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Diana needed me.
I would do what I needed to to make sure that I kept her safe.
Loud places wouldn’t do.
So I’d take her to one of my spots.
I’d found it a few weeks ago when I’d been driving through the boonies on a home vet appointment.
At first, it was only a place that I could see from the road.
Then, I’d met the man—elderly in his late seventies and an absolute doll to be around—that owned the property. He’d given me permission to go onto it anytime I wanted.
And since I had a van with four-wheel drive… I did it as often as I could without being considered “missing.”
One day, I’d find a way to offer to buy the land, I loved it so much.
But since I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop with my stepmother and my siblings, I kept that money exactly where it was, and lived off of what I made traveling with the vet’s office.
It said a lot about Diana’s state of mind that she didn’t say a word during the drive. She didn’t ask questions, not even when I had to get out and unlock a gate to get to our final destination.
We pulled up to the ridge that led to the most perfect stream and waterfall in the area, and I urged Diana to get out.
“Come on, follow me,” I ordered.
She did, falling into step behind me without a word. Which was disconcerting seeing as normally she would have something to say about the “NO TRESPASSING” signs that we had to pass to get onto the property.
That made me even more nervous.
This day… it was bad for her. It was one of the worst that I’d ever experienced with her.
For her to be so… blue… that meant bad things.
We walked, farther and farther, until we came to a rise that looked out over the ocean.
She blinked when she finally saw the view.
I started hiking again, this time down, down, down until we arrived at a secluded, private beach that was sort of hidden from view due to the rocks and crevices of the hill we were on.
“This is nice,” she said as she watched the waves crash. “Are you allowed to be on the beach, though?”
I grinned. “No, but I know the cops in this area. They let it slide. I fixed up their K-9 officer. They love me.”
She leaned over and dipped another chip into the queso I’d bought.
We sat there in silence, listening to the movie that was playing from the iPad I’d managed to snag before we’d left.
It was at fifty percent battery life and had the worst signal ever.
It was… ugly. But it worked.
Hopefully it didn’t die on us.
“This is my favorite part,” she said softly.
I knew that.
Her favorite movie in the world was, of all things, Little Mermaid. Her favorite part was when she was singing about the forks and wishing she were a human.
However, not even that song could get her to lift the veil across her mood.
I bit my lip.
Gathered my phone and the trash and said, “I’m gonna go to the bathroom over there behind the trees. Be right back.”
She gave me a chin jerk, but her eyes were blinking as she finally succumbed to sleep.
I chose to do what I needed to do to get my friend out of her funk. Not give in on the silent treatment.
Staying mad at Etienne was kind of hard when my friend was in this kind of mood. And since I didn’t want to wake Diana up by searching for her phone, I bit the bullet and texted the jerk face.
Me: need help
It took him all of three minutes to respond. He must’ve been waiting for the call or text, because he was ready with an immediate response—at least for him.
Etienne: Where are you?
Me: We’re at my spot. Diana was having a really bad day. We had to knock off of work early. You might tell Bain to come here and get her. I think she finally fell asleep.
At least, from my vantage point, she appeared asleep.
Etienne: We’re an hour out. I also don’t know where your “spot” is. But I’ll find you.
I didn’t bother to point out that that should be impossible unless he had some sort of tracking device on me. I didn’t care if he did. Whether it be on my phone or my car, that made no difference. If it kept me safe, who was I to complain?
I liked to think I was a sensible gal when it came to the safety of myself and other women.
I wasn’t someone that thought I could protect myself from a man that wanted to hurt me. I was a realist. And in reality, men hurt women. Women hurt other women, too, but that wasn’t anywhere near as frequent as the other way around.
