“Okay, Mrs. Carmichael. Thank you.”
“Psshaw, you can call me Evelyn. Mrs. Carmichael makes me sound old.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
After a few minutes of silence, she finally asked, “What should I call you?”
“Kayla. Kayla West,” I lied. It wasn’t in my nature to outright lie to people, but I couldn’t risk being found.
Evelyn turned out to be my saving grace. After making something for us to eat, she showed me to her guest room, which had an attached bathroom. She went to bed right after dinner, and I took the opportunity to wash off and soak my sore feet in the tub.
The next morning, the unmistakable smell of a home-cooked breakfast and fresh coffee woke me. My feet were killing me, but I managed to wobble out to the kitchen to find Evelyn piling food onto a plate. “You’re just in time. Have a seat,” she said and nodded to the table which already had a plate of food and two mugs of coffee on it.
“How are you feeling this morning? And don’t say fine. There’s no way you’re fine, so go ahead and be honest,” she said before tentatively taking a sip of her coffee.
“My feet hurt, and my legs are a bit sore, but I think I’m okay otherwise.”
She huffed and got up from the table. “I don’t know where my brain is most of the time. Ah, here we go. Take a couple of these and help yourself if you need more later,” she said and placed a bottle of ibuprofen in front of me.
“Thank you,” I replied quietly and swallowed two tablets.
“So, I spent a little time last night thinking and praying about you, and here’s what me and the Lord came up with. I think you ought to stay with me for a spell. I’m old, and my health ain’t all that great. I sure could use some help around this place. I want to get it cleaned out and fixed up so I can sell it and move to a retirement community like all the other old folks are doing. Might even get me a new hairdo and see if I can snag me a fella, maybe even two,” she said with a mischievous grin.
After a little more convincing, I finally agreed to stay with Evelyn and help her get her house ready to sell. She even insisted on paying me for the work I did. I didn’t want to take her money and tried to refuse, but she told me she was planning on hiring a company to do it, so if I didn’t take her money, someone else would.
We spent the next eight weeks diligently working on her house. The woman had an unbelievable amount of stuff. I honestly wasn’t sure we would ever get it cleaned out, but we kept at it and made progress little by little.
Each week, Evelyn made two trips into town; one was to take a load of items to be donated, and the other was to take a load of items to the dump. I was scared to go into town, but I knew she couldn’t unload the truck by herself, so I offered to go with her. She knew I was scared and hiding from something, but, true to her word, she never tried to pry.
“There’s no need for you to tag along. There’s plenty of young men around who won’t let me lift a finger,” she assured me.
It usually took her a little over three hours round trip, but sometimes longer if she needed to stop by the grocery store or the pharmacy. So, when I heard her pull up to the house less than an hour after she left, I automatically thought something was wrong. And I was right.
It wasn’t Evelyn and her truck in the driveway. It was a man I’d never seen before, and he did not look the least bit friendly. He knocked on the front door and immediately tried turning the knob. Without giving it any thought, I moved as fast as I could to the guest bedroom and threw myself into the closet. It wasn’t big by any means, but I managed to wedge myself behind some of the hanging clothes.
I heard a door crash open followed by clomping footsteps. “Ma, you home?” he called out, and I knew who was inside the house, Evelyn’s son, Travis. She told me all about him within the first few days I was with her.
“He’s my son, and for that, I will always love him, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind to what he’s become. To put it bluntly, he’s a drug addict who has no desire to change his ways. He’s been to jail so many times I’ve lost count, but he goes right back to his old habits as soon as he gets out. Last I heard, he was supposed to be locked up for three years in the state prison, but half the time they get out of it by telling on somebody else. Honestly, my husband and I washed our hands of him years ago, and I don’t bother trying to keep up with him anymore.”
He continued moving through the house. I could hear drawers being opened and closed, things being rummaged through and dumped onto the floor. Hopefully, he would find whatever he was looking for and leave before Evelyn got back. She didn’t say as much, but I was afraid he would hurt her.
What I didn’t expect was him to fling open the closet door and immediately spot me. “Well, what do we have here?” he said as he wrapped his clammy hand around my arm and pulled me from my hiding place.
“I-I’m your mother’s friend. P-please don’t hurt me,” I blabbered.
“Mom’s been talking about me, huh? The old bitch never could keep her fat mouth shut,” he grumbled and slapped me across the face.
I stumbled back, cupping my stinging cheek. “N-no, she didn’t say anything about you. I heard you call her ‘Ma’ when you came in.”
“Shut up, bitch,” he ordered and started advancing on me, staring at me with cold, beady eyes.
I didn’t have anywhere to go. He was blocking the only exit, and I didn’t think I could get around him. I went for the bathroom, hoping I could close the door and lock it to keep him out, but I wasn’t fast enough.
He grabbed my shirt and yanked me back until I hit his chest. His rancid smell singed my nose as his hot breath puffed against the shell of my ear. “Where do you think you’re going? I want to have a little fun with you.”
When his hands moved over my breasts, I turned quickly and shoved against his chest as hard as I could. He only took one step back before he came at me again, roughly pushing me onto the bed and coming down on top of me. I tried to scoot away, but he was too heavy, and I didn’t get very far.
As he wrestled with my clothes, I fought him with everything I had. He reared back and slammed his fist into the side of my head causing my vision to blur. My arms were flailing, trying to deflect another hit, when my fingers brushed against something familiar. With zero hesitation, I wrapped my hand around it, swung my arm in an arc over my head, and plunged Evelyn’s knitting needle into his eye.