by Ali Vali
People like Harry are a rare breed. They charge through life cutting away the obstacles for the rest of us to follow, but she does it to make your path easier, not because she chooses it for you. If you want to go in another direction then pick up your cane knife and have at it, and after an hour you will realize how nice her way is."
"I didn’t mean it as an insult."
"I know that, sweetheart, but think of how she’ll take it if you express it when you’re angry. Kenneth is the same way, so I understand what you mean, but his motives and hers are the same. They love us, so they leave us out of the struggle. It doesn’t mean that we still don’t have to walk our own path, because believe me they won’t carry us. The other part of this truth, I think, is that she gets afraid sometimes."
"Afraid of what?" Desi started to feel better, but the worry eating at her gut wasn’t abating.
"That she will lose you again, only now with Jack, it’s double jeopardy."
"That will never happen and you know it," said Desi.
"But does she?" The phone rang cutting through the silence Tony’s question had created and they both jumped at the sound.
"Desi?" The male voice asked her name as soon as she picked up the phone. Desi felt so sick she slumped into Tony when she figured out who it was. The only question was, what did he want?
"Yes?"
"Desi, is Harry at home with you?"
"No, why?" Tony was about to take the phone away from Desi if she got any paler.
"I don’t want to alarm you, but we think someone at the hospital helped Byron escape." Roger leaned out the car window a little and attached the flashing blue light to the roof of the sedan he was driving.
"I don’t understand what you just said. He tried to escape?"
"I’m sorry, Desi, he did escape. We are just trying to run down his accomplice. The shits heading the investigation waited ‘til’ an hour ago to inform my partner and me because of our connection to the case. There’s nothing to lead us to believe that he will be stupid enough to go back there Desi, and he’s hurt."
"That’s the problem with the police, Roger, they seem to overestimate Byron’s stupidity leaving him a step a head of you." The dial tone in his ear made him step harder on the gas.
"Where are you going, and what’s going on?" Desi’s demeanor and her tears were scaring Tony and he was at a loss hearing her short answered side of the phone conversation.
"Stay here with Jack, I have to go." Tony picked up the sleeping baby carefully not wanting to wake him. Making a quick decision he headed to Mona’s room.
"Don’t ask me any questions, but just try and not move around a whole lot and he should continue sleeping. Call Kenneth and tell him to come over here as soon as he can." Tony laid Jack by Mona’s side and piled pillows around him so he couldn’t fall off the bed. The front door of the house closing made him move faster, if he lost Desi, Harry was sure to kill him.
"Who do we have here?" asked Mona quietly as she put her hand on Jack’s back.
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"Where did they go?" The quiet of the street didn’t answer her question so Harry walked to the corner to see if she saw anyone walking to one of the other houses. When Harry was walking back to the gate she heard someone stumble on the other side of her fence.
She had walked next door wanting it to look like to the people in the car Tony had seen that she was just out for some exercise. It wasn’t hard to find since it was the only car parked on her block, the only problem was it was empty. The walk to the corner was equal parts to satisfy her curiosity and to walk off her hurt feelings when Desi had spurned her affections. It was the first time it had ever happened since they had gotten back together. Maybe she had overreacted and should have let Desi come with her. That thought disappeared when she heard the slight moan coming from whoever had fallen.
Harry moved to a spot along the fence where she could get a foothold up to the top not wanting to take the time to walk all the way back to the gate. From her perch she looked over their yard spotting the two intruders in the part of the garden she and Desi had shared their picnic all those months ago. It was dark enough that she couldn’t see their faces but from the outline it was a man and a woman.
"You fall again and you ain’t gettin’ up without the help of a big black bag covering you up." Byron pulled Mitzy to her feet for the fourth time since they had stepped into the yard. It was when he turned to pull her up that Harry’s blood ran cold. The cast he was wearing left little doubt to who he was without having to see his face.
"Papi, I am not going to repeat this so listen to me very carefully. Take Mami and Desi’s parents into one of the bedrooms and lock the door. Once you are all safe call the police and tell them that Byron Simoneaux is out in the yard of the house." Harry whispered into the phone while watching Byron walk along the garden like he was lord of the manor.
"Where are you, Harry, the police have been calling here trying to get in touch with you?"
"I’m on the top of the fence outside watching him move around. He doesn’t seem to be moving toward the house and he has a woman with him. Try and get in touch with Roger and tell him not to shoot me by accident when he gets here." She stopped talking when Byron and his lady friend reached a small teak table and chairs Desi had put out in the yard before the end of the summer.
"You can come down anytime you chose, but try and not take too long. I have pressing engagements I have to get to." Byron issued the invitation after looking in the direction Harry was sitting on the wall.
"Color me, surprised." Harry dropped down into her yard like a big cat falling from a high branch after a nap. "I didn’t think I made that much noise climbing my fence?"
"You didn’t, I saw your shadow in the yard and sat here to count my blessings. Seems God loves me after all like the song says. Come on, Harry, is it?"
"You can call me Dr. Basantes."
"I’ll call you whatever makes me happy, so sit down. I have someone here that is dying to see you. It was the least I could do after she helped me get out of the piss hole you left me in to recover." Mitzy became more afraid of Harry than Byron when the doctor looked at her from where she had dropped from the wall. The blue eyes had acclimated to the dark so there was no mistaking Mitzy, even with the cuts and bruises.
"Why are you here again, Bryon? Desi and the baby are gone. You have your freedom and someone to share it with I see, why not go forth and enjoy it?" Harry sat in the chair opposite him and put her hands on the smooth wooden top.
"I don’t mind going back to jail, even if the only way I will ever leave there after this little outing is in a pine box. Hell I parked right in front, no hiding this time around." For the first time Harry had known this man, he was dead calm. Almost like the eye of a hurricane since you knew the fury wasn’t too far below the surface.
"I told you, Desi and the baby are gone. Feel free to check the house if you like." Harry waved her hand to the structure behind them in invitation.
"No, I think this will do just fine. I didn’t come for Desi or your little bastard kid, I came to talk to you."
"You are wasting your time if you think that I will be baited into another conversation about Desi with you, it isn’t going to happen. If that’s what you came for, then you will leave to go back to jail disappointed." Byron looked at her hands spread out on the table; they looked like surgeon’s hands. The skin looked smooth and the nails were clipped neat and short. The silent question of whether Desi liked the way they felt on her naked skin made him close his eyes for a moment. All of a sudden Byron felt tired.
"There will be no fight this time, no argument about who she belongs to, just a solution to my problem. Don’t worry it is easy and it will be fast."
"What problem do you have, Byron?"
"You. You are my problem. You were there when I got married. You were there when I tried to make love to my wife. You were always there in her mind. S
he never forgot you, that should make you happy."
"Will it make it easier for you, if I told you I never forgot her?"
"Not really. What is it about you that women love so much? This one helped me thinking I would come over here and kill my wife so that you would be easy pickings for her." Bryon nodded his head toward Mitzy who sat quietly next to him. There were tears rolling down her cheeks because she knew what he had in mind to do, and it was making her sick. "You have her creaming in her pants."
"You are such a poet, I can’t believe you ever had problems attracting women." Harry was waiting for the punch line, any movement from him that would tell her what he was up to.
"I asked you a question, answer it."
"I love women, Byron, and all of the ones I’ve known can tell you that they never feared me. I never raised my hand to one, and I left them to be who they wanted to be. But for all the ones that have shared pieces of my life, they were only stand ins for the one I wanted. Desi is the one that has my heart and it doesn’t matter if she is in or out of my life, for her to always own it. I love her no matter what, even when she doesn’t listen to me." Byron never saw the slight flicker of her attention to the trees behind him. If he hadn’t been sitting there, the first thing Harry would have done was fuss because Desi wasn’t wearing a coat.
"Women like Desi don’t know what they want. They go through life hurting other people because they don’t know how to love. That’s how she treated me and now it’s time to punish her." There would be no more waiting for him to make his move it was done with stunning conviction. The gun looked so black against his pale skin.
Check mate. For the first time in her life, Harry felt true fear, and for the first time in his life Byron had played it right. In her seated position Harry would never reach his hand in time to change the bullet’s path from her head. "Any last words?" Byron asked her as he pulled back on the hammer.
"There is nothing to say that my wife doesn’t already know. I love her and our son, and I’m sorry I failed you. Don’t forget that you will never be alone, but think of our little boy now. He needs one of us." Her eyes never left Byron’s face, but she was addressing the woman behind him, the woman that was now crying and being held back by Tony.
"Touching, if Desi ever contacts me I’ll make sure she knows."
The shot was so loud that Mitzy covered her ears, and the blood was everywhere. From her position, Desi closed her eyes and fell back into Tony and just sat stunned. The first thought that crossed her mind when she heard the gun go off was not to what Harry had just said to her, but to her turning away from Harry’s kiss not an hour before. Desi closed her eyes not to stop the tears that had started, but to wipe out what she had just seen.
Harry was gone and she had just watched it happen. How could she face Jack when he asked about the woman that he looked so much like?
"Desi, honey, look at me." Tony’s voice sounded so far away, and she didn’t want to open her eyes again to see what Byron had done. "Please, Desi, you’re scaring me."
"I can’t."
"You can’t what, baby?" It was her imagination Desi was sure of it. The feel of Tony’s body felt so different, it felt so much like Harry’s. She wanted to never wake up from this if it was just a dream, if it was the only way she could have Harry back.
"I can’t look at her like that, I don’t want to remember her like that."
"I’m right here, baby, open your eyes for me." Desi obeyed the gently command, finding her vision blurry from all the tears. The tears turned into sobs when she felt the lips touch against hers, and this time she didn’t turn away.
"But I saw him shoot," said Desi a little confused as to what had happened.
"His shot went a little off target when someone else’s bullet tore into him first, his just grazed my neck a nick." Desi ran her fingers over the small cut on Harry’s neck trying to wipe away the blood she found. "Did you two come packing heat or something?"
"That would have been me," said Oscar, Roger’s partner. He still had his weapon and his eyes drawn on the slumped body about twenty feet away from them waiting to see if there would be any further movement.
"Thanks, Oscar, I owe you one." Harry let go of Desi and moved to Byron. Nothing would have made her happier than to find him dead, but the years of training kicked in.
The bullet had entered through the shoulder of his broken arm, and Byron was alive but not conscious. Beside him Mitzy appeared to be in shock as to what had happened. Harry and Kenneth laid the injured man on the ground after Roger had removed and bagged the gun still clutched in his hand. When the ambulance arrived Harry started to take Desi up to the house to wait for the police. She wanted an explanation as to why Byron and Mitzy were sitting in their yard with a loaded weapon.
"Harry." Mitzy’s voice wasn’t very strong but it stopped the surgeon cold.
"Is there something you want?"
"I didn’t mean any harm. I just thought he sounded so sincere when he said he wanted to talk to his wife again before he turned himself in." Roger and Oscan both listened to what the woman was saying, trying to figure out how she fit in with Byron.
"You saw me when I arrived at the hospital with an almost shattered leg, and you can stand there and say, you meant no harm? You lying, bitch! Just for the record Mitzy, I am not married to Byron any more." Desi stopped talking and picked up Harry’s hand. "I am married, only it’s to her. Deal with it."
"Harry?" Mitzy’s second call went unanswered as Harry led Desi away to the house followed by Kenneth and Tony. The two men that remained by her side were interested in speaking with her.
By the end of the night both Byron and Mitzy were in custody facing a long list of charges, and the young Basantes couple walked back to their new house confident that they were now safe from Byron. Jack was still asleep next to Mona, and the woman didn’t ask what had happened after seeing the haunted look on Desi’s face.
"Baby, this is not your fault, stop beating yourself up over tonight. We are both here, Jack’s safe and Byron is gone." Harry moved behind Desi and put her hands on her shoulders. After feeding Jack, Desi had walked to the large bank of widows that overlooked the yard and seemed lost in her own nightmare.
"It wasn’t that long ago that we thought Byron was gone for good and look what happened." Desi turned around in Harry’s embrace and put her fingers over the bandage Kenneth had put on her partner’s neck before he and Tony had left.
"The fact Byron escaped twice - yes I’m not forgetting that - is in my opinion an anomaly. An anomaly that is certain to never occur again, but if you let yourself get bogged down in possibilities, you can miss out on so much living." Harry kissed her and walked over to the bassinet where Jack was sleeping. They had decided to put off his move for another couple of days.
It’s so hard to do that," said Desi as she pulled Jack’s blanket up to cover him better.
"Baby, William James once said ‘Life is worth living…since it is what we make it.’ This is the life we are making." Harry waved her hand around her ending up with it resting on the bassinet. "A life that has so many things to look forward to. Think of us raising children, going to your openings and just waking up together until the chapter of this life comes to an end years from now."
"You promise?"
"I promise."
"Then come on, doc, let’s start on a new page of our story." Desi led Harry toward the bed, unbuttoning her shirt as they walked. It felt good to come out the winner in these situations. Desi thanked whatever deity listening for the path Byron’s bullet had taken. As he sat in jail, he could use its trajectory as the definition of all his actions against her and Harry. Close enough to do a little harm, but not close enough to cause pain. Not anymore.
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All It Took Was You
by
Ali Vali
Part 11
Four months later Harry and Desi found themselves back in court to wi
tness Byron’s sentencing. They had only attended the new trial on the days they both had to testify. To Harry, it was a moot point considering the amount of time he had gotten the first time around.
The main thing that made them feel better through the process was a call they had gotten from Garret Miller, the warden at Angola. He gave them assurances that his staff would do whatever was possible to not have a repeat of what had happened.
"Please rise." Desi looked at the man she had been married to as he struggled to get out of his chair. The arm that was now out of the cast, hung useless at his side. Oscar’s bullet had caused such extensive damage that he would probably never regain function of it again. That coupled with his reintroduction to the prison system gave him an almost ashen appearance.
"Mr. Simoneaux, I honestly did not expect to see you in my courtroom so soon. I guess you answered the question of how you would handle parole if you had gotten it, quite succinctly." Judge Carleton Reaper leaned back in his black leather chair and looked at Byron. The defendant had done them all a favor and plead guilty half way through the proceedings, understanding that there was no way in avoiding the inevitable. "Having plead guilty to the litany of charges I sentence you to thirty five years. My suggestion is that you find a way to become a more productive member of the human race with this extra time, sir."
With a wrap of the gavel it was over and Byron was led away. Before he disappeared through the door he turned and looked at the woman standing next to Harry. She was so different from the mouse he had married. Desi looked him straight on and arched her brow with a defiance that told him he would never touch her again, even if there were no bars separating them.
"Want to take a ride with me?" Harry held out her hand in invitation to Desi. Desi and Tony had been working hard on both the house and the studio to get them ready, it was time to take a day off.
"I’ll follow you anywhere, honey, you know that." Desi did just that, never looking back toward Byron. The only thing making her sad at the moment was the fact her mother and Bobbie had gone home along with Harry’s parents six weeks prior. They called often enough, but it wasn’t the same.