My Safe Place to Land

Chapter 8

Patrick's POV:

It has been almost three hours since I spoke to Ellen, and I was getting worried. I called Chris's phone to see what she was doing. It rang a few times and then I heard Ellen's raspy voice pick up the phone,

"Hello?", answered Ellen with a very confused tone to her voice.

"Ellen? What happened? I called you almost three hours ago and I haven't heard one word since. Is everything okay?", I asked very worriedly because who knows why she didn't call me sooner.

"Yeah. I think. I'm currently laying on the side of the road. Right where I last remember myself being. I think I passed out of tiredness since I didn't sleep the whole time Chris was driving.", she responded.

'This poor girl', I thought to myself, has gone through so much in the past 36 hours it is unreal. She doesn't deserve any of this.

"Ellen, I'm going to stay on the phone with you until you find a sense of location of where you are at.", I said

"Okay. I'm start...ing to wa...lk", Ellen said but her phone was dropping out every other word she said.

'Oh no', I thought, the phone is dying.

"Ellen, I don't know how much of this you can hear. The phone is dying. Once you get somewhere try to charge the phone and call me back.", I said hoping she heard any of that and I then ended the call.

This poor baby. She doesn't deserve to go through any of this. She is the sweetest thing to ever walk through my life. No one else is as perfect as her. I thought about 'what I can do on my end'. While thinking I looked in my back seat and saw the kid's car seats. 'Oh shit', I thought to myself. I was just falling in love with Ellen. 'I can't', I thought again. I'm married, I have kids, 3. 3 kids. I can't do this to my family. Maybe Jillian was right, maybe Ellen shouldn't stay with us, once I can find her again, because if I fall in love with her, Jillian will leave me and my kids and I don't want that.

While waiting to hear from Ellen I drove back home and I was contemplating on what to do since I'm starting to sense that I'm falling in love with Ellen. Do I still open my house to her or do I have her stay in a hotel or anywhere else? Or do I be the bigger person, put my emotions aside, and do I let her live here for a while and hope she doesn't ruin my marriage. I thought about this my whole ride home.

Ellen's POV:

After getting off the phone with Patrick, I picked up my weak, cold, tired body off the grass and started walking in the direction I was planning on going towards. After walking for what seemed like forever I read a sign that read, 'Home of the San Francisco 49ers'. 'Okay', I thought to myself, I'm still in California but I'm almost 6 hours away from home. I kept on looking for more sign of life and luckily I found a cab parked near a diner.

I walked closer to the cab to see if anyone was in it. I knocked on the window but there was no sign of life in the cab. I then walked closer to the diner, I opened the door, and I saw what might be the driver of the cab parked outside sitting in the diner. I walked over to the man and asked, "Hi. I was wondering if you're the driver of the cab outside?", I said hoping he was.

"Yes, a matter of fact I am.", he said turning towards me.

"Great!", I said with excitement. "You see, I'm on a trip with my family and they left me at the rest stop. I was hoping if you can drive me back to my house. I'll pay any price.". I said hoping this story was buyable.

Luckily he said, "Yes I can. Just give me a few more minutes to recharge my batteries."

I couldn't have been more grateful for this gentleman. I sat a few seats away from him and I patiently waited for him to finish his cup of coffee.

After he finished his coffee, we walked out of the doors of the diner. I remembered Patrick told me to call him once I found out where I was. I asked the cab driver, "Do you by any chance have a blackberry phone charger?".