She Woke

A Memory Evoked

     Samuel was silent for a few minutes. Then he raised his head to her. In the faint, flickering light the television cast over them, Natalie could have sworn she saw a scar across his face. She shook the image from her mind and imagined Samuel as he was on the day they met.

    Tall, with this perfectly coiffed dark brown hair. He had it styled like men wore their hair in the 1930's and 1940's, short on the sides and long on the top, but slicked over to the side. His jaw was square and sharp, and covered in dark stubble. His chocolate brown eyes were shadowed by thick lashes, and he gave her a sly look as he walked over to her. Natalie was sitting at a bar by herself. She hadn't come alone, but her friend had long since found a man who kept her attention much better than Natalie could. Her eyebrow raised before she could command herself not to react to how gorgeous this stranger was. He slid smoothly onto the stool next to hers, and she tried to act indifferent. Natalie took a sip of her drink, stole a glance at him, and quickly looked away. She knew he had seen her look, and she could have kicked herself.

     Samuel couldn't help but grin at this woman trying so hard not to get picked up, he knew she was interested, no matter how much she didn't want to be, so he decided to go for it.

     “So,” he began, and she turned her head to look farther away from him. He silently motioned for the bartender to bring him two of what she was drinking, and he stood up. “I'd like to offer you a drink miss.” he said pointedly to her, with a hint of a northern accent.

     Natalie looked up at him, her eyes wide, mouth slightly ajar. She was a little surprised with him, if she was being honest with herself. She just wasn't pretty enough to interest a man like him.

     “I am not sure I'd like to accept.” she stated, and she turned back around. She wasn't sure what she was doing. Saving him from a boring night with “Nowhere Natalie”? Would a man like this ever offer her a drink again? Maybe she should just accept.

     Samuel sat back down. The bartender placed the two drinks in front of him. He shrugged and took a long swig of one of them. It was a long island iced tea, and he was pleasantly surprised at her drink choice. He looked her way, but didn't say any more to her. He didn't want to overstep his bounds. They sat next to each other, each drinking their separate drinks, people watching in silence for a good five minutes or so.

     Then, slowly, Samuel noticed a hand moving in his direction on the bar. A hand with no manicure, fingernails chewed to the quick, and with what must have been a hundred bangles on the attached wrist. The bracelets didn't seem to fit with the rest of what he saw and he decided they had been borrowed, or forced on by a friend. The hand reached the extra long island sitting in front of him, and slowly began to move it back in the direction of the woman sitting next to him.

     “I suppose you are taking me up on my offer then?” Samuel chuckled, he ducked his head a bit to look into her eyes, his eyebrows raised, “I'm Samuel.” he gave her a brilliant smile, all straight, white, beautiful teeth. She blushed.

     “Natalie.” her smile was small and close-mouthed, and Samuel wanted to change that. He suddenly wanted to make this woman laugh, to see what her smile really looked like. “thank you, by the way. For the drink.” Natalie added. Samuel was smitten then. This polite, shy, redhead. He had to know more than just her name.

     “Well, Natalie. You intrigue me.” he informed her, “and I hope I don't come on too strong here, but I want to know more about you. Would you let me buy you a late dinner across the street? There's this little diner...”

     “Hal's Diner! Yes! It's my favorite spot!” Natalie exclaimed, then frowned, angry with herself for telling this stranger where her favorite place to eat was. And angry for agreeing to go eat with him. Men were not supposed to be her focus right now, her focus was supposed to be on her schooling, and her friend Tracy had just decided they needed a night on the town. Natalie hated going out, and now she'd agreed to go have dinner with this Samuel character, but when she looked into those chocolate eyes she couldn't back out. He stood up, and offered his hand to help her from her perch at the bar. She took it, but dropped it again quickly as soon as she was standing. She led the way to the diner, not stopping once to make sure he was following her.

    Natalie took her regular spot in the second booth from the door, and Samuel couldn't help but be a little disappointed at being so exposed in the middle of the restaurant, but he understood why she wouldn't want to sit in the back booth with a complete stranger. He asked her questions about everything, and though it took awhile for her to get comfortable, soon they had a back and forth going quite well. She was witty and quick and sarcastic, and he was mesmerized by her. Her red hair framed her face like a halo, backlit by the hanging light of the booth behind her, her eyes were seafoam green and crinkled at the corners when she laughed. When she didn't like something, she scrunched her nose up at it and shook her head. And when she smiled, when she really smiled, these dimples appeared on both sides of her face. She had these plump rosy cheeks, and when she wasn't smiling there wasn't even a hint of those dimples-it made Samuel want to make her smile so much more.

     She just seemed so free once she became comfortable with him. She used her hands when she spoke and she quickly proved to be such a fiercely passionate woman, he fell in love with her a little bit with every word she said. From that night, it was history. Samuel and Natalie were never apart. They had a love that blossomed more every day, a relationship that everyone who knew them envied. They were beautiful and passionate and perfect. Until Samuel made the mistake of letting a friend talk him into taking a few pills.

     Samuel spiraled downwards so quickly hardly anyone noticed until it was too late. First it was the pills, and then the pills weren't enough. He tried coke with another friend, and quickly became addicted. After that, he would try anything a “friend” or a dealer put in front of him. Natalie tried to stop him, but every time she attempted to speak to him about his drug use being a problem, he would disappear for days. She worried constantly, never knowing if he would come home, or if someone would find him in a warehouse, a dumpster, on the side of the road, dead. She stuck with him because she loved him too much to realize how much he was hurting her. She made excuses for him. All of her friends begged her not to let him in next time he came back, but she couldn't ignore him. She kept thinking of the gorgeous, enigmatic man she'd fallen in love with, she kept telling herself she could bring that man back.

     Then he knocked on the sliding glass door in the middle of a rain storm, in more trouble than he'd ever been in, covered in blood, and bringing his problems to her for the last time. He was gone for seven months. The police had told her he was most likely dead-she had filed a missing persons report not long after she reported her vehicle stolen. They found the car, but not the man.

     Natalie had finally accepted that she was alone now. She didn't want it any other way, she knew that she couldn't love another man the way she'd loved Samuel, and after losing him the way she had, she didn't want to try to love again. She was always waiting for those drug dealers to come back looking for Samuel, but they hadn't in seven months, she assumed that they wouldn't, but any time anything looked out of place, her heart raced.

     Those men had crashed through those glass doors a half hour after Samuel left. They searched her entire house, breaking her belongings while they did it. Nothing was sacred to them. When they found no trace of Samuel or anything that looked like it could have belonged to him, they walked to the room Natalie was quietly sitting in. She hadn't tried to stop them from searching, she hadn't yelled about them breaking anything, she had just sat there, silent. She hoped they couldn't sense her unease. She hoped that they couldn't hear her heart beating even though it sounded like drums in her ears. They stood in front of her, and she was terrified, but she looked up at them.

     “Are you satisfied?” she had to grip her own thighs to keep her hands from shaking, but her eyes were steely and unwavering. Challenging. One of the men took a step forward menacingly, but the other put his hand out, stopping him.

     “Thank you for your cooperation.” the latter spoke with a warning in his voice, and Natalie understood that she would be great danger from his partner if she decided not to continue her cooperation. She simply bowed her head a bit, and the men turned and left. Her house, and her life, were in shambles. Natalie, herself, was unharmed. Physically, at least.