Diane's Remembrance (Second Chance #4) (4 page)

“Where am I?” I ask the man standing next to me.

“You’re in a hospital in Dallas, Texas. You were brought in three days ago when the maid at the motel you were staying in found you unconscious on the bathroom floor. You had taken about a hundred Tylenol and about fifty Benadryl. Not a very effective way to commit suicide if that was your goal.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is Nathan and I’ve been your nurse for the past two days.”

“Well, Nathan, when can I get out of here?”

“Now that you’re awake the doctor wants a psych evaluation and then you’ll probably go into some kind of group home for a couple of months so you can be monitored for suicidal tendencies.”

“I am not going to a group home. I want to go to my home. I live with my dad and daughter about fifty miles outside of the city and just wanna go home.” I know it wasn’t the truth, but if I could convince them I had a place to go maybe, just maybe, they would let me leave.

“You’ll have to talk to the doctor and psychologist about that when you see them. They’ll be here in a little while.”

“Fine.” I say and cross my arms.

“Get some rest, because it’s going to be a long day once they get here.” Nathan tells me then leaves the room.

“Like hell it is.” I mutter as soon as the door closes behind him. When he’s gone I get up and slowly pull the IV from my arm then look for my clothes. Once I find them I get dressed and slowly make my way into the hall. I see Nathan standing behind the central desk, but his back is to me so I slip past the desk and through the door to the stairs.

Once I’m outside I reach into my pants pocket and find my motel room key. It has a little tag on it with the motel’s name and address so I start walking. I only walk a couple of blocks when I spot the sign for the motel and I smile. My car is still sitting where I parked it. I don’t have the key, but that’s okay because I have a spare hidden in the front fender.

Once I retrieve the spare key I rummage through the console until I find Reggie’s credit card. He is probably passed out somewhere and still doesn’t realize I’m gone much less that I took his car and credit card.

I smile as I go inside the small, dingy motel lobby. “Hi, I was in room forty-three. I got sick and was taken to the hospital, but all of my things were still in the room. I know I’ll need to pay the fees for the last few days to get my stuff.”

“You owe eighty-six dollars if you have the key. If not it’ll be a hundred dollars.” The man at the desk tells me.

“I got the key.” I say sweetly and hand him the key and the credit card. Once he runs the card he hands me my small bag and I leave.

“Now to face my Dad and Karla” I mumble to myself and start the car.

Diane was snapped from her memories when she heard someone call her name. She looked up and saw Carol, Miranda and Lakesha walking toward her and knew something was going to happen.

“Diane, you were daydreaming again.” Carol said with a grin. “Thinking about Karla again?”

“No. I was remembering the time right after my Mom died.” Diane answered. “What’s up? I know you three are up to something.”

“We’re just working out the details on how we can cause a little trouble.” Miranda answered with a smug grin. “We want to shake things up a bit.”

“What do y’all have planned?” Diane asked.

“Next Friday there is a shipment of meds being delivered to the hospital wing and we were wanting to try to get our hands on some of them.” Lakesha answered. 

“So we have eight days to plan this. I think we can pull it off if it’s just the four of us.” Carol said and looked at Diane. “You in?”

Diane thought for a second before an idea popped into her head. “I’m in. If you three can distract everyone I can get the pills. None of the guards would expect me to do anything like that because I haven’t caused any trouble since I’ve been here.”

“Sounds like an awesome plan. I guess we will see if you have what it takes to run with this crew.” Lakesha said and slapped Diane on the back. “If you don’t then we’ll take care of you.” She added and Diane knew exactly what she meant.

“Oh, I have what it takes. I’ve had it since I was twelve years old.” Diane told them.

“What happened when you were twelve?” Carol asked. It wasn’t something Diane had ever mentioned.

“I was brutally raped, beaten and left for dead.” Diane answered sharply and stood up. “Now I think it’s time for me to go to bed.”

Once she was back in her cell she sat at the desk and wrote Karla a letter. She knew that if her plans worked out that this could very well be her final letter to her precious Karla Ann.

“Karla, let’s go.” I yell up the stairs. My Dad died two weeks ago and, since I couldn’t take it in this town any longer, I quickly sold the house and everything in it, packed up Karla’s clothes and am leaving as quickly as possible. 

Karla walks down the stairs with tears streaming down her face. “Why can’t we stay here, Mommy?”

“I can’t stay here. I have to get out of this house, out of this town.” I tell her and reach for the door knob. “We’ll find a nice place to settle down. I’ll get a job and we will be okay. I promise.”

“Okay, Mommy.” She says as she takes one last look around the house she has lived in since birth and wipes another tear from her cheek.

I grab her hand and gently pull her out the door and into my mom’s Ford Tempo. “It’s all going to be okay, Karla.” I try to reassure her, but in reality I am scared to death. My life is a mess and I have no choice but to bring my sweet daughter into it. She has no one else.

“Diane?” Miranda asked quietly. They were in a meeting about what was going to happen in six days, but Diane was only there in body. Her mind was six years in the past.

“Sorry.” She mumbled and tried to focus on the conversation at hand. When she found her mind wandering again she gave up on trying to pay attention and she let the memories fill her head again.

“Mommy, are you okay?” Karla asks me softly.

“Leave me alone, Karla. I don’t feel like fooling with you right now.”

“But Mommy, I’m hungry.”

“I said leave me alone!” I shout and slap her across the face. When she cries out in pain it grates on my nerves and I slap her again. After the fifth time I slap her I finally realize what I’m doing and I stop. “Get out of my face.” I tell her and leave the kitchen.

Once I’m in my room I sit on my bed, cover my face with my hands and cry. “What have I done?” I ask myself then I realize that I feel better than I did before I hit her. My stress level is lower and I can think clearly.

The next morning I keep Karla home from school and pack our things. “I lost my job last night so we have to leave this place. It’s your fault that I lost my job. I had to miss too much work because I had to take care of you. Now, pack your stuff so we can go.”

Karla quietly goes into her room and packs her clothes. When she comes out I grab her shoulder roughly and pull her to the door. Once in the car I turn on the radio so I don’t have to listen to her and I start driving.

Several hours later we are in a small town in Indiana. I spot a bar across from a cheap motel and my face lights up. “This is where we stop.”

“Mommy, I’m scared.” Karla says softly.

“As long as you keep quiet and out of my business you don’t need to be scared. Now, I’m gonna get us a room and you’re going to stay there while I go across the street to the bar and get a job. Hopefully I can start right away and you had better not cause me to lose this one.”

“Mommy, I’m hungry.” She says softly.

“You’re so damn needy.” I say and roll my eyes. I hand her two dollars and point to the vending machine at the end of the sidewalk. “Go get something to eat from there. You’re going to be alone for a while so you better get what you need now.”

When she walks off I go into the grubby motel lobby and rent the cheapest room I can get. When I unlock the door I push Karla inside, shut the door back and lock it before I walk across the street and into the bar.

By the time I get back a little after two in the morning Karla is sound asleep on one of the beds and I grin. This is going to work out great.

Diane groaned as she pulled herself from her memories. She was lying on the floor in her cell. She didn’t know how she got back here, but she shook all over and was covered in sweat as she remembered that night and the things she did. She got the job and they stayed in that town for a couple of months before they moved on.

“Diane, are you okay?” Carol asked as she walked into the cell.

“Yeah. Just more memories.” Diane answered and pulled herself from the floor.

“You sure? We can’t have you sick.” Carol said with a frown.

“I said I’m fine.” Diane snapped as she sat roughly on her cot. “I will be ready to go on Friday when the time comes.”

“Good, because this is all riding on you.”

“I know.” Diane said and looked up at Carol. “I will get the drugs. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Okay. Ready for dinner?” Carol asked as she eased toward the cell door.

“You go ahead. I’m not hungry.” Diane answered.

“See you later then”
,
Carol answered and walked out the door. Once she was gone Diane headed over to the desk and wrote one final letter. This one was a note to Carol. She just hoped the woman was a good enough friend to come through for her. When she was finished she pulled out the small stack of letters she’d written to Karla and read them all. In just over two days everything would be okay again.

“Mom?” Karla’s sweet voice fills my head as I pull myself from a drunken sleep. I don’t remember much from the night before, but I do remember that I didn’t come home alone.

“What do you want, brat?” I mumble with my face in the pillow.

“I’m hungry and there isn’t any food in the house.” Karla says and I finally turn to look at her. She isn’t the vibrant eight year old she was when mama and daddy died, she’s older now. Taller and starting to fill out.

“Go get something then.” I tell her and roll back over. I don’t want to deal with her.

“Mom, there isn’t any money either.” She says in a smart tone and I jump from the bed.

“How dare you take that tone with me. You will show me respect, you sorry waste of space.” I yell and slap her across the face. “Now mind your tone and go fetch us something to eat.”

“Okay, Mom.” She says softly. Her twelve year old attitude seems to be subdued for now.

Once she’s gone I climb back into bed and wake the man lying beside me. I can’t recall his name, but names don’t matter when all you want is one thing anyway. After I take what I want I crawl out of bed and find his wallet lying on the floor beside his pants. I pull what little cash he has out and shove it in one of my many hiding places until I can get to the bank and add it to the account I have set up. The account no one will ever know about.

When Karla walks back in a little while later she’s carrying a small bag of food and sets it on the table just as the man gets up. When he notices his wallet on the floor he snatches it up and looks inside.

“You little thief.” He shouts at Karla. “You stole my money to feed yourself and your whore of a mother. How dare you steal from me.”

He approaches Karla and she scurries behind the small table, trying to hide from him. “I..I..didn’t take your money. I earned this food by sweeping out the stock room of the grocery store around the corner.”

“So you ain’t just a thief, but you’re a liar
,
too.” He says as he reaches across the table and grabs her arm. “I’ll show you what happens to people who steal from me.”

When he drags her across the table he slaps her hard across the face with his other hand. She screams as I turn my back on her and walk into the small bathroom. Over the noise of the shower I can still hear her screams, but by the time I’m out of the shower everything is quiet.

Karla is lying on the floor in the kitchen and he’s gone when I walk out of the bathroom. I check to make sure she’s still alive then I pick her up and lay her on the bed. I curl up behind her and cradle her in my arms as tears stream down my face. My precious Karla is suffering, but this is the only life I can give her. I don’t know any other way.

Diane opened her eyes and realized they were filled with tears. As she sat up she swiped the tears away and looked at the calendar on the wall of the cell. “Tomorrow is the day.” She said out loud to herself. “Tomorrow is the day all the pain finally goes away.”

She smiled and laid back down. She can see the sun rising through the small window high above her head, but she closed her eyes tight and dropped back into sleep.

“Mom, I..umm…I need to talk to you.” Karla tells me quietly. I knew what she was going to say and I didn’t want to hear it.

“Karla, I don’t wanna hear your lies. Tony already told me what happened. He already told me that you threw yourself at him.” I know I should believe her, but I’m too high to care about anything but my next hit. Tony’s where that hit will come from and I can’t lose my steady supply.

“But, Mom..” Karla starts, but trails off when she realizes it’s useless. “You are nothing but a drug addicted whore who never cared about anyone or anything except yourself.” She spats at me and runs out the door before I can register what happened.

“She’ll pay for that when she gets home.” I say out loud to myself.

The next few hours pass and there’s no sign of Karla. It’s getting late and she still hasn’t come home. I hear the door open and look up, hoping it’s my precious girl, but it isn’t. It’s Tony.

“Karla’s missing.” I tell him and he just shrugs his shoulder.

“Good riddance.” He says and grabs me around the waist. When I try to pull out of his arms he slams me against the wall and leans in close. “You belong to me, Diane, and I will do with you whatever I want. I’m glad the brat is gone, now we can move on easier.”

When he’s done talking he takes his payment for the drugs he supplies and then falls asleep quickly. I slip out of bed and pace the living room floor.

Hours pass and Karla still hasn’t returned. My high is long gone and worry is setting in. When a knock sounds on the door I hurry over and answer it. Karla is standing there with a police officer. “Where have you been?” I ask as I wrap my arms around her.

“Ma’am, we caught your daughter shoplifting at the Mini Mart downtown. She returned what she took, but we need your reassurance that you will keep a closer eye on her.”

“I will, sir. Thank you for bringing her home. We got into a fight and she took off. I have been worried sick.” I say sweetly and can feel Karla stiffen in my arms.

“Okay, ma’am. I will leave her to you then. Have a good day.”

Once the officer descends the steps I shut the door and Tony steps out of the room. “I see the stupid brat’s back.” He says as he steps closer to us. I step between him and Karla, but he produces a needle filled with my drug of choice and my eyes lock onto it. Nothing else matters but my next high. I snatch the needle from his hand and run for the kitchen. I hear Karla scream in pain as I slip the needle into my arm and press the plunger. Sweet bliss slips into my veins and nothing else matters.