Diane's Remembrance (Second Chance #4)

Diane’s Remembrance

A Second Chance Novella

Copyright

Copyright © 2015 Christina Escue

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means without prior written permission of the copyright owner. This is a work of fiction.

Acknowledgements

I would like to start by thanking each and every one of you who is reading this. If not for readers, authors would have no one to write for.

I’d like to send out a very special thank you to my beta readers for taking the time to read, comment and correct. Y’all are invaluable to me. Thank you all so much for your feedback. I look forward to working with y’all again.

I’d also like to say a huge thank you to a few authors who have supported me along this journey. Erica Stevens, thank you for always being there to answer my questions, offer advice and for being an amazing friend. Even with your very busy life you are always there when I need guidance. Your friendship means the world to me.  

D.L. Colón, thank you for always being there. You have been a constant in this difficult and ever changing world. Your friendship and unwavering support is invaluable to me.

To Gretchen, at Clarice’s Book Nook, thank you for taking the time to read and feature my books on your blog. You are awesome.

To my amazing street team, The Krusaders, y’all are the best. Malinda, Gina, Nikki, Lainey, Kathy and Gretchen, thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives to promote and pimp my books. Y’all are my rock stars. Much love to all of my Krusaders. 

Finally I want to thank my beautiful daughters and the man who holds my heart, you have pushed me and guided me on this journey and your love and support mean everything to me. I love you to the moon and back!

“Mama, are you almost ready?” I yell up the stairs as I anxiously wait to leave for camp. “Karla and Ann will be there before me if we don’t hurry.”

“Calm down, honey. I’ll be down in a minute.” Mom says with a laugh from the top of the stairs. “I promise we will make it before your friends.”

“This is going to be the best summer ever.” I tell her when she finally came downstairs. “I love camp.”

“I know you do, sweetheart. Now, let’s go before we’re late.” Mom is all smiles as dad loads my suitcase in the back of the car. This is going to be the best four weeks ever.

“Ms. Hall, are you with us?” A uniformed officer asked Diane, pulling her from her memories of a time long forgotten, as he put her into the back of the police car.

“I have nothing to say to you.” Diane answered him and he closed the back door, successively locking her away from the man she was working out a deal with.

Once she was alone she thought back to that day again;
“See, honey? I told you we would get here before Karla and Ann.” Mom says as she stops the car in front of the main cabin. This is my third summer here so I didn’t need the tour they were giving all the new kids.

“Thanks, Mom. You’re the best. I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetheart. Now, let’s get you unloaded and checked in. You will be in the bear cabin this year, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. I can’t wait to help with the arts and crafts this year. As bears we get to help the chipmunks and squirrels in arts and crafts and in nature safety. That’s why this is going to be the best summer ever.” I gush as we get my suitcase and backpack out of the car.

As we are leaving the check-in cabin I spot my two best friends, Karla and Ann. They are just unloading their stuff from their parent’s cars. “They’re here.” I tell Mom excitedly as I point to them. When she nods her head I run over to see the two girls I hadn’t seen in a year.

“How was school?” I ask brightly.

“Same boring stuff as always.” Karla answers blandly, but perks up when she looks around. “I love this place.”

“Me too.” Ann says with her signature smile. “Y’all ready for some fun this summer?”

“Girls, let’s get y’all checked in and then we will get your stuff to your cabin before the welcome bonfire.” Karla’s Mom says with a smile. “I know you three have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Ms. Hall, step this way please.” The officer interrupted her thoughts again. They were in the garage at the jail and he was waiting for her to get out of the car. She stepped out and he led her through a couple of doors and into a holding cell. “I’ll be back in a few minutes to do your prints and mug shot.” When the cell door closed Diane jumped slightly and looked around the room. It was stark white and looked exactly like every other holding cell she’d ever been in.

Unimpressed, she let herself get lost in her memories again.

“Diane, wake up.” Karla says softly as she shakes me. “Ann and I are going skinny dipping in the lake. Wanna join us?”

“You know I do.” I answer with a grin and hop out of bed. We had been here three weeks already and had been skinny dipping five times. It was technically against the rules, but as long as we are quiet we wouldn’t get caught. “Let’s go.”

We quietly make our way down the path to the lake and once we are there we stripped off our pajamas and jump in. The water is cool and clear and the perfect relief for the balmy July night.

We swim for about an hour before we decide it’s time to head back, but when we get out of the lake we realize we aren’t alone anymore.

“What are three young girls doing out all by themselves?” A man with a long beard asks the two other men with him.

“Well I don’t rightly know, Elmer, but they sure are pretty young things.” One of them answers.

“Leave us alone.” Ann says forcefully and she takes a step closer to me and Karla. “Y’all aren’t supposed to be on camp land. It’s private.”

“And y’all ain’t s’possed to be outta bed this time of night.” The third man says with a toothless grin. “What do you reckon those nice people at the camp would say if they saw y’all out here this time of night? Elmer, John, I think we outta show these three what happens to little girls who break the rules.”

Diane’s thoughts were interrupted again when her cell door opened. She remembered that night as clearly as if it had happened yesterday instead of twenty years ago. When the female officer spoke she barely registered what she was saying, but she stood and followed her from the cell. As they took her finger prints and mug shot she remained quiet, her thoughts still drifting to that night. The smell of his breath, the pain of his fists as they hit her repeatedly, the feel of his body invading hers.

As the officer led her back to her holding cell she heard her friend’s cries of pain in her head. She shook her head to try and silence the memories. Just before the officer closed the door she asked, “What day is it?”

“July fourteenth.” The officer answered and closed the door.

“July fourteenth.” Diane mumbled to herself almost silently. As she sat there and stared blankly at the cell door a small smile crossed her face. “Happy birthday, Karla Ann.” She said before she laid down on the cot and drifted off into a fitful sleep.

“Diane, you need to get up, honey. It’s the first day of school and you don’t want to be late.” I hear my Mom call from downstairs. Doesn’t she realize I don’t care about school? I don’t care about anything anymore. My two best friends are gone, forever, and I should be with them. I should have died that night too. When a soft knock sounds on my door I throw the blanket aside and crawl out of bed. Dr. Thatcher keeps telling me to look to the future, not the past so I guess I better get started on that.

“Ms. Hall? There is someone here to see you.” An officer said as the electronic locks on her cell door disengaged, pulling her from her memories.

“Who is it? I don’t wanna see anyone.” Diane said in a child-like voice.

“It’s Captain McGraw and it doesn’t matter if you want to see him or not, you’re going to.” The officer replied, grabbed her by the arm and escorted her to the conference room.

Once Diane was seated at the table the man who was already in the room started talking. “Diane Hall, my name is Captain John McGraw and I have a few questions for you.”

“Sure, fine, whatever.” Diane responded in a bored voice.

“What can you tell me about the man you were living with?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Diane answered.

“Ms. Hall, your daughter was picked up earlier for shoplifting. After a medical evaluation it was determined she was severely beaten and she has told us that your boyfriend, Garrett, is the one who beat her. Now, I ask again, what can you tell me about him?”

“That little brat lied. Garrett never hurt her. If she was beaten it was by one of the men she flaunts herself for. She’s a little tramp and probably got what she deserved.”

“Ms. Hall, it would be in your best interest to tell us what you know about Garrett.” McGraw told her in a voice that told her this was a warning.

“Well I don’t know nothing about him except that I picked him up at a rest area just outside of Atlanta.”

“Alright, Ms. Hall. I’ll leave it at this for now. I will be back with more questions and I will expect answers when I return. Oh, before I forget, the court is appointing you an attorney and I will be sure to contact him or her before I return.” McGraw nodded to the officer as he walked out, leaving Diane gaping after him.

Once Diane was back in her cell she curled up on her cot and lost herself in her memories again.

“Diane, do you want to talk about what happened at camp?” Dr. Thatcher asks me as I sit quietly in the chair in her office. “If you talk about it then maybe you can move past it.”

I look at her like she was crazy and just shake my head. What can I say? My two best friends are gone and I’m still here. “I should have died with Karla and Ann.”

“Why do you say that?” Dr. Thatcher asks softly.

“Because we were all out there that night and we should have all died together.” I answer quietly.

“Diane, you know that none of this is your fault, right?” Dr. Thatcher asks seriously. “Those men are to blame. They are the ones who killed your friends and almost killed you.”

I sit there in silence and listen as she rambles on and on about how I am not to blame. I can’t agree with her because I know that they wouldn’t have died if I wouldn’t have agreed to go swimming. They wouldn’t have went without me. “Yes, I know it wasn’t my fault. I know those men are the reason Karla and Ann are dead.”

“Good. Now let’s talk about what happened that night. I need you to tell me what happened that night after the men found you.”

I sit there silently as the screams of my two best friends echo in my head again. She’s been asking me to tell her exactly what happened for the past three months, but I have refused. I haven’t even told the police what those men did to me. All they know is what the medical reports have told them.

“Diane, you are never going to be able to move past this if you don’t talk about it. I’m here to listen when you’re ready to talk.” Dr. Thatcher tells me after several minutes pass.

“Dr. Thatcher, I know my parents are paying you to talk to me. You don’t have to pretend to care.” I tell her and stand from my chair. “Our time is up. I’ll see you next week.”

Dr. Thatcher opens the door to her office and I walk into the waiting area where my mom and dad are waiting. “How’d it go, honey?” Mama asks and I just shrug my shoulders.

“Ready to go home, sweetheart?” Daddy asks as he puts a hand on my shoulder. I shrug again and walk out of the office. I can’t deal with this any longer. I need something to take the pain away.

Diane is pulled from her memories by the woman in the cell next to her. As she sat there in silence she recalled that the night after that meeting with Dr. Thatcher was the first time she tried marijuana and realized there was something that made the pain go away.