The Rise of Rachel Stark Read Free Page B

said.
    The four were dressed for the winter, but as
they started walking up the road they knew they had two, maybe
three things, working against them: The uphill climb; the headwinds
that blew snow into their faces; and the odds.

Chapter Four
    Celeste
    A dark blue 1960 Chevrolet Bel Air crept down
the unplowed driveway leading to the single-wide trailer where
Benjamin and Holly Stark and their five children lived. The driver,
a 46-year-old woman, was having trouble following the tire tracks
that were rapidly being obscured by a heavy snowfall. She cursed in
the darkness, but finally arrived at the trailer.
    She got out of the car, a medium-sized black
leather case in hand, and walked toward the trailer door, which was
illuminated by a bare light bulb protected from the elements by an
overhead tin cover Benjamin had fashioned.
    Before she could knock, the door opened, and
Benjamin said, "Celeste?"
    "Benjamin?" she said.
    "Yes, come in," Benjamin said.
    He held the door open for her as she entered.
They did not shake hands.
    ●●●
    Did headlights from a car coming
down their driveway suddenly flash across the bedroom ceiling?
Rachel caught her breath.
    Did she hear a car door
slam?
    Did she hear Dad talking to
someone at the other end of the trailer?
    She wasn't in East Tennessee
anymore. She was back in the real world, where her hands trembled,
and her body shook.
    ●●●
    "Here, follow me," Benjamin said. He walked
through the kitchen and into the living room. He pointed to the
closed bedroom door.
    "She's in there," he said.
    "I'll talk to her later," Celeste said.
"Where's your wife?"
    "In the bedroom with her," Benjamin
said.
    "Call her out here," Celeste said. "We need to
talk."
    Benjamin walked over to the bedroom door,
opened it and mumbled something. Holly came out.
    "This is Celeste," Benjamin said. "This is my
wife, Holly."
    Holly, thin, pale and red-eyed, as if she had
not slept for days, nodded.
    "You said you had other kids. Where are they?"
Celeste asked.
    "In the other bedroom, far end of the
trailer," Benjamin said, pointing.
    "Are they locked in?" Celeste
asked.
    "Can't lock that door," Benjamin said.
"They're with my son, Rodney. He's 16, and he has orders to keep
the kids in the room. You can trust him. He's a good
kid."
    "Let's hope," Celeste said. Benjamin and Holly
sat down on the couch, Celeste on a wooden chair facing
them.
    ●●●
    Rachel could hear the sounds of
conversation in the living room, just on the other side of the
bedroom door. She had an insane notion to step out into the room
and tell them to stop talking like that.
    But she lay quietly in the bed
that she was conceived in all those years ago in that wonderful,
happy place called East Tennessee.
    But now she was frozen with
something that went far beyond fear.
    She could scarcely breathe. How
strange it is, she said to herself, to think that I am alive, that
I am here, by mere chance. That I might die in the exact spot that
my life began.
    ●●●
    "First order of business," Celeste said. "I
need my money up front. One hundred dollars. Cash only, as you
know."
    Benjamin cleared his throat. "How do I know
you won't take it and run?" he said.
    "You don't," she said. "But the
only way you are going to get this business taken care of is to
give me the money now . Your choice."
    Benjamin took a deep breath and sniffed. He
reached in his shirt pocket and pulled out a wad of
bills.
    "I had to borrow this," he said. Celeste
shrugged. He handed her the money. She counted five $20 bills and
stuck them in her black case.
    "OK. Now. This might sound like a strange
question, coming from me," Celeste said, "but why are you doing
this?"
    "This?" Benjamin said.
    "Why do you want your daughter to have an
abortion?" she said.
    Benjamin stared at her for a
moment.
    "I think that's for us to know and for you to
wonder about," he said.
    "Fair enough," she said. "Now you do know that
abortion is illegal in Nebraska, right? That you're breaking