The Art of Life (44 page)

               
“Yeah,”
he returns.
 
A few seconds later, he
brings me the bag.

               
“Thanks,”
I say.

               
“You
need to eat.
 
What do you want?” He asks.

               
Shrugging
my shoulders, I reply, “I have no idea.
 
Pick something for us.”

               
“Okay,
I am going to run to the store.
 
Do you
want to come with or are you okay staying here?
 
You can dead bolt the door.
 
I
have a key for that.”

               
“I
don’t want to go out in public.
 
My neck
looks all messed up.
 
I don’t want people
to stare,” I reply.

               
Jeremy
nods his head.
 
“Cassandra texted me
earlier and told me she was going to the mall to get you some stuff to put around
your neck, scarves and such.”

               
“That’s
so nice of her.
 
You guys are doing too
much for me.”

               
Suddenly
scowling, Jeremy snaps, “If I hear you say something like that again, I am
going to really bug you.
 
Like, I will
walk around the house naked all the time.”

               
“Okay,
I get it, no more comments.
 
I am going
to put these pajamas on now,” I say.

               
“I
will wait until you get out here to leave,” Jeremy states.

               
I
nod my head.
 
“Okay.”
 
Closing the door, I take a deep breath.
 
I am going to be by myself.
 
Am I going to be able to handle that?

               
When
I walk out into the living room, I notice it is raining outside.
 
“
Eww
,
crappy weather to go out in.”

               
“Well,
we need food and though I am made of sugar, I won’t melt,” Jeremy retorts.
 
That makes me laugh.
 
“It is great to actually see you smile.”

               
“Yeah,
it feels good, too.”

               
Walking
over to the door, Jeremy says, “I am going to leave.
 
Lock both locks, okay?
 
You can call me if you start to freak
out.
 
I shouldn’t be long.”

               
“Yeah,”
I sigh.
 
“I will try and not freak out.
If I were at home, I wouldn’t feel safe, but I feel safe here.
 
No one knows where you live.”

               
“I
don’t care who comes to the door.
 
Do not
open it.
 
I have a key.
 
No more answering the doors for strangers,
stranger danger.”

               
I
burst out laughing.
 
“No, I don’t think
you have to worry about that anymore.”

               
“Good,”
Jeremy says, opening the door.
 
“I will
hurry up and not take too long.”

               
“Okay.”

               
“Now,
lock the door,” he commands, shutting the door.
 
I walk over and immediately do it.
 
To be safe I try and open the door and it is secure.

               
Then
I just stand there for a while, staring at the door.
 
Okay, I seriously cannot stand here the whole
time.
 
What should I do?
 
With a shiver, I know what I need to do.
 
It takes me a while, but I finally find my
backpack in Jeremy’s bedroom.

               
Opening
it, I am happy to find everything is still dry.
 
Thank God, for waterproof material.
 
I take out my sketchbook, and make my way back to the kitchen table.
 
After I set everything up, I sit there for a
while, just staring at the paper.
 
Part
of me is scared to draw Howard, like he is going to know where I am if I do
it.
 
I honestly am not sure if I want to
see his face, again, but what Jeremy said rings in my head.
 
I need to make sure he doesn’t do this to someone
else.
 
Taking a deep breath I grab a
pencil.

               
It’s
not as hard as I thought it would be.
 
I
remember him very accurately.
 
Even with
my vision blurring from him choking me, I guess you don’t forget what your
attacker looks like.
 
I don’t pay much attention
to the time.
 
As I am about half way
through, I hear keys in the locks.
 
It
makes me jump up, and go into the kitchen.
 
That way I can grab a knife if need be.

               
Jeremy
finally opens the door and looks at me.
 
“Are you okay?”

               
“Yeah,”
I squeak.
 
“Just a
little jumpy.”

               
“Here,
I will lock the doors behind me,” he replies.
 
After he does that, Jeremy walks into the kitchen and puts bags on the
counter.
 
“So, I got milk and cereal,
then
some spaghetti stuff for dinner, because I can make
that just fine, and some sandwich stuff.
 
I figure tomorrow we can figure out groceries.
 
I don’t know what you eat.”

               
I
start to ring my hands.
 
“I will eat
whatever you buy.”

               
Jeremy
instantly hangs his head.
 
“Isabelle, I
am going to be supporting you, that
is
fine, but I
need to know things, like what you want to eat.”

               
“Okay,
well, I love salad and fruit. I don’t like frozen veggies very much.
 
I can live off of peanut butter and
strawberry jelly.
 
I mean, there isn’t
much that I won’t eat.
 
Not a big yogurt
fan, but I eat it if there isn’t anything else.
 
I LOVE coffee.”

               
“Well,
I survive on coffee, so that’s fine.
 
If
Cassandra gets you a scarf, can we go grocery shopping tomorrow?”

               
Taking
a deep breath, I nod.
 
“Yeah.”

               
“Are
you sure?”

               
Not
being able to, I frown.
 
“I am afraid of
seeing him.”

               
“Listen
to me,” Jeremy articulates strongly.
 
“If
you EVER see him, you need to call the police.
 
If I am with you, you need to tell me.
 
Promise?”

               
Looking
up at him, I nod.
 
“Yes, promise me you
won’t kill him though.”

               
“I
promise,” he retorts.
 
“Now, the real
challenge comes.
 
Are you ready to eat my
cooking?”

               
That
makes me snort.
 
“Yeah, how bad is it?”

               
“
It’s
spaghetti, how badly can I mess that up?” He asks.
 
I raise an eyebrow.
 
“Okay, fine, it will be edible, I promise.”

               
Not
knowing why, I walk forward and wrap my arms around him.
 
Jeremy doesn’t hesitate at all, and hugs me
back.
 
“Thank you for everything,” I
whisper.

               
“No
problem toots,” he replies softly.
 
“So,
what were you working on?
 
Something to sidetrack you?”

               
I
shake my head.
 
“I was drawing Howard.”

               
“Let
me see,” Jeremy hisses.
 
He lets go of me
and walks over to the table.
 
“This is
accurate?”

               
“I
still have
work
to do on it, but yeah, that’s him.”

               
“You
need to finish this so I can take it to the police tomorrow,” Jeremy demands.

               
Sitting
back down at the table, I say, “I will finish it while you cook.”

               
“Good,”
he growls.
 
“If I ever
see him so help me God.”

               
“Jeremy,
hurting him isn’t going to solve anything,” I whisper gently.

               
Jeremy
looks down at me.
 
“Isabelle, there are
certain things I will listen to you
about,
this is not
one of them.”

               
“Okay,”
I sigh.
 
“Why don’t you go cook.
 
I am actually hungry.”

               
“That’s
good.”
 
He bends over and kisses me on
the head.
 
“I will go fix dinner then.”

               
And
he does.
 
I sit and sketch Howard more
accurately.
 
When I am finish, I
frown.
 
It’s almost a little too
accurate.
 
I rip it out of my
sketchbook.
 
I want to crumple it up and
scream at it, but I know that won’t help.
 
Getting up, I walk over to Jeremy.
 
“Will you do something with this?
 
I don’t want to look at him if I don’t have to.”

               
“Yeah,”
he replies, taking it from me.
 
“Dinner
is done anyway.
 
Why don’t you make a
plate and I will go put this somewhere.”

               
“Okay,
thanks.”
 
I take out two plates, as Jeremy
leaves the kitchen.
 
Dinner smells good,
so hopefully it doesn’t kill me.
 
That
makes me giggle.
 

               
Jeremy
comes walking back in and asks, “What are you giggling about?”

               
“I
was just wondering if we were going to survive this,” I retort, with a smile.

               
“Hey
now, I have lived this long on my own,” he laughs back.
 
“I am healthy enough.”

               
Nudging
him with my hip, I say, “Yeah, maybe I will get a killer body likes yours if I
eat like you.”

               
“That
and you will have to go running with me every night.”

               
That
makes me snort.
 
“Yeah, that’ll happen.”

               
“You
have to do it, at least one time.”

               
I
raise my eyebrow.
 
“I will get four
blocks and die.”

               
“
Geesh
, you need more stamina than that.
 
We will work on you.
 
Let’s get you started by eating,” Jeremy
says, with a smile.

               
We
eat and talk.
 
About everything but what
happened, which honestly, is good.
 
I
don’t know if I can think about it and not be sick.
 
After we are done eating, I clean the kitchen
with Jeremy.
 
He is very comical and it
makes me laugh.

               
Later,
I curl up on the couch underneath a blanket and watch TV with him.
 
He picks my legs up and drapes them over his
lap.
 
That little bit of contact is very
comforting.
 
We watch two movies and the
news, which I find very boring, but Jeremy says
,
it’s
good to know what’s going on in the world.
 
Finally, it’s late and I yawn.

               
“Tired?”
Jeremy asks.

               
“You
know, I shouldn’t be.
 
I slept so much
this afternoon,” I reply, looking at him.