by Dawn Sister
I guess I would have done the same, and for some reason I want to trust this enigmatic and intriguing young man. He seems to have so many layers to his personality I suspect I am simply scratching the surface at the minute.
"So do you want me to get you anything specific?" he asks.
I take another sip of soup and purse my lips as I think. If he is going to get groceries for both of us it's going to be far too much for him to carry on the bus. He could get a cab but I am forming another plan. The execution of which depends on how much I am willing to trust this angelic apparition before me,
"Cal, do you drive?" I ask him. He widens his eyes and nods,
"Yes, I do. I haven't had a car for about a year, but my license is valid." He fetches out his wallet and shows me his driver's license. I only get a flash though, not enough to read it properly,
"You could take my car." I tell him and he just stares at me. Oh god, am I doing the right thing? "I mean, it would be quicker," I say quickly, to hide any doubt I'm feeling, "and you'd have too much to carry on the bus, so take my car as long as you're not gonna carjack it or go joy riding, or do donuts in parking lots or anything else young people do with cars these days."
Cal rolls his eyes as he stands with his thumbs hooked in his low slung jeans. He makes me want to bite my lip, bite him, bite anything!
"I wouldn’t know the first thing about doing donuts, Jake." He assures me with a chuckle, "And even if I had any friends I wouldn't take them joyriding in your car."
"Great." Although I'm actually thinking it isn't really that great since he just admitted he has no friends. It's actually very sad,
"I can really take your car?" he asks me incredulously, as if he can't quite believe what's being said. I nod,
"Yes, Cal, I just said so didn't I? It's a stick shift, are you okay with that?" He nods, fizzling with so much excitement that I want to laugh. I wave my hand in the direction of my front door, "My keys are, erm…"
"On the table in your entrance hall." Cal finishes for me and I give him a confused look, "I picked them up off the floor when I let myself in on Sunday morning."
Urgh, my head hurts, but yeah, I vaguely remember Lawrence telling me he was dropping my car off and me asking him to post my keys through the mail slot.
Cal disappears then returns with my car keys, waving them with a questioning look on his lovely face. I nod,
"Any special orders?" he asks, as he hands me a couple of painkillers and a glass of water which I just accept without question, "Or should I just get stuff." I chuckle,
"If by stuff you mean chocolate, cookies and potato based snacks then yes." I tell him and he smiles,
"You can't live on junk food, Jake."
"I can try!"
He snorts then leaves before I can add to the list,
"I'll get you some flu remedy and some vitamin C as well." he calls back then he's gone.
I hear my car starting in the drive. I grimace as the gears crunch then the engine growls. The engine noise interspersed with gear crunching disappears into the distance, and I wonder for a fleeting moment if I've done the right thing and if the poor gears will ever be the same. I also wonder if I'll ever see my car again. The thought is very fleeting though, because what would Cal possibly have to gain from stealing my car? And it's not as if I don't know where he lives.
I chuckle as I finish my soup that I didn't even know I needed, then I lie back and wonder about the turn of events that has the neighbour I have been watching for the last month looking after me when I have just spent most of that time feeling protective towards him.
Until I woke this morning I thought I just had a bad hangover. I guess I'm lucky he was around really. I could have been in trouble if he hadn't been.
Despite the soup and the painkillers he handed me before he left I am still feeling like shit: gritty eyed, aching joints and a killer headache. I snuggle down into the blanket he has obviously fetched from my bedroom and decide that sleep is the best order of the day.
I go to sleep with mental images of Cal wandering through my house checking everything out. Something about that makes me a little uncomfortable. I hope he didn't look in my study. I hope that damn notebook where I wrote his schedule isn't lying in plain view. Oh shit! Too late to worry about that now, though.
-----
I wake to the sound of my sister's voice, talking to someone else who does not reply verbally, presumably it's Cal. They are in the kitchen and she is ordering whoever it is to sit in her inimitable motherly way. I assume she and Cal must have arrived back here at the same time. I can't imagine who else she would be ordering about like that.
I sit up and then stand gingerly, and make my way to the kitchen holding onto furniture, walls and doorways as I do because I'm a little unsteady on my feet.
The scene there is disturbing to say the least. Cal is sitting at the kitchen bench looking extremely pale and shaken. He has cuts and grazes on his face and what looks like a bruise forming above his left eye. My sister has her arm wrapped around his shoulders and is talking to him quietly, as if she's soothing him and reassuring him. He gives the occasional nod but says nothing in reply. Then she starts using sign language and I roll my eyes, I should have known my sister would know sign language, she's a teacher and she knows everything.
Cal replies in kind and then gasps as he notices me in the doorway,
"Jake!" he exclaims, and his pale and anxious expression is replaced by something altogether brighter, along with a delightful flush to colour his pale cheeks.
He is just lovely, but I can't think about that right now because there is something very wrong. What the hell happened to his face?
Sarah stands and turns to me. She looks somewhat less excited to see me, in fact she looks positively livid. I know her well enough, though, to realise that she is not angry with me but instead, is bursting to have a rant about something,
"Jake!" she exclaims sternly, "What are you doing up?" She walks over and immediately places her hand on my forehead, her gentle tone incongruous with her fuming expression, "How are you feeling sweetie?" she asks and I purse my lips and roll my eyes, meeting Cal's gaze and making him snort weakly at my embarrassment, he still looks shaky though and I am feeling very concerned about those cuts and bruises,
"I'm feeling a lot better thanks, Sarah." I tell her, even though I'm not really, I just have something else to focus on. I manoeuvre around her making a bee line for Cal,
"What's going on?" I ask, my voice barely a croak because my throat is still very sore.
Cal grimaces and looks away biting his lip,
"Sherriff Jefferson is what's going on." Sarah spits, making sure that Cal can see her too. "That damn Sherriff is an asshole." She hisses angrily and I see Cal's worried expression change to slight amusement at her choice of description for Oakwood Bay's esteemed but sometimes bombastic lawman, "You're laughing now, Cal, but it wasn't funny at the time." He shakes his head. He seems to have been struck dumb, the only word he's said so far is my name.
I look from Sarah to Cal then back to Sarah, none the wiser after her outburst,
"Will someone please tell me what's happened?" I ask, as I take the stool next to Cal. He immediately shuffles his stool closer, as if by doing so he feels safer. Not sure I can process this yet, so I try to ignore it but I am very aware that his knee is now pressed against mine. He takes a deep breath and rubs his hands anxiously along his legs before speaking,
"The Sheriff arrested me!" he tells me, his voice sounding more hollow than it usually does,
"He what?" I splutter, "Why?" Cal shrugs. I'm not sure what to think now, because is he reluctant to tell me because he's done something wrong or is he just embarrassed? Did he get in a fight? It certainly looks like he did,
"He had your car." Sarah explains, her tone sarcastic and acidic. I wait for more of an explanation, bracing myself for the inevitable "He crashed it" or "Someone tail ended him and there was a fight." but she doesn't add to the
statement. I look back and forth between the two of them in disbelief,
"What? That's it?" I ask with a confused frown, "He arrested you for having my car?" Cal nods, "The last time I looked there wasn't a law about letting a friend borrow your car." I say in utter confusion,
"Yes, you know that." Sarah tells me sarcastically, and I am beginning to see the source of her anger now, "Cal knows that, I know that, hell, even Jezzie your cat knows that, but Sheriff Jefferson?" she huffs, throwing her hands in the air before bending to pick up two large grocery bags which she plonks on the counter next to me. She leaves the room still muttering angrily about asshole Sheriffs, I assume to go get whatever else she and Cal have brought from town.
As she leaves, Cal seems to deflate by my side, as if he was simply holding himself straight to put on a show for Sarah. I immediately place my arm around him and try to ignore the fact that he melts against me as I do,
"Are you okay?" I sign the word too and he nods with a sigh then starts signing as I watch helplessly, "Cal I don't understand." I tell him to his face. He bites his slightly swollen lip, looking shaken and upset. He mimes writing into his palm and I jump up, ignoring a wave of dizziness and fetch him a note book and pencil from another part of the counter.
Can't speak! He writes,
"What? You have a sore throat?" I ask, wondering if nursing me over two nights has given him my bugs. He shakes his head, "You can't speak when you're upset?" he nods. I sigh. Oh god I want to cry for him, "How come the Sheriff arrested you?" I ask, because this is the source of the upset and I need to know.
He shrugs again and scribbles furiously on the pad,
Thought I was punk, stealing your car. Says he shouted at me to stop but thought I was resisting arrest because I didn't turn around.
I gasp,
"What happened?" I ask. Cal looks even more upset now and he's shaking a little,
Cuffed me. He writes shakily, Took me to station, couldn't speak. Sarah came.
He looks exhausted. I just want to wrap him up in a blanket and hold him on my lap except he's almost the same height as me and he'd probably protest. Or would he? He's pressed so close to me now he may as well be sitting on my knee.
I lift my hand to his face and trace along the line of one of the grazes on his cheek. He winces slightly with a soft hiss,
"They hurt you?" I say quietly, watching his face for any signs that he's been roughed up. His mouth is a tight line as he shakes his head,
"No!" he tells me out loud as he hangs his head. He writes This happened during arrest. He shows me his wrists now and I see they are red and bruised as well,
"You struggled?" I ask him and he bites his lip again, his eyes becoming watery,
Jumped me from behind. Thought I was being attacked. As he writes the words I gasp and tighten my grip around his shoulders,
"Fucking hell." I hiss.
I want to ask him more but Sarah returns,
"It was Lawrence that told me about the arrest." Sarah continues the story as she deposits two more big bags of groceries onto the counter, then steps up to Cal and checks his face by cupping his chin and turning it from side to side, "Do you want me to clean those grazes, sweetheart?" she asks him gently.
Cal shakes his head, and I think he is reluctant to move away from me. I think Sarah sees this so she returns to sorting out groceries,
"Lawrence saw what happened?" I ask incredulously, "But he knows Cal, he's seen us together in the coffee shop." Sarah nods,
"A lot of people saw but it all happened so fast no one knew who it was that Jefferson arrested. I knew as soon as Lawrence told me because you'd just texted me to tell me you'd lent your car to Cal. I rushed to the Station and walked in on them trying to process him but not getting very far because how the hell was he supposed to communicate when they had him cuffed?" She shakes her head in frustration and I can see that she is also quite visibly shaken by the entire experience. However where Cal seems upset and anxious she is quite simply livid. She reaches out and touches Cal gently on the shoulder so he knows she's speaking to him, "I don't know which of these are yours and which is Jake's, sweetie." She says. He nods and shrugs.
I'll sort in a bit he writes and places the pad down on the counter before getting up, making a sign across his shoulder and then disappearing from the room.
I look at Sarah for an explanation,
"Bathroom." She translates helpfully, watching him go,
"Oh. My. God, Sarah." I gasp when Cal is out of sight. My own woes are forgotten now. Poor Cal, he must have been terrified.
"Oh, Jake." Sarah takes Cal's place by my side, "You should have seen the state he was in. He couldn't speak he was so upset. Lawrence told me what he saw. Cal was walking away from the car and Jefferson shouted at him, but obviously he didn't respond. Jefferson tried to imply Cal was resisting arrest. Lawrence told me Jefferson just launched at him, tackled him to the ground and had him cuffed and bundled into the patrol car before anyone could even blink. When I got to the station they were trying to get his name out of him but by then he was in such a state he couldn't get a word out. I explained he had the car with your permission and that he was deaf and asked politely what the procedure was for suing for wrongful arrest and police brutality and they let him go. Poor kid was beside himself."
"I can imagine." I say, watching the door for signs of his return,
"Jake." She places her hand on my arm, "You're the first person to get anything out of him since it happened. Lawrence, Lou Anne and I all tried in the coffee shop but he just clammed up. It's a good job I know a little sign language otherwise he'd have been stuck with writing it all down but he couldn't even do that after it first happened, his hands were shaking so badly. His face when he saw you just now. I don't think I've ever seen anyone look so relieved."
This information is surprising and troubling at the same time. Why would he be so relieved to see me? I mean we're barely at the beginnings of a friendship for him to be so dependent. Plus he doesn't want to be dependent on anyone, he told me. He wants to prove he can do it all by himself. Maybe he realises that everyone needs someone. That's fine with me, because the closer I can get to him the better. I'm happy to be his friend/shoulder to cry on/whatever. What happens when he realises I'm attracted to him though? What then? I guess I'll just have to be good at hiding it because a friend is what he needs right now, not something that could just become complicated.
He returns from the bathroom with slightly red rimmed eyes. Sarah gives me a significant look and I feign a yawn which isn't that fake since I am still suffering, I've just had something to distract me,
"I'm done in. I'm going to sit back on the couch, plus we should never get in the way of my sister when she is organising stuff." I quip and Cal gives a small smile, "Come into the living room out of her way. We can watch a movie or something, huh?" I ask him.
Cal glances over at Sarah and also at the grocery bags that are still unopened,
"Oh, go on and sit down the two of you, before you both fall down." She makes a show of us both being under her feet, "I'll sort all of this. If you end up with each others groceries I don't suppose it'll be a hardship, will it?" Cal gives her the first real full smile since they got back from town.
As I guide him through to the living room I glance back at my sister and smile in thanks. She is amazing, Sarah. I have no idea how she knew Cal was deaf, she only met him for five brief minutes on Sunday but then I remember it's Tuesday and I guess they had the rest of Sunday and all day yesterday to get acquainted. I dread to think what they talked about.
The thought of my sister blasting into the police station to bust Cal out of jail makes me smile. I bet Sheriff Jefferson never knew what hit him. The mental image of her "asking politely" about police brutality is not going to be one I'll forget easily.