Wendy Chapter 12: Appropriate Weapons

Chapter Twelve: Appropriate Weapons

 

 It’s strange what one can get used to. Having Dave send me back again and again to “fix” perfectly fine rooms became just another dull part of my job. I continued to carry my spray bottle of disinfectant everywhere, but Dave did not try any more physical intimidation. 

 

Within all of the turmoil of slashed tires, murder threats, intimidation tactics, I had other things on my mind as well. I was still concerned about Uncle Philip. He turned down my last lunch invitation, saying he was not well. I wanted to come visit him but he refused, saying he just needed rest.

 

I hoped Uncle Philip would be well enough to attend the company picnic. It would be a chance to introduce him to Eric formally. They had exchanged names at the Christmas party but no more.

 

The picnic was a catered event at Asher Park. That summer was a summer of good luck; we had another beautiful day for our event. Pam had the day off too. She has been so quiet the last few days, I was concerned for her. Quiet was not Pam’s normal mode. I decided to bring her along to the picnic. I didn’t like the idea of her at home all alone, leaving her to dwell on Ross and the trauma she’d just experienced.

 

Pam perked up a bit when I mentioned going to the picnic. She did her makeup as usual and I helped her wind a leopard skin print scarf around her neck to cover up the marks Ross had left.

 

As he rarely got a chance to show it off, Eric drove the Cadillac. He picked us up at 10:45 and we arrived at Uncle Philip’s condo right on time. When he answered the door, all my worry fell away.

 

“Uncle Philip, you look so much better!”

 

“Why thank you, honey. I feel much better. Dr. Zimmerman pinned it down. He diagnosed Graves disease, and the medication is working like a charm.”

 

I gave him an exuberant hug.

 

As we walked down the stairs, Uncle Philip murmured, “That is quite a car. How tacky!” It sounded like a compliment, the way he said it. I laughed, feeling proud.

 

The introduction was made and Eric was respectful but not too deferential. It turned out Uncle Philip knew a lot about cars from the nineteen eighties; he and Eric were still enjoying a lively conversation when we arrived at the park.

 

Uncle Philip and Eric switched to the topic of basketball as we snagged some seats at a picnic table. I had no idea Uncle Philip knew anything about sports or cars. But then, neither Pam nor I ever showed any interest in either topic. Pam wasn’t much company, fixated on her phone.

 

Then it was time to line up for food. Sean joined us, which I found strange because he had never sat with us at lunch at the hotel. I wondered about this until I saw him seating himself next to Pam and trying to strike up a conversation with her.

 

Basketball had carried Eric and Uncle Philip through lunch and now they were discussing baseball. If I hadn’t been so eager for Eric and Uncle Philip to get along, I would have been far more restless than I was. Pam and Sean were now bent over Pam’s phone together, intent upon the tiny screen. Eventually I did get bored. I remembered the camera I’d brought. I’d meant to slip it in my pocket, but I must have left it in the car. I interrupted their conversation long enough to get the keys from Eric and headed diagonally across the field to the car. I passed a Frisbee game and some little kids playing tag.

 

I was confused when I saw someone squatting between Eric’s car and the Honda next to it. Had they dropped something? I stepped up to see if I might help and looked straight at Ross, holding a knife. He hadn’t seen me, so I stepped back, keeping my eyes on him and searching in the pocket of my dress for my key chain, which had the pepper spray and the aerosol alarm sounder attached. The aerosol alarm came under my fingertips first and I wrapped my hand around it, continuing to back away.

 

Ross looked up and saw me. Without removing my hand from my pocket, I squeezed the button on the alarm and kept my thumb down despite the horrendous sound that made me duck and cringe. My head was swimming under the auditory assault when I let go, pulling at my keys and pepper spray. Ross had also ducked down under the extreme noise, but now was looking up at me. I yanked at the pepper spray, the attached keys catching on my pocket. I unlocked the safety as I yanked and the bunch of keys came free. By then Ross had advanced several steps, but I had continued to back up. He was about six feet away now. He bellowed and clawed at his face as I shot the pepper spray at him. I kept spraying until he fell to his knees in agony. I employed my aerosol alarm again, for good measure.

 

This series of events had taken less than forty-five seconds to act out. I looked up from the writhing Ross and saw two park security men dashing across the parking lot. It was my luck they happened to be right there, in their golf cart, making their rounds. One of them was on his radio as he ran. The other dashed up and kicked the knife away. They didn’t have guns, but they looked capable of dealing with the situation. I had continued backing away and stumbled when my heel left the sidewalk and sank into the grass. I couldn’t take my eyes off Ross.

 

Then Eric was there, holding me steady, and I backed up into his arms.

 

***

 

 

Officer Manero called me when he had compared the knife retrieved at the park with the photos he’d taken of my tires. He couldn’t be sure, but it was possible that knife had been used on my tires. It was certain that it had been used on one of the Cadillac’s tires.

 

Ross had violated two restraining orders, he had been caught committing vandalism and he had been carrying an illegal knife. Things didn’t look good for him. He had a record already, one count of assault in addition to his attack on Pam, and another weapons charge. We wouldn’t have to worry about Ross for a while.

 

Eric did not actually shed tears over the punctured tire, but he was terribly upset that someone had violated his baby. That was, after he got over the idea that I had been in so much danger, which took quite a while. Strangely, Uncle Philip was quite pleased when I looked up from the circle of Eric’s arms.

 

“Good job, Wendy. You took care of him.” Uncle Philip beamed.

 

Later, when things had calmed down, I was pretty proud of myself. I had procured appropriate self-defense weapons and employed them successfully. I wasn’t helpless.

 

Don’t mess with Wendy Gaff.

 

 

***

 

 

It was back to work on Monday for me and Eric. Patricia had told everybody who wasn’t at the picnic everything that had happened. I received many congratulations and jokes about my self-defense prowess. The only person who said nothing was Dave. I saw him eyeing me from his lair. He had a thoughtful look on his face.

 

Not everything was going my way, however. At ten, Sean came to tell me to call housekeeping; Ms. Harvey wanted to talk to me.

 

Across the wide lobby again and to Ms. Harvey’s office. Mr. Hetrick and Ms. Harvey both stood when I knocked on the door. June Harvey invited me to sit and Mr. Hetrick went through the ritual of starting the audio recorder.

 

Ms. Harvey turned to me and said, “We must investigate this case from all angles and it is our duty to investigate thoroughly and impartially. Your supervisor, Dave Mason, has made some serious counter allegations and we must look into the matter.”

 

Ms. Harvey went on to ask questions about my relations with male staff members at the hotel, whether I engaged in sexual activities with coworkers on company time or on company grounds, and what had happened with Eric the night of the flood.

 

I was humiliated. So Dave was saying I was some kind of loose woman wantonly having sex all over the place with whoever was handy. I answered each question and did my best to defend myself against such character assassination. Once again, my intuition told me June Harvey was seeing things as they truly were.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading. All comments very welcome.

Reviews

[AUU]

1. Some variation with the term "physical intimidation," would be nice change.
2. Not sure if you need the line, "I had other things on my mind." You could replace that line with the "I was still concerned with Uncle Philip."
3. How long ago was that Christmas party?
4. "That summer was a summer of good luck; we had another beautiful day for our event." I can't seem to follow this sentence. Is it a saying?
5. Nice detail with the scarf. It reminds the reader what happened to Pam, reinforces Pam's character (leopard print) and shows Wendy's caring nature again.
6. I don't know a lot about fashion, but is it actually called "leopard skin print," or just leopard print? Skin print makes it sounds like it's real fur. Not sure about that.
7. Uncle Philips sickness and Wendy's reaction seems all bit too resolved to me. Kind of easy. I wanted to know what Graves disease, so I looked it up, and now I can clearly recall all his earlier symptoms.
8. Nice addition with the car interest. It's natural. Basketball too.
9. I know Sean is a co-worker, but I forgot about him. He never left an impression. I like that's he seems kind of into Pam. A silver-lining for that character maybe.
10. I don't know what an aerosol alarm sounder is. I don't remember Wendy getting one of those. I do have a bad memory though.
11. "Ross looked up and saw me." I don't think you need the "looked up."
12. This is nitpick, "I yanked at the pepper spray…" then "…as I yanked and the bunch of keys…" Maybe try for an alternate verb?
13. I like that Ross was there messing the car up, but I think the altercation/drama is a bit more mellow than it could have been. I say this not knowing if it's truly the end of Ross of course. But it was clean cut, like a dance, not messy at all, like a microcosm. I'm surprised because those altercations with Dave had varying degrees of intensity. I didn't get that with this scene. It made Wendy's victory feel cheap to me.
14. That said. It was real enough, I think that's where this scene succeeded at. The keys getting stuck was a nice bump. I can totally imaging a friend telling me this story about a stalker that she pepper sprayed and then some security guards took him away.
15. I laughed at Eric being upset about someone "violating his baby." I do wish there was a bit of dialogue to show this.
16. I like the hurdle with Dave fighting back with HR, but I feel as though the scene would be better told through dialogue.

Don't lose steam. I'm looking forward to the battle with Dave.

[SweetNutmeg]

Thank you for all your comments. I've been highlighting the problem places you pointed out for the last three chapters and I'm backed up on revising those sections. You're just whipping right through this. I appreciate the detail you go into.

The major revisions I plan are to expand the scenes about Uncle Philip's health, the confrontation with Ross and the interview with HR about Wendy being a s**t. I'm also going to tie up some loose ends with Ross. Your remarks are quite astute and I am heeding them.

TY!

[Shep]

Ross now behind bars one down one to go, Dave, lies just so he can keep his job but that won't last long I hope another awesome chapter Way to go Wendy.

[SweetNutmeg]

Don't mess with Wendy Gaff. Dave is going to regret it as much as Ross does.