My lost military man

Chapter 7

I went to bed that night discourage and uncomfortable. Anthony had been invading my space too much, I can still feel his breath tickling my ear. I tired to shrug it off and sleep but my fear lingered in my brain staying in place. I'm intimidated by men, especially by men that are as big and defined like how Anthony is, he could easily over power me. I closed my eyes and tried to fight off the memories that were resurfacing of that terrible night, they were the memories I keep hidden in the back of my mind and in the back of my heart, places were no one would find them and places where I would hopefully forget them. But instead I began to relive the night, the pain and torture, my body covered in black and blue spots from previous nights, and the wild distant look in his eyes as he stalked towards me, I was begging him to stop to think about what he was doing. But he didn't listen, the agony I felt can't be compared to anything. After it was done and I saw him walking away, I could feel myself shatter onto the floor, breaking into tiny pieces. There were some pieces I knew I could never retrieve, they were either lost in the tangled mess or was so broken there was no point. In my head I can still hear the echo of my faint and weak attempts to tell him to stop. I feel the tears on my face but I don't do anything I just let me wallow in my self misery and in my own nightmare, my shoulders were shaking and I could feel the aching knots in them, as I tried to calm myself I felt hands being gently placed on my shuddering shoulders, I jumped from my position and turned my head to see Michael, he gave me the look that I still remember well, he knew what I was crying about and he knew how to make it stop. I turned around again and he pulled me close, slowly massaging my soar shoulders and neck. He began to hum, our mother use to hum to us when we were scared and woke up from a nightmare, she always hummed nursery rhymes in our ear once we felt calm enough we would begin to hum with her and eventually fall asleep in her arms. I couldn't make out the tune Michael was humming to but we were swaying back and forth on the mattress causing a rocking sensation which soothed me, I soon hummed with him remembering mothers favorite "Mary had a little lamb" I felt my eyes droop in exhaustion, it was a long day filled with lots of different emotions, I leaned more into Michael and laid my head on his shoulder slowly falling into a dreamless sleep.
The next morning I awoke to McKenna calling my cell phone at 8:00 in the morning.
"Hello?" I groggily answered.
"Hey boss, so I got a call from the delivery man and your new order of guinea pigs are being delivered today at 12:00 o'clock and you need to come down and sign the papers." She said, I sighed and crawled out of bed heading towards the shower.
"Thank you for calling I will be there around nine." I ended the call and grabbed my clothes and headed into the shower. Fifteen minutes later I came out from the steam filled room and walked into the kitchen hand drying my hair with a towel, I walk in to see a failed breakfast experiment on my counter and two sheepish looking military men sitting at my table.
"Well good morning Lynn, we made breakfast." Michael smiled holding up the cereal bowl. I ignored him as I started at the mess they made, there was burnt black pancakes on a plate, overly friend eggs in a pan and sausage grease on the counter.
"What did you do?" I said annoyed and quickly got a towel to wipe up the grease, I put the eggs that were stuck to the pan in water and threw away the pancakes.
"Well we wanted to surprise you with a nice morning breakfast but we obviously don't know how to cook." Anthony said shrugging and taking a bite of his cereal. I massaged my temples trying to take away the tension that was building into a headache.
"You both will clean this up, I have to go to the shop today and sign a few things."
"Aw, but Lynn I wanted to go there with you." Michael whined.
"Well you should have thought about that before you burnt breakfast." I said as I walked to get my purse and out to my car.
As I pulled up to the store I could see the delivery truck pulling into the back I quickly got out and met him in the back.
"Are you, Marilynn Cassel?" He asked.
"Yes that's me." He handed me the clip board and I signed the papers, then he brought in the crate of the little guinea pigs and set the box next to the cage they will be in.
"Thank you so much!" I called after him, McKenna came out from the back with the tree shavings, bowls and food that will be put in the cage.
"Aw you can hear them squeaking." She cooed. "How many are there?" She asked.
"Exactly six, three males and three females." I said as I poured the tree shavings on the bottom then added the food and water. One by one we took the guinea pigs out and set them in the cage at first they would stand still, assessing their new home then scamper to a corner and continue to squeak.
"Oh they are just so adorable, look at them!"McKenna gushed, she reached down to pet a black and white one but it ran off before she could touch it.
"Even with the smallest legs they run fast." She said frustrated and walked away. I laughed and went back to arranging the cage, as I got done the bell jingled I looked up to see the two annoying men now in my life. Michael liked around processing all the new changes I have made and the progress that has happened.
"Wow Lynn, this place look great! It's so much bigger!" I smiled.
"Thank you, now come over here and look at the guinea pigs!" He quickly walked over with Anthony slowly following him, Anthony was taking his time absorbing the place he looked at all the toys and collars and took extra time petting the puppies.
"Oh they are so cute jut look at them." I heard Michael say in a baby voice.
"And the little squeak noise they make is adorable." I laughed at his behavior, as he was about to pick one up we heard a box fall to the ground we turned around to see McKenna looking almost star-struck as she openly starred at the two army men.
"Oh, hello McKenna, this is my brother Michael and his friend Anthony."