Chapter 212: You Don’t Get It

Chapter 212: You Don’t Get It

Paul sat up in the swing. He had heard everything that Eric had said, but one question nagged at the back of his mind. “Is this woman so important to you? Why not just let her go and move on? She obviously doesn’t want to be with you. She ran away, man. And several women wanted to be your wife, why her?”

Eric: “You don’t get it. She means everything to me. You’ll help me, right?”

Paul: “If you’re sure she’s in Kuerto, it shouldn’t be that hard to locate her, especially if she is as good-looking as you say she is.”

“She is a total knockout!” Eric exclaimed. “You’ll see that it’s true when you see her!”

Paul laughed and said, “I’ll have to take your word for it. It is still pretty nasty what she did to you, though. After what Nathan did to her, it is understandable that she used those tranquilizers on him, but you didn’t deserve to be treated that way. You rescued her, and you were trying to give her a better life. That’s messed up.”

“It really is,” Eric admitted. “I love her, though, so what else can I do...?”

Paul flicked his cigarette into the grass and crushed it with the toe of his shoe. “Well,” he said. “Send me a picture, and I’ll let you know if I can find her.”

Eric hung up the phone immediately and sent him a picture of Crystal.

When Paul saw the photograph, he frowned. He was afraid that there might be a mistake, so he enlarged the picture. “Oh, my God,” he muttered. “That was too easy!”

****

In the dining room - Crystal watched Clark happily chewing on the chicken wings. He held the bones between his fingers, and sauce dripped down his hands. They were coated with the sticky stuff, and he had accidentally smeared it all over his face in a way that reminded her of a kitten.

Clark was always timid around new people, but he quickly connected with Crystal because Nancy was there. The boy was a baby -cute, and two dimples appeared on his cheeks when he smiled at her- and his soft chuckle endeared him to her heart.

Crystal didn’t typically like children, but she couldn’t help but like Clark. She remembered how Nathan had said that he wanted a baby. If they did have one, she wondered if it would be as cute as Nancy’s? She shook her head nervously. Why do I think about him? - she wondered - Now that he has a baby with another woman and is enjoying all the pleasures of being a man, I need to let him go. It was easier said than done, though.

Clark touched Crystal with his sticky fingers and said, “Auntie, I want some more.”

Crystal smiled and said, “Would you like some vegetables? If you want to be healthy, you have to eat more vegetables.”

“My mom said that I would grow tall if I ate my vegetables!” the boy exclaimed. “So, I’m gonna eat them all up!”

Crystal packed a fork full of peas, corn, and carrots and let them slide into Clark’s mouth.

The boy chewed and swallowed with a vigor that was slightly worrisome. “Hey! “Crystal laughed. “Slow down. I don’t want you to choke, okay?”

Clark: “Okay, Auntie.”

Nancy returned from the kitchen. She had two fresh dishes, and as she placed them on the table, Paul came in from outside. He smiled at Crystal and said her full name.

Crystal looked up at Paul and frowned. “How did you know my full name?” she asked. Nancy typically called her “Crystal,” and she had never called her by her full name in front of her ex-husband.

What luck! - thought Paul. He had expected Eric’s task to be much more complicated. But, without waiting for her to answer the question, he stepped forward, grabbed Crystal’s chin, and studied her features. “You are as beautiful as he said,” he muttered.

Crystal pulled away. “I’ll be rude to you if you do that again,” she growled. Because she had been focusing on what he was doing, she had not even heard what he said.

Paul chuckled as he took a step backward. He thought - This girl has spunk! It is no wonder that Eric is so infatuated with her.

Nancy was so angry with Paul that her lips turned white. She used to turn a blind eye to Paul’s affairs for Clark’s sake, but she would not allow her new friend to get hurt. And the way that he had just treated Crystal made her sick. Finally, not knowing what else to do, she stood up, grabbed Crystal’s wrist, and said. “Crystal, let’s go!”

When Clark heard that, he began to scream and thrash about. “Mommy!” he wailed. “Take me with you.”

The highchair shook and tipped, and if Crystal hadn’t been there to catch Clark, his head would have hit the floor hard. Nancy cried out in horror when she saw how close it had been, and she raced to take her son out of her friend’s arms. The boy was still wailing, and she rubbed his back to comfort him. “There, there,” she said. “Mommy’s here.”

There was food everywhere, and as Crystal knelt to clean it, Paul tried to take a few pictures of her. She saw what he was up to, and she covered her face with her hands. Paul thought that he had captured her image, though, and he slipped out of the room to send the pictures to Eric. Along with the photos, he sent a text message asking, “Is this her?”

Almost immediately, he received a reply from Eric: “How did you find her so quickly? Where is she? Put her on the phone! “

Paul thought for a moment, and then he wrote: “She is fine where she is right now. However, I suggest that you come here and surprise her. She isn’t going anywhere, and if she tries to, I’ll ensure that she can’t.”