Puzzle Pieces: Roxanne

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#CC9900" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="047005a0dwnjzk.gif"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cassies Writing"><U><B>home</B></U></A><B>     | </B><B> </B><B> </B><B>  </B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>Cassie's Writing</B></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id87.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="All Hallows Eve"><U><B>All Hallows' Eve</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fall Camoflage"><U><B>Fall Camoflage</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id89.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Puzzle Pieces: Cyrus"><U><B>Puzzle Pieces:  Cyrus</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><B>Puzzle Pieces:  Roxanne</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Puzzle Pieces: Claude"><U><B>Puzzle Pieces:  Claude</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id92.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Christmas Magick"><U><B>Christmas Magick</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id93.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Puzzle Pieces: Maggie"><U><B>Puzzle Pieces:  Maggie</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id94.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Winters Deep Freeze"><U><B>Winter's Deep Freeze</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id95.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Puzzle Pieces: Sabrina"><U><B>Puzzle Pieces:  Sabrina</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id96.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Frostbite"><U><B>Frostbite</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id97.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Puzzle Pieces: The Collins Family"><U><B>Puzzle Pieces:  The Collins Family</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id98.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Biding Time in Purgatory"><U><B>Biding Time in Purgatory</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Puzzle Pieces: Quentin"><U><B>Puzzle Pieces:  Quentin</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id100.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Family Secrets"><U><B>Family Secrets</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id102.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vortex"><U><B>Vortex</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id101.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spring Whirlwind"><U><B>Spring Whirlwind</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id103.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Den of Vipers"><U><B>Den of Vipers</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id104.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Puzzle Pieces: Angelique"><U><B>Puzzle Pieces:  Angelique</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id105.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Converging Forces"><U><B>Converging Forces</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id106.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Flames of Purification"><U><B>Flames of Purification</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Adam in Parallel Time"><U><B>Adam in Parallel Time</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Puzzle Pieces:  Roxanne</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Roxanne held her housekeys tightly in her hand as she pulled the door closed and locked it behind her. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. Someone was watching her. She turned but didn’t see anyone, so she continued down the walk and to the street. She was on her way to her part-time job at the institution and was already going over in her mind how she wanted to work with Mabel today. As she put the key into the car door handle, a voice behind her made her leap.</div> <div> It was soft and quiet. “Hello, Roxanne.”</div> <div> She turned to face Claude. “Claude,” she said, polite but cool. His warm brown eyes regarded her with a pleading look. “What do you want?”</div> <div> “I just want to talk to you, Roxanne, that’s all.”</div> <div> “That’s how it always starts with you, Claude. You are more powerful than I am, and I don’t like that. You always just want to talk, but what you really want is to manipulate me.”</div> <div> “No, Roxanne—what you call manipulation is just really for your own good until you learn how to channel the powers you have!”</div> <div> “Maybe I don’t want to, Claude!”</div> <div> “That’s ridiculous—you talk like a child. You have no idea the potential you have! It’s that man you’ve been seeing—he has made you more stubborn.”</div> <div> “Adam is kind and gentle. If anything, he helps me see the good in myself and others.”</div> <div> “He’s no good for you, Roxanne. We belong together, you and I. We are bound by much more than our physical ties. We are psychically tied together, too.”</div> <div> “I don’t want to be tied to you, physically or psychically. Now—go away and leave me alone! I’ll be late for work!”</div> <div> “Don’t make this difficult for us, Roxanne!” Claude objected. Roxanne ignored him and opened her car door, sliding inside. As she slammed it shut and locked it, she heard Claude threat in a frustrated way: “You’ll be sorry, Roxanne!”</div> <div> Annoyed, Roxanne realized she wouldn’t be able to work with Mabel until she relaxed and cleared her mind of all thoughts of Claude. Would he never let her alone! She walked across the ground, brooding, and saw Adam nearby. He’d been raking again, but he was now squatting on the ground. She could see him from behind, and it seemed he was reaching out or throwing something. Curious, Roxanne approached. He was such a wonderful person; he’d make her feel better no matter what they talked about.</div> <div> Adam heard her coming. He looked over his shoulder, holding up one finger. She stopped. He put his finger to his eye and then pointed toward the ground. She understood that he wanted her to watch what he was doing. He reached into his shirt pocket and brought out a peanut. It was then that Roxanne noticed the squirrel just a foot in front of Adam. He extended the peanut to the squirrel, which took the gift placidly and sat quite still except for turning the peanut over and over in its little paws as it ate.</div> <div> Adam reached for another peanut. Another squirrel was approaching. This one came right up to Adam’s knee and placed one paw on his pants. Adam extended the peanut; the squirrel took it and made off with it. This one obviously intended to save the treat for later. The giant stood up slowly and backed up cautiously, careful not to scare the squirrel. He was beaming. “Good morning, Roxanne! How are you?”</div> <div> “Fine, Adam—I see you have some friends.” Roxanne smiled at him. He reached out to take her hand. As always, when they held hands, Roxanne sensed feelings and images from Adam. They were becoming less frightening and disturbing to her—especially now that they’d become intimate. She knew that Adam was a being created from other men, and it no longer mattered to her. He was ten times the man Claude North ever could be—and the pity was that Claude had no idea.</div> <div> “Yes, Mr. And Mrs. Nutty,” Adam replied, his eyes twinkling. “They trust me now. At first they would only come if I put the peanuts down and left them. Now they know I won’t hurt them, and they are not afraid of me.”</div> <div> “I can’t imagine anyone being afraid of you, darling,” Roxanne teased affectionately.</div> <div> Adam looked at her seriously. “People fear my size and the scars—especially in the old place. I never meant to scare anyone.”</div> <div> “I know you didn’t,” Roxanne replied with conviction. “You must have been lonely—no family and only a couple of friends.”</div> <div> “Lonely, yes. Like you.” Startled, Roxanne’s eyes widened. Adam put his hand under her chin gently and lifted it. “Not many friends. No family. Why do you have no family, Roxanne? What happened to them?”</div> <div> “Oh, it’s a long story, Adam!” Roxanne blushed.</div> <div> “You need to go and work with Mabel now?” Adam asked.</div> <div> “Yes, but if you come over to my house for dinner tonight, Adam, I’ll tell you about my mother and father.”</div> <div> Adam smiled. “It is, as you say, a date.” He leaned over and kissed her, gratified as always when she returned the kiss.</div> <div> Watching television was a new experience for Adam. He enjoyed watching TV with Roxanne. It wouldn’t have mattered which program she chose to watch; however, she seemed to sense he liked programs that would make him laugh. There were two men that especially made him laugh so hard the tears came to his eyes. Roxanne called them Laurel and Hardy; he thought of them as Fat and Skinny. He was saddened when she told them that both men were long dead, and that these programs they watched were old shorts filmed many years ago.</div> <div> After dinner, Roxanne popped popcorn for the two of them to munch while they watched more Laurel and Hardy shorts. The local station ran them for a half-hour each night. She’d begun to tell him a little about her parents over dinner and then promised to tell him more after the program. So far he learned that her parents were called Gypsies and that they had been born in a country across the sea—some place called Bulgaria. Her father had been a leather craftsman, making leather belts, jewelry, and other things to sell. Her mother had been a powerful fortuneteller. It sounded fascinating.</div> <div> For once, Adam was eager for the comedy to be over. When it was, he got up and turned off the TV. He sat back down on the couch next to Roxanne, holding her hand in his. “Tell me about your parents now.” Roxanne sighed. “You look sad. This is not a happy story, is it? Yet, it sounds like gypsies had an interesting way of life. How you say—lifestyle?”</div> <div> “That’s right. They did. They lived a nomadic lifestyle—they traveled from town to town, Adam, with their family. That included my grandmother, my aunts and uncles, cousins—and also my grandmother’s brother and his family. It was a very large family, you see—it’s called a tribe, I guess. They made their own laws and tried to stay to themselves—they tried not to interfere in the lives of others,” Roxanne explained.</div> <div> “And they all lived in this—Bulgaria? Where is that?”</div> <div> “It’s in Eastern Europe. It’s very far from here, Adam.”</div> <div> “How did you get here?”</div> <div> “There was a war. A large war called World War II. Almost every country in the world fought this war, Adam. There was a very evil man—a monster. He wanted to take over the world. His name was Adolph Hitler. He killed hundreds and hundreds of people.”</div> <div> “Killing is bad,” Adam said, shocked. “Dr. Cyrus suggested I read The Bible. That book said ‘thou shalt not kill.’ Why would this man kill so many people?”</div> <div> “He thought it was all right—he thought that all people should be of pure blood.” Roxanne sighed. “It’s so hard to explain. This man had his soldiers take large groups of people and he just—killed them. Shot them, gassed them, killed them in many ways.”</div> <div> Stunned, Adam asked, “Did this happen to your mother and father?”</div> <div> With her head bent, Roxanne answered softly, “Yes. For most of the war, my family was able to stay out of the way of the soldiers by hiding in the mountains. As the war was ending, though, the soldiers ran through the mountains to try and get away. They found my family and shot them all.” Adam put his arms around her and pulled her to him. She was grateful for his comfort. Although she’d been too young to know any of her family, she felt their loss keenly.</div> <div> “How is it you were not killed?” Adam asked.</div> <div> “I was just a baby—only a few months old,” Roxanne answered in a whisper. “My mother laid on top of me, covering my body with hers. Russian soldiers found me. Years later, I was told that my mother’s body stayed warm long enough to keep me alive until these soldiers showed up. They heard me crying. They brought me into town and left me in a foundling hospital or something like that.”</div> <div> “How did you get here?”</div> <div> “It was just by luck,” Roxanne answered. “The woman who adopted me was a Red Cross nurse. There were so many children at that hospital, and the officials asked the Red Cross to take some of the children. I was one of them—the youngest of them. The woman—my mother—took me with her to London for a little while. My father—her husband—was a soldier, and she was waiting for him to be discharged. They brought me to the United States with them and raised me. I have a little brother, Randy. He was born later.”</div> <div> “Where are your adopted parents?” Adam wondered.</div> <div> “They were both killed in a car accident several years ago.”</div> <div> “So sad,” Adam said, with a great deal of sympathy in his voice. “I’m sorry, Roxanne. Where is your brother? Randy?”</div> <div> “Somewhere in Viet Nam.”</div> <div> “What is Viet Nam?”</div> <div> Roxanne explained where the country was and why American soldiers were there. “Randy was captured by the Vietnamese soldiers. He is in one of their prisons.”</div> <div> What a terrible thing, Adam thought. All this time, he’d felt sorry for himself because he had no one to call family. This was much worse—to know someone as parents and brother for years and years, and then to lose them…to have had someone and then to be left alone…”Roxanne,” he whispered into her ear, “I will be your family now.”</div> <div> Across the street, Claude North watched bitterly. He could see through the front window to the sofa. He saw the brute Adam take his Roxanne into his huge arms, kissing her. He would take advantage of her again that night—that abomination from hell! For Claude knew even more about Adam than Roxanne did. He was a powerful sorcerer, and he knew that Adam was man-made, and therefore a creature—not a man. Roxanne needs me, he thought desperately. She won’t listen to me, so I’ve got to take matters into my own hands to protect her. He knew how powerful she really was—she had no idea about the extent of her psychic powers inherited from her parents. They’d only begun to tap into those powers when she’d rejected him. She needed his guidance! He knew how he would protect her, too. He knew about the man seeking her—the so-called scientist called Tim Stokes. He left the street corner hurriedly. He wanted to call on Mr. Stokes. They had an arrangement to discuss…</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id89.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Puzzle Pieces: Cyrus"><U>Puzzle Pieces:  Cyrus</U></A>    <A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Puzzle Pieces: Claude"><U>Puzzle Pieces:  Claude</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Adam in Parallel Time"><U>Adam in Parallel Time</U></A>    <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cassies Writing"><U>Cassie's Writing</U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>