Safe House

You will wait for a phone call. It will tell you where your guests
are and how to pick them up. You must be ready for this call
anytime, day or night. You will get a phone call a day or so in
advance to let you know when you need to be on watch. The getaway
team will make the call when they know how they are going to deliver
your guests.

The phone call came at 11:00 pm on Thursday. Our guests were waiting at
the truck stop, but not inside it. They were the shadows near it.
They could wait there in the darkness and watch the parking lot. When
your Taurus arrives they will walk towards it. There will be two of
them, one man and one woman. They won't look like much, their clothing
will probably be pretty dirty and worn. They will be dirty, and tired.
They will have the first names Ted and Susie. Your first names have
been given to them as Henry and Peggy, and their ability to name both of
you will serve as recognition words. You must say both their names and
they will say both of yours.

It went without a hitch. The glare of the lights over the pumps and the
parking area made it very difficult to see into the shadows. We
couldn't see much of them in the darkness. We parked the car furthest
out on the parking lot, so that there were no cars between us and the
street. We waited. After about 60 seconds, two people got up from the
ground and slowly walked our direction. "We're Suzie and Ted", the man
said. "We're Peggy and Henry." That was all we said. We put them into
the car as quickly as we could, then left the parking lot. They didn't
say much on the way home, and we didn't try to talk to them either.
When we got home we pulled into the garage and closed the garage door
before we opened the car doors. We went into the house by the lights of
the garage door opener.

Once inside, we got our first good look at them. They were tired,
scared, dirty, and young in that order.

We've thought of this ahead of time. Ted bathes downstairs and Susie
bathes upstairs, then food, then bed. No discussion until tomorrow.

They were so tired they literally stumbled on their way to the
bathrooms. Peggy took Susie and I took Ted. I had underwear, sweats,
towels, soap, shaving stuff all laid out and he appeared 20 minutes
later slightly damp but looking much better. It was only superficial,
however. He declined anything to eat, saying he was too tired, so I led
him to his bedroom and put him to bed in it. Just before I closed the
door, he thanked me for not insisting on him telling his story right
now. He was really exhausted. On my way back up the stairs I saw Peggy
leading Susie in the same direction towards the bedroom facing ted's. I
did not stay downstairs, and in a very short time Peggy was back up
stairs.

The last thing before we went to bed we checked the car for anything
of theirs that they might have left there, but they came literally with
nothing but the clothes on their backs, which were now in heaps on the
bathroom floors.

The next morning early we bundled their clothes in the washer and then
hung them out on the line. There were houses across the valley that
could see our clothes line if they knew where to look. By using
binoculars to see the clothes on the line they would know that our
guests were were safely to ground, at least for now.

The morning was clear and cool, promising a very bright and wonderful
day later on. Around noon our guests appeared again upstairs, first
him, then her a minute afterwards. They were dressed in the clothes we
had for them, which were too big, because we had no idea what sizes they
were, and bigger was better than smaller.

Peggy started breakfast. It was to be the farmers special with lots
to eat. Suzie told us that the last time they had eaten was two days
ago in jail. She showed us her wrists. They were cut and bruised. She
said it was from the shackles. Ted had the same. The wounds did not
look serious and probably didn't need medical attention, but they would
mark them as fugitives for a week or so.

The demonstration had gone as expected, they said, and they were
arrested blocking the street with about 40 others. All had been roughed
up and jailed, all had refused to give any name at all, and they were
released three days later. They only saw the lawyer once, on the way
out of the jail. They were picked up by supporters and were, of course,
followed.

They were now on their way back home. They could not be kept where they
were, too many of the people who would help them were known to the
police. The first of many hand-offs occurred later on that day, outside
of town. At a pull-out on the highway an exchange was made with two
local activists who took their places in the get-away car while they hid
in the bushes and waited for a second car. From their hiding place
behind a hedge they actually saw the following car, with four young
looking well-dressed occupants drive through the parking lot. It had
not been a full minute. The surveillance car slowed down, but did not
stop, and continued out the other side of the pull-out. They hoped it
would follow the get-away car, now with two different passengers, all
the way back to Seattle.

The next thing was clothes. We had hung theirs out on the clothes
line as a signal, but they couldn't wear them again. Not where they
were going. Their transportation plans called for much better clothes.
Peggy brought out the brand new JC Penney catalog.

As we looked through the pages of the catalog, Peggy said, "I don't know
if we will find those clothes in the store, or even if we will buy the
clothes in the store, but it will give us an idea of what you like and
what size to buy. We didn't even know how many of you there would be,
much less your sizes and preferences."

For Ted it was simple. New jeans and nice shirts would do him with the
socks and shoes that went with it. For Suzie it was a lot harder, but
Peggy really got into it with her and in a half-hour everything had been
decided. They knew they couldn't go shopping for the stuff themselves,
not only might they be recognized, but we would have to explain who they
were to people we might meet. We live in a small town. Living in a
small town decreases the FBI presence, and makes spooks stand out better
from the locals, but it also prevents anonymity for us. We are known
in this town.

"Peggy, what about shoes?", I suddenly thought. "We can't buy shoes
that don't fit us?"

"They will want to fit us wherever we go. What size do you wear?",
she asked Suzie. Suzie said that she was a size 8 usually. Ted said he
was a size 10-1/2 but could wear a larger size in a sport shoe. We
decided that a self-serve shoe store would have to do.

I knew of a shoe store where I could buy shoes that didn't fit me, but
the store clerk would remember me, and I didn't want that. I'm not the
type to buy new shoes every month or so. I was looking ahead to when we
could do this again. So we came to a rather more elaborate solution.

I would go to the Air Force Base in a nearby city and buy shoes at the
base exchange. There seemed something poetic in that, but I wouldn't be
recognized in the Exchange, and wouldn't notice if I fit the shoes
properly before I bought them or not. It would take time, traveling
there and back, but we couldn't move again until our guests' wounds had
healed, so they were pretty much house-bound for a week anyway.

It was a cinch. There were name brand shoes, in all sizes, and all
self serve. I even called Peggy on the cell phone from the shoe
department for the final go-ahead on Suzie's shoes. These things are
important and they must match the dress, after all. Yeah.

The checker never looked past the bar code. I showed her my military ID
and my credit card and that was it. I bought some underwear and socks
while I was at it, for them and for me. It was the first time I bought
ladies underwear without feeling self-conscious and silly doing it.

While I was gone, the kids, as I had begun to call them, had been
writing letters home, saying that they were OK, and being pretty vague
about everything else. The letters were to go at least part way by
courier, but you never knew. We were expecting a call from the courier
any day now.

The call came. We were to meet him in the local coffee house at 8:00 pm
to exchange packages. I am well known there, and known to meet people,
and known to know a lot of people there, and some of those people look
pretty strange. The baristas, even if they noticed, would not say
anything about it. The baristas might even be involved in the next
event, they were that type, but I couldn't tell them anything because
they simply didn't need to know anything.

The meeting went smoothly. We met, exchanged packages, and he left. I
stayed for my weekly meeting and went home at my usual time. I was
getting pretty used to this by now, and I can disappear in a crowd of one
anyway.

The package that left with the courier contained the letters to home.
They would be mailed far from here, several states away, in fact, on the
courier's way home.

The package received contained identification and money for our guests.
It also contained Amtrac tickets for a trip to New Orleans. I was to
get them to Amtrac and put them on a train headed east. The tickets
were first class for a private compartment all the way to New Orleans.
They would know each other very well by the time they got there. They
seemed excited by the prospect.

The day they were to leave dawned clear and sunny. That made no
difference whatever since their train didn't leave until midnight, but
it made for a nice drive. 8 hours later Peggy and I saw them off and
checked into the local motel, using our military discount, of course.
The next afternoon we went home.

The next day we cleaned up the house thoroughly and dropped all the
things left behind into somebody else's dumpster.