The Girl in the Rain

I copied a cut of the attack and also a cut of me crawling up the stairs and sent it to my lawyer with a short message. It didn't take him long to phone me and I could hear the anger in his voice.

"Do you know these guys?"

I sighed and told him the grist of the incident with Steffi, also the fact that John Mayson had seen us at the restaurant and had to chuckle when it hit me. "You know what Leonard? I don't even have the girl's number."

"Typical Derek Smythe."

I could only shrug as I felt tiredness creep over me. "Speak to you later Leonard. I am going to sleep a bit."

Instant panic. "Derek! Are you ok?"

"If you mean concussion, maybe but not serious. I slept very little and even that was fitful. I ache all over. With this face I am going nowhere and I may as well try to catch up on lost sleep."

On a whim I took a few selfies of my head, face and body where blue welts were visible and crawled into bed. It was afternoon when I woke and even though my face looked marginally worse, I felt better. Loose teeth do not make for easy eating and I made do with a bowl of yogurt for dinner.

By Monday morning I could manage scrambled eggs and untoasted bread so I had a huge breakfast before setting off to work. Some employees were standing around outside the building when I got there and I smiled as I saw some of them trying to act as if they saw nothing. Others stared. My maintenance foreman was not so subtle. He grinned widely and gave me a good look over.

"So tell me Derek. What does the other guy look like?"

With a chuckle I slapped him on his back. "They were unhurt."

"They? Did they jump you?"

"Hit me in the teeth when I opened the door and from there it was easy.

He screwed his eyes at me. "Burglary?"

"Nope. Jealous boyfriend and buddy."

For the rest of the day I was entertained by his sudden guffaws of laughter that had him clutching at something to hold him up while it reverberated through the building. I felt like shoving ice down the back of his shirt.

Except for going home, I avoided leaving the factory for days. People can be a bind. Some seem embarrassed and even avoid eye contact. Others are nosy and want to have a blow by blow account of the fight. Both are embarrassing and seem to be detrimental to business.

By the next Thursday I still looked as if I had done a few rounds in a boxing ring against a heavyweight champ but I was almost presentable again and volunteered to do a small delivery on the other side of the city. I needed to get out of the office for a while and on my way back I stopped at a smallish supermarket to get a few things I needed at home. It was pleasantly laid out and with time on my hands I walked the aisles just looking at what was on the shelves. I did notice quite a number of senior citizens in the store and they all seemed to be from the area. They had that familiar look about them. I greeted some and struck up conversations here and there and eventually sauntered up to the cashier.

Ahead of me was a couple and by the looks of them they were not the richest around town. The cashier rang up their merchandise and I watched as the old lady pulled a worn purse from her handbag. With trembling fingers she started counting out whatever money she had in there but even from where I was I could see; no way in Hell did she have enough. As she counted the last few coins I could see her desperate look at the figure on the cash register. Prices had soared because of this stupid Covid pandemic and they possibly had budgeted on old prices.

My heart broke and I waved over their heads to get the cashier's attention. As she looked up I just signalled with my eyes and hands that she should give them their money and items. I would pay.

The young cashier should get a Nobel prize or an Oscar or whatever. She made a show of suddenly hearing something and opened a drawer under the counter. She pulled out a little slip of paper and with a shriek she informed the couple that they had won the month's prize of free shopping.

If it crippled me financially the joy on the elderly couple's faces would have been worth it. As they left I stepped up and the young cashier grabbed my hands and squeezed them together.

"Thank you sir," she said softly and I could hear her voice was unstable. "That was one of the most beautiful gestures I have ever seen in this place."

I chuckled. "I have to admit. It felt great."

She tapped on her front tooth as if thinking. "These people are being caught up in rising prices and I see them falling back every day. That should have been their monthly shopping and as you could see. It is meagre."

I stood there wondering how it happened that we allowed our aged to become so impoverished. Where were their kids? What happened to the money they put away for old age? Did longevity and inflation catch up with them?

As I paid for the total of the items I looked around. "There seems to be quite a number of senior citizens here. Is there a home nearby?"

She nodded. "In fact, there are three in the vicinity."

It explained the high number of senior citizens in the shop. I took my bags and left. Back at the office I could not get the desperation of the old couple out of my head but I could see no way out for them except maybe going to them and embarrass them by giving them money. Just before knock-off an oil seal on a machine ruptured and litres of oil spewed out. We ran around to clean up and get the machine running again, so it was dark by the time I left and with the delay my appetite had died. I made a ham and cheese sandwich, washed it down with a beer and crawled into bed with a book.

Just after ten there was a knock on the door again. This time I got dressed properly and on my way down to the front door I took my father's military ceremonial dagger from the wall. It was not a big thing being only about a foot long but it was double edged and a thing of beauty with a bone handle inlaid with gold braiding. It was never designed as a weapon but if handled correctly it would run a man through with no problems. I had no intention of being kicked to pieces again.

I did not unhook the chain on the door and opened it. Steffi was standing there.

"Uh, hi," I mumbled and looked around her. "You alone?"

She gave me a look that clearly showed that she thought I was stupid. "Of course, silly. Are you going to open the door for me?"

I mumbled an excuse, closed the door, unhooked the chain and swung the door wide. "Sorry about the security but the last caller at this time of night wasn't friendly."

She watched me put the dagger down and then scrutinised my face. I saw the shock on her face. "What happened to you?"

Anger slipped. "Your boyfriend. Who else?" I barked. My hands were rolled into fists and I ground my teeth.

She went pale. "You mean Donald?"

"Unless you have a long string of bald boyfriends, yes. Him and Whatsisname we saw at the restaurant."

She came over to me and gently touched the scars around my lips. "How did this happen?"

"Wanna see the camera footage?" I asked angrily. "It makes for interesting viewing."

She sat down on my sofa. "It won't be necessary. You can tell me."

I made a snorting noise as I leaned over to her. "They knocked and I opened the door. A fist from the darkness nearly knocked me out and loosened my front teeth and then they were all over me. One of them held my head and the other then went behind me and kicked me in the balls so hard my knees lifted off the floor. After that they just kicked until they grew tired of the game." I stopped talking when I realised that I was shouting at Steffi. She sat there with wide eyes and I blew over pursed lips. "I'm sorry Steffi. I guess you knew nothing about this and here I am taking out my anger at you."

A sad smile crept into her eyes and she patted the seat next to her. "Will you please sit down next to me?"

I was still breathing hard when I sat down on the tip of the seat. I was not friendly and she slowly took my hand into hers.

"I want to ask you something Derek."

"Fire away," I mumbled angrily and I could see her making an effort to keep smiling.

"Were you at the Pine lake shopping centre today?"

I shrugged. "I went to a supermarket on my way back from a delivery. Never checked the name."

"Did you pay for an elderly coup..."

Once again my anger frothed over. "Yes I did!" I barked. "Am I going to be roasted for that as well? Did someone lay a charge of..."

"Derek!"

I took a deep breath. "Yes, I did. They didn't have enough money so I paid the account for them. Something wrong with it?"

Steffi turned fully to me and put her hands on my shoulders. She looked into my eyes and I could see just the start of tears forming. "They were friends of my Grandmother before she died. They gave most of their money to their son to start a business. All he did was to go on a world cruise and party until it was all gone. A small investment in off shore railway stock is all they have now."

I sat there looking at her and shook my head. "I wondered how it happened that old people are left destitute. But how did you find out?"

Steffi smiled. "We live close by and the cashier happens to be the daughter of my neighbours doing a gap year before university. She could not wait to get home and tell her parents of the wonderful guy who paid the old peoples' bill. She came over to my place to return a book and I got the story as well. She mentioned the logo on your shirt. I remembered it from the label on the overall you gave me to wear. Where is your phone?"

I glanced around and chuckled. "I think it is at the office. It was a little hectic this afternoon."

Steffi nodded. "Could have saved me the trip but then I would not have seen what Donald had done to you. What are you going to do?"

"With what?"

"About Donald and John attacking you. What else?"

"I can lay charges but then you would be in the middle of it. No matter how you handle something like this, it always stinks. Somewhere you waste hours in court and the only one that walks away with a smile is the lawyer. You can do me a favour though. Tell Donald that he must see to it that neither he nor that jerk should go anywhere by themselves. If I find them near a dark alley I will do them terrible damage. I charge interest."

She nodded as if deep in thought and then looked up and her eyes searched mine. After my anger outburst I felt a little awkward and looked away but her hand shot out and forced my face back to look at her. For long seconds I was subjected to further study and then she leaned to me and pulled my face to her. The kiss had me floundering. In my life I have been kissed a couple of times. Sometimes in the throes of passion but Steffi's lips was something else altogether. On my lips it was soft and all encompassing but the effect of it hammered against my soul.

Just as the surprise of it wore off and I readied myself to kiss back she gently pulled away. The disappointment of it was like a soft but no less painful punch in the gut. I leaned forward but she kept her distance and placed her fingers against my lips to stall any advance.

"I have to go," she said huskily and looked at me with that strange expression women have when they are ready to surrender to their passion but still fight it. I knew it only needed a simple gesture or touch from either of us and we would be ripping our clothes off but somewhere some small voice was yelling at me to back off. Reluctantly I got up and almost reached for her hand to help her up but locked the muscles in my arms and clenched my teeth. I knew. If I touched her again I was going to be all over her so I took the aching steps needed to get to the door and opened it.

She had a shy smile as she walked past me. "Chasing me away?"

I sighed long and deeply. "Letting you go. Please don't stop walking."

She nodded and walked to her car. I went with her as any well mannered man would do but kept my hands clasped behind my back again like a Gestapo. As she got into her car I stepped back far enough to make a mad dash for her less easy and stood there watching her waking the car.

As she started backing up she opened her window, leaned out and with a giggle said something I could not catch. I took a few quick steps forward but she only speeded up her exit from my driveway and I could hear her gleeful laughter as she rolled up her window.

She had been long gone but I still stood outside my house with my emotions running around like sheep with a wolf in their midst. Steffi was someone I had helped. Simple as that. Nothing else. Admittedly, I liked her. And then she kissed me. The feeling of her lips on mine was etched onto my memory as if it had been done with a branding iron. Try as I might I could not unfeel that moment and I knew I was smiling like a fool.

Pity she was hooked up with someone. A jealous coward at that.

I was in bed when I remembered her laughing as she left. I remembered acting like a school kid trying to get a kiss. Was she making fun of me? Was I a fool? The idea hurt. It angered me as well.

********************

When I got to my office the next morning I found my phone quite dead so I plugged it in to charge while I walked through the factory. Jimmy, the maintenance foreman joined me and soon my facial marks came up again.

"Found the guy yet?"

I sighed. "I know how to find him. Laying charges will lead to a lawyer making money but not much will happen. The court telling this guy that he is a naughty boy? Not worth it."

"You could sue the turd."

"Yeah, and then discover that he owns nothing."

Jimmy snickered. "Steal his girl."

I felt the shock of it going around my insides. For a while last night that had seemed a pleasant possibility but subsequently I had the idea that I had been taken for a fool. It still hurt and still angered me. If nothing else I had over thought that idea into a maelstrom of anger.

I had coffee with the workforce and sauntered up to my office. I kicked my phone to life and a whole list of missed calls came up. One number in particular drew my attention. The time it had come through gelled with about the time Steffi may have tried to get hold of me the previous night. Most of the others had names to them and I returned those. One call led to a very large order and I was excited when I walked into my production manager's office. May was that bubbling bulldozer everybody on the floor loved and feared at the same time. She could make a dead horse gallop by simply smiling at it or giving it 'the eye'. 'The eye' was feared and avoided at all costs, even by me.

It took that amazing woman only about an hour to work out a production schedule for the order and I phoned the customer to give him the list of delivery dates. Both of us were mighty chuffed.

Late afternoon a call came up and I glanced at it. It looked like Steffi's number. I ignored it.

On my way home my phone rang again and without looking I answered it. It was Steffi and she sounded funny but I let it pass.

"I phoned earlier," she said and it sounded as if she was pouting.

I was not in the mood for a pouting woman. "I noticed. I was busy."

"Is something wrong?" she asked after a few long seconds of silence.

"I'm busy," I lied. "Is there something you want?" I did not even try to mask the anger in my voice. One part of me wanted to tell her to go to hell while another remembered the kiss.

There was a long silence. "Sorry I bothered you Derek. Have a pleasant weekend," she said in a pained voice and dropped the call. For a second or two I soared, basking in the knowledge that I had returned the hurt. And then I felt like shit.

The weekend was anything but pleasant. I moped around the house. At times feeling angry. At others feeling sorry for myself. Saturday night I met with a few buddies, tried to drown my sorrows and woke up next morning with the mother of all hangovers. I had a head the size of a watermelon, filled with little men armed with spears, jabbing holes into my brain while others with jackhammers were trying to break out of my skull. Somewhere during the night my stomach had revolted and now I sat with nothing in there except gallons of bile. Every trip to the white throne resulted in painful retching and a sour bitter coating in my mouth.

Late afternoon I succeeded in keeping down half a sandwich and started feeling better. As it grew dark I became hungry. I had a long shower and got dressed. I drove to the mall and like a fool walked into the restaurant Steffi and I had had our first meal together. I ordered my favourite steak and after just a few mouthfuls of it I got up and left. It tasted like an old boot.

Back home I picked up a book to read. After reading a paragraph I threw it down. The television featured the lousiest collection of junk I had seen in years. I felt like hurling the remote through the screen. My favourite music jangled my nerves and in stupid anger I turned a superb CD into a frisbee. It hit a painting and ripped a tear into it. I roared my anger.

Monday morning I walked into the factory feeling like a bear with a sore tooth. May had a short meeting with me and left in a huff. Jimmy came past and told me to go to hell after I rebuffed him on a technical issue. By Wednesday I was about normal but still had the sense of humour attributable to a cyclone hitting a tented orphanage.

Just after lunch on Thursday, May came into my office and slammed the door shut. She had two mugs of coffee and placed both on my desk before taking a seat and glared at me.

"What is your problem Derek?"

My anger bubbled again. "Does it concern you May?"

She nodded and sneered at me. "It actually does Derek. Your lousy attitude since Friday has cost us quite a bit of production. The personnel are uneasy and it shows in their work. Jacky had a needle through her finger on Tuesday. In your wildest dreams you cannot imagine how painful it is when a sewing needle goes through bone."

I stared at her. "May? Are you off the rails? How on earth can you blame me for something like that?"

She shook her head. "I can't. I blame you for walking through the plant and not even greeting the personnel properly. They take it personally and they feel threatened or unhappy and even worried. That leads to a loss of concentration and that in turn leads to mistakes and accidents. Just so's you know mister. Thanks to the unhappiness down there on the floor we are almost a day behind schedule due to piles of rework."

I stared at her and slowly sat back in my chair. "So its my fault? What do you want?"

"I want to know what happened to you. Jimmy laughed himself into a fit two weeks ago when you arrived here looking like a legionary that had run into Obelix. Anger stewed in you but you were still the old Derek that we all love and respect. This week you have been awful. Did she drop you?"

"Who?"

May shrugged. "I have no idea but only pain or anger from deep down will cause a person to be so unhappy."

"Nobody dropped me."

"She the cause of your rather weird facial painting?"

My temper flared. "Think you're funny?"

May actually started laughing and I had to fight the urge to yell at her while she had a victor's smile all over her face. "You broke up with Sylvia and you were sad and a little out of sorts for a few days but at work you were fine. Who's the girl that had you beaten up?"

I sat looking at her and felt the corners of my mouth curl into a sneer. "Nobody had me beaten up but a girl by the name of Steffi is involved.

May giggled. "And how did this come about?"

I sighed. "I found her next to the road in that downpour we had Friday before last. Everything was locked in her car and I first took her to my house to warm up and dry out. Then I took her to dinner before dropping her off at a Guesthouse. A colleague of her boyfriend saw us and I assume he told his own story. Last Friday night the two arrived at my house and beat me up." I looked at May. "Happy?"