40 Something - Safety

by Shannon Peel

  I go back to work.

  My husband, Gary, he does what he can. He either cooks dinner or brings home take out. He helps the kids with their homework and gets them settled while I work. I work all the time. I start first thing in the morning and I don't look up until it's time for bed. I work everyday

  I'm not looking forward to my mother's visit. She'll lecture me on how I have to have dinner ready for Gary when he gets home and how I need to focus more on keeping a clean house, an organized house, a perfect house. I know that I'm supposed to. I know that. I just can't seem to care.

  I tried cleaning up this morning. I started in the living room and all I could do was think of work. How to get more traffic to the contractor's website. What should my next blog post be about and exactly how do I motivate someone to stop looking and buy. When the ideas come to me I stop cleaning. I start working.

  You'd think Gary would get mad. He doesn't. He brings me coffee in the morning. He asks me how my latest campaign is going. He tidies up on the weekends. Once, he offered to hire a cleaning lady. The thought of it loaded me down with guilt and I cleaned for a week. The house was perfect and I barely slept, as I still had to work.

  After a week, I got tired. So tired I couldn't get out of bed for two days. I was sick. Not sick as in cough, cough, puke, puke, but sick in a different way. I didn't care about anything. Not even work. Every muscle in my body ached and my brain was shutting down. I couldn't hold a thought, I couldn't string a sentence together without loosing words and going blank. I couldn't focus. I just couldn't move.

  Two days later, I woke up and went back to work. Sitting on my ass, at my computer, never moving. I should be the size of Rose by now, but I'm not. Thank you mom for a fabulous metabolism. I am completely out of shape, you just can't tell that from looking at me.

  One day I'll get it together. One day I'll be able to do everything. One day. Just not today. I just don't care enough to.

  Rose

  I am getting an alarm installed in my house.

  I should have done it years ago and I can’t believe I was so irresponsible as to not have one. Gus says we don’t need one because there is always someone home, but that’s why we need one. What if a crazy mad man broke into the house and Gus wasn’t there to protect us?

  The Banners had their place robbed a few years ago while they were away on vacation. The guy broke a back window, gained access to the garage and had a moving truck come and take everything. Don Maynard said he saw a moving truck late in the evening when he was out walking his dog. He just didn’t think it was something to call the cops about. It didn’t look suspicious. He thought the people who lived there were moving or something. No, he had no idea that they were on vacation in Florida that week.

  He should have called the police. The Banners weren’t home. Why would they have a moving truck come if they weren’t home? I knew they weren’t home. I just wasn’t outside when the truck was there.

  If they had a working alarm system then they wouldn’t have lost everything. It won’t happen to us. We’ll have an alarm system. If we ever go away I’ll tell Don Maynard that we are gone and no we are not expecting a moving van to be at our house.

  The newspaper is filled with terrible stories of rapists breaking in and assaulting a poor, vulnerable woman before stealing all her valuables. If some weirdo broke in here and harmed the girls I’d never forgive myself. We’ll figure out how to pay for it.

  Good he’s here.

  I open the door and a young man in a golf shirt and slacks with a clip board an id tag is standing there, a big smile on his face.

  “Hello Mrs. Fischer, I’m Adam.”

  “Come in Adam. Come in. Please. Call me Rose. Can I get you anything? Coffee, tea, iced tea, juice, water?”

  “I’m fine thank you. How ‘bout you tell me what you would like and then I’ll take a look around for vulnerable security areas in your home, afterwards we can sit and have a chat.”

  “I want my home to be secured. To make sure that my children are protected when they are home alone.”

  “Sounds like what most people want. Do you mind if I take a look around to assess the potential spots someone can get in?”

  “Please, please, go ahead. I’ll just be in the kitchen.”

  I pour myself a cup of tea and the phone rings.

  “Hello.”

  “Hi. It’s Sophie.”

  “Sophie, how are you?”

  “Good. I guess. It’s a bit overwhelming. Lindsay’s nice and her place is well, I feel like I’m in a very expensive hotel.”

  “It’s nice?”

  I’m curious about where Lindsay lives.

  “Nice. Rose I wake up to a view of the bay. An uninterrupted view. It’s huge and gorgeous. She even has this interior designer who came over last night to set up my room.”

  “An interior designer?”

  “Yeah. She is a snob. She transformed the office space into a luxurious bedroom. I’ve never had anything this nice, ever.”

  “Well you deserve it.”

  “No I don’t. I mean. I was fine where I was and all. I think maybe I should just go back and –“

  “NO.” Panic. “No. You can’t. Stay there. You’re safe there. Sophie I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”

  “For what? What?”

  “Craig showed up while we were finishing up.” Silence. “He’s not right. Sophie. He’s a bully and abusive. You can’t go back there.”

  “No. No. No. I knew this would happen. I should have just stayed home. I never should have gone out. I never should have left my suite. He’s going to be mad. Furious. No. No. No. I have to call him –“

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Cause he’s mad. I have to make it better.”

  “No you don’t. You need to stay there with the kids.”

  “He’s gonna be so mad at me.”

  I can hear the pain in her voice, she’s on the verge of tears. If Gary and Gus hadn’t been there to save us, I’d hate to think what would have happened. Sophie will be helpless if she goes back. I don’t know what to do?

  “Look. Sophie. Stay there. Just for a week. Think of it as a vacation. I’m sure Charlene will have everything in place to protect you by then and Craig will have calmed down. How are the kids liking it there?”

  “They love it. Lindsay has been so good to them. She wants to decorate their rooms up for them. Paint and everything. I mean themed rooms Rose. How can I let them have that? We aren’t going to be here long enough for that. It’s too much. We have to go back. How will they adjust to having nothing after living here?

  “Tell them it’s just a vacation. Ask Lindsay not to.”

  “I did. She won’t listen.”

  “I’ll get Charlene to talk to her. She’s her friend. I’m sure she’ll be able to make it work out. You can’t come back here Sophie. You can’t. It’s not safe here for you. Not yet. Charlene will let you know what to do. Until then what’s wrong with enjoying a luxurious place?”

  “I don’t know. It just feels like too much. I was struggling to make ends meet two days ago. Now? Lindsay had the grocery store deliver food. Did you know grocery stores even did that? There is everything here. She won’t let me pay her anything or do anything. I feel so bad.”

  “You feel bad?”

  “Yeah. I don’t deserve any of this. It makes me uncomfortable. What will she want from me? I don’t know what she wants from me.”

  “I don’t know her. I’ll talk to Charlene. Until then, enjoy it Sophie. You need a break from life. You need this.”

  I saw what she had for food and where she was living. How she was living. I don’t know how she did it. I couldn’t. I think of how much Gus does for me. How he’s always here for me and the kids. Our house. Our life. We can afford a kitchen full of food. We have everything we need. How did she do it? Alone. How does any single mother do it all? That’s not my problem. I have enough to worry about without worrying about other people. My mom is
right. Don’t invite trouble in.

  “Rose. Thank you.”

  “No problem. I’ll call Charlene right now. She’ll sort it out.”

  I call Charlene. Voicemail. That woman never picks up a phone. Or is it just my calls she doesn’t answer?

  “Charlene it’s Rose. Sophie just called. You need to do something about Lindsay. I guess she’s moving them in permanently. It’s making Sophie uncomfortable. She wants to move back to the suite. After meeting Craig there, she can’t it isn’t safe for her there. Call her and figure out something.”

  There that’s done. I’m sure they will sort it all out. As long as Craig can’t find Sophie, she’s safe.

  “Mrs. Fischer, I’m done my assessment.”

  “Adam, come have a cup of tea and tell me how you are going to make my family safe.”