Back In His Arms by Kay Brody Page A

widescreen TV, put on the headphones and scanned through the movie list.   Miss Congeniality jumped out at her.   She needed something light and fluffy to loosen her up.
    Brian did not stir until a staffer came to inform them that they were due to land and cleared his dinner things away.
    “Thanks, love,” he said, ogling her breasts when she leant over to pick up his plate.
    His gaze shifted to her buttocks when she turned and wiggled away in her pencil skirt.   Carla watched the trajectory of his eyes the entire time and felt sick.
    Yeah, you love me alright.   She thought.
    “I’ve never been to the Caribbean before,” Brian announced, then put on a terrible Caribbean accent. “Ye mon, me is rasta mon!   I be drinking dat rum on di beach!”
    “Shut up, Brian,” Carla admonished.
    She had been friendly with a Rastafarian girl at school and his ignorance got under her skin.  
    “Rastafari is a serious faith, just like Christianity or Islam or any other. It’s about reclaiming—”
    “Ah, don’t get your knickers in a twist,” sighed Brian.   “And I don’t want an RE lesson, babe, thanks very much.   That is, unless you want to be the sexy teacher and I’ll be the naughty schoolboy who didn’t do his homework.”
    “You make me sick.”
    “I make you wet and you know it.”
    Fury flashed through her.
    “For God’s sake, what the hell is wrong with you?!”
    She put her headphones back on, even though the staffer had told her to take them off when she had prepped them for landing.   She cranked the movie up to full volume until all of the characters were yelling.   She couldn’t think straight, but she didn’t mind.   At least Brian was drowned out.
    The landing was smooth and uneventful, but Carla’s anxiety mounted as the plane slowed.   She looked out of the window at the rich, green landscape with majestic palms jutting above all else, weaving their trunks up into the intensely blue sky and jutting out in emerald explosions.   But she couldn’t enjoy it.   Brian could turn this paradise into the seventh circle of hell within seconds, she was sure of it.  
    If only she’d had a way to at least warn Atreus that he was with her.   Now it was too late.
    She removed her headphones and prayed to whatever God might exist in the universe, that He, She or It would protect her and her new family - Atreus, Dios and the baby - from the monster who sat beside her.
    “I’ll get you back,” Brian whispered as the plane came to a stop.   “I’ll prove to you that I’m more man than he is.”
    Carla pretended not to hear.   Her heart was beating so fiercely that it thumped in her temples and thudded in her face.   She shot up from her seat as soon as the plane stairs opened onto the runway.   She expected Brian to stop her but he didn’t.
    “Thank you,” she said hurriedly to the crew, then stepped out onto the top stair and collided with a wall of hot air.
    “Carla!”
    Atreus’ voice called out a joy from the depths of her.   She looked left and right for him, silent tears of relief streaming down her face.   “Atreus?”
    He sprinted around the side of the plane, Dios in his arms, his face full of light and love.   Carla rushed down the steps and launched herself into his arms.  
    “Atreus! Dios!”   she cried, her eyes welling up.   “Atreus, Dios.”   She could not help but repeat their names over and over again.   They sounded so beautiful to her. “Atreus.   Dios.”
    Atreus squeezed her tight and tears sparkled on his lash line.   She could see the rainbow in them.
    “My darling,” he said.   “My darling. Welcome to Little Ekali.”
    “It’s so beautiful.”
    “Mama!” Dios squealed, full of joy.
    He was too small to understand the danger they were in and his innocent happiness made Atreus and Carla laugh through their tears.
    Carla reveled in their fierce affection for the short moment she knew it would last, unable to speak the words she should