The Past Follows, Chapter Four

People from the past

Chapter Four

Monday afternoon I met with Yolanda at the realty office. We signed many papers and she ran my debit card for first month’s and last months’s rent, and a deposit. Ouch. I was glad Judith was giving me my deposit back so soon. I would take possession on Thursday. I headed home for more roommate research.

After two hours of perusing ads for people looking for a place to move into, and responding to a few of the messages I received, I felt discouraged. Maybe I was being too particular? I ruled out two women who contacted me, college students. I didn’t think someone 5 years my junior would really work out. I sighed, closed my laptop and flopped in front of the TV. This was exhausting. 

*** 

I was being dragged away from a dim shore by an inexorable current. Fighting and struggling. I scrabbled my way into consciousness. My phone was ringing. I answered it automatically. My first thought was that my mother might be having trouble. It was only when I heard Justin’s voice that I realized I’d answered without looking at the number. Damn.

“Karen, honey, please don’t hang up. I’m sorry I hurt�"”

I didn’t give him a chance to finish his lame apology. “I’m blocking your number and if you come anywhere near me, I’ll call the police.”

“‘But Karen, you can’t�"”

“Oh yes I can,” I said, and terminated the call. I punched my way through the menu and blocked his number. I don’t know how I’d forgotten to do that before.

I relaxed back into my bed. I didn’t know if I’d be able to sleep more, but I would try.  Then my phone’s notification sound chimed. I was puzzled as there were no new texts. Then I saw the symbol for a voicemail. It was Justin, babbling apologies. Gritting my teeth, I quickly deleted the message before I could hear any more of his bullshit.  How could he be leaving voicemails if I blocked him? Three more chimes and I turned off my phone. I was too infuriated to sleep now. I got up. I fumed for a while, then decided to get ready for work. I showered, trying to  scrub away my anger. I tried a few spoons of yogurt, but could barely choke it down. I needed to get out of here. I gathered my work things and drove to work. 

I greeted Heidi with a mutter when she arrived to unlock the doors. Once inside, I started jamming the miniature trees back in place as if each one had done me a personal wrong. How could this happen? I thought I had escaped. Why could I not block him from leaving voicemails? One of the little trees snapped. I cursed. 

“Who pissed you off this early in the morning?” Heidi asked.

“My phone,” I growled. “My f*****g phone.” I don’t think Heidi had ever heard me swear.

“C’mon, a phone couldn’t have made you mad enough that you start destroying my window displays.”

I hurled the broken tree into a wastebasket. I had to calm down. I couldn’t go around breaking more of Heidi’s possessions. It wasn’t her fault. I realized I was grinding my teeth. I relaxed my jaw, took a deep breath, and sighed. “It’s Justin.”

“Justin came to your apartment?” Heidi’s eyes were dark with concern.

“No, he called me.” 

“You hadn’t blocked him already?”

“I don’t know how I could have been so stupid, but it just slipped my mind. That’s not the problem, though. I did block him, the minute I hung up on him this morning. But he’s somehow gotten through and left half a dozen voicemails anyway.”

“Are you sure you blocked him?” 

“I was just going to go digging through my phone’s settings when you got here.” 

“It’s going to be slow today. You go back to the stockroom and try to figure it out. We can’t have him leaving voicemails all the time. I’ll holler if I need you.”

Grateful for Heidi’s understanding and accommodation, I sat at the lunch table in back. I punched my way through myriad menus, finding dead ends everywhere. Nothing covered blocking numbers. The tiny blue circle with a slash was the only evidence that I’d blocked his number, and my only options were to unblock. He was as blocked as I could block him and he still had access to my voicemail. 

This was intolerable. I called my phone carrier’s support line. If I couldn’t completely block him with my phone, I hoped the carrier could do a more thorough job of it. I navigated an unending automated system, finally getting an actual person. I explained my situation, an abusive former partner. I was calm and polite with the representative, but inside I was bubbling with rage. Justin had consumed enough of my time and energy already. I resented having to put even more effort into something that should have been well within my own control. I was put on hold two more times, then the call dropped. I took a deep breath and decided that was enough for now. I could google the problem when I got home. 

It was a miserable day. Work finally over, I went home. What I found out on google was that it is much faster to change your number than go through the process of blocking a number. So I changed my number online. It was that easy. I texted everyone I could think of with my new number. That was one thing off my mind. 

My roommate search was not going so well. Yolanda informed me pets were not allowed and I had to reject a really appealing nursing school student because she had two cats. I could have spent the whole evening searching for a roommate, but I deliberately broke off my search after an hour. I could drive myself crazy with this. I had a month to work this out. 

I was immersed in The Maltese Falcon when my phone chimed with a text.

Hey girl, fabulous to hear from you, what have you been up to?

It was from Abby. I responded.

Moved to Milton… I hear you’re back in Green Hollow?

 We exchanged a few more texts, then my phone was ringing. Abby. 

“I’m not going to ask how you knew I was back home,” Abby said. “Your mother knows everything that goes on there.” 

“You are so right, you can’t keep anything from her.”

“So I guess you know Brian and I broke up?”

“I heard. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.” 

“How’s that handsome Justin doing?”

“Not so great.” I explained briefly. 

“We’re both single and free! We should get together and raise some hell! Who needs men? It’s just the two of us again, just like high school.”

I laughed. It was so good to hear from her.  

“I should come visit you in Milton. There’s not much we can get up to in Green Hollow,” she said. 

“That would be great. You can crash on the couch. I think we can find some mischief to get into.” I thought she might like playing some pool at Molly’s, or a little bar-hopping. And there were several good restaurants downtown. Milton nightlife was not too extensive, but it was more than Green Hollow boasted: a bar and grill at the Best Western, and Smokey’s Tavern at the sketchy end of Main Street. And they served nothing but beer and wine. You had to drive to Yancey County to get hard liquor. I asked, “You remember that time Bud drove us to Yancey and we got that Wild Turkey?”

“Yes, and he drove off with it on the roof of the car, a whole fifth of Wild Turkey.”

We reminisced for a while longer, then said goodbye. We always had so much fun together. I was looking forward to seeing her again. I counted it up and was surprised to realize it had been 5 years since we’d seen each other. Too long. 

I received several more texts, acknowledging my change of number, including Heidi and James. James called not long after Abby. 

“Is everything OK?” he asked immediately. 

Once again, I explained the problem and solution. 

“It’s not good he’s thinking of you,” James observed.

“Yeah, but let’s hope this will discourage him. I’m just so relieved I found a solution. It would have been intolerable if he had continued leaving voicemails. But something good came out of this. My high school friend called and it was great to hear from her. She’s going to come visit me and you can meet her.”

“I’d like that. And I can discover all of your high school secrets. You’re a mystery woman.”

“Hopefully Abby will not disgrace me. I admit she does have some dirt on me.” 

“That’s tantalizing. Now I definitely need to meet her. Her name is Abby? When will she come visit?”

We talked for a while longer, then James asked me out to dinner. He wanted to take me to the Thai place downtown. My stomach did the flip flop thing again, and I agreed. He had a rare Friday night off and would pick me up at 6. We said goodbye. I was feeling much better. Hearing from Abby was great and I always loved talking to James.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading thus far. I appreciate all of you, my readers. All reviews are welcome, critical and positive. Specific feedback I'd really appreciate... is this chapter too short?

Reviews

[Gary]

Yet another good chapter. Justin is following the typical pattern of an abuser with apologizes and promises that it won't happen again. I'm not sure how Janine will play into all of this, but I know you have something planned.
One small note. It's not a deal for me, but some would say having three characters, James, Justin and Janie all starting with J, it may get confusing.
As for the chapter length, I personally don't care about word counts. I just want the chapter to be interesting.

[Samuel Dickens]

I noted really nothing wrong, here, and the writing is clean and correct throughout. I felt the frustration with the phone, and her having so much trouble blocking the calls. (I can barely operate a smart phone) Running into the old friend is a stroke of luck, and is just the sort of thing needed at the time.
Gary may have a point about the three J's, but I honestly hadn't noticed. The word count is fine, I think. Of course there are those who don't often read stories who will consider it too long.

[SweetNutmeg]

The thing with the phone, it is infuriating for anyone, whether you know your way around a smart phone or not. I find it most annoying, but not annoying enough to change my number or call my carrier to block the number. Laziness on my part.

Thank you for your faithful work in reading and reviewing so carefully. I really appreciate it.