Returning Injury (20 page)

Rebecca yelled, “Get outta here!” and flapped her arms.

The coyote stared at her. He didn’t run; he wasn’t afraid. Lily didn’t see the coyote and didn’t know what was going on. Rebecca picked up Lily and walked backward toward the front door, yelling, “Get! Get out!” The coyote stood still, watching them. When they were close to the front door, Rebecca screamed and lunged at the coyote. But it still didn’t move.

Rebecca hurried Lily into the house. Only when Lily was inside did the coyote head back up toward the trees on the hill. Rebecca kept repeating, “Coyotes are afraid of humans. They won’t hurt you. They are afraid of you.” Wanting to make sure they were afraid of her, she grabbed a handful of rocks and walked toward where the coyote had been standing. The closer Rebecca got to the spot, the more afraid she became. If the coyote was rabid, it would attack her. And she didn’t have her phone with her. She wasn’t that big next to that coyote, so she turned around and headed back inside.

Rebecca went straight to the phone, then reset the alarm system. She dialed Jack’s cell. “Hi honey!” he answered.

“Jack, a coyote was standing on that rock by our house while I was outside with Lily!”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No!”

“Are you both okay?”

“Yes, but I’m pissed! That coyote wasn’t scared of me… at all!”

“What do you mean?”

“I yelled, flapped my arms and even charged at it. It didn’t move.”

“Oh, my God. Maybe it was rabid.”

“That’s what I was thinking. I’ve seen them run off before… I’ve scared them off myself. This one wasn’t afraid.”

Jack was silent.

“Hello?”

“… Yeah…I’m sorry. I’m thinking.”

Rebecca waited.

“Okay, if you see the coyote again I want you to call the sheriff and get the number of who to call about problem animals. In the meantime, you two stay close to the front door, okay?”

Rebecca had already planned on calling the sheriff to get that phone number. Glad they were on the same page, she also already knew she and Lily would be staying by the front door. “Okay.”

“God, Rebecca, that’s awful. What are we going to do about those coyotes?”

“I don’t know. That stupid coyote got Fred too!”

“How do you know?”

“Because his leg was lying in our yard.”

“Oh, God, Rebecca, I’m going to worry about you and Lily now until I get home. Promise me you won’t go far from the door, even during the day.”

“I won’t.”

“Rebecca!”

“I won’t! I’m scared of them, but I’m getting pissed. I want to go and hunt it down…” she sighed loudly. “Don’t worry about me, I’m tough.”

“I know you are. I love you and be careful.”

“I love you, too, and I will.”

Rebecca hung up the phone and could hear the wind again. She looked out the kitchen window and watched the trees bending in the gusts. She looked for coyotes but didn’t see any. That coyote had made her so angry that, for the first time, she wished she had had a gun. She would have used it.

The security alarm started wailing. Rebecca threw off the covers, jumped out of bed and ran down the hall to the stairs. By the time she reached the steps, she was awake enough to realize she was scared and didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t following her plan. She turned on the hall light, then the downstairs light and peered over the railing overlooking the living room but saw nothing. The alarm was piercing so she ran back to the bedroom to turn it off. She grabbed the phone waiting for it to ring. With the phone in hand, she headed downstairs. About halfway down the stairs, she stopped and leaned over the railing to get a better look. She listened. Lily, totally unconcerned, was still in bed. Rebecca listened hard, trying to make sense of the alarm going off. She heard her own breathing and thought she could hear her own heartbeat.

Why hadn’t their security service called? She continued down the stairs and, when she got to the kitchen, she decided to call them herself. There was no dial tone. Holding the phone, she ran to the other phone in the living room. She picked it up and pressed talk.
The line was dead. “Oh, my God.” Still holding the phone she ran back upstairs and back into the bedroom, locking the door behind her. She sat on the bed shivering with fear and tried to think it through. “Okay, if the power went out, the alarm could have gone off and that might explain the phones, but the power is on now; the phones should work. Okay, maybe I should go back downstairs and check the wall phone in the kitchen.” She stood at the door, took a deep breath and listened intently to hear if somebody was in the house. She heard nothing but Lily’s snoring and her own breathing. She turned the doorknob and raced down the stairs toward the kitchen. She quickly ran into the kitchen, grabbed a knife from the rack as she passed and grabbed the phone on the wall. There was a dial tone. She pulled the phone to the garage door to get the security company’s phone number and dialed.

“My alarm went off and nobody came and you never called. I’m alone and I’m scared.”

The operator gently told her to calm down. “Let me check. Okay here it is. No, we have no record of activity there.”

“That’s impossible!”

“You’re calling from your home phone, right? Well, give me your address.”

“Number 15 Mountain Hill.”

“Yes, that’s what we have, and I see no activity at that address. “Will you please check your system? How could the alarm go off, and you have no record? This doesn’t make sense!”

“Honey, if you think somebody broke in, please hang up and call 9-1-1 or I can dispatch for you.”

“No. I don’t know. It’s a big house.”

“Have you had any power outages recently? Or construction, or window washers can sometimes trip the system for no reason.”

“No we haven’t… You know, I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s just some freak thing. I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

Rebecca hung up the phone and stopped herself from crying. Lily had found her way downstairs and was jumping against Rebecca’s legs wanting to comfort her. Rebecca set the knife on the counter and sat down on the floor. She let Lily lie on her lap. She felt like she was going crazy. Did the alarm really go off at all? She threw her head back and bumped the wall.

The phone rang and startled Rebecca. She looked at the clock on the microwave. It was almost six. She looked at the restricted number on the caller ID and knew that it would be another hang up. She answered it certain that it wouldn’t be Jack and that it would be the same person as before, Roy.

It was Jack.

“Honey, it’s five o’clock your time.”

“I know but it’s really six for me. I’ve already ordered my coffee. Should be here any time. How was your night? Did you see any more coyotes?” Jack asked.

“No, we haven’t been outside since I talked to you last.”

“Have you heard any more from the neighbor about the burglar yet?”

“No, nothing new. I’m sure it had something to do with their kids or… I mean who burglarizes a home and cuts down a tree? Oh, and then Ron and his boys stopped by. They were missing their two yellow lab puppies. I’m afraid that the coyote’s got them…”

“Isn’t that strange. We never seemed to worry about anything when we lived in the city?”

“I know, it’s true. But I like it out here. We’re fine, Jack. Everything will be fine.”

“I just love you, and I want you to be safe and happy.”

“I love you, too. And I am happy. I’ve never been happier.”

“I can’t wait to get home and crawl into bed with you. I miss you.”

“I miss you, too. But I’m fine.”

“Okay, call me if you need anything… Anything, Reb.”

Rebecca hung up the phone. She took a deep breath and tried to relax. She couldn’t. She decided to call her mom because it wasn’t that early in New York. “Hi, Ruth. It’s Rebecca.”

“Hi, Rebecca. How are you?”

“Well, to be honest, I’m not doing that well. I feel like I’m going crazy. Remember I told you all about Roy and the trouble I had. Well, he’s been released from prison and I’m home alone and I’m just… nervous.”

“Oh, yes, I remember.”

“I know you don’t like to hear about it, and you think I’m making a big deal out of nothing, but I guess… I just wish I knew that he wouldn’t bother me.” She paused. “Strange things keep happening, and I get the feeling that he’s watching me.”

“Well, I’ll tell you, Rebecca, he won’t bother you. Too much time has passed. He doesn’t care one bit about where you are and what you’re doing. Plus, he probably feels sorry for everything and knows the best thing to do is to leave you alone. Really, Rebecca, you have
to let this go. It will destroy you if you always live with this hanging over you, being afraid.”

Rebecca took a deep breath. “Thank you, Ruth, I needed that. I wish I didn’t get scared, but I do.”

“Rebecca, I understand, it’s fresh. Time will pass, nothing will happen and you will start to forget about it.”

“You’re right.”

“How is work going? You know, diving into work always helps me feel better.”

Rebecca smiled. She knew Ruth well. “Yes, I have some work to do.”

“Well, good. You get back to work and you’ll forget all about this Ray guy.”

Rebecca didn’t correct her. “I’ll do just that. Thanks, Ruth.”

Rebecca hung up the phone, then took Lily outside. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but she stayed close to the front door and she didn’t see a coyote. Lily did her business quickly and they ran back inside. After resetting the alarm, Rebecca followed her mom’s advice and got back to work.

In Angie’s packet, Rebecca found a cute article from a men’s health magazine about Angie and “The Top Seven Reasons Men Shouldn’t Be Afraid of the Feminist”:

•
It’s the new millennium and we’re not going anywhere.

•
We are still feminine and love being women.

•
If you fall in love with a feminist you’ll learn to stand for something.

•
If you’re bad in bed we’ll tell you, then we’ll teach you.

•
You just might be a feminist yourself.

•
If we smell fear on you, we’re more likely to attack.

•
The most important reason to not be afraid of the feminist is that men and women are more alike than different. Men and women want the same things: both want to feel important, appreciated and valued, both want to love and be loved.

Rebecca remembered her conversation with a man at Book Expo America in Chicago a couple years ago. He expressed his disapproval of feminism after learning that Rebecca was a feminist. Instead of walking away, she decided to stay and listen and was surprised to learn that, in her opinion, he was also a feminist. She was even more surprised when he said, “I can’t believe you’re a feminist, you’re so nice.”

Rebecca had been a feminist her entire life. She had her mom and dad to thank for that, not to mention her friends. Rebecca was amazed to learn that not only men, but also women were confused about what it meant to be a feminist. A feminist believes that men and women are equal. Different, sure, but equal. That’s it. After Rebecca explained the meaning to most people they realized that they, too, were feminists.

This feminist article was one of the most enjoyable in Angie’s packet. She giggled about number four, having known far too many women who faked orgasms and were, therefore, clearly not feminists. Rebecca’s orgasm was just as important as anybody else’s who was in the room.

Suddenly, Rebecca was up on her feet, listening intently to a scraping sound coming from upstairs. Lily was on the floor by the
fireplace and seemed to hear it too. This time Rebecca didn’t grab the phone on her way to the stairs because she was pretty sure she knew what it was. She listened as she quietly stepped up each step with Lily following. She wished Lily wasn’t so clumsy and noisy. After they passed through the bedroom doorway, Rebecca quickly ran to the deck off the master bedroom and threw opened the door yelling, “Get out of here!”

The alarm started blaring and three huge ravens flew off the roof. Rebecca had forgotten about the alarm. She slammed the door and ran to the bedroom keypad to turn it off. The phone rang shortly after. Once she assured the security company that she was fine and gave them the pass code, she plopped down on the bed. “Ugh! If it’s not one thing troubling me, it’s something else.”

Rebecca waited for the return phone call from Victim Services. She assumed that they were taking their time doing some of their own checking and, because they hadn’t rushed to call her back, Rebecca believed she had nothing to worry about.

She spent a couple hours in her office, making phone calls and getting ready for her upcoming trip to New York for the PR convention. Her office was now clean and organized, almost paperless. She was excited about this new way of working. She wasn’t sure how well she would be able to keep it up because sometimes she needed hard copy in her hands, but she was looking forward to traveling lighter.

Rebecca had finished reading through Angie’s packet. She had high hopes that she could get Angie to be a regular commentator on a mainstream news outlet as an expert on violence against women and children. She had received a few emails back from producers who were interested. And she would like to connect Angie with other women who were working to improve the lives of women and children. Rebecca had drafted two press releases, but she needed to
talk to Angie before she could go any further and she couldn’t wait to do that.

Rebecca felt great. Everything she had wanted to accomplish during Jack’s trip, she’d accomplished. She decided it was time to celebrate with a workout, a soak in the hot tub and a steam. She changed her clothes and headed downstairs to the gym.

After her vigorous workout, Rebecca soaked in the hot tub. She started the jets and relaxed as the water pulsated against her muscles. She thought about getting out a bottle of wine, but decided to watch a movie instead. Rebecca loved to reward herself when she achieved her goals, and there were a couple of movies on pay-per-view that she wanted to see. She really didn’t want to drink alone anymore. She didn’t want to wonder if she were trying to escape something. She would rather deal with her feelings: good or bad, loneliness or euphoria. But she would have a glass of wine with Jack or friends.