by Roger Bray
Punch!
“If it had, this would be a lot different.”
Punch!
“Don’t fight me, Hazel, I want to be your friend.”
This time, a heavy slap across the side of the head, so hard that all she could hear was a ringing noise as her hearing tried to clear.
“You need me, Hazel.”
Punch!
“Don’t forget.”
This time there was no punch or slap but Hazel hardly cared, her head was spinning, and she felt sick. She wasn’t listening to what he said, she could only shiver, waiting for the next blow.
Instead, she felt him lift himself off her and she felt his strong hands on her waist as they grasped the waist band of her track pants and her underwear and quickly pulled them both down her legs. It happened so fast that they were pulled off and thrown onto the floor next the bed and she was naked from the waist down before she could react.
When she realized what was coming, she tried again to turn but her wrists, strapped to the headboard, stopped her turning, his weight, again on her back forced her head further down into the pillow until all her efforts were taken up trying to turn her head to be able to breathe. When she did catch a breath, she regained a little strength and tried to kick out to the side, thrashing her feet backward and forward until another blow to the back of her head and ferocious slaps to the sides subdued her again and made her realize how close to death she might be. She relaxed, knowing that continued resistance would mean that she would either be beaten to death or smothered in the pillow.
She felt herself let go as she cried and sobbed silently and the voice congratulated her choice.
“You see, Hazel, we need to work together and you needn’t get hurt.”
He knelt between her legs, pushing them apart at the knees until they were spread open, exposing her to him.
She knew what was coming, she had known from the start of her imprisonment that this moment would come, but not in such a manner. She had tried to prepare herself for this, but no preparation helped as he raped her.
*****
Afterward, as she lay there barely conscious from the beating, he had undone the wrist restraints and had left her half-naked on the bed. Lying as she had been when he had finished.
She had no idea how much time had gone by. There was a vague memory of him getting off her and undoing her wrists and of the door slamming closed. The lights had been turned off, and she had been left again in the darkness.
When she finally felt able, she sat on the side of the bed. How long she had laid there, she didn’t know, but the lights were back on. She had no memory of him returning. Her face was swollen, bruises starting to darken, and her hair was matted, stuck to her face by dried blood and snot. There were no tears left in her, the memory of what had happened driving them from her and leaving her with only despair.
Her track pants and underwear were still on the floor where he had left them, she stood and painfully pulled them on before going to the polished piece of stainless-steel bolted to the wall, acting as an unbreakable mirror. She looked at her reflection, barely able to recognize herself. The left eye was a slit in a swollen mess, the right almost open but badly bloodshot. Her nose was red and bruised, the nostrils caked and clogged with blood.
She tried to wash her face, but the pain was too much. There might have been a loose tooth somewhere at the back, but she didn’t want to find out. Laying back on the bed and pulling a blanket up around her she tried to sleep, but everything ached. Her head throbbed from the pain, her neck sore and stiff where he had punched her. Sleep wouldn’t come but a strange feeling of detachment came over her and she lay waiting for when she could get up again without feeling sick.
When she could, she gently washed herself before deciding that she could probably stand a shower, even though when she did, the water on her head felt like a thousand barbs raining down on her. She hardly realized when the water went cold but even as she shivered, the cold water was a relief and she stood for a few moments before turning off the taps and stealing herself to get out and dry herself.
Looking though her swollen eyes as she patted herself dry she looked up at the dome on the ceiling and wondered if he was happy with himself. If that had been his plan all along. Or was it, as he had said repeatedly, a punishment for turning on him?
Either way, Hazel felt no emotion in the thought of him watching at all. No disgust or derision but a crippling, underlying sense of hopelessness.
Part Three
Chapter One
Steve and Alice arrived at the state penitentiary at Salem at exactly 1.00 p.m. Steve parked the car in the visitor’s car park and they walked to the main entrance and entered the external area.
Alice recognized the correctional lieutenant who was behind the desk. He smiled as he saw her coming through the door.
“Miss Reed, we’ve been expecting you.”
“Did you get the …” Alice started.
The lieutenant smiled more broadly.
“Alex’s release papers? Yes, we did. We have a few procedures that we need to go through before we can release him, but they shouldn’t take more than another thirty minutes or so.”
“Has he been told yet?”
“Not yet. I was going to give you another ten minutes to get here and then go and tell him. I wouldn’t want to keep that news from him for a moment longer than needed. But I thought that you might want to tell him yourself.”
They emptied their pockets into plastic trays that had been placed on the counter and were then both checked over with a security wand by a corporal who came through a door to one side of the counter. When they had come to the prison before, their belongings had been bagged and placed into a secure locker, to be returned to them when they left. This time, when the lieutenant was satisfied they had nothing untoward, he gave them the trays back, and they were able to retrieve their property.
“OK, instead of taking you through to the normal prisoner’s visitation room, due to the circumstances, we are putting you in a secure room next door. Alex will be brought there when his belongings are brought to him he can get changed in there and wait while we finish his release.”
Alice nodded as she and Steve were led through a security door but instead of taking the usual left toward more doors and security checks the lieutenant and corporal led them to the right and into a room. It was still secure, with an impressive looking lock which, with a flick of a button on the back was locked open. There were still bars on the windows but instead of stainless-steel benches and tables, there were a couple of government issue sofas, facing each other and with a coffee table between them.
“Alex should be along in a moment. When I saw you coming through the car park, I phoned down to have him brought up.”
No sooner had he said it there was a knock on the door and he turned and opened the door about six inches. When he was satisfied who was standing outside he swung the door open fully and Alice could see Alex standing in the corridor accompanied by a correctional officer.
Alex was still dressed in his prison uniform and was puzzled, then surprised to find Alice and Steve standing in the room. The lieutenant indicated that he should enter and as he did, he left.
“What the …?” Alex started before Alice threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around him.
Looking over her shoulder he could see Steve was grinning, and Alex began to realize what was going on. He pushed Alice away but held her by the shoulders at arm’s length. She was starting to cry, but was grinning madly.
“You’re out, we got you out.”
Steve couldn’t figure out the look that Alex had when Alice said those words. Relief and disbelief mixed in with shock and elation.
“Out? You mean bailed for a retrial or parole? No that couldn’t be right.”
“Out as in out.”
“Retrial?”
Steve shook his head, “I don’t think that the DA wants to go anywhere near this case again, not w
ith the amount of crow he had to eat this morning in Judge Prindle’s court room.”
“All charges dismissed. There’s no retrial. Judge Prindle threw out everything. You’re being released.”
As that started to sink in, there was a knock at the door and the corporal entered carrying a sealed plastic box. He put it onto a desk in the corner of the room, split the seal and took the lid off. He had an envelope from which he took a sheet of paper and handed it to Alex, along with a pen.
“These are your clothes and the property that was taken from you during your arrival. Can you check the items and sign the release form?”
Alex did so, signed the paper with a flourish and handed it back with the pen.
“You can get changed here, or I can take you next door if you would prefer.”
“Here’s fine”, Alex said already unbuttoning his prison issued clothes.
*****
Twenty minutes later they walked outside. Alex was holding a brown bag containing the rest of his belongings as he stopped and looked around taking a deep breath.
The lieutenant had seen them to the door and shaken his hand wishing him well before the governor had stepped up and done the same. Alex held no ill will toward them. They had been doing their job fairly and professionally, but he had no wish to meet any of them ever again.
Alice’s cell phone rang as they came off the highway and were about to cross into Eugene. When she hung up, she turned to Steve.
“That was Ron. It looks like word has got out.”
“Of Alex’s release?”
She nodded. “Ron says that there are three or four news cruisers outside Alex’s house and they’re setting up cameras.”
She turned to Alex in the rear seat and asked, “Do you still want to go home, we can go to my house?”
“Or mine,” Steve butted in.
“I wanted to go straight home but I don’t feel like fighting my way through a load of reporters at the moment.”
Alice’s phone rang again, and she took the call before passing on the update.
“A couple more news vans and the cops have turned up now as well. Trying to keep order apparently.”
Alex nodded, “Let’s see if they have staked out your house as well. If not, let’s go there.”
Steve nodded and continued south toward Alice’s house. Turning into the street they could see that all appeared to be normal. No throng of cameras or vans. He drove into Alice’s driveway and Alex gathered up his few belongings as they exited the car and quickly walked into the house.
Chapter Two
Hazel was terrified when she realized that he was outside the door. As the hatch opened, she felt panic rising. If she disobeyed him again who knew what might happen, she knew that she couldn’t stand another beating like that. If it happened again today, and if it didn’t kill her, she would probably curl up and die, anyway.
She was scrambling to find the face mask to get it over her eyes before the door opened. She needn’t have bothered. As her fingers found the mask, and she struggled to get it on, the door opened.
“Get up, Hazel.” the metallic voice said, and she turned slowly, swung her legs around until her feet were on the cold floor.
“I said, get up!”
Her body ached as she stood, knees shaking, next to the bed. She was shivering, though not from the cold, as she waited for the blow that she expected.
He placed his hand gently on the side of her face and she was, for once, grateful for the mask preventing his skin from touching her. The fingers of the hand curled and grabbed her hair and ear through the mask and she felt her head being pulled toward him.
“You seem a lot less …” he paused, “feisty. That’s good. I don’t want to hurt you again. Do you understand?”
She tried to nod but his grip prevented her but the movement showed him compliance and he was happy with that.
“Good. That means that I don’t need to hurt you again. Don’t get me wrong, Hazel, you are not that special. You are not the first and you won’t be the last. Where do you think all the clothes came from? Be good, Hazel, do as you are told.”
She tried to nod again, terrified now at what might follow.
He released the grip on her head and she stood in front of him shivering as the fear built up again. She thought that any moment she would soil herself and almost did until the sound of the door closing stopped her.
Nothing was said, and no blows came. She was alone, he had gone.
Pulling up the edge of the mask she turned her head slowly in case it was some sort of macabre test, but she saw that the door was closed and she was alone, he had gone. She was about to lay back down when she saw that he had left something on the bed. A copy of the Register Guard, the Eugene newspaper.
Hazel sat on the edge of the bed and read the front-page story with growing despair. Not believing her situation could get any worse, the news report proved her wrong. She buried her face in her hands and cried harder and more deeply than she ever had before. She was broken more at this minute than she had ever thought possible. Her spirit was gone, and she knew that she would never leave this place alive.
As she sobbed the newspaper fell from her lap and landed face up on the floor.
A quarter sized picture showed Alex being led by two detectives into the Eugene Court House and the headline had told her that he had been arrested for her murder.
She lay back onto the bed and turned to face the wall, pulling her knees up to her stomach as any hope finally left her.
Chapter Three
They drove slowly toward Alice’s house expecting reporters to be there, but it was clear so Steve quickly parked on the driveway. They expected the media throng to turn up there when they realized Alex wasn’t going to his own home, but they never showed.
It was news; they understood but neither Alex nor Alice were in the mood to face that, not yet.
There would come a time when Alex would have to face some sort of media questioning. He would probably have to do it to stop them hounding him, but it was inevitable that questions would be asked about Hazel and Alex had no answers to give beyond what had already been said.
That time would come but for now, Alex was happy to be out of jail. He dropped his small brown bag on the floor as he came into the house and let out a big sigh brushing his hands across his face and through his hair.
“I can’t believe this.”
“That you’re out?”
Nodding, he said, “A few weeks ago we were sitting in the visitor’s area and you were telling me about Rowe. Now look at me. I can’t believe how quickly this has gone from, may have found a hole in the DA’s evidence to, proven innocent and out.”
He turned to Alice and put his arms around her and wrapped her in a bear hug lifting her off her feet and spinning around while he held her. When he put her down, he turned to Steve and gave him a big hug as well.
When he was finished, he looked at them with a big smile.
“Thank you, both. I don’t think that I could have stood much more of that place. I suppose that there might be some sort of sad comfort if you’re in there and you are actually guilty. You can’t blame anyone else for your predicament. If you can be honest about it, it would take a lot of the horror away, but for me, I didn’t even have that. I suppose I could have found Jesus like Dolan, but that didn’t seem right at all. The guilty ask for forgiveness but what do the innocent ask for?”
“The truth?” Alice ventured.
“Well, if that’s the case, that’s exactly what I got, the truth. The truth about my part of this, anyway. The truth about Hazel we may never know.”
The mood dropped as they considered Hazel before Alex clapped his hands, more to snap himself out of it than anything else.
“Come on, we’ll have enough time to dwell on that, I know I will, but for now, I want to feel free. Even if I can’t actually go outside for a while in case I get photographed or something.”
Alex went into his old
bedroom and found some clothes that still fitted him. College track pants and an old T-shirt were exactly what he needed at the moment for he had no intention of doing anything except sitting around. He went into the bathroom to shower, leaving Alice and Steve alone.
“Do you want me to go, give you some time?” he asked her.
She smiled and gave him a hug, followed by a kiss.
“I never want you to go.”
“You don’t want some time alone with Alex? Maybe he needs some time alone as well?”
“I think that he has had more than enough of having time on his own. I’d guess he’s probably over staring at a blank wall. He needs to talk at his pace, about whatever he wants and have the choice of getting up and getting a beer out of the fridge.”
“So, a normal evening with his sister and her boyfriend. Have you told him yet?”
“Told him what?” Alex stepped into the kitchen pulling the T-shirt over his damp hair. “About Alice and you? No, she hasn’t, but I guessed, and I’m happy. Apart from what you did for me, Alice needs a normal life as well, and I hope that you both can be happy.”
“Oh, I’m happy,” Steve laughed.
Alice stepped around Alex to stand next to Steve. She put one arm around his waist while flicking his lips lightly with the fingers of her free hand.
“Me too,” she said with a lightness in her voice that Alex couldn’t remember her having for a long time.
“That’s good then,” he said, as the mood lifted again. “Did someone mention beer?”
They opened the first of the beers as Alice went through the freezer looking for something for dinner. The speed of Alex’s release had surprised her even though she had been longing for it through the dark months. But now, here he was, standing back in their mom and dad’s kitchen drinking beer and laughing. She found a three-pound pack of ground beef and some buns and decided they would have to do. Steve had already suggested that he go to his house and get some clothes for Alex to wear until he could get back into his own house, she’d give him a list and he could stock up with groceries from the Albertsons’ store on Hilyard while he was doing it.