Star Bright (25 page)

He took out his card and
handed it to the officer, “Call my office once you’ve lifted and
identified the finger prints. Maria, let’s go home.” He put his arm
around her and led her away from the apartment.

“
What about
Michael?” she asked, her voice gaining a little life.

“
I’ll take you
and Izzy home, then I’ll go pick him up.” He answered, relieved to
hear the change in her voice when she uttered Michael’s
name.

“
What about
work?”

“
I’ll work at
home.”

When Carol saw Maria
hanging on Dave as if she was very ill, she imagined the worst. She
opened the front passenger door for her and watched Dave carefully
place her in the seat, once Maria was strapped in she closed the
door, “What happened, is she okay?” Carol whispered.

“
She wasn’t
here when they broke in.” He looked inside the car at Maria, who
was slowly falling asleep.

“
So what’s
wrong with her?”

“
I don’t
know.” he opened the back door to get Maria’s jacket, he found the
keys to the Prado and handed them to Carol, “Drive the Prado home,
once I make sure Maria is okay we’ll go back to the office. I’ll be
picking up some work, then pick up Michael and go home.”

“
With your
work load, McKenzie isn’t going to like you leaving
early.”

“
My job is the
least of my worries right now.” he turned and looked at Maria for a
brief moment before he turned back to Carol, “My family needs me
right now, Michael can’t know about this.”

Carol looked at him
puzzled, “He’s four.”

Dave gave her a weak
smile, “We wish. He’s turning five next week, to us it feels like
he’s turning thirty-five.” He walked to the driver’s side and
opened the door.

Carol looked at him with
a new sense of admiration. He was the only man she knew who would
take on Maria’s tragic movie life with no complaints what so ever.
He loves her and it showed, “You said we and my family, they are a
part of you now, aren’t they?”

“
Izzy, Michael
and Maria are my life now and I would do anything for
them.”

Chapter
Fifteen

She swatted the slimy
hands away from her. The numerous hands were clawing and touching
her, tearing her clothes off to get to her bare skin. She cringed
and yelled as the feel of their touch made her body itch with
disgust. When her hands were locked behind her back she wanted to
scream and cry in despair, but Dave’s voice in her ear wouldn’t let
her. He wanted her to be strong and fight back, not crumble like
she was so accustomed to. She felt a little relief knowing he was
around, knowing that he would protect her and stop the numerous
hands from touching her.

She was pulled down flat
on her back, her limbs spread out, her ankles and wrists fastened
by strong hands. She struggled to get free, but she couldn’t and
Dave’s voice was gone, “Dave, Dave where are you? Help me!” she
cried in a panic. She raised her head and looked around the dark
room, there was no one there, all she could see were hands moving
around her naked body, “Please let go of me!” she begged. Her head
was shoved down and held in place by two hands. She wanted to fight
them, but despair had already filled her, Dave wasn’t coming to
save her, she was alone, like she always was.

She felt someone creep
above her, it was the brunette from the cafe, “Your specials look
very appetizing.” he said, smiling down at her. Maria shut her eyes
tight, but they were forced open when she felt something hot and
wet in her ear. She looked to her side, it was the blond, her
captive who reminded her exactly why she hated men, “She must taste
so good!” He whispered in her ear. She went cold with terror as the
hands moved around her face and rubbed her lips roughly, “Yes she
does.” a coarse, familiar voice spoke above her, she looked up to
see Ricky’s disfigured face, his signature sadistic smile sent a
chill through her, “I’m going to enjoy this.”

“
No!” She
screamed as she lurched up in bed and jumped off it. Her hands
moved all over her body as she traveled around the room like a
person on fire, desperately trying to get away from the numerous
hands touching her. She looked round the room in search of the
three men, but the room wasn’t dark, it was empty. She stood in one
spot as she slowly calmed down and did a three-sixty turn just to
make sure she was alone.

She was in Dave’s room,
dressed in a very long shirt that could double up like a knee high
dress. She couldn’t remember how she got there, but all that
mattered to her was that she was in Dave’s house, in Dave’s room,
and very safe.

“
It’s okay,
everything is fine. It was just a nightmare, nothing more than a
nightmare.” She still trembled at the memory of it. She sat on
Dave’s couch and drew her legs up, tightly hugging them as she
tried to get rid of the nightmare that seemed so real, her skin
echoed how real it felt, and she could still feel the hands on
her.

The door opened and she
jumped, she only relaxed when she saw it was Dave, “Hi.” The
greeting came out as a shaky whisper.

“
Hi yourself.”
Dave responded with a smile. He closed the door behind him and
placed a tray on the dressing table against the wall, opposite the
bed, “The kids are asleep.”

“
What time is
it?”

“
It’s close to
one.” he turned to her, his hands dug deeply into his pockets. He
saw the fear in her face and how securely she hugged herself like a
scared child.

“
In the
afternoon?” Maria asked shocked. Dave’s watchful gaze made her
release her legs and tuck them next to her under the long shirt.
She wanted to seem at ease, but she still felt very shaky and
exposed.

“
No, in the
morning.” he wanted to move close to her, but he thought against
it. If she was making an effort to cover herself, it only meant she
was uncomfortable showing her skin and sitting next to her would
only make it worse.

“
What are you
doing up?” she asked, controlling the quiver in her
voice.

“
I have work
to do. I came home early from work because I wanted to take care of
the kids while you rested.” He didn’t want to make her
uncomfortable, but he still wanted to be close to her so he moved
to the couch and sat at the arm of it, far from her.

“
You cooked?”
she asked, inching away from him. All she could think about was the
nightmare and how his voice faded away, leaving her
alone.

“
Yes.” he
answered proudly.

“
Poor kids.”
she joked, pulling her lips up in a tight smile.

Dave laughed,
appreciating the effort she was making, “I used to cook in college.
I just haven’t done so in a long time.”

She stood up and made
sure she was stable on her feet before she moved forward, “Tasting
is believing.” she moved to the dressing table where the food was,
“Anyone can cook pasta.”

“
I beg to
differ, my roommate used to burn it, while it was still boiling in
water.” he stood up and moved behind her.

She turned to him and
smiled nervously then turned back to the pasta. She picked up the
fork with a shaky hand and almost dropped it. She tightened her
grip on it, took a deep breath, then took a fork full of it and put
it in her mouth.

“
Well, what’s
the verdict?” Dave asked, moving closer to her cautiously. He was
sure he saw her hand shake as the other was held tightly in a
fist.

“
Pretty good,
for hospital food. Don’t you have any spices?” She turned to face
him, but took a scared step back when she saw how close he
was.

Dave took a step away to
give her some space, “I thought Italian’s were the only ones who
would hang a person for messing up pasta?” he kept his voice
cheerful, intent on getting rid of the heavy tension in the
room.

She swallowed the lump in
her throat before she spoke, “They would, but any cook would too.”
she said moving past him, increasing the space between
them.

“
Well then,
I’ll leave the cooking to you from now on,” he moved towards the
door. He didn’t want to make her anymore uncomfortable than she
already was, “I’ll go back to work, you, after eating the food I
slaved over, should go back to sleep.”

“
Wait.” Maria
spat out with urgency, stopping him before he opened the door. She
should have just let him leave, but she didn’t feel like being
alone, “It’s a bit late for you to still be working. You’ll burn
out.”

“
I want it all
done before next week, I don’t want to risk missing the kids’
birthday party.” He reached for the door and opened it.

She took a panicked step
forward, “Do you want company?” she really didn’t want to be
alone.

Dave looked at her,
stunned by the fear in her voice, “I’ll bring my work here, that
way if you feel sleepy you can nod off comfortably.”

“
Thanks, I’ll
just fix up the bed so you can use it.”

“
Eat.” he
said, before he walked out the room.

Maria looked
around the room, alone again. She went into the bathroom and washed
her face clean. Her eyes were red and swollen and her face felt
puffy. She braided her hair back then put on her
pajama
pants.
She wasn’t going to take off the shirt, it felt good wearing Dave’s
clothes, especially when it smelled so much like him.

She walked out the
bathroom and found him sitting cross legged on the bed, his face
creased seriously as he scribbled notes in a book. His lap top sat
in front of him, papers scattered everywhere on the bed. She walked
quietly across the room, picked up the tray of food and went to the
couch. She ate the dull food quietly and watched him work, she was
sure he didn’t notice her in the room. When he worked, he would get
so engrossed, nothing else existed.

She sat there watching
him for close to two hours before she saw him start to fade. She
stood up and moved to the bed, “You need to sleep.” she pulled all
the papers, laptop and notebook to her side.

“
I still have
a lot to get done.” He rubbed his hand over his face, feeling so
exhausted. His body hurt and felt completely knotted up, he did
need to sleep, but he couldn’t until he got everything put
together.

Maria pulled the covers
down and straightened his legs under them, “How much do you have
left to do?”

“
I just have
to type my notes, but my fingers hurt.” he stretched out on the
bed, glad to feel the comfort of the soft pillow under his
head.

“
I’ll take
care of it.” she said repeating his famous line. She covered him,
tucking the covers around him.

Maria then settled on her
side and pulled the book and the laptop towards her. She chuckled
softly when she saw his handwriting. It was completely like a
woman’s, gentle, shaped and straight, even his scribbles were good.
If she hadn’t seen him writing it, she could have easily concluded
that it was Carol’s writing. She turned and looked at Dave’s
peaceful face before she turned back to the laptop, “Let’s see how
much of this I can get done.” She took to the keyboard and typed
fast and frantically, silently thanking Edna for the night school
secretarial course she had forced her to take once she found out
she was pregnant with Michael.

After a few hours and
thirteen pages done, Maria massaged her fingers and her neck. She
was sore and her back felt more like a stiff board than flesh. She
wondered how Carol could do this kind of work on a daily basis and
still afford to smile and be so jovial, one thing Maria was sure
of, was that she was never going to be a secretary, except when she
needed to be Dave’s home secretary.

Waitress, mother, ‘wife’,
home keeper and now home secretary, she was more useful with Dave
than she’d ever been in her life, and as tired as she always was at
the end of the day, she didn’t mind it at all. This was different,
she wasn’t the bread winner, the slave, and neither did she bury
herself in work just to avoid him. She was a human being, an equal
partner, well, forty-nine percent, in the home and she was happy
and Michael was happy.

Michael was happy, that’s
all that mattered

She set the alarm to go
off in an hour’s time, then she snuggled into bed close to Dave.
She wanted to be closer, but she didn’t want to risk waking him up.
She was a little stunned when Dave moved closer and wrapped his
arms around her, holding her close to him. She looked up at him
from under his neck, he was still soundly asleep. She smiled then
settled back on his shoulder, closing her eyes and enjoying their
closeness. His were a set of hands she didn’t mind having touch
her.

Dave stretched out on the
bed, his body feeling loose and rested. He couldn’t remember the
last time he woke up without dreading to get out of bed. He turned
to find the space next to him empty, Maria was up, probably making
breakfast. He stretched out over her side and picked up the clock.
He jumped out of bed and rushed to the shower, he was late for
work, an hour late. He took a quick shower and went for the clothes
that had been laid out on the couch. He was grateful Maria had
thought of that, he only wished she had woke him up on time too. He
looked around the room for his documents and laptop, they weren’t
there, Maria.