by Day, Laura
She passed a handsome man in a blue suit and when he smiled at her she blushed and stared down at the pavement. But she did give him one last glance after he had passed. Another man. She couldn’t even think of such a thing. While she had only just left Austin a few days ago their relationship had been dead for a while, on her side anyway. She couldn’t remember the last time Austin said he loved her. She hadn’t loved him for a long time. If she had been able to, she would have left years ago. But she refused to leave without Cate.
Finally, she had started to seriously wonder why she was still with him. The answer was Cate and money and the fact that he would never actually let her leave. His pride wouldn’t take it. He could dump her, but she could never break up with him. She had tried, more than once, but it had been impossible. She had no job and no skills and only a high school education; the best job she could get was minimum wage or waitressing. The hours were awful and she would never get to see Cate.
She thought she could control it. She thought if she learned from her mistakes and tried not to make him mad the fights would stop. But nothing worked. Something that made him happy one day drove him to a frenzy the next. He was always irritable and angry with her. Marie tried to shield Cate as best she could, but it was hard.
It had all come to a head two weeks ago. She’d needed to run to the store, just a quick trip for milk and coffee. Cate was asleep and she thought it would be all right. She raced to the store and prayed Cate would stay asleep while she was gone.
She heard crying when she got home. She raced to the house, leaving her groceries in the car. Wrenching open the door Marie screamed out her daughter’s name and raced towards the sound of her tears. She saw Austin his hand wrapped around her arm and he was shaking her, his face red.
“Let her go!” Marie had screamed, jumping towards her daughter.
“Take her,” Austin spit, throwing Cat’s arm aside. “Get her to shut up.”
She couldn’t stay after that. She had to go and trust the universe had some sort of plan for her. And it did. She had a job with good hours and a place to live. She could still spend tons of time with Cate and Austin was gone and there was no one who could hurt either of them anymore. It was perfect. The handsome man turned the corner and slipped from view and Marie smiled to herself. It was way too soon for her to even consider dating anyone, but it was at least nice to think about.
Cate talked endlessly about her first day of daycare. She told Marie the names and ages of all the other students. She told her what they ate for snack and lunch. She talked all through dinner and up to bedtime when Marie finally tucked her in.
“You can come to my room if you get scared,” Marie said as she tucked a stray lock of hair out of Cate’s face.
“I’m not scared. I like this house,” Cate said as she let loose a huge yawn.
Marie smiled and kissed her on the head. She left a nightlight on and went back out into the living room. There was an alarm panel on the door and she checked it as she walked to the couch. Everything was working, which meant the mansion was fortified: bullet proof glass in the windows, several thick locks on all the doors, plus a state of the art security system. All the windows and doors, including the ones in her apartment, were wired. There were motion sensors everywhere. If anyone tried to get in, Marie, and the police, would know in an instant.
She sat down on the couch and turned on the TV settling in to watch Scandal with a big glass of red wine on the coffee table. Austin could never get past this security system and even if he did the police were less than two blocks away. She could finally relax and enjoy herself.
Chapter Nine
Axel jogged through the wooded back roads that led to his mother’s house. The town was small, so when Main Street ended, the woods began almost instantly. It was rainy out and he had his hood pulled up over his head as he splashed through the wet road.
He could hear the quiet sounds of the forest: the wind blowing through the branches, the sounds of leaves moving and brushing up against each other. A passing car occasionally interrupted the silence, but, mostly, the roads were quiet. It was a Saturday, and a rest day, so this short jog would be the only workout he got. He turned down a small side street and jogged to his mother’s bungalow.
He slowed down when he reached the garage. He put his hands on his hips and then moved forward and peered into the ramshackle little building. There were two broken down cars and a handful of old parts and some empty oil cans in there. Austin really needed to clean the garage out. His mother never used it. It had been his father’s and she always refused to let Austin sell what was there.
But enough time had passed now. It was the one point of contention between him and his mother. While she didn’t revere her late husband she also wouldn’t hear anyone speak a word against him. He is dead, she would say, and you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead. Anytime Axel said something negative about his father she would cross herself and shake her head and remind him God was always watching.
He pulled opened the garage door and peered into the room. It was dark and dusty and damp. He pulled down on the chain attached to the overhead light, slightly surprised it actually still worked. Under the harsh glare he looked around at the things his father had left behind. Mr. Connelly had always been working on projects and get rich schemes. Some of them were even good ideas, but he was lazy and unmotivated and one by one they all failed.
That was when life was most dangerous. When his newest idea, which they had toasted and cheered not two months ago, began to fall apart he would lash out at everyone. Axel was too loud. His wife’s cooking was lousy and making him sick, his wife was lazy and spent all his money. His mother would cry silently in the corner while Axel seethed.
“You got something to say, boy?” his father demanded a few months before his death.
From behind his bedroom door Axel heard his mother run up the stairs and slam the door to her bedroom. She was trying to be quiet, but he could hear that she was crying. He stomped down the stairs and confronted his father, standing in front of the old man with his hands balled into a fist. “You can’t talk to mom like that. She works hard. You’re the lazy onel you’re the one-” He didn’t see the hit coming. His father backhanded him sending his son reeling and crashing to the floor. Axel remembered fighting back tears as he struggled to get up.
“Go to your room. You’re a waste of my time,” his father said and Axel, only ten years old, did as he was told. He wished his father were alive now. Axel could take that old man easily. He had acted like he was so big and tough, beating up on a ten-year-old. What a jerk.
He would sell both of the cars for scrap and clear the rest of it out, as well. Then he could get to work repairing the structure. It would be a lot of work, but it would increase the value of his mother’s house.
“What are you doing in here?” his mother demanded as she stood under an umbrella outside of the garage. “It is freezing outside. Come in.”
A hot shower later, Axel was in the living room drinking from a mug of coffee his mother sitting down across from him and yammering on about the new plans at the historical society. His focus went in and out. He wanted to hear about the new girl who worked there and find out if she was the gorgeous woman from the other day, but his mother was still talking about the damn party.
“Well, Ingrid has given full credit to Marie and I’m happy about that because people have been asking some questions about her.”
“Marie,” Axel interrupted, “Have you met her? Do you know what she looks like?”
“No, I haven't met her yet, but Ingrid says she’s lovely.”
“So what are people saying about her?”
“Well, nothing specific. But she was able to get here very quickly. Within a week of applying for the job she was moving into the house. We were happy about it, of course, but she has a young daughter. What kind of woman just picks up and moves her child across the country with no preparations? She had practically nothing on her when
she got here. Almost no luggage at all.”
“Where’s the father?”
“No one knows and Ingrid refuses to ask. She thinks it would be unconscionably rude and I agree,” his mother said with a sniff.
“Don’t play moral now, Ma,” Axel said shaking his head. “You are the worst gossip in town and it sounds like this woman was running from someone, so you definitely shouldn’t gossip about her.”
“I am not a gossip! I’m just saying this looks terribly interesting. We were expecting some boring grad student and now we have a woman on the run.”
“Don’t repeat that. I don’t know if that’s true and neither do you,” Axel said.
“All right,” she threw up her hands in mock defeat. “I won’t say another word. My lips are sealed.”
He spent the day throwing out garbage from the garage and went home before changing and going out. He was training, so drinking was a no go, but he could still go have a little fun. There was a small part of him that hoped he might run into the new girl who lived at the museum. It wasn’t the reason he was going; it would just be an added bonus.
He met with Hayden at the one cool bar in town. Heads turned as he entered and he heard people whisper his name and point to each other. He fixed his collar and kept on walking making eye contact with half a dozen girls he caught gazing at him. He sat down at a booth towards the back with the rest of the trainers.
Axel ordered a cranberry juice, but the rest of the table drank. Hayden started with three shots and leaned back in his chair and surveyed the room.
“What do you think, bro? Plenty of talent out tonight.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Axel said looking around. It was a bar with a dance floor. A DJ stood high above the crowd and spun something with a heavy bass. The crowd of dancers grew and several girls walked slowly past his table giving him a glimpse of short shirts, long legs, and high heels. But nothing motivated him enough to actually get up and dance.
He stayed for another hour and then bowed out. It was loud and the music was giving him a headache. He normally had a good time even when he wasn’t drinking, but the last week of training must have really gotten to him. Once he was out of the bar and in the street he found that he didn’t want to go home yet. Instead, he put his hands in his pockets and headed north on Main Street.
The little town was quiet. The traffic lights blinked yellow and there were no cars in sight. The bar he had been at was really the only one open. He walked up a block and then crossed the street. He pushed back the hood on his sweater as he stared up at the Hawks Mansion. It was imposing and dark, like a creature from another age that had survived to modern times. It was too big. It imposed on the buildings around it. The house had always creeped him out, but now there was something inside waiting for him, maybe. He had no idea if the woman on the street was Marie the girl who lived at the museum, but it was his only lead.
Chapter Ten
It was strange how quickly Marie settled into her new routine. It was easy for her to close her eyes and pretend she had always been here. Her past life didn’t exist and she wasn't running from anything. This was her home. Cate ran a little ahead and Marie made herself let go of her daughter’s hand. It still hurt, but it was getting easier and she knew it was important to give her daughter room to grow.
Like an expert after all of three days, Cate raced into the daycare center ahead of Marie and carefully took her shoes off and put them and her snack in a little cubby stenciled with her name. Marie smiled at the daycare worker and gave one last look at Cate before walking back out. She was fitting right in. Already she had a little crowd of friends happy to see her. Marie had been worried about Cate. What if she had trouble fitting in or trouble making friends in a new town? They had been isolated back in Arizona and she hadn’t spent much time with children her own age. But now Cate was doing a better job adjusting than Marie was.
Not needing to be back at work for a few hours, Marie stood in front of the daycare deciding what to do. She was wearing a pair of yoga pants and a tank top. She had passed the gym the other day and she thought she might check it out again. She felt a little nervous, but she did her best to ignore her roiling stomach as she walked down Main Street. As she came upon the building she saw the people working out inside, so confident and coordinated, and she lost her nerve and with her head down she kept walking.
She wished she had a friend to join the gym with. That was what she needed, someone else with her who also had no idea what she was doing. They could learn together. The sad fact was Ingrid was her only friend and she wasn’t really interested in speed walking with Ingrid. She wanted to get stronger and tougher. She didn’t want to learn how to run or walk really fast; she wanted to learn how to throw a punch and deliver a kick. She made a fist and frowned at it. It looked way too small to actually hurt someone.
In high school, before she had gotten pregnant with Cate, she had been a cheerleader. She had always like learning the routines and the lifts. She liked the workouts they had before practice. She remembered the feeling of her heart pounding as she ran, the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She had to quit senior year when Austin got jealous. He was convinced she was spending time with the football players instead of the other girls on her squad. She tried to explain to him that they almost never saw the players, but he refused to listen.
Why did she quit? Why did she let him boss her around like that? In the later years it had been because she was afraid of him. But back in high school, why hadn’t she stood up for herself? But all she could remember of that time was loving him unconditionally and unreasonably. She was blind to his temper and his cruelty. She was lost in being in love and after enough time she simply thought that was what love looked like.
So what did it really look like? What was her life now without Austin? Who was she? What did she want? She didn’t even know anymore. She had spent so much time trying to make someone else happy and she had received nothing but hatred back. So what was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to finally be herself if she didn’t know who that person was?
She wanted to go to the gym. She just wanted to check it out; that was all. But she was letting fear stop her. She was letting Austin and his cruelty stop her from trying something new. She couldn’t let that happen. With a deep breath, Marie turned around and walked back to the gym. She squared her shoulders and kept her eyes straight ahead.
What was there to be afraid of? It was just a gym. Certainly nothing bad would happen. The worst thing would be that she didn’t like it and then she would never have to come back. It was a no lose scenario. She was back at the front door of the gym and without a second thought she pushed it open and took a step inside.
It was bright and smelled clean and airy. The sound of machines squeaking and people talking could be heard along with the radio, which was currently planning the new Rihanna song. It looked like a friendly enough place. She turned to the desk, but no one was there. Disappointed, Marie stood with her arms crossed and waited for someone to come back.
She waited for a few minutes, but no one came. Not a good sign, she thought to herself as she walked farther into the gym. She passed a set of machines where she saw a beautiful woman who was wearing quite a bit of makeup. The woman was leaning on a complicated looking machine, but not using it. She put her left hip out and made a duck face at her own reflection tilting her head down and pushing her breasts forward. Taking a strand of hair, she twirled it around her finger and snapped about a dozen pictures on her phone in rapid success.
Then her eyes made contact with Marie’s in the mirror and Marie realized she had just been caught staring. The other woman glared at Marie from her mirror. Blushing, Marie looked away and walked to the next room, which was filled with treadmills. She could feel her face growing red and she kept it facing the floor and so she didn’t see him until she had practically run into him.
“Sorry,” Marie sputtered as she backed away from the man. He was tall with tattoo-covered
muscles and a steely gaze. He had short dark light and blue eyes with pale skin. Marie looked away. She didn’t know what else to say; the man wasn’t saying anything. He was just standing there and staring at her.
“Do you belong to this gym?”
“No,” Marie said. Her stomach was in knots, but she didn’t know why. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She had nothing to apologize for. She stood up straighter and adjusted her shirt and spoke directly to the man hoping he couldn’t hear the fear in her voice. “I was waiting at the desk, but no one showed up, so I thought I would just take a look around.”
“You interested in joining the gym?”
“Do you offer self-defense classes?” She had seen the sign for boxing and MMA fighting classes on a sign outside.
The man scoffed and looked down at her, “We teach mixed martial arts. It’s not a self-defense class. It’s a tough program and not one for amateurs.”
