Once in my car with the doors locked, I saw my phone where it had fallen when tazered out of my hand. It was important to call Michael right away but I didn’t know what to say to him that wouldn’t make me sound like a total fool. I hesitated only a moment before I pressed the ‘send call’ button. Michael answered on the second ring.
“Hello Helen; its Michael. Talk to me woman.”
The reconnect was sweet and tears of relief stung my eyes. His voice bathed me in all that I needed at that moment.
“Please, first would you just talk to me; I need to hear your voice.”
A stuttering sob jumped from my throat.
“Baby,” he started.
“We’ve been so worried. When we heard your voice in a kind of mangled ‘hello’ we both panicked and didn’t know what to do. Eventually we called Rick and reached his secretary. She told us what was going on and that the police were handling the matter.”
His voice soothed me and the calm was soft and good.
“Where are you right now?” Michael asked.
“I just got back to my car and found the phone. I’m still in the parking structure but headed home right now. It’ll be good to get home and have a shower and get some of this dried up blood off of me.”
I said it before I realized what it would mean to him.
“Baby, I’ll talk to you later, I gotta get home. I love you.”
In case something happened to me before I got to say it to him again the ‘I love you’ was important.
“Ok,” b-bye. Baby, I love you, too. B-bye.”
I closed the phone.
A Re-Virgin No More
My home greeted me just by being there and I could feel the peace of the place even before I parked in the garage. After exiting my car, I took a moment. ‘Lovely’, I thought, ‘my home carries the reconnect’, because I could feel it, fingers of the reconnect reached out to me from my home. I walked into the dining room and felt it even deeper, the reconnect.
Michael appeared from the guest room and Lu was right behind him. Tears flowed freely as I raced to them with my arms stretched out in front of me in an effort get to them sooner.
They embraced me and plied me with kisses and soothing words of love and need. Accepting their love and wallowing in how good it felt to be with them I clung to each of them and again cried freely for the fabulous relief it was to see them and have them hold me.
We stayed close long enough to be sated in the reconnect and to feel good in general but eventually I excused myself to my bathroom and some much needed self care.
Seeing myself in the full-length mirror, I saw what Michael and Lu were greeted with; it wasn’t pretty, it was gruesome. I’d have to discard the new blouse; it was completely blood-stained and ruined. My nose would be crooked for the rest of my life, I was sure of that. My eyes were hidden deep into the blackness of the bruising that surrounded them and they looked distorted due to the swelling of my upper lip.
The shower did wonders for my body; the heat of the water helped my muscles relax; removing the blood and debris helped my skin breathe; removing the soil from my hair helped me feel clean. Admittedly I went over-board with my attention to detail and took a pretty long time in the steamy comfort of my shower. Just before I was ready to get out I felt fingers of the reconnect. They were close and maybe even contemplating coming right into the shower to see about me.
Out of the shower, head toweled, body wrapped, I placed my hand flat on the door to see if I could garner more of the reconnect while in the bathroom and still alone. Yes, Michael was directly on the other side of the door and had his body against it; I could feel him. The reconnect surprised both of us as it arched between us and through the door. The delightful sound of his laugh penetrated the wall between us and helped to enhance the richness of the reconnect.
When I stepped out of the bathroom I was clothed and towel drying my hair. Even though I felt 100 percent better their faces revealed what they saw and they were pained by my misshapen and multi-colored face. Their arms were extra gentle and their tenderness worked on my emotions. For me it was necessary for us to get past that stage of the ordeal quickly and move on. We did have a lot to discuss.
They talked to me while I dusted my face with powder and toned down the brightness of the bruising. Curling my hair helped take the ‘freak’ out of me.
The three of us were seated in the ‘Pinky bank’. Lu said that they were on a plane to San Francisco an hour after they realized something terrible was wrong. They’d been in constant contact with Rick since initially being filled-in by Amanda. Michael and Lu told me that they both had great confidence in Rick and his command of the situation, that he had quickly found Charlie and me, alerted the authorities, and as it turned out that confidence was not unfounded.
They also both agreed that he was not polite about any of it but that they weren’t looking for politeness; they were looking for some answers, a good plan, and progress. He delivered on their needs, he got me.
“Elena,” Lu said, “Were you mostly scared?”
“Twice I was scared. Once when I first woke up face-down on the floor of the van without the use of my hands; the confusion made things even scarier. And again that same evening when I was in the little room alone thinking about my kids.”
Her anger showed on her normally sweet face when she said, “I hope they put that very bad man away for a long time.”
Without thinking again I blurted out.
“Oh, no, really, Lu, Charlie was just protecting his family. He needs guidance not incarceration. It took almost no time for us to become friends. I swear I’ll help him anyway I can. He has a baby face but I tell you he’s much older and brighter than he looks. His passion to protect his sister’s best interests was at heart, not my destruction.”
Michael and Lu looked at each other and then at me. They got up and squeezed their bodies on either side of me, our hips barely fitting on the loveseat. The reconnect so comforting I could nap with their bodies supporting me.
“Helen you’re a good friend but maybe it’s a sound idea to stay clear of him and allow the authorities to handle their business?”
Michael was probably offering sound advice to a person who didn’t trust the friendships they’d forged. But I trusted the friendship that Charlie and I’d created.
“As friends, we’re allies for life. You should know that better than anyone. I won’t let him down.”
The three of us sat wrapped in the comfort of the reconnect and our friendship in quiet for several minutes. The first sounds that penetrated the otherwise still and silent air were the sound of my stomach growling, and then Michael’s stomach growled followed closely by Lu’s. We laughed and headed for the kitchen.
At the bottom of the refrigerator was a crock pot that housed the soup I’d made a few days before. I warmed the soup and toasted some sour dough bread smothered in butter and garlic salt and parmesan cheese. Lu set the table and Michael took the garden basket to see what the salad could be.
He came back moments later laden with the ripest of produce that the garden had. Michael smiled at me while turning over the weighty basket.
“That was a trip; we’ll talk about it sometime.” He laughed.
Michael wanted to help more so I asked him to make a fresh pot of coffee for after dinner. He hummed while he worked and made funny comments while he accomplished that one chore.
From what Michael brought in from the garden we created a wonderfully