Chapter 5: The Retreat

Mark lay back on his pillows. The three days in the hospital under doctor's care had reduced the considerable swelling in his face. His bruised skin had turned into a montage of Technicolor, with shades of red, yellow, blue, purple and green all competing with each other for predominance. He gazed out the hospital window and saw nothing.

Why hadn't she called or come to see him, even if only to say hello, or wish he a speedy recovery? Had he become so repulsive in her eyes that she couldn't bear to look at him? His mother denied she had barred Amanda's visits.

He sighed and wondered if he had been merely a temporary diversion to a woman who probably had men all over the world throwing themselves at her feet.

He also wondered if she had played a cruel joke on him when she said she was interested in him? Another sigh and he made up his mind. Though his body was still sore from the terrible beatings, good food and rest had made a world of difference in how he felt. Mark punched the call button and waited.

Almost at once a nurse answered the summons. "Yes, Mister Cantrell, how may I help you?" She did all but wag a nonexistent tail.

"I want my clothes brought to me. I am leaving here." He turned his bruised face toward the nurse.

"But, but you can't," the horrified nurse blurted. The doctor hasn't released you."

"I don't care about the doctor. I am leaving here right now. I have business to attend to." He stared at the shocked nurse and felt the determination to get away, to go somewhere he could be by himself.

"Well, it is out of the question, your mother left very strict orders. You are to stay right here in bed."

"Am I being held a prisoner here like I was in the other room in this hospital?" Mark looked steadily at the nurse.

"Why no, that would be illegal," the flustered nurse answered.

"Then bring me my clothes I wish to leave here immediately. If you refuse to bring me my clothing I shall walk out of this place naked. Do you understand me?" There was still too much swelling in his face for any expression to show. His eyes were another matter. They stared steadily at the nurse, never wavering or blinking. The nurse blinked and turned away first.

"I'll see what I can do," was the dispirited answer.

"That's not good enough," Mark told her and pulled back the covers. Slowly he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood. Shocked, the nurse made a wild grab at him and Mark yelled in a loud voice, "You are not going to keep me prisoner. Let go of me." As the nurse tried to muscle her patient back into bed, Mark struggled, slipped and banged his forehead against the nurse's nose.

The nurse screamed and let go the struggling young man. Mark shoved his way past the nurse and staggered out of the room and out into the hall. Two orderlies hurried to grab him. "This is kidnapping. I demand to be released," he yelled, half in hysteria.

Amanda, her left shoulder in a new bandage and her left arm supported in a black sling, ran down the hall in a whirlwind of action worthy of any of her movies. She rushed down the hall toward Mark as he struggled to get away from the two orderlies; she drop kicked the first orderly in the crotch from behind. She grabbed the second one by his neck one handed and squeezed. The screaming nurse ran out of the room vacated by Mark. Blood ran from her nose and spilled down the front of her white uniform. She added to the Babel of noise with her shrill screams.

"I just found out what room you are in," Amanda told him. "The hospital has you registered in a room on another floor. It took Mike's contacts and almost a thousand dollars in bribes to find you. Were you hiding out from me?" She looked at him with uncertainty.

He crushed his body tight against her, the back or his hospital gown gaped open and showed the world his naked ass. "Oh Amanda, Mother said you hadn't called or come around to see me or..." He paused as he realized what had happened and said in angry disgust, "Mother."

As if on cue, Patricia Cantrell screamed from down the hall as she saw her near naked son rubbing his body shamelessly against that animal of a woman. "You get away from my son. I told you..."

"Lady, why don't you go fuck yourself with a door knob?" Amanda barked at her. She turned back to Mark.

"Yes, Mother, you go f-fuck yourself," the young man said. He stumbled over the unfamiliar eff word. For the first time in his obedient life Mark defied his mother. It felt good. "I do not like you one bit right now." He turned his face down toward her lips and asked Amanda, "Kiss me?"

"Oh yes," she breathed, snaked her good right arm around him and her good hand cupped a bare butt cheek. He bent and kissed Amanda while his horrified mother stood and watched in shocked disbelief and perhaps a little envy.

Patricia imagined his tongue between her lips ... She shuddered and turned away from the erotic scene in front of her. Her thoughts were too sinful. She began to sob.

"Take me with you," Mark begged.

"Where are your clothes?" Amanda asked.

"I don't know, they won't give them to me," he answered.

Mike and Dirk had been hovering in the background. Mike stepped forward and took off his sport coat and draped it over Mark's shoulders. "Not the height of style, but serviceable. You two want to beat feet out of here?"

The newly in love couple looked at each other, nodded and began to walk toward the elevator. "Mark," Patricia moaned as she saw all her plans for her son come unraveled. "I was looking after your own best interests." Suddenly she realized she was all alone. Her head in the clouds husband didn't figure into any equation except as a signer of checks and a giver of presents.

With Amanda's good right arm around his waist, Mark leaned heavily on her, not from weakness, but for fear she would somehow disappear from his life again. "How did you find me if they had me hidden in another room?" he asked in wonder. It amazed him how Amanda seemed to get whatever it was she wanted. In his eyes Amanda was even more powerful than his father.

She laughed, "Actually Mike has a friend who has a computer and an insatiable desire to crack into forbidden areas on the Internet. The friend is also incorruptible so it took more money than usual to corrupt him."

"Amanda," Mark protested, "that sounds so cynical."

"Well, I guess it might be just a wee bit cynical, but then I am a cynic; so what can you expect? You, on the other hand, are the only one I know who stands firm in his beliefs of honor and honesty and all the rest of that crap." Mark gave her a little hug and bent to kiss her on the cheek.

In a sad voice he told her, "I have no beliefs any more. If there is a personal god, where was he when I needed him? Right now I am in a spiritual limbo. Oh, Amanda, I'm so confused,"

"Well I'm the wrong person to try new religious stuff on so we'll worry about that later, if we have time," Amanda answered. "Right now I want both of us to get well and heal. The studio is flying a doctor to the house for me. I'll tell him he has a new patient. She paused, and then added, "I love you."

She stared straight ahead while they continued to walk side by side toward the elevator. Amanda was half concerned about what his response to her declaration of love would be. She was even more afraid of all the new, never before experienced feelings inside her.

"I love you too, Amanda, I guess I love you," he told her.

"What do you mean you guess?" she asked, her anxiety began to show. "I'll try to change and be a better person. So help me god, I never said this to another man in my life, ever. My heart is yours and only yours always from now on and forever. My life is yours. I never had any idea what love was until I met you. I know I sound stupid spouting those old cliches, but..." Her throat choked up.

"Damn it! I feel so clumsy and stupid right now," Amanda complained.

Mark squeezed his body tighter against her side, "Oh, Amanda, all I know is that I felt so lost and alone when I didn't know where you were. Right now I hurt inside and there's a lump in my throat and I want you so much I hurt inside where I never felt pain, or anything else before in my life." He hugged himself even tighter against her and they almost stumbled. The elevator doors opened and the four stepped in.

Dirk turned off his camera and let it hang from its shoulder strap. The two lovers traded gentle kisses and Mike calculated how much longer before he had his own television show. Move over Oprah and Rush Idiot, here I come, he thought to himself. The elevator stopped smoothly on the ground floor and they exited. A white limousine sat in front waiting for them. The driver stepped out and hurried to open the rear door for them. "Good day," he greeted them.

"Home James," Amanda told the driver.

"How did you know my name is James?" the driver asked.

"Good grief, is your name really James?" Dirk asked incredulously.

"Nope," the driver answered happily, "but it makes a good joke. People always bite on it." He grinned he had caught another victim.

"I got something you can bite on," Dirk muttered under his breath as he got in the limo He was embarrassed to be caught by such a stale old joke. They settled back and the limo smoothly pulled away from the hospital and down the street toward Amanda's house. Amanda and Mark huddled close together the whole trip. Mike and Dirk quietly mapped out the new story taking shape.

When they pulled to a stop, Amanda saw a white ambulance parked in front. A young, attractive woman in her early thirties stood leaning against the gate, waiting. "Hello, I'm Doctor Osgood from the studio. We pushed the bell but no one answered."

"Jesus Christ, Amanda! What in hell happened?" A custom built street rod that had once been a 1934 Ford roadster swung in to the curb back of the ambulance. The man behind the wheel jumped out and rushed up to Amanda and Mark. He took in Mark's ravaged face, looked at Amanda's damaged shoulder and back to Mark's near nudity. "Unlock the gate and let us go into the house. We need to talk business. I have a plan."