided to get herself to the
bathroom and try to itch herself. She used the cane placed by the
side of the bed and hobbled to the door. Her left leg was still
splinted but the right leg was strong enough to support her.