Tangled Paths | Bucky Barnes

Chapter 3: Some Man with an Eyepatch

3
Some Man
with an Eyepatch

Siberia April 14th, 2014

Darla had one wrist handcuffed to the metal table as she sat in an interrogation room. If she had to guess she'd been in there for at least fourteen hours and in those fourteen hours countless men had filed in and out of the room to attempt to get information out of her. She didn't give them anything because she didn't know anything they thought she did. She just began finding ways to pass the time while she sat alone, like counting tiles in the ceiling, or how many greasy fingerprints she could see on the metal table surface. If she wasn't doing that she was trying to remember what she did know. She knew that her name was Darla Grant and that she was born to her mother Dorris Grant, and her father, Walter Grant on June 23rd, 1919 in the bathtub of her childhood home in her hometown of Buck-Hannon, West Virginia. That she had an older sister named Carly, who moved out when their mother died of a sickness called influenza when Darla was 15 and as she could recall she never heard from her sister again. As much as she was happy she knew these things they didn't help her figure out how she ended up here handcuffed to a table in a Siberian Police station.

Darla threw her head back in her chair and sighed once again she started to count the ceiling tiles when the door opened which caused her to sit up quickly to see who was going to interrogate her now. A man wearing a red hoodie, black leather Jacket, a sling and an eyepatch walked in with the officer who called her an American spy. He walked over to Darla and undid her handcuffs. Darla looked between them, confused. The man with the eyepatch smiled at her as the officer began to speak.

"I apologize Miss Grant for the misunderstanding. Please forgive my colleagues and I, you are free to go." The man said with such a heavy accent that Darla wished he'd just said it in Russian so she didn't have to decipher his words.

"Thank you?" Darla replied as she pulled her hand back off the table and rubbed her wrists with the other. The officer nodded at her and left the room leaving her and the man with the eyepatch alone. Darla and he stared at each other for a moment. Then the man walked forward and reached his hand for hers and motioned for her to take it to stand up. Darla furrowed her brows at him and slid off the chair in the other direction.

"Oh, honey don't be like that." The man said. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to take you to the market when I said I was going to, but you didn't have to try and walk into town and make a scene and scare all these people. Come on let's go home." He said signalling her with his eyes. Darla had no idea what this man was talking about, but her gut told her to play along.
"I don't want your hand. This is the last time I ask you to do anything for me you asshole!" She said as she headed toward the door. The man moved to the door as well moving to open it for her.
"I'm sorry okay, I lost track of time with Martha!" The man said to her as she walked off ahead of him. Which forced the man to walk quickly after her as they bickered.
"This is the last time I take the back burner for that cheap whore you've been spending all your time with! I am your wife!" She yelled with feigned distress in her voice as she dramatically stopped in the middle of the hall. The man caught up to her and stopped too, officers around them attempted not to look at the seemingly arguing couple.
"Baby please, can we talk about this when we get home?" He said as he softened his tone and placed his hands against her shoulders. Darla shook him off.
"No. There's nothing to talk about I want a divorce!" She screamed as she walked to the security door to the lobby and gave it a yank. She glared at the officer who was trying so hard not to pay attention to them that he didn't notice her signal to buzz her through. Darla cleared her throat at the man. He looked at her and cursed in Russian under his breath before placing his key card over the lock to let Darla and the man out into the lobby. The man with the eyepatch continued to plead with her all the way outside. He started walking slightly ahead of her as they argued leading her to his car. Darla glanced toward the police station and saw several officers watching from the windows of the lobby. She tried her door then when it didn't open she started again. "For Christ's sake would you please just let me in the car!" She yelled. The man hit the button on his key fob unlocking the car.  The two got in and continued to feign the argument until they got onto the street.