I Am Quinn

by McGarvey Black

  ‘Wait,’ she cried out.

  ‘Not so easy, is it?’ Alec said as they both continued to shoot. ‘It’s very therapeutic, you’ll see.’

  Alison laughed and nodded.

  ‘All those synchronized scrubbing machines and sprays,’ she said, ‘each one has its own job, like a big soapy ballet.’

  For fifteen minutes they got very competitive, each trying to draw more elaborate shapes and words. The attendant at the register ended their shooting match when he signaled to Alec that his car was ready.

  ‘My car is out,’ Alec said. ‘Before I go, I’m going to write your full name with my gun.’

  Like an expert marksman, Alec wrote out ‘Alison’ just before a spray obliterated it.

  ‘Six letters, nice,’ he said, laughing as he put his arms in the air in a victory salute to himself.

  ‘You’re good,’ Alison called out as he walked towards the register and left the building. A few minutes later, Alison went to pay.

  ‘You’re all set,’ said the cashier. ‘That guy you were talking to, he paid for you.’

  Surprised, Alison quickly walked outside to find Alec and was relieved to see he was still there waiting for his car to be dried.

  ‘Hey,’ she said, smiling. ‘You paid for my car wash.’

  ‘Guilty,’ he said with a sheepish smile that charmed her.

  ‘You didn’t need to do that, but thank you.’

  ‘It was my pleasure. Hey, I was going to grab a coffee across the street at that Starbucks,’ he said. ‘Can I buy you a cup?’

  ‘You bought me a car wash,’ she said. ‘The coffee is on me.’

  For the next hour, Alec kept Alison laughing. The more he revealed, the more she was aware that Alec Roberts checked all of her boxes. He was kind of cute and appeared to be around her age. He was getting divorced from a woman, so he wasn’t gay. He had kids which meant he understood responsibility and family. He taught History at UR, which said he was smart and had a steady job and he didn’t live with his mother. The thing that hooked her was that he made her laugh.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, glancing down at his watch. ‘I’ve got to go. Gotta pick up my kids.’

  When they stood up, Alison put out her hand. He shook it and at the same time leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek.

  ‘Can I take you to dinner one night?’ he said as they walked outside towards their shiny cars.

  Alison smiled as she handed him her business card.

  ‘Alison Moore, Director, Aventi Corporation. Sounds important,’ said Alec.

  ‘We’re an Internet company. We sell data,’ said Alison with a wink. ‘I can find out everything about you.’

  The following weekend they had their first date. Two weeks later, Alec spent the night at her place and they officially became a couple. His divorce wasn’t final yet, but everything felt right to Alison. He treated her like a queen, laughed at all her jokes – even the lame ones – and marveled at her command of historical facts.

  ‘I’m serious, Ali, the average person doesn’t know anything close to what you know about history,’ he said. ‘I’m impressed. You’re beautiful and intelligent. The perfect package.’

  That was how it started. He made her feel pretty, smart and funny and she adored his sense of humor and spontaneity. Everything flowed, and before long, she believed he was ‘the one’, the prince she’d been waiting for.

  A few weeks later, Alec introduced Alison to his two kids. Hannah and Jack were suspicious of her at first, but eventually, Alison’s good nature won them over.

  Over time, Hannah shared stories about her mother with Alison. She described her as loads of fun, extremely kind, and incredibly loving, the polar opposite of what Alec had told Alison. Alec’s version of Quinn portrayed her as a demanding, selfish bitch.

  ‘My mom has this ukulele. She sings all the time, but she’s really terrible,’ said Hannah, laughing. ‘She knows she’s tone deaf and she doesn’t care and just laughs when she hits a bad note. It makes us all crack up.’

  Hannah told Alison how her mother used to take her camping with her friends and taught her how to bake homemade molasses bread and even sew her own clothes. The more Alison learned about Quinn, the less it jived with the person Alec had routinely demonized.

  ‘I love my mom,’ said Hannah, getting teary. ‘I miss the person she used to be. It’s been hard the last two years. She isn’t herself. She cries a lot or just sits and stares at nothing. Other times, she paces for hours. She’s still my mom, and I love her.’

  Hannah pulled out some old photos and showed Alison pictures of her mother from when she was a teenager. Quinn was beautiful, thought Alison, prettier than me. Fighting back a wave of insecurity, Alison wondered if Alec noticed Quinn was better looking than she was and willed herself to push that thought out of her mind.

  Eight months after their first date, Alec surprised Alison with a romantic trip to Scotland.

  ‘It’s one of my favorite places in the world, Ali,’ he said when he presented her with the tickets. ‘I can’t wait to show you all the castles and the underground city in Edinburgh. Wait until you see High Street, Ali,’ Alec continued. ‘We’ll see the sites of ancient battles, sabotage and bloody palace intrigue. You’ll feel like you’re stepping back in time.’

  Alec was right. The old part of Edinburgh had cobblestone streets and castles with turrets like the ones in the fairy tales. They spent five magical days wandering around the old city, stopping intermittently in pubs to try the local beer and scotch and sample their revered fish and chips. Throughout the trip, Alec snapped picture after picture of castles and a laughing Alison.

  They talked seriously about their future as a couple for the first time while in Scotland. Alec didn’t use the word ‘marriage’, but he spoke of all the things they would do and places they would one day visit.

  ‘Next year, Paris,’ he said. ‘I’ll take you to the Palace of Versailles, you’ll love it. The year after that, maybe Rome. Wait until you see the Colosseum. We could rent a house in Spain.’

  Alison had only been to Europe once before. This vacation together was a big step in their relationship. It felt like a commitment. She liked that he had everything under control and decided that day that ‘Alison Roberts’ sounded right to her.

  Chapter 51

  QUINN

  Driving to the Red Tulip Cafe for lunch with the Avon Ladies, I felt my anxiety growing with each passing mile. I hadn’t seen my friends in a while. They never called me anymore. I guess I never called them either.

  I wondered if my they still liked me or if they talked about Alec and me and our divorce when I wasn’t around.

  My mind was playing dirty tricks on me as I pulled into the restaurant parking lot, drowning in a sea of paranoia. Your good friends are inside waiting for you. Get those negative thoughts out of your head.

  I willed myself to get out of the car and was halfway across the parking lot when I saw him, and I froze. Alec was walking hand in hand with a petite blonde woman towards the Red Tulip door. My heart pounded as I felt the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I couldn’t get any air into my lungs. I thought I might be having a heart attack. As Alec held the front door open, the woman leaned over and quickly kissed him, and they disappeared inside.

  My legs felt like lead, unwilling to move. The blonde had to be Alison Moore. Ali. I knew all about her from my kids. They said she was sweet. How nice could she be if she was stealing my husband? Skank.

  Minutes later, I found myself driving back to my apartment in Newbridge. I called Viv from the car and told her I was sorry but my Subaru was acting up again, and I was afraid to drive all the way over to Avon. I bet the girls were probably relieved I didn’t show, given that my husband was dining in the same restaurant with his new slut. They probably freaked when they saw him walk in with her, knowing I was about to arrive any minute. Maybe they planned it together? Maybe my friends knew Alec was bringing his girlfriend to the restaurant.
Did they all want to humiliate me?

  Lost in a labyrinth inside my own head, I nearly hit another car and pulled over to the side of the road, in a full blown panic attack. I shut the engine off and took deep cleansing breaths.

  It had to be a coincidence. Alec lives near Avon, and he always loved the Red Tulip. There’s no plot, no conspiracy. The Avon Ladies wouldn’t betray me. They were my friends, right? Wrong.

  Chapter 52

  An exceptionally long check-out line, an overcrowded doctor’s waiting room or standstill traffic made Quinn restless. On those occasions, she’d routinely call her sister to pass the time.

  ‘I’m sitting in my auto mechanic’s garage, again,’ Quinn complained. ‘That damn Subaru is costing me a fortune. They said it was going to be over eight hundred dollars this time.’

  Quinn’s car had become the family joke, spending more time in the shop than on the road.

  ‘What’s wrong, now?’ Erin asked.

  ‘My brakes went out again.’

  ‘Again?’

  ‘Last month I almost hit someone. I kept pumping my brakes, and my car kept going. It freaked me out. When I brought the car into the shop, the mechanic said my brake pads were non-existent. Today, I nearly crashed into this car stopped in front of me at a red light. The same thing happened, my car wouldn’t stop. The guy who looked at it said my brake fluid lines were completely damaged.’

  The wheels in Erin’s head turned, dark thoughts entered her mind. Alec knew how to take a car apart and put it back together with his eyes closed.

  ‘Quinn, this is going to sound crazy, but do you think Alec did something to your brakes?’

  ‘No,’ Quinn protested. ‘He wouldn’t do something like that. He can be a bully, but he wouldn’t hurt me.’

  ‘What are you talking about? He has hurt you,’ Erin shouted, ‘and he knows everything about cars. Ask your mechanic if it looks like anyone tampered with the brakes.’

  Convinced her sister was overreacting, but because she had promised, Quinn asked her mechanic to have a look. After a thorough going over, he told her the brake fluid lines were so corroded and banged up it was hard to know if someone had messed with them or it was just severe wear and tear.

  Despite the inconclusive report, Erin was still concerned. Her brother-in-law was smart. He was also vindictive and knew his way around a car engine. She was confident that Alec would know how to make it look like the brakes failed on their own and it scared her.

  Chapter 53

  Alison wasn’t exactly sure when things with Alec changed, but they did. Right after they got back from Scotland, she saw a new side, a not so nice side. They’d had so much fun in Edinburgh, that his new behavior caught her off guard.

  It was an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and they were in the supermarket shopping for dinner. Alec was reminiscing about their Scotland trip, opining about some of the historical aspects of the city and the walking tours they had taken.

  ‘Remember when they told us how the medieval Scottish used to dispose of their shit,’ he said, making a funny face and laughing. ‘How they’d chuck it right out the window and onto the street below and shout “Garry Lay” to give the people walking on the street below a heads-up?’

  ‘I think the word was “Gardy Loo”,’ corrected Alison, who continued laughing until she noticed he wasn’t.

  ‘It was “Garry Lay”,’ he said with a stern face.

  ‘No, it came from the French word, “Gardez l’eau” which means “mind the water”. I studied French in college, so that’s why I remembered it.’

  ‘Who’s the historian here, Alison?’ he said, with an edge in his voice.

  ‘You are, of course,’ she said. ‘It’s just that I took French.’

  ‘It’s just that I have a PhD in History. They said “Garry Lay”,’ he said again, ending the conversation and walking away from her with the shopping cart.

  She stood alone in the market aisle, stunned. What had just happened? She ran the scene through her mind again. Were they really fighting about an ancient Scottish phrase? She’d never seen him act like that before and blew it off, chalking it up to him being tired. She rationalized that she could be bitchy from time to time too.

  By the time they got home from the store, Alec was back to his usual self. They had a nice dinner, watched a movie and Alison convinced herself that their supermarket squabble was an aberration.

  Later that night in bed, Alec leaned over and kissed her.

  ‘I’ve got a cool idea,’ he whispered. ‘Hear me out before you say no. Why don’t we make a video of us making love? Just for us to keep. We’d have fun, and it would be so hot.’

  Inside her head she thought, ‘are you freaking serious?’ but replied calmly so she didn’t upset or insult him.

  ‘I’m not comfortable doing that.’

  ‘C’mon, Ali,’ he continued, ‘let’s just try it. It will be such a turn on.’

  Alison considered herself an open-minded person but naked videos of herself floating around the universe was not something she was going to agree to. She worked for a data company, she knew all about information let loose on the Internet. She was firm, and Alec was disappointed, but he never brought it up again.

  Over the next couple of months, Alec’s mood deteriorated. Negotiations between his divorce attorney and Quinn’s were not going well. He claimed Quinn was trying to ‘suck him dry’ financially and brought it up frequently.

  ‘My piece of shit wife is holding out for more alimony,’ Alec growled, reading a text from Quinn at the dinner table.

  ‘Put the phone down, please. Let’s enjoy our dinner without talking about Quinn for once,’ Alison said.

  ‘Don’t you get it?’ he said with a sneer. ‘She’s going to devastate me financially. You can kiss trips to Europe goodbye. She’s a lazy, bloodsucking, piece of shit who wants to sit back on her fat ass for the rest of her life while I support her.’

  ‘Alec, I hate it when you talk about her that way. Everything will be alright. Let the lawyers work it out,’ she said.

  ‘Lawyers are worse than cockroaches,’ he said to her. ‘All they care about is billing for extra hours. They’ll drag this out for as long as possible just to make more money for themselves and who gets screwed? I do.’

  ‘Maybe you should give her alimony for a little while, maybe four or five years so she can get on her feet,’ Alison suggested. ‘Your hard-line position might be what’s holding things up. If you offer her five years, she might go for it and it will all be over.’

  ‘When did you get a law degree?’ said Alec with clenched teeth. ‘I know what I’m doing. Stay out of this, Ali.’

  After that, Alison kept her mouth shut on all things related to Quinn. It was hard because Alec constantly complained about the divorce and how greedy his wife was.

  She never told Alec how she really felt. She didn’t think his wife was asking for anything unreasonable. She understood that Quinn needed some money to get herself started. She had been a stay-at-home mom and finding a job wasn’t going to be easy since she had been out of the workforce for so long. Alison thought, given the circumstances, that alimony for five years was fair and reasonable but said nothing more.

  Chapter 54

  Aggravated and stressed out from the machinations of his yet to be finalized divorce settlement, Alec planned a day alone in the mountains to decompress and clear his head. It was still dark when he climbed into his car that Saturday morning. Overhead, a large moon cast a yellow glow on the deserted street.

  He placed his hunting rifle and packed lunch on the back seat and checked the glove compartment; the Glock G-19 was right where it was supposed to be. He glanced over at the new telephoto lens on his camera nestled on the seat beside him. The manager of the electronics store had told him he could ‘capture the detail on a butterfly wing from thirty yards away’. He’d take photos in the morning when the light was good and go duck hunting in the afternoon. No women. A perfect day.

/>   Dutifully following the GPS, he paid little attention to the roads as he drove, putting his trust in the monotone female voice barking commands. Ahead on the right, was a single bright light. It was a bagel store, and it was open. He pulled over and parked in a dimly lit spot half a block past the store.

  Minutes later, carrying a sesame bagel with cream cheese and chives and a large coffee, he walked back to the car and got in. It would be too messy to eat and drive at the same time, so he decided to finish his breakfast there and then continue his journey.

  As he chewed the warm crusty bread, he looked out at the darkened sign on a bar across the street. The place was called the Dew Drop Inn. He smiled at the pun. A moment later, a small-framed, dark-haired man stumbled out of the closed bar. He staggered down the street about two hundred feet and got into a dented green minivan. Alec put his food down and turned on the camera to get a picture of the drunk guy’s license plate. He zoomed in on the number.

  After he snapped a picture of the plate, he turned on the video and pressed record. Holding the camera steady with his left hand, he reached for the phone with his right to call 911. Something caught his attention; a runner dressed in night gear sprinted by. Alec turned his head and saw the man was covered from head to toe in reflective clothing, a bright light strapped to his forehead. That takes commitment, he thought as he watched the runner continue swiftly down the road just as the drunk started his engine.

  It all happened so fast as he watched the whole scene through the viewfinder. The drunk must have pushed on the gas pedal hard because his car lurched like a rocket out of its spot and within two seconds slammed directly into the runner. The runner went down. The car screeched to a stop. The drunk guy opened his car door and stared down at the man on the pavement. Alec pushed the lens on the camera to its highest magnification, continuing to record.

  ‘What’s a matter with you?’ the drunk shouted at the fallen runner. ‘I hardly touched ya.’