I STILL LOOK FOR YOU - PART 12

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I STILL LOOK FOR YOU – PART 12

Bobby laughed at her the next morning over coffee. “You were out before we closed the door,” he chided. Lynn was afraid she had embarrassed him or her self but she was just very relaxed and happy, a child set free to wander not too far from protective eyes. “It did you good and Jake just loves you.”

“Are we still going to get Christmas trees tonight and then driving up to Canton to look at their lights?,” Lynn inquired, as she pulled on her coat. It was the 15^th of December and she had waited to put up their tree until she could afford to replace the decorations left behind. She wanted new ones anyway, no old memories. Between presents and paying the last of what she owed to her attorney, this Christmas would be a little tight but she was content that this Holiday would hold all of the wonder it should. There would be no visit with Bill for the kid’s. Her attorney advised strictly against it with the No Contact Order in place and the divorce papers scheduled to be delivered in the next few days. She had thought of delaying that until after Christmas and then remembered what delaying brought before.

“Absolutely”, answered Bobby, “although I don’t think we’ll be putting up a tree other than the small one we have in our window. I need to ask something of you too. I want to take Kurt and go up to see Chris on the 20^th but Jake is working double shifts and needs his car. Is there any chance I can borrow yours? We’d be gone over night.”

The 20^th fell on a Saturday and she wondered why he didn’t take Renee’s car but maybe her parent’s wouldn’t allow her to stay overnight. She hadn’t been coming up as often though Kurt had said they’d gone down with Jake a couple of times. “Well, I don’t see problem, as long as I get groceries and all of the supplies I need to make cookies and candy. We shouldn’t need to go anywhere.”

The town of Canton was a twenty mile drive and after turning off the main road, traffic was bumper to bumper. Known as the Mid West’s City of Holiday Lights, it had become a local attraction and it seemed half of the state had chosen this night to view it. The joyous mood she had been in, tromping through the snow to find just the right tree and helping Bobby tie it to the top of the car was vanishing quickly as the kids punched each other in the back seat. Even Traci, who loved Christmas time almost as much as her Mother, was yelling and complaining about the slow moving traffic and announced that she had to use the bathroom. They were still at least a quarter of a mile from town and though they could begin to see the lights twinkling, flashing and reflecting off the snow, there was also a steady beam of headlights inching to and from this tiny berg and no stores or gas station that Lynn was aware of. “Oh GREAT!”, she chimed in with the negative mood. Bobby stopped the car, throwing it into park, reached in the back seat pulling Kurt over Tim and fairly slammed him down in the middle of the front seat. Ignoring the loud, indignant honking and the steep slippery banks on either side of the road, he managed to turn the car around. “No one”, he said through clenched teeth, “NO ONE says anything until we get back home!” He turned the radio from Christmas carols that now seemed to mock, to a rock station and drove looking straight ahead. Lynn tried, unsuccessfully, to catch his eye but his face was set in a look Lynn had only witnessed once before. He’d told how he worked at café washing dishes before and after school, legal only because his mother signed a paper stating he was older. He had cashed his paycheck, bought a bag of groceries and was just coming in the house as his mother and one of her many boyfriends were leaving. He was brief in his description of what had taken place, with only incomplete thoughts pouring out, that told of him ending up with a bloody nose, his mother with the rest of his pay, an eviction notice on the table and a Christmas tree turned over in the corner.

Christmas break had begun and Lynn had saved her vacation time to be home during this period. Kurt was a daily fixture with Bobby working long hours to satisfy the Holiday shoppers. Jake had spent a couple of nights and Kurt said he and Bobby had been talking about getting a place together or maybe him moving in. Renee’s Mother had shown up one night and she and Bobby were gone for a couple of hours, a detail Kurt shared as if he expected and explanation from Lynn. She had no clue, none. Unless it was some sort of surprise for Kurt, but he had both she and Jake for transportation if Bobby had somehow managed to get the bike Kurt had been begging for and other than this, she couldn’t imagine a reason in the world.

She was enjoying being home. The kids, kept busy with a new supply of snow almost daily, built forts, snowmen, and teamed up with neighbor kids to bombard each other with snowballs. They were tired after hard days at play and were usually all too willing to climb into their beds with stomachs full and heads full of plans for the next day’s adventures. Lynn would sit at the kitchen table warm and toasty, with her every present cup of coffee, sometimes with Bobby more often not, and watch all three of them lost in a children’s world, where they belonged. It was a wonderful, peaceful time and she treasured every moment.

The 20^th of December came with predictions of freezing rain. “Please be careful,” Lynn gave Bobby her AAA card along with her keys, “and pull over if it gets too bad.” He promised and gave her a hug before he headed out the door. That evening, she and the kids watched movies and ate a lot of the candy, breads and cookies that she had spent the majority of the day making. Satisfied they had exhausted anything worth watching on tv and with bellies aching from too many treats, they all went to bed.

She felt, rather than heard, his car pull up in front of her apartment. Something putrid interrupted her sleep, a stirring so familiar her heart had already begun to pound when, full awake now, she heard the engine stop and a car door slam.