PART III - Chapter 22: MELONIE

 

Chapter 22

Melonie
(Ó 2010)

George Town, Grand Cayman

Cayman Islands

Just Before Sunset

Logan replaced the receiver of the telephone in his hotel room back onto its base. He had just finished speaking to Mr. Benjamin Sebastian, the Chief Executive Officer of the Bank in the Cayman Islands that he had been doing his ‘business’ with over the past few years. They both discussed about arranging to meet the next day. Mr. Sebastian told Logan that he would have to make some quick phone calls in order to rearrange his schedule and that he would telephone him right back.

Logan then stepped out onto the balcony of his hotel room that overlooked the ocean along the Seven Mile Beach. The sun was now lowering itself to the point in the horizon where it was starting to change its color from the normal bright yellow to darkening orange. It was partially hidden by the clouds, which caused the rays to spurt outward in different directions for a beautiful sunburst.

There was a table set out on the balcony where an open bottle of Port wine sat with a glass, next to them was one of the Cohiba cigars that he had purchased earlier that day in Havana. He poured himself some of the Port then sipped it from the glass; the taste was sweet as the wine was dark. He then picked up the cigar and placed the rounded tip onto his tongue, it too was as sweet as the wine. “Yes,” he said to himself, “there are going to be many happy cigar aficionados in the good old U.S.A. when Castro finally kicks the bucket.” He then dipped the tip of the cigar into the Port and replaced it back in his mouth, clenching it slightly in his teeth.

He savored the flavor of the mixture of the Port along with the fine Cuban tobacco, the best in the world as far as Logan was concerned. He then reached into his pocket and produced a butane lighter made especially for cigars. He ignited the flame of the lighter and brought it to the open end of the cigar all the while shielding the flame from the breeze coming from the ocean. He then began to draw some puffs on the cigar and quickly begun to taste the sweetness of the smoke.

 

He stepped up to the railing along the balcony and looked out to the beach and over the ocean. There were some tourists walking along and sitting on the sands enjoying the serenity of the sunset hour. Logan looked to the water, amazed somewhat at how clear as crystal that it is, with tint its of teal green. Something so beautiful but at the same time deadly. No matter how thirsty you were to become, that water would entice you to drink, only to drive you insane if you did so. Some of the most enjoyable things in life are so deadly, and then he looked at his cigar and laughed a little. “I rest my case.” He said to himself, and then took another puff.

He then listened to the sounds of the surf coming onto the shore and hitting the seawalls mixed with the breeze through the palm trees. How could anyone ever feel sad or angry if they lived here always he thought to himself.

 

The sun had now dropped lower to the horizon and was orange in color. He stared into it and then remembered the old tradition he once had long ago with sunrises, sunsets and also full moons. In the time before he met Lily - - -

- - - It was late January of the new year. Logan had been involved with another major arrest that was a result of his surveillance of the Volchescu compound from the months before. He and the rest of the Organized Crime and Narcotics Unit were now putting much pressure on the illegal drug and sex trade throughout the country.

 

It was early evening at Logan’s apartment, he and Lily were lying in his bed. She rested her head on his chest while both his arms were around her while his eyes were closed. The light of the full moon was coming through the bedroom window and Lily looked at it intently. “Logan?” She asked whispering so as not to break the serene silence of the room.

“Yeah sweets.” He whispered back.

“Have you ever been in love before?”

The question caused him to open his eyes as he remembered the girl from long ago. He then answered, “Yeah, I was once. But that was so long ago. Hell, I was just a kid then.”

She moved herself up to look at him; she folded her hands on his shoulder and rested her chin on her fingers. She was smiling at him, “Oh, it was a girl from your youth then?”

 

“Yes.” He answered with a slight sigh.

“What was her name?”

Logan drew in another breath and looked up to the ceiling, “Her name? Her name was … Melonie.”

Lily sensed sadness in the tone of his voice as he answered and felt some slight tension in his shoulder when he did. She then remembered the advice that Clive had been giving her about Logan. He would tell her of how Legionnaires valued their privacy that she had to have tremendous patience with him if she ever discussed his past. If she truly loved him the way she does, then everything will come in time. She then massaged his shoulder slightly and gently asked, “Was she beautiful?”

She felt the tension leave him and he answered, “No, to be honest, she wasn’t a beautiful girl, she was a pretty girl. She was a gentle soul; she was … the nice part of my life during a difficult time.”

“Oh, so you remember her that well do you?”

“Well, you never forget your first love do you?” He answered, now somewhat more comfortable. “Like I said though, I was real young then, we were just kids in school.”

There was a pause between them, and then Lily asked, “What happened?”

“What happened?” he answered quizzically.

“What happened between you both?”

She then felt the tension return in his shoulder and neck muscles, “Oh, typical crap from the teenage years. I broke up with her.” He then sighed again, “I guess I must have really broke her heart. Things just … well … things just happened.” He then sat up in the bed, Lily sat up as well, “Would you like to see a picture of her?” He asked.

“You mean you have one?”

Yes, yes I do. You wanna see?”

“Yes honey, of course I would.”

 He then got out of the bed and went over to his closet. He opened the door and there, sitting up top on the shelf towards the back was his dark wooden box which had the seven flamed grenade carved into it. He opened the lid and reached inside then produced from it another double folding brass picture frame like the one that held the pictures of his mother, the difference only being that this frame ran lengthwise instead of vertical. He then stepped back over to the bed and handed it to her. “Here, take a look.” he said as her held it out to her.

 She turned to the lamp next to the bed and turned it on, then opened it and looked inside, there she saw on the picture on the left of the girl in the sundress and pink apron standing in front of the ice cream parlor, “Oh honey, she is very pretty. How old is she here?”

 “Oh I believe she was sixteen when I took that. It’s in front of an ice cream shop she worked in back in our little town.”

She then looked to the picture on the right that showed the young girl being kissed on the cheek by a young man who had both his arms around her. Both were sitting on what appeared to be a picnic table. “Oh my Logan … is that you?”

He came over and sat next to her on the bed, “Yeah it was… that was me. That‘s at a park by her old house.”

“You still have her picture after all this time?”

“Yeah, well actually those pictures and the ones of my mother are the only things really that I have left from my life back in the States.” He then looked sadly down to the floor, “It’s just that when I look at these pictures here, I feel ashamed for what I had to … I mean what I did to make her unhappy.”

“Oh, I’m sorry hun if I’m making you uncomfortable.”

He then relaxed and said, “Don’t worry sweets, it just like I said, I know I broke her heart, and to tell you the truth I really was disgusted with myself for doing that. I just hope that some nice guy came along and made her happy and made her totally forget about me and what I put her through.”

Lily reached up and began to stroke his hair, “Don’t be to hard on yourself luv, the fact that you feel bad for whatever it was that happened, and that you hope that she’s with someone that makes her happy shows that you did care for her. I‘m sure that what ever it was that happened, it was not intentional.”

Logan looked down to her and smiled slightly, “Thanks sweets, no one has ever put it like that to me, I never thought of that.”

 

“Have you always hoped the best for her?”

 

“Yes, yes I did.” He said and gave a hard swallow, “I always have hoped that she would have found a way to forgive what I did to hurt her. You know, there is a little story in the Legion of a man who comes up to a Legionnaire and asks him, ‘Why did you join the Foreign Legion?’ The Legionnaire answers the man, ‘Why … to forget.’ ‘What was it that you were trying to forget?’ asked the man. The Legionnaire answers, ‘I have forgotten, so it worked.’ But you know, there are some things that even the Legion can’t make you forget.”

Lily kissed him on the cheek, “Don’t be sad honey, I didn’t want to make you sad.

Logan then took the pictures back from her and replaced then in the box, and then replaced the box back on its place on the closet shelf. He then came back into the bed, lied back against the headboard, opened his arm to her. She then placed her head on his chest and then both of them looked outside the window at the full moon. He then spoke quietly, “There were times when I was by myself, you know? On a security watch or a patrol or something like that. Like when I was in Djibouti and I would see the sunset in the desert, I knew what time it was back in the little town in the States where I grew up. When the sun was setting in the desert, it was rising back in my hometown. When it was rising where I was, it was setting there.

 

 

“Or sometimes, while I was in South America, I would be in the jungle on patrol and I would see the full moon up through the trees, I would see it just like it is now, and I would stare at it. And in these times, when I was by myself either looking at the sun or the moon, I would look intently right at them for that moment, and I would wonder if, and I would also hope that she would be looking at them too, right then, at that exact same second, and I would hope that she too would be thinking about me right then, and then I would whisper,” he began to choke up, “‘Mel … I’m sorry.’ ”

“It’s alright luv. Please forgive me, I didn’t mean to make you recollect heartbreaking times.”

He looked back down to her and smiled, “Don’t fret none sweets, all is forgiven. Like I said, that was a long, long time ago, and I was just a kid.” - - -

 

- - - The phone then rang, startling him slightly. He turned and went back into his hotel room and picked up the receiver, “Hello.”

“Mr. Morrow! I have excellent news.” Said the friendly voice on the other end.

“Yes, Mr. Sebastian.”

“I have arranged to clear off my entire morning and part of my beginning afternoon schedule for you so that we can devote ourselves to your transaction sir.” Mr. Sebastian said.

“Excellent Mr. Sebastian, what time should I meet you at your office sir?”

“Shall we begin early, say 8:00 AM?”

“Why 8:00 AM would be perfect sir, and please, you and your wife be my guests for dinner tomorrow night.”

“Why thank you very much Mr. Morrow, my wife and I will be honored.”

“Well, then I’ll see you bright and early at your office tomorrow, 8:00 AM then.”

“Until tomorrow then sir, good night to you.”

 

 

“Good night.” Logan then replaced the receiver back onto its base. He then returned to the balcony, sat down in the chair next to the table, he then watched as the sun slipped away over the horizon.