Bishop's Run

by B. D. Gates

  She knew Tess, and she knew that Tess was really in love with this woman.

  Ginnie, even though she had taken care of Bishop...Baxter, had cared for her, wanted to throttle her for hurting Tess, like any mother whose daughter had been wounded by love.

  Joe had questions, was worried about Tess, too, but Ginnie was not comfortable with telling him anything more than that Tess had a 'relationship' issue, ending the conversation there. Joe was surprised to learn that Tess had a relationship with anyone, and he was curious, but he didn't pursue the matter, knowing that if he needed to know anything, his wife would tell him.

  Over the next three weeks, Ginnie watched Tess struggle to right herself after her heartbreak. She knew that the girl was not the same one that had come to her, less than a month before, in love with Bishop and feeling both exhilarated and scared by what that meant. Tess was back to the self she'd been just after graduating from the Police Academy, and in the years following that event. All business and no joy.

  Ginnie ritually quizzed Joe about his day, adding questions about Tess and her well-being into the conversation. Joe knew what she was doing, he was, after all, a detective, and he gave his opinion about Tess' demeanor, whether she'd eaten lunch, and so on.

  What he really wanted to know, but didn't ask, was whether Ginnie thought that Tess would get over this guy, whoever he was, because she was back to being a bit of a hard-ass, and he liked it better when she was playful and laughing, like she'd been the past few months.

  38

  One evening, a few days after Penny had suggested I call Tess, I joined Jacks and Harry in Whitmore for dinner and a movie. Penny was on a date with another of her 'friends', and I was happy to hear from Jacks when she called. I met them at Lin's Buffet, the same restaurant where Tess had gotten our Chinese dinner. I was feeling prickly, knowing that there was always a possibility that I could run into Tess anywhere and at any time, and the odds were long that we'd run into each other here, but I've known stranger things to happen. I scanned the restaurant as we walked in. There were several brunettes, none of them Tess. I breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.

  We had all ordered the buffet and I scanned the contents with a knowledgeable eye. Tess and I had shared a number of those same items at our dinner. There were a few exceptions, like the dumplings with oyster sauce, but I imagined that item would be hard to manage on a steam table. I walked twice around the set-up, picking and choosing, taking small amounts of the foods I had most enjoyed before picking up an envelope containing chopsticks and returning to our table.

  "Hey, we got us a real hot-shot," Jacks noted, as I slid the sticks out and broke them apart.

  I laughed. "No, not really, I just learned to use them a couple months ago, I'm still not very good, but I figured I'd give it a try anyway." The memory of Tess educating me came up in my mind's eye and I smiled in spite of the pain. At least I was smiling when I thought of her, I reckoned. That had to count for something.

  We ate, talked about softball, the standings, the upcoming games, and Harry and Jacks schooled me on the various teams' players, who they were dating, general trivia. Some of them were 'regulars' at Penny's 'team meetings,' and I recalled some of the girls they discussed, having met them.

  We were working on our second plates of food when Penny and her date walked up to our table. I sat back, took in her date as Penny made introductions. When she got to me, I smiled, nodded, played nice while Harry and Jacks looked on. Her friend, Sera, not much taller than Penny, a little on the skinny side but attractive, smiled and nodded as well. I don't think that she had any idea that Penny and I were 'dating.' Or maybe she did, and maybe it didn't matter to her any more than it did to Penny.

  Penny, like Tess, apparently preferred the 'smorgasbord.'

  Penny quizzed us on our plans for the evening and Harry let her know them. While she gave out our agenda, Penny glanced at me, several times, apparently gauging my reaction to her date. I wasn't about to let her know what I was thinking, and when I caught her in the act, I kept my smile, didn't change a thing. I noticed, however, a nearly-imperceptible furrow of her brow as I looked away, returned to the conversation.

  Was she looking for a reaction?

  We parted ways, not too long after that, Penny and Sera moving on to their table, leaving the three of us looking at each other.

  "Well, that was fun," said Harry. She had a look on her face that I could not name. I shrugged, trying to impart a 'could care less' attitude.

  "That's Penny," said Jacks. "That's just the way she is."

  "Yeah, well," said Harry, a small frown on her face. She wasn't cutting Penny any slack. I wondered why.

  "So, tell me," I said, "how long have you known her, Harry?"

  "Seems like all our lives," she answered. "But we met in high school."

  "That's still a good while," I said. I wondered about Harry, what she was really thinking. She seemed a little agitated.

  "Yeah," she answered. "Maybe too long."

  I looked at Jacks. Jacks appeared to be as surprised at Harry's response as I was.

  "What do you mean?" Here I go, I thought, digging for answers.

  "It's just...nothing," she replied, looking down at the table, dismissing the question with her reply.

  Jacks looked at me. Her face showed me that she wondered as well.

  "Really?" I leaned across the table, trying to engage Harry.

  "Like Jacks said, she's got her ways, that's all," said Harry.

  "Has she always been like this?" I kept up the questions, trying to jump-start Harry into talking about Penny. I really was curious, about Penny and her 'ways', but also about Harry's reaction to Penny and her date as well. All that and, well, Harry never really seemed to have much to say when I was around. I hoped a little conversation would open things up for us.

  "No, but it's old news," said Harry.

  "Not to me," I replied.

  "Me, either," said Jacks. I silently thanked her for her input.

  "Okay, you want to know about Penny, I get that," Harry whispered harshly, somewhat defensively.

  "Hey, no, it's okay," I said, trying to reverse the conversation into less of an interrogation mode. I didn't want to upset Harry any more than she already seemed to be. In fact, Harry appeared more disturbed by Penny's arrival than me. My wondering had set her on edge, and now I was curious as to why Harry was reacting this way. I'd thought that Harry and Penny were best friends.

  "So, you want to know about Penny? Why she is like she is?" Harry continued as she looked back and forth between Jacks and me, questioned us both. It wasn't a question, really, it was more like a challenge, so I didn't reply, I didn't move as I waited to see what would happen next. Jacks was quick, too, catching on to Harry's agitation. We waited.

  Harry leaned against the booth back. She looked down at the table, twisting her napkin as if she was wringing it out. When she spoke, she leaned towards the center of the table, her voice low, barely above a whisper, so that only Jacks and I would hear. I looked at Jacks as we both leaned in to listen.

  "When we were fifteen, Penny fell for a girl named Alexandra, she went by the name Alex, and they dated for about six months. Alex was Penny's first girlfriend, first 'everything,' and Penny was crazy about her, you know? Do you guys remember your first girls? What that was like? Well, Alex played Penny, you know, showed her a good time, gave her little presents, pretty much swept her off her feet. Had Penny wrapped around her little finger. It was sick, really, when I look back at it, she had Penny so nuts, all she had to do was whistle and Penny would go running. Alex was just using her, for sex, and when she got tired of her, or maybe Penny wanted more from Alex, I don't know, I never did figure all that out, anyway, Alex dumped her. Just walked away."

  I looked at Jacks. She looked back at me.

  Harry was still looking at the table.

  "Anyways, Penny, well, she was just...broken. She missed, like, nearly a week of school, told her mother she had a 'bug' an
d she looked like hell, so that wasn't too hard to believe. She slept nearly twenty-four hours a day, she only woke up when I went over to see her after school, and I'd get her to eat and drink something, then I'd leave and she'd go back to sleep. Well, finally, I just got mad, told her she needed to get the hell up and get over it, that Alex wasn't worth it, she was ruining herself over someone that didn't deserve her. I made her get up and get a shower, get dressed, I put her in my car, and we went for a long, long drive, about three hours, all around Whitmore, over to Tenley and back again.

  "She just needed to be upright and moving and that's what we did. At first, she didn't even seem to see anything, was just staring with this blank look on her face. Over time, though, she started paying attention to where we were, was looking at the leaves coming out, it was the start of spring. I reminded her that softball season was coming up and that seemed to get through to her. She actually smiled when she remembered that."

  Harry had to stop, take a sip of her beer.

  "So, Penny went back to school that next week, and she's handling it, everything's going fine, and we had softball tryouts that Friday after school. We're out on the softball field, and the coaches are putting everyone through the skills demonstrations and Penny got up to bat, started blasting balls into the outfield on nearly every pitch. The coaches went crazy, they're loving it, started burning the pitches in, she sent them back out, a lot of them over the fence. And the coaches were laughing and slapping each other on the back, because now they had a 'stinger'. So they told Penny to look for her name on the list, she had definitely made the cut, and she's smiling, and so happy. She took her bat and glove and went to the parking lot by the ball field, across from the tennis courts, to wait for me at my car, while I finished my tryout.

  "The tennis team was just finishing practice, their season was just getting started too, and, well, guess who's on the tennis team? Penny was sitting on the hood of my car, watching the two teams practicing and she saw Alex and her new girl, apparently, getting into Alex's car. So, Penny had walked over to the car, bat in hand, and started yelling at Alex, telling her what a sorry piece of shit she was, how she wished she'd never met her, you know? I hear the yelling and I look up to see what's going on, and I saw that Alex had gotten out of the car, she was trying to quiet Penny down, because what she's saying wasn't exactly what you want the whole school to hear, so I took off for the parking lot. The coaches were running behind me because they heard it, too, and before I could get to them..." Harry stopped.

  Just stopped.

  I looked at Jacks. She looked at me. Neither one of us said anything. We just waited.

  After a few seconds, Harry, in a near-whisper, said, "Penny swung that damn bat on Alex. Aimed right for her head. Luckily, Alex put her arm up to protect herself, the bat hit her forearm, broke both bones at the wrist. I tackled Penny just as she started to take another swing, put her on the ground. She was crazy. I mean, blind crazy, she couldn't see me, couldn't hear me, she was just...gone. I held her down, but she was done, didn't try to get up. Dropped the bat.

  "By then, the coaches were there and they were shocked. Alex's arm was all bent up, so one of the coaches walked her into the gym to apply a first aid splint and call for an ambulance. The other two just stood over me and Penny, just looking, not saying anything. Alex's girl got out of the car, grabbed her stuff and walked away. I don't know where she went.

  "So, I got off of Penny, stood up, pulled her up to me, and she just lost it. Started bawling. I mean, hard. Her legs went out from under her, and I was trying to hold her up, get her to my car and get her the hell out of there, you know? One of the coaches, reminded me of Coach Biggs, had this look on her face, like, 'Oh, now I get it', and she came over and said "where are you parked?" I nodded towards my car and she helped me practically carry Penny to it, helped me put her in it.

  "The coach looked at me and says, "You know there's going to be a lot of questions." Well, yeah, Penny just tried to kill Alex. So I said, "I'm going to take her home, anyone who needs to speak with her can find her there." And that's what I did.

  "That night, no one came. I watched out the window for the police. I stayed with Penny the whole night, waiting. Her parents had no idea, I didn't tell them anything, just took Penny right up to her room, put her on the bed. The next day and still no one.

  "I found out later that Alex's parents didn't call the cops because they didn't want anyone to know that Alex was 'homosexual'. They pulled her out of the school, sent her somewhere else. The coaches didn't say anything either, apparently, because nothing was reported to the principal, the school board, no one. It was like it had never happened.

  "Except everyone forgot about Penny. Man, she was really fucked up and she had no one to help her. She needed help, too, I mean, she tried to kill Alex for breaking up with her. She felt like she'd been used, and she had, mostly, but who really knows what 'love' is to a teenager, you know?

  "She pulled away from everyone, me included, for about two weeks. I guess she was going to class, but we didn't have any together. She was a ghost, I didn't see her, not once. I didn't hear from her. When she finally called, she asked me to come pick her up, take her for a ride, and I did. We drove around Whitmore for nearly half an hour before she even said anything. When she did, she thanked me for stopping her that day, for keeping her from doing something really terrible. I knew what she meant. She said that she would never, ever let anyone take advantage of her like that again, that she would always be the one "in control of the situation." She said she'd never let herself fall in love with anyone, ever again.

  "She meant it, too. It's been nearly twelve years since that all happened, she's never had a relationship with only one woman in her life since."

  And I thought to myself, "except for you, Harry."

  I leaned back, took a big hit of my beer. Looked over at Jacks, who was also caught up in her own thoughts. One story. It was THE story, and I had more insight into Penny than if I'd questioned her for days.

  Penny's behavior made sense to me now. She had been devastated by Alex, so she had shut herself down emotionally. She didn't trust anyone. It was why she was so adamant about knowing who I 'really' was. She expected no one to be truthful and I had perpetrated the biggest fraud of all on her. She knew that I was not even who I said I was.

  One other thing I had learned was that Penny had a vicious temper. But then, I already knew that.

  Lastly, I realized that Harry was in love with Penny, and I wondered what Harry really thought of me.

  39

  Over a month had passed since Tess had signed off on 'Baxter's case,' yet she still thought of her every minute of every day, still saw Bishop in her mind's eye, sitting on the back steps, smiling at her, the sun flashing off her hair and in her blue eyes.

  Tess' dreams replayed her memories, the dinners, the night of her birthday at Gene and Hettie's when Bishop had held her so tightly in the parking lot, the softball cookout, even of the first few weeks when she'd held Bishop and comforted her, the happiness of being with Bishop dissolving when she woke, when she remembered the rest. Dark grey pain colored her thinking, leaving her feeling broken and sad.

  Tess had business in Whitmore, at the State Troopers Office. She was through by noon, and decided to stop at Lin's Chinese Buffet for lunch. Sitting near the window, she was absentmindedly eating and looking at her phone when someone sat down across the table from her. She looked up at Penny.

  "Baxter misses you."

  "You're Penny," verified Tess.

  "Yes. I'm Penny," she replied. "And Baxter misses you."

  Tess was caught off-guard, Penny had surprised her and there was a delay in her reply, then "I don't think this is anything you and I need to talk about."

  "Well, I disagree. She misses you and you need to know that. Baxter is my friend, she was yours once, and she's hurting. I suspect you are, too."

  Tess just gazed at the young woman, a little unsettled by her observation.
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  Penny continued. "The angrier a person is, at someone or about something, the harder they strike out at the cause. They're aggravated, they've allowed their emotions to drive their actions. Am I right, Detective? And Baxter, well, Baxter has the ability to bring out the best of every emotion a person can have, good and bad. I take complete responsibility for what happened to her on the night of the cookout, Detective, I was angry and I took it out on her, and, while that certainly doesn't excuse my behavior, it does explain things, to a degree, I think. It explains yours as well."

  Tess looked questioningly at Penny.

  "She made you so mad you cut her off--completely. You may as well have just stabbed her in the heart. Look, Baxter is aggravating, and frustrating, you don't know whether to kiss her or kill her because she won't talk, she won't tell you when something is bothering her, you have to pull it out of her. That's Baxter, that's how she is, but she told me about you and she's hurting because she misses you. You needed to know that, Detective." She got up from the table.

  "You should call her," finished Penny, before she turned and walked out the door.

  Tess spent the rest of the day, the evening, that night, considering what Penny had said, playing her words over and over in her mind. Tess knew, in her heart, that she should call Bishop, but she just couldn't. She was still mad, still angry, but she was also remembering Bishop and how she made her smile.

  40

  The Tenley Pride was still a half-game ahead in the standings as we neared the end of the first half of the season. Coach Biggs was optimistically happy with the way her team was playing, would continue to play. Carol had influenced Bigg's outlook as well. They were good together, both on and off the field.