Journey's Child

24

"Hello."

I looked over at my mother and saw the fear on her face. She put her fingers to her mouth to signal me to be quiet.

"Hello!"

I wanted to crawl away and hide. By the way my mother was acting, she felt the same way. She took my hand and we went down to the end of the hall.

Tom continued to bang on the door. "I'm not going away Ally! You promised to meet me at the bar next to Jerry's last night. Come on, Ally, open the door."

It was quiet for a minute or so, then he banged on the door, making both of us jump.

"Open the God damn door, Ally!" he yelled.

I was too afraid to cry, but I was shaking. I felt really cold. My mother had her arms around me protectively, but she was shaking too.

"Mom, maybe you should open the door," I whispered.

"No," she whispered back. "He'll go away if we don't answer."

"Mom!" I started to argue.

"Go get dressed. Thad will be here soon."

That calmed me down. I knew Thad would protect us. I went to get ready. Tom quit knocking and yelling, just like my mother said. I figured he had gone away.

"Wear long pants and tennis shoes, Gilly. There will be a lot of walking and it's underground, so it will be cold. Bring a jacket, too."

"Okay," I yelled back in a whisper. My mother hadn't been that concerned about what I wore since before we came here. It was like she woke up from an evil spell that someone had put on her the day of the accident. All of a sudden she was back.

Bam, bam, bam.

We both jumped. I ran over to her and she hugged me. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest.

"Ally, open the door," Tom said in a sing-song voice. "I'm not going away until you talk to me."

"Mom, call the police," I begged, not whispering anymore.

"That's enough!" my mother yelled at the door. I grabbed her tighter. "Gilly, it's okay, I'm going to put a stop to this."

"Mom no, stop!" I yelled as I ran after her. "No, don't open the door."

"Gilly, stop it! It's alright."

I sucked in my breath as she jerked open the door. It took just a second, but that second was the scariest moment of my life.

The large figure filled up the doorway and blocked out the dim light of the foggy morning. Thad stood silent, staring at my mother and me. "Are you okay?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

My mother leaned against the door and gave a little laugh in relief of finding Thad instead of Tom. "Come in," she said, "Gilly's almost ready."

I ran right to him and began telling him all about Tom. I started crying at one point. I continued rattling on like a crazy person. I had never been that scared for that long of a time. I knew my mother had been scared too, no matter how she was acting now.

"It wasn't a big deal, really," she managed to squeeze in between my rants.

"It was too," I argued, "you were as scared as I was."

She looked up at Thad apologetically, "I was a little frightened," she confessed.

Thad and my mom went out in front to talk, while I was sent to brush my teeth. When I came out of the latrine, my mom was in her bedroom. I walked down the hall, but Thad wasn't in the living room. Confused, I walked into my mother's room and asked, "Where did Thad go?"

She had just finished zipping up a pair of jeans I hardly ever saw her wear, and sat down on her bed to tie her tennis shoes, as it gave out several loud squeaks.

"He'll be right back," she said. "I've decided to come with you, okay?"

"Okay," I said feeling better about not leaving her here with Tom."

As we walked down the hall, Thad opened the door and stepped inside. "Well, that's taken care of," he told my mother. "He's leaving today."

"Thank you," my mother said in a relieved voice as she put her hand to her chest.

"Well, let's get going," Thad said, smiling at me.

I was so happy that I felt like crying. What was up with all the crying? I wondered. I wasn't able to control my emotions lately and that was a little scary too.

Thad had a new Land Rover. It was a beautiful Marine Blue with two sunroofs and leather seats. I never thought about him having a car or driving.

*

The Sea Lion Caves were a lot of fun. All three of us had a great time. Inside the caves, the sounds of sea lions echoed everywhere. The brochure said that they were Steller Seals and that they have families and are very social with each other. There was a beautiful bronze sculpture of a seal family that was done in actual size. I had no idea how big seals were. They also had a skeleton of a three-year-old female seal on display. It showed that seals are vertebrate with a backbone and ribs. The skeleton was over seven feet long! This seal had been found fatally shot. Why people hurt seals so much is really a mystery. It was sad to be told about the cruelty of people doing harm to any animal, including humans. It really made me think about that.

We spent a couple of hours at the caves then we went to a nice seafood restaurant for lunch. Thad and my mother talked all day long. It felt good to see them both happy. I watched, hoping that maybe something romantic would happen, but they just seemed to really enjoy being friends.

I dozed in the comfortable backseat on the way to the cottage. It was late afternoon and the sun shone through the windows and blanketed me in a warm cocoon. Now that Tom had left, there wasn't anything to worry about. That's what I thought, anyway.