Natural Reaction (25 page)

“What happened?”

“He was on the Varsity baseball team,” she said. “He was a pitcher and he was one of their best homerun hitters too. His dad said he was going to the majors.”

Mary remembered what Charlie said about parents who thought their children were cut out for the big league.

“So, what happened?”

“They just won a big game,” she said. “They were going to the Division Finals. Ephraim asked me to wait for him. He went into the locker room with the other guys and I waited by the bleachers for him. By the time he came out it was getting dark and the bleachers were deserted. I told him I needed to go home. But he told me he wanted to celebrate.”

She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.

“I told him I couldn’t stay and he pushed me into the bleachers. He said I didn’t understand; I was going to be his celebration. I screamed and he put his hand over my mouth. He told me that no one would believe I didn’t want to have sex with him. That no one would believe the poor girl. That his father would ruin my family if I didn’t…cooperate.”

Lo stood up and walked to the other end of the room. “I kept shaking my head and crying. He pushed me down on one of the seats and started to climb over me,” she took a deep breath. “That’s when Coach Thorne grabbed him by the back of the neck and threw him onto the ground. He grabbed his shirt and pushed him up against the building. He told him if he ever heard of him doing something like this again, he would not only be expelled, he’d be arrested.”

“What happened to Ephraim?”

She shook her head. “Money does buy everything,” she said, “Especially in a small town. Coach tried to get him suspended, but the school board wouldn’t allow it. He tried to get some disciplinary action against him, but nothing ever happened. He even kicked him off the team, but the school wouldn’t let him do it. But, the one thing he could do was bench him. Ephraim never played another game with the team. He ended up going to a Junior College and never got a baseball scholarship. He blamed the coach.”

“Blamed him enough to kill him?” Mary asked.

Lo nodded. “Ephraim had a lot of anger,” she said. “And no one ever told him no.
No one except Coach Thorne.”

“Did you ever try to press charges?”

“I left town and moved in with my aunt for the rest of my sophomore year and my junior year,” she said. “My family thought it would be best for me to be gone.”

“Why?”

Lo turned back and looked at Mary. “When we were dating, Ephraim would bring me to his father’s fertilizer plant, out on Henderson Road,” she said. “There were huge bins with giant augers that would mix and crush the ingredients together. Ephraim liked catching small animals and throwing them into the bin, just to watch them die. That’s the kind of person he was. That’s why my parents sent me out of town.”

“That explains a lot of things,” she said. “Thank you for telling me.”

“Please, don’t let Stevo know,” she said. “Even after all these years, he might be angry…”

Mary nodded. “I understand,” she said. “I won’t let him know.”

Mary hurried out to the car; the feeling in the pit of her stomach was growing stronger. She nearly jumped when her phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Mary, it’s Ian,” he said. “Rosie’s gone.”

Rosie lay on the back floor of the panel van on a pile of old moving blankets.

This is so unsanitary. And what is he thinking, there are no seat belts back here, if we were to get into an accident, I could be thrown from this vehicle and killed.

Killed.

Walter wants to kill me. Well, I’m never going to date him now, even if he asked nicely.

That’s ridiculous, stop thinking silly thoughts, you’re engaged now. You can’t date other men anyway.

Stanley.

If I die I can’t marry Stanley. I love Stanley. And I think I’ve found the perfect dress. Mary wouldn’t get herself in a situation like this. Mary would have kicked their butts
. She gave her head a little shake.
No, Mary would have kicked their asses. There I thought it - asses.

What would Mary do?

She looked around the van, there really didn’t seem to be a good way to escape, especially since it was moving and her hands were tied. She twisted her wrists; the tape wasn’t sticking very well. It must have been the flour. She wriggled her arms back and forth and the duct tape loosened even more. Soon she was able to slip one of her hands out.

I’m channeling Mary. I can do this.

She was jolted around when the van stopped. Remembering Walter shouldn’t know about her hands, she stuck them back together and waited for him to open the door.

The van door opened and Rosie could see a loading dock. She could see by the collection of weeds and brush overgrowing the area; it hadn’t been used for a long time. Walter reached in and helped her out of the van and the he ripped the duct tape off her mouth and she winced.

That hurt!

“I’m real sorry, Rosie,” Walter repeated. “If you had just not seen that ghost…”

How would Mary answer him?

“Did you know that Coach Thorne saved your dad’s job?” Rosie asked, trying not to shiver in the cold wind.

Walter stopped and shook his head. “No, he was preventing my dad from getting tenure.”

“No, he was covering up for your dad because of the Parkinson’s. Your dad was afraid he was going to get fired,” Rosie said. “Coach Thorne stayed late or came in early so he could put together the experiments for your dad’s classes.”

Walter shook his head. “No, that can’t be true.”

“Come on, Wally, you remember when your dad got Parkinson’s,” Rosie said. “You must have known there was no way he could measure chemicals for the experiments. Your life would have been ruined without Coach Thorne.”

Walter grabbed Rosie’s arm and pulled her up the ramp and into the warehouse. “I won’t listen to you,” he said.

She quickly looked around. The warehouse was nearly empty. There were some pieces of broken wooden pallets scattered around, a rusted dumpster with pipes, cardboard and lumber overflowing from it and a number of white plastic 55 gallon barrels that looked fairly new.

“You won’t listen to me because you know I’m right,” she said, pulling away from him towards the dumpster. “Don’t be a coward, Wally, at least admit that.”

Walter was breathing heavy, sweat rolling on his forehead, when he stopped and looked at Rosie. “Maybe it’s true and maybe you’re right,” he said. “But there’s nothing I can do about it now. My hands are tied.”

She slipped one hand out of the duct tape. “Well mine aren’t,” she yelled, grabbing one of the pipes and swinging it towards Walter.

The pipe swung forward, but then stopped. Rosie looked over her shoulder and saw a tall man had caught the end of the pipe.

“He’s trying to hurt me,” Rosie said, struggling to pull the pipe out of the man’s hands. “You have to let go.”

“Wally, will you please take control of this situation,” Ephraim ordered, ripping the pipe out of her hands.

Wally grabbed both of Rosie’s arms from behind and held her. “What do you want me to do?”

Ephraim smiled and walked over to electrical box and flipped the switch. “We’re going to allow our friend Rosie to get closer to nature,” he said softly, walking to another control panel.

He pressed a button and a harsh mechanical noise vibrated the building. “I apologize,” he said. “It does get a little loud. It’s our auger. We use it for making fertilizer. An amazing piece of equipment, not only does it mix and grind material together, but it also pulls them up a metal shaft filled with stainless steel blades to ensure the pieces are microscopic.”

He looked at Rosie. “Unfortunately, pieces that are too big to fit in the shaft get hacked up into smaller, less…” he paused. “
…noticeable pieces of material.”

Walking closer to her, he ran a finger across her cheek and she moved her face. “I remember one of the first times I saw it in use, I was fascinated,” he said. “A rat had slipped into the bin and couldn’t get out. I watched as it was pulled closer and closer to the blades. It was mesmerizing.”

He looked at her, his eyes bright with enjoyment. “Finally it was caught, the blade ripped it up in a matter of seconds and the blood just mixed with the rest of the minerals.”

He chuckled. “Extra protein, that’s what my dad called it, extra protein.”

“This can’t be real,” Rosie whispered. “This doesn’t happen in the real world.”

She tried to look over her shoulder. “Wally, you can’t let him do this. I can’t die, I’m getting married.”

“I’m sorry Rosie,” Walter said, “I don’t have a choice.”

Stanley’s phone rang and he stopped his conversation with Caleb to answer it.

“Hello,” he said.

“They’ve taken Rosie,” Mary said.

Stanley felt his heart drop to his feet and he looked at the old man in front of him. “Caleb,” he said, his voice shaking. “They’ve taken my Rosie. They’re going to hurt her. You’ve got to tell me…”

“Stanley, you don’t know,” Caleb said. “You’re not sure.”

“Caleb, I remember your wife and how much you loved her,” he said. “I love my Rosie. She’s my life. Please don’t cover up for him this time. Please.”

Caleb closed his eyes and bowed his head. “The fertilizer plant,” Caleb said.
“On Henderson.”

“Mary, the fertilizer plant,” Stanley repeated, his voice shaking.

“Already on my way,” she said. “Tell Bradley.”

Stanley stood up on shaky legs. “I
gotta
go, Caleb,” he said. “I
gotta
go find my Rosie.”

“Godspeed,” Caleb whispered.
“Godspeed.”

Stanley ran down the hall, towards the door to the parking lot. He pulled his keys out of his pocket when his phone rang again.

“Yes?” he yelled into the phone.

“Stanley,
it’s
Bradley.”

“They’ve taken her to the fertilizer plant,” he cried. “You don’t know what he does out there.”

“Ian’s on his way to get you,” Bradley said. “He’ll be there in a minute. I’m going to the plant.”

“Hurry Bradley,” Stanley whispered, after Bradley had ended the call.
“Hurry.”

Mary shifted the Roadster into fifth gear and whipped onto Henderson Road. The dust from the gravel blew a cloud behind her car as she increased her speed.
Not Rosie, not Rosie
, she prayed.

She nearly missed the entrance to the old plant, but sent the Roadster skidding in a curve and then punched the accelerator feeling it bite down on the gravel and jump forward. She drove over to the loading dock, threw the car into park and ran up the ramp into the warehouse.

“Mary!”

Mary looked up in the direction of Rosie’s scream and saw her on a metal catwalk two floors up that led to a giant steel bin, her arms caught in Walter’s grasp. “Give up now, Walter,” she yelled over the din from the auger. “The police are on the way.”

She started to run to the stairs that led to Rosie when her legs were knocked out from under her. She fell hard and landed on her back, the breath knocked out of her.

The floor was cold and damp against her back and the room was filled with shadows. The warehouse moved out of focus, suddenly she was back in the basement.

Ephraim stood over her, but all she could see was Gary.

“What do we have here?” he asked. He knelt down and leaned over her.
“So nice of you to drop in.”

He ran his hand across her cheek.
“Very nice of you to drop in.”

Mary felt her stomach contract and the panic set in once again. She was trapped. “Please,” she cried. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

“Oh, sweetheart, I won’t hurt you,” he whispered, kneeling over her, “At least not much.”

“Mary,” Rosie screamed. “Help me.”

“She can’t help you, Rosie,” he taunted. “She can’t even help herself.”

Rosie needs me,
she thought.
Rosie’s in danger. I have to help Rosie.

She could hear Ian’s voice in her head. “
You have to help yourself, darling, give him what for.”

Gary wasn’t going to win. She fought him last time and won. She could do it again.

Mary brought her knee up and crushed into his groin. He screamed in pain. She yelled with power.

She reached over and grabbed the piece of wood he used on her. He rolled on top of her and tried to wrestle it from her grasp. She fought against him, rolling on the concrete floor. She elbowed him in the solar plexus and he gasped in pain. She pulled the wood out of his hands and smashed it against his head.

He rolled away and pulled himself up on his feet. Breathing heavy, he ran at her.

“I’ll teach you to fight with me, bitch,” he screamed.