Secrets of Amelia

by Andrea Anderson

  The night was going well, and they were almost finished when the first cement truck moved up ready to pour concrete into the excavation. Chuck had ordered all the men out of the vault. He then gave the all clear signal and the cement started pouring in. As a safety measure, Amelia always counted the men in the hole as they came out, she knew someone was missing. She tried to warn Chuck by blowing the horn of the backhoe, but he was not paying attention to her and waved her off with a hand in the air. Amelia knew she couldn’t wait and needed to act immediately before the man in the vault was covered with cement which would quickly smother him. Instantly she swung the machine around and began lowered the bucket back into the excavation.

  The moving excavator got Chuck, Andy’s and Mr. Evans attention and they began shouting at Mel, and calling out, “Stop! Stop! Shut the machine down get out of the hole.” If you hit the value with the bucket you will destroy the whole project.” They were jumping up and down, waving their arms, and shouting at her. Amelia paid them no mind and kept lowering the bucket.

  The air was alive with anxiety, everyone was focused on the backhoe bucket going lower and lower into the vault, the onlookers wondering if the operator had gone mad. Following the sight of the bucket and looking into the vault they saw that someone was still down there.

  The worker left in the hole was Mike, he had been doing one last check and was actually laying under one of the huge valves making sure the bolts were tight, when the first pour of cement began flowing in on him. Mike was surprised he didn’t think they would start the pour until he was out of the vault. He was soon surrounded by several inches of wet, slippery, heavy cement. He tried to get to his feet, but his legs kept slipping out from under him. He began to feel panicky until he looked up and saw the backhoe bucket being lowered into the vault. Now he realized that he had to be able to stand to reach the bucket because the valves prevented it from going to the bottom. Mike gained some stability by pushing against the wall but began to slip and slide again. To prevent falling again he lunged at one the valves and wrapped his arms around it in a giant hug. Although he was still unsteady on his feet, he was upright, and he waved to Mel. As the bucket got nearer Mike leaned forward and tried to grab the bucket, missed, and went down face first in the cement. A group groan came from the crew who were now watching intently.

  Mike was stunned for a minute and finally lifted his head up and tried to wipe his face as best he could. He knew he was losing precious time he had to get to his feet somehow. His eyes were burning like the fires from Hell due to the chemicals in the mortar and his vision was blurry. No matter he had to try something, or he wouldn’t have any more chances. The cement pour had been stopped but the material left in the delivery shaft was uncontrollable and continued to spew out concrete.

  When Mike missed the bucket, Amelia knew she had move the bucket lower, getting dangerously close to one of the valves. Amelia concentrated on lowering the bucket as steady as possible then stopped when she saw that Mike fell. She waited for Mike as he tried to get vertical. Mike grabbed on to the outside of the bucket with one hand, but the cement was too slippery, he missed, and he almost fell again. Amelia moved the bucket a few inches closer to the valve so that Mike had a better chance of seizing it. His arm went out again, but the debris in his eyes and the burning had affected his depth perception and he groped the air feeling for the side of the bucket. Amelia saw that he would never be able to climb into the bucket. She opened the door of the backhoe and shouted for Mike to wrap his arms around the chain on the side of the bucket.

  When Amelia was sure Mike had a good enough grasp, she brought the bucket up a short distance and stopped. She knew the chain was cutting into Mike’s arms and he might lose his grip. Opening the door again she signaled to Mike that she was going to turn the bucket on its side so he could rest his body on it taking the pressure off his arms. He nodded that he understood.

  She was safely away from the valves now though the danger was not over. With Mike hanging on for dear life it was slow going and Amelia had to bring the bucket higher now because the depth of Mike’s body made the space between him and the high-tension electric wires minimal. It would be a tight fit and hazardous if the bucket hit the high-tension wires, the job would be shut down everything would stop, and the intense jolt of electricity would make Mike toast. “Here we go,” Amelia said to herself as she raised the bucket even higher.

  Only the noise of the backhoe was heard everything else going on at the jobsite stopped and all eyes were on Mel and the backhoe bucket with Mike laying on its side.

  When she was safely out of the vault they began to clap, but it was not over yet. Amelia knew she had to put some tension on the wires because she barely cleared them before now with Mike on the bucket, she just hoped the wires wouldn’t snap. Amelia lifted the arm of the backhoe as high as she thought she could. Mike was trying to make his body as flat as possible as they went under the wires. Mike would tell them later that he felt them on his back and held his breathe. Amelia lowered Mike to the ground, to the waiting crew. He was covered with cement; he gave Amelia a thumbs up as she righted the bucket and rested it on the ground. The other workers immediately irrigated his eyes. They would take him to get checked out at the hospital, but he wanted to make sure the rest of the job went OK.

  “My God” said Chuck as he realized what Amelia had done. “Mel actually saved Mike’s life. If he was buried in the concrete, he never would have made it, beside no one knew he was down there. It would have been a lot of work and a huge expense, to remove his body, reset the valves, and maybe damage the vault,” Chuck said to Andy.

  Along with the rest of the crew, Mr. Evans, was on site, and saw what happened too.

  “Jesus Chuck I must meet this operator, he just saved our asses, I have to tell him how grateful I am for what he has done.”

  Oh shit, thought Chuck, I’m in for it now. He went over to the backhoe and asked Amelia to come out. As she stepped out of the machine the crew clapped and whistled at her.

  “I’m really thanking you this time,” Chuck said, “for saving Mike’s life. Mr. Evans saw the whole thing too, and he insists on meeting you. I will try and cover as best as I could, we’ll have to play it by ear.”

  “It’s OK,” said Amelia.

  She got down from the machine and they walked over to where Andy and Mr. Evans were standing.

  As usual, she had on a baseball cap with her hair under it, covering that was the hood part of her hoodie, old bulky jacket and pants, work shoes and gloves and she walked with her head down.

  “Mel, I want to thank you for your quick response tonight, it really was a stroke of genius on your part to be so observant of the men in the ditch,” he said as he patted her on the back.

  Amelia responded, in the harshest voice she could muster, “It was nothing, sir. I’m sorry I have a very bad sore throat and my voice is hoarse. I always count the men in the ditch as a safety measure.”

  “Mel can’t you come to work with us full time, I’ve been pestering Andy and Chuck, to get you to work full time. What is the problem? Is it more money you want?”

  “No sir, sorry sir, it’s not their fault, I go to school and a lot of my time is taken up with studying, although I do need the money that’s not the reason.”

  “So that’s the problem, well I can understand that, and I respect your ambition, my company needs operators like you, is there anything I can offer you to come to work full time and quit school?”

  “Don’t think so sir.”

  “I certainly think you deserve a reward for your performance here tonight, he stepped forward and put his hand out to shake hands. Automatically, without thinking, Amelia took off her glove to shake hands. When Mr. Evans felt her soft hand, he knew.

  He looked at her closely, “you are a woman,” he noted taken aback.

  “Yes,” said Amelia, in her normal voice. “Please don’t be ups
et with Chuck, I swore him to secrecy, upon pain of death. We were holding out because we thought there might be problems with the men.”

  Mr. Evans, a middle age robust man, roared back his head and let out a howl of laughter, “I love it, I love it, I love it,” he said, “I will hold Chuck and Andy accountable for having found you and hired you. How did they find you if you go to college, anyway?” Amelia recounted the day she ran the backhoe, put the car back on its wheels, and saved the day.

  “That was you?”

  “Yes, that was me. I was walking on campus with my friends and we saw what happened and I knew I could help.”

  “Did we ever give you a reward for all you did that day?”

  “No, and I don’t expect a reward for helping someone out.”

  “Look, what you did then and now tonight, you saved Mike’s life and the company thousands of dollars by saving his life. I don’t even want to think of what it would cost me if we had to get his body out of there and replace that vault and valve again. Because of your diligence and quick thinking, I will see that you get a reward.”

  “You really don’t have to do that, maybe Chuck should get the reward for hiring me,” she said.

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” he said. “I can’t wait to get home and tell my wife this story. She will be thrilled, and I want you to continue to work for us as long as possible, you are a credit to your gender. I have always said that females are the strongest and smartest sex and you proofed it again.”

  Mr. Evans shook her hand again and said, “It was a great pleasure meeting you Mel, I mean Amelia and thank you again.” He walked to his car laughing and shaking his head.

  Amelia went home and wrote a long email to Chad telling him all that happened. She did not emphasis that she had saved Mike’s life, instead she played it down by saying Mike moved quickly to grab the bucket. She told him Mr. Evans was going to give her a reward, she didn’t think she deserved it for doing her job.

  He wrote back and told her how proud he was of her and reminded her, “When I say you are the best and work so hard at everything you do, I know I’m right, I can’t wait to tell my friends about this, my chest will be puffed up for a week, I’m so proud of you.”

  Secret thoughts: (I’m so relieved that Mr. Evans was not angry when he found out I was a female. More than that I’m super glad I stuck to the safety rules daddy taught me long ago and I was able to help Mike.)

  [ Chapter 25 ]

  Everything seemed back to normal, they had not had any trouble, with that relief came a lack of vigilance and the girls forgot about Betty’s past trouble and they let down their guard. Wednesday morning Amelia, Betty and Shelly, left the apartment together as they did most mornings. Shelly, who was spending a lot of time in the lab at the hospital, worked late that evening. Ordinarily, she would call the apartment to say she would be late, but her day had been lousy, and she was preoccupied. To add insult to injury, it was raining cats and dogs and she didn’t have her umbrella. She decided to uber home and as she was stepping off the curb to get in the car, her cell phone fell out of her backpack and dropped into the rain-filled gutter. She picked it up and cursed when she saw that the screen didn’t light up. Great! Now the stupid phone was not working. When the car dropped her off, Shelly decided she would go straight into the building and not worry about walking around to the side entrance because it was raining so hard. As she entered the building, it seemed quiet. She heard nothing and detected no movement. She walked up the steps and thought that the hallway seemed unusually dim. Maybe it’s gloomy from the rain or a blub blew out, she thought. Reaching the second floor she went to the apartment door and took out her key, before she could put the key in the lock, someone put a hand over her mouth, dragged her down the hall and pulled her into the elevator. Shelly tried to fight the attacker off, but he overpowered her. The assailant threw her into the back of a van parked on the side of the building, got in and locked the doors.

  Shelly was scared to death, and cowered inside the van, trembling she murmured, “Please don’t hurt me. My money is in my backpack in a small purse.”

  He said nothing and drove the van to the lowest level of the garage into a corner where the light had been extinguished.

  When he opened the door Shelly shrieked out, “Take my wallet! The credit cards are in the side pocket and please don’t hurt me.”

  The man’s face was covered by a nylon stocking and he said, “I don’t want your money,” he said in a thick, mean voice that was filled with anger, “and you’re not the one I want,” he growled, getting close to her face. “I want you to give her a message. If she doesn’t return my call and meet with me, then I’ll be very pissed off and will have to have sex by proxy.

  “S, S, Sex by proxy?” Shelly stammered.

  “That means,” The attacker snarled, “I will find you and have sex with you and then your other roommate, if Betty doesn’t agree to see me.” He slapped her across the face twice, “Did you hear me bitch?” he barked like a mad dog. Shelly was too scared to talk. She shook her head to agree. The man opened the van door and viciously threw the contents of her backpack and purse out. He pushed her out of the van, got in the driver’s seat and spun out of the garage squealing the tires, in a burst of speed.

  Shelly had saved the cards the detectives had given them when someone slashed Betty’s tires she told the others to call them. Detectives Garber and Schwartz came to the apartment to investigate.

  Betty was sure it was Luke who was stalking them but said nothing to the detectives. They questioned Shelly and the girls and investigated the attack. They gave further instructions on how to stay safe and left.

  Betty suspected it was Luke a former friend but didn’t tell the detectives that.

  Amelia talked to Chad that evening and told him the stalker had grabbed Shelly outside their apartment and all that happened. She didn’t say what the attacker said to Shelly.

  “Honey,” said Chad, “you must talk to the detective again and tell him who Betty thinks it is, they can at least run his name and see if he has a previous record. It sounds to me like this guy is getting desperate, and who knows what he’ll do. I wish I was there with you Babe, but we are going on another mission and I won’t be able to contact you for two weeks. If you tell me you want me to come to you I will take emergency leave, right now and not go out on this mission.”

  “No, sweetheart, I’m not that scared. “Chad, I’ll admit I’m a bit frightened, but we can’t let this paralyze us. We still need to go to school and work and no one can guard the three of us every minute of the day and night. It would make us prisoners in our own apartment. Let me tell you about why Betty doesn’t want to tell Darrell.”

  She told him the story.

  “You mean the guy would blame her and not the crazy stalker? That’s nuts, how are they going to build a life together if she can’t share everything with him?”

  “What wrong with Darrell? Betty should be able to tell him anything if they are getting married. He should be insisting on staying there in the apartment with all of you. If I were there, I would never leave your side until this guy is caught. Honey, I want you to get a gun too. It is scary I know, but you need to do it. Have you ever shot a gun?”

  “Yes, I shot my father’s pistol and rifle back on the farm, but nothing since I have been here.”

  “Well you don’t have to be a sharpshooter and you have all the basics. Ask Betty’s father to get you a gun too, I don’t know about Shelly.”

  “Mellie, you must promise me you will tell the detectives who Betty suspects. It would be a really bad thing if he is the stalker and he hurts someone, and you didn’t tell the police.”

  “OK, Babe I will talk to Betty and Shelly and we’ll call.”

  “Thank you my sweetest, please, please be careful. Don’t take any chances. If you must go anywhere by yourself call a cab. Do you
need anything? I can send you some…..

  “I’m Ok Babe I just need you.”

  “You are everything to me, if one more thing happens, I’m coming there. There may not be much I can do, but I can be a male presence and you all might feel better if I stay at the apartment.”

  “Oh Babe, you’re the best, I’ll talk to Betty and Shelly and tell them all that, please be safe and come to me soon, I miss you so much.”

  Amelia talked to Betty and Shelly after talking with Chad. Betty didn’t want to give the police Luke’s name. “What if it’s not him and the police question him and then he gets mad? Then we’ll have two people after us.”

  Amelia said, “Yes, but what if it is him and he hurts one of us and we could have stopped him?”

  Betty promised to call the detectives, after what happened tonight, she was convinced she should tell, she phoned Wilson and gave him Luke’s name and told him the story.

  Wilson was concerned and promised that he would look into Luke’s background and use discretion. They were all on pins and needles for the next few weeks. He told them he would have police patrol cars ride through the neighborhood and when they were working nights, he and his partner would spend some time watching the apartment. Wilson was very understanding of their concerns and tried to make them feel safe. He called Shelly during the week to see how she was doing, Shelly thought that was sweet. Detective Garber followed up and investigated Luke he would tell the girls what he found after he did some more leg work.

  [ Chapter 26 ]

  Six months passed by since Amelia had seen Chad and she missed him so much. Chad had been assigned to do some training in Iraq and then had been given missions practically back to back. Amelia was busy with school and working, she told Betty and Shelly how she and Chad’s relationship changed when she went back home, and they knew how much she thought of him.

  One evening when she was not expecting it, she got a phone call from Chad, she was thrilled. He told her they were coming to the U.S. for a briefing and he might be able to arrange to be at the Philadelphia airport for a short stop over and asked if she could meet him. It was not exactly a scheduled stop, he explained, and they would be a special gate not used by the general public. If she could make it they would get to see each other for a very short time. Amelia was so excited, told him she would try, but she knew security at the airport was tight, “but I will see what I can do,” she promised.