Hailey's Hog

by Andrew Draper

  “I’m sorry. I’ll leave,” she stood, taking a step toward the gate. “No one will ever know I told you.”

  Rounding the table, he quickly intercepted her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “I didn’t say I wanted you to leave,” he said, guiding her back into her seat. “Just let me think for a minute.”

  “I’m sorry I got you involved, really I am. I saw the cops and I panicked. I didn’t know what else to do,” she began to sob, soft convulsions shaking her body. “Those bastards raped me, and now I’m the one going to jail. Where’s the fucking justice in that?”

  He gently took her trembling body in his arms. “You’re sure you don’t want to go to the cops and try to sort this out.”

  “I’m sure. They’d never believe me.”

  “How about getting a lawyer? Let him handle it.”

  “No. That won’t work either,” she said, defeat crawling into her strained voice. She backed out of his embrace, her eyes meeting his. “They’d just throw me to the cops.”

  “If they catch you, they’ll lock you up and throw away the key,” he said. “You gotta get out of Dodge.”

  “It’s way too late for that. No matter what I do, I’m totally fucked,” she said, sobs still wracking her feminine frame. “Besides, where would I go?”

  “Maybe we can get you to Mexico,” he said. “Once you’re across the border, the cops can’t touch you.”

  She sniffed loudly and wiped her eyes again. “Mexico? I can’t go to Mexico!”

  “One thing at a time. First thing we have to do is figure out some place for you to stay tonight. We can deal with the rest later. Do you have any place you can go where the cops won’t find you?”

  “No.”

  “Well, you can’t go back to your apartment…and a Prescott cop lives right next door to me, so you can’t stay at my place,” he said. “We have to assume your picture is being passed around by now.”

  He scratched his chin in contemplation. “I have a friend who might be able to help.”

  He looked up at the stars dotting the night sky, rolling his eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening!” He locked his gaze with hers. “I finally find the perfect girl…and she tells me she shot someone.”

  Her eyes expanded in surprise at the remark, growing to the size of dinner plates. “You think I’m perfect?”

  He smiled. “Of course you’re perfect,” he gently reached out to brush the tip of her nose. “Don’t you know that?”

  Through the tears, she gave a small smile. “Yeah, I’m a real prize, alright.”

  He stood, taking her hand in his. He led her away from the table toward the courtyard gate. “Let’s get you off the street, before somebody gets nosey.” They walked out the gate and she saw Doug’s bike parked along the curb. “We’ll come back for your bike later.” He said.

  She shook her head. “I can’t leave it.”

  “Okay. Where is it?”

  “It’s in the garage, third floor.”

  “You go get it. I’ll wait here.”

  Minutes later she pulled up behind Doug’s rumbling Electra-Glide as they moved away from the Wild Iris. Apprehension running away with her mind, she moved in close as she pushed the bike down the crowded streets. She tightened her grip on the bars as her panic grew at the thought of fleeing to Mexico. She looked across and drew strength from Doug’s presence, watching him handle his huge bike with the dexterity of a surgeon.

  Her eyes flitted like a humming bird between the cars around her, looking for what she didn’t know, wondering if they held police coming to arrest her. Heart hammering in her ears, she tried to control her trembling hands as the pair turned right, leaving Courthouse Square unmolested and driving east, toward the edge of town.

  Arriving at their destination a few minutes later, they parked the bikes and she stood with her hand again in his, stiff with angst, as the carved wood door swung open.

  She sucked in a quick gasp of breath as she saw Julie looking back at her. Hailey instantly recognized the other woman as the one who sat next to her at the bar in Rock Springs. She held her breath as the other woman gave no outward sign she knew who Hailey was.

  “What’s up Doug?” the woman said. “And who’s your friend?”

  Hailey’s pulse raced in fear that Julie might connect the dots. I hope I look different enough, maybe she won’t remember me.

  “Julie, this is Hailey. She needs a place to stay for tonight,” Doug said. “Her place isn’t…safe. Can she crash here?”

  Julie paused in thought for several seconds before she stepped aside, allowing the pair to enter.

  She turned to Hailey, face unreadable. “Is he likely to come here?” she asked.

  “Is who likely to come here?” Hailey repeated.

  “Whoever you’re running from.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “But I think he’s watching my apartment.”

  Julie hesitated for a second. “Well, I better get the Bear out of hibernation,” she said as she motioned them to sit down. “Just in case he shows up.”

  Leaving her guests to their muted conversation, Julie walked down the hall and slipped into one of the rooms at the far end, shutting the door quietly behind her.

  Hailey took in her surroundings while she waited for her hostess to return. The home was small, but comfortable. The furnishings an eclectic mix of styles from modern to colonial and Harley-Davidson memorabilia decorated the walls.

  She sat on the overstuffed leather couch and waited while Doug nervously paced the floor in front of her.

  A few minutes later the Bear came trudging down the hall, stretching his long, thick arms and scrubbing the sleep from his face with his enormous, powerful hands.

  “Hey Doug,” he said, stifling a yawn. “Julie tells me your lady friend here has a problem.”

  “Yep. A big one.”

  Bear shot Doug an irritated look. “Let’s grab a beer and go out back,” he said, nodding his huge head toward the door. “You and I need to talk.”

  “Right behind you.” Doug said, following the other man. Stopping to raid the refrigerator, the two took their drinks and made their way to a sliding glass door in the kitchen, stepping out onto the back porch.

  As the men left the room, Hailey felt Julie’s eyes fall hard upon her. She noticed the other woman’s wary manner and again the possibility of discovery blazed a scorching path through her body.

  Julie tipped her beer back and drained the last of it. She stood up and walked to the fridge. “Want a beer?”

  “Sure, thanks.”

  Returning to the room, she handed the bottle to Hailey. “Now that the guys are gone, I need you to answer a question for me.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Why’d you tell me your name was Tina?”

  She locked her eyes on the other woman’s, beer bottle half way to her mouth. Hailey froze in alarm, afraid to answer, ashamed of the lie.

  Julie continued, gaze boring into Hailey’s. “I remember you. I saw you on the poker run to Rock Springs.”

  “Yes,” she replied, her soft voice strained. “You did.”

  Julie sat on the arm of the couch. “Why lie to me? I’m a complete stranger.”

  Screwing up some courage, she spoke. “I was meeting someone that night,” she paused to collect her thoughts. “I needed to be anonymous.”

  “He married? Is that why you lied?”

  “No. It’s nothing like that,” she said, taking another swallow of her beer. “I wish it were that simple.”

  Julie seemed to consider Hailey’s non-answer for a minute before the light of understanding came on in her head and immediately showed on her face. The disclosure spurred her to action.

  “I read the news,” Julie said, digging around in a pile of newspapers next to the sofa and handing Hailey a copy of the local rag. “I know what happened that night. Was that you?”

  Hailey hesitated, nerves still stinging with apprehension.

  Julie�
��s face took on a strong, determined set. “You tell me the truth right now or you’re out of here,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “No bullshit.”

  Hailey pulled on the tiny thread of bravery she’d spun, hoping it didn’t unravel. “Yes. It was me.”

  “Why?” Julie asked, resuming her seat.

  She took a deep breath and forced herself to put the words together. “About a year ago, he raped me,” she said. “Him and three other men.”

  The blood drained from Julie’s face at the blunt admission. She looked at Hailey for several long seconds before popping the cap off her beer and taking a drink. “Shooting was too good,” she hissed, “I’d have castrated the son of a bitch.”

  While the ladies talked in the living room, the two men did the same thing out back, the light escaping from the windows casting them in eerie shadows as they sipped their beers in the moonlight. Bear’s angry growl echoed off the block fence, carrying across the yard as Doug explained the situation.

  “I haven’t had so much as a speeding ticket in ten years and you mix me up in a shooting,” Bear said. “Thanks a lot, asshole!”

  Doug’s sheepish look did nothing to ease the other man’s anger. “Look, man, I know this is messed up, but she doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”

  The giant man’s resentment flared as he scratched his hairy, tattooed chest. “So, you decided to make it my problem!”

  “She shot a guy for raping her,” he waited for a second to let the huge man absorb the truth. “Come on! You know you’d kill anybody who even looked at Julie cross-eyed, never mind sexually assaulting her.”

  Bear raised his tree-trunk arms in resignation, biceps bulging. “Damned straight, I would!”

  “Well, all right then,” he pointed at Hailey, now sitting in a chair, her face framed in an open window. “Look at her. Do you really think she can handle this on her own?”

  Bear stared at Hailey for a moment, thinking about what Doug said. “Point taken,” he turned back to Doug. “She really shot the rat-bastard?”

  “Yup, and tomorrow she goes to Mexico.”

  “Righteous. Okay, she can stay…but you’re going to owe me big for this.”

  The two men stepped toward each other, shaking hands.

  “Cool. Thanks,” Doug said. “I promise I’ll get square with you…whatever it takes.”

  “You better,” Bear said, a huge smile crossing his face. “And it better be good.”

  Doug and Bear made another pit stop at the fridge, getting a refill before joining the ladies in the living room.

  “Everything okay in here?” Bear asked.

  “Fine,” Julie said. “Everything cool out there?”

  Bear looked at his wife, then at his guests. “Yeah, we’re cool.”

  Doug turned to Hailey. “We’re going to go get some supplies,” Doug said. “We won’t be gone long.”

  Bear and Doug stepped out the door and Hailey saw the headlights pass by the window as they drove away.

  Hailey turned back to see Julie staring at her. “I need to say something.” Julie began.

  “Yes?” Hailey said.

  Julie took another sip of her beer. “I love Doug like a brother and I know him. He’s a kind and decent man,” she sat back on the couch and pulled her feet underneath her. “He’s going to want to go with you.”

  “Oh, no he isn’t!” Hailey said firmly. “I can’t let him do that. It’s way too dangerous.”

  “In a weird way, I’m glad to hear you say that,” Julie responded. “Then you know you have to leave…now, before he gets back,” she paused to let the words sink in. “It’s the only way he’ll stay behind. The only way he’ll be safe.”

  “You’re right,” Hailey reluctantly agreed. “I have to do this for him.”

  “He really cares about you,” she said. “It’s different from other girls he’s dated.”

  “Thanks,” She said. “I really care about him too.”

  “I noticed he seemed happier lately. I wondered what was different this time. Now I know,” Julie said. “You know you have to let him go. Right?”

  “I know,” a grim smile crossed her face. “I can’t let him throw his life in the crapper to run off to Mexico with me. I couldn’t do that to him.”

  Julie stood, walking to the kitchen and dropping the empty bottle in the trash. “I’ll take you to the border, but then it’s up to you. I’ll grab a few things for you and then let’s get out of here. You want to get across before the sun comes up.”

  She left Hailey on the couch, heading back down the hall again.

  Thirty minutes later, they were passing the old Young’s Farm site on their way to the interstate. The idea of a life full of insecurity and permanent anxiety inundated Hailey’s mind as the two drove on, the uncomfortable silence broken only by the whine of the tires on the road.

  Good-bye Doug. The tears again ran down her face, the pain settling in her heart. You deserve better than me. I hope you find it.

  Julie finally spoke, as the headlights passed on the highway. “The thing with getting into Mexico is getting past the border guards. Fortunately, they are less interested in who you are, and more interested in what you bring with you. Can you reach the bag on the back seat?”

  Hailey leaned over the seat and pulled a duffel bag up, laying it between them. “Alright, here’s some cash, clothes and some other stuff you might need,” Julie told her. “Let the guards find a hundred bucks or so and take it. Let them think they cleaned you out. That should get you past them.”

  Another minute of quiet passed unchallenged before she continued. “We’ll ditch the gun somewhere on the U.S. side. Don’t even try to take it into Mexico. If they catch you with a gun, you’ll wind up spending the rest of your life ‘working off your fines’ in some Mexican cop’s private whorehouse.”

  “Lovely.” Hailey said, her beautiful face taut, creased with worry.

  Running south toward the border, the fugitive and her escort made it almost all the way to Sunset Point before Hailey spoke again, breaching the now-intolerable silence. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this. I have to go back.”

  “You go back, they put you in jail forever,” Julie said, a clear warning in her tone. “Think about what this will do to Doug.”

  “I can’t run anymore. I have to finish this,” she paused, breathing deeply. “For my own sanity.”

  “That’s your call,” Julie said. “I ain’t your mama.”

  “If I go back, Doug can’t know. I’ve already put him at risk,” Hailey said. “I have to do this alone.”

  “You really do care about him, don’t you? I’m sorry it has to be this way.”

  “Let’s go back,” she said, a small tendril of relief spreading within her, now that she had made the decision. “I’m sorry to do this to you.”

  “I’m cool. Just don’t let Doug get himself in trouble he can’t get out of.”

  Julie turned the car around and the pair headed back up Interstate 17 in resumed silence.

  Hailey took a deep breath, looking for that calm inner voice she knew she could rely on. What would Greg tell me to do?

  She contemplated her late uncle and the answer quickly became two-fold. Greg wouldn’t condone what I did…and he would have never let me get into so much trouble, she suddenly felt a flash of grim familial pride. But he would have done it himself, if he’d been here. He would have killed those bastards without hesitation. He would have sacrificed his own future to protect me.

  Sitting in the dark car, her throat choked tight with the sharp emotional slash of his absence. But Greg’s dead, and I’m going to jail, she wallowed in resignation and dread. For the rest of my life.

  Her brain sizzled with spikes of terror at the prospect of spending the rest of her life in a prison cell, abandoned by her friends, forgotten by her family. She thought again of Doug, and her heart thudded in sharp ache. She wanted him, wanted that feeling of calm security and warm affection she felt when he was w
ith her. She knew it was now a pipe dream she would never have. I can’t let him get anywhere near me. I won’t let him pay the price for what I did…and what I’m about to do.

  The disturbing thoughts rattled around in her head for miles while she struggled to force them into some kind of inescapable mental box and lock them away. She leaned back against the car door, trying to rest and settle her turbulent mind.

  Early the next morning, she quietly tip-toed out of Bear and Julie’s house, not wanting to wake either of them. She’d left a note on the kitchen counter thanking them, the bottom unsigned, confident they’d intuit the author’s identity.

  I owe them. She thought as she coasted the Hog quietly down the driveway with the engine off, afraid the exhaust might rouse them from their slumber. I owe them for giving me a chance to figure this out on my own.

  Pushing with her legs, the bike quickly found the driveway’s down-slope and gained speed. She rolled silently forward out into the street before dropping the clutch and firing up the engine.

  I really am on my own now. She shifted gears and shot down the avenue as the truth dawned with a frightening clarity. I have no one.

  After enduring a lifetime of her mother’s incessant hovering, she silently wished she could be with her at this moment. The thought of being alone was completely foreign to her and her mother’s attentions, while sometimes annoying, provided a source of security in their consistency. Driving through town, she knew very well she couldn’t contact her mother now. Cops will be watching her house too. I have to find someplace safe, someplace with a computer, so I can make this nightmare end. In a flash of recollection, she conjured up the image of the one place in town that would fit the bill.

  It had taken only minutes to make the drive to Prescott Valley and the internet café there. A bare setting of stark white walls enclosing office-like cubicles, the low-budget establishment turned out to be just perfect for Hailey’s purposes. Here among the public-access terminals she could be anonymous…and invisible.

  A thick silence permeated the public computer area, a sharp contrast to the jovial conversations taking place at the coffee-laden bistro tables on the other side of the large room.