Chapter Forty Three

 Sara made it over in the early afternoon.  We all greeted and hugged each other, and sat around my kitchen table.  “You don’t look too bad for someone who got beat up by four men, Jay,” Sara said.

 “You seem to be doing well for someone who just met a brutal end to a long relationship,” he countered to change the subject.  “Laura told me a bit about him, I’m sorry it had to happen like that.”

 “I’ve had a couple of days to cry it off...  I keep telling myself, better now than after the marriage.”  She looked at her hands and noticed she was fidgeting with her engagement ring.  “I don’t know why I’m wearing this thing anymore.”

 “How long has it been there?” Jay asked.

 “What was it, two years?” I said.

 “Just over...  And we still hadn’t set a date.”

 “So...  Do you feel like all men are scum now, or just him?” Jay asked with a bit of feigned nervousness.

 It got a weak laugh from Sara, and she smiled at Jay.  “Just him, don’t worry.  Oh, before I forget...  Is Jay a nickname, by chance?”

 “Yeah...  Why?”

 “Don’t make me get into the degrees of connection involved here, but I think you might have a job at an imaging center, if you’re interested.  It’s a smaller place, the people that work there are all friends.  There’s no underdogs.”

 “An imaging center,” Jay said reverently.  The word clearly meant more to him than it did to me.

 “What’s that?” I asked.

 “A place where techs take pictures of people who walk in.  No accident victims, no drunks, no weekends, nights, call, or holidays.  A dream job, in short.”

 “So you’re interested?” Sara smiled.

 “Hell yes, I’m interested!  I’m also interested in how this came about.”

 “Oh, now you’ve done it.  Well, the mother of a friend of a friend and so on went to your emergency room and came back raving about an x-ray tech was so kind and gentle with her.  Her nephew is the human resources director at this imaging center and he’s trying to find a replacement for someone who’s retiring by word of mouth.  He’s very picky about who he hires, since it’s such a good work environment as it is.  He tried calling you at work, having no other way to reach you.  Some manager named Tim kept telling him no one named ‘Jay’ works there, and was really rude about it.”

 “I really can not stand Tim...” Jay said.  “Who was the woman, anyway?  I’m curious.”

 “Do you remember x-raying a woman named Carol?”

 Jay looked at the ceiling.  “Oh yes...  I mean no, I can’t say.”

 Sara laughed.  “Yeah, fine.  Well, if you can be here tomorrow I’ll get a hold of my friend and you should be getting a call.  The director’s name is John.”

 “Laura, am I dreaming?”

 “I don’t know, should I slap you?”

 “No need, everything hurts already.  I guess I am awake.”

 Sara spoke up again.  “Jay, I don’t know what this will mean to you, but thank you for standing up for my sister.  What even happened, anyway?  Did they come here?  Did you go out in the yard?”

 “We were at the park,” I said.  “I guess Earl had been keeping an eye on us, and called in his buddies.”

 “His ‘boys’,” Jay corrected facetiously.

 “Well, that’s the second time he violated the protection order.  He’s in jail, right?”

 “You didn’t tell her much, did you?” Jay said.

 “No...” I said as I got up.  “We didn’t go to the police this time.”  I went to my bedroom to fetch the printouts.

 “Why?” I heard Sara ask.

 “We did last time, and he made bail.  I...  We don’t have the time to mess around with that.  It’s going to set him off worse each time, he’s talking about trying to get custody of Madison...”

 “So?  What are you doing, taking the law into your own hands?”

 “I don’t know what I’m doing...” Jay admitted as I laid the articles in front of Sara.

 Almost as soon as she’d glanced at them she asked, “Alright, what happened?  I thought you got beat up.”

 “I didn’t?” Jay asked with a smile that faded under Sara’s stony gaze.  “I had four guys attack me, and I did what I could.  Then Earl had to be a sick b*****d, so...”

 “No, stop.  What does that mean?”

 “He said something about Madison,” I answered quickly, hoping she wouldn’t press.

 She pressed.  “What did he say?”

 “You tell her, then,” Jay said, not wanting to repeat it.

 Thanks, I thought, though I couldn’t blame him.  “I believe his is exact words were ‘do you know how much that little mouth could make me in a weekend’.  That was after Jay asked him what he could possibly want custody for.”

 Sara got red with anger.  “He said that, while he was violating a restraining order, and you didn’t go to the police?  What the hell is wrong with you two?  What did you do, aside from killing the wrong man?”

 “I didn’t kill him,” Jay said in a measured voice that made me desperately want to change the conversation.  I knew that wasn’t going to happen, however...

 “Are you going to do anything?  What did you do?” she repeated.

 “Well, I got pretty mad, and I actually thought of killing Earl when he said that.  I came so close.  I had no way to know if he was serious, though.  So what I ended up doing was breaking some windows, and mirrors on his car.”

 Sara looked flabbergasted.  “Brilliant, Jay.  Wonderful.  Do you have any idea how stupid that was?”

 “I have an idea,” Jay said, his head lowering.  I was frozen, unable to believe he was under attack by my own sister.

 “I was just thinking, not five minutes ago, how Laura had found the last decent guy around.  Especially with the whole restraining order, I thought you were taking this all in the right direction.  But no, even with that under your belt, you have to be a macho idiot and drag this whole thing out even longer.”

 “Sara, leave him alone.”

 “That’s not a bad idea,” she said, her tone hinting at a secret meaning she wanted us to ask about.

 I took the bait.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

 “Well, Earl’s not going to let that stand, is he?  He’s going to come after you.  If it was a small group of men before, now what?  I don’t want you, or Madison around when he does.  It isn’t fair.  Jay, no offense, but you got yourself into this one.  I think it’d be best if Laura and Madison stayed with me until this blows over.”

 “Sara, no,” I said.

 “That’s not a bad idea,” Jay said sadly.  “I never thought of that.”

 “No,” I said again.  “Jay, I’m not leaving you.”

 “Laura, it’s for the best,” Sara said.  She sounded like Dad, and something about that set me off.

 I slammed the table with my palm and stood so she’d shut up and quit interrupting.  “Sara, you’re being awfully judgmental for someone who wasn’t even there!  No, Jay didn’t stop and think out his best course of action.  How could he have?  He’d just been attacked, his adrenaline was through the roof, and on top of it Earl talks about...  About renting Madison’s mouth out to his f*****g drug buddies!  How well would you have handled it?  And he didn’t get himself into this.  I did.”  Jay’s mouth started to open.  “Jay, don’t.  If it wasn’t for me you’d have never met Earl to begin with.  Sara, he did what he could for me, with bravery I can’t even comprehend.  I was too afraid to even warn him they had weapons.  We’re in this together, and I’m not leaving him!”  That felt like an odd note to finish on, as the next thing I did was storm off to my room crying.

----

 I hadn’t watched the clock, but after what felt like about half an hour or so there was a soft knock at my door.  “Jay?” I asked quietly.

 “It’s Sara.  Can I come in?”

 I sat up and wiped at my eyes, though there were no more tears flowing.  “Yes.”

 She sat on my bed, and I waited for her to speak.  “Well, that Jay has a way of diffusing situations.  I was about to drive home and forget about you for awhile, and he talked me out of it.”  She laughed pitifully.  “Why couldn’t he do that with Earl?”

 “Earl is too stupid, and comes in swinging.  Fighting was the last thing Jay wanted to ever do, believe me.”

 “I do believe you.  I’m sorry for what I said to him.  I apologized to him, too.  You’re right, he’s doing his best, and he’s not used to handling conflict like this.  It’s easy for me to criticize, but the truth is if I were there I would have been so nervous I probably would have thrown up.  How did you do it?”

 “I squeezed the hell out of Madison’s hand, and prayed as hard as I could,” I said, laughing with relief at her change of heart.  “So, you’re staying?”

 Sara nodded.  “You were right, we need each other now.  Or as Jay put it, we’re the good guys.  We shouldn’t be fighting amongst ourselves.  What’s done is done, I guess.  Only...”

 “Yes?”

 “Laura, if something does happen to Jay,” she put a hand on my shoulder as I stiffened, “and he’s not here to protect you, will you come stay with me for awhile?”

 “My job...”

 Sara grunted her disgust.  “There’s other jobs, Laura.  Even if you end up losing the house for it, come stay with me.  You can move in with me for as long as you have to, if it comes down to it.  You’re my only family, you know that.  I can’t lose you, too.”

 We hugged.  “Earl wouldn’t kill me,” I said.

 “I’m not staking you on what Earl would and wouldn’t do.  Jay still thinks you should come with me, you know.  He shrugged and said it’s up to you, trying to act nonchalant.  I can tell, it’s tearing him up inside.  At least promise me, us...  That you’ll come to me if he’s...  Out of the picture.”

 When I didn’t say anything, she pulled back to look at me.  “I wasn’t going to say this...  He was staring off into space and said he doesn’t want to die worrying about you.”  My hand went to my mouth.  “Laura, the look in his eyes when he said that...”  She had to wipe at her own eyes.  “He really thinks he might get killed, and all he cares about still is your safety!  So will you promise?  For him at least?”

 I sniffed, and nodded.  We went back out together, and everyone sat in the living room.  Conversation focused more on Brian.  Jay and I actually got her to feel a little better, starting with him telling her, “The guys that make you cry are the ones that aren’t worth your tears.”

 By the time Madison came home, we were actually in a pretty jovial mood in spite of everything.  Really, it was either that or huddle in fear until Earl decided to strike.

 Sara and I split a bottle of wine, but Jay refused.  He wouldn’t say why, but I understood when I saw him tense at the sound of a Cerberati slowing down outside, and gunning away.

----

 Jay had the next night off as well, and was especially elated since he did get the phone call.  He was to have an interview in a week.  Sara went home after that, and I was glad to see her satisfaction with what she did lift her spirits a little.

 We went to the movies that night.  It was in celebration of Jay’s interview as much as it was in defiance of the fear eating away at us.  We took Madison to see a movie she was sure to enjoy, Rapunzel Two.  She insisted on sitting between us in the theater, but as soon as she was into the movie Jay took a false bathroom break and sat next to me.  It was like a date, which was a phase we had sort of skipped.  We held hands, he put his arm around me.  I coyly batted his hand away when he playfully brushed my breast.

 “Did you like the movie?” Jay asked Madison as we walked out.

 “How come it wasn’t as good as the first one?” she asked.

 “Heh.  You noticed that too, huh?  I guess they already used up their best ideas.”

 “Did you like it at all?” I asked.

 “I liked it,” Madison said.  “Can we watch Rapunzel one when we get home?”

 “It’s not that late,” I said.  “I suppose, if you’d really like to.”

 “Well it was nice to get out, at any rate,” Jay said with a laugh.

 We drove home making fun of sequels in general.  As soon as we got out of the car, we heard an engine speeding up our street.  “Idiots,” I started, thinking it was a bunch of teenagers.  My mouth and feet were both stopped dead as Earl’s car pulled up crookedly, two wheels on my lawn.  “Oh god,” I whispered.

Reviews

[Sarah]

"raving about an xray tech was so kind..."
This sentence might be missing a word or something because it doesn't completely make sense.

I like Sara when she starts babbling about the police. I agree that they should've gone to the police after the incident too, but I'm curious why she is being so judgmental. Was what she said about not hating all men a lie? Was her anger set off by Brian and she's just letting it out on Jay? Interesting topic, and I love Laura's response. She has the right to be mad at her sister for attacking Jay the way she did. I'm not even sure who's right anymore.

I kind of think it's funny that she even mentions her job. If Jay were gone, Laura knows she can't protect herself and Madison from Earl. With a young child in the house, I can't believe she would even consider staying and putting her at risk.

The movie date was sweet. Although I thought Jay would've been more of a gentleman than rubbing his hand against Laura's breast. Cute how he wanted to sit by Laura. Thought for sure Madison would've said something about it and Jay would've had to make up an excuse as to why he changed seats.

Well, I assume this is it with Earl. Hopefully, he is out of the picture once and for all.

[Christopher Miller]

About an xray tech WHO was so kind, thank you. Great catch.
I would say you're partly right about Sara's response being shaped by her situation with Brian, but mostly shock and being protective of her sister and niece.