“I thought that’s what was happening. I really did. I can’t tell you how sorry I am!”
Just before I had called Brick, in an effort to make sure I wasn’t crying wolf, I had gone around to the other side of the neighbors’ RV, and using a lawn chair I found there, I had peeked into a window that had a partially drawn shade. The girl’s father and the woman had been trying to take off that girl’s clothes. The other man had joined in when it appeared they weren’t having any success with it.
Tears were streaming down my face now and I didn’t know what to do. But I had to get out of there. I ran out the door and across the compound to the bathhouse. I had some major repair work to do on my face and hair. My mascara was smeared and my hair was half in, half out of the loose ponytail. I was miserable, and when I looked in the mirror while leaning on the sink, it was all I could do not to slump to the floor in a disheveled heap. I had really messed things up. Brick was furious and I would be lucky if the neighbors didn’t press some kind of charges against me.
I heard a scuffle behind me, then a sniffing noise. I turned to see the cute little redhead huddled in the corner looking over at me. Her eyes were redder than mine and the tissue she held to her nose was shredding with her nervous fingers.
“It’s you! You’re the one I saw them abusing. You’re the one who mouthed for me to help you. How did you get here?” I grabbed a hunk of paper toweling and went to kneel by her. I handed her fresh reserves to blot the run off. She was crying and sobbing big time now.
“I told them I was going to be sick. The policeman let me out and I ran. And I know he’s out there, looking for me!”
“Who is he?”
“My father!”
“So it was your father helping them take your clothes off?” My eyes had popped wide and my stomach clenched from the disgusting thoughts that brought.
“Yes, I wouldn’t cooperate. And he had spent a lot of money to get me here.”
“Whoa, whoa. Are you saying your father brought you here so you could be in some kind of porn show?”
“What? No!” She swiped at her chin where tears had pooled, then she sniffed loudly. “I wasn’t brought here to be in a porn flick!”
“I don’t understand. What were they doing when I saw the three of them trying to get your shirt off?”
“They were trying to get the shirt!”
“Trying to get the shirt?” I clearly did not understand.
“Yes, they had to have it for that geeky, prissy girl.”
I shook my head. Was this ever going to make sense? “The shirt? They had to have the shirt?”
“Yes. You have to wear the school uniform for the test. The shirt is part of the uniform; it’s got the logo. They had the pants but they didn’t have another shirt. You can’t get in for the test if you don’t meet the dress code.”
This was getting harder and harder to navigate. “The test?”
“Yes! The test!” She was losing patience with me and I almost couldn’t blame her. I had missed something here, something major.
“Okay, they needed your shirt, you didn’t want them to take it, and they got it anyway. What did they do with it?”
“They gave it to her, the look-alike. The girl who was going to take the test for me.”
Afraid I would sound senile, I asked anyway. “What test?”
“The entrance exam! The test to get into Stanford.”
“Stanford in Palo Alto, California?”
“Is there another?” she asked sarcastically. I was losing her as an advocate, she was clearly distraught and I wasn’t helping a bit.
“Okay sweetie, I think I have it now. These people you went to see, instead of coaching you to take the test, they brought someone in and made her look like you so she could take it for you?”
“Yes.”
“And let me get this straight now . . . you were for it and then changed your mind?”
“I sort of wanted to go to Stanford. But I knew I wasn’t good enough. I don’t like school. I don’t like to study. I just wanted to go to school there, you know, be one of the co-eds, go to parties, hang out with college kids, make a lot of friends.”
“What changed your mind?”
“I found out I was pregnant the morning we left to come here.”
“Ah ha. And I don’t suppose you’ve told anyone.”
“Nope.”
“Any ideas what you want to do now?”
“I want to get married and have the baby.”
“I take it this is not going to please your father.”
“Oh no! He’s going to kill me. He went to Stanford, my mother went to Stanford. And even with all their contributions, I can’t get in if I don’t pass that stupid test. But I don’t want to go anymore. I never really did.”
“Then you need to tell them that.”
“Just like that, huh? Just go tell them. You don’t know my parents, this is going to ruin them.”
“I doubt that it will, but even so, it’s better than ruining your life doing only what they want you to do. And with this new development, you’re going to need their support more than ever.”
“Support? They’re going to disown me!”
“Kids always think their parents are worse than they are. You have to give them a chance.”
“I don’t think so.”
“What about the people here, they’re breaking the law. What they’re doing is not right. You need to tell someone, they have to be stopped.”
“I don’t care. And who would I tell?”
“Me.” Brick walked into the bathroom and leaned on the wall.
“Who are you?” Visibly, I watched her shrink further into the corner.
Brick reached into his waistband and brought out his badge. He walked over, knelt before the cringing girl and let her read it.
She let out a heartfelt sigh. “I’m in big trouble, huh?” Then she started laughing, almost hysterically.
“Figures! The one time I stray with a boy, I get pregnant; the one time I stray from the straight and narrow, I get caught.”
“There’s a lesson there,” Brick said as he helped her up, “don’t stray.”
“How much did you hear?” I asked Brick.
“All of it. I came running after you the minute you left.” His eyes met mine and I could see he was trying to communicate his apology.
“So it wasn’t all my imagination.” I had to get one dig in. I just had to.
“No, I guess it wasn’t.” Being contrite didn’t set well with Brick, I could see that. “I should stop doubting you. Although this is a far cry from a porn ring.”
His hand on the girl’s arm, the other on the small of my back, he led us from the bathhouse. “In fact, I’m not exactly sure if what your neighbors did was a crime.”
“Oh, it has to be! They were cheating!” I said.
“No, technically, they weren’t. However, they were paying others to commit fraud and to cheat. This is one for the D.A. to figure out; this is not where my field of expertise lies.”
By the time we walked back to the campsite, a crowd had gathered. The girl’s father was making wild hand gestures and it was quite apparent that he was not a happy camper. I noticed the girl trying to keep close to the side of the RV, where several officers of the law were congregating.
No less than six other agents were standing around, wondering just what the hell was going on. Brick tapped one on the shoulder and pointed to the girl while he gathered others behind my RV. I watched as he gestured, pointed, and then looked straight at me. Then he winked, and I knew everything was going to be all right. Except for the fluttering inside me that was making me all too aware of him as a man again.
Chapter Fifteen
It was a long time before everyone cleared out. The professor next door and his wife, both teachers as I had guessed, him at the college level, her at the high school level, had been arrested on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, or some such nonsense that B
rick said they’d have to define later. Their vehicle had been locked up and all the officers were disbanding. The girl and her father had an appointment with the judge, but for now were being sent home to deal with her other issues.
Brick, his hand around my waist, was whispering in my ear. “I am so sorry, I’ve been a real shit.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said as I looked up to smile at him.
“Well you’re not going to like this either, but I have to go back on the chopper. But God if I didn’t . . .” He leaned down and his lips kissed all along my neck, sending shivers down my spine and heat zinging through my veins.
“I could sneak around and siphon out the gas,” I whispered into his hair.
“I don’t doubt it, but we really have to get back. The rally starts tomorrow and I wouldn’t want to miss running into ol’ Snooks, of the two-color eyes. I have a good feeling about this rally, and we have lots of coverage, so I’m sure we’re going to do well.”
The “well” he was referring to, as I knew from previous conversations, was to find and arrest an assorted number of child predators, particularly the one who had his sister. The man with the odd colored eyes being the main target.
“It’s an unfortunate side of RVing, but there is a disturbing element of society that took to the roads as soon it recognized that the camping atmosphere was ideal for pedophiles. It gave me a whole new job that I really wasn’t looking for.”
“I know, and I’m sorry about that. And I’m sorry about all this,” I swept my hand around, indicating the RV next door and the different groups of men scattered about discussing procedure.
“Hey, you did good,” he kissed my temple, “I’m sure the schools involved will be interested in how easily the system’s been duped. Again, it seems we just can’t stay ahead of the bad guys.”
“That’s okay, as long as you can catch up to them eventually. It seems there’s a lot more of them than you good guys.”
“Oh yeah, that’s for sure. Hey, I gotta go. But you just don’t know how much I want to stay, maybe show you how good a good guy I can be . . .” His lips were just below my ear now, I was melting and he knew it. Molten desire was surging through my blood creating frissons of heat everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. His arm tightened around my waist and he gave me a quick pat on my bottom. “I got plans for you babe, hang tight, and this time, try to stay out of trouble.” A quick peck on the lips followed and off he went, his little entourage following behind him. They all piled into the cars and trucks lining the road and then he was gone again.
I don’t think I have ever felt so alone in all my life. Brick was gone, Connor had left, the neighbors were gone, even Jared was out of the picture indefinitely. A few flies swarmed around my head and as I waved them away I thought of Stumpy. Damn, it was time to get some more bugs! This sure was a disgusting pet I had managed to acquire, I thought, as I trudged not too light-footed into the RV.
I looked around and felt closed in for the first time since running away. And as the song says, “I was so lonesome I could die.”
I went online to find out more about my little critter, namely how to fill his pantry. The side-blotched lizard, first identified in Utah in 1852, sports small dark, bluish-black blotches on the sides just behind the front legs, hence the reason for the name. The spots are more distinctive in the male than in the female but as I didn’t have two to compare, I was still clueless as to its sex. Until I read about the gular fold, a fold of skin covering the back portion of the throat, that funny red balloonish thing that had fascinated me earlier. Pumping it up and down was a very strange way to attract a female if you ask me, but apparently it was effective; the females lay two or three clutches of eggs per season containing two to twelve eggs that hatch in only two months.
As to what they feed on, the list was limitless: ants and their larvae, flies, mosquitoes, damselflies, dragonflies, beetles, bees, aphids, caterpillars, ticks, scorpions, spiders, and mites, and sometimes the males cannibalized their young. Wonderful, simply wonderful. I was tempted to just let the sucker loose to fend for itself when I read the next line. The side-blotched lizard usually lives in pairs.
Oh no! There was a wife and most assuredly babies, the ones daddy hadn’t “et” yet. I fell off the bench laughing. I just couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else as preposterous as crawling along the ground lifting rocks for the “bounty” they might be harboring.
Mostly ground dwellers, the lizards climb boulders, logs or rocky cairns for vantage points, to bask or claim their territory by doing “push-ups.” Apparently this is where the tail comes in handy; they need it for quickly dashing after their quarry. Without it they are prey to larger lizards, snakes and birds. Oh the guilt.
They rarely wandered, home range sizes are .06-acre for the males, .02 for the females and .01 for the juveniles, so if he had a family it was close by. I wondered if his wife would still find him attractive, without his tail and ability to do “push-ups” like Stallone for her.
So okay, I had a dilemma, there was a decision to be made here. Was I going to let him go, look for his family, or continue to care for him until his tail grew back?
I could hardly let him go knowing he would most likely starve or be prey to a hungry hawk. If I found his family and he couldn’t fend for them, wouldn’t I then be obligated for all of them? The thought made me shutter. The females in most species are strong, I told myself, thinking of pioneers and lionesses. Momma lizard, if there even was one, and the little ones would just have to manage on their own. So . . . it looked like I was to become a bug hunter. Then it occurred to me, there were pet stores. I could buy bugs! Except here I was in the great American wilderness, and I hadn’t seen anything resembling a pet store or bait shop. I heard the sounds of kids calling to each other. I looked out my bedroom window to the road . . . boys. What was that rhyme about puppy dog tails and snails? I reached for my wallet and headed out the door.
Chapter Sixteen
After breakfast I took a long nap in the hammock, I had lost a lot of sleep lately and I was tired. I awoke a few hours later when some men came to get the RV next door. I recognized the two men from the service station Connor and I had ducked into when we were evading the Abramsons. They gave me admiring glances as I watched them efficiently unhook everything and store the awning, lawn furniture, grill and carpeting before driving it off the lot. I guessed that the neighbors were either still in jail, or too distraught after being charged to deal with their RV. I felt a little guilty about that too. This was all my fault. Yet, they shouldn’t have been doing what they were doing, clever little scam that it was. I wondered how long they had been doing it, how many students had been “helped” by their special brand of tutoring.
Gosh, who would have thunk it, scamming on the S.A.T.s and college entrance exams by using ringers. I could certainly see how there was money to be made; all those parents desperate to get their kids into the best schools, so they in turn could get the best jobs to ensure their futures. The ones I’d seen dragging their kids into that RV had certainly seemed desperate.
Then I thought of Jared in the hospital at Klamath Falls. I was a petite inconsequential woman, how was it that I was affecting so many lives these days? I was beginning to feel old. I was wallowing, and I knew it for what it was, so I gave myself permission. I would go fix myself a drink, set the timer, and allow myself half an hour to sulk. Then I was going to cheer up and make some plans. A thought was niggling in the back of my mind that maybe it was time to move on.
I hadn’t seen the deer I wanted to see, or gone fishing, or white water rafting. Hell, I could always come back, I reasoned. I had seen the Clarks Nutcracker that feeds exclusively on the seeds of the white bark pine and I had some amazing pictures to prove it. I went inside and fixed myself a vodka tonic before returning to the hammock.
I had tried to call the hospital earlier to check on Jared, but due to the H.I.P.P.A. laws they weren’t able to tell me anything, especially as I wasn
’t willing to cough up the fact that I was his wife. But Brick had his connections and a few minutes later, he e-mailed me that there was no change in Jared’s condition.
As I sat in the middle of the hammock, my leg cocked under me, looking out at the mountains, I wondered how it had come to this. My husband was in the hospital and I really wasn’t all that concerned with his welfare. I was only concerned so far as it affected me. How had that happened?
I thought back through the years, alighting on the more memorable occasions, both good and bad. It was obvious that the bad memories far outweighed the good, just in my attitude. But I wondered how someone who had been so much in love could be so calloused as to whether the husband they had promised to love and cherish, died or was comatose for life. After thinking about it, it occurred to me that it was simple really. I had not only fallen out of love with Jared, I had come to detest him.
I tried to flip back in my mind to the exact moment when each of those events might have happened. For the falling out of love part, I saw me, dressed as a schoolgirl, doing things to pleasure my husband, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. How did men get these perversions, I asked myself as I sipped on the mind-numbing vodka. I knew I had made the drink twice as strong as I liked but there had been a reason, I needed to work through all this and some mind-numbing was definitely called for.
Was it because during those formidable years, those of early puberty, a young Jared was traumatically rejected by a girl in a pleated skirt, a white shirt with a Peter Pan collar and scuffed saddle oxfords with knee-highs? Was that girl being continually punished in his mind? For my sanity’s sake, I hoped that in my youth I had never casually dismissed a young suitor in such a way as to pattern his life for sexual revenge.
Was it inbred? Had Jared’s father enjoyed his mother’s charms only if she pouted and preened in a tiny school uniform? Is that why she had felt so compelled to spend so much time in Europe away from her husband?
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