Charlene's Soldier

by Lisa Ladew

  Chapter 6

  The next day, Charlene met her sister at her house again, so they could ride to the self-defense class in Kerry's car like they had before. Charlene felt herself looking forward to the class. She had enjoyed the way it made her feel, in control, and powerful. She looked forward to what John and Relic had planned for the evening. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she looked forward to seeing Relic again too.

  The class started quickly, the two men demonstrating how to get away from someone who had gotten them on the ground, then several other pressure points throughout the body. They talked about how to not look like a victim when walking alone. They shared more about how going on the offense is your very best defense in almost any situation. When it was time for the physical exercises, Kerry was bouncing on the balls of her feet, excited to try out some of the pressure points on her sister.

  Charlene fought her hard, putting all of her effort into the take downs but the pressure points worked every time. The pain they created just made her want to let go. They switched, and Charlene was gratified to find that her sister couldn't take it any more than she could. After working on a particularly painful neck pressure point, they both collapsed to the ground feeling like they had accomplished something.

  A phone rang from the front of the room and Charlene watched as John ran over to answer it. His face took on a look of concern while he was talking. He ran to Relic and had a short, whispered conversation, then left the building through the front door.

  “Oh, I hope every thing’s OK with him,” Kerry said.

  Charlene nodded but didn’t respond because Relic was calling for their attention. “That was great everyone. I see almost all of you have mastered that last one. Anyone who needs more help can ask me after class. Now we’re going to move on to a few more difficult moves.” He looked towards the door. “John had to leave to pick up his daughter but should be back in twenty minutes or so. Until then, I’ll need a volunteer to help me demonstrate.”

  Kerry’s hand shot into the air and Charlene heard the women behind her chatter nervously. She waited to see who would be picked.

  “Charlene, can you come up here?” He extended a hand towards her and Charlene’s eyes widened. She hadn’t volunteered. Her heart beat madly and nervous wings filled her stomach. Why her? Kerry shoved her from behind and she took a hesitant step forward to keep from falling on her face.

  “Thank you,” Relic told her, grasping her hand and turning her around to face the class. Charlene’s horrified eyes caught her sisters gleaming ones. She couldn’t think. Could barely stay standing.

  “This is the bear hug breakaway. Someone comes up and grabs you from behind, you’re going to want to act quickly and decisively, before he can carry you to where ever he wants to take you. Even if he is bigger than you and stronger than you, fighting back is your best chance.”

  He looked at Charlene. “I’m going to come up from behind and pick you up, is that OK?”

  Charlene nodded mutely, her head swimming with this information. He nodded and smiled at her then disappeared from her sight line.

  In an instant, Charlene felt strong arms circle her and lift her off the ground. Relic spoke to the class about her relative helplessness, then told her how to get out of it. “Wrap your foot around the back of my knee and tug hard, while pulling at my hands with your hands.”

  Charlene did as she was told and felt Relic take a step forward and his arms loosen. She pulled hard on his hands and they came apart. “Good, now use your surprise advantage and elbow me in the head, then take off.”

  Charlene threw an elbow up and behind her, lightly. She didn’t want to hurt him. Then she ran in a big circle around the class full of women on the floor. They laughed and clapped.

  “Good, Charlene, good. That was perfect. Are there any questions?” Charlene felt her insides glow at his praise. An internal sort of domino effect began to reverberate in her mind. It had been so long since a man had praised her or even approved of her in any way. Her father never had seemed to and then there was Wayne. Wayne had been sweet, mostly in the beginning, but still had never been what she would call approving. This man in front of her had praised her more in the past two classes than he ever had. The thought set up an internal alarm. Danger it shouted at her. This isn’t appropriate. He’s not your husband. You shouldn’t even be talking to him. But another part of her shouted that part down. There was nothing wrong with what she was doing, it said. And if the man acted approving of her, so what? It didn’t mean she was sleeping with him. It didn’t mean she was cheating on her husband. That final thought brought a sliver of pain with it, but Charlene was used to ignoring the pain of being cheated on. She pushed it aside and focused on Relic's handsome face as he answered questions.

  “We'll get a chance to practice all of these shortly, but there are two other moves I want to show you. The first one is self-defense against an unwanted butt grab.” The class giggled and Charlene’s eyes went wide. Was he going to touch her butt?

  “OK, Charlene, turn around here.” He positioned her the way that he wanted her and then dropped his voice lightly. “I’m not actually going to touch your butt, but you react as if I had. Here’s what I want you to do.” Charlene’s breath came a little easier, but at the same time as she felt a small pang of some unidentifiable emotion. Disappointment? She shrugged it off and nodded.

  Relic's hand came close to her backside but never quite touched it. “Reach back with your left hand and grab my pinky. Get a really good grip on it, that’s good. That’s perfect. Now bend your elbow and lift my hand up, then turn towards me and grab my thumb with your other hand.” Charlene did as he instructed, enjoying herself now. “Now push towards me, suddenly, you want to force my pinky and thumb backwards hard.”

  Charlene followed through, pushing his hand back towards his body and was gratified to see him hit the mat and almost do a backward somersault. He hopped up and beamed at her. “Perfect!” He turned to the class and explained how the angle had forced him onto his back.

  “Now the last move we are going to cover today is a rape prevention move. We have a few to go over, but the most essential one is the one I’m going to show you right now. I’m going to have Charlene demonstrate and then you all can practice.” Relic laid on the ground on his back. “OK Charlene, drop on top of me like you are the rapist.” Charlene shook slightly. He wanted her to do what? She looked at the large, muscular man on the ground in front of her and couldn’t quite comprehend it. “That’s it, Charlene, just step forward and bend down like I’m a woman and you’re trying to overpower me.”

  Charlene tried to force her body to move. She knew this was all playacting, but the thought of dropping on top of Relic made her mind swirl dangerously towards a truth that she did not want to confront. She forced herself to step forward, then dropped to one knee between his bent legs.

  “Great, now lean forward and put your body weight on me.” Charlene’s mind and body seem to separate slightly as she saw herself leaning forward on top of him as if from a great distance. She’d never been this close to a man who wasn’t Wayne before.

  Relic faced the class and spoke quickly, showing them exactly how he wanted them to respond. He grabbed Charlene’s hands and pulled her forward slightly, then pushed her back and performed a complicated leg movement to wriggle out from underneath her. After he had demonstrated the move several times, he bounced to his feet and pulled Charlene up with him.

  Charlene returned to her spot next to her sister and tried to function normally with every her mind and her body in overdrive.

  Chapter 7

  Charlene practically bolted out the door when the class was over, wanting to both deny and cover up the feelings that were swirling around inside her. She ran to the passenger door of her sister's small car and waited for Kerry to open the doors. Kerry finally came out, her face gleeful and mischievous. Charlene could tell she was bursting to say something.

  Kerry unlocked th
e doors and climbed in, twisting the key in the ignition immediately. But the car wouldn’t start; the engine chugged weekly but would do no more.

  “Oh great,” Kerry groaned. “What now?” She tried again and still had no luck. She sighed deeply and popped open the trunk, then got out of the car to look under the hood. Charlene followed.

  “What’s wrong with it?” Charlene asked.

  “It’s the alternator, I bet. My friend Andrew was going to come over and replace it for me on Monday. It’s been giving me problems all week.”

  “So how do we get home?” Charlene asked, irritated that her sister hadn’t said anything before. They could have brought her car.

  Kerry looked behind them into the brightly-lit Dojo. “Maybe somebody can give us a ride …”

  “Why don’t we just call a tow truck?”

  “Because I don’t want to spend fifty dollars on a tow if I don’t have to. I’ll call Andrew tomorrow and see if he can come by and fix it right here in the parking lot.”

  Charlene opened her mouth to argue but the door of the Dojo opened and Relic walked outside. He came straight towards them and Charlene could see the concern on his face even in the dark. “You two need a ride?”

  Kerry smiled immediately. “That would be great!”

  “I’m the black Jeep over there,” Relic said, pointing.

  “Thanks, let me just get my stuff,” Kerry told him. She rummaged around in her car and grabbed a bag, then closed the door and locked it while Relic dropped the hood.

  Charlene walked slowly towards Relic's Jeep. She felt Kerry push past her and rolled her eyes. Kerry was going to try to beat her to the front seat. That was fine. She didn’t need to sit next to Relic. But when she got to the Jeep, Kerry was already inside and in the back. Kerry smiled at her sweetly and Charlene frowned in confusion.

  Charlene and Relic climbed in the car and Kerry told Relic roughly how to get to her house. They pulled out onto the street and Charlene shivered, glad that Wayne wasn’t around to see her in another man’s car.

  “So what you do, Charlene?” Relic asked.

  The question surprised Charlene and he took a moment to answer. What did she do?

  “I’m a nurse.”

  “Oh that’s fascinating. You must have some great stories.”

  “Uh, yeah,” she said hesitantly, although she couldn’t think of a one.” She colored slightly. “Kerry fixes radios,” she blurted out.

  “Oh. What kind of radios?”

  Kerry leaned forward from the backseat. "Public safety radios and radio towers for police department and fire department.”

  Relic was about to answer and Charlene snuck a glance at him, happy to see genuine interest on his face. His deep blue eyes gave her a start for a moment, and she remembered suddenly who he reminded her of. The marine. The handsome marine whose mother had been dying, and who later had been held captive in Iraq. She had watched the fiasco spellbound every night on the news, and cheered in her living room when word came that he had been rescued. The marine's eyes had been more of a sapphire blue, but just as striking. She had been attracted to him too. Did she have a thing for the clean-cut, heavily muscled military look and just never knew it before?

  Kerry spoke up from the back seat, deflecting Relic's interest from her.

  “But it’s boring stuff. What about you, Relic? What do you do in the Army?”

  “I’m infantry.”

  Charlene couldn’t help herself. She looked at him, eyebrows raised. “Really?”

  He laughed. “You seem surprise.”

  “Well yeah, you don’t seem like the type.”

  “What type is that?”

  Embarrassment flooded through Charlene. She'd really put her foot in her mouth. “Oh, ah, well, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that you seem so smart. And …” She trailed off. What had she been about to say? Nice? Sweet? Thoughtful?

  “Thanks. I just went with infantry because I wasn’t sure what else I wanted to do. Now that I’ve been doing it for a few years, I think I want to go back to school to fly helicopters. I just like to be active, you know?”

  Charlene nodded. She did know.

  Kerry leaned forward again and pointed out the turn into her subdivision. “It’s the second house on the left.”

  Relic pulled his car into the driveway and put it into park, then turned off the ignition. Charlene climbed out and pulled the seat forward so Kerry could get out behind her. Kerry pushed past her, heading toward the house and yelled, “Bye Relic, thank you!” then ran up to her front stoop.

  Charlene stood and looked at Relic as he waved goodbye to Kerry. She felt mortified, like Kerry's thank you was not sufficient for what Relic had done for them. “Yeah, thanks a lot,” she said, trying to put some feeling into it. Relic locked eyes with her and smiled, causing her stomach to swoop dangerously. “Anytime,” he said.

  Charlene backed up quickly and slammed the door then practically ran to the house. Behind her, she heard the ignition start up as she met Kerry on the stoop. “You should go back and talk to him,” she hissed.

  “About what?” Charlene said and grabbed the keys out of Kerry’s hand. “I said bye, I said thank you, there’s nothing more to talk about.” She unlocked Kerry's door and pushed inside as the Jeep pulled out of the driveway.

  They spilled into the house and Charlene went to the dining room table to gather up her jewelry.

  Kerry ran to catch up with her. “He is so into you,” she said.

  Adrenaline shot through Charlene and she stood up, bolt straight. “No he’s not.”

  “He totally is. Everyone in that room wanted to be the one to climb on top of him and he picked you.” She leaned forward with her hands on the table and stared at Charlotte. “Your hand wasn’t even up!”

  Nervously, Charlotte shook her head. “It doesn’t matter anyway,” she said. “I'm married.”

  Kerry rolled her eyes and Charlotte sank into a chair, defeated. Some marriage.

  Chapter 8

  Charlene pulled into her driveway, her nerves on high alert. Wayne’s car was there but who knew what state he was in. Drunk? Sober? She hadn’t seen him sober in the evenings for several months now. As she walked inside she remembered when she had expressed fear about his drinking patterns and asked him to get help. It had been the first time that he had ever called her stupid. She gathered her courage and pushed in the front door.

  The house was dark and for a moment she hoped that he had already gone to bed. A voice came from the living room. It was Wayne, and to Charlene, he sounded dangerous, like a snake stalking a mouse.

  “Where were you?”

  Something in his voice told her she better not lie this time.

  “Out with Kerry.”

  “Out with Kerry where?”

  “At a class.”

  “What kind of class?” Something in the lilt of his words let Charlene know he was toying with her. Somehow he knew exactly where she had been.

  “A self-defense class for women,” she said. She fought the urge to keep talking and explain her every action. She hadn't been doing anything wrong. If she and Wayne were on better terms he would always know everywhere that she had been.

  “I don’t want you to see Kerry anymore.”

  Charlene took the words like a blow to the chest. “What? She’s my sister.”

  “She dragged you to that class, didn’t she? She’s single. You’re married. You need to be more respectable than that.”

  Charlene’s voice raised as desperation filled her. “You can't tell me not to see my sister!”

  Charlene heard the springs on Wayne’s well-used chair sing as he stood up. In four large steps he had made it into the kitchen and caught her hand around the wrist. Her heart beat madly. He had never hit her, but had she always felt there’d been a threat of it? Maybe. Was it about to happen? Not if she could help it.

  “Look at the trouble you get in with her. Climbing all over men.”

  Cha
rlene’s mouth dropped open but she wasn’t surprised. Not really.

  “We were sparring!” She realized that wasn’t even the point. “Did you follow me?”

  “I don’t need to follow you. I got you tracked, baby. Your sister is bad news and you ain’t going back to that gym either. You don’t need to be pressing your body up against guys you don’t know.”

  “But …” Charlene couldn’t respond for a moment. Something inside her broke and spilled indignation across her soul. “How dare you …” she began and fought for breath. Her head fell like it was going to split open with emotions. She could barely breathe. “How dare you insinuate I’m doing anything wrong? You are actually cheating on me!” She shouted and ripped her hand from his, taking a step backwards.

  She could sense his confusion in the darkened room. He thought she hadn’t known. He thought he really was hiding it that well. She opened her mouth and let him have it, not caring for the first time in her life what the neighbors could hear. “I can smell the sex in your clothes when I wash them! I know exactly when it started and I know every time you do it!”

  In the dim light falling from the moon outside the window, she could see the slyness creep into his face. “So you think two wrongs will make a right?” he asked her slowly. "You going to get back at me? Is that it?”

  Charlene shook her head, knowing she shouldn’t even be responding to that. Wayne took another step towards her. “Well you have fun. I’ve seen the way that man looks at you. He’ll bend you over a barrel in the back alley for a quick five pumps, then leave you with your hoohoo cooling in the breeze and cum staining your ass.”

  Charlene had had enough. Enough of Wayne. Enough of everything.

  “No he won’t!” she screamed. "You’re thinking of you, Wayne. That’s what you would do!”

  She slipped sideways before his hands could come up again and ripped the door open, fleeing into the night.