by Joy Redmond
Cody didn’t seem to hear her. He seemed disoriented, but he finally managed to get to I-75.
Tori turned up the radio and started singing along. He grabbed her hand. “Touch that radio again and I’ll break your fingers – you understand? And stop singing, will you? I’ve got a headache.”
Tori whacked him on the arm. “Don’t tell me what to do! And stop treating me like a child. If you have a headache, take a pill. That’s what you’re always telling me. You’ve got a magic pill for everything, you jackass!”
In one swift motion, Cody slammed on the brakes, pulled the car onto the shoulder, opened the door and stepped out. “You can drive your own crazy ass to Madison!” He opened the back door and crawled into the back seat, where he sprawled face down.
“Fine!” Tori said, sliding behind the wheel. She was glad to be alone and in charge, but she couldn’t seem to keep her thoughts straight. She was antsy, her mouth was dry, and she alternated between wanting to cry and wanting to laugh out loud. Her mind bounced like a ping pong ball as the miles rolled by.
Finally, she was excited to see the Madison city limit sign. She was home! Tears filled her eyes as she drove down familiar streets, turned onto Maple Street, and made a sharp turn into the driveway. She pushed the car into park, jumped out, and began a run toward the house. Suddenly, she stopped.
Where were Momma and Daddy and why hadn’t they come out to greet her? Where was Jill?
Something was wrong.
She slowly walked back to the car, stuck her head inside the window, and yelled, “Cody, wake up! We’re here.”
He groggily sat up, looked around, and then said sarcastically, “So this is home?”
Tori surveyed the yard and the house. ‘This is it – but I don’t understand. Where is everybody? I told Grammy I was coming home today. This is Saturday, nobody’s at work, and Jill doesn’t have classes!” She turned in circles, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. A tear lazily slid down her cheek.
Cody stepped out of the car and stood beside her, saying with even more sarcasm, “Maybe they don’t want to see you, Tori. Maybe they’re mad because you sneaked off and married me. I’m sure they think you should still be with your first love, Wes.”
Tori whacked him with her clutch bag. “Drop dead!” She hurried to the side door of the house and turned the knob. It was locked. “They never lock this door,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “None of this makes any sense.” She hurried into the back yard, entered the garden shed, and found the secret key they always kept hanging on a nail behind the door. She grabbed it and hurried toward the house.
She unlocked the door, and rushed inside. The house appeared empty. “I don’t understand this crap! Where is everybody?” She hurried over to the table, searching for the note she was sure they had left her telling her what was going on. To her amazement, she could find absolutely nothing. Suddenly, her anger rose to a point that she could no longer control it. She kicked a chair and began to scream like a lunatic.
Cody grabbed her hair, pulled her head back, and shoved two pills into her mouth. He held her nose, clamped his hand over her mouth, shouting, “Tori, get a hold of yourself. Now swallow! And if you don’t stop screaming I’m going to have to break your beautiful neck!”
As she swallowed and gasped for breath, he said, “Face it! Apparently your oh-so-perfect family doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore!”
She struggled to break free and her lungs felt like they were going to explode. Her knees were weak and her eyes were painfully bulging. She was sure darkness would claim her, but Cody finally took his hands off her nose and mouth and pushed her into a chair, holding her down with his weight on her shoulders.
“Sit there and calm down,” he commanded, spittle spraying her face. “You’ve got to face the fact that your home’s in Atlanta. I’ll have you regimented as soon as I get you away from here,” he said, and then chuckled as he continued, “It seems like the Waltons shoved one of their own off the mountain.”
He held Tori in the chair for several minutes until finally she seemed to slip into a sort of trance. But he didn’t loosen his iron grip.
Tori hugged her clutch bag to her chest, pushing the broken clasp together several times as she swayed back and forth.
“Tori, everything is going to be okay,” he reassured her, patting her gently on the shoulder.
She continued to sit catatonically, staring into space, detached from reality. Nothing seemed real anymore.
Cody’s voice softened. “What do you want to take back to Atlanta with you?”
She stood up mechanically and walked slowly toward the staircase. “I guess I just want a few things from my room.” She made her way up the steps, even though it felt as if her shoes were filled with lead. In her bedroom, she sat on the edge of the bed and mumbled, “I want my dolls, my picture albums, and some clothes.”
Cody scooped a few dolls off the shelf and shoved several photo albums into a plastic container that Tori kept in her room for laundry. As he headed out the bedroom door, he glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll take this load to the car, and then I’ll come back for your clothes, so make up your mind, fast!”
As Tori sat on the edge of the bed nervously snapping and unsnapping her clutch bag she started singing, “Don’t shilly-shally, Silly Willy. Don’t dilly-dally, Dip Wad,” and her voice sounded like a small child.
Cody returned to the bedroom, shoved several hangers together, lifted the clothes off the rack, and threw them across his left shoulder. “Come on,” he commanded, doing a half turn in her direction.
She stood and followed him downstairs like a robot until they reached the kitchen. Then she said, “I’ve got to call Grammy.”
Cody grabbed her wrist and started pulling her toward the door. “There’s no need to call her now. We’ll just drive out to her place and surprise her.”
“We’ll surprise her,” Tori said as if she were a parrot mocking his words. She lumbered onto the carport and slowly followed. Cody threw her clothes into the trunk and slammed the lid.
Tori stood rigid like stone. Cody guided her to the car and helped her into the backseat. As he turned the ignition, Tori asked in a faraway voice, “Are we going to see Grammy now?” and tried to smile, but she couldn’t part her dry lips.
“Yes,” he said, shaking his head in exasperation. “You just lie down and I’ll tell you when we get there.”
“You have to take Old Mill Road,” Tori said. “Do you know how to find it?”
“I’ll find it. No problem,” he sweetly said.
“Okay.” She curled up and fell into a blissful sleep.
The next thing Tori knew, Cody was opening the back door of the car and flinging her over his shoulders like a lifeless sack of potatoes.
“Are we there,” she asked groggily. “Do you see Grammy and Poppy?”
Cody didn’t answer. He just carried her up the cement stairs and into the huge apartment, where he locked the door behind him. Only when he dumped her onto the mattress did she finally stir enough to ask for something to drink.
A few minutes later, Cody returned with a glass of water. As Tori reached out, Cody shoved another pill into her mouth and then let her wash it down with the water.
Tori quickly downed the whole glass of water and asked for another. But he handed her a shot of vodka and she knocked it back. She snuggled against the soft pillow, and the world went black.
Anna’s Note
June 16, 1976
I finally received a phone call from Tori, but she just rambled and made no sense. I made the mistake of asking her if she was drunk, and she hung up on me. I held the dead phone in my hands, crying in fear and frustration, until Poppy came in from the barn and found me.
When he asked me what was wrong, I told him that Tori had called and I thought she had said she was coming home, but she was talking so fast that I couldn’t make it all out.
“Well, maybe she’ll call back,” Poppy said. “Wh
ere is she now?”
“I don’t know,” I cried. “She could be anywhere. All I know for sure is that she’s not here, where she belongs.” I wiped sweat beads that lined my forehead, and a cold shiver ran through my body.
I didn’t know the man’s name that Tori claimed to have married, but I didn’t need a vision to know he was evil. Tori was in trouble. And there was absolutely nothing I could do about it, except ask God if He would send an angel to whisper in my ear and tell me Tori’s whereabouts.
Anna West-Morgan
Chapter Thirteen
Tori had no idea where she was when she first woke up. Then she realized that she wasn’t in Madison. She was back in Atlanta! She looked up just in time to see Cody walk out of the bedroom, all showered, shaved, and ready for work. He didn’t even look back, which seemed odd, but she decided he just didn’t want to wake her.
She swung her legs off the bed, walked into the kitchen, and watched Cody hurry down the steps and head for Emma’s apartment. She opened the door a crack so she could listen to their conversation.
Cody banged on Emma’s apartment, yelling, “Emma, it’s me, Cody. Come on, open up!”
Tori stepped out onto the landing and almost fell over the railing as she leaned over to hear what Emma was going to say when she answered the door. Tori heard the click of a lock, and then she saw Emma standing a few steps across the threshold. Emma yawned. “Cody, what the hell do you want this time of morning?”
“Well, a good morning to you too, doll,” Cody said, and kissed her on the cheek.
“Listen, I have to go to work and I need you to keep an eye on Tori for me.”
“Sure, what’s wrong with that little doll?” Emma asked.
“Well a lot of things, actually,” Cody replied. “But the most import thing is that she has to take her medication and she won’t remember to take it if–”
“Oh, I’ll make sure she takes her medicine. What’s ailing her?” Emma asked. “Give me the details,” she said as if she were about to hear about the world’s worst affliction.
“She suffers from manic-depression. That’s–”
Emma interrupted, “Oh, I know what that is. It’s when a person is on a high one day, and then lower than a snake’s belly the next. Terrible illness,” she said, shaking her head.
“Well, in Tori’s case it’s not from day to day, it’s from minute to minute.”
“Well, sufferin’ succotash! She’s got a bad case,” Emma said.
Tori wondered why Doctor Harrison hadn’t diagnosed her correctly when he told her family that she had suffered from a reaction to the anesthetic – She was a manic-depressive! Again, Tori was thankful that she had a man so smart and so much in love with her that he would take the time to make sure she took her medication.
Tori felt tears well as Cody said, “Oh, sometimes she gets the noddies. So don’t worry if she nods off during mid-sentence. It’s part of her illness.”
“Oh, the noddies won’t bother me. I’ll just poke her and keep her awake,” Emma said.
Cody handed Emma some pills. “She’ll need to take two of these, twice a day. Give her the first dose when she wakes up and the second one at two o’clock – and could you please try to get her out of the apartment. Drive around. Go shopping. Whatever,” he said, reaching into his pocket and handing Emma a wad of money. “Shop till you drop! When this runs out, I’ll give you some more.”
“Yeah, we can sure do that,” Emma said.
Tori could see pride swelling as she watched Emma’s chest rise and fall, as if taking care of Tori was a great honor. I’m her new project, Tori thought.
Actually, Tori felt good knowing that she wouldn’t be left alone in a strange apartment in a strange town, and Emma seemed to be enthusiastic about taking care of her. Maybe she had found her first new best friend in Atlanta.
As Cody turned to leave, Tori stepped back into the apartment, walked into the living room, and peered out the window as he drove away. She stood for a few minutes, running Cody’s conversation through her head, and fear paralyzed her. She was one sick puppy, all right. But what were noddies?
A few minutes later, Emma gently knocked on the front door. When Tori answered, Emma smiled and held out a bag of donuts and two coffee mugs.
“Good morning!” Emma said cheerfully. “I’m glad you’re up. I brought you a continental breakfast!”
“Why, thank you, Emma.” Tori took one of the mugs from her hand. “Come on in and we’ll have breakfast together.”
“That’s what I had in mind,” Emma said, stepping into the apartment.
Impulsively, Tori threw her arms around Emma’s neck and began to sob. Being shunned by her family and her best friend had left her devastated, and she really needed some comforting at that moment.
“There, there,” Emma said, patting Tori’s back. “Everything’s going to be fine. I’m here, and we’re going to spend the day together, okay?” Then she looked Tori up and down and said, “You know what? I think you could use something more substantial than a couple of donuts. You’re not any bigger than a popcorn fart!” She laughed, and Tori laughed with her.
“I think you’re right. I don’t eat like I should,” Tori said.
“Why don’t you get dressed and meet me in my apartment in about fifteen minutes. That’ll give me time to get some bacon and eggs started.”
As Emma turned to go, Tori wiped her tears and said, “That would be great, Emma. Thank you. I can’t remember the last time I ate. My memory doesn’t seem to be on track lately.”
“I know, honey. You get dressed and hurry downstairs to my place. I’ve got to fatten you up. And I’ll get another pot of coffee going, and then we’ll get on with a big day.”
“I’ll be right down. I think I could eat some biscuits and gravy, too. Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to–”
Emma started laughing before Tori finished her sentence. “I’ll fix some biscuits and gravy. I didn’t know what you like, but I bet I’ve got anything your taste buds want. I like to eat and I always keep my house full of food.” She patted her large stomach and added, “But I don’t guess you can tell by looking at me, huh?”
Tori laughed, too, and then realized she couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed – or even felt the urge to laugh. A warm feeling came over her. With Emma for a friend who could make her laugh, and taking her medications she would soon be back to her old self. The horrible depression had lasted for five months the last time, but with Emma’s help, Tori thought that she could lick it, once and for all.
Once Tori had joined Emma in her apartment, she found that she could only eat a few bites, but it did feel good to have some food in her stomach. When Tori had finished, Emma handed her the pills and happily said, “After you take your medicine, we’ll go shopping. Cody gave me some money this morning and told me it was our duty to spend it!” Her eyes lit up as if it was time for Christmas and she had a no-limit budget.
“I’m ready,” Tori said, wondering why Cody had given the money to Emma instead of her.
A few minutes later, they were pulling out of the parking lot in Emma’s car. “How much money do we have to spend?” Tori asked
“You know, I don’t know.” Emma reached into her large shoulder bag and pulled out the roll of bills. “Here, count it, honey.”
To Tori’s amazement, the entire wad consisted of one-hundred dollar bills. She began to count. “Holy mint factory! We’ve got almost five-thousand dollars here,” she said, creasing her brow. “That’s a half years salary for my parents. Geeze! Why does he carry this kind of money on him? Nobody carries this kind of cash!”
“My word, that’s a year’s salary for a lot of people,” Emma answered. “You know what? I bet he cashed a check for us so we’d have enough money to buy whatever you want.”
“Well, he did tell me he wanted me to furnish the apartment, so that would make sense,” Tori said, nodding in agreement. “Even so, this is an impressive pile of cash!”
“Or just plain crazy,” Tori said with a laugh.
Emma drove several blocks, then pulled into a parking lot and pointed through the windshield. “Right down here a piece is Haverts Furniture Store. They got stuff that’ll knock your eyeballs out. Just wait until you see the art work, too. I could never afford anything in there but I do think I’ll enjoy helping you spend Cody’s money.”
Tori giggled. The tree in a planter in front of a parked car waved at her. She waved back as she said, “This sure is a friendly place. Florida was like a different world, but Atlanta is like being on a different planet.”
Emma chuckled as she pulled into a parking space. “I like it here. I think once you get used to it you will too. You never run out of places to go or things to see. She put the car in park and said, “Ready to buy furniture and fill up that empty apartment?”
“I’ve never shopped for furniture. You might have to pick out what you think will look good. You’ve seen the apartment more than I have.”
“No problem there, honey.”
They spent three hours in Haverts and Emma selected what she thought would bring the apartment to life. Each piece of furniture she touched, she said, “This was built to last.”
Tori merely nodded. Will I last without my family and Jill? she wondered.
Emma paid the bill and scheduled a delivery date. “How about we grab some lunch, then we’ll get some stuff to dress up them bathrooms. Do you like McDonald’s?”
“Sure. Doesn’t everybody?” Tori giggled, remembering the many times that Momma had taken her and Jill to McDonalds and how she had fussed when they didn’t clean out the car when they got home. But the giggle was followed with tears.
“Come on, honey. Don’t cry on,” Emma said as she hugged Tori and wiped her tears. “We’re having fun. Don’t you love spending a man’s money and buying beautiful things?”