Twisted Pursuits

by Krystal Morrison

  “Don’t worry, I know you miss her but she’ll be back soon”, he must be referring to Anna going away to Mexico on her honeymoon, she sobbed harder at the realization. He took her to bed and pulled her against his chest, murmuring soothing nothings to her while he stroked her hair and face until eventually, weariness overcame her and she slept.

  After that night she had developed a sense of complacency. He would not have taken such consideration with her, she decided, if he did not at least care for her. The months had simply flown by after that; she had decided to finish school online with Anna as much to facilitate her full time job with the band as well as to support Anna who was now almost eight months pregnant and participating in online classes as well. Everything was going great between her and Jordan, they had small disagreements over trivial matters such as the fact that her job was affecting her health, but in the end they always compromised. There was one exception though; Nana. She tried to go home at least two days every week and each time she became more nervous that the older woman would discover her secret especially after what took place when she'd returned home from Negril.

  Roughly a week after she had returned from Negril, she was home in the kitchen doing the dishes when she felt a painful grip on her arm which forced her to turn around.

  “What the hell is this?” Nana’s grip tightened on her arm, forcing her to look at the image of her in the newspaper, “how do you think the church brethren are going to view this?”

  “You know how the press is Nana”, she could hear the tremor in her voice.

  “Talking about the press, you are almost naked”, Nana barked, her hold on Lauren taking on a bruising force.

  “Nana you’re hurting me”, she yelped.

  “You better be careful, you hear me”, Nana shoved her against the counter, she bit her lip not to cry out as the soft flesh of her back came into contact with the hard surface of the kitchen sink.

  Shaking aside the bad memories, she resolved to look towards the future. She would simply have to move out sooner than she had hoped. She wondered when she would develop the nerve to do it.

  She yawned, her eyes drifting closed. She wished Jordan was here, she missed him terribly already. That was her last thought before sleep overcame her.

  She was awoken by the scent of freshly baked biscuits wafting beneath her nose. She had become addicted ever since Mrs. Stewart had baked it for her for the first time last month.

  “Wake up sleepy head”, Jordan chuckled as she opened her eyes.

  “Couldn’t you wake me!” she exclaimed as she saw that dusk had fallen.

  “You need you’re rest”, he declared; “besides you look much better”.

  “I really shouldn’t eat any more of these”, Lauren said over a mouthful of biscuit based with butter, “I’m gaining too much weight”.

  “The more the merrier”, Jordan kissed the tip of her nose playfully, “besides you look the same to me”.

  “Whatever”, she rolled her eyes.

  “Lauren”, he said gently, his eyes serious, “please let me take you to see a doctor”.

  “OK”, she said in a small voice, averting her eyes to the plate on her lap, maybe her mother had passed on some unknown ailment to her, besides he had been pressuring her for the past month or so to visit the doctor.

  “Saturday at twelve”, he probed.

  She nodded, tomorrow was Christmas, so she would be spending it along with Friday with her Aunts, so Saturday was as good a day as any. That settled he took the fork from her grasp and fed her the remnants of the plate along with a glass of milk. He offered to take her to dinner but she objected. All she wanted was to lie in his arms and make love all night and they did just that.

  LAUREN GLANCED AT HER WATCH, eleven o’clock. Although she dreaded going to the doctor she was dying to see Jordan. One more thing before she left, her jacket, she turned towards the closet to retrieve it.

  “How far along are you?” Nana’s cold voice pierced through her reverie. Lauren had not heard her enter the room.

  “What!” Lauren exclaimed, turning from the closet, her jacket forgotten for the moment.

  “You’re pregnant”, Nana pronounced her tone scornful, “three to four months, I’m sure”, she said pensively.

  “That can’t be possible”, Lauren stuttered stupidly.

  She and Jordan had decided that she would continue on the pill, which she had been taking since she was eighteen to regulate her cycle, and she could not recall missing any. She had been taken the pills double cycle ever since she started working full time on the band as she was always so busy.

  “When was your last period?” Nana asked.

  “I’ve been taking the pills double cycle”, Lauren responded lamely, even as she said it she recalled that she had stopped taking the pills more than a week and her period was yet to appear. She recalled vaguely hearing that Nana had once been a village midwife a long time ago before modern amenities had made health care so accessible; hence the name Nana. Could Nana be right? Lauren’s heart began to hammer in her chest.

  She was pregnant with Jordan’s child and deep down she had known it all along; the cravings, the excessive tiredness; her refusal to see the doctor was simply denial. She was so caught up in her discovery that she did not see Nana lounging at her until it was too late. She ripped Lauren’s cotton blouse from neckline to hem and grabbed her breast from the cup of her bra, her sharp nails scraping the tender flesh.

  Lauren screamed, wrestling against Nana’s hold but it was useless as she was pinioned against the closet. Nana’s callused fingers brutally squeezed until Lauren felt warm liquid oozing from her breast unto her belly. Nana screeched in horror, pumping the other breast just the same. Her eyes dazzled as pain lanced through the sensitive globes of her breast. Finally she struggled free of Nana’s grasp, sweat beading on her brow.

  “How will I ever hold my head high in church again…?” Nana raged.

  “For the love of God...” Aunt Dorothy said and stopped dead in her tracks as she witnessed what was happening.

  Nana steered Aunt Dorothy towards the exit and they both left the room. Tears ran unchecked down her face as she crouched in the closet, shocked, battered, numb, praying that her baby was okay as her shaking fingers attempted to cover her bruised chest. This was the last straw, she had suffered enough. She was leaving and she would never return. She donned the jacket she had gone to the closet for when Nana had come in, zipped it to her neck and crawled to her bed. She had just gotten the strength to haul herself atop the bed and rummage through her purse for her cell to call a taxi when Nana came back into the room.

  “Come”, she ordered, “we need to take you to see a doctor, to find out for sure”.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you”, Lauren shouted in a trembling voice.

  “Don’t be silly” she retorted with her usual abruptness, “it’s for your own good”.

  She eyed Nana speculatively, the only thing Nana was likely to attempt was to beat her half to death and she could hardly do that on their trip to see a doctor. Concluding that it would be practically harmless, she decided to go along. She would simply escape them as soon as she got to the doctor’s office.

  As she left the room on stiff legs, she wondered what Jordan would do. They had never discussed having a child and he had not seemed overly excited when his mother had made the outburst at the dinner table a few months ago. She placed her hand over her level stomach in silent comfort, it didn’t matter what Jordan or anyone else thought she wanted her baby and she intended to keep it.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  JORDAN PACED THE LENGTH OF HIS LIVING room. Three o’clock and Lauren was not there yet. He had called her cell phone several times without answer and he was getting really worried, this was not like her at all. He snatched his car keys from the coffee table. He had been deliberating going to her house all morning and decided against it several times. At this point however, it could not be helped.

&nb
sp; He pulled open his front door and Lauren almost fell in, her cheeks flushed and tear stained and her hair tousled; she was a mess. She was shaking so badly he had to carry her to the living room and place her on the chaise. She was convulsing in sobs by this.

  “Lauren, what happened?” he pleaded, his heart in his throat.

  Had someone harmed her, was she hurt, his hands anxiously searched for wounds on her body, he sighed in relief when there was none evident. He frowned however, when she began to blabber nonsensically.

  “Are you hurt honey”, he coaxed, fighting for calm, “come on. Tell me what’s wrong”.

  The hysterics worsened and all he could make out was ‘I didn’t know’. She said it repeatedly until she was overcome by racking wails again. He couldn’t bear to see her like this.

  “Shh”, he soothed, “how about a warm bath. That should calm you somewhat”.

  She made no indication that she heard him as he took her upstairs and ran the bath water. He could examine her more closely, he thought, and call Doctor Hedley if necessary.

  He unzipped her jacket and his heart froze in his chest, her blouse was torn open, scratches and scrapes along with angry purple bruises marring the creamy skin of her breast. Rage swelled within him. Who could have done such a gruesome act?

  “Who did this to you Lauren”, his voice was as cold as he felt.

  “Nana....” she croaked, her mouth opened as if she intended to say more but no words came. Instead she gripped her middle, rocking back and forth as howls of pain escaped her throat.

  His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. He had had enough of that woman. Lauren had to leave their house. He would simply buy her a house, although he would prefer she move in with him, but this madness with her Aunts had to end. He had seen the bruises on her arm and back when she went home following their trip to Negril. He had known she was lying when she had told him that she had taken a fall, but he had allowed it to slide as she had gotten very defensive about the issue when he had pressed for information. This however was too much. He marched purposefully into his bathroom cupboard and took out a dose of the tablets his doctor had prescribed to help him sleep after he had fallen from a horse a few months before he had met Lauren.

  “These will help you to feel better”, he placed the tablets in her mouth and fed her a glass of water.

  “We’ll talk in the morning when you’re feeling better” he said as she drank a few mouthfuls. Quickly, before she fell asleep he bathed and dressed her in one of the night dresses she had left there. He held her, lightly stroking her shoulders and arms rhythmically until the tablets finally took effect, her whimpering ceased and she fell asleep.

  He lay there for a very long time watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she slept, willing the fury seething inside him to ebb. She had suffered enough under those women who called themselves her Aunts. No one would ever hurt her again, he vowed, not while he lived. He could not bring himself to leave her side, so eventually he settled comfortably beside her and in no time he dozed away.

  He was dreaming, how weird he thought, he was holding the sun in his arms and even though it was scorching hot , he was not melting as he would have assumed. It squirmed and moaned in his arms, fool, he chided himself, it was only Lauren. Lauren! Instantly he was awake, he had not been dreaming, only it was Lauren and she was roasting with fever.

  “Honey, wake up”, he shook her carefully, she moaned in answer, her eyes still closed, damn, the sleeping pills he had given her hadn’t worn out yet.

  It seems he would definitely have to get Doctor Hedley tonight but first he would give her a cold shower, he had read somewhere that it was good for fevers. He wouldn’t panic, it was just a fever, a relatively easy to handle abnormality, he reasoned. He threw aside the blanket and all the blood drained from his face. There was blood everywhere, her clothes, the bed coverings even the mattress seemed to be soaked in blood. This could not be natural, he thought. Oh God, she was dying, no he refused to believe it.

  His brain instructed his legs to move, do something, but he was frozen. She moaned again, louder this time and he snapped into action, he groped for his cell phone and dialed Doctor Hedley. He had to explain the situation three times before the Doctor could make any sense of what he was saying, after which he calmly instructed Jordan to meet him immediately in the Emergency room.

  Ending the call he lifted her from the bed and dashed down the stairs at breakneck speed, he was like an animal acting on instincts alone as he felt as if his senses had taken leave of him. He did not remember taking up his car keys, all he knew was that he was on his way, driving like a mad man. Sometime between his travel from the house to his car, Lauren had awoken, gasping in agony and gripping her belly.

  He tried to speak encouraging words to her; that they were almost at the hospital but he could not tell if he was making any sense as he could hear nothing above the hammering of his heart and the echoes of her sharp cries. Why was this happening on a night when Daniel was not in residence? Pulling the car to a halt, he lifted her from the rear of the car and rushed towards the door that had ‘emergency’ in bold prints captioned above it. Doctor Hedley was there as he had promised, white coat and all, holding a wheelchair.

  “You’ll have to wait here”, he said as Jordan deposited Lauren into the chair.

  He was about to protest when the Doctor whisked her away beyond a closed door. He made a move to follow them; however a matronly nurse informed him that no one was allowed beyond that point, stating that because it was an emergency case he would only get in the way.

  He sank into one of the chairs in the waiting area, a sense of hopelessness encompassing him; if only he had taken her to see Doctor Hedley when she had arrived at his house. He could not understand what was wrong with her. Except the bruises on her chest she had appeared to be okay at the time, but she could not have been, he rationalized. Had her Aunts done something to her? If so; what? He paced the floor in thought. He tried to be positive but images of Lauren’s body, lifeless, kept intruding into his musing, threatening to drive him insane.

  He had never been so scared in his entire life, the idea of not seeing her smile, hear her beautiful voice or kiss her soft lips made his heart feel like stone in his chest. Over the past few months she had become so important to him. Each day with her was never like the one before yet so very similar and when she looked at him with her heart in her eyes, he felt invincible and he wanted to conquer the world and lay it at her feet.

  He ran towards a doctor he saw coming from the direction Doctor Hedley had gone, seeking information, only to be advised that Doctor Hedley would be with him soon. He glanced at his watch, two thirty exactly. What was taking so long? He was losing his nerves here. He was not used to this sort of thing at all, he valued his time and all who knew him understood this and strove to adhere to his time constraints.

  It felt like an eternity before Doctor Hedley emerged, his face filled with dread, the muscles in Jordan’s stomach clenched painfully, no, it could not be, he would not accept it.

  “No, she’s not dead”, Jordan heard himself say, his voice hazy and distant.

  “No she isn’t. Thank goodness you did not hesitate to bring her here”, Doctor Hedley said leading Jordan to a deserted waiting room, “tell me exactly what happened yesterday?”

  Jordan glossed over the details of what had transpired from the moment she came to his house until he had taken her to the emergency room.

  Doctor Hedley stroked his beardless chin, appearing to be deep in thought.

  “Doc, would you just tell me what is wrong with her”, Jordan said through clenched teeth, impatient to be by her side.

  “I have reasons to believe that she had an abortion...” he said quietly.

  “What? You must be mistaken”, Jordan argued nonplussed, grappling with the knowledge, “Lauren wasn’t even pregnant”.

  “But she ...” Doctor Hedley did not get a chance to finish his statement as an air s
plitting scream shattered the familiar drone of the emergency room, they both started towards the gut wrenching wailing.

  Jordan froze in the doorway, his insides churning as he stared at the stranger huddled in the far corner of the room, her eyes as wild as a caged animal, staring at a nurse standing opposite her, clutching a small crescent shape dish in her hands. All the things Doctor Hedley had said finally hit home, he suddenly felt weary, old beyond his years. He had always considered fainting as a sign of weakness, foreign to a man of his strength. However he was not so certain of that at the moment.

  He leaned heavily against the door frame, his child, he would have been a father a few months from now if she had not.... No, it could not be true; Lauren would never do such a thing. He remembered the way her face had softened when his mother had mentioned children that night at dinner not so long ago. It just was not true; there must be some other explanation.

  “Get rid of that, would you”, Doctor Hedley instructed the nurse roughly and she scurried towards the exit.

  Bile rose in his throat as the contents of the dish became evident, its pink tinged outline leaving no questions as to the fact that it was a fetus. He struggled against the onslaught of emotions overpowering him, eventually his heart rate slowed and blood began to flow through his brain again.

  “Don’t just stand there”, Doc fumed, his expression strained as Lauren fought against him, “help me get her on the bed so I can give her a sedative to calm her”.

  Jordan stared unseeingly at the scene before him, his insides dead. How could he have been so stupid, she did not want him, she wanted his money and his prestige. She was everything he had believed she was not. He turned from her in disgust, she was probably just pretending to garner his sympathy, well he would not be a fool twice, he was angry at her for using him, angry at himself for allowing it; he rushed to the exit, got into his car and never looked back.