AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There.
Two windows, covered almost completely with duct tape.
Now I just have to get up there, break the window, and climb out.
I push the shelf back a bit, then I grab the pillowcase from the cot and wrap my arm in it. I am strong, limber, agile from my time on the pole. There’s a certain amount of athleticism that goes into it all. Most people don’t notice when you’re topless how strong you have to be, the kind of core and leg strength you have to have to hang upside down with your back arched. My years as a ballerina and gymnast have formed my body knowledge. So, I test my weight on the shelf and slowly climb up, aware that it might tip forward and I’ll have to leap out of the way or be pinned beneath it.
When I’ve got myself high enough, I start to peel away the duct tape with my ragged fingernails. Gray sky, bare trees reveal themselves in strips through the cloudy glass. The windows look old, wood frames. They’ll shatter easily. I hope. If I can get the right leverage to break them against my already aching elbow, hoping the pillowcase will keep me from getting cut too deep.
That’s when I hear it. The distant rumble of his engine.
“No,” I whisper. Panic is a caged bird in my chest.
I work faster as the sound grows closer, peeling back the tape, strip by strip. The window must face the drive, because I see the shadow of the car, hear the engine die, the car door open and close with slam. My throat is dry, adrenaline pulsing now. I work faster.
There’s enough space now. I hook one arm around the shelf, which is heavy and solid, then start pounding my wrapped elbow at the glass. The shelf wobbles, but I use my weight to right it. Once, twice. On the third try, the glass breaks. A rush of cold air, a flood of relief even as the glass cuts me through the thin pillowcase.
Then, upstairs, the door opens and closes.
His footfalls move, slow and heavy across the floor.
I smash out the rest of the window, as the lock on the basement door unlatches.
He won’t touch me again. I’ll get out of here or die trying. I keep smashing with my elbow trying to create a space wide enough for me to shimmy through. One of those moments when being tiny is an advantage.
“Hey,” I hear his voice outside the door. It sounds like he’s struggling with the lock. “What are you doing down there. I knew I should have tied you up. I was trying to be nice.”
“Fuck you,Santa,” I scream.
With all my strength I lift myself up, glass digging into my hands and shimmy myself out the window, which is just,just, wide enough. The glass cuts my belly, my thigh, but I barely feel it as I turn to see him racing down the stairs. That terrible Santa mask crooked and flapping. I’m out. I’m out. I’m free. The air is frigid, dusk falling, the ground covered in snow and ice. My feet are bare.
I run for the car with all my strength, hearing him wailing through the smashed window behind me like some kind of wounded animal.
The gloaming spreads out before and nothing is going to stop me. I am going to be home for Christmas.
16
Miranda is packed and ready to go home when we arrive.
“Thanks for staying so late,” I say, coming through the back door into the kitchen. Badger follows behind me.
“No problem,” says Miranda. “He had a good day today. He’s sound asleep now, should stay that way. I think he said your name earlier. I’m seeing improvement, a little every day.”
This gives me a little rush of hope. “The doctor said he should regain speech and motor function.”
“He will,” she says with a confident nod. “It takes time. It’s only been six months since the stroke.”
Badger and Miranda embrace. “Thanks for bringing the Jeep back to life—again,” she says.
“I’ve got a lead on a new one. A 2018, in good shape. Less than fifty thousand miles on it.”
“Let us know,” she says with a shrug. “Money’s tight, as always. But old faithful is on its last legs—or tires.”
“I’ll reach out to Ernie.”
“Hey,” she says, reaching to tug at his sleeve. “I was sorry to hear about you and Bekka.”
He digs his hands in his pockets, looks at me quickly then away. Obviously, he didn’t tell me everything.
