by Karen Einsel
As if he was reading her mind he ripped the phone cord out of the wall. “In fact I don’t even need a phone.”
She let out her breath, not looking at him, she didn’t cry, as she clenched and unclenched her hands.
Last night was bad. She doesn’t really know what she did wrong, but he grabbed her by the hair. She refused to give him the satisfaction of screaming out in pain or crying, which only made him madder. “Oh, so you’re being tough, huh? Doesn’t hurt you, does it? Well maybe this will teach you.” As he let go of her hair he grabbed her by the arm, digging his fingers into her flesh before he shoved her towards the chair. Falling over it, she ended up with a huge bruise on her thigh and another one right about the kidney area on the same side, not to mention the fingertip bruises on her arm.
A month ago she saw an ad in the paper that the YWCA was offering free aerobics classes three days a week. He has a class Friday mornings so she has been sneaking out after he leaves for work. It’s not that she really needs the exercise, and she really isn’t friendly with the other girls there, but she gets out, there are people, and it is the only thing that lets her know that she’s alive still. Some days she wishes he’d just…Shaking her head she looks down at her wedding ring as she turns it around and round. Looking back at the clock, she gets up and leaves.
Saved By Sue
It’s Chris’ 22nd birthday and she feels just like she did ten years ago. She has been sitting in the locker room for ten minutes waiting for everyone to leave. Chris looks around and thinks she’s finally alone. She knows she needs to hurry and get home before he does or he’ll know she was out. Chris sighs, takes off her sweats and as she is pulling Brandon’s t-shirt off over her head she hears,
“Oh my God, Chris!” Chris quickly pulls her shirt back down and looks over to see Sue standing there. They aren’t friends really. They just say hi to each other when they get to class. Chris tries not to get close to any of the women in the group, not wanting them to know about the abuse. Sue is staring at the bruise on Chris’ thigh. “Chris, who did that to you?”
Chris averts her gaze from Sue. “I fell.”
“Chris there is no way those bruises that you have, are from a fall.” Sue reaches over, lifts Chris’ shirt sleeve and looks at the fingertip bruises on her arm. “Chris, who is abusing you?”
“Nobody, I’m fine. I just fell. I’ve gotta hurry.” Chris stands up. “I’ve got to leave. I have to get home before….”
Sue blocks her way. “Before what, Chris?”
Chris shakes her head, clenches and unclenches her hands, trying not to cry. “I just have to get home, okay?”
“Chris I can’t let you go home, especially if it’s someone there that is doing this to you.”
“You don’t understand, I have no other place to go.” Chris tells her as a tear slips down her cheek.
“I’ll take you home and you can get your stuff, but I can’t let you stay there. You can come home with me.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Oh yes you can, and you will.”
Pulling up in front of the house, Chris looks up and down the street to see if his car is parked anywhere. Not seeing it, they get out and Chris reaches under the planter and grabs the spare key. Chris opens the door and is startled to see him sitting there.
“Where the hell have you been?” He gets up from the chair, walks over, and grabs Chris by the arm. Sue glances around, sees the phone on the counter and picks up the receiver.
“Let her go! You touch her again and you are going to jail. Now let her go.”
He lets go of Chris’ arm and holds his hands up in front of himself. Smiling he tells Sue, “Hey, I wasn’t going to hurt her. You’ve got this all wrong.”
Sue doesn’t take her eyes off of him. “Chris, go get your stuff and lets go.”
Coming back out of the bedroom, Chris has her camera bag, her photo album, and a plastic grocery bag of clothes. He grabs the bag of clothes from her and tries to grab her camera case.
“You aren’t taking anything with you. You want to leave, then you go, but you aren’t….”
Chris starts shaking as the tears start to fall, but not out of fear. No, not this time. This time she’s angry as she clutches her camera bag close to her body.
“You can take my clothes and you can take my dignity, but this camera is mine, it came with me and it leaves with me, now get your hands off of it.” Chris pushes his hand away and runs out the door with Sue right behind her.
Sue parks in front of the apartment and watches Chris clench and unclench her hands. Tight fist, open palm, finger tips to palm, tight fist.
“Do you always do that?”
Chris turns and looks at her. “What?” Sue nods towards Chris’ hands.
Chris sighs. “Yeah, bad habit I guess. I’ve been doing it since I was little. I only do it when I’m scared or nervous though.”
“Well you have nothing to be scared or nervous about, you’re safe now. Come on lets go in, I’m hungry and by the sounds your stomach is making, you’re starving.” She tells Chris as she’s laughing.
Walking into the apartment, Chris sees it has a fireplace. It reminds her of Brandon and her hands start to fidget again.
“Hey, you look about my size, let’s see what I have that you can change into.” Sue takes her into the bedroom and starts pulling clothes from her closet, laying them on the bed. “Since you are shorter than me, you’ll probably need to cuff them up though.” After changing her clothes Chris finds Sue is in the kitchen making them a sandwich.
“I can do that if you want.”
“No. I got it, in fact, wa la, all done. Come on let’s sit down and we can talk while we eat.”
Chris takes a bite of her sandwich and washes it down with her soda. “Oh that tastes so good.” She wipes the corners of her mouth with her fingertips and looks over at Sue. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drag you into this.”
Sue takes a swig of her soda before she replies. “Chris you didn’t drag me into anything, I came in on my own free will and there was no way I was going to leave you there.”
“But I have no money and no place to go.”
“You don’t have to go nowhere, as for money we will work it out. I do have a question though?”
“What’s that?”
“When he tried to take your camera from you, you could really see the fire in your eyes. Why does it mean so much to you?”
Chris is twirling her wedding ring around on her finger. Another habit she has had ever since Brandon died. “My husband gave it to me.”
“I’m taking it that, that guy wasn’t your husband. Where is your husband?”
“He was killed in an attempted robbery while trying to protect me. It’s a long story.”
“Well then I guess it’s your lucky day, because I played hooky from work today and you’ve got my undivided attention until Monday morning.”
“So that’s why I don’t see you at the aerobics class every week, because you are working?”
Sue nods. “Uh huh. Hey if you want to, we can go a couple of nights a week to the evening classes.”
Chris smiles, “I’d like that.”
They talk for what seems likes hours and Chris tells her about foster care, Jason, Barb, and Brad, leaving out the part about Brandon’s mom and the court orders, and just gives the bare bones facts on her recent predicament.
“Chris I don’t mean to interrupt you, but when did you go to live with Barb and Brad?”
“On my twelfth birthday. Ten years ago today.”
“It’s your birthday? Why didn’t you tell me? We are going to have to celebrate!”
“No. It‘s just another day.”
“Hell it is. Chris, birthdays are special. We‘ll go out and have pizza and share a bottle of wine. What do you say?”
“What the hell, why not.” Chris smiles at Sue and then looks d
own at her fidgety hands. “I really could use something to help me calm down right now.”
Sue wakes up during the night and sees the light shining under the door. She rolls over and squints at the clock. Getting up she finds Chris sitting on the couch with her portfolio opened in her lap.
“Chris…Are you okay?”
Chris sniffles and wipes the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I’m okay. I’m just missing Brandon.”
Sue sits down next to her and looks at the photo Chris is looking at. “Is that Brandon? He was really cute.”
Chris smiles. “Yes, he was.”
Reaching across, Sue points at Brent. “Who’s this?”
“That’s Brent. He was Brandon’s best friend.”
Sue nods towards the next picture. “Is that you foster parents?”
“Barb and Brad, yep that’s who they are.”
“How come they didn’t help you after Brandon died?”
“They couldn’t afford to and since I wasn’t a foster child any more, I didn’t feel it was right to ask for help.”
“When was the last time you saw them?”
“It’s been about a year and a half now.”
“Have you talked to them?” Slowly Chris shakes her head no.
“What about Brandon’s parents? Why didn’t they help you?“ Chris pulls out the envelope from the back of her portfolio and hands it to Sue. “What’s this?” Sue takes it from Chris and she opens it.
“The attorney brought those to me the morning after at the hospital.”
“That bitch!” Sue exclaims as she is reading them. “Why did she do that?”
“I guess it was her way of getting her son back.”
“Okay, I don’t understand.”
“When I got pregnant, Brandon’s mom disowned him. Simple as that.”
“So how did you end up with this other guy?” Chris explains the basic details to her, about her job and the rent and being evicted. Sue shakes her head. “I’m so sorry Chris that you had to go through all that.”
Chris smiles. “Every thing happens for a reason, or so I’ve heard.”
“Well I should get back to bed. Try and get some sleep, okay?”
“I will. Night Sue”
“Night Chris”
Early the next morning Chris is in the kitchen when Sue walks in, yawning and stretching. “Chris you’re up early.”
Chris hands her a cup of coffee. “I’m sorry. I didn’t wake you, did I?” Sue takes the coffee from Chris and sits down at the table.
“No, I needed to get up anyway. I thought I’d take you shopping for some basic necessities and have an extra key made for you.”
“Sue, you don’t have to do this. I don’t have any money.”
Sue smiles at her, “Don’t worry about it. You’ll get a job and you can pay me back.”
Monday morning after Sue leaves for work, Chris cleans up the apartment and does the laundry. Grabbing her camera she heads off to the Library to read the newspaper want ads. On her way back she stops in the park, taking pictures of whatever catches her eye.
Thursday night while watching T.V. Sue nudges Chris.
“There’s a jar of change in the kitchen if you want to get a soda when you go out.” Chris tells her thank you, but no she doesn’t want to take her change. Sue grins. “Then put an I.O.U. in the jar for whatever you take and when you get some money, put it back.”
Chris laughs. “Okay, I will.”
Friday morning before Chris leaves she scrawls out an I.O.U. and exchanges it for a couple of quarters from the jar. Walking out the door she’s in a good mood and thinks to herself, It’s going to be a good day today. Once she gets to the library she decides she should apply for a library card so she can check out a book she wants to read. Pulling the quarters out of her pocket Chris forgoes the soda and buys a newspaper instead.
Chris is sprawled out on the floor, pen in hand, and the newspaper spread open in front of her, when Sue gets home. “Any luck?”
Chris looks up at her and shakes her head, “No, not really.”
“Well I’ve got a way you can make a quick fifty bucks.”
Chris laughs. “I’m sorry, but I’m really not very good at sex, so you really shouldn’t pimp me out.”
Sue busts up laughing, “Oh Chris, you are hilarious!” Sue points at Chris‘ camera. “Are you any good with that?” Chris shrugs. “Chris from the photos I’ve seen in your album, I think you are really good, so I got you a photo shoot tomorrow.” Sue starts walking towards the bedroom and tosses back, “Oh and I hope you like dogs.”
“What? What are you talking about? I just do it for fun. I don’t have any real experience with it. Sue!”
Sue comes back to the living room.
“Well tomorrow, I am taking you over to my boss’s house. She has two dogs and she wants some pictures taken of them, with her, for her Christmas cards.”
“Christmas, But it’s only February!”
Sue sighs, “I know, but she likes to plan ahead, besides she wants to be able to blow up one of the pictures and frame it to hang above her fireplace. If she likes the photos you take, she’ll pay you fifty dollars.”
Standing at the door a woman opens it. Chris figures she’s maybe 50, with salt and pepper hair. The woman acknowledges Sue and puts out her hand to Chris. “Hi Chris, I’m Linda and Sue’s been telling me what a great photographer you are.” Chris raises an eyebrow at Sue and Sue gives her a sheepish grin back. Walking into the living room Linda gestures towards the sliding glass door. “Come on out on the patio and meet my babies”
They step out onto the porch and a huge Saint Bernard comes loping up with a poodle trotting next to it. Trotting, Chris thinks, isn’t quite the right word, more like prancing. Chris reaches out her hand to the Saint Bernard to let him sniff her. He sits down and starts wagging his tail and Chris grins. “He’s beautiful.”
Linda scratches him behind his ear. “This is Sir Peter and that is Princess.” Princess starts wagging her tail as soon as Linda says her name and lifts her paw up to Chris.
“Well it looks like you’ve got everything under control here, so I’m going to go home and will come back to pick you up in an hour or so.”
Chris smiles. “Thanks Sue.”
Chris uses both rolls of the film she brought with her and finds that she is having a great time all the while thinking that maybe this is her destiny. That being a photographer is what she is meant to be. Done with the photo shoot, Chris and Linda lead the dogs out to the backyard to play when there’s a knock on the door. Chris is expecting Sue, but when she looks up, there is a gentleman standing next to her. Chris smiles at him and stands up.
“Chris this is my brother Charlie.” Chris nods at him and then tells Linda.
“I can’t develop these until Monday, that is if I can use the lab at the school, is that okay?”
Linda smiles at her, “That is why Charlie is here. He’s going to take you to his portrait studio and you can develop them there and then he’ll bring you back here. Is that okay with you?”
Sizing Charlie up, Chris figures he’s in his forties, just a little bit taller than herself, with crinkles around his eyes when he smiles and pleasantly plump like Linda.
“Yeah, that should be okay, I need to call Sue though and let her know not to come pick me up yet.”
“Oh sure, the phone’s right in here.” Linda leads her into the front hallway and Chris gives her an embarrassed smile.
“I don’t have her number.” Linda grins and opens the address book sitting next to the phone to Sue’s name. Chris whispers into the phone when Sue answers. “Linda’s brother Charlie is here and he wants to take me to his studio to develop the pictures, is he safe?“ Chris hears Sue chuckle.
“Yes, he’s safe. Charlie is a big puss
ycat. He couldn’t hurt a fly if he wanted to. Now go and have fun.“
“I am. I’m having a great time.“
“Okay, well call me when you want to be picked up.” Coming back into the living room Charlie smiles at her.
“You ready to go?” Chris nods and they leave.
As they go into the darkroom Charlie asks her, “You know how to do this?”
“Well, I’ve been learning at the school, but it looks like you have things set up just a little bit different here.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll supervise and if I see you are going to make a mistake, I’ll stop you and head you back in the right direction, okay?” Chris smiles and nods, and takes a deep breath. “Oh and I have to lock the door.” Chris gives him a weary look and he chuckles. “Don’t worry, I’m usually pretty safe. Linda’s son, Steve, my nephew, works for me and even when that red light is on out there, he will open the door, ruining my photos, so I have to lock the door.”
“Okay”
They are just about finished when someone tries to open the door. Chris looks over at it and sees the knob jiggle. Charlie nudges her in the ribs. “See, what’d I tell ya?” And Chris can’t help herself, she laughs out loud. Done with the last of the negatives, Charlie flips off the light and opens the door. “They won’t take too long to dry.” He points to the bathroom. “You can wash your hands in there and I’ll go get us a soda while we wait.”
Coming out of the bathroom Chris glances into the darkroom, but Charlie’s not there. She sees another door that’s open, peeks inside, and tells herself. This must be where they do their in house portrait sittings. She’s back at the front counter and sees an open office door behind it, but as far as she can tell it’s empty also. Looking around she spots sliding glass doors that look like they lead out to a patio area. Chris peeks out and sees Charlie and a younger gentleman sitting at a table. Chris slides the door open and walks out. Both men stand up and she smiles.