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He tore into a package of film and loaded it mechanically. He raised the camera to his eye just in time to snap off pictures of the paramedics lowering the stretcher bearing Joe out of the airplane. He moved toward it. The boy’s eyes were open now. He spotted Linc, the only familiar face among those surrounding him. Linc said, “Hang in there, trooper.” For the first time since Linc had met him, Joe smiled. Linc captured that wan smile on film.
The doctor climbed into the ambulance after the stretcher had been loaded. When he turned to close the door, he noticed Linc’s wound. “You should have that attended to.”
“Later.” Giving his minor injury no more thought, Linc swung his camera around toward the door of the airplane.
Inside it, Kerry was speaking with soft reassurance to the children. “Everything will seem different, but don’t be frightened. You are very special to the people here. They want you.”
“Are you going to leave us?” young Mike asked.
“No. I won’t go until I’m sure you are all happy with your new families. Are we ready?” Eight heads nodded solemnly. “Good. Then let’s go.”
She assisted them to the ground. Cage and Jenny Hendren escorted the pitiful parade toward a waiting van. Kerry did her best to ignore Linc as he took pictures of her. She also tried to ignore the stab of envy she felt when Cage took his wife in his arms, held her close, and kissed her.
Jenny’s relief that Cage had returned safe and unharmed was apparent, as was his concern that she was overtaxing herself in her advanced stage of pregnancy. While both dismissed the other’s worry, their love shone around them like an exclusive sun.
When all the children had been loaded into the van, Kerry and Jenny embraced. “It’s a dream come true,” Kerry said to her friend. “Thank you for everything. For making all the arrangements. You’ve both been wonderful.”
“Hush now. You need rest and nourishment. We’ll have plenty of time to talk later. Cage,” she said, turning to her husband, “why don’t you and Mr. O’Neal climb into the back with the children? I’ll drive.”
“Uh, excuse me, Mrs. Hendren,” Linc said. “I’ll just get a cab to the nearest hotel and—”
Simultaneously Cage and Jenny burst out laughing. “We only have one cab in town,” Cage explained. “You’d be lucky to get him here the day after tomorrow if you called right now. And there’s no hotel, although there are several motels.”
“Besides,” Jenny chimed in, “I wouldn’t let you leave without thanking you for all your help. Now get in before we collapse from this heat.”
And that, it seemed, was that. Linc got in the back of the van with Cage. Little Lisa, her face a study in uncertainty, held her arms up to him. He settled her in his lap for the ride to the Hendrens’ house.
“I held the reporters at bay with the promise of a press release, Kerry. You can prepare it whenever you feel like it.”
“Thank you, Jenny.”
“And, of course, you’re staying with us,” Jenny added.
“What about the children?”
“We’ve been loaned several mobile homes. They’re at the ranch,” Cage said. “We’ve also got nurses standing by to check them over to the immigration department’s satisfaction. It’ll take several days for the paperwork to be completed and the adoption papers finalized. That will all be taken care of before their families arrive to pick them up.” Cage looked at the circle of young faces surrounding them. “Which ones are the sisters?”
Kerry pointed out Juan’s two sisters. Cage smiled at them and told them in Spanish that their new parents were already at the house. “They’re waiting for you. You’ll meet them as soon as we arrive.”
The little girls, who had been inconsolable when Kerry gave them their brother’s parting message, clung to each other fearfully and looked to both Kerry and Linc for guidance. He gave them the thumbs-up sign and an exaggerated wink. That made them giggle.
Kerry was impressed with the Hendrens’ house and surrounding acreage and commented on it as they turned off the main highway and drove through a gate.
“Thank you,” Jenny said. “Cage had started refurbishing the house before we got married. We’ve done a lot more work on it since then. I love it.”
Cage Hendren had been a wildcatter, and still laid claim to several producing oil wells. But when the price of crude began to drop, Cage could see the handwriting on the wall and began cultivating other businesses, including real estate and beef cattle ranching. He also had a stable full of quarter horses. When the economy shifted, he suffered no tremendous setbacks. They lived modestly by choice, not out of necessity.
There were three mobile homes parked end to end on the near side of the horse barn. Before the van had pulled to a complete stop, Roxie Fleming emerged from one of them at a run, her husband, Gary, close behind her.
“That’s Roxie,” Jenny told them.
“You wrote me about her,” Kerry said.
Roxie, buxom and boisterous, would have launched herself at them, had not the easy-going, affable Gary caught her shirttail and held her back.
Cage and Jenny introduced Kerry and Linc to the Flemings. Roxie acknowledged them politely, but distractedly. She was eagerly scanning the faces of the children. “Which ones are Cara and Carmen?” Her voice was about to crack.
Kerry pointed the two girls out. Roxie extended her hands. A tense moment elapsed before the girls separated themselves from the tight little group and baby-stepped their way forward to timidly take Roxie’s hands.
