by Lynn Vroman
He turned me around by my hair after shutting the door behind Mom. His bony fingers squeezed my cheeks so hard my jaw cracked. He then pushed me against the wall holding his prized pictures. That disgusting, fetid mouth opened, but closed just as fast, his watery eyes widening when the door crashed open. His grip slackened before letting go completely.
I slumped next to Mom, and she curled her arms around me, staring in the same direction as Dad.
“Who the f–” That’s all he managed before Tarek had him by the throat, holding him at least two inches off the ground.
Tarek’s face sent chills coursing up my spine. His eyes burned, and the muscles in his jaw tensed, bursting from his cheeks. Veins in his arms stood at attention as Dad’s eyes bulged, his face turning a sickly shade of purple. I wanted Tarek to end it.
Then I remembered: I can’t hurt him…
“Tarek, stop, please.” My plea came out as weak as an infant’s first cry, but he heard, dropping Dad with a thud.
Tarek started for me, despair coloring his face.
I reached out to him. “It’s okay. I’m fine.”
As he knelt, the floor bucked. The movement threw him backward, and he landed on Dad, knocking the weasel unconscious.
The whole trailer began to shake, the sound of the floor creaking filling the room. “We need to move, Mom, now.”
She began to crawl, and I followed behind her. Tarek managed to get on his feet, navigating the rolling floor to reach us. I wobbled to my knees. Roots from trees began to come up from the ground and into the living room, wrapping around my legs, pulling me under.
Forgetting the pain in my ribs, I clawed at the thin carpet, trying to fight my way out. All that ran through my mind were the images of giant squid and rushing water.
“Tarek!”
The tree pulled me deeper as my mother sat on the vibrating floor screaming, reaching for me. Roots began to gobble up my legs, pulling me down to my armpits. I closed my eyes with the struggle and dug my nails deeper into the carpet.
Loud squealing, akin to an animal being flayed alive, stung my ears, and my eyelids flew up. Tarek leaned into the hole, pulling at the roots, managing to break most of the weaker ones.
With every broken limb, the ground shook less. The cries became louder, as if the branches were in pain, alive as the four of us in the trailer.
Once my legs were free, Tarek yanked me from the hole and cradled me in his arms. He signaled for Mom to follow as the floor closed up and the vibrating stopped. One last cry bellowed, and the ground swallowed my father.
The trailer became deceptively tranquil, the floor showing no sign of damage by roots.
We stumbled up the hill, Tarek refusing to loosen his hold. He kept me crushed against him, his lips nuzzling my temple.
Mom’s eyes, glowing with shock, traveled from Tarek’s feet up to his face. “Who are you?”
Tarek ignored her and adjusted my body until we faced each other. “I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”
After a weak smile, I said, “Looks to me like you came just in time.”
“Somebody better tell me what’s going on.” Mom’s hysterical voice interrupted our moment, which should not have irritated me under the circumstances.
The urge to ignore her left a bitter taste in the back of my throat. I started with the easiest explanation. “He’s…a friend.”
“A friend? Really?”
Signaling for Tarek to let me down, he obliged without too much hesitation. “I’ll explain everything later, but right now we need to get out of here.”
Neighbors finally became concerned after all the yelling ended, shoving curtains aside and cracking open doors. Some even asked if we were okay. Nice they cared after all the commotion stopped. We refused to acknowledge them, though I did manage to flip the brawnier guys the finger.
“We need to get to Jake’s.” I went straight for Wilma’s car, Tarek right beside me.
Mom plopped on the ground, her pants already too muddy for her to care. “Shouldn’t we call the police?”
“And tell them what, Mom? Dad beat us then got sucked into the floor?” Hysteria bit the tips of my words. “Maybe tell them tree roots tried to eat me?”
“I just thought since…” Tears pooled on the new hills forming across her upper cheeks.
Feeling guilty, I did my best to help her up as Tarek watched in silence, his hands resting on his hips. The neighbors still hadn’t come out, but they wouldn’t call the cops, either. A sort of trailer trash code of honor. “We’ll go to the apartment, talk to Jake. Figure everything out.”
“We need to leave,” Tarek said when the ground shook.
Mom must’ve felt it, too, because she finally stood, opened the back door, and slid in, pushing the lock.
He led me to the passenger side door. “Where to?”
“We have a place. It’s not far.”
“Get in.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I pulled the door open and slouched in the seat, the smell of vanilla helping my nerves. He hopped in the driver’s seat, shoved the car in reverse, and skidded into the road, reaching over to snap on my seatbelt before putting the car in drive.
I smiled. Free at last.
Lena
Any energy I had left, the short drive sapped it out of me. Once we pulled in behind Jake’s car, Tarek peeled me out of the seat and carried me up the few steps to the front door.
Mom, who now seemed used to having a strange giant carry me around, shuffled behind us, but stepped in front to tap on the door. She knocked louder when we waited a minute too long. After a third door pounding, the lock gave way, and the door opened a crack.
Jake peeked through the sliver, already yelling, “It’s a door, not a punching ba–” When his eyes landed on me cradled in Tarek’s arms and Mom’s face, which looked like she’d just had invasive plastic surgery, he swung the door wide. “Jacie?” His expression blackened. “He’s a dead man.”
“You’re too late,” Tarek said. Without waiting for permission, he stalked past my boss, heading straight for the couch.
He sat at the edge of the sofa and gently lifted my shirt, his attention never leaving the bruising traveling over the left side of my ribs.
Jake tilted my mother’s chin and inspected her face. “What happened?”
Mom spent the next half hour filling him in. She didn’t leave any detail out, including the part where the giant guy pulled the screaming roots from my legs. Jake only interrupted about a hundred times, not quite grasping it, except for when Dad kicked our asses and Tarek swooped in to save the day.
When he let Mom finish, all the while dabbing an icepack on her face, Jake had one question left. “And so where did you come from?” He directed the question to Tarek’s back.
Tarek closed his eyes, and his jaw tensed. “Don’t worry about who I am.”
Jake stomped over to the couch, standing behind it so he could meet Tarek’s eyes. “Is that right, tough guy?” When my boss was mad, he talked with his entire body. The way his arms and chest danced as he spoke said he was beyond pissed.
Tarek took deep, even breaths. “You and the woman know too much already.”
Well, that didn’t go over well.
“Fuck you, pal. She’s not some woman. And I…I was here before you ever came into the picture.” Jake gripped the back of the microfiber couch, the tips of his fingers white. “You’ll start talking, or you’ll leave. Your choice.”
My warrior’s dimples emerged for the first time since last night. “If you think you can make me leave, be my guest.”
Jake stood six feet and had some pretty good muscle to back up his mouth, not to mention the eight years in the ring. But next to Tarek, he looked like a tween, awkward and lanky.
That didn’t stop Jake’s face from going red to purple as the fabric of the sofa ripped under his hands. The old school Italian dripped from his words as his shoulders rolled. “I don’t care how big you are, but I’m
not gonna let some punk kid just waltz in here and run the show. You come in my house, you play by my rules.”
Punk kid. Right. Tarek might have looked like a freshman in college, but I’d wager he had a few years on Jake.
Tarek stood and shadowed the man I once thought could take on a small army. “You don’t want to go there.” His fists curled and his hips shifted.
“Stop it. Both of you.” I pulled myself up. Mom slinked around Tarek to sit beside me. “Now’s not the time for pissing contests.” I ignored Tarek when he shot me a raised eyebrow. “Tarek’s here to keep us safe. Safe from things you can’t.”
He gave Jake a smug look, his arms crossing his broad chest.
“And you need to stop being such an ass.” I pointed a finger in Tarek’s face, his smirk disappearing. “She is my mother, and Jake’s been here for us when no one else wanted the job. Whether we can tell them everything or not, you will respect them.”
He didn’t reply, but a tic appeared in his jaw, and I think everyone heard him grinding his teeth. Jake didn’t make his gloating as obvious, the corners of his mouth turning up only a little.
I stumbled to the bathroom, giving him a scowl on the way. “You can knock it off, too.”
Too much testosterone floated in the living room to stick around.
∞ ∞ ∞
The bathroom mirror wasn’t in the mood to flatter. My hair stuck out everywhere, mud highlighting the tips. The lump on my dirty cheek already started turning purple and the heightened color of my face, which had yet to fade completely away, contrasted in an unflattering way. The crusty blood drying on my bottom lip mixed with the pink looked like I stepped out of a bad eighties movie. All that color had me thinking there was a future in the circus.
Loud grumbling in the other room revealed the two men hadn’t decided to stop acting like boys. I turned on the shower to drown out their voices. They could work things out while I scrubbed off the filth. If not, well, who cared. All the chaos–I was over it.
Steaming water relaxed my muscles and stung the cuts and scrapes on my face and legs. The pleasure-pain combination kept me alert. Let me know not everything that happened in the past two weeks manifested from a broken mind. I scrubbed using Jake’s body wash and shampoo. Not too feminine smelling, but at least it removed the mud, blood, and my father’s sweat and spit from my bruised body.
I wrapped a towel around me and opened the door a crack. “Jake? Could you get my stuff?”
We’d have to go back to the trailer to get my backpack and Mom’s things. Christ, now we’d have to tell the manager Dad took off and we’d be moving. No one would miss him, but we’d still have some explaining to do.
A tap on the door interrupted the landlord excuse forming in my head. “Lena, sweetie, can I come in?” Mom’s soft voice hurt my heart.
I opened the door to her holding a bag. “Wanna take a shower? You can just wear some of my clothes.”
She moved to set the bag on the closed toilet. “That sounds wonderful.”
Mom unzipped the bag, pulled out sweats, an old shirt, and a pair of underwear, handing it over. Her fingers shook, and tears rolled down the swollen slopes of her face. “I’m sorry, Lena, for all of this. I just,” she wiped at the tears with the back of her hand, “I have no idea what happened.”
I gathered her into my arms, the bruises scattered on my torso protesting. “Don’t. We’re safe now.” I didn’t believe it, but she didn’t need to know that. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Her arms tightened around my waist, reminding me of how fragile she’d become over the last few years.
“Are you gonna tell me who he is?” She may have been frail, but she definitely knew there was more to our situation than Dad being dead.
“He’s the closest thing to a friend we have right now, besides Jake.”
“Is he… Does he go to school around here or something? Play football for ESU? The boy is gigantic.”
I fidgeted, not knowing what the hell to say. Lying was the only option, but I was just too tired to come up with something good. “He…no…um… I don’t think so…”
“Maybe you’ll tell me one day?” Yeah, she was much more aware than I usually gave her credit for.
I said nothing, just nodded, and let the subject drop.
She gave my cheek a gentle pat and bent to turn on the spigot, adjusting the water. While she showered, I dressed before dragging my body back to the couch. Jake threw a quilt over me and tucked the edges around my legs. Some deep discussion with Tarek resumed after. My giant, who sat across from me in a deep, cushy chair, bounced his leg, looking impatient.
Yeah, he was my giant. I’d decided that the first time I saw him in my dreams. I’d fight for him. Even if I had to fight the ghost of whom I once was.
As my eyes closed, Tarek said, “We’ll talk later.”
Jake said goodnight, and his footsteps carried him from the room. The end cushion sank, and Tarek’s warm hands lifted my feet onto his lap. That big leg didn’t bounce anymore as his fingers massaged my calves.
“Lena?”
“Yeah?”
His hands found every kink, every sore muscle, the effect better than any sleep med.
“What you’ve dealt with…and today, what you went through, and you’re still so strong.” He stopped talking, but thankfully kept kneading my calves. I could deal with his pauses if he kept doing that.
After a while, he continued, “No one I’ve ever met could handle this stuff the way you have.” His warm fingers stilled for a moment. “Not even you. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever known.”
One point me. Zero points, ah, old me, I guess?
Even with all the bruises and the exhaustion, at that moment, I could’ve flown. The smile hurt my sore face, but I couldn’t help it.
I opened my lids a crack to find a soft smile teasing his lips. “Thank you.”
His eyes lifted to mine. “And I’m glad you’re you.”
No, no tears…just…damn. Too late.
“You’re pretty okay, too.”
His smile widened. “Sleep.” That deep voice had the effect of a Greek Siren, beckoning, filling my entire being.
“Okay.”
Lena
Confusion sucked. You know, that feeling you get when you wake up in a strange place and forget how you got there?
I flew up, the protest from my body excruciating. The only sound interrupting the silence came from a ticking clock somewhere. The weight that left long enough to let me sleep, settled on my shoulders, getting good and comfortable.
You know what sucked more?
Remembering.
Careful not to wake the bruises, I pushed gingerly off the couch, shielding my eyes from the nosy sun peeking through a front window. After stumbling out of the bathroom, I found Tarek sitting on a chair across from the couch.
“Morning.” His smile was soft, showing a hint of his dimples.
I rubbed my eyes, flinching when the motion upset the bruise on my cheek. “How long was I out?”
He helped me back to the couch, my muscles so stiff I felt like an eighty year old. When I lay down, he sat at the end of the couch, propping my feet on his lap. “About fourteen hours or so. Your mother’s in the bedroom across from Jake’s.”
“It’s 10:00? I’m gonna have to get Mom to call the school. Missing two days this week won’t look good.” I patted my cheeks, trying to wake up. Finding the couch and Tarek’s hands too comfortable, I began to drift.
“Who’s Zander?”
That helped keep me awake.
“Ah…” I ran a hand through my hair, glancing out the smudged window, watching an older couple walk by the house…watched the streetlight switch to green, too. I looked everywhere but at the guy on the end of the couch. “Who?” My roaming eyes finally found his.
Tarek’s face made my stomach flip. He didn’t seem angry, though his gray eyes had an edge of misery dulling their shine. “Jake said someone named Zander a
sked about you at work last night. Said the boy could barely speak, he was so upset.”
I’m pretty sure the guilt crawling through my stomach after seeing the pain on Tarek’s face wasn’t right. I’m almost positive the guilt should’ve been for forgetting all about Zander. A long sigh, and another, still didn’t ease all the wrong emotions. I guess there was no time like the present to come clean to the supposed soul mate–or was it energy mate?–I’d dreamed about since I was eight. “He’s…my boyfriend.”
That sounded so lame and small compared to–I had no idea what this was, but Zander wasn’t a major concern. I shook my head, amazed. If someone had told me that I’d forget Zander in a week, I’d have laughed…and punched them in the face.
“Your boyfriend?” He didn’t yell or stomp off in a rage, something Zander proved capable of doing. Instead, he rubbed my legs, his dimples giving another quick appearance. “That sounds cute.”
Ah, hell, no. His patronizing tone was way worse than a Zander tantrum. “What? You pick now to treat me like a kid?”
He stared out the window for a second, sadness rolling in his eyes. “Sorry.”
I definitely didn’t think there was any need for me to explain, but… “I thought it was serious. Well, at least heading in that direction.”
“But?”
I huffed, throwing my hands in the air. “But everything! I’ve hardly thought about him with all this going on.”
He smiled. “Good.”
“I’m gonna have to talk to him. Probably should do that today before he calls out a search party.”
The smile left, replaced with a scowl. “Let Jake take care of it.”
As much as my legs complained, I swung them off his lap and headed back into the bathroom. “He’s not Jake’s boyfriend.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Tarek and I headed back to the trailer park, leaving Mom with Jake. I glanced at the blood splattered on the walls while loading the rest of my stuff into my backpack. Handing it off to Tarek, I went to grab Mom’s clothes, her photo albums, and a few of her favorite novels that made it through Dad’s book shredding. After throwing those three bags in the car, I found the bleach in the back pantry and filled the kitchen sink with hot water.