In the Image of Grace

by Charlotte Ann Schlobohm

  I looked around at all the people. Behind the yellow tape were families and old ladies in bathrobes and a news reporter wearing a skirt that was too tight. There were camera people pointing their cameras in the direction of the ambulance my sisters and I stood in front of. There were cops and swat teams members standing around looking protective with their arms crossed across their chests and feet in a wide sturdy stance.

  Then when I looked up coming out of the house was Jeremy with his head hung low looking at the ground, with one swat member walking with big strides in front of him and one swat member on either side of him, each holding onto his upper arm. Jeremy’s hands were bound behind his back with handcuffs. He stopped walking and the cops pulled him along. Jeremy looked at the one to his left and said something. The swat team guy ignored him. Then Jeremy bent over a little and when he lifted his head, vomit came out in a huge stream hitting the back of the guy walking in front of him, splattering everywhere. Vomit ran down the back of the swat team guy and dripped onto the ground in clumps. The green hot dog was at it again. Jeremy looked up and vomit clung to the stubble that covered his chin.

  I ran for Jeremy screaming, “Leave him alone!” I didn’t get very far though. A cop very quickly caught me and carried me back to where I belonged. I kicked my feet and squirmed and tried to get away, but the cop’s grip was too tight. Helen and Robert were then being escorted out of their house by the cop who first came to the door. I screamed out Jeremy’s name. His eyes caught mine and he mouthed, “What did I do?”

  I mouthed back, “I have the slightest fuckin idea.”

  After the paramedics were done inspecting my sisters and I, we were put in the back of a cop car.

  “What in the hell is going on,” I shouted out, not really at my sisters, just out of anger. I looked over at Clarissa who sat in the middle of Isabelle and me. Her face was streaked with tears. Isabelle had her head leaning up against the window looking at the scene outside.

  “Is your boyfriend like a felon or criminal or something?” Clarissa asked.

  “No,” I shouted back at her. “I don’t know what’s going on. I have no idea why they’re arresting him.”

  “Maybe it’s a crime to puke in the street in Indiana,” Clarissa speculated.

  “That’s the stupidest thing anybody had ever said in the history of mankind,” Isabelle snipped sounding highly irritated. “Look around. Do you honestly think this is about a little pile of puke?”

  Clarissa started crying again. I put my arm around her shoulder.

  The front doors to the police car then opened and two officers climbed in. “We’ll get you down to the station where you girls will be safe,” said the one behind the driver’s wheel.

  “Safe from what?” Clarissa asked.

  “That psycho,” the cop in the passenger seat said.

  I really couldn’t tell what they looked like from where I where I was sitting. I just saw a couple of heads behind that wire barrier they had in the car. Sitting in the back made me feel like a criminal, even though I was pretty sure we weren’t the ones in trouble, but Jeremy shouldn’t have been in trouble either.

  “Psycho,” I crowed. “My boyfriend is not a psycho.”

  “You can try to explain that to your father,” the first cop said.

  Then I knew it. I should have known from the beginning that our father was somehow involved.

  ………………………………………………

  At the police station my sisters and I were stuck in a small cinder block room that was painted a very faint yellow and smelled like mushrooms. The three of us sat there for a while before anybody came in and said anything to us. At that point we still had no clue to what was going on.

  A female than entered the room wearing khakis and a blue buttoned down shirt. Her hair was cut short and a reddish color.

  “I’m Detective Henson,” she said extending her hand so we could shake it. I reached out first and pensively shook her hand. I wasn’t sure if I should be friendly to her or not because I didn’t know if we were in trouble for something or not.

  After me, Isabelle and Clarissa shook her hand, a silence filled the air.

  “Do you girls know why you’re here?”

  “We have the slightest idea, but should we be talking to you? Don’t we need a lawyer or something or a parent present?” I asked.

  “We contacted your father. He gave us permission to talk to you girls.”

  “Talk to us about what?” I asked.

  “About the abduction,” Detective Henson said looking at me very seriously.

  “But we didn’t abduct anybody,” Clarissa said.

  “Do you girls know why you here?” The detective asked again like we didn’t hear her the first time or something.

  “As I said, we have the slightest idea. Why did Jeremy get arrested?” I asked wondering how he was doing.

  “He’s your boyfriend,” Detective Henson stated.

  “Yes.”

  “Did he threaten you?” She asked.

  I scrunched up my nose. The detective seemed to of been given some false information. “Listen,” I said. “I don’t know who told you what, but this is what happened. My boyfriend Jeremy drove us to Indiana to find our mother’s parents, so we could see if they had any information on her whereabouts. On the way we stopped for food and Jeremy got food poisoning from a green hotdog and we got to Helen and Robert’s house and Jeremy stayed in the car and we met Helen and Robert and then Jeremy barfed in the street and I went outside and got him and Robert made him some tea and we were told wonderful stories of our mother who we never met and then the door was kicked in and we were dragged away and nobody bothered to tell us what was going on and that is what happened. I don’t know what my father told you, but he is a liar. He’s probably mad because we snuck out when we were supposed to be imprisoned in our house and we went to meet actual family members which our father has been trying to keep us away from our whole lives. All right!” I then let out a deep breath. I didn’t pause the whole time I was on my rant. It left me a little breathless.

  “So you girls went with Jeremy willingly and he wasn’t armed?” Detective Henson asked.

  “No, is that what our father said. Is that what this was about? Jeremy took us against our will.”

  “And stole a car,” Detective Henson said.

  “That’s his mother’s car,” I snapped.

  Detective Henson stood up. “Girls stay here a moment. I’ll be back. It’ll be a bit before your father gets here.” She then left the room.

  “I can’t believe this,” I said after Detective Henson left. “This is all our father’s fault. Why would he do this to us?”

  Isabelle shook her head. “I have the slightest idea. How did he find out where we were or who we were with?”

  “Mr. Carl,” Clarissa shouted out. “I bet he called him after we left.”

  “But why would they say that we were abducted?” I asked truly perplexed. I drummed my fingers on the gray folding table we sat at. “They’re up to something.”

  …………………………………………………..

  After a bit Detective Henson came back and led us to a wooden bench where she said we could wait for our father. I still had no idea what happened with Jeremy or where he even was. We sat there for about an hour and it seemed like everybody showed up at once. First our father came and went and talked to the detective and a couple others. Then a brusque man showed up looking for Jeremy.

  “Where is he,” the man demanded. I was assuming it was Jeremy’s stepdad. He was taller in height, but not as tall as Jeremy and had a reasonable sized gut that hung over his jeans. He had no visible hair on top of his head. He followed a police officer down the hall and they disappeared. Then it was just my sisters and I again. After a bit I saw Helen and Robert heading our way.

  “Are you okay girls?” Helen asked. Her face seemed to of aged ten years since I saw her last.

  “We’re fine,” I
sighed.

  “This all keeps getting more and more bizarre,” Robert stated.

  “You’re telling me,” Clarissa said. “Just in a week we find out that our father is a cult leader and that we’re clones and then supposedly our sister’s deranged boyfriend kidnapped us!”

  “I’m glad you girls are okay,” Robert said.

  “I’m starting to think your father knows more about Grace’s disappearance than he is letting on. Maybe this is all about nobody finding out the truth. Maybe he thinks you girls are getting to close,” Helen said quietly.

  “I have the same feeling,” I said. “I’m so glad we were at least able to meet you.”

  “Me too sweetie,” Helen said embracing me in a hug.

  Over Helen’s shoulder I could see our father heading towards us at a brisk pace.

  “You leave my daughter alone,” he growled at her.

  “She’s my daughter too,” Helen asserted.

  “Like hell she is. Let’s go girls.”

  Helen then unexpectedly lunged at my father. “Where is Grace,” she screamed shaking his shoulders trying to reach for his neck.

  Our father tried to pry her hands off while Robert pulled on her pleading, “Helen, please.”

  “Would somebody get this crazy woman off of me?” Our father yelled.

  A couple cops appeared and separated the two of them.

  “Where is Grace,” Helen screamed while clawing the air trying to get back to our father.

  Our father then roughly grabbed Clarissa by the shoulder. “I said let’s go girls.”

  I watched Helen walk down the hall with the two officers. It looked like they were trying to calm her down. Jeremy then came from the back of the police station with his stepdad trailing behind him.

  He looked up and saw me. A big grin spread across his face. “Charlotte,” he said running towards me.

  The two of us met in an embrace. It felt so good to be in his arms. “I’m so sorry,” I cried apologizing for my father’s idiocy and dragging him into the whole mess.

  “You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said holding my face in both his hands. He bent down and kissed me. But we were quickly drawn apart. Our short sweet kiss lingered on my lips.

  I fought against my father who was pulling me by the hand. “Let me go,” I shouted.

  Jeremy’s stepdad shoved Jeremy forward, so he would start walking. “Move it,” his stepdad yelled.

  Jeremy looked up at me, right into my eyes. He said nothing, but I felt every loving word.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The car ride home that evening nothing was said. When we got home all of us went straight to bed. I was awoken the next morning by Ms. Dunderfeltz tugging at my blanket.

  “Get up, you’ll be late for school,” she said.

  “We have to go to school?” I asked. I figured perhaps our whole still slightly unexplained ordeal would have given us the chance to stay home.

  “It’s Monday,” she said. “You’re father told me to make sure you girls went to school.”

  I growled into my pillow. “Fine,” I said rolling over and sitting up.

  I got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. I turned on the shower and while I waited for it to get hot I looked in the mirror. I had large plum circled under my eyes that looked liked bruises. I definitely needed more sleep. As I was taking my shower Isabelle came in and sat on the toilet, with the lid down so you know, and talked to me as I tried to cleanse away the memories of our traumatizing evening.

  “What do you think Jeremy’s mom and stepdad will do to him? Do you think he’ll ever be able to see the light of day again?” Isabelle asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” I said as I washed my hair. “He didn’t do anything. It was all just our father’s lies.”

  “Do you think they will believe him?”

  “I sure hope so. The story is too implausible not to believe him.”

  “Yeah, I still don’t even believe it. Don’t use all the hot water,” Isabelle said leaving the bathroom.

  …………………………………………………………….

  On the corner of the street where we cross to get to the bus stop there was a few newspaper vending dispenser machines of sorts. I quickly glanced at the one newspaper and my eyes were stuck on it. I couldn’t peel them off. A picture of my sisters and me was plastered on the front. Above it the headline read, “Abducted teenage sisters found safe in Indiana.” I fumbled in my bag for some change, put the money into the machine and pulled out a newspaper. Isabelle bought the other city newspaper which had a picture of Jeremy being taken away in handcuffs on it.

  “Holy shit,” Clarissa yelped as the three of us stood on the street corner looking over the newspaper.

  “Why is this in the newspaper?” I asked. “Was our story really news worthy?”

  “If it’s in the paper I bet it was on the news too,” Isabelle said.

  “This is horrifying. Everybody at school is going to think Jeremy is some kind of criminal or something,” I said thinking of Jeremy wondering how he or his mother and stepdad would react to the picture in the newspaper.

  The light turned and the three of us walked across the street to the bus stop. Once at the bus stop I swear everybody simultaneously turned in our direction. I knew it was going to be a long day.

  On the bus I read the newspaper article and it almost made me want to laugh and cry all at the same time. It was all so ridiculous. According to the article we showed up at Mr. Carl’s apartment or as the newspaper said, Dr. Carl Williams, a highly respected professor and researcher at Bradwell University, and we seemed highly distressed and anxious. Jeremy seemed very overpowering and threatening. According to Dr. Williams we were shoved into Jeremy’s car and he sped away. Supposedly Mr. Carl seemed worried about our odd behavior. He phoned our father who instantly said he knew we were kidnapped. The article went on to talk about how distinguished and successful our father was and the whole time he was distraught fearing for our safety because according to him Jeremy had a history of being unstable, which made me laugh. He didn’t even know who Jeremy was. He had never met him. I knew our father was setting up something. I just wasn’t too sure what.

  …………………………………………………….

  Once at school I rushed through the halls with my head down not wanting to make eye contact with anybody. I made it to my locker and was pulling books from the top shelf when I felt a pair of arms wrap around me and lift me up into the air. I looked over my shoulder to find Jeremy.

  “Jeremy,” I said so relieved to see him. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” he said. “May I just kiss you?”

  He didn’t wait for my response. We were soon locked in a kiss, a kiss that seemed to have washed everything away at least just for a quick moment. His kisses seemed to have been able to do that. I wrapped my hands around his head in all of his hair and pulled him in closer. We fell against my locker locked in our kiss when I heard somebody making a noise like when someone needs to clear their throat. I looked over Jeremy’s shoulder and a teacher with a quite noticeable toupee stood there with his hands on his hips. We unlocked ourselves.

  “Sorry,” Jeremy said. “I can’t resist my kidnapping victim.”

  “That’s not funny sir,” the teacher said. “I saw the news. Nothing to joke about. Public displays of affection are not allowed,” he said then walking away down the hall.

  I leaned my head back against my locker and Jeremy put his hands on either side of it. “I’m surprised to see you in school,” I said.

  “I can say the same. Our parents suck for making us come to school today. I’ve been harassed since the second I stepped foot on campus. I will live out the rest of my high school days known as the kidnapper.”

  “You can kidnap me whenever you want to,” I declared smiling at him. He was the only thing I had to smile about that day or even in my life at the time. “How much trouble did you get i
nto?”

  “Oh God, you would have thought I seriously did kidnap the three of you at gunpoint and stolen a car.” The bell rang and Jeremy stroked my chin with his thumb. “Do we really have to go to class?”

  “I better,” I said. “If I don’t show up somebody might think you kidnapped me again.”

  “I guess,” he said slipping in one last quick kiss. “May I walk you to class?”

  “Why yes.”

  As we walked down the hall I think everybody in the school stared or pointed. Jeremy squeezed my hand. “Ignore them. It will pass.”

  We were almost to my class when somebody jumped on Jeremy’s back. It was the short drummer from his band.

  “Dude,” he said jumping down. “You flipped out last night and took your girlfriend and her sisters’ hostage. That’s some pretty serious shit.”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what happened,” Jeremy said shoving the guy away.

  “I saw your picture in the paper. You got frickin arrested?”

  “Yes,” Jeremy said turning red. “It’s actually kinda embarrassing.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’ll tell ya later. Have you formally met Charlotte?”

  “No, but I would say worthy of committing a crime.”

  The bell rang again. We were all officially late for class.

  “Talk to ya later,” Jeremy said to his friend.

  His friend slowly sauntered away, not seeming to care that he was late for class.

  “You have to learn to ignore Ron. He can be quite obnoxious at times,” Jeremy said giving me a kiss on the forehead. “Gotta get to class I guess.”

  I threw in a last embrace before class and walked the few feet away to my classroom. As soon as I entered into the classroom every person in the room turned in my direction. Did everybody in my school watch the news or did word spread that quickly? I tried to pretend not to notice and took my seat next to Lawrence.

  He turned in my direction with a big cheesy grin. “It’s like something right out of the movies.” He raised his eyebrows up and down.

  “Not really,” I said. “It was just all a big misunderstanding.”