Down the Dirt Road (34 page)

   “I guess OK.  I only got in a couple of hours before the alarm rudely woke me up.   Speakin’ of which, whatcha’ doin up so early for Momma?”

     “I thought you could use a good hot breakfast before you head off to work.”

    It was time to tell Momma the truth.  She was bound to find out anyway, word traveled fast in a small town.  She never even had to leave the house; someone would call her by nine in the morning to ask her about it.

      “Um, about that.  Momma I don’t work at the paper mill anymore.”

      Momma looked at her sharply.  “Why not?”

      Her appetite instantly gone, Jennie poked at her eggs with the tines of her fork.  Momma waited expectantly for her to explain herself.  After what seemed like an eternity, Jennie met her mother’s eyes.  “Something happened…I won’t go back so much as I don’t think I can go back.”

    “Jennie?  What are you talking about?”

    There was real concern in the eyes that probed Jennie’s for more information.

    “My… my supervisor… he was a real …jerk.”  The work seemed so insignificant in its role of characterizing the man who had attacked her.

    “You have dealt with difficult people before.  It’s not like you to throw in the towel like that, Jennie, just because you don’t like someone.”

    And they really needed the money from that job to keep things going at home.  Momma would never say such a thing but her eyes were windows to her soul.  Jennie could already see the questions lingering there, questions she would be reluctant to ask but would really want the answers to.

    “It was more than that Momma.  He said stuff…inappropriate stuff.  I tried hard to ignore him but he wouldn’t leave me be.  And then yesterday…”  Her words trailed away as her eyes dropped.  The words describing Adam’s actions just wouldn’t come.

     By the look on Momma’s face, the words weren’t necessary.  Anger flashed in her eyes, her lips tightened to a thin line.

    “What
exactly
did that man do to you, Jennifer?”  When Momma pulled out her full given name, she meant business.
  Jennie had no choice but to tell her exactly what had happened even though she personally would rather
forget about it completely.  After they threw Adam in jail for a good long time, that is.

    “He… he…
he tried to attack me.”
     “Tried…?”

     This was harder than she thought.  Even as frail as she was, Momma looked like a momma lion ready to defend her cub.

     “He cornered me in the lunchroom…he wanted to… he…he assaulted me….”

      “Assaulted you?  Did he hit you?”

      Her face flushed a deep crimson.  Saying the words, telling her mother about his horrible touch on her body, the way it repulsed her and frightened her, was hard.

     “He … he
touched
me…”

      Momma jumped to her feet, knocking the chair over on its back with the sudden movement.  “He touched you?!”  Her cheeks flamed with anger as she paced around the kitchen slamming cupboards and banging her fists weekly against the counter tops.  “He
touched
you?  Did he…?”

    “No, Momma.  He tried to but I …I got away.”

    Elise dropped into another chair, heaving a huge sigh.  “Your boss tried to rape you in the company lunchroom?”

    “Yes.”  Her whisper was so faint, Jennie wasn’t even sure he mother heard her.  The blank stare in her eyes reflected no understanding of the implications of Jennie’s single word response.  So much time passed before Elise spoke again that Jennie began to worry that something was really wrong with her momma.
  When she did speak, her words were quiet and Jennie had to lean in to hear what she said. 

    “If your father were alive he would kill the son of a bitch.”

     They stared at each other for a good long time, each one lost in their own thoughts about John Marshall.  The mention of her father sent Jennie into a new emotional spiral that took a few minutes to compose.

     “I don’t want him dead Momma.  I went to the police and made a report.  Hopefully this morning he is sitting in a jail cell.  I am fine Momma, really.  He didn’t get in more than a few gropes before I nailed him in the crotch with my knee.”

    Momma looked up at her.  Tears glistened in her eyes.  “Did it hurt him bad?”

   “He was rolling around on the floor crying so yeah, I guess it did.”

    Reaching for her hand, Momma wiped away the moisture in her eyes with her sleeve.  “That’s good work, Jennie girl. You have always been quick witted and so strong.  You take good care of yourself.  I just wish you didn’t have to so much.”

    “It’s OK, Momma.  It was a bad experience but I am OK, really.”

     “Did the police arrest him?”

     “I’m going in to town this morning to find out.  The officer who interviewed me knew me form high school.  She seemed pretty angry about what he had done.”

     “Good.”

    They fell silent as Jennie moved her food around on her plate a little.  Momma had worked so hard to make,
it
Jennie forced herself to eat as much as she could despite her lacking appetite.
  Finally, Momma rose from the table and crossed the space to put her hand on her daughter’s
shoulder.  “I love you Jennie.  Don’t worry about the job, we will be fine.  If you don’t mind I am gonna go to my room.  I suddenly got very, very tired.”

    Jennie patted her mother’s hand.  “It’s OK Momma, go ahead and get some rest.  I will let you k
n
ow what I discover at the police department.”

    She watched as Momma shuffled off and made her way even more slowly up the stairs.  In not so many months they were probably going to have to move Momma to a first floor room.
  As
soon as all this business with Adam Johansen was taken care of, she would see about clearing out the back room where Daddy had kept his office and set it up as a bedroom.

   Making quick time of the chores, Jennie promised each of the horses a ride and a rubdown that evening as she set them loose in the pasture.  She was too worked up over knowing what had happened with Adam that she couldn’t put off going to the police department a moment longer.  Thankfully the drive was quick.  The dirt road leading away from her house was wet but not thick with mud like it had been the rest of the week.  She m
ade good time getting
into town but took pause when she pulled up in front of the brick police precinct.

   Would she have to see Adam again?  The thought of that turned her stomach into knots.  As she sat in her car working up the courage to go inside, a tap on the glass nearly caused her to knock her head on the steering wheel.
  When she looked up, Marisol Flores stood there looking in at her, motioning for her to open her window.  Jennie obliged. 

     “Good morning Jennie, I was just about to go inside and give you a call.  Can you come with me for a few minutes?”

    Jennie nodded, unable to trust her voice just yet.  She climbed from her car and followed the female officer into the precinct.

    Motioning for Jennie to take a seat, Officer Flores grabbed a file and sat down across from her at the same table they used the day before.  She didn’t bother wasting time on idle chatter but mercifully got  right to the point.

    “Well, I went over to the paper mill yesterday.  Your supervisor, Adam Johansen is a real piece of work.  Tried
to come on to me while I was questioning him.  Ended up arresting him for grabbing
my
breast and then I tacked the charges on for your assault.  As I mentioned yesterday I charged him with aggravated sexual assault but I am going to add attempted rape as well.  When I looked at the footage from the lunchroom camera…”

    Jennie’s cheeks burned with shame.  “There’s a camera in the lunchroom…?”

    “It’s all right Jennie.  No one but myself and the security guard at the factory have seen those tapes.  You have no reason to be ashamed- he attacked you.  And with video proof, he won’t stand a chance up against a judge and jury.
”

    “So, he will go to jail?”

      “My guess is he will plead guilty without a trial and do at least three to five.  The guys are gonna love him and his pretty brown eyes!”

      Jennie couldn’t help but smile at Marisol’s small joke.  As far as she was concerned, the bastard could go away for life but she could live with three to five years anyway.

    “So, is there anything I need to do?”

     “If he pleads out, and I think he will, then no.  If they take the case to trial you will likely be subpoenaed and have to testify.  Are you OK with that?”

   “As long as he doesn’t get away with it, I’ll tell them the whole story.  Everyone will know what happened by close of business today anyway.  There is absolutely no privacy in a small town.”

   “We will try to keep your name out of the news, but you are right, word travels quickly ‘round here, doesn’t it?”

    There was no way Jennie would be able to keep this event under wraps, she knew that but it didn’t take away from the shame and embarrassment.  She was almost glad that her Daddy wasn’t around to see all of this.  Momma was right, Adam would not have walked away from an  encounter with John Marshall under the circumstances.

   She rose from the chair and extended her hand to lady officer who had once just been another face in the crowd to her.  “Thank you, Officer Flores.  I really appreciate all that you have done.
”

    Moments later she was back in her car, staring at the same brick wall of the precinct she had been studying when
Marisol had frightened her.  It wasn’t over yet but it didn’t look like it was going to drag on for too long.  The camera footage would take care of that.

    It was a relief to know that things were being taken care of but she had to prepare herself mentally for the community onslaught.  There would be the pitying stares, the tsk tsk of wagging tongues and the pointing of fingers.  Everyone in town would take a side and discuss the happenings in earnest over sweet tea and fried chicken.
  She should probably stop by the grocery store on her way home and get a few things before the real gossip began circulating.

    
As soon as she saw the red mini-van in the parking lot she should have turned around and gone on to the next supermarket.
  Someday she would learn to listen to her gut.  Praying she wouldn’t run into Trisha, Jennie charged up and down the aisles tossing things into her cart.
  Just when she thought she had escaped the uncomfortable run in with her former best friend, Jennie pushed her cart into the only open register line.  Tr
isha stepped up just behind her, a toddler clinging to her leg and a newborn strapped to her
chest in a baby carrier.  Jennie kept her back turned hoping that the other woman wouldn’t recognize her.  Of course she wasn’t so lucky.

     “Oh!  Jennie?  Is that you?”

     They hadn’t seen each other since Jennie delivered Michael’s gift two days before Christmas.  Turning slowly, her eyes finally making contact with her former friend.  “Hello, Trisha.  How are things going?”

   Trisha smiled brightly.  “Couldn’t be better!”  She gestured to the
newborn.  “Nell here was born ‘
bout four weeks ago.  Healthy as can be and as beautiful as her grandma.”

    “Congratulations.  I am very happy for you.”

    “I heard about what happened yesterday.  I’m so sorry.  It must have been awful.”

      So word travelled faster than she thought.  She waved away Trisha’s comments.  “Nothing really happened.  As you can see, I am
just fine.”

     “Jennie, this is me you’re talkin’
too.  We have known each other our whole lives and I can see you are not
fine.
”

     “What do you want me to say, Trisha?”  Jennie didn’t mean to snap but her nerves had taken just about all they could stand in the past couple of days. 

     “I want you to get angry at someone besides me.”  The words were quiet but riddled with emotion.  “I’ve made a’lotta mistakes in my life Jennie.  The biggest one was hurtin’ you the way I did but I don’t regret bein’ with Michael or I wouldn’t be mommy to the most wonderful kids in the world.  It was meant to be, him and I and it took his goin’ off to war to make me realize it.  But I do regret how we got together because it meant I lost my very best friend and the only sister I ever had.”

   She was sincere, of that Jennie was certain.  Trisha never apologized for anything so for her to admit any sort of wrongdoing at all was proof in and of itself that she was sincere.  But why now, in a line at the supermarket, when all Jennie wanted to do was go home and lock herself away, not offer penance to the only person in the world who knew how to hurt her most and had?

     “I don’t know what you want me to say Trisha.”

     Her big blues searched Jennie’s green ones, pleading for forgiveness.  “Say you will forgive me.  I know we won’t ever be the same but I can’t take another day of you bein’ angry at me.  I just can’t.”  Little Nell began to whimper, her tiny puckered lips searching for her food source.  Jennie’s eyes filled with tears.  How she wanted to be like Trisha.  Not married to Michael anymore of course but settled, happy, with a family of her own.  And for the first time since Jennie and Trisha had met on the kindergarten school bus, her old friend was genuinely happy and settled.