Survivor: 1 (3 page)

One of the senior partners had been walking to his office, and he'd turned to Lisa and Danielle. "Did I hear
somebody mention San Simeon? If you're going to Cambria, may I recommend Bonito's? It's right on the main
drag, across the street from the post office. It has a very
elegant atmosphere and great food."
"

"I'll have to keep that in mind," Lisa said, grinning.

*When are you leaving?" The senior partner had approached her, his features open and friendly. He had
been one of the partners responsible for her recent promotion to junior partner, and his office was directly behind hers. They usually traded good-mornings in the
coffee room, and lately they'd been working together on
a case. His name was George Brooks.

"Tomorrow morning," she said, looking up at George.
"My husband and I had been planning this off and on for
a few months. We finally locked in the reservations last
month.*

"Sounds wonderful," George said, his features sunny,
carefree. He looked immaculate in his white shirt and
blue satin vest. "You driving up 101? It's a beautiful
drive.

"Yes, it is," Lisa had agreed. "We're going to take a nice,
leisurely drive up"

"How long does it take to get up there?" Danielle had
asked.

"Four hours," Lisa had said. "Brad has a few things to
do tomorrow morning, then we'll probably leave from
there, around ten or so."

"Sounds like you're going to have a good weekend,"
George had said, nodding at her."Have a good time." He
had turned and headed to his office.

Of course, Lisa had been bursting at the seams to tell
Danielle about her impending pregnancy, but she didn't
want to jinx it. So she had kept it to herself and somehow
found the strength to not let that little secret out.

Thanks to George Brooks's suggestion, she made reservations at Bonito's in Cambria that afternoon for the following evening. She found out the restaurant had an
elegant setting, with a fireplace, soft music, and candlelight. She was going to give Brad the news there. The anticipation she was feeling was nerve-racking. She knew
Brad was going to be ecstatic. But she wanted the right
setting to tell him; she wanted to surprise him.

When they were finished eating lunch, Brad paid the
bill and Lisa went to the ladies'room. When she came out
and joined Brad outside near the entrance, she found him
talking to a tall blond woman dressed in blue jeans and a
cream-colored blouse; both garments looked stained
with dirt. The woman looked like she had been crying recently, tearstains had tracked rough furrows in the remnants of her makeup and made her mascara run. Resting
on a small concrete ledge by the woman was a travel bag,
a diaper bag, and a baby seat with an infant swaddled in a
blanket. The infant was awake, its eyes staring upward,
making cooing sounds. Brad turned to Lisa as she
stepped out. "Do you have any change?" Brad said. "I've
only got large bills and-"

"Sure," Lisa said, reaching to her wallet automatically.
She looked curiously at the woman. "What fort

The woman turned toward Lisa, her features pleading.
"1'm sorry to bother you, ma'am, but ... I ... I asked your
husband if he could spare some change. I'm .. .

Homeless, Lisa thought. Her fingers dosed over her
wallet. She hesitated, her eyes meeting Brad's. She normally didn't give money to homeless people. All they did
was buy booze or drugs with it anyway. Besides, there
were shelters and organizations designed to help those
legitimately in need. If this woman was really homeless,
why didn't she just go to a shelter? "Let me see what I
have" Lisa said, opening her wallet.

'I really appreciate it," the woman said. She looked defeated, ragged and tired. "I've ... I'm so sorry to have
bothered you .. "She sounded on the verge on tears.

"It's okay," Lisa said, flipping through her bills. Something about the woman's tone of voice spiked through
her emotions. The baby started to cry.

"Shhh, it's okay, Mandy," the woman said to the infant,
crooning to her. "Mommy will feed you in a minute."

Lisa flipped through ones, fives, a few tens, and rested
on a twenty. She glanced at Brad; she knew Brad had
twenties, but knew he was apprehensive about giving
homeless people such large sums of money, too. However, this woman seemed different. She truly looked like
she was in a desperate situation.

Lisa pulled the twenty out and handed it to the
woman. "Here. I hope this can help"

At the sight of the bill, the woman's eyes widened. "Oh,
thank you! This is-I don't know how to thank you.
I've ... I've never ... I never thought this would happen
to me and-" She burst into sudden tears.

Brad shuffled awkwardly, looking uncomfortable. Lisa felt uncomfortable, too. "Everything will be okay," she said.
She sounded stupid saying it. Obviously, the way the
woman was crying indicated that everything was not okay
in her world.

"1'm sorry." The tears suddenly stopped and the
woman pulled a ragged Kleenex from her purse and
dried her eyes with it. She struggled to hold the tears in.
"I'm sorry, it's just that ... I never thought this would happen to me. 'Fwo weeks ago I wasn't homeless and I had a
job and now .. " Her features screwed up, threatening to
unleash a flood of tears again, but she fought them
down. She looked at them through tear-filled eyes. "I'm
sorry. You don't need to hear my sob story."

"It's okay," Brad said, embarrassed. He reached into his
wallet and rifled through it. He handed her another
twenty. "Here, maybe you can get a motel room for the
night."

The woman looked at the offered twenty, then slowly
took it. "'Thank you," she whispered.

Lisa couldn't help but be affected by the woman's
plight. Homeless and with a small infant, she didn't appear to be the typical homeless person she encountered
from time to time when she had to drive into downtown
Los Angeles or Santa Ana for court appearances. The
homeless people she encountered there were dirty, ugly,
smelly, and lazy. This woman reminded Lisa of herself in
a way; she appeared intelligent and headstrong. The fact
that she mentioned that she had once held a job told
Lisa that the woman had the ability to earn a living. She
wondered if drugs had caused her downfall. She glanced
at the infant, who had reduced her crying back down to
simple mewling. The baby seemed fine, not the kind of
baby she thought would have been born to a drugaddicted mother.

"There's YWCA centers all over the place," Lisa heard
herself say. "% can help you find one if you want!

"No, that's okay.' The woman shook her head. She had
gotten herself under control now She shoved the two
twenties into her purse. "I've already tried them, but ...
they're all filled up. I've been doing okay, really. I've only
had to sleep in my car for the past two nights. I was staying with a friend, but her husband told her that she didn't
want Mandy and me to stay with them anymore, and I
ran out of money three days ago."

"I'm sorry," Lisa said, softly.

The woman looked at Lisa with a strong resolve. "It's
okay. I ... he's a jerk anyway. He's friends with my former
boyfriend. He's the one that kicked us out of the house
and fired me. He was cheating on me the whole time I
was pregnant with our daughter. I didn't find out until
three weeks ago. When I confronted him with it, he got
angry and had me fired, then he threw us out of the
house.'

"How could he have you fired?" Brad asked.

"Easy; the woman said, turning to Brad. "He was my
boss at my job. It was stupid of me to fall in love with
the guy who hired me, but I did. I thought we had a
good thing going, especially when I found out I was
pregnant." She sighed. "1 was so stupid! He came across
as so lonely and broke and ... I helped pay his bills. I
literally ran the limit of my credit cards up to help him
out, and now ... She shook her head. "He took me for
a fool"

"What about your parents?" Lisa asked.

"My mom died ten years ago and my dad disowned
me not long after,' she said. "He has his own problems.
The chief one being he's a dosed-minded, bigoted
preacher. I was married once before and left my hus band for the same reason that got me kicked out of
Richard's house. My father sees marriage as this strict
thing. If you leave your spouse, you're committing adultery if you remarry. I started dating right away and..."
She shrugged. He disowned me. We haven't spoken in
seven years. I called him when Mandy was born, but he
refused to speak to me."

Lisa felt heartbroken over the woman's story. She
joined Brad, feeling awkward and embarrassed.

The woman turned to them. She looked embarrassed.
"I'm sorry I burdened you with this. Thank you for helping me out. I promise you that the money will be put to
good use. I've got a little one that is more of a concern to
me right now."

"Are you sure there's nothing else we can do?" Brad
asked.

The woman shook her head. "I'll be fine. I'm sure I'll be
able to get work soon, even though I don't have a permanent address. My friend Christie told me I could use their
address for a reference, and I'm sure she'll pick up whatever mail I get there. If I can do that, I'll be able to get a
job-even a temp job-and move into a motel or something until I can get back on my feet"

Lisa offered the woman a smile. "I'm glad we could
help. Good luck to you."

The woman smiled for the first time; it was a beautiful
smile." hank you"

"Your baby's name is Mandy?" Lisa asked.

"Yes" The woman nodded. "Amanda Jane."
"

'That's a pretty name."

Mank you."

"What's your name?"

"Alicia."

Lisa smiled. "I'm Lisa, and this is my husband, Brad."

Brad smiled and offered his hand. Alicia shook it.
"Thank you," she said. "Both of you."
"

"Take care, okay?" Lisa said, taking Brad's hand.

"1 will.,

*Will you be able to get a place tonight?" Brad asked,
glancing at the baby in the car seat. "There's a motel
across the street, you know."

Alicia nodded. "1 think so. For the past two nights,
Mandy and I have been sleeping in my car. It's that blue
Datsun over there." She pointed and Lisa saw it, parked
ten feet from them, the back of it filled with suitcases
and clothes. "I've been parking on Douglas Street off Ventura Boulevard. Its nice and quiet there. Thank God it's
summer."

"Yeah, really," Lisa said. She smiled at Alicia again.
"Well, good luck to you, and take care of your baby.'

"I will," Alicia said. "Thank you."

Brad and Lisa turned and headed back toward their car.

They were silent on the drive back to the freeway.
Once they had merged back into traffic, Lisa broke the silence. "'chat was so sad"

"I know."

'Part of me wishes that we had done something more
to help her,' Lisa said. 'I felt so sorry for her.'

"Me too. I almost didn't want to at first, but ... well ..."

'She really needed help. You could tell."

"Yes" Brad kept his eyes on the road ahead of him,
hands on the steering wheel.

Lisa thought about her own baby that was now growing inside her. The minute she had seen Alicia and her
baby, she immediately thought of helping and protecting
the baby more than the mother. But then she saw that Alicia was truly a woman who was down-and-out, a woman
who, through circumstances beyond her control, had been dumped on the streets with no support and a baby
to take care of. She hoped the money they gave Alicia today would help. "I hope they'll be okay," she said.

"Me too," Brad said.

They headed north, and after five minutes the plight of
Alicia and her baby daughter were forgotten.

They noticed the van shortly after they pulled out of the
rest stop.

They had pulled over at the rest stop just inside the
Ventura County limits for bathroom breaks and a quick
rest before heading on the road again. The hour-anda-half drive from North Hollywood where they had met
up with Alicia and her infant daughter had been spent
mostly in silence.

The radio station they were listening to, alternative
rock station KROQ, was now fizzling in static, so five minutes into arriving at the rest stop Lisa had put in a
Blondie CD. Brad had thought about Alicia for about
thirty minutes after leaving her and the baby, and for the
last forty minutes or so had been thinking about the long
weekend ahead of them. The bathroom breaks were a
long time coming, and upon meeting outside the lavatories, they meandered over to a picnic area with tables
and benches. They shot a couple of photos of each other
for posterity, including one photograph of Lisa posing by
a sign warning of the dangers of rattlesnakes, which were
plentiful in the area. Then they got back into the Lexus
and continued on toward their destination.

Brad switched lanes to pass a slow-moving car towing a trailer in the slow lane. Lisa was consulting the map.
'Looks like we've got another two hours."

"Piece of cake," Brad said, as they climbed the hill.

"Its so nice up here. I wonder iI

"What the hell is this sonofabitch doing?"

Lisa looked over her shoulder. The entire rear window
of their Lexus was filled with the metallic grille of a red
van. Brad's grip on the steering wheel tightened. "What
the fuck is wrong with people? I'm already doing seventy
and this guy has the whole fucking road to pass me!"

"Let him pass us if he wants to get around."

"That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm not speeding
up for him.'

They reached the crest of the hill, and Brad took his
foot off the accelerator as they wound down Interstate 5.
They picked up speed, creeping to eighty. Some cars
continued whizzing past at ninety or faster. Brad checked
his rearview mirror, saw that it was dear, and moved
back into the slow lane, his foot tapping the brake to
slow down a little. The van stayed on his tail, moving to
the slow lane right on his back bumper.