She Never Knew (4 page)

Heartbroken, Kat
desperately yearned for Michael. He always knew what to do and what to say. She
felt extraordinarily alone and frightened. And this time, she was on her own,
for good.

Two weeks later,
Kat had received a package from her aunt. In it was a dinnerware set that had
belonged to her maternal grandmother. Her aunt had included a short note
explaining that Kat’s mother wanted her to have the dishes and that she would
soon hear from an estate lawyer, her father’s best friend, in regards to the
sale of her parents’ house. No words of affection were offered. No information
about Mary was provided. It was as if the package served as the final
communication link between Kat and her family. It would be a long time before
she would be in contact with them.    

It had been over
six years since that fateful day. To Kat, the memories of losing them were
still quite fresh. She knew she would never get over their deaths. She also
missed Mary terribly, despite her sister’s treatment toward her. However, the
time had given Kat a chance to accept her losses and learn to deal with them.
She had to, for Tyler’s sake.

A lone tear fell
slowly down Kat’s cheek. Not wanting Tyler to see her cry, she quickly brushed
away the tear from her face. She put her hand on Tyler’s back and rubbed it
gently.

She said
quietly, “I miss all of them very much. I know that God is taking really good
care of them for us. And someday, when we go to Heaven, God will take care of
us too.”

Tyler took the
picture from Kat and held it in his small hands. Studying his grandparents and
the man whom he believed was his father, “I don’t really remember them, Mommy.”

“I know, honey.
They died before you were born.”

“And before you
got married, right? What’s that word again?”

“Engaged?” Kat
inquired, raising an eyebrow. She wondered where her son learned that word.

Tyler nodded.
“Yes, engaged. Is that like when you pretend to be married?” He played with the
small diamond engagement ring that was still on Kat’s finger from when Michael
had proposed to her.

Kat smiled at
her son’s inquisitiveness. “Kind of. Being engaged means when there are two
people who love each other want to marry each other.”

“And live forever
with each other?”

“Yes, forever.”

Tyler appeared
content with his mother’s explanation as he continued to look at the three
people in the picture smiling at him. After a few minutes had passed, she said,
“All right. Let’s go eat dinner before it gets cold. You have Taekwondo class
in one hour.”

“Okay, Mommy.”

Breathing a sigh
of relief that they had arrived safely, Kat and Tyler huddled together
underneath her oversized umbrella as they stepped out of her car. While the training
academy was only a few miles from her house, the drive over was a bit
unnerving. The soft rain had turned into a downpour, creating large puddles of
water in the streets and making it difficult to see. It didn’t help that it was
windy, too. Sprays of mist showered onto Kat’s face as she struggled to keep
Tyler dry as possible. As they quickly walked toward the entrance of the
building, Kat saw the lights inside the building flicker.
I wonder if we’ll
lose power tonight,
she thought
.

When they reached
the door, Tyler immediately spotted his best friend Eli and ran over to join
him. They began taking off their shoes in preparation for the warm up exercises
that were about to begin.

Kat selected a
seat next to one that had a bright blue water bottle on the floor. Recognizing
the bottle as belonging to Eli’s mother, she set her purse underneath her own
chair. Her sweater was damp, so she removed it and hung it on the back of her
chair. When she sat down, Eli’s mother came out of the bathroom and walked
toward Kat.

“Well, hello
there!” Kat smiled at her friend. “Get a little wet?” She laughed as Rhonda
glared at her. Her shirt and pants were spotted with water and her auburn hair
hung limply over her shoulders.

“We went to see Eli’s
cousin today and time got away from us. Obviously, I didn’t have time to stop
at the house to get our raincoats.” She sat down next to Kat and rubbed her
knees, trying to warm her hands.

“Would you like
to wear my sweater?” Kat offered. “It should be dry in a few minutes.”

“Thanks, but I’m
okay. I’ll warm up once we get on the floor.” She motioned to the instructor in
the front of the room.

There were eight
children in the Tiny Tigers program, ranging from three to six years old. All
of them stood at their respective places on the activity floor, chattering
excitedly.

Tyler was three
months younger than Eli, so they were paired up as partners. Both boys had
known each other since they were born and did almost everything together. Their
mothers were also the best of friends and lived across the street from each
other. The women often took turns babysitting and jokingly referred to the
other’s son as her second child. Kat was grateful to have Rhonda in her life and
she trusted her completely when she left Tyler in her care.

While Tyler and Eli
went to separate preschools, they often shared similar extracurricular
activities. Taekwondo was one of them. After two months in the program, both
boys had earned their orange belts. They were ahead of their peers due to the
fact that they practiced regularly together.

“All right, how
are my Tiny Tigers doing tonight?” Dottie smiled widely, clapping her hands. The
owner was a tall woman, who usually dressed in her state championship uniform
that gave her an aura of stern authority. “Did y’all get wet?”

The children
clamored, jumping up and down, eager to get started. “Okay, let’s warm up!”

Dottie Rodriquez
was a no-nonsense kind of woman. While she understood young children were
highly energetic and rambunctious at times, she had little tolerance for those
who disrupted her classroom. She spoke loudly most of the time, perhaps in
effort to maintain control of her students. She was a fourth degree black belt
martial arts instructor and was known for being one of the best trainers in the
area.

“Parents!” she
yelled. “We’re gonna do something a little bit different tonight. Come on up.”
She waved her hands for the parents to step forward onto the floor.

After Kat and Rhonda
removed their shoes, they took their respective positions behind their sons.
Tyler looked up at his mother and she gave him a wink.

“Here’s what
we’re going to do. We’re going to learn what we need to do when someone grabs
us from behind.” Dottie eyed the children and continued, “We are going to
pretend that your mommies and daddies are the bad guys!”

Tyler turned
around and said to Kat, “You’re the bad guy, Mommy!” He giggled as many of the
kids did the same with their parents.

Tyler didn’t
notice the frightened expression on Kat’s face, but Rhonda did. While Kat tried
to wear a happy face, it was obvious how uncomfortable she was.

“You okay?” whispered
Rhonda.

“Yeah, I’m
okay.” Kat replied. “I had a bad memory there for a second.” She smiled at her
friend, grateful for her support.

“All right! Mr. Henley
here is going to give us a little demonstration. She motioned to the side of
the room, where he stood next to a rack of sparring gear. Ryan Henley, a first
degree black belt certified student instructor, sauntered over and stood facing
Dottie.

“Everybody
watch!” she boomed. “Mr. Henley is going to take his right hand and grab my
left wrist.” After he did this, Dottie yanked out her left arm from his grip,
swung it back inward, and used both hands to lightly punch the student
instructor in the chest with three jabbing motions.

“Did you see how
I did that?” The children nodded, wide-eyed with interest. “I’ll do it again,
watch carefully.” She repeated the process and this time Ryan pretended to be
hurt.

The children
laughed when they saw Ryan hold his hands to his stomach, feigning pain. “Now
it’s your turn!” Dottie instructed. “Face your parents.”

Dottie paced
back and forth, observing each parent grab their child’s wrist to ensure proper
techniques were being followed.

“Now, what
happens if you can’t pull your hand away? What do you do?” She looked at each
child. All of them stared blankly at her.

Ryan and Dottie
reclaimed their places and Ryan once again took Dottie’s left wrist in his
right hand. Dottie pretended to struggle, as if she couldn’t break the strong
hold Ryan had on her. She then clasped her right hand over her opponent’s grip,
leaned her body to the right, swung her left foot out and lightly kicked Ryan’s
right knee. Ryan immediately broke his hold on Dottie’s wrist.

“Did you all see
that?” The children bobbed their heads in agreement. “Okay, now I want you to
practice with your parents.” As an afterthought, she added, “Be gentle with
each other!”

As the children
and their parents began practicing under the supervision of Ryan Henley, Dottie
walked to the entrance where the secretary’s desk was located. A woman stood
there, patiently waiting to speak with her.

When Dottie
returned a few minutes later, she said, “Okay, now we’re going to practice with
the opposite hand and opposite foot.” She and Mr. Henley repeated their
demonstration. “Any questions?” she asked.

For the
remainder of class, Kat and Tyler practiced their newly learned self defense
skill. Before they were dismissed for the evening, Dottie called the class to
attention.

“I have an
announcement I’d like to make.” Everyone in the room gave Dottie their full
attention. “A lady was just in here asking me if I would offer a self-defense
class for women only.” Dottie looked at the women in the room. “If you think
you might be interested in participating, come see me before you leave.”

As Kat and Tyler
walked back to their seats and began putting on their shoes, she thought about
how she may benefit from a self-defense class, especially for women only. She
looked over to where Rhonda was helping Eli put on his shoes and asked her,
“What do you think about the self-defense class?”

“I think it’s a great
idea. I probably won’t attend but I know someone who may be interested.” Rhonda
said. “What about you?”

Kat replied,
“I’ve always wanted to take something like this. A little extra security
couldn’t hurt.”

Aside from Kat’s
former gynecologist and the police, Rhonda and her husband were the only people
who knew about the rape. Kat didn’t want people feeling sorry for her and more
importantly, she didn’t want Tyler to learn about it through the grapevine. She
would tell him when the time was right.

 Rhonda agreed.
“Let me know the date and I’ll watch Tyler for you.”

Kat nodded
silently. She had put on her sweater and saw that Tyler was ready to go. “Well,
we’re going to head out after I speak with Dottie.” Tyler and Eli bowed to each
other while Kat and Rhonda exchanged goodbyes.

“See you
tomorrow, Tyler!” Rhonda said warmly. She waved as she and Eli walked toward
the back entrance.

“Mommy is going
to talk to Miss Dottie, okay?” Tyler nodded and sat down in a chair. He had
brought a miniature car with him to keep himself amused.

“I’ll only be a
few minutes.” She bent down and kissed the top of Tyler’s head before walking
up to the secretary’s desk.

Dottie was
sitting at her computer, her back to Kat. When she heard Kat approach, she
turned in her chair to face her, a smile on her face.

“How’s it going,
lady?” Dottie stood and approached the counter.

“It’s going just
fine.” Kat said, suddenly hesitant about signing up. “I wanted to ask you about
the self-defense class.”

“Okay, sure.” Dottie
replied. “The lady that was in here earlier said she has some friends from her
church who were talking about starting up a class.” She looked at Kat. “Did you
want to sign up?”

“Uh, yes, I-I
think so.” Kat stammered. She felt her face flush and hoped that Dottie
wouldn’t notice, but she had.

Dottie peered at
Kat with concern. “Are you all right?”

“Oh yes, I’m
fine. Kat covered. “I’m just tired.”

Dottie dismissed
this for a later conversation. Instead, she said, “Well, as I had mentioned
earlier, this class would be for women only. The techniques you’ll learn will
focus on what you can do to prepare yourself in the event you are attacked or
abducted.”

Kat stood
nervously, playing with her hair. “That sounds really good. Can I sign up now?”

“You can sign up
now, sure.” Dottie reached for the sheet of paper she had used earlier when
talking with the woman from before. “Write your name down right here.” She
pointed.

Kat printed her
name, phone number, and email address on the sheet. “How much do you charge for
something like this?” she inquired.