Page 2 of Colby
Her mom took the papers with her and said she’d be in the rig.As she was taking out her pants from the dryer, she noticed that there wasn’t much going on in the place.Not that she knew all that much about laundry mats, she just thought that there would be more people in the place on a Thursday morning.
It took her two trips to get her things out to the rig, and by the time they’d gotten things put away and the things hung up that didn’t go in the dryer, they were ready for some dinner.Ordering a pizza sounded good to her, but her mom wanted to sit somewhere that was larger than a table.In the shopping center where they were, two shops served pizza, and they decided on which one to go to after flipping a coin.If only life were that easy, as just a flip of a quarter could make the decision for life’s little things.
“I’m stuffed.”Emma looked around the room and noticed a man at the counter talking to thecashier.She wondered if he had wanted something to eat and didn’t have the money when he turned suddenly and looked at her.She didn’t move.There was something so very strange about the look he was giving her.“Mom, it’s time we get back.”
They were gathering up their things when the man came to their table.He didn’t say anything but continued to stare at her.Finally, having had enough, she shoved him hard enough for him to hit the floor and stepped around him.Just as she was taking a step toward the door, he grabbed her leg and had her falling on her ass.
Turning around, she grabbed him by the arm and twisted.The sound of something snapping in his arm didn’t make her feel any better, but she was free of him and stood up.Whatever was wrong with the man, she wanted nothing to do with him.As she was getting up, he came at her again, this time with a knife in his hand that had been on their table.
“Back off.”She didn’t want to have to pull out her gun, but her mom had no such trouble.Putting it to the back of his head, telling him to drop the knife, she was able to limp her way away from him.
Whatever was going on in the man’s head, she didn’t want to hang around and find out.As it was now, she was beginning to feel the pain of being tossed around and didn’t much care for it.
Mom had the man on the floor with his hands behind his head when the police arrived.While she didn’t know what his problem had been with her, he was pissed off enough for the police to take him away almost as soon as they arrived.Sitting down hard on the chair that had been right behind her, she felt something warm and wet running down the back of her head.Turning to look at her mom, she yelled at the girl behind the counter to call an ambulance.That was the last thing she remembered as the floor simply came up from beneath her feet and slapped her out.Christ, all she’d wanted was a few slices of hot pizza, and now she was going to have to explain why she wasn’t going to be able to have dinner with her new bosses.
~*~
“They didn’t say what the man was going to do to her.Please don’t ask me that again, Denver.I might have to wrestle with you a bit before we get to the hospital.”He laughed, and Bailee glared at him.“I’m serious.Her mother said that the man just came at them—well, Emma, at least, and knocked her around.If not for her being armed, there is no telling what might have happened to her.Did you know that Emma’s mom was a former cop?That’s good to know.”
“I didn’t know, no.But I’m glad for it.”They were pulling into the emergency department parking lot an hour after hearing from Charlotte Holden.“I’m so glad that she called us.It’s a shame that this happened, but I’m sure that we can get to the bottom of this soon.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.He seemed sort of deranged, according to Charlotte.I’m betting that he saw her as a target or something and was going to simply rob her.”Denver asked why he’d pick her.“I don’t know.Perhaps because she’s beautiful.Also, being a redhead makes me think that he believes all those stories about redheads being magical or something.I’ve even heard that some people think that they’re evil and in league with the devil himself.”
“I’d heard that too.”They were shown to the room where Emma was, but the room was empty of a bed when they arrived.Ms.Holden was there, sitting on one of the chairs, crying.It was her that got the woman to stop crying and to tell her what was going on.
“The man had a picture on him that showed a red-headed woman who sort of looked like Emma.She had fuller lips than my daughter and seemed to be a bit heavier.But he thought that she was the woman at the welfare office who had taken his kids away from him.He was set to kill her so that he’d not have to face her in court.If he acts like that around his children, I’m glad they were taken from him.The man was set to kill my little girl.”Bailee was sorry that it had come to this, but she told the other woman that she was glad that she remembered to call them.“That was Emma.She woke up a couple of times and told me to call you guys to explain why we might not make it to your house tomorrow night.We were having such a good day, too, when the man attacked us.The man who runs the shop we were in seemed to not understand me telling him to get the police until I had to smackhim a good one.I hated to do it, but he was just standing there while Emma was bleeding on the floor.”
“I would have been terrified if that had happened to me.Especially with it being my child.”Denver asked where Emma was.“Oh yes, I should have asked that first thing.I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.She was taken for a CAT scan of her head and neck.They haven’t put any stitches in her yet.I think they were waiting for the tests to come back.I’m going to have to call someone to get the rig taken care of.The shopping center has a strict rule about leaving rigs on their lot overnight.”
“I’ll make a couple of phone calls, and it will be all right.Once we figure out what’s going on here, I’ll have someone drive it to our house, so you don’t have to worry about it.”Charlotte thanked them both.“Do you need anything, ma’am?”
“Just my girl to be all right.”Bailee sat with her while Denver went to make the phone calls.It really wasn’t that big of a deal to have it moved, but there was no point in leaving it out there to be vandalized.“I just wish we’d have eaten in the rig if it was going to cause all that much trouble.”
Before she could say anything, Emma was brought into the room.She looked a little out of it, and the nurse explained that the doctor had said she could have something for the pain.Whatever it was, it looked like it was doing the trick for her.
“They’re going to keep her overnight.Just to make sure that she’s here to get some meds when she needs them.”Bailee wondered what would have happened to her if they were to have released her since she and her mom both lived in their rig.She was going to make arrangements to have Charlotte stay with them and Emma when she got out of the hospital.It was the only way that they were going to get some rest, she thought.“Once the doctor looks over the scans, then we’ll come in and put some stitches in her head.It’s a good-sized cut, but shouldn’t put her down for very long.”
After explaining that she was a redhead and would need a bit more to knock her out, the nurse laughed and said that the doctor had a red-headed wife and knew how that was true.After she left, Charlotte went to the bed and held onto Emma’s hand.Bailee felt her eyes fill with tears.After so many things going on with mothers lately, it was nice to see a family get along so well.
“Emma is my step-daughter.When her father met me, she was about two years old at the time.We dated for a while, and Emma and I became close to each other.Then, when her dad died suddenly, we were all each other had.”She told her she was sorry.“I am as well.We didn’t have a lot of time together, Frank and I, but we certainly loved this little girl.She’s done so much for me that I don’t know that I would have made it without her bullying me all the time.In a good way, you understand.”
“Yes, of course.She told me how you bullied her at times as well.The two of you are good together.”She said that they had to be because they were in cramped quarters all the time.“Yes, I can see how that would make a difference in a relationship.I don’t know that I could have been in a rig for as long as the two of you have been.”
“Like I said, it was for the best.”Charlotte looked at Emma.“We, the two of us, have sold off everything that we owned to make this work for us.I wanted to see the country, and she wanted to drive so that she was her own boss.I have no idea how much longer she plans to do this, but I’ve never been so proud of anyone as I am of her.We have a bit of a savings account thanks to her, and we’re doing something that very few mothers and daughters get to do with each other.”
“I would imagine that you two are the exception to the rule about families getting along so well.Taylor, you’ll meet her later.She’s having issues with her mom right now.I heard from the courthouse that she’s been arrested for threatening a sitting judge, along with a few other things that are going to get her jail time.Now that woman is a nutball.”The two of them talked for a while, waiting for someone to come in and talk to them.Denver came back to tell them that the rig had been taken care of, and she could tell that Charlotte was relieved about that.She had looked it up earlier and couldn’t believe the cost of a simple rig.And theirs had extra stuff in it for them to live.
It was nearly midnight when they admitted Emma.She didn’t want to stay, but her mom said she’d feel better if she had.That was when she told them that their house was open for them and that they’d be proud to have them staying with them until she felt better.She had a feeling that the only reason Emma agreed was because her mom did so quickly.It was lovely to see such a bond betweentwo people like she was.
After setting up Charlotte in one of the guest rooms, she and Denver went to bed, too.Tomorrow was going to be a long day as they had meetings all day with different vendors that wanted to come to the town.She was excited and scared at the same time.So many people were depending on them for new jobs and businesses coming in that it made her slightly nervous, too.
The next morning, Charlotte heard from Emma about when she was going to be discharged.The rig had been brought to the house, and she was happy to see that Charlotte was able to get herself some clean clothing.It was wonderful, too, that she got to see a first-hand look at the inside of the little home they’d been living in for the past five years.
“I don’t think that I could have done it.”Bailee thought about some of the magic that was in the family and wondered if they could tweak the rig a bit so that they had a lot more room.That was a question for later, she thought.She wanted to make sure that everything else turned out fine for the two women before the center was finished.
Several hours after having her breakfast, Bailee was ready to face the meetings that she had set up.Off and on, she would check on Emma, but for the most part, she was glad to be getting these meetings done with.She’d know better than to have them all on the same day again.It was trying for her to keep straight what each meeting was about.She felt like she was in a tennis match with things going back and forth.
