After market ends and we pack up everything its noon and it time to go home. But today is special as its pay day. Everyone lines up and waits for their names to be called. When mine is called I almost jump for joy because this time it’s all for me and no one else. It may not be much but it’s enough for me to live more comfortably than before. I walk up to Reg and he hands me a small bag of coins, as he does every month, and before I walk away he says to me “There’s a little extra in there. Barnes tells me you’ve got your eye on a good one.” I grin and nod.
“Thanks Reg, can you tell Anika that I’ll meet her by the fountain later?”
“Sure thing.” He says distractedly, he looks at his list of names and calls out someone else’s name.
I grab my bag from a small shack that we use for storage and start walking up into the square to do some overdue shopping.
I decide to go to the grocers first, when I arrive Auntie Jackie is already there waiting for me. Her shop is based outside, with row upon row of different coloured fruits and vegetables. Sometimes she would have more exotic looking things that were odd looking but delicious. I always feel like it’s an adventure coming here because you never know what she’ll have in beside the usual carrots and potatoes.
However today I wasn’t looking forward to seeing her. Well I wasn’t looking forward to the awkward conversation of asking for half of what I usually get. She sees me and smiles, but I can feel the tension rising, “Good afternoon Auntie.” I say when I get to the front of her shop.
“Here you are Jeanie. What you usually get.” I looked at the packages she’d prepared and saw that they were half the size of what I would get for me and my dad. She knew, of course she did, that I didn’t want that awkward ‘my dad died so I don’t need as much’ conversation.
“Thank you” I say smiling while silently thanking her for her discretion as well.
She winks at me, her gentle grey eyes look slightly sad, “No problem kiddo.”
I put the packages of fruits and vegetables in my bag and walk next door to Mrs Faversham’s Dress shop. As I walk through the wooden door I hear the tinkle of the bell, letting her know I’ve arrived.
“Just a minute!” the shrill, high pitched voice shouts at me from the back of the shop. I look around the shop and decide it’s really not the place you’ll usually find me. The walls are lined with different fabrics, from the sturdy to the frilly. In the middle of the room is a cutting table with a half cut out dress pattern on it. There are mannequins depicting what Mrs. Faversham thinks men and women should be wearing in town and there are racks of shoes and trinkets on the wall behind the counter.
I hear the patter of tiny footsteps and a small woman appears from the door at the back of the shop. Her salt and pepper hair is neatly styled and her dress is a conservative black with a white apron and a tape measure around her neck. “Ah... Jean Marie your here for the dress you left with me, correct?” she said sharply. She wasn’t my biggest family. It was understandable after all I did get her sons nose broken.
I looked at her for a moment before replying “That’s right.”
“Very well, I’ll be back in a moment.” She turned on heel, and returned to her domain behind the shop front, muttering to herself as she went. A few moments later she returned with a dress bag. “Here you are then. That’ll be 4 silver coins then please.” She says putting my dress on the counter.
I take out my coin purse and take out four small silver coins and hand them to her. “Thank you Mrs. Faversham.” I say and turn to leave before this meeting became anymore awkward.
I step back out into the square and a tingle shoots down my spine. I look around only to find one of my least favourite people leaning against the Dress Shops window. Jude.
“Hey good looking,” He says with a sneer. He walks over to me and stands too close for comfort, “How are you today?”
“All the better for seeing you.” I say as nice as possible.
To his credit he looked genuinely shocked, “Really?” he questions, sounding hopeful.
“No.” I say flatly and walk past him. I don’t get far. He catches my arm and grips it so tight it hurts. “Let me go your hurting me.” His grip on me tightens and he pulls me to one side and down a small ally to the side of his mothers shop. “Jude I’m serious, let me go.” My voice is shaking with fear.
He pushes me against the cold, hard wall and pushes his face close to mine. “Shut up.” He hisses, “I’m getting bored of you.”
“What do you mean?” I say. I want to sound confident, like I’m not afraid of him or what he might do. However, I know sound like a mouse trying to fend off a hungry cat.
“I’m getting bored of waiting for you to spread your legs for me. So I’ll just spread them for you.” He sneers at me and pushes his body against mine. He begins to kiss my neck with his cold hard lips, and pushed his thigh in-between my legs. All the while he’s restraining me by pushing my arms against the wall. No matter how much I struggle his grip doesn’t falter.
Hot tears come to my eyes and my voice seems to be stuck in my throat. I try to force it out but nothing comes. My body goes numb and I stop resisting, “That’s it try to enjoy it as much as me.” Jude laughs.
“Please...someone...help me.” I manage to say but it’s a small whisper. No one could possibly have heard it. Jude chuckles against my neck and moves his lips down to my breasts and I feel something. But it doesn’t feel like an emotion, in fact it feels like all emotion leaves my body leaving behind a faint sensation, like a small spark waiting for its chance to ignite. However as quickly as I feel it, the sensation leaves me and my emotions creep back in. I’m so afraid, but I am more afraid of myself than I am of Jude.
He stops abruptly and looks to his left, “What do you want?” he barks. I turn my head and see the Nomad from the docks this morning. Standing a few meters away from us, he looks at me and I feel so humiliated. “Read the situation here, mate. Bugger off.” For a moment I thought he would, so I closed my eyes and let what I thought was the inevitable happen.
But, in what felt like a second I felt a gust of wind, heard a crunch and Jude screaming as he fell to the floor. I opened my eyes and saw the Nomad standing over a crumpled and screaming Jude. “You okay?” he asked me in a genuinely concerned voice.
I look at him, grab my bag and begin to run but I stop myself. I turn around to look at him, “Thank you.” I say breathlessly, trying not to cry even more in from of him. “Thank you, I don’t...” I stop myself because I cascade of tears spills from my eyes and I can’t help but let them come.
He walks towards me and wraps his arms around me protectively. I cling to his shirt as if I am clinging onto some shred of sanity. “It’s okay.” He says to me, “You can cry.”
Thank god he came, but I am afraid of what I’ll do. What was that I felt? I push away from him and grab my bag. “T-t-Thank you.” I say and turn to run towards the square.
“Wait!” he screams after me. But my feet won’t stop, my brain shuts down and my body moves on its own. I turn into the ally at the side of the dress shop and run towards the safety of the square. Leaving behind the horrible memory I will do anything to forget.
