I STILL LOOK FOR YOU - PART 4

Even though this house was a temporary home for Lynn and her children she loved it and enjoyed its beauty every day. Her boss and owner of the apartment complexes she managed knew all too well of the state her marriage was in and was glad to help her when she called and said she had left her husband and needed a place to stay. He wanted her to move to the smaller of his two complexes when an apartment opened but in the mean time agreed to let her rent this house, which would soon be on the market. He had set an unreasonably low price for her rent, knowing exactly what she could afford. He also promised to loan her the van that served as a maintenance vehicle for the two properties to move her few belongings when she felt it was safe to go after them.

Bill, the husband, called her at work after coming home to find her gone. He knew she left overnight before, taking the children, but after thoroughly questioning them was convinced that she did run to one motel or another when the crazy bitch was “afraid of him.” Her usual madness was to call late in the afternoon of the next day to “test the waters” and then come home. Once, when she disappeared for almost two weeks, he got her home convincing her he was sober and not angry and had given her a taste of what to expect if she did this again, but most times he took her back as if nothing had happened. This time, however, she was gone for two nights and it was now Monday morning and there had been not so much as a phone call. He had driven around in the town she worked in, looking through the parking lots of every motel for her car but found no sign of her. This, and the length of time she’d been gone, tempered his conversation with her when he called.

She knew Bill would either show up or call her at work and jumped at each time the phone rang or someone came in the door. She was grateful that her boss’ wife was in the adjoining office that day doing the books for some of their other investments and while she knew this woman would do nothing to help her, just the presence of another person was somewhat comforting. She had to take the kids from their school and register them at the school they would attend once they moved to the apartment and this broke her heart. Having been moved around by a Mother that had chased happiness from one state to another as she grew up she knew, all too well, that this would be an extreme hardship to them, especially when added to the situation of being suddenly uprooted from there home and, as nasty as he could be, their Father. But these were the realities of leaving an abusive spouse. She had played out this leaving so many times in her mind and she had even left three times before but usually had no where to stay more than a couple of nights and lacked the financial resources to get a place of her own. Once, during the summer, her Mother had paid for them to stay in a motel for two weeks and she hid in a small town just across the state line. There were no ties to the town and no way Bill would ever guess where they were. She tried to find a job there or in a nearby town so they could relocate but, other than a part time waitress position, there were no openings. As time ticked down on their paid room, panic’s icy grip left her wide awake and fearing every noise, every car door slam. She had no car of her own, the kids were getting very bored with this “vacation” they were on and asked repeatedly each day when they were going home. There were no relatives that she could stay with. Her sister would have welcomed her but was in her own mess of a marriage and besides, it wasn’t fair to jeopardize their safety.

“Spear Properties”, she answered the phone holding her breath.

“Where have you been?” Bill kept the rage from his voice. “Are the kids all right?

“They are fine. We – I am getting a place of my own. I can’t live like this any more.” Lynn’s hands were ice cold but she tried to keep her tone matter of fact and show no weakness or fear.

“Now, Lynn, don’t be ridiculous. You need to come home. I’ll pick you up after work and we can get your car tomorrow. And where are the kids? The school said they are absent today.”

“They are in school.” Lynn was shaking now. ”They are at their new school and …

“LYNN, listen to me!”, he no longer cared to keep his rage hidden. “You will tell me the name of the school and I am going to get them. You leave if you want to – you’ll never see them again. I will get custody. No judge would give you custody you crazy bitch. You ….

She quietly and quickly put the receiver back on the hook and vomited into the waste basket that was next to her desk.

It took him two days to find out where she lived, how to get in and where the kids went to school.  He also found out something else.  The slut had a man and a kid in the car on the fourth day he followed her.