She Never Knew (11 page)

The women
offered their condolences and encouragement to Sarah as Dottie spoke up. “This
is why we are all here today.” she boomed. “We are here to learn how we can
defend ourselves and prevent someone from trying to harm us.”

“He was caught,
right?” Marsha looked at Sarah.

“No, he’s still
out there.” Sarah remarked grimly.

There was a
moment of silence in the room. Dottie then began calling out names, pairing the
women with their partners. When she realized she had an odd number of students,
she asked Marsha to be her partner and assistant.

“Let’s get
started.” Dottie began. “The first form of defense we’ll learn today is what to
do when someone grabs you from behind.” With Marsha standing in front of her, Dottie
proceeded to make obvious what appeared to be a choke hold around Marsha’s
throat.

“Do you see
that?” Dottie demonstrated. “Now, watch what happens when Marsha tries to choke
me.” Dottie and Marsha switched positions.

“Watch closely,
ladies. I’m gonna move real slow so I don’t hurt Marsha and so you can see
exactly what I’m about to do.” She nodded for Marsha to proceed with a choke
hold.

Dottie raised
both of her hands and tried to insert them in between her throat and Marsha’s
choke hold. For demonstrative purposes, she exaggerated her efforts. Then she
dropped her entire body on the floor mat so that her weight also pulled Marsha
down with her. Dottie then twisted her body around which caused Marsha to
release her grip on Dottie’s throat. Dottie immediately got up and pretended to
run away.

The women
watching were wide-eyed with interest, amazed at how easy this defense skill
appeared to be. The entire drill lasted approximately one minute.

“You have to
remember that chances are your attacker will be bigger than you, taller than
you, and stronger than you.” Dottie warned. “If you can’t loosen that grip
around your throat, pull yourself down. Drag him down with you! It is generally
very difficult for your attacker to maintain a strong grip on anything when
he’s falling down too.”

Dottie and
Marsha repeated the drill, this time with more force and speed. Dottie acted as
the perpetrator and Marsha had her instructor on the floor mat within thirty
seconds. The women cheered.

“If this happens
to you, you can do one of two things. You can either panic or you can stay
focused.” Dottie spread her arms wide. “I know what I’m going to do.” She
clapped her hands and said, “Okay, pair up with your partner and practice on
each other. I’ll be coming around to make sure you’re doing this right.”

Kat was paired
up with Sarah. She wondered if this was fate, somehow, to meet someone who had
endured a trauma similar to hers. She knew she wasn’t alone, but it was
beneficial for her to share in someone else’s experience.

“Hi, Sarah!” Kat
extended her hand. “Looks like you’re stuck with me.”

Sarah laughed as
she shook Kat’s hand. “I think it’s the other way around.” Quietly, she
whispered, “I hope I didn’t make a fool of myself up there.”

“Absolutely
not!” Kat disagreed. “I admire the way you’re taking a stand in the fight
against domestic violence. I think what you did is part of the healing process.
Perhaps I should try it.”

Sarah peered at
Kat. “Are you saying something happened to you, too?”

Kat nodded and
exhaled deeply. “Yes. Only a couple of people know. I also told my pastor about
it last week. It happened to me six years ago.”

Dottie came
around to check on them and saw that they were chatting. “You gonna chit chat
all day, ladies?” She made a face and winked.

Kat and Sarah
giggled. “Maybe after class, we could swap phone numbers?” Kat agreed.

The ladies
practiced several drills in the next two hours and by the time class ended,
many of them expressed gratitude to Dottie as to how much better they already
felt. Mentally, the newly learned skills helped to make them feel more secure.

“Remember, in
order for these skills to be effective, you need to practice them regularly.
For those of you who are single and live alone, consider adopting a dog. Have
timers that turn lights on in the middle of the night. Ask one of your male
friends to record a greeting on your answering machine.” Dottie looked at each
of the ladies and said, “Always be alert, no matter where you are at all times.
Last, but not least, you may want to keep in touch with your partner and
practice the steps I showed you on your own time.”

Kat and Sarah
looked at each other and grinned.
We’ll definitely do that,
Kat thought.

Darryl Baker was
extremely irate. Administration wouldn’t budge in terms of letting him return
to classes. They gave him some garbage about losing their accreditation status if
they allowed him to finish his courses. He was told before he was expelled that
if he were caught cheating again, he would not be allowed to complete his
studies.

Further, he
discovered that he would need to repay his student loans effective immediately.
Because he didn’t graduate, there was no one year grace period in which he had
planned to allot a portion of his work earnings to make payments.

To top it all
off, he woke up in a drunken stupor to find a note his wife left behind on the
kitchen table. The letter was brief in content and the handwriting was scrawled
in haste, making it difficult for him to comprehend what had happened the night
before.

Apparently, he
had sworn at Michelle and punched a hole in their bedroom wall. He didn’t
remember doing this. The only thing he remembered about the night before was
going to a bar after work. He had been doing that a lot lately because he
couldn’t bear to come home to listen to his wife harass him about not having
enough money to pay the bills. She was always nagging at him and he was getting
tired of it. He just wanted to think about taking over the company he worked
for.

When he had come
home, he was dismayed to see his wife was still angry with him. When he tried
to comfort Michelle with the new responsibility he would have in his future
promotion, she dismissed him and told him to sleep it off. That’s when he
became angry and punched the wall.

Michelle had
taken their son to the neighbor’s house out of fear. It wasn’t the first time
she had done this. While Darryl had never laid a hand on Jared or her, she
didn’t want to take any chances. He had been coming home drunk for the last two
weeks and his behavior frightened her. How did he expect to be promoted when he
was drinking himself into oblivion? And didn’t his new job hinge on the
completion of his college degree
?

When she returned
later that evening, she had found Darryl passed out on their bed. It was really
becoming an eyesore for her. She had left their son next door so he wouldn’t be
exposed to their deteriorating family dilemma any longer.

Michelle had
gone into her son’s bedroom closet and removed two suitcases that she had
packed the week before. She was distraught that it had come to this, as she
still loved Darryl, but he had left her no other choice. She was afraid for
their safety and knew that she had to leave and take their son with her.

After she
quietly got her things together and packed her luggage into her car, she sat
down at her kitchen table and wrote her husband of eight years a goodbye
letter. She wrote as quickly as she could, feeling a rising sense of nausea at
the reality of what she was about to do. In it, she wrote that she was taking
Jared to her parent’s house and that they would stay there until she could
figure out what needed to be done. Darryl could call his son if he wanted to
but he was not allowed to visit them. She also urged him to get his drinking
under control before she would consider any possibility of reconciliation.
Finally, she warned him that if he didn’t get his act together, he would end up
destroying their family.

Darryl read the
letter twice before crumpling it in anger. Who did she think she was, blaming
him for all of their problems? And how dare she take off with their son like
that! He was only trying to make things better for his family. He was going to
be promoted soon and earning double his salary. They wouldn’t have to eat
hotdogs every night for much longer and Jared could have new clothes instead of
the ones that came from the thrift shop. Why couldn’t Michelle see that?

His head
pounding, Darryl’s eyes drifted to the other side of the table where a letter
from the University of Millstone lay. It was the letter he received the week
before, stating that as a result of his repeated code of conduct violations, he
could no longer attend the university and was indefinitely suspended.

Michelle didn’t
mention anything in her letter about Darryl being kicked out of school, but he
knew she had read it. This meant Michelle knew Darryl would no longer be
eligible for the job promotion at work. This meant no additional money would be
coming in. Michelle’s meager wages from waitressing at the local diner barely
paid their utility bills.

God, was that
all she cared about?
Darryl fumed.
Why doesn’t she just file for divorce, then?

After a few
minutes, Darryl stood up and shuffled his way to the kitchen. He opened the
door to the refrigerator and helped himself to a cold beer. Glancing at the
clock and seeing that it was only seven o’clock in the morning, he twisted the
cap, threw it across the room, and poured the icy liquid down his throat.

Belching loudly,
Darryl grabbed another beer and returned to the kitchen table where he glared
at the letter from the university. He knew his teacher was responsible for
this. He begged and pleaded with her to give him another chance, but she had
refused. In fact, she told him she didn’t want to speak to him anymore and that
he needed to discuss his options with his counselor.

Yeah right,
whatever
,
he thought. He straightened the letter and reviewed it one last time before
ripping it into shreds. He swore to himself that he would get his revenge on
Katherine Richards if it was the last thing he ever did.

Kat began her day
with a light breakfast of a bagel and orange juice. She let Tyler sleep in as
he needed the extra rest.
Junior camp the previous week and bible school
this week would wear anyone out,
Kat chuckled.

As she drank her
juice at her desk, Kat checked her email and saw that she had two unread
messages. The first was from Elsie asking how the first night of bible school
went, and the second was from Academic Affairs. She wasn’t surprised to read
what administration had to say.

The fact that
her student did not directly threaten her did not warrant a code of conduct
violation. He was simply venting, the message read. The email closed with a
recommendation to cease any and all future correspondence with the student. Any
future messages should be forwarded to Academic Affairs for review.

Nothing new
there
,
Kat thought, recalling a previous email that had stated the student’s email
account had been deactivated.
Hopefully, that’s the end of that.
She
shut down her computer and brought her breakfast dishes into the kitchen. When
she checked on Tyler, she saw that he was still sleeping. She decided this
would be a perfect opportunity to shower and change.

When she emerged
a little while later, she saw that Tyler had come downstairs and made himself
comfortable on the living room couch. He was watching cartoons and playing with
his miniature cars when she snuck up behind him.

“Boo!” Kat
pounced.

Tyler screamed
with delight. “Mommy!” he threw his little arms around her. She scooped him up
and hugged him tightly. “Good morning, little boy.”

“Good morning,
Mommy.”

After a lazy
morning, Kat spent the rest of the day with Tyler. She wanted both of them to
take it easy as they had bible school again that night. They had watched a
movie together that afternoon and shared popcorn. When it was over, Tyler went
off to his room to play.

Kat began
working on organizing her materials for that evening. Her thoughts drifted to
Daniel and she smiled at the way they had met. She didn’t know why, but she
liked him. This frightened her a little bit as she had never been with a man
before. Her heart skipped a beat in anticipation of seeing him again that
night.

When Kat dropped
off Tyler at Blair’s classroom, she poked her head in Pastor Cullen’s office to
see if he had arrived yet. He looked up when she gently tapped on her door.

“Kat, it’s
always a pleasure to see you.” He motioned for her to enter.

“Hi Pastor Cullen,
how are you?”

“I am doing just
marvelous. In fact, I just got done speaking with Daniel. It appears you’ve
made quite the impression on him.” His eyes twinkled.