“Oh Norman!, you startled me. How long have you been standing there?”
“Right here? Not long, but I’ve been in the room for about an hour.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
Norman comes around and sits in the chair next to the bed, reaches over and picks up her hand.
“It wouldn’t have been very gentlemanly of me now would it? Besides, you looked so peaceful.”
“If only it had been.”
“So where were you last night and why was I sitting alone in a bar waiting for you?”
“You know that rape gang that’s been in the news?”
“Yes.”
“You’re talking to victim eighteen.”
“Who? What? I don’t understand, how could this happen? Have you talked to the local police?”
“Ah, now the lawyer is awake and asking questions. Well if you feel it necessary to know, pull out your notebook and I’ll start from the beginning. Unless of course you plan to charge me by the hour.”
“Now when have I ever charged you for legal work?”
Wren laughs and then starts explaining from her leaving work all the way up and through the dream she just woke up out of. Norman lets her talk without interruption and with his complete attention strictly on her.
“Wow! I mean wow. I really don’t know what to say. I feel so sorry for you and yet I feel so angry at these people I have never seen. I can’t begin to imagine what you’re going through right now.”
There is a knock at the door and a short surly looking woman in a nurses uniform enters the room.
“How did you get in here? There’s not supposed to be anyone in here with her.”
“It’s okay, this is my lawyer Norman James.”
Norman reaches into the pocket of his suit jacket and pulls out a small silver case that Wren instantly recognized as the one she bought on the Navajo reservation and gave him for Christmas several years ago, flipping it open he hands the nurse one of his business cards. She looks at the card then at Wren.
“You’re alright with him here then?”
“Yes I’m quite alright. I called him this morning after sheriff Stoneson left. He brought me some clothes and a ride home.”
“Well I’m sorry sir but you're going to have to wait for her. I’m here to take her for her tests.”
“That’s fine, maybe I’ll slip down to the cafeteria and get some lunch while you're out.”
“Norman, I really do appreciate your coming down like this and I hate to make you wait around.”
“I would rather wait around and know you’re safe than to spend any more time worrying.”
They all start out the door Wren being pushed in a wheelchair Norman holding the door.
“Good-bye Wren I’ll see you in a little while.”
“I’ll see you then.”
It’s about three in the afternoon when Wren is pushed back into the room. Norman is sitting in the chair next to the bed his head laying back against the wall a copy of Agatha Christy’s The Murder of Rodger Ackroyd laying in his lap. Wren finds the bag from the store with her new clothes sitting on the floor next to him and takes them to the bathroom. She takes a very long hot shower using generous amounts of antibacterial soap and then dresses in the clothes Norman has brought for her. She comes out and sits on the bed to tie her new sneakers, when she’s done she sits and watches Norman. After a while she leans over and kisses him upon his lips.
“I thought prince charming was supposed to wake sleeping beauty.”
“Well it is the twenty-first century.”
“I guess from the looks of things you are cleared to go then?”
“Yep, I’m free to get out of here. I just have to see my normal doctor as soon as possible to keep up with the shots they say I’ll need after this. But otherwise I’m free to go.”
Wren picks up her purse and her paperwork and they head out the door. They go down the hall hand in hand and out into the parking lot. Wren notices her car is gone as they head out to find Norman’s truck.
“I’m glad you replaced the old Nissan with something a bit easier to find.”
He opens the door for her then goes around to the drivers side of the SST and gets in.
“Have you had anything to eat yet?”
“Not a thing since that beef stew last night.”
“What would you like?”
“Anything, and everything.”
“If my memory serves me correctly there should be an Applebee’s down here.”
“That would be great.”
It doesn’t take long for them to get to Applebee’s, they park in the back in the first space they find and head in. They wait in relative silence until they get a table.
“Now remember don’t order too much or you’ll get sick on the way home.”
“You’re sounding a little like my Dad instead of my boyfriend. Don’t worry so much, I'll be fine.”
They order an appetizer and a couple of sodas.
“So how are you doing?”
“I’m not sure really, I mean, I feel nervous and scared like my whole world is coming apart.”
“So you're not fine then. But, why are you nervous and scared?”
“I really don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“No, I don’t.”
They sit in silence nibbling at the appetizer for sometime before Wren speaks again.
“I guess for starters I’m afraid that after this I may never see you again.”
“And just why are you thinking that?”
“Because I’m damaged goods.”
“So this is why you didn’t tell me what was up when you called this morning. Now what makes you damaged goods?”
“The rape what else, I’ve read enough to know how men feel about the subject.”
“Apparently you haven’t read enough though. Did you go out and ask to be raped? Did you take out an ad in the paper? Or did you pre-arrange the whole thing to add excitement and adventure to your life?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so. I am overjoyed to know you're alive and safe. When you didn’t show up last night I got worried. When you didn’t answer your phone I got scared. I spent a good portion of last night awake pacing the floor worried until I finally sat down early this morning and fell asleep in a chair in my living room. That’s where I was when you called this morning. Don’t think for a minute that I’m going to abandon you just because you were raped.”
“Oh Norman! I’ve been so scared you’d leave me after we got back or if I told you on the phone you’d have never come out here to get me.”
“Quite on the contrary I would probably have gotten here all the faster. Now let's finish this up so we can head for home.”
They finish and leave heading back toward St. Louis on Interstate forty-four.
“So what are your plans after this?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean for work? If whoever it was knew to grab you from work, they could do it again and I don’t think you would survive next time.”
“I suppose you’re right. I guess I’ll go in, briefly explain the situation to my boss and see if I can get some time off. Then I’ll start searching for a new job.”
“I wouldn’t even go back in if I were you. I’d just call in and start looking for a new one.”
“I couldn’t do that. It just wouldn’t be proper. No, I feel I should go in and face the problem head on.”
“I really don’t think that’s such a good idea Wren. I think you should avoid going anywhere near there.”
“What about you? What are your plans for the future?”
“Well now that you ask, I’ve been looking at some property out in Franklin county and thinking about building a nice house. Settle down and raise a family, you know the American dream. A large two story house, two cars, two point three children, bar-b-queuing on the deck on Saturday and a golden retriever in the back.”
“Got this thing pretty well planned out don’t you? I’m just wondering though how you plan on that three tenths of a child. The last I checked they only came in whole units not partials and you need a wife to have kids or do you plan to adopt?”
“I was just quoting the statistics of the dream, you don’t have to take them so literally. And I am perfectly aware of needing a wife to have kids.”
“So have you found a successful candidate?”
“Maybe, but I might not have the nerve to ask her yet. So what are your long term plans?”
“Well for starters they have been forced into a slight detour here of late. Maybe I’ll look for a job on an archeological dig somewhere, possibly out of the country or at least much farther from St. Louis. I mean after all that is what my major was in. I only took the accounting job because it paid the bills and fit with my minor. Then I’d like to settle down, maybe seek a professorship and raise a family.”
They drive on for sometime with Norman trying to find the way to get the right words out and failing over and over. By the time he finds them Wren is asleep in the passenger's seat and never hears them. So he just drives on with the radio softly playing classical music as they head back to St. Louis knowing he can tell her the words in his heart later.
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