“Okay. Let’s talk. After dinner we’ll talk in my room.” I hug Micah. I can’t imagine how hard it’s going to be to grow up without a mom. She’s been sick since he was born so he doesn’t know any different. And Hannah will never know.
After dinner Mayyim and I head up to my room.
What a crazy day.
Mayyim lies down on my bed and falls fast asleep. My bed is comfortable. I bought it with the money I got from my first job selling papers.
Knock, knock.
“Come in,” I whisper loudly.
Abby comes in. She sees Mayyim asleep and she sighs. “Why’d you tell me to come in?”
I shrug her off and get up so I can sit on the floor and talk with her. And we talk and talk for hours. Micah comes in and I put him on the bed with Mayyim. And now Hannah.
Chapter 25
The sun is shining on my face. I love it. I feel so fresh and clean, like it has bleached my sins away.
I climb into the car and Mayyim looks at me expectantly.
I grin. “They said I should call when everything is settled and I’ll be able to start the following week. Part time. I can go to school and you only have to find something to do all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
She smiles. “That’s great. Congratulations.”
“And I have to cut my hair.”
“Lame.”
“It’s okay. I’ll still look good,” I tell her, putting the car in gear.
We’re headed to Malibu to get the rest of her things from her parents’ house and then to her aunt’s house.
She has a brave determination on her face.
She rings the bell and we wait. I’m antsy. I’m itching for a fight but Ben told me I needed to lay low for six months after having that bad of a concussion, so I’m scared. I don’t want to die and I don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to serve justice, if I have to, because of this.
A tall, slender blonde lady answers the door. She smells like booze and she looks confused. Her eyes are blue, and bloodshot, and vacant. And her skin is overly tan.
“Koli?” she asks like she doesn’t recognize her, or has forgotten her part in the story. “Frank’s been so worried about you, Honey. That was terrible the way you treated him. And Rick. And you stole my boob money!”
Mayyim sighs, disappointed and impatient. “I just came to get my stuff.”
“He got you an acting gig, Honey. He worked hard to get it. Do you want me to call him and tell him you’re coming home? He’ll be thrilled. You missing out on that gig is all he talks about.”
“Yeah, well, it was porn, mom. Not an acting gig,” she says, getting antsy standing here.
“A gig’s a gig, Honey. Don’t they say no gig’s too small?”
“I can’t see how I could ever become a better more respectable actor if I even wanted to by taking it in the ass for money, if acting was even on my list of things I wanted to do with my life. I just came to get some clothes and stuff.”
She lets us in and I follow Mayyim to her room. It’s all dark and hardly girly at all. She opens her closet doors and starts pulling things off hangers and folding them neatly to put in the box.
“How can I help you?” I ask, anxious. I don’t want this to go horribly wrong.
“I guess my drawers. Start with the top two and then I should be over there.”
I open her top drawer. Undies, a lot of them. If undies were my thing I’d be in figurative heaven. I take them by the handfuls and drop them in the box. Underneath it all is a long knife and a small vibrator. I grin and put the knife away but keep the vibrator. The second drawer is shorts and the third is pants and sweaters. She’s done with the closet and comes where I am. I grab her and show her the vibrator. “What is this?” I tease her, pulling her to me.
She looks at me with sex eyes. “If you really don’t know, I can teach you.” She takes it from me and puts it back in my pocket, running her finger over my zipper as she turns away. She picks things off her dresser and her vanity quickly. She grabs a stack of pictures from a drawer and heads to her bathroom with the box.
My spider senses tingle and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It’s too quiet and I can hear tires squealing miles away. “Mayyim, we need to go.” I don’t want things to go horribly wrong. “We have to get out of the house otherwise I can’t lawfully do anything.”
She comes back and puts some of her shirts in the pants and undies box and rearranges some things. “Okay. I’m ready.”
I hurry her down the stairs and to the door.
Her mom tries to stop us. “Koli, you can’t leave. We have a good thing here. Frank is taking care of us. Koli, sweetie, you have to stay. He’s going to be mad if you leave again.”
She pauses, but I push her. I’m not going to fight him in his house because I’m not going to go to jail. I’m about to get a job and go back to school, and I can’t get arrested.
I breathe easier once we’re outside even though I see his fat ass getting out of his car. Seeing his face makes my hands tingle.
I book it to my car and put the boxes in the trunk and shut it. So now they’re hers.
But he’s quicker than I am in my weakened state. He grabs her wrist and he pulls her to the house while she kicks and screams to get away, firmly planting her feet, but she’s so small she can’t get ahead.
I make it there in two giant steps and push him hard in his soft chest, and he jerks her with him.
He recovers and looks me over. “Trust me, if she’s anything like her useless, dumbass mother, you don’t want to start any trouble over this one. Girls like this are only good for a couple of things and not worth the fight. Get on out of here, boy, before you get yourself in trouble.”
I place my hand on him. “You need to let her go.”
Before I know what’s going on I see her move in a flash and he releases her, turning and whapping her across the face and she falls.
So I punch him.
Hard.
“Frank! Are you alright?” Mayyim’s mom screams.
Someone has already called the cops. I know it.
I pick her up and hurry her to the car.
“That little bitch owes me and I’m not letting you take her.” He socks me in my head.
*****
God, please don’t let anything bad happen to her. Please don’t let him hurt her!
I hear sirens but my head hurts so fucking bad I can’t open my eyes. I’m lying in the street and I feel like a punk. I’m a fighter. I never fall in a fight. I let her down. I’ve made bad choices.
“Son, can you hear me?”
I feel like my face is under water. “Yes,” I murmur, but it sounds backwards to me like I said sey. “I’m good at fighting,” I tell him while my eyes try to swim to the surface of blackness. “He has my wife. I need you to get her back.”
“I got a call from one of the neighbors. An ambulance is on its way for you. Can you tell me what happened?”
“I have a recent grade three concussion. I’m okay.” I force my eyes open and try to sit, “I’m going to throw up.” I turn to the side and puke.
“Son, you need to lie back until the ambulance gets here.”
I’m trying to get up but my injured brain is not letting my legs work. I swear if he hurts her I will kill him. I’ll kill everyone.
“You need to lay your ass down or I’m going to arrest you and throw you into the back of my car. Sit down.”
I sit my ass down. “The guy who lives here is my wife’s stepfather. She left a month or so ago and we came to get her stuff. He’s bad and he’s hurt her, and he has her in there against her will. Please get her out or I will kill myself trying to do it on my own,” I assure him. I don’t know if my mouth made the words come out though.
The other police officer starts asking me for a statement and questions I don’t know about the guy. All I know is that he has raped her, and let other people rape her or otherwise molest her while she was a minor, and t
hey’re still out there.
I cover my face and pray.
More police cars are coming. It’s giving me a stomach ache like no other. What if he kills her? I cannot lose another person. It’s hard enough losing someone you don’t love. I love her.
I keep praying.
I have nothing and no one.
The paramedics come and check on me. They tell me I need to go to the hospital for an MRI, but I tell them I’m fine, and after all this is over I’m going home where I have a brother who’s a doctor. They tell me that’s not going to happen but at least they’re going to take me to his hospital.
I take deep breaths and focus through the nausea and headache to answer all their questions so I can pass all the tests so they let me stay longer. I watch the cops do their thing while they take my vitals. A couple have gone around to the back and a couple more are flanking them. There are three at the door, one knocking, two with guns drawn.
There’s movement that looks promising. Her mother has opened the door and the cops are going in.
Please let her be okay.
A cop escorts the mom to another cop car. I watch the house and take deep breaths.
Please be okay.
They bring him out in handcuffs and he’s screaming, and thrashing, and yelling back at the house. He looks at me and grins an evil grin, and threatens to kill me which I am not afraid of. He’ll get a good lawyer and get out of jail in a minute and if this whole thing ever goes to court he will say Mayyim came on to him, she’s a slut, and she was a consenting adult. He’ll dump her mom and find another woman with a daughter and that’s that.
Unless he killed her in rage.
Please don’t be dead.
She’s okay.
Thank you, God.
Her cheek is bruising but she’s tough. She looks for me. I wave as they put me in the ambulance.
“They’re probably going to have her fill out a report at the station. There’s not much we can do about the allegations without any evidence.” The cop that’s been staying with me tells me.
I nod. “But he’s going to jail for now, right?”
He nods. “He’ll go to jail tonight for domestic disturbance and for assault if you’d like to press charges. Her mom let you guys in so he can’t press any counter charges.”
I look at her and she sees me. She smiles, looking brave and serious, like she did a good job, but she’s concerned about me and the ambulance. That’s good. I’m proud of her. “What are you going to do with the mom?”
“Can’t do much. Not illegal to be a crap parent. We’ll see if we can find any drugs to hold them on.”
I look at him. He’s watching them talk to Mayyim. It’s best if I don’t go over there, it’s better if I let her tell them what they need to hear so they know it’s from her.
One of the cops breaks off and comes over. “We’re gonna take her in so she can give us the full report and we’ll have them give her an exam. We’ll have a counselor sit with her.”
I nod.
“Wave at her so she knows everything’s cool.”
I wave at her and she smiles and gets in the car.
“I’ll take her to the hospital after she’s done and get your statement.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
*****
It’s dark already.
I called Ben and Darry before I got my MRI. Darry brought my car to the hospital and left. Ben came in and his presence helped move things along. He sat with me and interpreted all the medical stuff and when they were sure my brain wasn’t swelling out of my skull he helped push my release. They told me if I hit my head again I’m going to die.
The cop brought Mayyim and took my statement. I met her in the lobby where she hugged me and I hugged her back, and now we’re walking to my car, holding hands.
Now that we’re at the car pull her close. “Are you okay?” My insides are so tense and strung so tight and my head is blaring. I wasn’t able to keep her from getting hurt and it hurts me to my kidneys.
She looks at my eyes and my lips. “Yes. It feels like I’m free and even.”
“Really? I would like to kill him.” I would.
“That’s because you’re a man and that’s how men think. I want it to be done and not think about it. I’m done having to go blank every time I think of it. So, now it’s done. I have my clothes and all my stuff. And I have you.”
“You do have me. Forever. I don’t believe in divorces.”
She smiles, worried. “How’s your head? Your brother told me to keep you out of trouble but I’m the reason you were in trouble.”
“I’m okay. It worked, right? Just no more fights for me. Ever.” I pet her hair. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t scared because I knew whatever he did it would be the last time, and I knew you were out there. I didn’t know you were dying. If I had known that I would have been scared.” She has tears in her eyes. “But I wasn’t scared of him.”
I hug her tightly, holding her head to my chest, breathing in her hair. She’s so different than anyone I’ve ever known. So strong and pure. “Do you think about things?” I ask her. “Like everything that was happening that night I met you? How do you get through that?” I ask her softly.
“I always tried to blank my mind when it was happening. I kept thinking over and over ‘he’s going to help me, he’s going to get me out of here.’ Most of the other times I’d try to think about things like what I was going to wear to school tomorrow or eating cotton candy, stuff like that.”
“What about sex with me? What do you think about?”
She looks at me, bright and happy. “That’s my secret.” She kisses me and it feels so good. “How’s your head? Can you drive?”
“I think I’m okay.” I don’t know if I’m okay.
“But we should go home.”
“We can see how it goes. We’re a way from home.” I want to make a good impression and I am worried because I let her get hurt and everything else. I think my head is okay. I’d rather get it over with so I can lay low and recover.
“She’s probably worried sick,” she agrees.
“Do you think she’d let me use the phone to call Abby and check in?”
She nods and breaks away and gets in the car.
She talked to me on the way there about her history and how she used to bite any man who tried to touch her when she was little. And about being taken by CPS and put in a foster home until her dad could prove he could take care of her. They lived with his sister, the aunt I’m meeting, for a while. Until her mom got her back.
She lives in a sleek looking apartment building in Santa Monica. It’s rich. “What does your aunt do?”
“She’s a lady doctor,” she says happily, so excited about the visit she thinks is going to happen.
This is not going to go well at all. “A doctor that’s a lady, or a doctor that specializes in ladies?” She’s going to hate me. I can feel it.
“Both?” She grins at me as we get out of the elevator and walk down the corridor to the apartment. She stops at the door and knocks.
Her aunt opens the door and looks at us. She recognizes her niece. “Mayyim!” she blubbers. “I thought you were dead! Where’ve you been? Those sons of bitches came looking for you here. Are you okay? What happened? What happened to your face? You look all fershligina. And who’s this?” She looks at me with distrust.
“Auntie, this is Ezra. Ezra, this is my aunt, Jora. Don’t look at him like that he’s a real mensch, tante. Are you going to let us in?”
“Well, I have to know about this man before I let him into my home.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oy vey! Do you want me to tell you here?”
“Don’t oy vey me, zhlub.”
“Let us in!” She grins and jumps around.
She smiles and pulls her in, hugging her. I close the door behind myself.
It is pretty fancy in here. Don’t have to worry about her being
a gold digger if this is how her aunt, who obviously loves her, lives.
They talk and catch up and she asks if we want coffee. I say yes because it’s been a long night and a long day. My head is so fuzzy and my legs are rubbery I need to be able to pull it together to make it home.
Mayyim asks if I can use the phone and she shows me the phone in the kitchen.
I dial Abby.
“Hello?”
“Hey. How’s everything?”
“She hasn’t woken all day. They say she’s in a coma and probably won’t come out of it. So she’ll eventually stop breathing. Where’ve you been?”
I tell her everything.
“Is she okay? Are you okay?”
I’m glad she’s gotten over it. Maybe someday they’ll be friends. “Yeah. She’s a tough lady and I’m fine. How are you?”
“Okay. Stacy went home. Dad’s been doing his work in there with mama.”
“That’s good. I gotta go, okay?”
“Yeah. I know it’s stupid but you haven’t heard from Jake, right?”
“No. I haven’t. I can call Cece when I get home if you want?”
“Whatever. It’s cool.”
There’s something odd about this whole Abby andJake thing. She is way too hung up. “What’s up with you and Jake?”
“Nothing. I thought we had a moment. But I guess not.”
“Abby, Jake’s life is complicated. He likes you but he has a lot of stuff to figure out. Don’t take it personally.” I hang up and make my way back to the living room where they are.
Mayyim’s aunt is hugging her and crying, and wiping tears with a hankie.
I sit across from them on a chair with my elbows on my knees. I can see their faces side by side. They have the same silver eyes and her aunt’s hair is an ash blonde color. They’re both small with delicate features.
She turns her attention to me. “And how does he fit into all this?” she asks, staring daggers at me. “What are you doing with this little girl?”
“Tante, I’m not a little girl. I know I always will be to you, but to me I’m not a little girl.” She holds her aunt’s hand. “I mean, I can’t go back to that. I’ve lost that. I want to move forward.” She takes a breath, relieved. “He’s the one I ran to and he helped me. I had seen him around and I knew he was a mensch so I ran to him for help to run away.”
Easy Page 14