Biting Winds

by Shawna Ireland

  Sangio rolled his window back up. “Are you ready for this?”

  “I am. Let’s drive past my campsite and see if he’s still there,” she instructed Sangio. The windows were tinted, so she didn’t have to worry about Dave seeing her if he was still there. Sangio drove towards the campsite slowly and as they got closer, Jessie reached out and grabbed Sangio’s hand, squeezing it harder as the camp marker came into sight.

  “There he is!” Jessie exclaimed as she saw Dave throwing wood onto the fire.

  Dave looked up, waving to Sangio’s car in recognition as they drove by. He looked like he hadn’t showered or shaved for a week. He had lost some weight, as well.

  “Breathe,” Sangio reminded Jessie when he noticed she sucked in a deep breath, and failed to let it back out. She was shaking, and her hand became sweaty in his. “Jessica?”

  “Pull over,” Jessie mumbled as they cleared Dave’s campsite. She jumped out of the car before he came to a complete stop, stumbling into the bushes and throwing up.

  Sangio rushed around to Jessie, helping her back into the car. “We shouldn’t have come back.”

  “Yes, we should have. I’m ok. It was just. . . it shocked me. I don’t know what I expected. I half-expected him to be gone, taking that part of my life with him,” she admitted. “But I have to do this.”

  “Ok, ok!” Sangio focused on calming himself down as well, remembering the last time he saw Dave. “Let’s find a campsite far enough that Dave won’t walk up on us going to the showers.”

  “Showering doesn’t look like a priority for him.” Jessie tried to find a little humor in a very serious matter.

  “You noticed?” Sangio pulled into a small, secluded cove on the opposite side of the showers. “Stay here while I set up the tent.”

  Jessie watched as Sangio sprang into action, setting up the campsite with speed and ease, and had a fierce fire going to combat the winds that Jessie did not miss.

  "You've had some experience camping," Jessie suggested as she admired the quick, yet solid set up.

  "Well, once or twice over the past hundred or so years," Sangio winked.

  Despite the heat of the fire, the freezing wind got the best of Jessie, sending her into the tent.

  "I'll give you a few minutes to get ready for bed," Sangio offered. "And I bought two air mattresses. Take either one, they're both the same."

  "Thanks."

  Jessie ducked into the tent, smiling at the detail Sangio used to set up the tent. Everything was neat, in it's place, and far too expensive for a camping trip. She let out a little laugh.

  "Everything okay?" Sangio called to her.

  "Well, it's just that I'm starting to wonder if I was right on the gay thing. Your sense of decor would put that wedding planner, David Tutera, out of business. Seriously, the only thing missing are the frilly curtains and flowers."

  "Evil. Pure evil," Sangio laughed. "But who am I to talk?"

  "Are you kidding?" Jessie popped her head out of the tent. "Tell me you don't consider yourself to be evil."

  Sangio shrugged. "Well, I do have a slight trail of bodies on my conscience."

  "So does a crocodile, but they're not evil. They're just following their natural instincts to survive."

  "You need to make up your mind. Am I a vampire, crocodile, or gay?"

  "Perhaps, all of thee above, now get in here so I can zip the tent. Some of us can still die of hypothermia."

  "Now that," Sangio ducked into the tent, "I could not have on my conscience."

  After tossing and turning for the next two hours, Jessie let out a frustrated sigh.

  "Here, this should help." Sangio handed her a glass of red wine. "You must be nervous about tomorrow."

  "It's not just that," Jessie sat up and took the glass, drinking over half of it in one fluid motion. "To be honest, I feel weak. Like, I should be able to fight this battle on my own. No offense. I just feel like a damsel in distress who needs a knight in shining armor to save me."

  "I understand why you would feel this way, but I can also tell you that it takes a strong woman to leave in the first place. And here you areready to face him. There's no weakness in that. Women go into hiding and change their identities over much less than what happened to you. He rendered you brain dead. I hate to be so brash, but the only reason you are alive to come back here to face him is that you happened to tickle the fancy of a handsome vampire."

  "Did you really just say that?" Jessie laughed.

  "What? I'm not handsome?" Sangio smoothed his hair down and straightened his clothes.

  "I'm pretty confident you don't need an answer to that question, but just so you know, I was referring to your 'tickle the fancy.' I mean, who says that?"

  "That bad?"

  "Pretty bad," Jessie nodded her head.

  "Alright, alright! You aged me, now can we carry on our conversation, or are you trying to change the subject on purpose?"

  "Not at all. I really feel like I should march right up to him, knee him in the balls, and then move on with my life."

  "And the probability of that being the end of it is zero percent."

  Jessie shrugged.

  "I'm serious, Jessie. This isn't a school yard fight. If he hurt your mother, would you let her face him alone?"

  "Well, no. But--"

  "No buts. If your father wanted to go fight Dave, after what he did to you, would you let him?"

  "But--"

  "No. We are not playing the but game. It's yes or no."

  "No, I would not."

  "Ok, last question. Why didn't you call your mother and father to come pick you up?"

  "Because he would hurt them. You've made your point." Jessie rolled her eyes in irritation. "I get it. And if you weren't here I would be using the police to escort me back. You're right. You can gloat now."

  "I don't want to gloat. I still haven't forgiven myself for not hiding out in the trees the day he attacked you. If I would have gotten there sooner, stopped him, he would be in jail for attempted murder and you wouldn't be facing him again."

  "You know there's a word for that, right?"

  "For what?" Sangio was confused.

  "For hiding out in trees. I'm not sure what they called it in your day, but now we call it stalking."

  "I see. We are going to crack old man jokes instead of you admitting that it takes a strong woman to come back and face her abuser, and a stupid woman to come alone. They do still use the word 'stupid' in your generation, yes?"

  "I plead the fifth," Jessie set the empty wine glass down on the floor, curled into her blankets, and laid back down. "Now be quiet. Mortals need their rest."

  "My pleasure," Sangio said, shutting the batteries off in the lantern and laid down on his air mattress, where he stared at stars through the netted roof, considering how easy it would be to sneak out and go down to Dave's campsite. He grinned as he pictured Dave crawling around on his hands and knees, begging for mercy that would not come to him.

  "Sangio?" Jessie called softly.

  "Still here."

  "Thanks for being here for me. I'll sleep better knowing you will be by my side."

  "It has been my pleasure. I can't think of a better place to be. Wait, scratch that. I can think of a million other places I would rather be, but no other person that I would want to be near."

  "How do I top that?"

  "By feeling the same way."

  "I do. 'Night, Sangio."

  "Goodnight, Jessie."

  Sangio quickly dismissed his torture filled daydream, knowing he wouldn't leave Jessie alone in the tent.

  Chapter 37

  “I can’t believe I have to do this,” Jessie complained as she squatted in the trees behind the tent.

  “The only other option is walking to the bathroom and bumping into Dave,” Sangio reminded her.

  “I know! I know!” Jessie said.

  “Although, I’m pretty sure there are laws against this,” Sangio teased.

  “Oh my go
odness! Don’t start or I’ll fall on my backside,” Jessie snorted, but quickly quieted down when she and Sangio heard the scuffing of feet coming near the campsite.

  “Jessica!” Sangio quietly warned.

  Jessie found no further amusement her circumstances.

  "Sangio? You in there?” Jessie cringed as she heard Dave entering the campsite. She scooted forward, pushing up against the back of the tent, pulling up her pants.

  “It’s a little early for a visit, don’t you think Dave?” Sangio answered. “I haven’t even started my morning coffee.”

  “Bah, coffee’s overrated.” He waved off a misunderstood offer. “I haven’t seen you in a while. Just thought I would pop in. You alone?”

  “I was trying to be.” Sangio was finding it hard to pretend to like the murderer standing in front of him.

  “One of those, huh? Grumpy till you get your first cup,” Dave laughed, evoking no response from Sangio, except an annoyed stare.

  “Did you need something Dave?”

  “Yeah, just wanted to invite you over for a game of cards later. It’s been quiet around here lately.”

  “Sure. I'll stop by this evening.”

  “Great!” Dave gave him the thumbs up as he turned to leave.

  “Tell Jessica I said hello,” Sangio threw in.

  “Jessica?” Dave stiffened.

  “Yeah, isn’t that your wife’s name?” Sangio winked at Dave.

  “Jessie, yeah, of course it is. It’s just, she went to town for a few days. She was, uh, tired of the wind. Said it gave her an earache,” Dave stumbled over his words.

  “A honeymoon without the bride. That’s a new one.” Sangio stared knowingly into his eyes, then smiled.

  “Well, I’m sure she’ll be back soon.”

  “I’m sure of it!” Sangio taunted as Dave walked quickly out of the campsite.

  “The lying jerk!” cried Jessie, when Sangio assured her it was safe to come out from behind the tent. “All this time and he seriously couldn’t come up with anything better than an earache? If I weren’t so pissed, this would be funny. And my calves are burning from squatting behind the damn tent.”

  Sangio was pacing again. “We have to figure this out tonight, Jessica. It took everything in me to let him walk out of this campsite. I can’t guarantee I can let that happen a second time. The last time I went against my gut and waited too long I almost lost you.”

  Jessie wrapped herself into Sangio’s arms and stood in the rays of the sun, knowing that she had to decide Dave’s fate and whatever the decision, it would be dealt tonight.

  Chapter 38

  Sangio walked into Dave’s campsite with another bottle of Chivas Regal, wondering why he agreed to any plan that did not end with the arrested heartbeat of this useless man, grinning at him as if they were old friends.

  “You made it!” Dave jumped up from the fire he was staring into, and reached to shake Sangio’s hand.

  Sangio, not trusting himself to touch the man, instead, shoved the bottle of booze into Dave’s extended hand. Dave, too excited about the prospect of drinking such a strong, yet smooth indulgence failed to be offended by the gesture.

  Dave didn’t care. Sangio was more of the quiet, studious type. He brought a good drink, and played a good hand, but he was boring as hell. As a matter of a fact, the last time Dave drank with the man, he fell dead asleep on the table.

  Dave was used to the boisterous, rough, entertaining guys from the construction company. They were like the brothers he always wanted. Thanks to his mother, he never got the chance to knock back a cold one with his own brother.

  When he was first laid-off from the construction company he was pissed. Still, he kept calling the guys and inviting them over for the games, whether they were football, hockey, baseball, or basketball, which he wasn’t even that fond of. They didn’t even bother pretending to want to come over. They hastily declined, with no offer of an excuse. When he heard of a get-together at one of the guy’s house he would call the host, fishing for an invitation. It never came.

  Dave was familiar with the old out-of-sight, out- of-mind mentality from the close friends that promised to include him in their lives when he moved around as a kid, but when he called them it was always a different story.

  “It’s me, Dave," he would say into the phone.

  “Who?” the old schoolmate would ask.

  “Dave Rech. We lived in the same apartments a couple years ago?”

  “Oh yeah! Dave,” they’d say, though Dave rarely heard any recognition in their voices.

  “Well, I’m going to be in town next week. I was thinking about stopping by,” Dave offered. "We can catch a movie or something."

  Their answers were always the same. They would be out of town, the were on restriction, their parents wouldn’t let them have company. Not one damn time did any of them jump at the offer and tell him to stop by.

  Here he was in his thirties, going through the rejection all over again, but this time it was grown men, capable of making their own decisions as opposed to pimply-faced teens under their mother’s control. Still, Dave told himself that when work picked up, he’d get the call to come back in. After three months of no work, he called themto confirm that they had his correct contact information. They assured him that they did, but continued to say they still had no work for him.

  After two more months, and handfuls of ignored phone calls to the construction company and his coworkers, Dave decided to drive to the office to find out what was going on for himself.

  “Arthur!” Dave called out, picking up his step when he saw his old foreman walking to his work truck with a handful of blue prints. “Looks like things are picking up, huh?”

  “Dave!” Arthur genuinely looked shocked to see Dave, and looked around to see if there were any other coworkers around. “Did they call you back in?”

  “No, man! That’s why I’m here. I haven’t heard anything," Dave admitted as he noticed several of his old buddies purposely walking the opposite direction of their trucks, avoiding him. “Look, what’s going on? I see several new faces. Why would they hire more workers and leave me sitting at home?”

  “You’re going to have to talk to Wesley.” Arthur pointed to the main building where the workers were coming out of the door with their work assignments.

  Dave hit his shoulder into Arthur’s as he walked hastily towards the manager’s office, knocking the blueprints to the ground.

  “Watch it!” his old friend, Jason yelled, heading towards Dave. “This has nothing to do with him.”

  “Really? Then tell me, Jason, who the hell does it have to do with?” Dave hollered back, face to face with Jason, who was a foot taller than Dave, though today he looked even taller and wider with his steel-toed boots, hard hat, and heavy, packed tool belt adding to his girth.

  By now, a dozen other men came over and pulled Jason away from Dave, and made it clear that their allegiance was not with Dave.

  “How about looking in the goddamned mirror?” Jason spat. “You might recognize the asshole that sealed his own fate.”

  "Oh, you're talking to me now that there isn't a phone to hide behind? Where's your wife to answer this call, pussy?"

  “Dude, why don’t you get going before this gets any uglier?” an unfamiliar man barked.

  “And who the fuck are you?” Dave asked, not really caring, and not standing around to hear the answer as he continued his route to see Wesley, who was rushing out of the office to see what the commotion was.

  “Who would have guessed?” Wesley smirked. “Good ole’ Dave. Why, there hasn’t been a fight here in half a year. I could have guessed it was you, but I thought we sent you on your way.”

  “On my way? If you are referring to telling me that there was no work and laying me off, then that’s a real honorable way to get rid of me.” Dave stepped through the door Wesley held open for him, and then followed Wesley to his office.

  “You heard what you wanted, Dave. I said I
had no more work I could offer you. The company has plenty of work. Unfortunately, with your temper and aspiration to go head to head with everyone from your coworkers and customers, to the county inspectors, you’ve tied our hands, bud.” Wesley rested his hand on Dave’s shoulder for a mere second before Dave violently shrugged it off. “You’re kidding me?” Dave paced. “You’re fucking serious, Wes? After everything I did for this company?”

  “You did your job, Dave,” Wes reminded him. “And you were paid for it. But to my knowledge, besides busting up some stations, and head-butting the customer at the work site which cost us tens of thousands of dollars in litigation, then I’m not sure what 'everything' you’re talking about.”

  “The asshole was pissing on my truck!” Dave erupted.

  “On the company truck. Even then, you throw him off the worksite. You call the cops. Hand him a bucket with soapy water and a rag and make him wash your truck. But you don’t break the guy’s fucking nose.” Wes shook his head at Dave. “And the fact that you still haven’t figured this out assures me that our decision not to bring you back was the only decision.”

  “Our decision? Who else?” Dave demanded.

  “I’m not doing this with you. Let me put it this way. We called it a lay off, and we didn’t fight your unemployment. I know you’re getting married in a couple of weeks. But if you don’t disappear quietly, we can go forward with a termination letter and you can forget any type of recommendation,” Wes threatened.

  “How the fuck am I supposed to pay for my wedding? How am I supposed to tell my fiancée that I don’t have the money for a wedding, or for that matter, that I only have a one-bedroom shithole of an apartment to bring her home to?” Dave banged his fists on Wesley’s desk.

  “I’m not saying it will be easy, Dave. But she didn’t bail when you told her you got arrested for assault, so I’m sure you’ll get past this as well,” Wesley offered, though his patience was wearing thin.

  “You think I told her, you dumb fuck?” Dave turned from Wesley’s desk, kicking a chair over.

  “Look Dave, you need to go.” Wesley pointed to the door. “I feel sorry for you man! I really do.” Wesley began walking towards the office door to further facilitate Dave’s exit.