Kidnapped

Unconditional

Chapter 15:

Demitri climbed into the passenger seat, holding his head. His hulking man of muscle rocked the whole vehicle as he repositioned himself in the back. The engine of my one of a kind van roared to life, sending shivers throughout my body. Oh, my wife hated this van.

"Why couldn't we just take her?" Demetri grumbled. He fixated me with a cold glare as he waited for my response.

I sighed. "Lesson number one."

"What?"

I focused on the road ahead. My son was still out there, but once he knew we found the girl, he'll come running right into my sights.

*****

Officer Spick's family was very welcoming, so welcoming I almost fainted the moment I walked through the door. His mother was a wrinkled old woman, her skin weathered by time and too many smiles, but her eyes brought a sense of youth to her liver-spotted face. Chocolate brown and never ending, they shone with excitement and wonder. Her frail looking arms were much stronger than I anticipated when she pulled me in close, telling me to call her Joyce. She smelled like old people and baking. I instantly loved her.

His dad was confined to a wheelchair, but his lively attitude made up for his lack of movement. Thin, grey hair was combed over his shiny bald spot on the top of his head, looking like silver streaks over sand. Much like his wife, his face was weathered and wrinkled with smile-lines. He shook my hand with an iron grip and told me to call him Earl.

Joyce left for a moment and returned with a plate of snickerdoodle cookies. Officer Spick took one without hesitating, saying Joyce made the best baked goods on the planet. For a brief moment, jealousy rose up inside of me, reminding me of what I had been cheated of. My mom didn't bake too much, but when she did the whole house was filled with a magical scent, she called it love. A lump formed in my throat but I swallowed it down. No need to ruin their happy spirit. Spick lead me down a narrow hallway in the back of the house to his old bedroom.

"If you need clothes," Spick said. "My mom might have a box upstairs. If not, you're SOL." Then he lowered his voice and fixated me with a stern glare. "I know troubled kids. But against everything I know, I'm trusting you. Don't you dare cause any problems or mischief here that could put my folks in any type of danger. If you do, I will hunt you down. I wear my badge for them, because they deserve protection. I'll gladly lose it if I have to to keep you in line."

I wasn't surprised that the original hardened Officer Spick had returned.

"I won't cause any trouble." I met his intense gaze. "I'll try to be out of their hair as soon as I can. Thank you- for helping me. You didn't have to."

"You deserve a happier ending." He softened a bit. "You've seen some real sh-"

"Don't you finish that sentence, young man." Earl had silently wheeled himself to the doorway. "You know how your mother feels about that kind of language."

The two men smiled at each other, a matching twinkle in their eyes as they shared an unspoken joke.

"Let's give him some time to settle in. Alone." Earl motioned for Spick to follow him out, he nodded to me and they both left.

The bedroom was small and modest; an empty dresser stood at the foot of a twin bed that was pushed against the far wall. Nothing except for the furniture and my shoes were touching the floor and the closet was closed by two sliding doors. I liked it. A plain blue bed set covered the twin snugly, they were soft to the touch as I sat down. A sudden wave of exhaustion washed over me and I realized how poorly I had been sleeping the last week. I looked at the plush pillows longingly, I knew I couldn't just pass out after only the first five minutes of my arrival. Even after all these years with my dad I remembered my manners. Reluctantly, I stood and made my way back out into the cozy main room. Spick and Earl were lounging on the loveseat facing Joyce, who was happily knitting in one of the two armchairs across from her boys. She looked up at me and smiled genuinely.

"How do you like the room?" She inquired.

"It's definitely more than I could ask for." I found myself smiling back. "Thank you. Very much."

"Oh, nonsense." She laughed. "It's a pleasure to have you here. Come, come! Sit and visit with us!"

It was awkward, to say the least, to sit in the new home and try to make normal conversation without bringing up my dad. I chose to stay quiet most of the time and listen as the tides of conversation turned this way and that; from politics to news, to sports, to old memories, to old girlfriends.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" A mischievous glint shone in Joyce's eyes waiting to eat up the juicy secret she was hoping I'd spill.

"Uh- no." I rubbed the back of my neck and looked down as my thoughts turned to Ashley.

"But there's a girl." It wasn't a question. She placed her knitting in her lap and peered at me through her bifocals.

"Mom." Spick rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I raised a teenage boy, I know the signs. Now, hush. Let your mama talk." She leaned toward me subtly. "Well, who is she?"

"Um-" I blushed and saw Spick narrow his eyes. "She's taken. It wouldn't work out anyway, she kind of hates me."

"Hm." Joyce nodded in understanding. "You know, Earl and I didn't start off all lovey dovey either."

"Mom. Stop." Spick's voice was respectfully firm. His mother met his eyes and a silent message passed between them. He knew who I was talking about. He knew how utterly hopeless it was.

"So, I heard about this new type of fish they found washed up on the ocean recently." Earl said as if we had been talking about it for the last hour. He started in on a news story he found while trying to navigate Facebook. It sounded completely bogus, but I listened to the soothing old mans voice as he recounted the tale of a monkey-fish crawling out of the Atlantic Ocean. Joyce excused herself and waddled out of the main room and into the kitchen around the corner. Slowly, I felt a warmth spread out from my heart and swallow me up. This new home was strange, it smelled like old people, and was cluttered with knickknacks that lined shelves and decorative tables, but above all it felt like- I was just going to grandmas house. After my dad snapped, I never made trips to any of my family's homes and eventually they stopped coming over because my dad wouldn't let any of them in to see me. The deep gorge of loneliness my solitude had carved in my heart began to fill with the generosity of Spick's family and the seemingly unconditional love from his mother.

Strangely, I felt safe.

*****

I spent the rest of the day sobbing into my pillow and exhausting myself by dinner time. The absence of Darren's promise ring wrenched whatever was left of my heart out, crippling me. Every inch of my body ached for his touch but was repulsed by the thought of his fingers on my skin, his lying, useless, stupid hands caressing my body.

Occasionally my dad would come in and talk with me about Darren, asking how it happened. Although everything still hurt, the brief conversations soothed the worst of the pain. When I sat at the dinner table, I could finally control my tears. Dinner was silent, the occasional clinks of our forks scraping our plates breaking the tension that was radiating off of me.

"I'm going to bed." I told my dad once I finished.

"Okay." He kissed my forehead. "Feel better in the morning. I love you."

"Love you too."

It was too easy to fall asleep, and my slumber was accompanied by complete darkness. No thoughts of Darren. No thoughts of Jerry. Finally, a real rest from the nightmare my life was turning out to be.