Chapter 32

Erin walked silently into the large library.  Delgoto sat smoking in a large leather chair behind a desk in the far corner.  “Aww, I see you have decided to join in my company.”  Erin hung back from the main area, in the doorway.  “Come in child and have a seat.  We will leave in just a minutes.”

Half an hour later Erin followed Delgoto into a sterile smelling room.  A bed sat in the center of the back wall and the form of a man lay on the bed.  Erin could not see who it was because his head was turned away from her and what she could see was covered in bandages.

Delgoto watched Erin’s reaction as she looked around the room.  “Go ahead do not be shy.  This is the man I have brought you all the way to see.”  He gave her back a soft push towards the bed.  Erin hesitated a moment but headed over to the bed.

Erin could feel the pit of her stomach churn and burn with anxiety.  There was something that was not right about what was happening.  Even though she could not see his face, there was something formulair about his presence.  The squeak of Erin shoes caused the man to turn his head slowly and painfully.  Erin’s breath stopped in her lungs.  Her father lay on the bed!

Charlie could not believe his eyes Erin stood before him just as shocked as he was.

“Pa…Papa?  Is that really you?”  Erin ran and fell down on her knees at his bed side.

Charlie reached down with a bandaged hand and laid it on her head.  “Yes dear, it’s me.”  His voice was choked with emotion.

Erin rose slowly; tears were streaming down her face, swift and silent.  “But how?”  Her voice cracked under the power of her tears.  “They told me you were dead.”

“You didn’t think a little explosion could…”  Charlie lost control to a fit of dry body-wrenching kofes.  His body shook as if an unseen hand were shaking his bed.  His hand covered his mouth as his body doubled over in pain.

“Papa?  Papa!”  Erin cried in shock.  She spun around to face Delgoto.  “What’s wrong?  What have you done to him?”  Her eyes were a blaze of fiery anger.  At that moment Erin could surly kill anyone who dare lay a hand against her father.

Delgoto smiled at how protective Erin was of a father that she had not seen in a year and a half.  “Why I have done nothing but kept him alive by supplying him with the best of medical care.  Why if it hadn’t have been fore me, your father would be dead, it is because of me that he is alive.”  Delgoto’s voice boomed with self-confidence and mockery.

At last Charlie’s choffing fit ended and he lay back onto the bed exosted.  Erin walked back to her father’s bedside and found him asleep already.  She brushed some strands of hair off his sweat-covered brow.

“I’ll leave you two alone for a wile.”  Delgoto permitted himself one satisfied small smile when Erin nodded without even looking back.  He slipped out the door and hurried off to finish with his preparations.

When the last echo ended one of Charlie’s eyes popped open.  He gave her a wiely smile.  “I’ve still got it in me huh?”  Charlie’s voice was raw from all his chophong.  “Now listen child, he will be back soon.  Tonight, at the first chance you have you must make a run for it.”  Erin opened her mouth to protest but he silenced with a raise of his hand.  “I know you are going to try to protest, but there is no use in it.  There is a passageway that leads from the garden out to the nearest home’s cellar.”  Charlie was struck with another chophing fit, but this time when he removed his hand there was blood on his bandages.  He looked down at his hand and sighed.  “Could you poor me a glass of water, there is a pitcher on that table.”  Erin walked over to a table and pored some water into a glass and gave it to him.  “Thank you.”  He took a sip and sighed.  “I will be fine.  Back in the trees there is a large fountain that isn’t used.  The bottom is make of large tiles, on of those tiles can be removed to make a hole just large enough for a person to fit through, that leas to the tunnel.  You’ll have to go at night so you won’t be seen.”

“But what about you?”  Erin asked taking his hand affectionately.  “I won’t leave with out you.”

“Don’t worry about me.  I have my own plan.  But it won’t work unless you’re already gone.  Now help me up.  We’re going for a walk.”  Erin helped him out of the bed and helped him into a long over coat without a word he walked passed the guards and out into the gardens.  They wondered silently for a wile through the rose gardens for a few minutes.

“You know, roses were your mother’s favorite flowers.  Even after I stopped working for him, Sonny always sent your mother six yellow roses on her birthday.”

Erin looked up at her father, he rearely ever told her stories about her mother, it was still painful for him to think about her.  “Were Sonny and Mom close?  I mean, she was always happy when I heard from him.”

“Yes they were good friends.  But that’s not why she was happy when you heard from him she didn’t feel it was right to keep you two separate.  You two share more then just a friendship you have a bond that goes deeper then that.”  Charlie turned to Erin and tears shown in his eyes.  “Just promise me, that if you need something you will go to him.  No matter what it is.”

“You know I will.  But I also need you there, Sonny is wonderful but he isn’t my father.”  Erin gave him a sweet smile.  “Anyway, there’s someone I need you to meet.”  The smile turned shy.

“No, you don’t need me to meet anyone.  I’m sure your father is proud of you and your choices.”  Charlie gave her a soft kiss on the top of her head.  “No more talking, we better get going back, they still think that I’m weak.”