Harrowing (27 page)

“You
what?
” I shrieked. “You hitchhiked? Don’t you know how dangerous that is, in this day and age? With all those depraved, perverted...”

Calvin nudged at me.

“Well, what did you expect me to do? I didn’t have any money on me. And besides which...”

He patted himself on the chest.

“You can see I’m here. Nothing happened to me.”

“Okay, okay. So you hitchhiked. But weren’t you terribly hurt? And how did you get your memory back?”

Calvin touched himself all over.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly qualify what Bruno did to me as terribly hurt.”

He stroked one of the little wounds on my hand.

“You were much worse off than me. I just got a knock on the head.”

I patted his head consolingly.

“Is your head much better now?” I crooned. “You didn’t get a concussion or anything, did you?”

Calvin laughed heartily.

“The doctors were scared I did. But apparently, I’ve got the skull of a football player.”

We both laughed this time.

“Anyways, they did have me in for a coupla days for observation. But then I got my memory back, just like that. So I left. And I came looking for you, at Bedford Park. But of course by then, you were already gone. There was this yellow police tape all around the house. So I panicked. I hightailed it to your apartment and picked up my phone. Fortunately, Linds had already left about a thousand messages, explaining what had happened to you.”

He bent over me and we kissed. The sweetest, most nostalgic kiss I’d ever shared with anyone.

*

Life became a hundred times more delicious after I returned home. I savoured every fragrance, every aroma, the humming of bees and the chill of the wind against my skin. I started hugging trees. Lunchtime could last me a full two hours as I relished over every bite and morsel.

And I drank water. Lots of water. I became almost obsessed. I never left home anymore without a good-sized bottle of mineral goodness in my handbag. Even needed to buy a larger handbag, almost a tote, in order to fit these litre-and-a-half affairs into it.

From the moment I woke up, I was incapable of letting Romeo out of my sight. I almost snatched him out of his school and had him transferred somewhere else as a result of Mrs. Garrison’s negligent behaviour. But the principal convinced me to change my mind. And Mrs. Garrison herself was so contrite, tripping over herself to try and make up for her folly, that in the end I relented. In fact, I believed that from now on Mrs. Garrison would take better care of Romeo than anyone else.

Calvin packed his bags and moved in with me. My apartment was small, but his bachelor pad – a mere studio – was minuscule. There was no question which of the two apartments was more suitable for two adults with a child.

The day he moved in, he hooked his arm around my shoulders and rubbed me with affection.

“Now we’re together and I seem to be doing well, we can start looking for a bigger place,” he said.

I nodded a bit indifferently. My perspective had changed a lot. Now I didn’t sweat the small stuff anymore. And our outer circumstances and material conditions had taken second place in my list of priorities. It was more important to me now to simply spend time with the people that I loved. As much time as I could possibly fit in.

I tried to make an appointment to meet up with Lindsay for lunch at least once a week. We also went for walks around the city, hopped on streetcars and buses and just cruised around and explored and enjoyed life.

And of course, Romeo went around with me everywhere when he wasn’t at school.

The last piece of business I still had to take care of was a meeting with Geri at the temp agency. Once again, it wasn’t a requirement. But I simply felt like doing it.

Geri stared at me over her desk without a word as I sat next to her, studying me awkwardly. She had the look on her face that you see on the faces of people who attend the funerals of distant acquaintances. At last I pushed her on the arm.

“It’s okay, Geri. I’m not an eggshell, you know. I wasn’t exactly broken to pieces,” I exclaimed.

Geri grinned contritely.

“Am I that obvious?” She let out a nervous giggle. “I’m sorry, Annasuya. It’s just that I’ve never known anyone who’s gone through so much as you.”

“How do you know?” I said a bit impatiently. “When you meet people, you don’t know all the details of their lives. I’ll bet a ton of women that you see have been raped. Or are grieving for someone that they’ve lost. Or have been the victim of domestic violence. Or were abused as children. You simply can’t have any idea, just from meeting someone and chatting with them for a few minutes.”

I fanned myself with my hand.

“For all you know, maybe even Sandy went through hell when she was a little girl. Or was beaten up in one of her marriages. And that’s why she became the way she became and did the things that she did. There’s no way any of us can tell.”

Geri nodded and sighed.

“You’re absolutely right, Annasuya,” she said.

Hugh burst in on us as usual at that moment. I was starting to get used to his puppy-dog mannerisms by now.

“You were on the news, weren’t you, Annasuya?” he exclaimed, making no attempt to disguise his utter fascination.

I waved at him.

“Yeah, yeah. Now the whole country knows my story,” I said in dismay.

Hugh grinned, an enormous smile baring his teeth.

“Don’t be modest. You’re a real heroine. And your son? Whoo-whee. You must be so proud of him.”

I glanced at Geri, and for some reason, we both burst out laughing.

“Yeah, I guess I’m more than just a bit of a proud mami.”

Geri plunked a pile of papers before Hugh.

“Go on, Hugh. Be a good guy and make some photocopies.” She thumbed carefully through the sheets and showed them to Hugh with exaggerated gestures. “I want three copies of each sheet. And everything neatly sorted out and stapled,” she called after him as he bore the pile away, staggering under its weight even though it really didn’t look that heavy. “That should keep him occupied for a while, so we can talk,” she explained as soon as he was out of earshot.

I giggled.

Julia dropped by to see me as well. She actually dared to try and reach out and touch my sleeve.

“It’s just that I’ve never touched someone the television shows call a hero,” she said with a chuckle.

I scowled.

“I’m not a hero. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Julia shook her head.

“Well, I am a bit sorry.
We
were the ones who’d sent you to Bruno to begin with.”

I made a batting motion at her.

“Don’t sweat it, Julia. You didn’t know. It was impossible to tell. No one knew what Bruno was like.” I smiled. “After all, it’s not like the agency administers a psychology test to every one of your clients, is it?”

Julia nodded thoughtfully.

“We should,” she said quietly. Then she patted me on the arm and left.

“So. What now?” Geri asked brightly after Julia disappeared.

“Well, I just need to keep working. Although obviously, not at Sandy’s company.”

Geri raised a finger.

“You know, unlikely though it seems, one good thing that has come out of all this hullaballoo is that several companies have actually emailed me offering you a position – a temp one, of course – on their staff. And at generous rates too. Isn’t it ironic?”

She grasped her mouse and began flipping through files on her computer.

“Look, Annasuya. You get to pick between all of these companies. Which one do you prefer?”

I scanned through all of them, a little bit in disbelief.

“Whichever place I choose, I’m very adamant from now on that it be a job that would allow me to leave with plenty of time to pick up my son,” I said. “No more arriving late at the school. Never again. I care about him too much.”

Geri laid a hand sympathetically on mine.

“I know.”

She gave me a genuine, heart-felt hug before I left.

“Stay out of trouble, Annasuya,” she said. “Think you can do that from now on?”

I grinned.

“No prob. What more could possibly happen to me?”

Rudolph Verenich was also at a loss as to what to say to me when I returned to class. In fact, I had decided to leave off the classes with Rudolph and spend more time with my family. I thought I’d learnt everything I needed to know for this point in my life. His lessons had served me well in some moments, such as when I was fighting with Sandy. But there were other lessons, I knew now, that couldn’t be acquired in a classroom setting, no matter how strict that setting was.

Rudolph enfolded me in a gigantic bear hug as soon as he saw me.

“Ah, Annasuya, Annasuya, my leetle Annasuya Rose,” he crooned. “You are zafe. You have come through zis business alive.” He seized me by the shoulders and took a good look at my face. “I hope my classes have come in handy and helped you, zough.”

I nodded.

“Yes. I did use your lessons,” I assured him.

The one thing that hadn’t changed in spite of this whole ordeal was my aversion to cooking. I was still a lousy cook, and boxed macaroni and cheese continued to be regular fare in the Adler-Henri household. But the strange thing was that Romeo no longer turned his nose up at this concoction.

When I asked him about it, he shrugged.

“It’s food, right, Mimi?” he said. “It tastes okay and it keeps us alive.”

Ah, the wonders of suffering from starvation for a few days.

One night as we dove our forks hungrily through a plateful of macaroni and cheese, Calvin glanced at me with a thoughtful look.

“Annie, honey, have you ever thought of starting up your own business?” he said.

I stared at him in surprise.

“Doing what?”

“You’ve always wanted to be a CEO, right? Well, why don’t you be CEO of your own company?”

I licked my lips and mulled it over.

“Sounds good. But where would I get the money? And what would I sell?”

Calvin passed his arm around me.

“Well, what would you like to sell? What do you like to do? What have you always wanted to do?”

I’d never thought about that before.

“And as for the money, well, you could ask for a loan. You don’t have any debts, do you?”

I shook my head.

“No. But... when would I find the time to do this? I work full-time, you know.”

Calvin hugged me.

“Why not in the evenings? Now I’m here I can help out and hold the fort in the evenings while you work.”

I cuddled myself close to him. This was food for thought.

My new life seemed pretty doozie now. Now I could say of myself:

My name is Annasuya Rose Adler and I’m thirty-three years old. I’m an office worker, a temp, and I’m pretty fast with a keyboard or a mouse. I can take five phone calls at the same time, prepare coffee using a Nespresso or the old-fashioned way with a percolator and I’m a whiz at reloading the papers and toner into the photocopy machine. Any model of photocopy machine. I’ve worked at hundreds of businesses over the past ten years, so I’m pretty familiar with most models of most things.

One Friday a couple of months ago, my temp agency sent me to a new job, an office I’d never been to before, and my new boss raped me.

But now that boss is dead. And I won’t be a temp worker much longer. Soon I will be CEO of my own little company.

I didn’t think things could get much better.

*

One Friday Lindsay and I decided to have a girls’ night out. We hadn’t done this in a long time, years, perhaps. I’d never had the money for a babysitter.

But now I had Calvin.

He kissed me on the cheek as I ran out to meet Linds.

“You sure you don’t mind hanging around on a Friday night doing baby service?” I said.

“I am hardly a baby,” Romeo declared indignantly. “And I’m old enough to stay at home all by myself.”

“You’re not.” I cuffed him on the top of his head. But then I gave him an enormous kiss there too.

I had learnt by now not to take life for granted. And most especially not to take the lives of my loved ones for granted, or the time I spent with them.

But I still had a lot more to learn.

If I’d known then, I would have given him more than just one kiss.

We started the night by club-hopping down on King Street West. Lindsay flirted with a couple of men, I flirted with a couple of cool guys, but nothing serious. After all, we were both taken.

Instead, we spent most of our time sitting at the bar stirring cocktails and chatting.

“You’ve got to meet Grant one day,” Lindsay said as she sipped a daiquiri. “He is sooo cool. And five times more handsome than your Calvin.”

“Hey.” I lifted a fist before her face in mock threat. “No one picks on my boy, eh. He practically saved my life.”

Lindsay wrapped her hand over my fist.

“No.
I
saved your life.” She thrust her chin out. Then we both cracked up laughing.

We finished our drinks.

“You want another one?” said Lindsay.

“Annasuya?” We heard a voice behind us.

I turned around.

“You’re Annasuya, right? From the office? I remember.”

The speaker strolled into sight. I was surprised to see Ursula, from Sandy’s office. I hadn’t thought about her, or any of the other employees from there, in ages.

“Ursula,” I said. I wasn’t too sure if I was particularly pleased to bump into her. As far as I could recall, we hadn’t exactly been bosom buddies.

She idled to my side and patted my shoulder affectionately.

“I saw you on the news. Well, you and your son. I was glad to hear you were okay. But flabbergasted, absolutely floored, about Sandy. Who woulda ever?”

She stood next to us, expectant, as if waiting for an invitation.

“Ah, well, this is Lindsay, my friend,” I stammered out.

Ursula held a hand up warmly towards Lindsay.

“Hi, Lindsay. Pleased to meet you.”

Lindsay grazed her hand obligingly.

“Well, ah, you know, we were just about to leave,” I murmured at last.

Ursula laid a hand on my shoulder.

“Oh, no. I came too late? I’d love to have a drink with you.”

Lindsay and I glanced at each other.

“Okay,” I said. “But just one. We have to run. I left Romeo with the babysitter,” I lied.

Lindsay took the hint.

“Babysitters are expensive,” she told Ursula in a conspiratorial whisper.

Ursula settled by my side.

“Tell you what. I’ll invite,” she said.

She ordered a round of margaritas for us, then accommodated herself on her stool and stared at me.

“What was it like, Annasuya?” she cried at last. “It must have been horrific.”

I looked at Lindsay, then turned back to Ursula.

“Can’t we talk about something else? What’s going on in your life? How are things at the office, now Sandy’s not there anymore?”

Ursula perked up.

“Well, the position of office manager is up for grabs and they’re accepting curriculums. If you’re interested...”

I stared at her in mock horror.

“What? And sit at the same desk Sandy used to sit at?”

Lindsay giggled. Ursula gaped at me.

“Wow. You musta been really traumatized.”

“I’m not. Not really. But I imagine you would be too, if someone locked you up in a basement.”

Lindsay downed her margarita and glanced at her mobile.

“You know, Annie, if we leave right now we’ll just about be able to avoid paying the babysitter another hour,” she hinted.

I grabbed the hint.

“You’re right.” I turned to Ursula and touched her on the shoulder. “Nice bumping into you but you can see, we gotta run. Thanks for the drinks.”

Ursula snatched out her wallet.

“Wait,” she said. “I’m sorry, I said I’d invite but... could you spare me a quarter? It’s what I’m missing, to be able to pay for the drinks, I mean. God, I didn’t realize they were so expensive here.”

I humped back onto the stool.

“Oh, gosh. I’m so sorry, Ursula. You know what, that was really sweet of you but why don’t we all just pay for our own drinks?”

Ursula shook her head.

“No, I insist. I just need a quarter.”

I pulled my purse open and fumbled around in it, searching for my wallet. Lindsay reached over and dropped a quarter into Ursula’s hand.

“Here,” she said, then dragged at the hem of my dress. “Come on, Anna. Let’s get going.”

We tumbled out and dashed down the street and skirted around a corner, to be out of sight of the club.

“What was that all about?” Lindsay gasped out. “Who was that bimbo? That was really weird.”

I nodded.

“You know what, Linds? I don’t feel up to this anymore. Why don’t we just call it a night?”

Lindsay nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I’m beat too. And that just goes to show, you can bump into weirdos anywhere.”

I glanced up and noted that we were in a dark and narrow alleyway. We started working our way down the alley, putting distance between ourselves and King Street, our heels clicking sharply on the pavement.

A mist rose, surrounding us, turning the rubbish containers and trash bins into dark and enigmatic forms without shape, amorphous. Suddenly all the neons and bright lights seemed to remain about a hundred miles away. A hush fell over us.

“I don’t like this place,” Lindsay whispered. “Let’s get out of here.”

Easier said than done. We had no idea how long this alleyway was, and returning to King Street and possibly bumping into Ursula again was out of the question.

We continued slinking down the lane between putrid brick walls and rubbish bins containing rotten lettuce and oozing with putrefying brown and greyish liquids. A container crashed to the ground with a metallic bang. We jumped. A black cat screeched and crept indignantly in front of us. Lindsay grabbed at her heart.

“How much further till the next street?” she whispered.

Then we saw him.

A dark, unidentifiable shape dressed in black from head to toe, covered with a black balaclava. Surrounded by mist and shadows at the end of the alleyway.

Lindsay gave a bloodcurdling shriek.

We turned tail and dashed back down the alleyway towards where we had come from. Bumping into Ursula again seemed ten times preferable to what awaited us at the end of that dubious, lugubrious lane.

We burst out onto King Street with our hearts in our mouths, panting so hard we nearly fell over. Lindsay collapsed against a wall.

“Let’s grab a taxi,” she gasped out as soon as we had recovered a bit.

I nodded.

We hailed the first cab that happened by and tumbled into it as if it were a bed in a spa.

“Do you mind accompanying me to my place?” Lindsay said. “You can stay the night. I just don’t think I can make it by myself tonight.”

I nodded.

“Don’t worry, Linds. That’s what friends are for.”

I called Calvin and explained what had happened.

“Don’t sweat it,” he said. “Romeo’s watching
Criminal Minds
reruns in his pyjamas. Then it’s off to bed for the li’l guy.”

I was about to chide him for letting Romeo watch such a violent programme, then realized what he’d gone through in real life probably felt a hundred times more violent to him than any TV programme.

“Good night. I love you both,” I whispered. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

We sped eastward along Queen Street. But as we approached The Beaches, Lindsay leaned forward and muttered something to the taxi driver. He turned onto some side streets and stopped next to The Beaches.

The Beaches was a strip of artificial beach on the lake that stretched out for perhaps a couple of kilometres. It was within walking distance of Lindsay’s apartment, but she rarely ever went there.

Lindsay pushed open the cab door and stepped out.

“What are you doing?” I cried. “I thought you were scared.”

Lindsay shook her head.

“I need to stretch my legs,” she said. “And this is a safe place. It’s far from downtown and all the scumbags there. Come on. Nothing ever happens in
this
neighbourhood. It’s a yawn boring place.”

I slid out next to her.

“We’ll just stroll a bit, then go back to my pad.”

We stepped into the grassy park that separated the street from the beach. When we reached the beach, Lindsay slipped out of her high heels and let the sand trickle between her toes.

“Come on,” she said. “This feels so cool. Try it.”