There was a pause on the other end of the phone, then Cameron said, “No matter what you choose, I’ll be behind you, okay?”
“Thank you Cameron… but there’s no possible way I’ll work for them. They didn’t just kick us when we were down, they shot us with a bazooka, then smashed our itty bitty remains under their boots. I’ve spent the worst year of my life crawling my way out of the hole they blew us into. And it might look like they’re offering me a ladder, but I have a feeling it’s a lot closer to a greased up slide into a much bigger hole.”
“You’re probably right. I just hate to see you stuck for fourteen more years with this debt,” he said.
“Maybe someone else will make an offer. Except—shit, they probably won’t let me sell to anyone before I settle the debt if they’re trying to force me into their deal.”
“What about filing for bankruptcy?” he asked.
“My dad looked into it right after this all happened. The debt is non-dischargeable because it was a DUI and that security guard broke his leg. I should have just given The Coffee Stop up in the first place—now I’m even more trapped than ever.”
“No, we’ll find a way through,” he said.
“Okay, if you say so. You doing okay?” I asked.
“Yep. I got a couple sweet kisses from a beautiful woman yesterday, and they’re keeping me going through another long day at the shop.”
“You working late? Maybe we could drop by.”
“Actually, I’m taking off at two-thirty today for a late lunch thing,” he said.
“With that amazing client?”
“Nope, a different one.”
“Alright, I need to go get Sarah from school,” I said.
“I’ll talk to you soon,” he said, before hanging up.
When I peeked out my front door, I found Clarke’s yard still empty. After stepping out of my house, I turned to lock my front door when my phone rang.
“Shit,” I whispered, fumbling it from my bag and turning it to silent. The screen flashed with the words ‘Sunset Estates Office’.
“Hello,” I answered in a quiet voice.
“Hello Jamie, this is Richard, the property manager of Sunset Estates,” a man’s voice came from the other end of the line.
Behind me, a door swung open, making a screeching sound.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Buster run out into Clarke’s yard.
“Hello? Ms. Scott?” Richard said.
“I’m here, sorry just one second,” I said in a low voice, walking quickly down the sidewalk.
When I reached my car, I realized my keys were still held out in my hands, my house key pinched between two fingers. I unlocked my car, and once I was inside said, “Thank you so much for getting back to me.”
“No problem. Is there any way I could have you come down to the office to discuss your housing situation?” he asked.
“Right now?”
“That would definitely work for me,” he said.
“Sorry, but I’m on my way to pick up my daughter,” I said.
“Well, we can definitely make an appointment for later in the week,” he said.
“I can come in thirty minutes, I just need to pick up my daughter and then I could be right back there,” I said.
“I have a meeting with some prospective renters in half an hour,” he said.
“I thought all the units were full,” I said.
“We might have some openings next month,” he said.
“Oh good. But honestly Richard, could we meet later today, maybe after your appointment? I can’t keep living like this,” I said.
“I am sorry, Ms. Scott. I do have some time open tomorrow during the day,” he said.
“I have to work and then my daughter has gymnastics, but could we make some time over the phone maybe?”
“Yes, that’ll work for me,” he said.
I started up my car. “Would three-thirty work?”
“That’ll work,” he said.
“Thank you so much. I really need this,” I said before backing up my car.
When I arrived at Coral Elementary School, the children had already exited the school’s doors and dispersed like colorful fish in a coral reef. Ms. Brown stood with one hand looped in Sarah’s back pack, her gaze roving back and forth over the parking lot.
I pulled the car in front of the pair. Climbing out of the car, I rushed around the front. “I am so sorry. I’m running late,” I said.
Sarah’s head shot up to look at me. “Mom!” she screamed, plowing into me. She made a loud sound, smacking her head into my stomach again.
“Baby,” I said, running a hand over her hair. I looked up into Ms. Brown’s face.
She pushed up her glasses, her face set in a grimace.
“How was today?” I asked.
“Well—it was pretty rough. Yeah, I’d call it a rough day.” She gestured out to Sarah. “Nothing really bad happened, she just didn’t want to listen and we had a really hard time calming her down. She’s been really emotional.”
I squeezed Sarah tighter to me. “Oh, sweetie.” I looked back to Ms. Brown. “But no—hitting or anything?”
“Yeah—yeah she was hitting me a lot, but not hard.” She held her hands out in a reassuring gesture. “And not the other kids.”
“Oh, I—I am so sorry,” I said.
“It’s okay. Did anything happen… like at home, that could have set her off?” she asked.
“Yeah, um, we stayed at her aunts’ house last night because our complex was spraying chemicals. Everything was fine, but then she had a pretty intense morning.”
I leaned over to open Sarah’s car door. “Time to get in, angel.”
When she refused to release her hold on me, Ms. Brown asked in a quiet voice, “Did they spray chemicals today?”
“No, I think we can go back to our usual schedule,” I said in an equally quiet voice.
“Alright, I need to head into a meeting. Goodbye Sarah, see you tomorrow.”
Sarah made no response, just continued to hold onto me.
“Thank you so much,” I said to Ms. Brown as she backed away from us with a concerned look still heavy on her face.
“Sarah, if you don’t let go of me, we can’t drive home,” I said.
Sarah leaned back. “Mom, are we going to Pizza Arcade today?”
“Um, not today baby, but we can do something else fun if you want. Pick a place, like the beach or the playground or a restaurant, and we’ll go there.”
“I want to go home,” she said.
“Okay, climb on into your seat,” I told her.
Day Four: Two-fifty
The moment I sat in my car, my phone dinged with a text.
Chris: I think it was just a twenty-four-hour bug. I’ll definitely be at work tomorrow.
Me: I am so sorry Chris, I meant to check up on you. I’m glad you’re feeling better. Unfortunately, the offer was a bust. I have a lot to tell you.
Chris: Too bad. See you bright and early.
After buckling Sarah in, I slowly drove through the lot and back onto the road.
“Mom, can we listen to the kids’ CD?” Sarah asked.
When I pressed the button for the CD, the song we had last been listening to blared out, “He rode right to Miss Mousie's den, mm mm, mm mm…” I skipped past the song. A new song played with a group of kids singing, “Itiskit, Itasket, green and yellow basket, I wrote a letter to my love, And on the way I dropped it…”
I sang along under my breath all the way back to our apartment.
When I circled the lot, Clarke’s spot was once again vacant.
Parking in my own spot, I reached back and unbuckled Sarah’s seatbelt.
Sarah screamed at me and tried to fasten the latch back into the seatbelt receptacle.
“I’m sorry! I forgot! Sarah—wait, I’ll help you,” I said.
She furiously pushed my hands away.
“Sarah, let me buckle you back in and then you can unbu
ckle yourself—there,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender.
Sarah took another minute to calm down but finally unbuckled her own seatbelt.
“Okay, let’s just go home,” I said.
We climbed out of my car. The leaves on the bushes around my duplex rustled softly, swaying back and forth. The building cast a severe shadow across the entire walkway. Goosebumps ran up my arms.
I pulled out my keys to unlock my house, sticking the key in my lock but the door simply pushed open.
“Huh?” I whispered, hand still hovering with my keys in the lock.
Sarah barged forward through the door.
I grabbed her around her torso and held her to me. “Wait baby.”
I turned on the hallway light, glancing around what I could see of the living room and kitchen. I examined every inch of the kitchen, then moved into the living room, keeping Sarah’s hand in mine. I continued looking through the bathroom, checking behind the shower curtain, and then into the bedrooms.
When the entire house was searched, I locked the front door.
“I want to watch the artistic women’s beam final from the North Greenwich arena at the London Olympics.”
“Right now the choices are to read books or do art, baby. You didn’t have the best day at school today and we have to earn videos,” I said.
I pulled some art material down from the shelf, and went to Sarah’s room to grab a couple books from her shelf.
“I’ll do art in books,” Sarah said, grinning with a crayon in her hand.
“Ha. Not in those books.” I grabbed them back off the table. “I’ll go get your coloring books.”
I walked back to the room, grabbing Sarah’s coloring books and leafing through their pages on my way back to her. “This one has a lot of free pages,” I said, handing it to her. “Alright, I’m going to be right back.”
Turning, a low buzzing started ringing in my ears. Concentrating on my breathing, I walked slowly back into my bedroom. From the doorway I could see where my underwear drawer had been left just the slightest bit open. I glanced around the room again, but just as when I’d checked five minutes ago, I didn’t see anything else out of place.
Closing the distance, I slid the drawer open. At first glance, I only saw the same lacey thongs that had been lying haphazardly in my drawer since this morning, but then I saw it. I dug my hand through my other underwear and pulled out a gray boy-short pair.
“Oh my god,” I whispered.
The underwear slipped from my fingers and back into the drawer.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, thumbing through my contacts and calling Gina.
“This is Gina,” she answered.
“Gina, this is Jamie, I think he came into my house when I wasn’t here,” I said.
“Whoa, slow down there Jamie. You neighbor came into your house?” she asked.
“I, um, yeah, I think so.”
“What happened? Did you leave your house unlocked or did he break in?”
“He must have broken in. I locked…wait I—I was going to lock it but then the property manager called and… I didn’t lock it,” I said.
“How do you know there was an intruder?” she asked.
“He left a pair of my underwear, one of the ones that went missing from the laundry,” I said.
“Now Jamie, I’m only going to ask you this because this is the first question many people will ask you, but I want you to know that I believe you that this man is harassing you; is there any way that you just accidentally didn’t include this underwear in your laundry and they’re lying around the house?”
“They were in the laundry, I know for a fact they were there,” I said.
“I believe you. Are you still in the house?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“You need to leave,” she said.
“I can’t Gina, it’s too hard on Sarah. She gets so thrown off when her routine is messed up, especially on the weekdays. It’s not fair to her to be moving her around like this,” I said.
“We are talking about the safety of you and your child,” she said.
“I just—I just can’t do it to her right now,” I said.
“Is there anyone who can stay with you?” she asked. “I have designated driver duties, but I can cancel if you need me.”
“I’ll call someone,” I said.
“Promise me you’ll call someone, and I’m hoping that someone is your dad,” she said.
“It won’t be my dad, but I will call someone and ask them to come here. I’ll probably call Cameron,” I said.
“As long as I have that guarantee from you, and that you’ll call me if he can’t come,” she said.
After I hung up with Gina, I scrolled down my contacts, until I found Cameron’s number. Taking a deep inhale through my nose, I pressed the call button next to his name.
After three rings, a woman’s voice answered with, “Cameron’s phone.” Her voice was accompanied with the loud sound of people chattering along with a periodic tinkling.
I didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and then I said, “Oh, I’m so sorry, is he busy?”
“Darn it. I can’t hear you… I am so sorry, I’m in a really loud restaurant. Cameron has one of these blasted old fashioned flip phones and I have no idea how to turn up the volume. Is this the client he’s waiting for a call from?”
Her deep melodic voice, the way she said his name… I realized who it was. Blinking around my room in surprise, I walked over to my bed and took a seat. “Vanessa? It’s Jamie,” I said.
“I am so sorry… I can’t hear a word you are saying. I know he’s waiting for your call, but he stepped out to go get something from his car. Can he call you back in just a minute?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Shoot, I still can’t hear you… I’m just going to assume you said yes and I’ll tell Cameron that you called,” she said.
“Thanks,” I said, hanging up.
Grabbing a pillow from the head of my bed, I pushed my face into it and screamed. I screamed until I needed to come up for air, and then I took a deep inhale, pressed my head back into the pillow and kept screaming.
After what felt like forever, I dropped the pillow onto my lap. Squeezing my eyes shut, my fingers rubbed my eyelids. I looked back to my phone, scrolling down my contact list. Finding the name of the one person in the world I wanted over at my house right now, I texted her.
Me: Will you spend the night at my house?
After a couple minutes with no response, I stood up and walked into the kitchen to check on Sarah.
“Hey, angel, are you hungry?” I asked.
“I am hungry for milk. What are you hungry for, Mom?” she asked.
“I am thirsty for water,” I said.
My phone beeped and I scrambled to pull it out of my pocket.
Amy: Tonight?
Me: Yeah.
Amy: Yeah, sure. Everything okay? Do you still have a wireless connection?
Me: Yes to the wireless. I am having a horrendous day, I have a seriously creepy neighbor, Cameron is on a lunch date with Vanessa and you were right about Patrick and his family, they’re super villains from an evil empire.
Amy: I definitely didn’t say that. I can be over in about three hours. I might have to do some work over there, though.
Me: That’s fine.
Amy: How creepy is your neighbor?
Me: Like I need to move creepy. Don’t tell dad.
Amy: I won’t, but you have to tell me about what’s going on. I also want to hear about this Vanessa thing. I’m going to finish what I have to do here so I can head home and pack a bag to come over.
Me: Thank you so much.
After pouring a glass of milk for Sarah, I sat beside her.
“Can I have that one?” I asked, pointing to a picture
She glanced over, “Yes.”
Taking a blue crayon from the box, I started working the color between the lines. After I had finished coloring
in half the picture, I paused to look over at Sarah.
“Everything is going to be okay. It’s all really tricky right now, but I am going to make all of these things right, I promise you. I’m going to make it work.”
Sarah looked up at me, smiled, then turned back to her drawing.
This is the end of Volume Two of The Fourteen Day Soul Detox.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Volume Three.
Volume Three
Day Five
Stick it to the Woman
Day Five: Five-fifteen AM
My eyes opened to a rattling sound on my roof. Standing, I climbed off the bed and away from where Sarah was sleeping as carefully as possible. When I lifted up a blind on my window, faint morning light fed through a stream of rain water.
I cringed as the rattling sound grew in volume, looking back to where Sarah was fast asleep.
Her leg was hooked over her blanket, pulling it down and I slid the blanket around her and covered her again.
Stepping out into the hall, I found Sarah’s bedroom light on. The scent of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the air.
I popped my head into Sarah’s room to find Amy sitting on Sarah’s bed, her fingers clicking quickly over the keyboard of her laptop.
“You’re killing me, Amy,” I said, groaning.
“I’m sorry, Jamie, did I wake you?” she asked, looking up with cheaters poised on her nose.
“It’s the smell. I’m going to start floating toward the coffee pot like an old cartoon.”
The Fourteen Day Soul Detox, Volume Two Page 13
