Eliot Strange and the Prince of the Resistance

9) Truth From the Horse's Mouth

Just as quickly as she sees me, Leia tries to cut off her crying, but anyone who's ever tried to hold back crying knows this just makes it worse. You just can't stop grief on a dime, especially when your heart is broken. Leia cries in snorts and grunts as she tries to stop and tell me what she knows. By this point I have shed some tears myself, and I still don't know why we are crying, other than that they are gone. The children are gone. And though I don't know what happened, I cry too because this woman, this brave, fearless woman is crying, and I know she would never cry unless it was true. The children are dead.

When Leia finally stops crying long enough to blow her nose on an old rag in her coat, I ask, "So what happened?" I wince even as I say it and brace myself for the blow. "I saw Adam and Sarah, and they told me. They told me our kids are gone." I struggle on the "our kids" part because they did feel like my kids too even though I only knew them a little while. I shared my ice cream with them and waved them goodbye until my arm almost fell off. They trusted us, and it feels like we completely let them down.

"I'm sorry," says Leia finally. "I had to get away from Sarah and Adam before I started balling like a baby."

"Funny, that's what they said," I say to comfort her. "What happened?"

"They were killed in an accident. The bus turned over. Went down a ravine. On the other side of the next town, Elkin."

"Maybe, some of them survived."

"No," says Leia who pauses a few seconds to add, "It burst into flame. Burnt up. No survivors."

I see a mental picture of that horror. "How do you know this if no one survived?"

Leia takes my hand to tell me the hard truth. "The group that came in about an hour ago - two men and a woman."

"Yeah, I saw them. They looked pretty rough."

Leia agrees but adds, "We all look kind of rough these days, Eliot. They came from New York. Said things are way worse there. No vehicles running at all, they said. They walked the whole way. They been mostly starving. They found a baby along the way. Walking all by himself on the road. Figured his parents were dead. His name is Christopher. They were taking him south with them."

"Christopher?" I ask though I know she is talking about Baby Leo. "What did they say? How do you know you can trust them?"

"They said they saw it. Saw the accident."

I think about this. "So, they didn't try to help?"

"Said there was no helping. Said they were looking for us to tell us what happened."

"If there were no survivors, how did they know to look for us, let us know?"

"The prince, they were looking for the prince. They said a couple of the kids were thrown clear of the wreck, but there was only one still alive when they finally reached her."

"One?" I ask.

"One. They said a beautiful little blonde-haired girl named Millicent."

I cringe. The burning bus was our kids. Our Millicent, our Leos. I don't want to know what  happened. I don't. No survivors. No survivors. That's what Leia said. No survivors.

Leia continues anyway. "They said she only lived a few minutes. And she kept saying she ate ice cream with the prince. They thought she was talking out of her head. They said she was so broken. They tried to help her. I know they did. The woman was crying when she told us. Said little Millicent kept talking about the prince, but they didn't think he was real until they heard about him from some people who had heard it on the radio. They put two and two together and turned around to find us. Said they were from up North. Things were really bad there. Said they were going to Florida when they saw the bus, but decided to turn around once they heard there was a real prince. Said we deserved to know what happened. Said they were on their way to Mount Airy to find us when they stopped here to rest. They found out the prince was here."

"All gone," is all I can say.

"All gone," says Leia. "My second chance is all gone."