Dark Rivers of the Heart

past few days argued that they should. But it had seemed feasible to drive by the house, quickly leave off Bonnie and Martin, then return ten minutes later and pick them up, along with the clothes that Ondine and Willa had gotten at the mall and with the pathetically few belongings that Jessica and the girls had been able to remove from their own home during the eviction on Saturday. However, their aimless cruising had resulted in an indirect approach to the house, a chance encounter with the news vans, and the realnation that the warning had been even more urgent than they had thought.
        Darius drove to Wilshire Boulevard and headed west, toward Santa Monica and the sea.
        "When I'm charged with the premeditated murder of seven people, including three children," Harris thought aloud, "the prosecutor is going to go for 'first degree murder, special circumstances," sure as God made little green apples."
        Darius said, "Bail's out of the question. Won't be any. They'll say you're a flight risk."
        From her seat at the back, beside Martin, Jessica said, "Even if there was bail, we have no way to raise the money to post it."
        "Court calendars are clogged," Darius noted. "So many laws these days, seventy thousand pages out of Congress last year. All those defendants, all those appeals. Most cases move like glaciers. Jesus, Harris, you'll be in jail a year, maybe two, just waiting for a day in court, getting through the trial-"
        "That's time lost forever," Jessica said angrily, "even if the jury finds him innocent."
        Harris vividly recalled each of his incapacitating attacks of Jailhouse claustrophobia. "I'd never make it six months, not a chance, maybe not even a month."
        Circling through the city, where the millions of bright lights were inadequate to hold back the darkness, they discussed options. In the end, they realized that there were no options. He had no choice but to run. Yet without money or ID, he wouldn't get far before he was chased down and apprehended. His only hope, therefore, was the mysterious group to which the redhead in the green coat and the other two strangers belonged, although Harris knew too little about them to feel comfortable putting his future in their hands.
        Jessica, Ondine, and Willa were adamantly opposed to being separated from him. They feared that any separation was going to be permanent, so they ruled out the option of his going on the run alone.
        He was sure they were right. Besides, he didn't want to be apart from them, because he suspected that they would remain targets in his absence.
        Looking back through the shadow-filled Microbus, past the dark faces of his children and his sister-in-law, Harris met the eyes of his wife, where she sat next to Martin. "It can't have come to this."
        "All that matters is that we're together."
        "Everything we've worked so hard for-"
        "Gone already." -to start over at forty-four-"
        "Better than dying at forty-four," said Jessica.
        "You're a trooper," he said lovingly.
        Jessica smiled. "Well, it could've been an earthquake, the house gone, and all of us besides."

    Harris turned his attention to Ondine and Willa. They were done with tears, shaky but with a new light of defiance in their eyes.
        He said, "All the friends you've made in school-"
        "Oh, they're just kids." Ondine strove to be airy about losing all her pals and confidants, which to a teenager would be the hardest thing about such an abrupt change. "Just a bunch of kids, silly kids, that's all."
        "And," Willa said, 'you're our dad."
        For the first time since the nightmare had begun, Harris was moved to quiet tears of his own.
        "It's settled then," Jessica announced. "Darius, start looking for a pay phone.
        They found one at the end of a strip shopping center, in front of a pizza parlor.
        Harris had to ask Darius for change. Then he got out of the Microbus and went to the telephone alone.
        'Through the windows of the pizza parlor, he saw people eating, drinking beer, talking. A group at one large table was having an especially good time; he could hear their laughter above the music from the jukebox.
        None of them seemed to be aware that the world had recently turned upside down and inside out.
        Harris was gripped by an envy so intense that he wanted to smash the windows, burst