I laughed. I was feeling better. That’s what happened when I was with Miles.
“No, it’s not pretend music like my brother would play. It’s sheet music that has the letter of the chord written above the melody. So if you can read the treble clef and memorize the chords, then you can play fake music. It’s a lot easier to learn than traditional, or classical, or whatever it is, where you have to follow a different staff for each hand. My mind just does not work that way. But since you know how to play not-fake music, why don’t you play something for me?”
“Alright,” Miles smiled.
He sat down at the piano and began to play. It was absolutely beautiful. I didn’t recognize what he was playing, but that was no fake music. I sat and listened, feeling more relaxed and at peace.
Until I heard Mom.
“Anika,” she called, following the music.
I should have locked the door behind the piano tuner.
“My Mom,” I said to Miles, and hurried to the doorway.
“Up here, Mom,” I said.
“Anika, I had no idea you play so beautifully!” Mom said.
“So what are you doing here, where are Doreen and Tryon?” I redirected.
“Dad and Uncle Mark are here.”
“Oh, MOM!” I wailed.
Miles looked very confused.
“Honey, calm down,” Mom said. “You couldn’t expect me not to tell your Dad what happened.”
I groaned and covered my face with my hands.
“What happened to your arm?” Miles exclaimed.
I groaned again, and pulled my sleeve back down so it covered the bruises.
“I called Susan, honey. I’m sure you would have spoken to Jenny at some point, but I called her and told her what happened last night. She’s with Doreen and Tryon right now.”
“And Dad and Uncle Mark?” I wanted to know.
“After hearing his first name and your description, Jenny knew exactly who the guy was. Dad and Uncle Mark are probably dealing with him right now.”
I groaned, for so many reasons! Now everyone knew, and—Miles looked worried, sick, and angry.
“He hurt my arm when he grabbed me, but I had pepper spray, so nothing else happened, I got away. I’m okay,” I said for Miles’ sake.
“I know, you told me,” Mom said. “But honey, you need to stop trying to protect me, and your Dad, and everyone else from worrying about you. If something worse happened, I’m afraid you’d try to hide that, too. Stop trying to be so self-reliant, let us know what’s going on with you, so we can help. I’m sorry I was so upset when I saw your arm this morning. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, I took my feelings of powerlessness out on you, and that’s not what you needed.”
Mom’s eyes teared up, and she hugged me. To Miles’ credit, he didn’t say a word, though he ran his hands through his hair and paced. He looked like he wanted to join the Dad and Uncle Mark posse.
I hugged Mom back.
“Your entire arm is bruised,” she said quietly. “I don’t see how that could happen if you escaped right away. Is there anything you haven’t told me?”
“Are you going to yell at me if there is?” I asked, still feeling raw after getting yelled at earlier.
Mom was silent, her grip on me tightening, as Miles collapsed on the piano bench with his head in his hands.
“No,” Mom said, managing to remain calm.
“The parking lot was slippery. I fought to get away, but he wouldn’t let go and kept me so off balance, I couldn’t get my hand in my pocket. I’ve never been so scared in my life,” I cried. “No one was around, I screamed ‘fire’ like you said to do if I ever needed help, but there was no one to hear me. I managed to get out the pepper spray as he was shoving me into the back of his van, and sprayed him, and then I got away.”
Mom squeezed me tight and rocked back and forth.
“You have to tell the sheriff, Anika,” said Miles, looking very worried.
I nodded at him.
“You know we can’t let this go, right?” said Mom. “He injured you, and tried to do worse.”
“I know,” I sighed, resigning myself. “I didn’t know he bruised my arm last night. I didn’t think I had any way to prove any of it.”
“Well, you do, so…” said Mom.
“What if he gets away with it, though?” I asked. I was concerned about that. “It’s my word against his.”
“He better hope the law deals with him, instead of...” Miles said quietly, as he ran his hands through his hair again and took a deep breath.
“We’ll be right there with you, honey. We’ll get this figured out, one step at a time,” said Mom.
“Okay,” I nodded.
If I didn’t talk to the Sheriff and then found out another girl was hurt later... I couldn’t live with that.
Finally Mom let go.
“So this is where you work, huh?”
“Yeah,” I wiped my eyes for the umpteenth time that day. “Pretty cool, huh.”
“Pretty cool,” agreed Mom. “Well… I’m here, and Susan’s watching the kids… have time to show me around?”
“Sure, Mom.”
I walked Mom around the main house, and she exclaimed over it. She never had a chance to see it before, and was astonished. Descriptions just don’t do it justice.
“Hello?” I heard from the entryway.
Dad and Uncle Mark.
“In here,” I said.
Dad hugged me hard and looked at my arm. He looked grim.
Uncle Mark gave a low whistle.
“He’s lucky you didn’t see that before you got hold of him, John.”
“You’ve got that right,” Dad agreed shortly, as he hugged me again.
“He’s lucky you didn’t hear everything that happened, either,” said Mom, her eyes shooting fire.
Dad and Uncle Mark looked at me, both concerned, and ready to go back out and finish whatever they started.
I explained what happened. Everything that happened.
Dad and Uncle Mark both looked furious, but held it in. Dad hugged me again.
“Honey, I am so sorry you were put through that. But don’t you worry, that guy will never bother you again.”
“What did you do?” I asked, really wondering.
Uncle Mark drew a finger across his throat.
I couldn’t tell if Miles was shocked, or impressed.
“Uncle Mark!” I said. “Be serious. What did you do?”
“We played good cop, bad cop,” Dad said.
He and Uncle Mark looked at each other.
“Okay, more like bad cop, psycho cop.”
Wow, they were having so much fun with this. But it made me feel good that my family had my back.
“We confronted him and put the fear of John and Mark into him. He knows what’ll happen if he ever comes near you again,” said Dad.
“This is a small town, kiddo,” said Uncle Mark. “There probably isn’t anyone I don’t know, so we talked to his mom after that. We let her know what a gentleman her son is. She’s a good woman, and wasn’t happy with him. At all. What we left behind, I have a feeling she finished off. My good friend the Sheriff, who happens to be his Uncle, was on his way over to put the fear of the law into him for good measure, as we left.”
“Now that we know the extent of what happened, I want him charged. We can get him on assault, at least,” said Dad firmly. “The Sheriff needs to see for himself what this guy did, and take Anika’s statement.”
“I’ll take care of it,” said Uncle Mark, as he took out his phone and stepped away to make the call.
Dad turned back to me.
“I will see to it that you never have to worry about this guy again. Whatever it takes.”
“I like your family,” Miles said with satisfaction.
I ran up the steps and through the door the next morning, as Chip and Trixie tore off to play in the garden as usual.
Miles greeted me as I set my purse on the entryway ta
ble.
“How are you?” he asked gently.
“Okay,” I said less than convincingly.
We weren’t able to talk the day before. After my family joined us, they insisted I go home with them, since I forgot and left my chocolate guard dog at the cabin. Then the Sheriff came over and had a look at the damage Bill inflicted, and took my statement. By the time he left, he looked so angry I almost pitied Bill the jerk. Almost.
“How’s your arm?” Miles asked with concern.
I lay down my coat, then held up my bruised arm and looked at it.
“It doesn’t hurt as much as it did.”
“Good… I wish I’d been there, Anika. That jerk never would have touched you. I would have...” he ran a hand through his hair, trying to decide which of so many options he would have chosen to use.
“Thrown him in the fountain?” I offered, trying to lighten the mood.
“No,” Miles said very seriously. “He’d be lucky if all he got was a trip to another planet.”
I hated how stressed this was making him, it was so rare for Miles not to smile.
“How about a star, instead?”
If that was laughter in his eyes, it was quickly extinguished.
“Anika, I am so, so sorry I put additional pressure on you to make friends. I had no idea this is what would happen.”
I sort of laughed, but not because anything was even remotely funny.
“This is not your fault Miles, at all, so please don’t feel responsible. I am not friends with this guy. I don’t even know him. Jenny invited me to game night at the coffee shop again, and I went. She introduced me to this guy because he asked her to. She had no idea what would happen as a result. I knew he was bad news just from the gut feeling I got, and I did everything I could to avoid him. He followed me out to the parking lot, and this...” I held up my arm, “is what happened. But I had pepper spray, so that’s all that happened.”
Miles breathed a sigh of relief.
“I was afraid you… well, I was afraid you were on a date with this guy.”
I did laugh at that, because that was funny.
“Wow, you don’t think I’ve got very good taste, do you! And even less sense.”
“No, I just—of course you’ve got sense. I’m relieved to know you weren’t with this guy by choice, though. And that you were able to defend yourself since I wasn’t there to do it, or your Dad and your Uncle Mark.”
A smile flickered across Miles’ face at the thought of those two, but then he went serious on me again.
“It’s reassuring to see that you’ve got a good family, one that will defend you. Promise me you won’t try to keep things to yourself anymore. That you won’t try to protect people who love you from being upset by what isn’t your fault.”
I looked down at the floor and shrugged my shoulder.
“I do feel guilty when telling them something makes them upset,” I said.
“Someone very smart once told me our actions are either right or wrong, all on their own. The response or result is not what determines that.”
I rolled my eyes. I just love it when my words come back to haunt me.
“Trust the people who love you to be big enough to handle the feelings they have when you tell them you need help, or have a problem. You aren’t sparing any of us grief by keeping things like this to yourself. If your Mom hadn’t found out, the Sheriff wouldn’t have gotten involved… you’d be in more danger than you were last night, once that guy realized no one else knew what happened. Do not try to handle big problems on your own ever again, please, Anika.”
“Alright, fine, if it will make you happy… I’ll be more open about problems, and let my family help.”
“You promise?” asked Miles.
I rolled my eyes again.
“Yes, I promise.”
Miles sighed in relief.
“Good,” he said very seriously. “Because otherwise, I will refuse to be set free, and will follow you the rest of your life, protecting you. You don’t know how tempted I am to do that anyway, right now.”
Would that be so terrible?
For him it would, I reminded myself. For him, it would. He would end up alone again, someday.
“Forget searching,” Miles suddenly said, in a more cheerful tone of voice. “Let’s do something completely different.”
“Like what?”
He had me curious now.
“Follow me.”
We walked to the family room where we watched movies the day I was sick, closing several double doors in the halls between us and where the cleaning crew was at work.
Miles flipped on the TV, and tossed me a Wii remote.
I laughed.
“You’re kidding, you play video games?”
“I have since Polly and her grandson moved out,” he grinned. “I couldn’t spend every second learning things I never thought I’d be able to use. I had to unwind somehow.”
“I’m glad you spent all that time studying though,” I said seriously. “It’s making all the difference in my sister’s life.”
“I’m glad too,” Miles said.
“Amazing, the different gaming systems you have in here,” I said.
“Second-Miles loved his video games, that’s for sure,” said Miles. “Some hit way too close to home for me, but he has others that are just fun.”
I could imagine how the violence in some games would bring back memories of losing his brother, and being mortally wounded himself.
Miles sorted through the games, looking for one we could play together.
“Ever play the Xbox?” I asked, looking at it and thinking it was the more advanced system in the room.
“Kinect can’t track me, so no.”
I laughed.
“Wow. It is so hard to remember you aren’t solid,” I said, shaking my head.
“Since we’ve been hanging out, it’s sometimes hard for me to remember, too. You make me feel like me again, the all-me guy I used to be.”
I could tell by his wistful expression that I wasn’t the only one who wished he could be that guy again.
Reluctantly accepting what we had no ability to change, no matter how badly we wanted to change it, we both got back to the business of choosing a game.
We played some competitive games, and then some fun games. Not that competition isn’t fun, but Miles is way better than me! I could count on one hand the number of times I played before at a friend’s house, so he was by far the more experienced player. Wii Go Vacation wasn’t all about competition, and was a lot of fun. We travelled all over the resort, and now and then played a mini game. Which he won.
I didn’t know how long it would take for thoughts of my encounter with Bill the jerk to stop haunting me. I was able to defend myself and get out of that situation, and Dad and Uncle Mark totally backed me up. But the memories were still there, how scared I’d been, and thoughts of what would have happened if that pepper spray wasn’t there in my pocket when I needed it, tormented me.
Hanging out with my friend Miles, a truly nice guy, helped erase those memories so that they weren’t as strong and not as haunting.
By the time the day was over and it was time for me to find Chip and head back to the cabin, I felt a lot more like myself again.
Chapter 16
I was in a hurry to load the groceries I bought, and get back to the castle. Sometimes I liked having something to snack on while I was there, particularly since I often forgot to bring lunch with me.
The last bag safely stowed inside the car, I closed the passenger side door, and headed back to the store to return the cart.
Jenny was on her way in, as I approached with the basket.
“Anika!” she hugged me, and almost started crying. “I am so, so sorry about what happened.”
She looked down at my arm, and I pulled my coat sleeve back so she too, like the rest of my world, could examine my black and blue arm.
Jenny clapped her hands over her mout
h, her eyes wide.
I’ve got to admit, it does look absolutely awful. I was still thankful none of my bones were broken.
“Jenny, it’s okay. I don’t blame you.”
“I’m just so sorry. I had no idea he would do something like that. I mean I never liked him myself, but I didn’t realize…”
“I know. If I were in your shoes I’d feel bad, but being in my shoes, I can tell you this wasn’t your fault. So let yourself off the hook,” I said.
“Well… at least some other girls have come forward, since you did,” said Jenny.
“Yeah, it isn’t my word against his,” I agreed grimly. “He’s got so much stacked against him, I heard today he’s pleading guilty in order to accept a plea bargain.”
“That’s good,” said Jenny in relief. “You and the other girls won’t have to go through a trial.”
“Yeah. I can’t say I’m sorry about that, anyway,” I said.
“Well—we may start meeting somewhere else, since this happened. It’s shaken everyone up, parking behind the building never was a safe thing to do. We may move game night to the Rec center at my church. Maybe you’ll want to join us there sometime.”
I decided to level with Jenny.
“Here’s the thing…” I said. “I really do not enjoy board games. I never have liked them, and it has nothing to do with what happened…”
Jenny laughed. And laughed.
Okay, so… maybe most people don’t feel the way I do, but it’s funny… how?
“Anika—” she finally gasped. “I absolutely despise playing games, too!”
“What? Why in the world do you do it, then?” I asked.
“Because all my other friends do!”
“Well now Jenny, if all your other friends jumped off a building, would you jump too?” I asked.
Then we both started to laugh. We agreed we should get together sometime and do something other than play games, like watch a chick flick, and try every kind of chocolate in the chocolate shop in town. We exchanged numbers, and made plans to find a good day and time to do that.
We said goodbye, and Jenny went inside to visit her Mom, who owns the small but well stocked store where I enjoy shopping. I put my cart in the row by the door with the others, and headed back to the car.
As I passed the corner of the building, I heard a cat. I looked around, but didn’t see one.
Miles Page 21