Her Something Impetuous

by Hunt Harris, Kim

  She pursed her lips and considered it. “Probably a lot. She thinks I'm an infant and much too young to be exposed to anything beyond the parameters of our beloved Rockridge subdivision.” She chewed her lip. “Now you tell me, how freaked out do you think she's going to be when I tell her a guy tried to kidnap me last night?”

  Will's blood froze. “Come again?”

  She put her fingers an inch apart. “Just for a little while. I kneed him in the nads and got away from him.” She lifted her chin, but there was a haunted look in her eye.

  He took a deep breath and stood. “I'm just going to guess blindly and say she's never going to let you out of her sight again. But I could be wrong.”

  He was definitely in over his head. But, he figured, they needed to allow time for file another police report before they headed back to Piedmont.

  Karen waited on Pam's bed and scooted over when her sweet, stupid older daughter shuffled out of the bathroom after her shower.

  “Does your head hurt?”

  Pam nodded and crawled with hunched shoulders under the covers. “Everything hurts.”

  “Can I hope that it's bad enough to teach you a lesson? The never-drink-again lesson?”

  Pam pulled the covers up to her head. “Let's see. I get drunk one time, and I tell the president of the student body that she talks like she's got a wad of gum in her mouth. I laugh at a joke so hard I almost pee in my pants, literally, and I knock over the captain of the cheerleading squad in my mad dash to the bathroom. I dance on the table in front of half the student body. As you may know, I can’t dance, drunk or sober. But I do anyway. Then I pass out while the cutest guy in the school is making a pass at me.” She looked at the ceiling, casually adding up the damage. “Then I wake up as two other of the cutest guys in school dump me outside my dorm. Where my sister is waiting to witness me in all my dignified glory. I throw up on her. Then I pass out, waking up in the bushes the next morning, to be dragged inside where I throw up some more.” She looked at Karen, her brows raised philosophically. “That's when you show up. With the police. So yeah, I think I'm done.”

  Karen stroked Pam's hair back from her forehead. “I'm sorry that happened to you.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “I really am. I'm glad something good can come your humiliation.” She forced a grin. “But I would much prefer if you'd just listened to me when I told you not to drink.”

  “That would have been a better idea.”

  Karen drank in the features of her daughter's face. It felt more like decades since she'd seen her, instead of weeks.

  “I've missed you so much,” Pam whispered.

  Then why didn't you answer my calls? Why have you refused to talk to me? She didn't say that, though. She knew Pam. Pam would talk, given enough time. “Me too,” she said.

  “Mom. I knew about Denise.”

  Karen took Pam’s hand and let her talk, keeping her own mouth shut for once.

  “I knew about her and I didn't tell you and I really wished I had now because maybe if you knew you could have done something about it.”

  “Sweetie.” She squeezed Pam's hand. “Who decided to go to a party last night and get drunk?”

  “I decided to go to a party, and I decided to have a beer. After that the beer kind of made all the decisions for me. I think the beer and the tequila were in it together.”

  “Be that as it may, my point is that we each make our own decisions.” She gripped Pam's hand. “As hard as it might be to accept, you have to understand that Michael made his own decisions. We can speculate about what we could have done to make things turn out differently, but the truth is, the decision was his.” She cleared her throat. “I'm sorry this has been bothering you. If I'd known I could have talked to you about it. But Pam, if it makes you feel any better, I did know.”

  Pam's eyes widened. “You did?”

  “I had a feeling. I didn't know for sure, but I had a feeling. I saw the way Denise looked at him when we'd see her at different functions. And I didn't buy all his excuses for working late and going out of town. So I suspected.” She didn’t tell Pam it was the far from the first time during their marriage when she’d had such “feelings.” She squared her shoulders. “And I planned to confront him about it, dozens of times. I'd set aside a time when I knew we would be alone, and I planned to make him talk. But I never went through with it.” It was hard, admitting to her daughter that she was a coward. But it was better than letting Pam bear the brunt of the guilt.

  “This was between me and Michael, Pam. I tried to make that clear from the beginning. I'm sorry that it's caused you so much pain. I'm sorry I couldn't keep us together. Because as much as I think Michael and I were a mismatch, I never wanted a divorce.”

  “Mom, it's not your fault.”

  “Well, it's sure as hell not yours.”

  She saw the muscles work in Pam's throat, and tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and ran down to the pillow under her head. “I'm sorry you had to get married because of me.”

  Karen couldn't speak, the rock in her throat was so jagged. She blinked back tears and finally took a gulp of breath. “Well,” she said tightly. “I'm not. I'm not one bit sorry and I never will be. Whatever it took for me to be your mother, I'm grateful for. “ She framed Pam's face with both hands. “Listen, you're a grownup now, and I know you can understand a few things. You know your dad and I were never head over heels in love. And that's okay. Michael provided well for us, and treated me with respect and kindness for most of our time together. And he gave me two of the most beautiful daughters anyone has ever had. So it all worked out just fine.” She squeezed Pam's face between her palms. “I'm not sorry for an instant, I wouldn't trade one minute of the last nineteen years, and if I ever hear you say you're sorry for something that was the best thing that ever happened to me, I'll rip your eyelashes out one by one. Do you understand me?”

  Pam sniffled a laugh and wiped her hand under her nose. “Gotcha.”

  Karen sat back. “Cait said you were miserable here.”

  “Little snitch.”

  “She didn't exactly tell me that. Remember, you two don't actually tell me things now. But she did let it slip. Is it true?”

  Pam nodded.

  “Even before this weekend?”

  She nodded again.

  “Want to come home?”

  Pam swallowed, then was suddenly crying in earnest, sitting up and throwing her arms around her mother's neck. “I want to come home so bad. I hate it here. I don't belong here.”

  “Then come home with me.”

  “I can't. Dad will be so mad. He wants me to graduate from Roosevelt.”

  “Honey, your father loves you very much and wants only the best for you. So I mean this with all due respect when I say that I don't really give a rat's ass what he wants. Yes, he wants you to graduate from Roosevelt and go on to get your law degree and follow in the Way family tradition. But you're not him. You're you. And that's a very special person who deserves a chance to live her own life.”

  “Sounds good. You tell him.”

  “Okay. Pack your bags.”

  Pam sat up. “Are you serious?”

  “Sure. You'll have to sit out the rest of this semester. But you can start at Piedmont Community College for the spring semester. You can figure out what you want to do.”

  Pam lay back against the pillows. “You're not disappointed in me?”

  “I'm not thrilled that you went out and got puking drunk. But I'm not disappointed in you that you don't want to be here. And your dad won't be, either. He may be disappointed in your decision, but he loves you and he will not be disappointed in you.” Or I will castrate him.

  She breathed a deep sigh. “Can we really go today?”

  “Sure. It'll save me a trip back up here.”

  She breathed a deep sigh. “So I really never have to see the people I humiliated myself in front of ever again?”

  “Oh, you'll see them again. If you
humiliate yourself in front of someone, they will show back up at your most vulnerable moment. It’s an unbreakable law of nature. But you don't have to see them in your English Composition class.”

  She rose and hugged her mother. “Thank you.”

  “You're welcome. I should never have let you come up here. I knew you didn't want to come. I should have put my foot down.” And after the past week, she wasn’t going to let Michael or anyone else bully her and her kids into doing something that was all wrong for them.

  “I'm sorry I messed it up,” Pam said. “I'm sorry I didn't try harder to like it.”

  “And I'm sorry it didn't work out. But that's the way life is sometimes. You do your best and learn what you can and enjoy as much of it as you can, and then you move on.”

  There was a tap on the door. Karen rose and opened it for Will and Cait. “Pam's going home with us.”

  Cait blinked a few times, and Karen waited for a smart-alecky remark. Instead she said wistfully, “Really?”

  Pam stood and hugged her. “Really.”

  Cait threw her arms around her sister and hugged her tight. “I'm so glad.”

  Karen's throat closed and her nose started to burn. It was about time she took back some of the control of her family, she decided. She'd let Michael make enough decisions. It was time for her and the girls to start thinking for themselves.

  Will cleared his throat. “Before we go much further I think Cait had better give you some news.”

  Cait threw him a glare. “About what I stole, or about the guy who tried to kidnap me?”

  Karen felt her knees go weak again. She sat on Brittney's bunk and remained silent until the spots in front of her eyes disappeared. Whatever had happened, she reminded herself, Cait was there in front of her, in the flesh, apparently unscathed. So it couldn't be all that bad.

  A few minutes later she decided that this wasn't necessarily true.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Pam packed her things while Will drove Karen and Cait to the campus police station to file a report about the attacker. They were able to talk to the same officer who’d come to the dorm. After clearing up the confusion about the running away having nothing to do with the attack or the other missing daughter – a moment when Karen wondered if she should expect a call from Children’s Protective Services when she got home – Cait described the boy who’d assaulted her, as well as the vehicle he drove. Karen’s heart pounded as she clutched Cait’s hand, listening to the horrifying details of Cait’s ordeal.

  She reminding herself over and over that Cait was okay, she was right there beside her, everything had turned out fine. But the words did little to ease her inner turmoil.

  Will sat on the other side of Karen, and reached for her free hand as Cait described finding herself in a dark parking lot behind the football stadium, realizing what was about to happen. Cait gripped Karen’s fingers, and Karen gripped Will’s. Cait’s voice broke and she stopped for a moment.

  “It’s okay,” Karen said. “You’re safe now. Go ahead and tell everything. It’s okay.”

  Cait looked at her gratefully, and went ahead with the story. Karen felt nauseous as Cait described being dragged down onto the seat, and Will whispered to Karen, “It’s okay. She’s safe now.”

  Karen knew that if she looked at Will she would break down. It would be too easy to just fall apart and let him comfort her. And she couldn’t do that, not right now, not with Cait needing her. So she kept her eyes on Cait and squeezed Will’s fingers and hoped he knew how grateful she was that he was there.

  From the police station they went to the hospital so Cait could be examined. The nurse let Karen stay with her, and the only way either of them got through the next hour was with constant hugs and a few corny jokes from both of them. The officer met up with them at the front desk outside the emergency room, and assured Cait and Karen that he would be in touch.

  “You’ve given us a good description,” he said. “We have a lot to go on and I’m hopeful we’ll be able to capture him.”

  Cait nodded, and Karen thanked the officer. The trip back to the dorm was a quiet one. Karen heard a sniffle and turned around to see Cait looking out the window, tears streaming down her cheeks and her thumbnail chewed to the quick.

  “I’m sorry, Sweetie,” Karen said, reaching over to squeeze Cait’s knee. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m the one who’s sorry,” Cait said. “What I did was so stupid. I’m sorry I scared you. I’m sorry you had to take me to the police station and the hospital.”

  “Cait, no.” Karen released her seatbelt and climbed between the seats, nearly kicking Will in the process. She gathered Cait in her arms and they both cried, the distraction of filing charges and facing authorities behind them so that they were free to realize just how close Cait had come to being seriously hurt. She held Cait tightly and cried with her and thanked God she was there to hold, whole and safe and hopefully wiser but not scarred from her ordeal. When Karen finally lifted her head she saw they were back at the dorm already, and realized the car had stopped moving several minutes before.

  Will waited patiently, silently in the front seat and when he saw Karen wipe her eyes with the heel of her hand he reached into the glove compartment and found a box of tissues, passing them over the seat. She mouthed, “Thank you,” to him, unable to speak and unutterably grateful that he was there.

  Between Karen and Cait’s crying jag and Pam’s hangover, loading the car was a silent affair. They stuffed every inch of it with Pam’s things and headed back to Piedmont. They were halfway there when Karen gasped and looked at her watch.

  “Kitty!”

  Will grimaced. “Okay, time for the other bad news.”

  Karen stared at him, mouth open. “The other bad news? No. Thanks, but no. I’ve had enough bad news for this life.”

  “It’s actually not as bad as it could be. Remember the one-armed guy at Kitty’s house? He left a message this morning that Kitty left town.”

  “Left town? But she’s meeting us in…” She looked back at her watch. “Half an hour. Well hell. Where’d she go?”

  “I couldn’t figure out that much, he said something about a yellow…wait a minute. A yellow sister. A sister in Amarillo?”

  “You realize you’re making no sense?”

  “He said something about a yellow sister. But yellow in Spanish is Amarillo. I think he meant she was going to her sister in Amarillo.” He frowned again, chewing on his lower lip. “In a Jaguar? Could the cat be a Jaguar?” He laughed and slapped the steering wheel. “Kitty stole Michael’s Jaguar and took it to Amarillo.”

  “It was the butler in the drawing room with the candlestick,” Cait said.

  “You’re right,” Will said to Karen. “She is a lot like you.”

  “I’m too tired to play guessing games, Will. What’s going on?”

  “I’m guessing myself. He was pissed off and talking too fast. He said she’d left, she owed him money, she was going to her sister’s place in Amarillo. And I think she was driving Michael’s Jaguar.”

  “That’s not dad’s,” Cait said. “It’s Denise’s Jag.”

  “When did you get that call?” Karen asked Will.

  “This morning. After we – after I got out of the shower.”

  “You didn’t call him back?”

  “I had planned to go over there and talk to him but…”

  “But?”

  “But then Cait was missing and finding Cait was more of a priority than finding Kitty.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because you had enough on your plate,” he said. “And now thanks to Cait we have a plan B.” He took a deep breath and looked in the rearview mirror. “Do you want to tell her or do you want me to?”

  “Tell me what?”

  Cait frowned. “You tell her.”

  “Tell me what? Damn it, Cait, what is going on now?”

  “It’s okay, it’s not the worst news you’ve had all day, belie
ve me. Cait was at Michael’s condo yesterday and saw a woman with long blonde hair.”

  “Kitty?”

  “Yep. She told someone else over the phone that she had something, and later Cait found a roll of film and a little notebook in her purse.”

  “A roll of film? What could be on the film? Do you think it’s what she wanted to show us this afternoon?” Then she turned to the backseat. “And what the hell were you doing with her purse?”

  Cait remained silent. Will shrugged and caught Cait’s eyes in the mirror. “You’d better tell her that part.”

  So Cait let Karen in on how she’d turned into a little thief. Karen sat back and listened, nodding occasionally, thinking maybe she’d be the one to call Children’s Protective Services, because obviously she was a total wash-out as a mother. “Okay, good. This day is going really well. Can I just ask one favor? Could we stop right now and get all other news out in the open? No more surprises? Just spill it all.” She waved her hands in the air and waited a couple of beats. “Okay everybody. Go on. Confession time. Pam, did you get a tattoo while you were gone? Get anything pierced? Get a gun, rob a bank?”

  Pam shook her head. “No. Just got drunk.”

  Karen nodded. “Good, okay. Cait. Anything else you want to share? Have you done anything else I should know about? Joined a gang? Dropped out of school? Oh, I know! One of you is going to work at Uncle Nasty’s, aren’t you?”

  “How did you find out about that?” Cait cried, leaning forward.

  “What!”

  “I’m kidding Mom. Really, get a grip.”

  “Get a grip.” Karen turned to Will. “Look who’s telling me to get a grip.”

  Will cleared his throat. “I think I’m going to stay out of this one, if you don’t mind.”

  “Oh no. You’re in, buddy. The last I knew you and Cait were worst enemies, and now I find out she’s confessing her transgressions to you. So you’re all the way in.”

  “I plead the fifth. Can I plead the fifth?”