Saving Sunni (33 page)

Sighing, I pulled the cell phone from my pocket and dialed Sir. It rang a couple of times before he picked it up, and I could hear laughter in the background. “Yes?”

I hated to interrupt what was obviously an enjoyable lunch with more of this silliness, but I had promised.

“Randy’s coming in to the store,” I told him, half expecting him to materialize beside me.

Instead he just said, “I’ll be there as soon as possible,” and hung up.

There was a yelping sound next to me, and I looked down to see that Geri had appeared. She was pale, but there was more life in her face than I had seen since the heart attack. She seemed to be vibrating, like a small terrier that had spied a Great Dane coming down the sidewalk and was preparing to defend its territory.

“Geri,” I said, reaching out a hand to try to calm her down, but she was already speeding through the door toward the oncoming threat. I dithered, wanting to go after her. She simply wasn’t up to the task of fighting off a flock of religious fanatics. But Sir’s face floated before me, telling me that if I disobeyed him and put myself in harm’s way, even for Geri’s sake, that would be the end. He would never be able to trust me again. I wasn’t sure it was reasonable, but I was quite sure of his reaction. But how could I stand by while Geri risked her health and her store to protect me? They wouldn’t hurt her, but I wasn’t at all sure she wouldn’t attack one of them, possibly sending herself back to the hospital in the process. And that would give them fuel for a huge amount of publicity and grounds for a lawsuit if they chose to use it.

I had pushed the door halfway open and let it reclose three times before I made a decision. I dialed Sir’s phone again and hastily explained the situation to him.

“I’m on the way,” he said, sounding stressed. “I’ll be there in ten minutes and I’ve called sage. She is on her way from campus as well.”

“In ten minutes Geri could be under arrest—or dead!” I protested, dancing back and forth, trying to get a good view of what my boss was doing. She had been surrounded by the group, having placed herself in Melissa’s way and leaned forward into the girl’s face. They appeared to be yelling at each other, from the little I could see of them. I began to panic, waiting for one or both of them to hit the ground, either from violence or a massive stroke.

“You may go outside if you leave our connection open,” Sir said. “I will be listening from this end, and trust me, I will take care of him if he does anything bad to you. Do you agree to that?”

“Yes, yes, yes,” I said, flinging myself out the door and racing to the small group on the sidewalk, slipping the phone into a pocket so he could hear. I ran past Randy, catching Geri by the shoulders to steady her. Melissa was screaming something about terrible, Godless parenting, and Geri was shrieking back something about unnatural, humorless children. Six or seven people were milling around them in awkward, uncomfortable silence, obviously wondering what was going on. I had the distinct impression that this was not the scene they had been prepared for.

Randy grabbed my arm then and spun me away from the mother/daughter battle. His face was set and determined, and a flash of recognition shot through my brain. I knew for an absolute fact that Randy had indulged in some alcohol to prepare himself for this confrontation. I wondered if that was forbidden in whatever denomination this was, but I guessed, given the looks of Melissa and the other members, that it probably was.

“Jessie,” Randy said, making an effort to pull me off to the side. I resisted, trying to get Geri’s attention so I could calm her down. But he was determined, and I was going to have to deal with him first.

I kept one hand on Geri as I turned my head and gave Randy the coldest look I could manage. “Well? What the hell do you want now?”

His jaw went slack, and he blinked a couple of times, but then he drew his features back into his original expression. “Jessie, we have come here—”

There was a commotion as Geri tried to slap Melissa. I lunged and managed to redirect her hand, noticing gratefully that two of Melissa’s friends had her shoulders and were preventing her from returning her mother’s gesture. I tried again to talk calmly to Geri, but Randy’s grip on my arm painful tightened, and he wrenched me around to face him.

“Jessie,” he began again, “Please listen. We have come here today—”

I sickly wanted to laugh, having a visual of Randy performing some kind of demented re-marriage ceremony with my boss and her daughter duking it out in the background. There was humor in the fact that Randy was lecturing me about the evilness of my lifestyle with someone who beat me while
he
was bruising my arm in a totally nonconsensual way. But he tried again, “To show you the sinfulness of your chosen way of life and to offer you salvation and the redemption of your God-ordained marriage. I am prepared to forgive—”

“Forgive?” My humor vanished in an instant, and I stared into Randy’s face. He recomposed himself before beginning again. When he did, his delivery was fast and expressionless, as though he was speaking a foreign language he didn’t really know. I had a vision of Melissa patiently coaching him through it.

“We have come here today to show you the sinfulness of your chosen way of life and to offer you salvation and the redemption of your God-ordained marriage. I am prepared to forgive your past actions and take you back as my wife. I know you grew up in the one true faith, and I don’t believe you have turned your back on it. Just come with me to a place where we can discuss it in peace. When you see how much I’ve changed, how much I love God now and how much I still love you, you will understand that it really is for the best and it is your true destiny.”

He stopped, took a deep breath and stood still, staring at me. Relief was evident on his face. It was like he had been on a quest to make this happen, and now that it was over he had no idea what to do. I half expected him to turn and awkwardly shuffle away.

But he didn’t. He simply stood, holding onto me, waiting for me to fall into his arms, I guessed. Well then this was my opportunity. I’d told Sir I just needed to be able to talk to Randy and now I can.
Just make him see the situation, and he will go away.

Just then, a fresh volley of mutual abuse burst out from the two women, along with a pathetic kind of peacemaking attempt from the crowd of people around them. There was a man holding up a Bible who was obviously some kind of minister. He pointed to it and tried to remind Melissa of a verse having to do with respecting your parents. He might as well have saved his breath—she completely ignored him. It was as if a lifetime of resentment against her mother had finally burst through her pious veneer.

“Randy,” I began carefully, “I think it’s great that you’ve found something you can believe in and a community to belong to. I really do. I want you to have a wonderful life. But I’ve found the way of life that suits me, and just because you think you still love me—” He started to protest, but I kept going. “Just because you might still love me doesn’t mean we belong together. This isn’t the movies, where if he can make it to the airport in time she will automatically fall back in love with him. And I’m so sick of everybody trying to ‘save sunni’ that I could throw up.”

He looked confused at that, but my words came out fast now. “I have my life. You have yours. I’m not the person I was in high school. I’ve changed since then. You’re different too, and you need to go find the life that suits you. It’s out there, and there’s a girl out there who will fit into it perfectly.”

I glanced over to where Melissa was leaning forward, still screaming into her mother’s face. Maybe that wasn’t his idea of a perfect girl, but it seemed to me she would be able to handle him pretty well.

Randy followed my glance but not the direction of my thoughts. I could see him almost physically reverting to the one thought that had been driving him for God only knew how long. He seemed to struggle to find something to say, but in the absence of any appropriate words he decided action was better. He started dragging me back along the sidewalk to his car.

I looked down at his hand on my arm, picturing the jujitsu moves that sage had insisted we go over and over in class and at home, before we had gotten so angry at each other. Time slowed down like we were in suspended animation while my mind played through several options for dealing with his grip. Part of my brain was very aware of Melissa yelling “drug- and sex-crazed hippie of a mother” while Geri was saying something back that sounded like “goody two-shoes.” Another part calculated the amount of time before Sir would get here and rip Randy’s arms off before stuffing them up his ass, if Randy hadn’t shoved me in his car and driven off by then. The rest of my mind calmly assessed my chances of breaking his arm, or at least his hold, and if that would be considered assault. I made a decision.

Moving in what seemed like slow motion, I grabbed his arm and pulled at a forty-five-degree angle while stepping forward and slamming my forearm into his chest. It wasn’t exactly like Master Sandi had done it, but it was effective. He went down as if a truck had plowed into him, ending up flat on his back and gasping.

Unfortunately my momentum and his body weight brought me down too, and I landed on top of him. Still thinking quickly, I grabbed his arm, twisting him over onto his stomach and got a knee onto his back. He didn’t really struggle, although it sounded like he was still trying to catch his breath. The clamor around us had silenced, and I looked up to see that Melissa and Geri had stopped in mid-insult and were staring at me. Melissa’s face was outraged; Geri’s was pale but delighted. sage arrived, skidding to a stop next to Geri. She looked around, possibly wondering if she was going to have to take on the rest of the church group. When nobody moved, she looked back at me, and we both slowly broke into a grin.

“Nice work,” she said simply, nodding her approval.

Meanwhile, Melissa seemed to be less appreciative of my budding martial arts abilities. “Randy!” she screeched, abandoning Geri and throwing herself down on the pavement. She gave me a hate-filled glare as she ineffectually swatted at me in an attempt to get me off her hero. Randy was not even trying to get out of my hold, so I reluctantly allowed Melissa to push me away, gather him in her arms, and start crooning over him as if he were a wounded soldier.

Geri and sage helped me up, Geri awkwardly leaning on me as I staggered to my feet. Melissa examined Randy, apparently expecting to find a gushing artery or gaping wound someplace. Randy glared malignantly at me as he dragged himself to his feet, totally ignoring his ministering angel.

“Really?” he sputtered, his voice hoarse and rasping. He glanced around, remembering his audience. “You think that little of our history and your immortal soul that you are choosing to stay in that abusive relationship with a sadistic foreigner?”

I didn’t think Randy knew such big words. I looked at my arm, which clearly showed the imprints of his fingers, and twisted it toward him.

“Abusive?” I repeated, raising my eyebrows and pointing to the marks. “You have the nerve to call
him
abusive?”

Melissa shot me a venomous look from behind her hero, stroking his arm as we faced off again. Randy’s hateful look turned into pain, bordering on desperation. A pang of guilt went through me, but there was nothing I could do. He just had to get through this by himself, and if he was smart, he would accept the help of the girl beside him, who was obviously anxious to step into my place.

Geri let out a loud moan and all of our heads turned to look at her. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she began to tilt alarmingly backwards. Two hands reached from behind and caught her as she slumped back into them. I looked up to see Sir holding the unconscious woman, a look of mortification on his face.

sage and I both jumped forward to relieve him of his burden, but she immediately stirred again and opened her eyes. sage helped her into the store, nodding to me to finish whatever was going on, and Sir absently let her go. He and Randy were busy glaring at each other, and I wondered if he had been there to hear Randy call him a “sadistic foreigner.” Not that it was a huge insult, but it had obviously been meant as one. I doubted that Randy would have said it to his face, though.

Melissa gave the two men frightened glances, trying to pull Randy out of Sir’s range of attack. He must have seemed pretty threatening, given the things they had been saying about our relationship. Their other supporters gathered around them. They glanced dubiously at Melissa, who had just been screaming hateful things at her mother but seemed determined to make an attempt to salvage the situation. The one who seemed to be a minister stepped forward and addressed me as soon as Geri was safely inside.

“Mrs. Chambers?”

“Yes?” I sighed. I had always hated being called “Mrs.”

He arranged his face in what he probably thought of as a devout, saintly expression and cleared his throat slightly. Was he was going to ask us to all bow our heads and ask God’s blessings on the happy occasion we had just witnessed? Instead, he reached over and took my hand, peering into my face, maybe looking for signs of brainwashing or mental incapacity.

“Are you sure that this is the choice you want to make?” he said softly.

Sir gave a low growling noise behind me, and I took a second to turn and exchange a glance with him. He looked angry and dangerous, but he didn’t move, and after a second he gave me a slight nod. My tension level decreased significantly as I realized he really wasn’t going to interfere. He was actually going to let me handle the situation. I had no idea why these people were concerned with my spiritual welfare, but they weren’t going to give up. I had to convince them that I was never going to renounce my life and go back to Randy.