But, of course, things did not go quite as planned. Today was supposed to be the first day of her three day paid vacation, it was actually a full week she had off from work but just the three days without the kids. The problem was that she also had the newly entrusted managerial duty of filling in the gaps in the schedule caused by those with a less than stellar work ethic. Charlene knew damn well that a few of the wait staff were taking advantage of the fact that they had a new boss to test the waters and see just how much slacking off they could actually get away with. Not much she could really do about, if she started firing people she would just have that much more work to make up for and the wait staff knew it.
So instead of spending today getting ready for the trip Abby and her had planned to go see Dave Mathews play his annual concert out at the Gorge Amphitheater, she spent the day waiting tables and dealing with whiny customers and even whinier employees. But as stressful as it was to now have to get everything done tonight so they could still make their early morning departure time for the two and a half hour drive to the Gorge, at least the damn workday was over.
Charlene let out a long, relieved sigh as she walked across the parking lot to her blue Toyota Camry. The air had gotten quite a bit chillier at night during these last few days of summer in the Pacific Northwest, not that it was uncomfortably cold, but it was coolerhi than it had been a couple weeks ago for sure. Charlene was glad to be heading out for the weekend, it was sure to be probably fifteen degrees warmer at the Gorge, and they planned to camp out there the night of the concert in the gigantic campground adjacent to the venue. The next day they were planning on heading out to Chelsea's sister's cabin she had rented out up in the Bavarian styled mountain town of Leavenworth.
Charlene desperately needed a break from the daily grind of working fulltime while also raising two children with little or no help from their dead beat father. Not that she minded being with little Alyssa and Bradley, matter of fact that was perhaps the only thing she really wanted to do was spend time with them. Her eleven year old daughter and nine year old son were her entire life. Everything Charlene did each day, from the moment her alarm woke her until she finally laid her head to rest on her pillow, was done with them in mind.
Her children were the reason why she practically worked herself to death almost every day. Up until recently she had been working two jobs; waiting tables at The Olive Garden and tending bar at the Sports Page, a local tavern down the road from her house. With pretty much zero help from Charlie, just getting the court ordered child support payments was like pulling teeth until a family court judge ruled to have his wages automatically garnished so she could get the damn payments, the main financial burdens all fell on her. Even with the child support, she still had to cover most costs because Charlie refused to put in one cent more than the court required. She had recently given her boss at The Olive Garden an ultimatum, that she get promoted to manager with a full time schedule or she was going to have no other choice than to start looking elsewhere for work. She explained that at her age of thirty five, with two young kids to support, she needed steady pay with much more set hours. Given that she had been there five years and was by far the hardest working employee on staff and would be much too hard to replace, she was granted her promotion. She was able to quit her second job at The Sports Page and spend more time with the kids and less money on day care.
Of course, raising an elven year old girl and a nine year old boy was more than a fulltime gig in itself, and as much as she adored her children, she needed a damn break before she had a nervous breakdown! That was what this weekend was supposed to be about, giving Charlene some much needed girl time with her best friend and giving the kids a chance to spend some time with their dad and their little cousin, Elizabeth out on the old family ranch. Well, the one little monkey wrench of having to spend the day at work was not going to let her lose her attitude about the whole weekend. Of course her fight with Charlie earlier this afternoon while she was on her lunch break did not help her mood any. He was all pissy that this was the weekend he was supposed to take the kids. Charlene’s trip had been planned months ahead of time, but ended up falling on the same day his buddy decided to plan a last minute trip to Las Vegas. This was all too common when it came to dealing with Charlie, and Charlene was upset with herself for letting him get to her. As much as she had come hate the little prick, the children loved their dad and they needed to spend more time with him. For all his contentious talk about not wanting to be stuck with them, for the most part he took decent care of them and she knew he would probably cool off once they were out at the ranch.
She sure as hell was not going to let him ruin her attitude either, she still had plenty of time to get her things ready for the trip, she was just going to have a lot less sleep tonight. No matter, she thought as she unlocked the door to the Camry and sat inside, I'll just beg Abby to drive out to the Gorge so I can catch up on some much needed sleep. She reached into her purse to fetch her cell phone so she could text Abby with the necessary updates, only to find yet another barrage of text message vulgarity from her ever so eloquent mongoloid of an ex-husband.
"WAY 2 FUKIN GO BITCH! U 4GOT THE KIDS FUCIN CLOTHES N SHIT"
Followed by, "UR FAULT!! DO NOT EVN TRY TO SAY SHIT NOW ALLISSA WONT STOP CRI IN"
Then wrapped up with, "ONE MOR THING BITCH! HOPE UR HAPY U RUIND UR KIDS WEEKND, UR FUKN FALT U HO! IM FUCKN DUN!!!!"
Charlene just held her cell phone and stared at the screen while her Camry sat there in the Olive Garden parking lot. She felt her pulse hammering away in her veins as her blood pressure began to go through the roof, she felt her face flush red and raise in temperature along with her rising anger, and she began shaking her head back and forth in disapproval as her face twisted into a furious frown.
"What the fuck, Charlie!" She screamed as she smacked her hand on the steering wheel, causing pain and numbness to shoot all the way up her arm. "Are you fucking serious?!" She became aware that was making a scene in the parking lot of her place of employment and took three long, deep breathes to try to calm herself. She told herself that she couldn't believe this, but immediately shot the thought down. Of course she could believe this, this was Charlie we were talking about here and when it came to Charlie, always expect the worst case scenario.
She immediately began texting him back with fury, making sure to note that she had indeed reminded him that he needed to bring extra toothbrushes and a change of clothes since he was picking them up straight from school and heading out to the ranch from there. In fact, if he bothered to scroll up on his text messages he would see where she reminded him just this morning. It became clear to her, however, that this was too much to text and her anger was making her thoughts race faster than her fingers could type so she just dialed his phone number, it went straight to voicemail. Either he was out of the service area or the asshole had intentionally turned off his phone just to spite her. Oh well, the kids will survive a night without a toothbrush and hopefully one of the responsible adults there, maybe Dennis or Charlotte, wouldn't mind taking a trip into town to get them some clean clothes and a toothbrush. They would probably have the same reaction she was having when they discovered the situation, she was not the only one who had grown used to dealing with Charlie's screw-ups. She sincerely hoped that Charlie would at least offer to reimburse them for the trouble, but doubted it.
Charlene wrapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she let herself decompress. She reassured herself that this was not a big deal and that it was just another case of Charlie being Charlie. At least he was only verbally abusive, she didn't have to worry about him beating the kids or anything that serious and she was so desensitized to his verbal slings that they were easily brushed off and forgotten. And while he was most certainly not what one would consider a responsible father, at least the kids would be safe with their dad for the weekend and she needed this little break for her precious sanity. If she was going to continue being super mom full time then
she damn well needed a pit stop before she exploded.
She started up her car and put it in reverse to back out of her employee parking spot. Before backing up, she exited out of the text messaging screen on her cell phone and was going to set the phone aside on the passenger seat when she saw that she had one voicemail. Probably just that fucking prick ranting and hollering about how life is so damn unfair that he has to actually be a father instead of a frat boy this weekend. She picked up the phone and looked at the blinking "voicemail" icon for a few seconds before tossing the phone back down.
"Fuck it!" She said aloud as she pulled out of her spot and made her way onto 124th avenue, then directly onto the I-405 North on ramp. Charlie's voicemail would still, unfortunately, be there when she got back home to her place in Bothell. Her natural instinct would be to immediately delete the message, not giving Charlie's words any more time than they were worth, but she still had to check just in case it was one of the children calling to tell her goodnight. She would listen to their words any time, any day. She realized as she merged onto the freeway that in her flurry of frustration she had totally forgotten to send that text update to Abby, Looks like that'll have to wait until I get home, too. She thought to herself.
~
The traffic had been fairly lite and she made it home in good time. When she pulled into her driveway of her small town house rental she shot off a text to Abby to let her know that she had made it home and was going to have a late night packing so she hoped Abby wouldn't mind driving tomorrow morning.
Abby texted back before she left the car, "Of course I'll drive ;-)" then a second text right after, "Yay! I'm so EXCITED!!"
Charlene replied, "Me too! :-)" then followed with, "BTW, my ex is real P.O.S!!!"
When she closed out the texting screen she once again saw the blinking "voicemail" icon. She decided to wait until she was inside to check it, she desperately needed to get out of her work clothes and into a shower, she felt suffocated by the aroma of olive oil and garlic bread sticks that was permeating her Camry from her work attire.
The shower provided the needed cleansing of both mind and body for her. She let herself drift off, blissfully thinking of pretty much nothing at all as the soothing warmth of the water flowed down her long brown hair soaked the rest of her weary body. She just stood there, with two hands on her shoulders and her head pointed down as the water ran over her, until the temperature began to go from hot to lukewarm. Even after she turned the shower knob to off she still just stood there in the shower for a minutes or so, just letting the stresses of the week flow away from her.
After she had dried off and tied her damp hair up in a towel, she put on the comfiest sweat pants and t-shirt she could find in her drawers she noticed that time on her clock was now 9:53. Shit, she thought, still have so much shit to get done! For a minute she contemplated just having a glass of wine and relaxing in front of the TV for a few before crashing for the night and waking up early in the morning to get packed. After brief consideration she realized she would more than likely hate life even more if she had to pack in an early morning mad rush before Abby showed up to pick her up. Better to just throw a few things into a bag and be done with it so she could really relax before going to bed for the night, even if it did make for a later night. Besides, she figured she only had three days of clothes to pack and the weather would be warm so she didn't have to worry about bringing extra layers or wool socks or anything. That just left her toiletries and road snacks, shouldn't actually take her more than an hour to have everything ready to go for the morning.
She remembered that voicemail icon blinking on the screen of her cell phone and figured she should check it now. It was already going on 10:00 and if the kids needed to talk to her it needed to be done now, assuming Charlie's phone wasn't still going straight to voicemail. She hit the flashing icon and hit the 'one' key on the phone screen for new messages.
It was Bradley, his voice sounded frightened and shaky, "Mommy? Mommy, we need you to come get us...please Mommy...me and Alyssa are so scared...Daddy was being really bad and now we need you to come and save us..." the message cut off right after those last soul chilling words, "come and save us".
Charlene just sat there on her bed, listening to the automated voice mail message ask her if she wanted to press seven to delete the message or nine to save it. She just hung up and set the phone down on the bed beside her. A knot was growing and twisting around in her gut, butterflies fluttered in her stomach like she was on a roller coaster and was about to get sick. It kept repeating in her head, "save us". She picked the phone back up and dialed Charlie's cell, only to once again be sent straight to voice mail. This time she did leave a message, "Charlie, is something going on out there? Why did Bradley leave me a message saying I needed to..?” those words slithered through her head, save us. "...To come and get him? He said he's scared and it sounds like your fault. Just, please call me back and let me know everything's okay." She hung up, knowing full well that if Charlie did get her message she would be a fool to actually expect a call back.
She decided to try the house number for the ranch house. It was 10:00pm, usually she would not call the house number this late but these were different circumstances. Chances are they would all still be up anyway since they were probably visiting and catching up, Charlie was probably being a belligerent ass by now, and it involved her children so she was calling regardless of whatever she may be interrupting. She found the house phone number in her contacts list and dialed it. As she listened to it ring she prayed that Charlotte or Dennis would answer, anyone but Charlie. The thing was, Charlie was the type of egotistical prick who would answer someone else's phone just to be an asshole.
Instead she reached Charlotte's answering machine, letting her know that she had reached the Henderson's home and they were not available right now. After the beep, Charlene paused for a second trying to figure out exactly what she was trying to say in her message, "Uh...hi, this is Charlene, I'm sorry for calling so late but I had a message from Bradley and I...I just wanted to make sure everything is all right, he sounded upset. Okay, well good night, bye."
She told herself that it was probably nothing, just kids being kids. They were probably playing a game or something and Bradley got upset and just wanted his mom. The kids were safe, even though their dad was an idiot, they had their Uncle Dennis and Grandma Carla to look after them. Charlotte too, none of them would let the kids get into any real trouble.
As she sat on her bed and tried to shake off the eerie feeling that crept through her she starting contemplating just tossing out her plans and going out to get her children. It was hard for her not to think that she needed too, her child left a scared message and she had an obligation to be there for him. Quit guilt tripping yourself, she thought, only to immediately go back to her son's words, "come and save us". As she went back and forth in her head about it she began to notice a light tapping sound coming from the bedroom window behind her. Tick, tick, tick, tick. She turned and notice two large crows on her window sill, both tapping their beaks on the glass. Both of the birds stopped their tapping when she looked over seemed to look directly at her before flapping their wings and cawing loudly at the window. It gave Charlene enough of a scare to make her jump up off the bed and onto her feet.
"What the hell?!" She exclaimed loudly.
The two crows flapped their wings so hard that she was sure they were about to break the glass. Then they just took off, away from her window into the night. By the sound of it, they were not alone. Charlene could hear the cawing of what sounded like hundreds of crows just outside the walls of her room. It was not all that uncommon to see these huge gatherings of birds in the area, there were quite a few wetlands around so large bird migrations were a common site most times of the year. But to see the two crows on her window, just tapping the glass, it was like they were trying to get her attention. She was not a very superstitious person but she did know that a black bird on your window was considered
a bad omen by many cultures, so two of them had to mean trouble. The timing was not lost on her either, this weird animal behavior occurring right after she heard the disturbing message from her so. Just a weird coincidence, she thought, I'm over stressed and I'm losing my freaking mind right now. I need to have a few days and I can't guilt myself out of this.
She decided not to spend any more time on creepy feeling and bird omens and went back to getting her things ready for her trip. But that was much easier said than done. The whole time she packed her tote bag with summer clothes and flip flop sandals she could not stop repeating Bradley's words in her head, "come and save us", and she could not just let go of the chill she felt when she heard that frightened tone in her little boy's voice.
"God damn it!" She yelled out to her empty town house as she reached for her phone again. She had to try the house phone one last time. She dialed once more and once more reached only Charlotte's answering machine, she did not bother with another message. She told herself she was just being a neurotic, over protective mama bear and that her cubs were all right. She was just having a cross between the guilt of leaving her children with their dipshit father while she was out having fun and separation anxiety from not having her children with her. It was becoming clear that she was verging on a full-fledged freak out. There was no way she was going to be able to have a good time and let loose this weekend if she didn't get to at least talk to someone there just to calm her nerves and let her know her son and daughter were okay. She knew that until she had such confirmation this would be the only thing on her mind all weekend.
Becoming the Gateway Page 11
