Susan's Renaissance

Our conversation was interrupted as Andrew arrived with his mom then Deputy Wells came by and told us they had found the other two men. Another shootout happened and they were now gone too so I should be safe and they doubted I was of interest to them. The publicly available investigation revealed the four men were lower level thugs tied to organized crime, a Russian group, but the connections were unclear with Earl. They thought it was a turf battle versus a Mexican group but were not sure and they had no leads. Earl was not Hispanic but somehow was doing low-level things for the Mexican group. The men involved were not leaders. They were common thugs at the lowest level sent to eliminate a member of a different group at their lowest level. Deputy Wells left after giving me the news.

I looked at Andrew and sighed then said, "I'm sorry for helping Earl basically kidnap you."

He laughed and asked her, "Why? I love your daughter and I love my marriage to her. We are happy. The method sucked, but the result was that we were both very happy."

Kelsey nodded and said, "And I might have been at the trailers when those four men arrived and killed Earl's cousins."

That was a shocking thought, had Kelsey been at the trailers, she may have been killed.

We all paused as it sank in. Shock! By sending her away with Andrew, Earl may well have accidentally saved Kelsey's life.

The nurse came in and shooed everyone out to check my catheter and take my vitals. She said, "You are recovering very well. You are being released Thursday Morning."

My family came back in and I was happy as they walked to my bedside and then I again realized that I had no place to go. My smile faded.

Kelsey asked, "What?"

I sighed and said, "They are releasing me Thursday."

Andrew asked, "And what is wrong with that?"

I sighed and said, "The deputy told me the trailers were burned. I have no place to go."

Andrew nodded his head to Kelsey then Kelsey nodded back to him then they both looked at me. I love the fact that they are now close enough to communicate without actually saying anything. She turned to me and said, "Yes you do."

I shook my head sadly and said, "The trailers are gone."

Kelsey said, "I thought your address was 11 Lake Chantrain Trail, Wallkill Township, New York."

I was confused for a second then it hit me like a tidal wave as I realized what she meant. I asked, "After all I did... You will take me in?"

They both smiled and nodded and Andrew said, "The violent part was Earl, not you. You were nice to me and I know you were looking after Kelsey. As fucked up as it all is, Earl did me a favor and got me a wife I love dearly."

More crying. I know you are sick of hearing about it happening. Kelsey just hugged or rather, half hugged me around my bandages and medical things. It hit me hard but wonderfully. I was escaping Coalton!

I WAS ESCAPING COALTON!

He laughed and said, "Funny thing. Had she not done what she did, I would not be happy in ways that I didn't know existed two months and a few weeks ago. When I hold Kelsey after... you know... It's like my place in the world. Just holding her bare body against mine. I did not know that existed until I held her like that."

Kelsey asked, "Everything is gone?"

Andrew said, "Everything but the two picnic tables in the center and the chicken coop. You will get a call about the chicken coop. The sheriff is going to try to get a local family to take it and the chickens."

Kelsey nodded and said, "I agree. I don't think our neighbors would appreciate us having a chicken coop."

Kelsey asked Andrew, "Can we take the picnic tables? My first meals with you were at those tables so they mean something to me."

Andrew nodded, Leah laughed and said, "As long as they come apart. I'm glad I emptied my SUV."

I realized I was leaving and had a big problem because I needed something from the trailers, burned out or not. I sighed then said to Andrew, "I'm going to have to trust you. You've been so kind to my daughter and me. There is a safe, an old fire safe about the size of a large stack of papers. I need it before we go. It's in, or was in, the center trailer. Even Earl did not know about it. You will find or rather it was inside an old mattress I had hollowed out in the far left bedroom of that center trailer."

Andrew agreed to fetch it for me. He was so sweet to me and I could see how Kelsey had fallen for him.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Andrew came back with a smile and told me he had the safe and I was relieved. It was loaded into his mother's SUV under a stack of clothes to hide it.

Kelsey asked what was in it. I reluctantly admitted, "Seventeen hundred in cash and my documents like my birth certificate."

Kelsey laughed, "You sly..."

I laughed and said, "Even I was working on my own escape plan. It was just taking forever."

Kelsey hugged me and said, "NOT ANYMORE!"

It hit me again, I was making my escape far earlier than I dared dream.

Andrew mentioned Earl's cousin, Hank had helped him at the trailers and I was shocked. Earl hated Hank and I thought Hank hated me. Andrew said that Hank did not seem to have animosity against me and I guess it was in my head. Earl would have not allowed me to know them anyway.

Part 2

Escape

Thursday, July 26, 2018

They woke me at six that morning and closed the door then stripped me of everything but the cast and splints. Yech, my whole left side was black and blue though I was starting to see the bruising turn into greens and yellows. Healing I guess. They took out the catheter and the IV then removed all my bandages and replaced them and sponged me down some. UGH! Even after the sponging, I was so grungy!

I sniffed. I smelled sweaty awful before, now I smelled like medicinal awful. I felt so filthy and I would have killed for a shower, a nice hot shower. No dice, as I laid there naked with my cast and splints. I could not stand on my own since I could not hold a crutch due to my broken fingers on the same side as my broken ankle. I was helpless and I hated it. To make matters worse, they reapplied the huge bandage across my entire left shoulder then taped my left arm down again. FUCK FUCK FUCK! I smelled and I felt grungy as hell and there wasn't anything I could do.

I HATE BEING HELPLESS!!!!!!

I held on to that glimmer of hope. I was leaving. I was leaving Coalton behind and I was making my escape just as my daughter had. I helped kidnap a man into marrying my daughter and he was grateful for it. My life was like an internet story, but the author was clearly a complete nutball.

I was lying there stark naked as the nurse asked another nurse, "Find her the biggest gown you can find... the biggest so we can get it over her bandages. Her clothes were cut off in the ambulance. The nurse returned with the only four things I owned besides the items in that safe; my phone, my silver ring, my keys, and my wallet were inside a gallon-sized plastic baggy. That was all I had. Oh, and I was apparently now going to be the proud owner of a size XXL hospital gown.

The nurse was reading me instructions while I was laying there in the buff. Really? I'm naked and you are giving me instructions like it's story time at the library??? I listened anyway. The other nurse ducked in with my breakfast and said she was having a hard time finding the gown that would work. I ate anyway. Damn, I was hungry. A good sign I guess.

Finally, at ten to seven the nurse showed up with a very large hospital gown. They put it over me and snapped the top but the ties would not work because my arm was pinned under it which made it flare out. My boobs were covered... sort of. Below the waist... only if they rearranged it and it kept falling away. Honestly, I gave up caring.

My daughter and her family arrived right at seven as scheduled. Kelsey came in and hugged me and then asked, "Ready to get the hell out of Coalton?"

Cue crying episode again. Sorry. My life was changing and getting better so fast it was hard to keep up. I was leaving! I WAS LEAVING!

They wheeled me out in a wheelchair to the front right next to the passenger side of Leah's SUV at the front door then opened it. The gown fell off me as they stood me up as the edge of the gown was caught on the wheelchair. There I was in all my naked glory with the gown hanging limply off my right wrist and I just didn't care at that point. I wanted out of Coalton and just in a resigned voice to be loaded in so we could leave.

Leah put the blanket over me to cover me and smiled at me reassuringly. She had such a warm and loving air to her. If they had a picture in a dictionary for 'Loving Mom', Leah's picture should be featured.

One of those moments I remembered for the rest of my life as we drove away and I watched the hospital disappear in the right side mirror. Princeton West Virginia is miles north of Bluefield and Coalton so we drove on Route 460 East for almost an hour. I felt this wave of happiness when Leah made a left onto the ramp for I81 North. It hit me hard, I had truly escaped to a new chapter in my life. Of course, the sun was shining directly on me and soon I was sweaty and I just couldn't take it anymore. I used my good right hand to push the blanket away and aim the air conditioning vents at me. Leah laughed and said, "Naked! Welcome to my world."

We laughed and we talked. I explained how Earl had used me as a nude servant at his poker games and boned me in front of all his buddies on a pool table and that it had mostly eliminated my sense of modesty. I thought back and realized that he was truly gone and I would never see him again. That hit me hard and I was suddenly feeling ten years younger. Relief. Pure relief. Worries and cares I had before... as the miles rolled behind me, faded.

I sat back and just decided to relax as Leah drove and I enjoyed simply knowing I was being cared for. Earl was gone and would never hold me down again! I hated being helpless, but I was in the care of people who were as good-natured as Earl was bad-natured. We stopped at a drive-through Taco Bell in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I thought it was funny to leave the blanket off and give the skinny twenty-year-old guy in the drive-thru an eyeful. Shrug, my modesty was gone and I was going to be living in a nudist resort.

I had to pee badly by then so we found the loading dock drive side of a Lowes where there didn't appear to be any activity. Leah and Kelsey helped me gimp limp then held me up enough to squat down near the weeds behind Leah's SUV. Damn, that was awkward. The nudity part not so much, but having to do my business while they held me up to keep me from falling on my ass. SHUDDER! Andrew was a great guy and dutifully walked away as it all went down. These are the little things he did to demonstrate just how wonderful he was. He walked away to let me keep some dignity, not realizing I had none left. I smiled though, he was a good guy for my baby girl!

We got back on the road again and I asked Leah about her life. It was interesting to hear from a woman who had loved her husband since high school and was still head over heels in love with him all those years later. They had met in Kindergarten and were friends then at the high school Freshman mixer, they became a couple. It wasn't until Senior year that his ultra-conservative parents found out her family were nudists as she always visited him, not the other way around. He had never brought it up with them but one day, his parents interrupted their pizza dinner out demanding he stop seeing her right in the middle of the restaurant! They had seen an article about her mom becoming a board member of Lake Chantrain Naturist Resort.

He told them he loved her and he chose her regardless of their threats. She realized she was now in love for life because she not only loved him, but also, he had chosen her over his blood family and made it clear that he would not break up with her.

Leah smiled brightly as she told me that story, "We were in Alphonzo's Pizza and his parents stormed in and made a terrible scene in front of the whole place. He told them straight up that he loved me and chose me. He would live on the street before he gave me up."

My mouth was agape in shock and Leah's eyes glowed with happiness as she recalled the scene, "He chose me above all others and at that point, I knew I was his girl for the rest of my life. People say eighteen is too young and for most, I am sure it is, but that kind of loyalty does not happen many times in anyone's life. He chose me so I chose him."

Things got very strained between him and his family for a couple of months. They decided to marry one Monday evening right after school at the courthouse. His parents finally accepted the marriage and showed up at the courthouse wedding four minutes before it began. Statistically, a marriage at eighteen is extremely foolish, yet almost thirty years later, Leah was deeply in love with her husband David. They had survived the first years only because her parents were wealthy and supported the marriage. Once she had made the decision to marry David, her parents simply supported her.

Leah looked at me briefly and said, "That is why I unconditionally supported the marriage of my son to your daughter even though they had known each other only a few days and they are so young. He had chosen Kelsey as his wife, just as David had chosen me. I supported his marriage, just as my parents had supported mine."

It put many things into perspective on why Leah did what she did when she received a phone call from Andrew when they were driving their way home. He was married and he chose Kelsey. The loving thing was to support him and Leah was a loving mom. My second thought was, 'Wow, THAT is what I want, a man who chooses me above all others.'

I said, "Did his parents ever warm up to you?"

Leah nodded and said, "After my first son Steven was born. Until then, I was just a naked slut to them, even though I have never been with any other man besides David."

I sighed, "Wow. It took a grandchild to get them to be nice."

Leah said, "They were always nice to me, but 'nice' means polite. After I did Playboy... wow. I went from slut to slut ten times.

I was surprised and silent but my eyes said volumes.

Leah giggled and said, "I was Miss September 1990. I was a nude extra in a ton of direct-to-video VHS bullshit. I did a Playmate video and a few Playboy special edition videos and shoots. I was an art model in college and I still do that to get free art classes at SUNY in Middletown. I did and still do nude plays with a local group if the parts for me are solo. It doesn't take much to get me out of my clothes and honestly, I love every second of it. I'm a show-off and I like it."

I asked, "David doesn't mind you posing and acting?"

Leah said, "Non-touch roles only. I don't touch the guys and they don't touch me. I was tits and ass in the early years. Pretty nice tits and nice ass if I might say so myself."

I chuckled.

Leah laughed, "My boobs were glorious when I was eighteen and I was damn proud of them. Heck. Until I was in my late thirties they were still pretty spectacular."

I asked, "Any famous movies?"

Leah scoffed, "Not unless you think 'Bikini Sorority' and 'Camp Pittsylvania' are major movies. Oh and a few so-called casting videos... you get the idea. All crap. I'll take any excuse to run around naked though. "'Boobietown Coeds' was fun. The movie company took over Pulverville which is about a half-hour West of Middletown and we shot scenes for a week. I never did put on the robe they gave me. I still make a few hundred a year in royalties on that one because the video with nudity gets clipped onto websites now. Remember I grew up that way and it's comfortable for me."

We talked more and I began to see just how many sides there were to her. Mom, wife, former Playmate, businesswoman, former B actress.

Leah had skirted around the topic that she had paid for everything with a trust but never mentioned how large. She had spent several thousand on Kelsey in the first few days and seemed to have no problem doing it. It certainly piqued my curiosity to ask her and she declined to answer. I pushed a bit and asked, "Is it six digits of dollars?" She only shook her head and replied, "Eight".

Yeah, I was nosy, "The first digit is a one though right?"

Leah smirked, "Two."

I always pictured someone worth somewhere more than twenty million dollars as being rich and stuck up, living lavishly in a mansion, driving a Ferrari, and not working. I guess it says a lot that Leah lived in a nice but not lavish home, drove a Toyota, and owned a small salon where she worked cutting peoples' hair. Leah wanted for nothing, yet treated me with dignity and respect even though I was essentially worth a little under two thousand dollars.

I was being chauffeured by a woman worth over a thousand times what I had and she did it with a smile and no airs that she was better than me. It struck me how I was meeting people who were simply far better humans than most of those I knew in my past.

We passed the New York State line from Pennsylvania and it dawned on me... New York was now my home. One of those odd feelings that stuck. I was born and raised in West Virginia. I had spent my whole life there and never even left the state before then. That day I had been driven through four states to my new home.

I smiled and Leah asked, "What?"

I said, "You are taking me in and your family has been so kind to me."

Leah smiled and said, "Susan, get this straight. OUR family. The moment Kelsey was pronounced my son's wife, you both became family."

Leah was the ultimate example of mother hen and her capacity to love seemed infinite. She considered me family and I realized I had not only the love and support of Kelsey and Andrew, but also the love and support of this extremely impressive woman who drove me through four states. I smiled as another wave of wonderful washed over me. It was possibly the first time I didn't start crying when I realized something good was actually happening in my life.

We drove into the main entry of the resort, past a solideight-foott stucco wall that marked the edges of the property and it was surreal. It was a Thursday and few people seemed to be around as we drove in along a road past a hotel then with houses and cabins on both sides. The ones that we did see... Yep, naked. There were glimpses of the lake between the houses that lined it on the left side and I was sitting in happy wonder. My daughter actually lived here. Kelsey had gone from living near the bottom step in life to living perhaps three steps short of the top and I smiled.

We slowed down and then pulled into a parking spot in front of a large A-Frame cabin. Was it a cabin or a house? It wasn't a mansion, but was not a tiny cabin either. Who cares... it looked warm and inviting with a wood exterior and the lake beyond it. All I could do was look around in wonder at the place my daughter was privileged to live. I took it all in. There was a bilevel house to the right and an identical A-Frame cabin to the left of the one in front of me.

A man came to the car door and opened it. Leah stopped him and kissed him deeply with a familiarity and depth that hurt me a little bit because I wanted that. The kiss of a long-term and deep love and she dove her tongue right into his mouth and her hand went to his crotch briefly. Yeah, it hurt. I wanted that connection to a man.

I had never experienced that kind of connection then realized if my luck had turned so radically in all other areas... maybe once I healed I could get my own love and experience what Leah had. I realized that I had to make it happen or at least, make it possible to happen. If I let my life with Earl dictate the rest of my life, he would win in the end and hold me down even after his death. I was only thirty-two years old, damnit and I had more years ahead of me than behind me.