Chapter XXXII

A Chapter by Calypso

Chapter XXXII

It was a bitter day. The sun hid behind a gray curtain and the wind blew non-stop. To add to the frustration it was the last day January could stay in the motel. She was running out of money. The manager offered to give her half off a room because he saw her as an expecting mother down on her luck. For a moment she weighed the benefits of staying, but the child was coming in two weeks. In the past week January has been having nightmares of giving birth alone and with one to take care of her or the child.

With it being the 38 week all the fears she had seemed to be more real What if it the suicide attempt affected the baby? What if it was born with a problem because of the food she ate while pregnant? January was terrified of what the consequences would be, but she wanted the baby out. She felt sick, sluggish, couldn’t sleep, the problems were adding up.

The day began with a quick prayer to the patron saint of expecting mothers, St. Gerard Majella, and then went to January trying to squeeze into her pant suit.

Although the suit was maternity she had swollen up so much in the past weeks that it seemed impossible to fit in them. Feeling constricted she tore off the soft gray suit and replaced it with a pink cotton sun dress. The dress was more suited for a day at the beach, but it would have to make due.

Lily showed up at noon. January felt too ashamed to look he mother in the eye as George took her suitcases and Lily helped her wedge into the backseat.

“How’s my daughter and grandbaby?” Lily tried to sound kind, sweet. There was still a unspoken anger between them. January could still remember what her mother said.

“Well how are you?” George snapped. January should have known Lily would drag George into this fight.

“I wish I was better.”

“I prayed for you. I spoke to your father last night. He said that your Nonno and Nonna have been praying for you three times a day. They have a lot of their friends doing the same.”

“How sweet of them.” January made a mental note to call them. In the past month Nonna has called twelve times, and each time she ignored it.

It was the last day of trail and January could see the nervousness on Mr. Key’s face. Today also happened to be when she would see the monster since the rape; Jared was going to testify.

Jared looked cool and calm as he walked from his seat to the stand. His sheet gray suit looked like it was straight from the store, and his shoe looked just as new. Of course Jared was never one to look unattractive, but this was a far cry from the rocker look he had when he first met January.

“Good day. How are you?” Jared’s lawyer said with a friendly tone. It was like the man was saying hello to a new business partner.

“Good.” Even Jared’s manner sounded cool and clean.

“Could you please tell us what you were doing on the night in which Miss Herrick said you ‘raped’ her?”

“Well that night she came to my room…”

“What for?” The lawyer quickly interrupted.

“I owed her $30.”

“What for?”

“Well you see she went out with me the night before and she left her purse and being a good guy I paid for our meal.”

“Where did you eat?”

“The Red Lobster. We both had a lobster and a split a piece of cake. She told me before we went that she wanted to buy our meal, cause I helped her with her painting.”

“And you and Miss Herrick had been on dated before?”

“Like five times. We were dating. It was so serious she changed her status on Facebook to ‘In a relationship’.”

January could tell from Maxine’s face this was a lie. Maxine was covering her mouth as if she was socked, and then her knuckled turned white from anger. January was waiting for the moment to become like a scene from the Maury Povich show.

“So what happened that night that she came for the money?”

“She sat on my bed and was like ‘Oh baby I want you’”

“As in sex?”

“God, I don’t know Maxine’s a freak.”

“How so?”

“She told me she had fantasy of being raped.”

Maxine gasped and began to cry. January herself began to tremble with anger.

“So that day you were just being a good boyfriend and acting out her fantasy?”

“Ya. She asked and I was like ‘cool’, but cause I finished early she got angry and went to the police.”

“Very well then. What about Miss Rossi?”

Jared looked at her and her heart stopped and she almost lost what little bit of food she has in her stomach.

“I don’t know. When she was around me she was a s**t.”