Becoming Juliet

by Paula Marinaro

  Juliet jumped straight up in her seat and her chest hit the steering wheel. She let out a loud screech and shielded her face as a heavy branch fell and landed on her windshield. The entire glass panel was instantly turned into a large, glistening spider web. Thankfully, it did not crack through, but one more branch, one more deep gust of wind, and Juliet knew she’d be covered in sharp shards.

  She sat and deliberated as the weather raged all around. As much as she would like to, Juliet knew that she couldn’t stay, she knew that she couldn’t wait the storm out in her car. She was afraid of that windshield breaking and afraid that the car might shift deeper into the thick mud. Juliet could barely open the door now, another couple of inches and she would be trapped inside.

  She peered down the road and saw the lights of P.J.’s cabin shining out like a beacon on the hilltop. In Juliet’s current mindset, it seemed to be miles and miles away. But the rational part of her knew that it was only about a half a mile or so down the road. That’s all Juliet had to do was be fast about it. She would just have to stay focused and keep her eyes on the prize. The dim, glowing lights told her that P.J. was home, but even if he wasn’t, Juliet would find her way in. She’d break a window if she had to. As the thought ran through her mind, Juliet felt a small bit of something that felt like courage. It sparked and ignited a fire inside of her. As Juliet braced to go out into the storm, she gave herself an attagirl.

  Juliet pushed open the door to the car and squeezed herself through the opening. When she did, her footing faltered and she sank immediately into knee deep, freezing, cold mud. At first Juliet was too shocked to move. It took a full minute of being bound and pummeled by raging winds before Juliet could even begin to fathom what had happened to her.

  It all seemed so surreal. Juliet felt as though she had stepped into a mad wizard’s kaleidoscope where all of the colors were black. She tried hard to catch her breath as the rain beat down on her and the wind roared and whipped her face in punishing slaps. As she felt her footing continue to seep out from under her, Juliet looked around for a way to hoist herself up and out of the mud. She needed something strong and sturdy, something fixed that would not move when she did…the car. Juliet decided to try to use the car as leverage. If she could just wedge her ass onto the edge of the open door, then maybe she could push off. But when Juliet tried, she lost her balance. Her legs remained stuck when the rest of her body fell forward.

  Exhausted, cold, and covered from the waist down in the icy mud, Juliet could do nothing more than watch as the world crashed and whirled around her. She tried to squelch the rising panic that was making her heart pound, and her breathing come out in short, shallow pants. Juliet took a deep, bracing breath. With determined will, she buried the overwhelming sense of doom that threatened to paralyze her.

  After all she had been through, wouldn’t it just be the most ironic and bizarre thing ever if this is how Juliet met her end? If this is what brought her down? Death by mud, the thought was so absurd and the situation so dire, that for the very first time in her life, Juliet experienced complete and utter surrender. She decided to hand her destiny over to fate and give it up to that higher power that everyone was always talking up.

  When the next strong gusts came, Juliet was ready. She pulled back her head, bared out her teeth, and let out a long, powerful, wail. This time when the wind howled at her, Juliet howled back.

  And that’s how P.J. found Juliet. Stuck deep in the mud and howling at the moon.

  What the hell? P.J. stood frozen to the spot as his mind tried to reconcile what his eyes were seeing. It took him a minute to assess the nightmarish scene. The entire setting was so surreal that P.J. felt like he was caught in an old time creature feature movie. He wiped the rain from his eyes twice before his vision cleared and sent the correct signal to his brain.

  “Help me.” Juliet pleaded through a mouth covered in mud. The whites of her eyes were bloodied from the effort of straining to pry herself loose from the quicksand like clay. Juliet’s teeth were chattering, and it seemed like the earth was intent on swallowing her up. She reached out for P.J. with arms that were tired and weak.

  Juliet’s desperate plea broke through the raging weather and at once galvanized P.J. into action. He pushed the gun back into his waist band, took off his hat and jacket, and did his best to cover Juliet’s head and body from the storm. The cold, driving rain immediately stabbed into P.J.’s with its icy shards. The pain served to bring home to him how much Juliet must be suffering. He didn’t know how long she had been out here, but he knew with every passing moment that the likelihood of her getting hypothermia was increased tenfold.

  The moment P.J. knelt down next to Juliet, he felt the sodden ground shift under him. It took precious long minutes while P.J. and Juliet worked together to try to get Juliet out of that mud. All the while the weather railed against them. As soon as they made some leeway…managed to wiggle Juliet an inch or two one way or the other… the crevice they had created would fill up with the driving rain and swallow up another inch of her.

  “Juliet! I’m going to have to go and get something to help get you out!” P.J. yelled against the raging storm. He knew that it was the last thing Juliet wanted to hear, but she wasn’t going to last much longer like this. He could already begin to feel her fading in and out of consciousness. P.J. was going to have to leave Juliet in the black night and freezing mud in order to save her.

  “No!! Nononononononno!!!” She wailed like a wounded animal and began to claw at the earth around her. “We can do this. See, look? We can! We can do this! We can!”

  P.J. felt horrible about what he had to do, he felt terrible that he would have to leave her, even if only for a few minutes. He had to hand it to her, she had been a real trooper. Juliet had done whatever P.J. had asked of her without question. She had moved at his every demand and followed his every direction. Juliet had expended all of her energy to try and help P.J. as he twisted and turned and pulled painfully at her body in an effort to release her from the mud. But with the soft ground continually shifting beneath his unsteady feet, P.J. just couldn’t maintain enough balance to give himself the leverage that was needed.

  All the while the storm raged on. The unrelenting torrents of rain had begun to freeze and turn into sleet. This time when P.J. made another move to free Juliet, his own foot sunk to his ankle and it took a strong effort to pull it out. Juliet seemed to be disappearing before P.J.’s eyes. She had been trapped in the freezing mud too long, she had to be losing a tremendous amount of body heat. He was worried that soon her system would begin to shut down. P.J. was afraid that any moment Juliet might pass out and thus become dead weight. If that happened, he would never be able to get her out by himself. With her car stuck across the road, lines down, and roads washed out all over town, help would not be possible. Taking swift and drastic action was the only hope they had. P.J. was going to have to leave Juliet here alone while he went to get supplies. There was simply no other choice.

  Now, P.J. sat on his haunches with his arms wrapped around Juliet’s torso, his hat on her head, and his leather jacket draped over her shoulders. He held on to her tight, kissed the top of her head and murmured reassurances. P.J was doing his best to keep Juliet as warm and as calm as possible.

  “Juliet.” He repeated low into her ear. “I have to go get us some help. I have some rope in the house, I need to go…”

  “No! No!” She wrapped both her thin arms in a tight hold around his neck. “P.J. please. I can do it. We can do it! I’ll try harder, I will! We can do this! JUST DON’T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE!” Juliet begged P.J. in a terror filled scream that was loud enough to rival the storm. “PLEASE DON’T GO!”

  P.J. felt it like a punch in the gut when he had to peel Juliet’s arms from his neck.

  But when he had to kick off the hand that held his ankle in a death grip?

  That, P.J. felt in his heart.

  Juliet thought she might be dying. After suffering the pain of what
felt like a thousand needles, now she couldn’t feel her legs. She was a lump of mud in the middle of a rising pool. The smell was terrible… mold, muck, decay, and now urine. Juliet thought idly that she must have peed her pants.

  He had left her. P.J. had left her there all alone.

  Juliet just prayed that he hadn’t left her there to die.

  Juliet tried to keep her eyes glued to the path where P.J. had disappeared, but the force of the wind and the rain made it almost impossible to keep her head up. Juliet listened though. To every howl, to every creak, to every snap that might signal P.J.’s return. Her head hurt with an intensity that made her vomit in long, gasping shudders. Juliet’s belly burned with every heaving wretch. Her eyes became heavy, her brain was beginning to shut down. Juliet knew that she had begun to move in and out of consciousness.

  “Juliet? Juliet? Damn it! Juliet, wake up!” She heard P.J.’s sharp tone. And Juliet wanted to respond to him, she did. She was just so tired. Through the haze, she heard the tinkling sound of glass breaking. It was a pleasant noise…like windchimes or…

  Wham!

  Juliet felt the sudden snap of her neck as it was pulled back. All at once, the powerful smell of ammonia crashed through the sensitive membranes of Juliet’s nostrils and rampaged through her lungs. She reflexively breathed in sharply. Her eyes watered, her face flushed. Juliet felt as though she had been kicked in the face by a donkey.

  “Smelling salts.” P.J. explained abruptly, as he quickly unscrewed the thermos he held in his hands. “Two hour old coffee laced with whiskey. Hot and strong. Take in as much as you can. Now open up.” And without further ado, P.J. McCabe put a strong thumb and index finger on either side of Juliet’s cheeks and squeezed. Then he carefully poured long sips into her open mouth. When Juliet’s eyes met his over the thermos, P.J. tried to smile at her. “That’s good, babe. Real good. A few more sips to warm you, then you and me? We’re getting you outa here. Yeah?”

  Juliet took one last, long, gulp of the bitter, bracing brew and called out weakly. “I’m ready.”

  “Okay. Let’s do this.” P.J. took off the heavy rope that was wrapped across his chest and made a large loop. “Put your arms up, Juliet. Higher. Yeah, like that, but closer together.” He commanded as he dropped the rope to just under Juliet’s breasts. Then he pulled tight. When she winced in pain, P.J. didn’t hesitate. “You can slap me for this later.” He told her as his big hands moved quickly and firmly over Juliet’s breasts. P.J. worked fast to readjust the rope to give him the most leverage and her the least pain. Then he brought out a pair of leather work gloves and put them on Juliet’s hands. P.J. tightened the fit by placing rubber bands over the cuffs.

  “You’re gonna have to do your best to hold on to the rope when I start pulling. If you can hold on, it will take some of the strain from the tight loop off your chest. The gloves will stop you from getting rope burns.”

  Then P.J. took a minute to find a thick, strong branch. When he did, he threw the end of the rope over that branch to create a pulley. All the while the weather continued to howl and shriek and punish the earth around them.

  “Okay. You ready?”

  “I’m ready!!” The sudden and resolute strength in Juliet’s voice shocked P.J. His eyes snapped right to her. When Juliet met that stare straight on, P.J. noted with surprise the trust that radiated out from her eyes. Juliet looked at P.J. like he could do anything. She looked at him as if she knew that he would save her or die trying.

  And when a woman looks at a man like that…

  Well, that changes everything.

  “Okay. Wrap your hands around the rope.” P.J. called out to Juliet with renewed intensity and determination. “When I yell NOW you tighten your grip. I’m gonna put all my weight behind the rope and pull you out.” P.J. braced his left foot against a large tree trunk and his right on the root of another. Then he prepared himself to unleash the strength he had been storing.

  “NOW!!” P.J. bellowed out and leaned back hard. Juliet held on tight as she felt the rope begin to tug at her. It took no more than a few seconds before the sound of suction being released split through the storm. In a sudden forceful geyser of mud, Juliet flew at P.J with a strength that knocked him off his feet. She landed flat on top of him. With a face covered in filth, sleet and vomit, Juliet Jones leaned in and smacked P.J.’s lips in a freezing, heartfelt kiss. She rested her head on his shoulder and whispered close into his ear. “I knew you would come back. I knew you would save me.”

  Then Juliet Jones gave up the fight and passed right out.

  When Juliet revived, it was to the sound of her clothes being ripped and torn.

  “What the hell?!” She yelped and jerked away.

  “Jesus, Juliet! I almost cut you. Hold still, will you?” P.J. pulled back the sharp scissor blades that he was holding. “I think we’ve had enough excitement for one damn night.” P.J. was worried, exhausted, and freezing his ass off. “I got a hot shower running. We’ve got to get you out of these clothes.”

  Juliet pushed his hand away and sat up on the bench. “And your plan is to cut them off?”

  “Yup, that’s exactly my plan. You want to try to take them off yourself? Do it.” He snarled at her; his patience obviously worn thin. “But I’m warning you, Juliet, I’m in no mood. So, I’m telling you right now if you are not buck naked in two minutes, I’m gonna tie you down, stuff a rag in your mouth and cut those fuckers off myself.”

  Juliet took her freezing hands and tried to quickly work at her buttons. But the clothes were heavy, misshapen, and stuck like glue to her body. Juliet’s back ached from the frigid clothes plastered to her spine, and the icy weight had become unbearable.

  “Okay, do it. But no funny stuff.” She warned him through chattering teeth.

  P.J. looked at the woman shivering before him. Her lips were blue, her nose was red and every inch of her was covered in thick mud, decaying leaves, and god knows what else.

  “Babe, seriously?” He looked at her with incredulity. “That’s what you’re worried about right now? Me making a move on you? Not on my worse day. I just pulled you out of what amounts to a bucket of shit and vomit.” Then to Juliet’s abject horror he leaned in and sniffed the air around her. “And you smell like piss. Look, right now the furthest thing on my mind is boning the chick with mud in her ears.”

  “I find that oddly comforting.” She frowned at him and chewed her bottom lip.

  “Yeah, that’s me.” He growled out. “Oddly comforting.”

  Then without further hesitation, P.J. picked Juliet up, threw her over his shoulder, and carried her into the bathroom. There he proceeded to slice through Juliet’s clothing.

  The room was so full of steam, Juliet could barely see P.J. However, she heard him loud and clear when he said, “There’s shampoo and a fresh bar of soap on the tile ledge. I’ll give you a couple of minutes, then I’m coming in.”

  “What?” Juliet squeaked out in horror.

  “Walk in shower, two heads, and I lost the feeling in both nuts about an hour and a half ago, so give the whole Pollyanna thing a rest.” P.J. ordered her. Then he handed Juliet a fresh washcloth and shoved her into the thick steam.

  Once under that hot spray, Juliet sighed with relief and didn’t think about anything else but the way the steam enveloped her cramped, stiff freezing limbs in warmth.

  P.J. stood on his side of the shower, feeling the most uncomfortable he had ever been in his life. His mind was telling him that standing in the shower inches away from a very naked Juliet was necessary.

  “Really? You couldn’t have waited?” Jiminy Cricket tapped him on the shoulder.

  “Great.” P.J. snarled back at his conscience. “Now you show up? Where the hell have you been for the past twenty years?”

  Truly, his moral compass could rest at ease. Because the reassurance that P.J. had given to Juliet had not been bullshit. He really had had no ulterior motives when he stepped into that shower with her. Using all his str
ength to save Juliet and battling the raging storm had been exhausting. P.J. was chilled to the core.

  However, P.J. was also a red blooded, fully grown man. It’d been a while since he’d had a woman, and this proximity to a buck naked Juliet was seriously putting P.J. over the edge. But he knew with abject certainty that now wasn’t the time, and even if it was, Juliet had never given him a sign that she was the least bit interested. Making a move on her now would be nothing short of rape, and P.J. had no intentions of ever being that guy. When he had been holding the Saints gavel, P.J. had once ordered that guy to be beaten almost to death for his crime. So, after P.J. had washed away the mud from his body, he gave himself an extra few seconds to warm up under the hot water. Then he took his clean body and dirty thoughts and got his ass out of there.

  When P.J. got out of the shower, he put on a pair of flannel pajama pants and a long sleeved tee shirt. He turned up the heat and built a roaring fire in the fireplace. After that, P.J grabbed two of his own shirts one thermal and one flannel and a pair of wool socks. He hoped that between the heat, the fire, the warm clothes, and a hot meal Juliet would be okay. P.J. put two bowls of hot soup and a half dozen ham and cheese sandwiches on the table. He could hear the water in the shower still running, and even though the cabin had a huge hot water tank, that steam wouldn’t last forever. When Juliet didn’t answer his knock, P.J. went into the bathroom. He found her sitting on the shower floor with her hands wrapped around her legs, and her head buried in the top of her knees. Juliet’s emotional dam had burst. She was rocking and shaking with the force of her sobs.