Rag Doll Ch. 04

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beachbum1958
beachbum1958
4,256 Followers

"This was Judy's car until she decided that she was going to save the planet...with a Prius, pardon me while I barf...! Anyway, I don't need it, Judy doesn't want it, so I was wondering if you'd maybe like to borrow it until you can get your own car, or make me an offer for this one. You're going to need a car to for work, and this is just gathering dust, so..."

I was speechless. I tried to thank him but he just waved it off.

"You need it; I don't, so it's yours for as long as you need it! You may need to use the battery-charger over there; the car's been sitting for several months so the battery's probably dead."

We puttered around with it until we got it started using the jump-box David had. Once it started we let it run for a few minutes, then turned it off and I hooked-up the battery-charger, just to make sure. While we waited, I thought I'd do a little digging of my own.

"So, David, where are you taking my Mum this weekend?" I grinned, watching him blush again.

"I was thinking of a nice Italian place I know on Colonie, I know Julia likes Italian," was his response. I looked quizzically at him.

"You really like her, don't you?" I asked and he grinned ruefully.

"That obvious, huh?" and I grinned happily, glad to have something to take my mind off our troubles.

He continued.

"She's different to most of the women I meet. The dates I've been on recently, well, perhaps not all that recently, were all with women who were either gold-diggers or opportunists looking for a doctor for a husband. Judy used to spot them and launch into them, and I came to trust her instincts, so I kind of fell out of the habit of dating. Your mother, now, she's different; for one thing Judy likes and trusts her, and she's self reliant; she's not looking for a free ride. I know she's had a hard life over the last few years, and I think she deserves a little pampering. Judy filled me in on what it's been like for her, and yet she's kept her head up, and made a life when everything fell apart, and I find her wholly admirable, and beautiful, of course. So, to answer your question, yeah, I really like her, and I hope she likes me too, because I plan on seeing a lot more of her, with your permission of course!"

I grinned again. "She's over 21, David, and I've only been back in her life a few days; you really don't need my permission, but for what it's worth, I approve, and I feel sure Ashley will too; my mum needs a good bloke, hopefully that'll be you!"

We chatted some more as we walked back to the garage, where I unplugged the charger and tried turning the engine over. It started immediately, and I grinned over at David.

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" and he nodded back.

"Go ahead, she's all yours for as long as you need her, my pleasure, Nick, I'm just glad I can help! Oh, and almost forgot; don't worry about tags and insurance, she's fully covered and you'll be covered to drive it. If you decide later on you want to buy her, we'll worry about that stuff later."

I jumped in and waved at him as I headed home; I had a car, I had a job, and I had a beautiful girl waiting for me at home; my life was coming together, and things were changing for the better for my family, except for just one detail; the knowledge of who had raped Ashley, and why, still sizzled in the pit of my stomach. I knew it wasn't New Year's, but I made a resolution; I would do all I could to make those people pay for what they'd done to my Ashley, but I'd keep out of it until the time was right, then anything I could do, I would do. Punishment was due to somebody, and I promised myself I'd be there to see it handed out.

++++

I pulled into our driveway and parked behind Mum's car, bursting to give her my good news. As I came in, the first person I saw was Ashley, her smile lighting up the room as she saw the expression on my face.

"How did it go, Nick?" she asked, and I couldn't help grinning.

"I start a week Monday! I've got a job!"

Ashley squealed and jumped on me, and Mum came out of the kitchen to see what all the noise was about.

"Mum, I got the job, I start a week Monday!" I exulted, making sure I kept all trace of what had happened earlier out of my voice. "And I've got a car, come see!"

Mum and Ashley came outside with me, Mum astonished at the car, and Ashley looking curiously at it. I explained the deal with David and the car; Ashley looked at me oddly as I explained, but said nothing. After we'd had dinner, I asked her if she'd like to go for a drive so I could show her off.

Ashley looked at me with a big, artless grin on her face.

"So tell me, brother of mine, who are you going to show off; me or the car?" she asked almost innocently, and that earned her a pinch on the bum that made her jump and giggle as I shooed her out the door.

"Perhaps we need to visit a 'quiet place' again, Nick!" she murmured in my ear, and I smiled to myself as I picked-up on what she was saying.

We took a long meandering route this time; I guessed she was taking me to one of her more rural hidey-holes. We drove a fair way out of town, eventually skirting a large lake and following a path through the forest to park in among a stand of broad-leafed hardwood trees; maple, I guessed, although I'm no botanist.

I admired the view; there was a lot to admire, wild-looking woodland and forest alive with bird sounds and the sound of the wind soughing in the trees, and the occasional glimpse of the dark water of the reservoir just visible through the trees.

"Ashley, where are we?" I asked, and she hooked her arm in mine.

"That's the Tomahannock Reservoir down there, Vermont State line's over that way, and Massachusetts is over there. Daddy used to bring us out here and detour over to the Berlin State Forest because he used to say you can see three states from there. I never saw it, though; one clump of trees and poison ivy looks pretty much like another!"

I leaned back against the car, holding her and enjoying the warmth and smell of her, a delicious light flowery scent with undertones of vanilla; she smelled delicious. She leaned against me, her head on my chest and her arms around my waist, enjoying the silence together.

After a while she began drumming distractedly on the small of my back, a light tapping that I noticed she did when she was thinking, a rhythm that seemed to focus her concentration.

"Nicky," she asked, hesitantly, "If I ask you something, will you be completely honest with me?"

I nuzzled her, enjoying the feel of her hair against my lips. "Of course, Princess, always, you know that! Just ask away."

"Nicky, when you came in earlier, when you saw me you looked like a deer in the headlights; why? All afternoon Mom's been all sweetness and light and all is good with the world. I thought at first she was just happy about having a date for Friday, but then I realised she was acting exactly the way she used to be when she'd come back from the hospital and I'd ask her about daddy, and she'd say he was fine, when we both knew it was all going badly."

She paused, looking back up at me with her clear, frank gaze.

"Then there's you, acting happy-clappy and peppy, not your normal self with your little jokes and puns and that goofy grin of yours, and now Dr. Nixon suddenly gives you Judy's car. Tell me something OK? Why? What the fuck is going on? And don't even think about lying to me, I can read you like a book, big brother!"

Shit.

I tried to squirm my way out of it. "It's nothing, babe, I'm really happy I got a job so quickly, and mum's just happy for me too...!" I trailed off as she slowly shook her head.

"Nick Davis, right now I can see a great big 'I Am Lying' sign flashing on and off over your head. What am I missing here? Talk, English-boy, or sleep on the porch, and I mean it!"

I was busted, and she was right, I couldn't lie to her, or to anyone, come to that; I just wasn't set-up that way.

I sighed and wrapped my arm even tighter around her, cuddling her close to me.

"Look baby-girl, it's about ...what...happened to you."

Ashley looked up at me. "I was raped, Nicky, say it, it's OK, it doesn't have any power over me anymore; you can mention it, you know!"

That was encouraging.

"Baby, about the ...rape, we had a letter today, from England, from...Barbara. She sent it Friday, the day..."

"...the day she died, Oh Nicky, I'm so sorry!" finished Ashley, her hand suddenly cool and reassuring on my cheek. I cleared my throat and continued.

"In the letter she gave details, lots of details, about what happened to you. I'm so sorry, I wish I didn't know ..."

Ashley looked worried.

"What Nick, what is it? Tell me!"

I stared at the ground as I began to speak, unable to look her in the face.

"Baby, what happened to you, it was planned, it wasn't some random lowlife, it wasn't an opportunist crime; someone was sent to do that...by my father..."

Her eyes were two saucers, shock and outrage growing in them. I could feel her tensing and drawing away from me, and I was already regretting my honesty, but it was too late to backtrack now.

"You knew this...and you yet still brought me out here? Why, why would you keep something like that from me?"

I swallowed.

"Baby girl, there's more, oh God it gets worse...!"

She looked at me big-eyed and fearful. "Worse, what do you mean, how much worse...?"

I avoided her eyes. "When that...creature...did what he did to you, it wasn't you he was waiting for; you just happened to walk in at the wrong time...!"

Her eyes narrowed, then widened in horror. "You mean...!" she gasped, her hands flying up to her mouth.

I nodded miserably.

"He was waiting for mum, that's what it was about; my father, that sick, twisted rat-bastard set it up, we saw the emails, Barbara sent them all; he's fucking insane! This was his way of punishing mum for leaving him! Remember I told you he was vicious and vindictive? Well now we know just how far gone he really is. Barbara said he'd never let her go, I should have listened to what she was telling me...

He bided his time, and then he decided to set this in motion, for reasons that only make sense to him, and you got caught in the middle; I'm so sorry, baby, I wish I could make it all un-happen..."

Ashley's mouth was an 'O' of shock, horror rising in her eyes as she realised that she'd been caught in a trap set for our mother, and had paid for it by being raped in her place. I tried to hug her to me, but she pulled away from me, shaking me off and backing away.

"Don't...touch me!"" she flared, looking at me with something akin to hatred in her eyes. "You're his son, how do I know I'm not hooking up with the son of fucking Frankenstein? For all I know you're as bad as that fucking maniac, so keep the fuck away from me!"

The hurt roared through me as she said that, and she knew that because she resolutely turned away from me, her arms clamped tight around herself as she sank to her knees. My eyes blurred as I realised I'd blown it with her, I'd tried to protect her and instead I'd shown her how to hate me.

Her shoulders were shaking as she sobbed silently, and all I wanted to do was hold her and comfort her, but I was the son of Satan right now, and she didn't want to hear anything from me. I tried, anyway, though...

"Ashley, please..."

She stood up, turned, and glared at me, her face working, to stalk up to me and push me aside.

"Get out of my way!" she gritted, so I did, allowing her to climb back in the car. She slammed the door and I heard the locks go on as she leaned on the wheel. With one last hate-filled glare at me she started the engine and skidded away, spraying me with sour-smelling leaf-mould and leaving me standing there, alone, and pretty much lost in the woods somewhere around the reservoir. I had a sort of clue as to which way we'd come, so I started walking, but I didn't know how far I'd get; darkness was falling, I had no money, my wallet with my ID was in my jacket, and my jacket was in the car, and I hadn't seen any houses or other cars the whole time we'd been here; also, and just to make it easier, it was the dark of the moon, so I'd have nothing to give me any light once full dark set in.

After slipping and stumbling for two hours (according to the trusty 'Transformers' watch Barbara gave me when I was nine), I was pretty much completely lost. As night fell the forest had become first a deep gloomy wall, and then a deeper velvety blackness under the tree canopy, and oppressively silent, except for my yelps as I stepped in things, tripped over things, or walked into things. One of those things' I walked into really hurt, and I did get some light then, big stars that bloomed and faded in front of my eyes as I smelled and tasted brass, and I could feel a sticky wetness seeping down my face and into my eye. Blood, I assumed, but I couldn't tell, as I couldn't see my hand in front of my face by now.

Eventually I came onto a cinder track, actually I tripped over something and landed on the track, which is how I knew it was there, more a country lane than anything, and where it led was anybody's guess; I was so completely turned around in the dark that I could have been walking to Canada for all I knew. I mentally flipped a coin, and trudged in the direction indicated, again in complete silence. The cloud had been hazy and low earlier in the evening, and now it felt like I was walking in an anechoic chamber where the only sound was that of my breathing. I had never seen a night so black, or so silent, and if I had been of that turn of mind, I would have been freaked by it. At least I was going somewhere, though, even if I had no clue where. I walked along that track for over two hours, seeing no cars or signs of human habitation and by now I would have welcomed anything to break-up the pitch blackness, a house, a gingerbread cottage, three bears, anything. Scenes from 'Deliverance' were beginning to play out in my head when I heard a car in the distance and saw headlights splashing the trees when I looked back over my shoulder.

I stepped onto the verge, not wanting to be run down by whoever was gunning that car along this deserted track at this time of night; they wouldn't be expecting me to be walking along the middle of it at dead of night. They probably wouldn't even see me until it was too late. So, with a vague notion of flagging them down, perhaps begging a ride, or even just getting some directions, I waited on the verge, waving my shirt as it was light coloured, something to catch in a headlight.

I tried not to look at the headlights as the car approached. After so long in the dark the glare was painfully bright, so my eyes were slitted as I waited for the approaching car, not really knowing whether whoever was driving would stop for a battered looking stranger with no shirt in the middle of the night. The car slid to a halt and the door opened.

"NICKY!!" screamed Ashley, running at me full tilt and slamming into me, almost knocking me over.

"Nicky, I'm so sorry, I left you alone out here, oh God, you could have been killed, I went back and you were gone and I couldn't find you and I've been driving for hours looking for you, I left you all alone, Oh Nicky please, I'm sorry, you could have died out here, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she gabbled, her arms locked around my neck. I was just so glad to see her, and apparently she didn't hate me anymore, so no harm, no foul as far as I was concerned.

Ashley tugged me back to the car, and ran her gentle fingers over the nice big lump over my right eye. Now that I had light, I realised I could barely see out of that eye. She pulled down the vanity mirror so I could see the damage for myself; a three-inch gash ran across above my eyebrow, and the blood had caked the side of my face and limned my eye. She ran light, trembling fingers across my face, tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked at the cut, and the blood smeared across my face and forearms where I'd been using them to wipe the blood out of my eyes.

"Look at this Nicky, oh God, look at this, it's my fault, I left you out here alone, you didn't do anything and I just left you here, supposing you'd been killed...!"

I tried to laugh it off by telling her it was my fault for letting a tree bite me, but she wasn't having it.

"Hikers go missing up here all the time, there's sink-holes, dead-falls, or you could have fallen in one of the ponds or marshes, they're everywhere, or fallen in a ravine, and I left you here, in the dark, oh God, you could have been killed, I just ran off and left you out here alone, oh God...!"

I held her close while she trembled and cried, and I have to say, holding her again was the best feeling in the world, after the way she left earlier.

When she'd calmed down, she told me we had to find the Ranger Station. I asked her why, and got an answer that surprised me.

"To let them know you're safe; the Park Rangers, State Troopers, Doctor Nixon, Judy, Mom, they're all out looking for you; this is Pittstown State Forest and we're miles from where I dumped you; you were heading toward Vermont, but if you'd stayed in the forest we might never have found you again, and it would have been my fault...!"

She started crying again, and I held her some more, calming her, and letting her know it was alright. Eventually she started telling me what had happened after she left me.

After she'd gone a few miles she'd calmed down, and turned round and come back, but I was gone. Not knowing what to do, she'd gone straight to Judy, and told her the whole story. Judy had flipped when she heard Ashley had left me alone in the forest at night, and went and got her dad, who'd driven up to the Ranger Station and told them I was lost somewhere in Pittstown Forest.

Meanwhile, Judy and Ashley had gone to get Mum, and then the four of them had fanned out along the roads leading away from where Ashley had left me. Ashley got the road I was on by sheer luck. While she was talking, she took a packet of Kleenex from the glove box and wetted one from a bottle of water she found in there, and started cleaning that cut over my eye as well as cleaning off some of the blood from my face, arms and hands. When she cleaned the cut, that's when I discovered how much pain I could take; if she hadn't been sitting astride me I'd have launched right through the moon roof...

Once she'd cleaned the worst of it away, she made me put my shirt back on, and she put the car in gear, turning around to head back the way she came. We eventually got back to blacktop near some houses, and she pulled over and pulled out Judy's spare cell phone, telling me she was calling Judy.

Ashley had a quick conversation with Judy, just telling her I was safe, and that I was going to need her father, no I wasn't badly hurt, just a little dinged-up, as she put it.

We rendezvoused at Judy's home; mum's car was there, and a State Police cruiser, with David outside talking with the two troopers, before waving me in and following us. Mum jumped up when I walked in and her eyes filled when she saw my face, as did Judy's.

"Poor Nicky, you keep getting hurt!" she whispered, and again I tried to laugh it off.

"Mum, I'm OK, really, a tree jumped out at me, but I fought it off, honest!" and I saw a quick smile flit across her face. David came in then and told me sit so he could examine my forehead. When I complied, he pulled on some examination gloves and gently prodded the cut, squeezing the lips together to check the extent of the swelling, and opened a bottle of some brown pungent stuff.

"This may sting a little, try and not cry, kick or bite please!"

He picked up a long curved hemostat and wrapped a length of cotton wool around the jaws, poured the liquid on it, then swabbed the cut. The pain was incredible, like being painted with acid, and I had to use all my willpower not to jerk away.

beachbum1958
beachbum1958
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