Darren responds in the only language he understands. He raises a knee sharply, intending to catch Max in the groin. But Max is one step ahead of him, stepping back quickly and catching the raised knee in his left hand. Then with his right, he grabs Darren’s ankle and twists his leg sideways. Darren screams in pain and drops to the floor, convulsing in agony. He tries to turn and retaliate, but before he can move, Max is on top of him, crushing him to the kitchen floor and pushing his face into the tiles. Max grabs Darren’s right arm and forces it up behind his back. When Darren resists, he pushes the arm higher, forcing another scream. Darren calls out in a panicky tone that Dominica has never heard him use before.
‘Ouch! Oh my God…that hurts. Stop it, please!’
Dominica hugs Jo tight to her. She wishes that Jo didn’t have to witness all this, but it is too late to shelter her now. There is little they can do but watch helplessly. But Dominica can’t help but be relieved that Max seems to be in control. Firmly in control in fact, with barely a hair out of place. Max releases the pressure, and bends down to growl in Darren’s ear.
‘If you want the pain to stop, you will do exactly as I say. When I let you go, you will get up and leave this house. You will never bother Dominica or Jo again, except to see Jo by prior arrangement. You will never come to this house again. Is that understood?’
‘Get lost, Mr. Fancypants…ouch!’ Darren’s last attempt at defiance collapses as Max twists his arm up again. He has no choice but to concede defeat. ‘All right, I agree. Just let me go. I’ll get out of here and leave you all alone.’
Max climbs off Darren and allows him to stand. Darren staggers to his feet and glares at Max, and then at Dominica. He opens his mouth to speak, but Max cuts him short.
‘Not another word, Dunn. Not unless you want to spend the next hour on the kitchen floor with your arm rammed up your back, waiting for the police to collect you. You promised you would leave right away, and I will hold you to that promise. If you try to welch on it, you will regret it for a very long time.’
Darren shuts his mouth. There is nothing he can say. He looks at Dominica, and then at Jo. Finally, with one last snarl at Max, he hurries out the way he came in. Max follows him and locks the front door. When he gets back to the kitchen, he is apologetic.
‘Jo, I’m sorry I had to do that. I know he’s still your father, even though your parents are not together any more, but I won’t tolerate that kind of violence – not to anyone, but especially not to women.’
Jo shakes her head. ‘No, you did the right thing, Max. Sure he’s my father, but that doesn’t mean I am blind to his faults. He’s not a nice guy when he loses his temper. And he is so jealous that Mom might have another man in her life. He’s just got to get over it.’
‘I’m the one who should be sorry, Jo,’ Dominica says. ‘You shouldn’t have grown up in this messy situation. I wish I had created a better home for you. I can’t believe that things have turned out this way. It’s definitely not what I wanted for you. I wanted you to have the best start in life.’
‘Mom, you did the best you could. I know that. I couldn’t have wished for a better mother. Don’t worry about it. You should never regret anything. It won’t help. You can’t change the past.’
‘That’s a great attitude, Jo,’ says Max. ‘I am a firm believer in living for the present and the future. What’s done is done. But talking of the future, we need somewhere safe for you two to stay. I’m not comfortable with the idea of you staying here, worrying whether Darren will come back. You should come and stay with me for a while. There’s plenty of room.’
Dominica shakes her head. ‘Max, that is so very kind of you, but we can’t accept. This is our home, and this is where we should be. I don’t think Darren will come back – you scared the heck out of him. He is a coward. Taking on a woman is one thing, but standing up to a real man is a different story. And if he does show up here, I’ll call the police and enforce that restraining order. His feet won’t touch the ground.’
Max looks perturbed. He is clearly not used to people contradicting his instructions, and for a moment he is nonplussed. But not for long.
‘Well, if you insist on staying here, I will arrange some additional security. I can have some guards posted on duty, with regular car patrols of the area…’
‘No, Max, no. I’m sorry, but we have to live here. What would the neighbors make of all that fuss? This is just an ordinary residential neighborhood. We want to blend in, not stick out like sore thumbs.’
‘Dominica…I’m really not comfortable with leaving you two alone. Maybe I should stay here overnight? You should have someone keeping an eye on you, someone who can take care of a bully.’
‘No, you should go home and attend to whatever needs doing in your life. We’re not babies, Max. We can get through a day or two without you. We’ll be fine, you don’t have to worry.’
Max opens and closes his mouth, seeking the right words, but there is nothing more he can say. Eventually, he relents. ‘All right, if you insist. But call me immediately if anything gives you cause for concern.’
‘We will. Don’t worry.’
***
When Max has gone, the house seems empty and lonely, even with Jo’s company. The two of them are subdued, but happy to be together. Dominica tries to insist that Jo should rest, but her daughter says she has had more than enough rest in hospital, and wants to be doing something useful. So between them, they catch up on all the household chores – laundry, cleaning and getting the house ship shape for habitation. At least doing the household chores takes their minds off their other worries.
They spend a pleasant evening watching TV together, laughing over their favorite shows. The jokes are corny, and the scripts even cornier. But it doesn’t matter…it is being together that counts, sharing laughter and fun. Dominica wishes that Max could be there, too, but she knows they should spend some time apart. Things have been moving fast enough in the last week already. She wonders what Jo really makes of the situation. It must be strange watching your mother start a new relationship, especially one as unconventional as this one.
Jo eventually concedes she is tired, and heads off for bed. Dominica loads up the dishwasher, triple checks that the doors and windows are locked, and then heads for bed herself. She takes a shower, dresses in one of the long, loose T-shirts she likes to wear in bed, and switches out the bedroom light. She pulls the curtains back, so that she can enjoy the comforting illumination of the street lights spilling into her bedroom. When she was a little girl, her bedroom in her parents’ house had been close to a street lamp, so she had grown up sleeping with the familiar yellow glow shining through her window. Even now as an adult, she likes to sleep the same way.
As she pulls the curtains back, she looks across the street and sees a strange car parked on the other side of the street – strange in the sense that she has never seen it before. The neighbors in this street haven’t changed in years, and she knows all the vehicles that are regularly parked here. The car is a late model Ford, nothing special in itself – in fact, a very average American car. But what draws her attention is the person sitting in the driver’s seat.
Is it Darren? Dominica feels a sense of panic for a moment. It’s definitely a man, and he is sitting with a baseball cap pulled firmly down over his face, as if to disguise his appearance. But no, the man is too big to be Darren, too broad in the shoulders. Then the explanation occurs to her. It must be the boyfriend of the girl who lives across the street, keeping a low profile until she escapes her parents’ supervision to sneak out with him. Dominica smiles…oh what it is to be a teenager. She remembers her own teenage years, and the devious tactics she used to slip away from her parents and spend a few moments with whatever boy she had a crush on.
Dominica curses herself for being so scared of her own shadow. She is the adult in charge here, and she must behave like one. Darren is gone for good, she is sure of that. Even Darren must realize that crossing the likes of Ma
x Rockford is going to be a very bad idea. If he knows what is good for him, he will keep a very safe and respectable distance.
It’s good to be back in her own familiar bed, even if she is sleeping alone. But it takes her some time to get to sleep. Usually, she is a sound sleeper who drifts off within a few minutes of her head hitting the pillow. But tonight it takes her over an hour to finally drift off. And when she does, she sleeps fitfully, with dreams full of violent thugs, stupid arguments and brawls on the kitchen floor. Before long, she is slipping back into the nightmare that has haunted her for the last few years, the repressed memory that fills her dreams and disturbs her sleep…
…she tucked Jo up in bed and read her a bedtime story – her favorite, Winnie the Pooh. Just a few more days and her daughter would turn seven years old. It was hard to believe that baby Jo had grown up so fast. Yet they have already enjoyed so many good times together. Dominica could only hope that the little girl remembered those and forgot the other, not-so-good times. But all that would be behind them soon. Jo didn’t know it – nobody knew except for her parents – but this would be their last night under the same roof as Darren. She didn’t want to take Jo away from this lovely bedroom that had been hers since birth, but there was no other choice. Things had to change.
Jo asked her why she is wearing sunglasses inside the house at night, and Dominica made a joke of it. She told Jo it was because she had just bought a new pair, and wanted to try them out. Jo laughed, but didn’t ask any more awkward questions. When Christopher Robin had finally rescued Pooh and Piglet from yet another disastrous situation, she kissed Jo goodnight and pulled the bedclothes tight up to her chin. By the time she left the room, Jo was already asleep, dreaming the innocent and carefree dreams of childhood.
Dominica went into the bathroom and removed her sunglasses. Her black eye stared back at her, the dark gray, yellow and blue of the bruising now more prominent than when Darren had punched her earlier.
That was it. The last straw that broke a very patient camel’s back. She had tolerated enough over the last few years, putting up with the unacceptable to try and keep her family together. She had wanted Darren to go to rehab and kick his drinking habit. She was willing to forgive him his past mistakes if he pledged to be a better husband and father in the future. But earlier today, in one flash of temper, he had thrown all that away. Dominica knew that she could not stay, she could not risk her own safety – and more importantly, she could not risk the safety of her beautiful and innocent daughter. Darren had been given far too many chances already, and he had blown every single one of them.
Dominica hurried to the main bedroom and reached up for the top shelf where the suitcases were kept. She could barely reach them, but standing on tip toe she managed to edge them forwards and pull them down. She took the two largest ones and placed them on the bed – one for her, and one for Jo. They could only take what she could fit in these suitcases. This is all they would have left of their life in this house. But it was better than the alternative.
Much better.
She packed some of her own clothes, then crept quietly into Jo’s bedroom to pack some clothes and her favorite toys. Winnie the Pooh would have to come, along with Piglet and Eeyore. The rest would have to stay behind. She crammed as much as she could into the two suitcases, sitting on them to force them closed. Then she hauled them down the stairs and left them by the front door. Any time now, her father would be there to collect them. She hadn’t wanted to make the journey alone, and Jo would be more willing to go without complaint if her Granddad was part of the fun.
She locked up the house like a good housewife and left her house keys on the key rack in the hall. She wouldn’t be needing them again. There was the sound of a car pulling into the drive, and she thought ‘oh, good…Dad is here already.’
But when she peeped through the curtains of the living room, her heart sank. It wasn’t her father.
It was Darren.
And as soon as he got out of the car, it was obvious he was drunk.
Again.
Dominica cursed under her breath. She had expected to be long gone before he got back. He usually didn’t roll home until the last of the bars had closed. Most likely he had been barred from all his local haunts and had nowhere to go except home.
She heard the sound of his key turning in the front door, and too late she remembered the suitcases in the hall. As she rushed out to move them, Darren swung the door open. He stood there, swaying slightly, staring at the two suitcases.
‘What the hell is this?’ he demands.
‘Nothing, Darren. Just go upstairs and go to bed.’
‘Nothing? It doesn’t look like nothing to me. Why…are you planning on leaving me bitch? Just because I gave you a bit of a slap, is that it? You deserved what you got. It was your fault for upsetting me. And you still haven’t apologized for that. Maybe I should give you another slap to teach you some respect.’
Darren lurched down the hallway and Dominica retreated to the kitchen. Too late she remembered the back door was locked, and she had put the keys on the rack in the hall. Now she couldn’t run out the back – there was no escape. Darren edged closer. She could smell the alcohol on his breath. There was something else, too. Cheap perfume. He had probably spent the last hour or so holed up in a cheap motel with a tart he had picked up in the bar, or some hooker he had found walking the streets. As Darren moved closer, she tried to get as far away from him as she could. There was nowhere to go except for the tiny laundry that was connected to the kitchen. But now that she was in there, he had her trapped. She looked around for a weapon – anything she could defend herself with – but all she could see was folded laundry and detergent. She grabbed the open bottle of detergent out of desperation and swung it at Darren with all her might. He knocked it out of her hand, and the bottle clattered to the floor, with pale blue detergent gurgling out and spreading along the tiles.
This was bad, very bad. Dominica cursed herself for not leaving earlier. She could have been out of here by now, well on her way to her parents’ home in San Diego, a safe distance from Darren, his booze, his hookers…and his fists. Instead, she was trapped, with no escape. He wouldn’t be satisfied with a mere black eye this time. He would want to teach her a lesson she would never forget.
His wiry but powerful body filled the doorframe of the laundry, blocking any possibility of escape.
‘That black eye of yours doesn’t look so pretty,’ he said. ‘It makes your face…what’s the word? Asymmetrical. Maybe I should black the other eye to match things up. Make you look symmetrical again.’
Darren approached and swung his fist. Dominica ducked and his fist crashed into the wall behind her. He howled in pain. Dominica capitalized on her advantage by kneeing him in the groin. Darren grunted again, and doubled over. But the advantage was only momentary. Darren was simply too strong for her. He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back against the laundry wall.
‘Don’t defy me, you’re my wife. You’re supposed to take care of me. But you don’t, do you? When was the last time we had sex? Too long ago, as far as I remember. You’re not doing your duty by me.’
Dominica was defiant. ‘I won’t ever be having sex with you again, Darren. That’s all over now.’
‘Is it now? Well, maybe I don’t share your opinion. The way I see it, we should have sex now, so you can show me that you still really love me.’
Darren grabbed at her skirt and pulled it up her thighs. Dominica resisted, pushing him away as hard as she could. But he was too strong, and he pressed his face into hers, the stink of alcohol stronger now than ever.
‘Leave me alone, just leave me alone. It’s all over, Darren. I’m leaving you and taking Jo with me. Get that into your head and back off.’
Darren shook his head firmly. ‘You’re not leaving me, Dominica. You are never going to leave me. I won’t allow it. We were joined together until death do us part, remember? The only way you’re going to get away from me i
s in a coffin.’
Darren reached down to fumble with his pants, and Dominica realized his intention. Her own husband was going to rape her, right here in the laundry. Darren kicked her legs apart and pushed himself against her. She fought back, biting, kicking and screaming. But it was no good. Darren was simply too strong. He could take her whenever he wanted to. Despite the alcohol he had consumed, she can feel that he is hard and excited, ready to penetrate her forcibly. This was the worst moment of her life to date. She braced herself, awaiting the inevitable, and then…
…there was a loud ‘thwack’ and Darren slumped forward, his head dropping onto Dominica’s shoulder. He slid down, his unconscious body dropping to the ground. Darren ended up face down on the laundry floor, swimming in detergent. Dominica looked up to see her father standing in front of her, a blood-stained rolling pin in his hand.
‘Looks like I got here just in the nick of time,’ he said. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Yes, Dad, thank God you’re here.’
‘I heard screaming as I got out of the car…I guessed it would be that no-good bastard. I wish I had come sooner. Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?’
Dominica hastily adjusted her skirt, nodding with relief. ‘I’m sure. I’m OK. But I’ve never been so pleased to see you in all my life.’
Dominica hugs her father, sobbing uncontrollably on his shoulder…
…Dominica has dreamed this dream a thousand times, relived the nightmare of that awful day from a decade or so ago. But the passing of the years has not dimmed the horror of the memory. It’s a constant reminder of exactly what Darren is capable of. As the nightmare ends, Dominica finds herself lying awake, as she has done so many times before. She knows she will not get back to sleep without some assistance, so she goes to the bathroom. In the bathroom cabinet, she finds her sleeping tablets. She doesn’t like to take these – she hates being dependent on any kind of drugs – but nothing else seems to work. She takes two with a glass of water, than heads backs to the bedroom.
The Domination of Dominica Dunn: Discovering New Worlds of Sexual Sensation Page 17
