Chapter Three
The Morning After
I sat nervously staring at the door in front of me, waiting. I hadn’t been able to get much sleep. My thoughts had been too focused in stressful anticipation of this moment to rest. Rafael would be waking up soon and I wondered what his opinion of the strange man, who would be staying with us for a while, would be.
Probably not good. I wasn’t comfortable with the big white man staying with us either, but what choice did I have? I hadn’t really been given one.
I almost fell off the chair when an abrupt knock sounded on the door that rattled it on its hinges.
Nervously I approached the door and asked, “Who is it?”
My voice came out as a squeak. I cleared my throat and asked again.
“Guess.” Came the deep voiced reply from the other side of the door.
I reached out and slipped the deadbolts free. I quickly backed away from the door towards the counter. I had laid the big pistol on the counter earlier and now I stood beside it, but I didn’t pick it up. It wouldn’t do to provoke him in any way.
The door opened and he came in and kicked it shut with one foot. His arms were full of bags!
He studied me for a moment and then my proximity to the pistol on the counter and seemed to nod his head in approval before continuing on to the table where he dumped all the bags. What were in the bags?
It looked like food! He had brought food?
He picked up one bag and motioned for me to sit in the chair at the table. A moment of panic overwhelmed me, because that meant I had to leave the pistol behind!
He must’ve read my mind, because he scooted the chair towards me and I for lack of anything better to do sat down on it next to the counter. He got the other chair and placed it directly in front of me and before I knew what he was doing he raised a leg over and sat down blocking my knees inside of his wider spread ones.
He was way too close! He didn’t seem to mind a bit that he was completely invading my space. He was lining stuff up on the counter beside us. Medicine!
He had bought medicine for me?
My one eye must have conveyed some sense of the shock I felt at the knowledge that he’d spent money on medicine for me.
“What?” He asked studying me curiously.
I shook my head and looked down at my lap where my hands were nervously clutched together. I heard movement and glanced up to see Rafael standing there in his bed clothes right beside us. His little face was one of shock and utter consternation, as he looked from one to the other of us.
Finally he looked at the stranger and spoke with a gusto only matched by a five-year-old, “You did this?”
The big stranger shook his head no watching the little boy, “No I did not.”
Rafael looked uncertain then as to what to say.
“Rafael this man will be staying with us for a few days.” I said softly.
The little boy quickly came to the most likely conclusion and turned back to me and spit out the word, “Whore!”
He then turned and started to storm back toward the bedroom, but he stranger caught a hold of him with one hand and halted his progress, “That’s no way to speak to your mother!”
Rafael struggled within the stranger’s grasp and screamed out, “She’s not my mother! My mother’s dead!”
The stranger let go of Rafael, who ran into the bedroom and slammed the door. The stranger’s frankly curious gaze came back to mine asking a question.
Quickly I mumbled out, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
I looked down hoping that he wouldn’t make me tell him. He was quiet for a moment and then he started to clean my face better than I had done last night. His big fingers were surprisingly deft in their task, even gentle.
“This might burn some.” He said softly.
It did, but I remained still. He finished with my face and got up, but was back again within moments. He held out several pills and a bottle of water. I took them from him and swallowed them with a few sips of water.
I handed the bottle back to him and he took it and set it on the counter. His fingers started unbuttoning my shirt and I looked up quickly to meet his eyes. His eyes never left mine, until the shirt was undone. He looked down, but his face was devoid of any emotion.
He pulled my shirt to the sides, but didn’t take it off or make any move to remove my bra. His fingers reached out and gently touched the dark bruise to the side of my stomach and I shifted a little from the pain.
He continued pressing with his fingers and I knew he was checking to see if I was swollen inside. I tried to be still, but it hurt.
“Sorry.” He said softly.
His eyes glanced up to mine, “Just bruises.”
I nodded, my lips feeling dry and then he re-buttoned my shirt all the way to the top. He picked up my one hand and started cleaning the dried blood crusted to the knuckles. I hadn’t even bothered to try to clean my hand last night or this morning.
I studied him, as he was focused in on my hand. What was it that he wanted from me?
He had to want something. He wanted information on Victor, but that was no reason for doing all this. He didn’t even demand I service him. Why?
My study of him was interrupted when he asked, with a curious tone to his voice, “You hit Victor?”
“No, I hit a mirror.”
He looked up and I glanced away swallowing hard with emotion. His finger brought my face back around and he shook his head softly and then went back to the job of wrapping my hand. I stared at him in sudden frustration.
It was so easy to hate all men, why did he have to make me feel that he was different somehow? Surely he would do something soon to make me hate him. Yes that was it. It had to be!
He finished with my hand and for the first time I caught a hint of awkwardness as he lightly tapped the top of my thigh,
“Anything….?” He briefly glanced up and then back down and then away.
Repeating himself he asked, “Any problems?”
His somewhat shy awkwardness was a mystery and yet it was refreshing in some way.
“No, they make pencils that are bigger than Victor.”
He looked up at me sharply and I could tell that I had shocked him. He looked away, but not before I caught the glimpse of a smile.
“Let’s get some food ready.” He said standing quickly and walking towards the table. Unbelievably he began to cook!
The smell of food and better than that, good food, soon brought Rafael out of the bedroom.
I was stuffed! I shouldn’t have eaten so much. It probably looked bad. The full stomach was making me sleepy to. The stranger got up and headed for the sink and I had mutely started to get up, when a big palm on my shoulder pushed me back down into my seat.
I stayed there listening to him clean the dishes in a sleepy sense of shock at the strange change of events. He pulled up on my elbow and I stood up. He started leading me toward the bedroom. I was suddenly wide awake.
When he reached the room he said, “Lie down.”
I did as he said and he rolled me onto my stomach and I knew that he was going to make me hate him now. He started rubbing my back and I waited for the massage to end, but he just kept rubbing and kneading with his big hands.
I’d never had a client do this to me before. It felt good, but it filled me with questions and I asked, “You’re not going to….?”
My voice trailed off, but my meaning was clear enough.
“I told you I wouldn’t, didn’t I?” He said.
His big hands never stopped moving and I relaxed under the deep pressure of them. Surprisingly I trusted the stranger to keep his word, as unbelievable a thing as that was.
I was getting very sleepy and I just couldn’t help myself. Somewhat slurred sounding even to my own ears I asked, “What’s your name?”
“Clark.”
It wasn’t the kind of name I would’ve pictured for him. I closed my eyes and sunk into the pillow all thought drifting from me.
Clark continued deliberately pressing on Evangelina’s pressure points knowing that he would render her into a deep unconsciousness within moments.
He felt her breathing deepen and knew she was asleep. He kept up his movements for a little while longer and then stopped altogether.
Clark turned to the little boy watching from the doorway and brought a finger up in the universal sign to be quiet as he got up off the bed. Clark stepped out of the room leaving Evangelina alone in the room and closed the door behind him
I came awake with a start my head lifting off the pillows. The shadows were long in the room. I sat up in alarm.
I had slept the entire day away!
I got out of the bed and noticed immediately that everything felt better, even my face. I opened the door, but stopped when I heard voices. It was Rafael and the stranger. I could see Rafael well, but I couldn’t see, what was his name, Clark. I couldn’t see Clark, but I could hear him.
Rafael was asking a question, “Why do you not use Evangelina for your pleasure? Other men do.”
I let my head fall against the doorpost as my heart constricted painfully.
“Because I’m not a whore.” Came the deep response.
I picked my head up slightly not sure I’d heard Clark right.
Rafael’s voice was confused sounding as well, “I do not understand? She is the whore, not you.”
“The man is as guilty as the woman is. There both whores when they participate in activities meant for marriage relationships only. My opinion is that the man is the worst of the two, generally speaking.”
Rafael openly sounded confused now, “How is that?”
There was a momentary pause, “There both sinning, but the man is the one with the money usually. He’s the one that seeks out the sin. He doesn’t need to, but he desires to, when in reality the sin might never have to happen if he didn’t give in to his own lust. Now for the woman’s part it’s not often desire that’s the reason behind her choice, but necessity or so it would seem. Let me ask you something. Do you think Evangelina desires her line of work?”
Rafael’s response was quick, “No! She hates it, but if she stopped we would starve!”
There was a pause and then Rafael asked inquisitively, “Haven’t you been a man whore, as you put it?”
“I was at one time.” Came the deep reply.
“It’s a time in my life that I’m trying not to repeat. You see Rafael; a person can quit something they’re doing wrong at any time.”
“There’s nothing else for her to do! She’s tried! We would starve!”
“There can be consequences to doing the right thing Rafael. Yes, you could starve, but perhaps something unforeseen could occur and you might not starve. The important thing is to not only die in honor, but also to live by honor. There are other ways of dying than starvation. You can die inside before your body does on the outside.”
“I still can’t see a way out! We would starve!” Rafael exclaimed in puzzlement.
The conversation seemed to come to an end and I waited a little letting some time go by, as the conversation replayed over and over in my head.
I opened the door the rest of the way and stepped into the other room. Rafael saw me and got up off the floor quickly.
“Have you eaten Rafael?” He quickly nodded and I said, “Then it’s time for you to go to bed.”
He started to argue.
“Don’t argue! Bed now!” I said motioning to the other room and reluctantly he went.
It was hard to imagine, but I was hungry.
“On the table.”
I glanced over and saw a plate full of food all ready there.
“Probably a little cold, sorry. I didn’t want to wake you.”
I sat down at the table and he got up off the floor and sat across from me in the evening gloom.
“You heard all that didn’t you?” He asked.
I looked up and nodded slightly.
“I’m sorry if I made you feel guilty. It’s not my place to judge.”
“But it’s the truth.” I said softly before finishing my meal.
After I was done I looked up to see him watching me.
“Where do you want me to begin with Victor?” I asked.
“Anywhere you want to.”
I began to talk and he would ask questions that prompted me to remember things I hadn’t even thought of as important, but that he seemed to think were. Two hours went by and I felt the topic of Victor was completely exhausted of anything new to say. We sat in complete darkness.
“That’s all I know.” And it was enough to get me killed several times over, but I didn’t say that.
“Thank you Evangelina.”
I got up and started for the bedroom, but I stopped and turned back, “Clark?”
“Yes?”
“I’m ready to die even willing to, but how can I either live or die in honor when I know what will happen to Rafael after I’m gone? How Clark?”
I left him with that question and continued on to the bedroom closing the door behind me.