you know me?”
My voice was barely a raspy sound that I didn’t recognize.
Charlie smiled at me. My knowing his name seemed to please him. Every move he made was large and unexpected. He took a phone from his shirt pocket and stepped to just outside the door but he didn’t close it.
“Mandy, you don’t have to worry about her anymore, I have her. Don’t worry. We’ll talk later.”
Charlie came back into the room and smiled at me. I smiled back but I grimaced from the effort it took.
“Charlie,” I said his name again; my voice was better.
“Would you please take the hand-cuffs off of me and let me go to the bathroom?”
As an after thought, I said, “I promise not to go anywhere or to run away.”
“Ok,” he said and with no clumsiness removed the restraints. He led me to a tiny bathroom with only a sink and a commode, kind of pushed me in the room and closed the door. The relief of seeing the toilet was wonderful; I hadn’t realized how good it could be to pee.
I saw that the blood on my blouse was not just due to the broken nose but on my right side, just under my breast I discovered there was a silver-dollar sized section missing from the skin. The wound was oozing and I feared infection. At the sink, I washed off the area as best I could and caught site of myself in the filthy and cracked mirror just above the sink.
The site of me brought on involuntary tears. I carefully rinsed off the blood that had caked on my face and neck. The ordeal took a great deal of time and I worried that Charlie would come for me before I was ready to leave the little cocoon the bathroom had become. Even though the site of my face frightened me and the wound on my side hurt like crazy, I could tell that I’d be fine if other injuries didn’t befall me.
When I could do no more for myself in the bathroom I tested the door; it was open. Looking around outside of the little bathroom I could see that the place was empty except for the van. I made my way back to the room with the cot thinking that I needed to lie down before I collapsed again.
Charlie was sitting on a stool just inside the door of the ‘cot room’ reading a comic book, ‘The Green Hornet’. When I opened the door, he seemed pleased to see me and smiled. I moved to the cot and sat down in a pretty ungraceful move.
“Hungry?” Charlie asked.
“I have sandwiches if you want one.”
“What kind you got?” I asked him to keep him engaged in a dialogue so that our relationship could become personal, making it more difficult for him to kill me.
“I made two kinds, egg salad and peanut butter and jelly. They’re my favorites.”
He was taking individually wrapped sandwiches from a cooler next to the stool he was sitting on.
“Peanut butter and jelly,” I said.
Charlie tossed me a sandwich. I wasn’t one bit interested in eating anything but I wanted to shine a light on his effort and build a bond between the two of us. Even though I had to force myself to take a bite from the sandwich, after I did, I found that it was good and I ate it and smiled at Charlie.
“You used marmalade for the jelly; that’s a really good combination. I usually use strawberry or grape but this is much better.”
Charlie smiled at the compliment.
“Mandy taught me.”
Hearing her name again, I worried that his mind would be diverted to hurting me again.
Needing more information to be able to figure out a way out of that strange situation, I pushed the fear to the side and asked him.
“Do I know Mandy? Charlie, who is Mandy? She sounds like someone you care about. Is she nice?”
“Mandy’s my sister, she loves Rick. You have to leave Rick alone.”
His face had twisted up some as he told me to leave Rick alone and I thought he might raise his hands to me again.
My slowness was a factor and it took me mulling it over in my head for a time before I realized that Charlie was Amanda’s brother.
“Oh Charlie, you are Amanda’s brother.”
I took it slowly and gave him some information to think about.
“I just met Amanda recently; she’s a lovely person. She and I have become friends. She told me that she is in love with Rick. You probably already knew that?”
“She is going to marry Rick and I’m going to help her.”
Charlie had pride in his voice when he spoke of his involvement and need to help ‘Mandy’.
“Sounds to me like we’re on the same mission. Can I join your team in helping ‘Mandy’ marry Rick?”
“You don’t want to help; you want to marry Rick, yourself. I won’t let that happen.”
Charlie sparked up some of his anger that had been keeping him focused.
“I just learned yesterday that Rick also loves ‘Mandy’ did you know that?”
I waited for him to answer.
‘Yes, I know, he doesn’t love you.”
Charlie wanted to make sure I knew that I didn’t have a chance with Rick.
“Charlie, Amanda has become my friend. I would never do anything that would hurt her. She’s a wonderful person and I want to keep her as my friend. It would be nice if we were friends, too because I want to be in her life. She told me that you were the most important person to her. She said you have the best and strongest bond that any two people could have. She told me that you were kind and that you took care of each other.”
“Yeah, she loves me.” Charlie smiled at the thought.
“Mandy’s my best friend.”
“I am not standing in her way. Rick was using me to make her jealous. He wanted to see if she really loves him. What do you think? Charlie, does she really love him?”
“Yeah!”
“Then maybe I could help you get them together for good.”
The phone in his pocket rang. When he looked at the number he frowned and walked out of the room and locked the door behind him.
That frown worried me and my imagination went wild and I saw myself being killed in a bunch of different ways. I could see him beating me to death or knocking me on the head with the giant flashlight that hung from his utility belt. I could see his enormous hands around my neck and squeezing the life out of me that way, too. Or he could just leave me there to starve to death.
The pain in my side made me start to think more clearly. I reminded myself to use the tools that I’d been given to figure out how to deal with Charlie. I closed my eyes and using my recall method I brought back the moments in the parking structure before the phone rang. I could clearly see the van next to my car and that the side door was open. I could even see Charlie just inside the van. When I put the key in the lock and answered my phone at the same time, I got a flash of the reconnect and then it was gone. He tazered me right in the side where the skin was missing just under my breast. I watched as I collapsed and then the picture was gone.
“Helen,” I said my name out loud.
“You walked right into his trap and were completely unaware. Shame on you.”
I was surprised that I was more worried about Michael being upset and disappointed in me than just about anything.
I lay down on the cot and for a few minutes allowed the tears to be released. There was nothing I could do and suffering exhaustion from the ordeal I slipped into unconsciousness and didn’t wake until I heard the van drive into the garage on the other side of the door.