Far Country

by Malone, Karen

  “Ah but that’s not all,” Reverend Graham interrupted Steve. “By morning, David will find that he has new orders to leave by oh nine hundred, where he and a select few other exemplary marines will undergo two weeks of training with the Navy Seals in Norfolk, Virginiaaaa,” Reverend Graham held up a finger to hush Steve’s next comment, “folloooohwed by a temporary assignment in Charlotte, where he will replace a recruiter who’s also misbehaving and needs to be reassigned.”

  George stared at the old man in the beat up black Toyota in awe. “Who ARE you?” He asked.

  Reverend Graham smiled at the boy, liking what he saw. “Just a former navy chaplain, still serving a higher power,” he replied modestly.

  A few minutes later, the three men saw David’s black Viper cruise past the end of their road. Steve could just make out David sitting hunched and irritated in the driver’s seat, cammies still unbuttoned and his cover jammed low on his forehead.

  George looked from Steve to Reverend Graham impressed. “Awesome work!” He congratulated them. “And here I thought all you Christians ever did was sit around on clouds playing harps.”

  Reverend Graham clapped George on the shoulder. “That’s just the devil’s propaganda, son,” he told the boy. “Haven’t you ever heard ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’? Not one word about harps and clouds. Being a Christian puts you in the Lord’s army, and often includes guerrilla warfare.

  “Now gentlemen,” Reverend Graham said, getting back into his Toyota. “I think it is time we pay Beth a visit.”

  Ch 32

  Rescue Mission

  “Answer the door, Beth,” Steve muttered, as he rang the bell for the third time. After a moment, George shouldered Steve out of the way.

  “Here, let me,” he said in exasperation. He pulled his driver’s license out of his back pocket and shimmed it through the door jam. George wiggled the knob and with a soft click, the door drifted open. He shrugged at the sight of his companions’ raised eyebrows. “Sometimes I crash on the couch when my step dad and me aren’t getting along,” he explained. “We look out for each other,” he added defiantly, and then stepped inside.

  “Beth, you’ve got visitors!” He bellowed up the stairs. “That reverend, and your diving buddy, Steve!” George paused to listen for some sort of response but the silence dragged on. George moved to the first landing on the staircase and paused uneasily.

  “They really need to talk to you, Beth, so just come down and get it over with!” He called again, his tone now half pleading, half commanding.

  George wet his lips with his tongue. “Beth, if you don’t come down I’m coming up to get you,” he warned, but still there was no reply.

  George let out a muffled curse and bolted up the steps two at a time. A moment later, his voice came down to them. “Steve! Help me!”

  Steve realized that he was already poised on the bottom step, and quickly followed the sound of George’s voice through a large bedroom and into the master bath.

  “Oh Lord…,” Steve paused and took in the scene. Beth’s indulgently feminine tribute to the Victorian era bath was now a mess of broken glass and streaks of blood. Glass apothecary jars lay in broken shards around the base of the claw foot tub. The ornately patterned pink and white wallpaper was torn and gouged where the heavy jars had smashed against the wall. Beth sat limply in the middle of it all, her head resting on the side of the tub. Blood trickled from a gash above her eye, and her hands and legs were crisscrossed with bloody cuts from the glass shrapnel. Bruises and red welts covered her arms.

  George had already soaked a pink and white striped towel that he had pulled from the ornate rack. Heedless of the glass, he knelt beside her and dabbed awkwardly at the blood that still trickled from the gash down into Beth’s eyes. “We’re here now, Beth,” he crooned soothingly. “Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you any more. You’re safe.”

  Beth winced at his clumsy attempts to wipe off the blood, and lethargically turned her head away. “Tripped and fell on the wet floor,” she mumbled tiredly through bruised and swollen lips. “Tha’sall. Leave me alone, George - be all right in a little while.”

  George's blue eyes seethed in anger, but he managed to keep his voice low. "Beth, I can't believe you are lying to me, after all the times I've shown up at your door with a bloody lip!" Then his eyes welled with uncontrollable tears. He wiped them away on his hand as he looked at her with helpless reproach. "Why didn't you come with me, Beth? Why did you go back up the stairs to this?"

  Steve called down the stairs to Pastor Graham. “Call 911,” he said quietly. “David did quite a number on her.” He stepped back into the bathroom and crossed the tiled floor carefully, crunching glass with each step. He crouched down next to the battered girl. “Beth!” He called gently, shaking her arm, but she didn’t respond to his voice. Steve was uncertain if she was simply ignoring them, or if she was partly unconscious. With all the bruising on the outside of her, it was a very real possibility that she might have internal injuries as well. He glanced around at the glass strewn across the floor and decided moving her was his only choice.

  “George, we’ve got to move her,” Steve said after a third attempt to rouse her brought no better results. “I’ll lift her shoulders, you pick her up under her legs,” he instructed. A few moments later, they lowered her onto the bed. Beth’s eyes fluttered open at last.

  “Just leave me here, I‘ll be better in the morning,” she moaned, curling herself into a protective ball.

  “Sorry, sweetie,” Steve apologized. “I know you’re a nurse, but the view from here says you’re gonna need more than a good night’s sleep. EMS is on the way.”

  “No!” Beth protested. “I’m Okay! It was just a stupid accident!”

  Steve rolled his eyes. “Beth, David is gone. You’re safe. You can quit pretending.”

  “He’ll be back,” she whispered fearfully. “He just got called in to clear up some paperwork. He said he’d be back in a couple of hours.”

  Reverend Graham stepped up beside the bed and rested a fatherly hand on her blood matted hair. “No, Beth,” he soothed her. I spoke with his C.O. David won’t be back here tonight - or for a long time. We’ll see to that," he added grimly.

  Beth’s blue eyes welled with tears, as she recognized the pastor’s voice. “Reverend Graham?” She whispered through her swollen lips. She clutched his hand and began to cry softly. “I’m so ashamed, pastor.”

  Reverend Graham held the bloodstained hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “He should be ashamed, Beth, not you,” Reverend Graham replied fiercely. Then he mustered a smile. “But let’s not think about him, right now. We need to get you to the hospital.”

  “Noo!” Beth groaned again. “Don’t call!” She begged him. “I don’t want them to see me. Not like this!”

  “Too late,” he answered her firmly. “I’ve already made the call, and they’ll be here in just a few minutes. You’re more hurt than you realize, young lady,” he scolded her gently. “You really don’t have a choice.”

  He looked around and pulled a small chair closer to the bed and sat down, never letting go of her hand. When he spoke again, his voice was gruff and protective. “It WILL be Okay, Beth. I will be right here with you , the whole way. And don’t worry about seeing your co-workers. They care about you, too. They will be there for you, you’ll see! You won’t have to go through this alone.”

  Too exhausted and hurt to argue any more, Beth stared miserably out of the window, fat tears leaving pink trails through the bloodstains on her face.

  Steve paced the room angrily, then finally bolted down the stairs to wait for the ambulance outside. Once they did arrive, it only took a few minutes for the team to transfer Beth to a gurney and load her into the back of the ambulance. They allowed Reverend Graham to ride in the back with her, so George drove Reverend Graham’s Toyota, and Steve followed in his SUV.

  An hour later, a grim middle-aged woman came out to the lobby and sat down next to the three men.
She absently swept her dark hair back from her eyes and sighed. "I’m Doctor Adler. I treated Beth, and she gave me permission to speak with the three of you, since she doesn’t have any other family around here.”

  “And?” George asked leaning forward anxiously.

  “Bad enough,” she answered bluntly. “Contusions everywhere. Cracked ribs, internal bleeding. He worked her over pretty good..." She permitted a half-smile to cross her lips. "Chances are you saved her life.”

  She looked them over, as if assessing their reliability. “We’ve fixed everything we can, for now. She’ll be in the hospital for a couple of days and then she’ll be ready to go home. I’d like someone to stay with her, though, while she recovers.”

  “She’ll stay with my wife and me,” Reverend Graham spoke up before Steve or George could reply. “She will need a woman to help her with some things, and maybe Hester can get her to open up and talk about what happened.”

  Doctor Adler nodded her approval. “That’s good. But I am still concerned about the man who did this. Will he leave her alone?”

  Steve and Pastor Graham looked at each other. “I think she’s got about a year that he will be out of the area. I can’t guarantee, though, that he won’t come back to town at some point. We know from experience that he doesn’t forgive or let go easily.”

  “I don’t know why she doesn’t just put him in jail!” George burst out angrily.

  “She’s got enough evidence that he attacked her. You all saw what he did!”

  “I’ve talked to her about it,” Doctor Adler told George. “She is refusing to press charges. She admits that they had a fight, but she claims that she slipped on the wet bathroom tiles and cracked her ribs when she fell against the tub. The police might try press charges on her behalf, but in most cases he’s going to be back on the street in no time at all. The problem doesn’t’ really go away.”

  “This is nuts,” George muttered. “She’s pretty! She’s got a good job and she’s smart. Why would she let a guy beat her like that and then lie about what happened?”

  “Reverend Graham shrugged. “It happens more than you’d believe, George. Part of it is embarrassment. Part of it is denial and a belief that they can change the guy. And often, its fear of what will happen if she does try to break it off or get away.”

  “So you think she’s doing the right thing?” George asked him in disbelief.

  “No, actually I don’t, but I do understand it.” Pastor Graham rubbed the back of his neck wearily and looked at his watch. “I cant believe it’s only seven o’clock!”

  Doctor Adler smiled again in understanding. “This as been a lot of stress. You boys might as well go on home. I’ve sedated her and she’ll sleep through the night. There’s nothing more you can do for now.”

  Steve nodded. They thanked the doctor and walked to the exit. Steve shook Pastor Graham’s hand. “Thanks for all your help. Who knows what he’d have done to her if you hadn’t been able to get to his C.O.”

  Reverend Graham smiled. “We do what we can. God does the rest. For now, we must continue to pray.”

  “I know I’ll be praying for Beth,” Steve said.

  “Don’t forget about David,” Pastor Graham reminded him gently.

  Steve shoved his hands in the pockets of his shorts uncomfortably. “It’s getting harder to do that, sir,” he said after a moment.

  “It’s not easy,” Reverend Graham agreed, “but it’s what our Lord requires.”

  Steve closed his eyes for a moment. Once again the night of the crash flashed through his mind. He remembered David’s anguished howl of grief on the phone. How different would all of their lives have been if that night had never happened? How different would David be? Slowly, Steve nodded. “You’re right, of course,” He replied hollowly. “I’ll pray for David.”

  George listened to their exchange, shaking his head in disgust. “Maybe I’ll pray too – pray that he gets hit by a bus!” He stalked out of the exit door, calling over his shoulder. “I’m gonna go spend the night on the boat – see if I can fix the radio or something. Call me if anything happens.”

  Steve and Reverend Graham watched the angry young man stride across the parking lot and disappear into the shadows.

  Steve sighed wistfully. “Sometimes I miss being able to think like that,” he said truthfully.

  Reverend Graham laughed tiredly. “Me too. Even after all these years, it doesn’t get any easier.”

  Steve looked at Reverend Graham unhappily. “What do I tell his parents? Should I say anything?” His shoulders slumped. “I feel as if I’ve single handedly destroyed their children.”

  Reverend Graham rested a big hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Steve, you can’t be responsible for David’s choices. Tonight, it is possible that you stopped David from becoming a murderer. Take comfort in knowing that. Beth told me on the way to the hospital that the phone call came just in time.”

  His words sent a chill through Steve. “I should have gone back! George was right. We shouldn’t have left her alone with him!” Steve said remorsefully.

  “You couldn’t know what he was going to do, Steve, and George said himself that she refused to leave the house. If you had tried to intervene, it might have been even worse. Be grateful we got her out in time, and that he’s going away from a few months. I’ll work on her in the meantime. You’ve done all you can do. It’s up to God now.”

  Steve drove home and climbed the stairs to his childhood bedroom. His mother had left the room untouched over the years, and he had done little to change it during his convalescence. His old football was still on the shelf, lying next to the baseball he had used to pitch one perfect no hitter. On the wall was a picture collage that Sarah had made of the two of them. It hung beside his bed. Steve paused in front of the picture collage. Shots of himself and Sarah at the beach, dressed for proms, even the playbill from Oklahoma, with a shot of the entire cast. Steve smiled as he realized that Deborah was in the picture, too. Sarah had always been so jealous…and so wasn’t David, he recalled suddenly.

  Steve thought back to their high school years: David the football star; David, the track star; David, the Prom King; David, always with a different girl.

  Except…Heather. Heather had been David’s girl sophomore year, Steve recalled. She had been extremely pretty, with dark eyes and hair – and such a flirt! She had driven David crazy...

  Steve went cold. He also remembered Heather in a cast with a broken arm, caused by a clumsy fall from her bike. There had been a black eye too…something about getting hit by a baseball? And a badly sprained wrist, once. Heather had always laughed about her accident prone ways, always with David close by her side. Then Heather had moved away suddenly to Quantico. The story was that she was going to live with her older sister while her husband was deployed that year. Now, Steve wondered.

  Had David’s jealousy caused any of those accidents? Maybe, the pattern of David’s behavior had already been set long before he and Sarah had gotten into that car after graduation…

  Troubled and exhausted, Steve threw himself down on the bed, wanting to forget. But it was a long time before sleep found him.

  Ch 33

  In Denial

  Steve sat at the Bolton’s dining room table, sipping on a cup of cold coffee. Gracie had been tucked into bed over an hour ago, and he had just finished telling Lee Ann and Richard what had happened the day before at Beth’s house. He sat now, staring uncomfortably into his nearly empty coffee mug, waiting for David’s parents to absorb the news that their only son had violently abused a woman, and had been spirited away by his command to defray the situation.

  A police report lay unread on the table between them. Neither Lee Ann nor Richard had made any attempt to reach for it. Steve wondered if he should offer to leave now, to give them time alone.

  Finally, Lee Ann stirred. “This girl, Beth Stewart – you say she will recover fully? She asked in a strangely detached voice.

  Steve nodded. “So I
’m told.”

  Richard had taken off his glasses and was chewing absently on the ear piece. “And she doesn’t intend to press charges.” It was a statement, not a question.

  Steve shook his head slightly. “The doctor and Pastor Graham both talked to her. She refused. The city police have turned it over to the military. His C.O. will insist that he take anger management classes. But it will go on his record, even if she doesn’t press charges.”

  Richard snorted. “What a joke! Ridiculous!”

  Steve blinked in surprise. “Excuse me?”

  Richard leaned back in his chair. “There were no witnesses! David hasn’t even been back two weeks. Why would he beat her up? She probably got beat up by an old boyfriend and she’s blaming it on my son!”

  “She didn’t blame anyone,” Steve told them. “And nobody was at the house except David. We watched him leave the house!”

  Richard looked at Steve with a cold eye that Steve found disconcertingly like his son’s. “Did you ever see him hit her? Did this - George fellow – ever see him hit her? How do you know it wasn’t George who hit her in the first place?”

  Steve looked at Richard in disbelief. “George was with me! He had to come get me from the dive site, because David took the keys to Beth’s cruiser and left me stranded. Besides, he’s just a kid that Beth lets live on her boat when his step dad gets drunk and he needs some place safe to crash.”

  Lee Ann spoke up. “So you know this girl, too?

  David frowned slightly. “She goes to church with us, Lee Ann. You met her during vacation Bible School this summer. She’s the one who got me into diving.”

  Lee Ann nodded. “I remember – the blonde girl. So you’ve been spending a lot of time with her this year, yourself.” The implications of her words stretched into a lengthy silence.

  “What are you trying to say, Lee Ann?” Steve asked her quietly.