Ding Dong!! Is She Dead? (4 page)

Sally seemed to accept the fact that her mom was okay and wanted to get started on the card to make her mother feel better faster. Allie got her started on the other bed and pulled the curtain around her so that Sally wouldn’t be able to see as much of what was going on. After getting her settled, Allie went around the curtain to see Megan.

“So did the Doctor tell you that you have a concussion?” Allie whispered to Megan. She pulled up the closest chair next to the bed so that Sally wouldn’t overhear the conversation.

“He said that it was a good thing that you got me here because I had lost a lot of blood. They had to go in and stitch up a few things inside that got hurt when Mike started hitting me. I’m not sure exactly what they fixed, but they have given me so much medicine I’m feeling kind of loopy. I’m just glad I got to see Sally today and let her know that everything will be just fine.”

“I got to see the officers and tell them what little I knew about what happened.”

Before she could tell Megan anything else, the lady from the Umbrella Shelter arrived with the lawyer. The lady, Ms. Cooke offered to take Sally outside so that they could talk freely to the lawyer. Allie agreed, but asked that she stay close by. Before they could begin, the police officers Long and Grayson showed up to get Megan’s statement.

“We need to get your statement, Ma’am.” Officer Long was abrupt because he really considered this a waste of time.

“Yes, I will tell you what happened. I was a little out of it earlier. Mike went out to hang with the guys and I guess they had too much to drink. It was after 2 a.m. when I went to sleep and he hadn’t made it home yet. I guess he slept in the truck, I’m not really sure, but I guess that he woke up because the bus driver was honking for Sally to come out. He blames me for not getting him to the house before the neighbors could see him this morning.”

“Anyway his neck had gotten a kink in it from where he passed out crooked in the truck’s seat. So he busted the door in because he still didn’t have his keys to unlock it and came after me. I normally just stand still so that he will be less aggressive. If I fight him or try to move away when he hits me it makes him angrier. I would have just waited to take my punishment so that we would get it over with quickly and be done, but this morning he was really angry. I could see the fire in his eyes and knew that if I didn’t move away he would kill me.”

“I started to run and he tackled me from behind. I started trying to move away by crawling on my stomach and get away out of his reach. I figured that since he had landed on the floor with me, he wouldn’t be able to recover as quickly. I could still smell the alcohol on his breath, he was still really drunk. I thought I could scoot away and then try to run out the front door.”

“He recovered much faster than I thought he could, I guess fueled by anger. He grabbed my ankle; jerking me back toward him which made me hit my head on the edge of the coffee table. He pulled me up so hard by my arm that I think he broke it. I was facing him on my knees, trying not to pass out when he placed both hands on my waist and shoved me backwards on the top of the coffee table making it collapse. Once I was on my back, he just started hitting me. Anywhere he could find a place, which because he was on his knees was mostly my ribs and stomach. I was hurting so bad at that point I didn’t have a chance to protect myself, not that it would have helped. I think I passed out after a while and I guess that took some of the fun out of it for him. He was gone when I came to and I crawled in the bathroom because I was afraid that I would pass out again if I tried to stand up.”

“I didn’t want to call the police,” nodding toward the officers, “it wouldn’t have helped since he is one himself. I was just going to rest and clean up before Sally got home, but Allie got there for lunch. I was hurt much worse than I thought and now there is no way that we can go back because he will make me pay for reporting it. It is always better to ignore it and try to get back to normal, but this time I can’t ignore this. Sally shouldn’t have to see this kind of thing happen.”

“I just hate that we have to do this. If he just apologizes, that could change everything right?” Officer Long was hoping that they could skip pressing charges and if Megan just let him apologize then everything would be taken care of quietly.

“From what you have just told us and we have seen the crime scene now, we had a pretty good idea what had happened. An apology won’t work. We have to process this and act like it was a total stranger that broke into your house. You have been assaulted, Ma’am and that comes with some consequences for your husband. We take these kind of things seriously so that it won’t be able to happen again. Since Mike is an officer that will not go well. He knows it is illegal to intentionally harm someone.” Officer Grayson was the one that had spoken up in Megan’s defense while her partner had just stood there not really approving of where this was going.

“We will go and get this report filed with our boss and see what he and the DA can come up with to charge Mike with.”

They left Megan and Allie with the lawyer who was ready to help based on the information that Megan had given the officers.

The lawyer, Mr. Jones immediately saw that Megan would not be able to make any major decisions while she was still conflicted about going back to Mike.

He directed most of his questions to Allie, “I’m going to say that she is not capable of caring for her child in this condition. That could cause some problems, but since you were the one that she gave permission to pick her child up from school, this should allow Sally to stay with you for the moment. We will have to get some paper work drawn up so that you are the legal caretaker until such a time as her mother is fit to take back those responsibilities.”

“Considering the evidence that we have gotten from the police officers that went over to the house and the pictures that you took of her condition, we will be asking the DA to go ahead and press charges.”

“Now, I am taking a petition to the judge for a protective order so the father cannot have custody or come within 500 feet of where either Sally or Megan are residing. Since he is in law enforcement this will make things much more difficult to enforce, but we will recommend to his supervisor over at the Sheriff’s office that he be removed from duty until this is resolved. We have also asked that he turn his gun in since there is reason to believe that he is at risk to commit more violence not only to him-self, but to others as well.”

“We have an emergency hearing with the Judge in 20 minutes to get this started on Megan’s behalf. I can almost guarantee that he has been informed of this incident by now and is aware of where his wife and child are for the moment. For tonight I would advise that you take Sally to your house and make sure that you report anything that seems out of place to you. I have your information and if there is anything that needs to be changed, I will let you know.” Handing Allie his card, he turned to Megan.

“Ms. Butts, we will be doing everything we can to make sure that your husband is not able to hurt you anymore. I need a verbal okay that your daughter may spend the night with Ms. Foster for the record?”

“Yes, Sally is to be with Allie Foster when she is not at school or in the event that anything should happen to me, Allie is to take care of her and become her legal guardian.” Allie immediately started to make a fuss, but Megan shushed her.

“Allie, you know that anything can happen in life and I don’t want to leave Sally without someone to take care of her in case the worse happens. It won’t, but just in case it does, I want to make sure that she is okay. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Let me tell Sally goodnight and then you can send the nurse in with those extra meds she promised she would fix me up with.”

Allie hurried out to get Sally, but she didn’t miss the gentle approach of Mr. Jones as he laid his hand on Megan’s arm assuring her that everything would be okay.

Sally hugged her mom and told her that they were going to eat pizza and watch movies. Blowing her a kiss, Megan closed her eyes exhausted yet relieved that Sally was in good hands for the night. The nurse came in and started the pain medication thru the IV.

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Sally grabbed Allie’s hand and walked out of the hospital explaining what she did and did not want on her pizza. “No, little fishies or mushrooms, but can we have ham with cheese and pineapples? Oh, and we can watch Frozen while we wait for the pizza to come right, Miss Allie?”

Nodding seemed to be the only answer that Sally was expecting. At least with this child you did not have to worry about what she was thinking. She just told you everything in long unending sentences. Children were not really worriers unless you were in a horrible situation that they were immersed in. Unless it was happening right that moment then most children were blessed with the ability to go right back to their happy selves.

After, a quiet evening of pizza and two princess movies, Sally finally fell asleep on the couch. Climbing into her own bed Allie was very glad that she didn’t have to work that night. The day had taken its toll on Allie and she was worn out.

7 a.m. came early after having had control of her own schedule for the past two months. She was thankful that she didn’t have a job that she had to report in for at a certain time. This early morning seemed like extreme torture; Allie really felt for all of the parents that had to get up and do this every morning. Sally knew the drill for getting ready and they made it to school on time, with breakfast in the form an unhealthy pop-tart.

Realizing as they got into the car that she didn’t have a booster seat for Sally, she promised that she would pick one up for this afternoon. Megan would not be able to get the car seat that had been in Mike’s car so she planned to make a Walmart stop so that Sally would have a safe ride while in her care.

Assuring Sally that she would be there to pick her up, she kissed her on the head and sent her into school along with all the other children. Allie had a moment when she realized what was missing from her life, someone that was depending on her to take care of them. Since she had started her new Nova business, Allie had become involved with adding to her team and making their lives better. Helping others helped her to keep some of the loneliness at bay; a family of her own would definitely cure the sadness.

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Allie was tempted to go back home and sleep, but realized that she had missed the rest of her deliveries the day before. Leaving the school she hurried to the hospital to see Megan before she headed out to finish up her interrupted day.

Megan looked much worse than she had the day before because the bruises had started to show up in blues and purples. This morning she was already awake, having a little bit of liquid while sitting up in the bed. Megan was waiting for the doctor to make his rounds and let her know exactly how badly she had been damaged on the inside. Since she had been on so much medication for the pain from the day before, she was hoping that he could explain where all of the pain was coming from.

Megan gave Allie the ‘schedule’ for the day; it looked like Mr. Jones would be there about 11a.m. to have Megan sign all the paperwork from the court from the day before. This way they could get started securing the temporary custody problem and would be on the way to making it full time custody. The Umbrella Shelter was sending an advocate by to help Megan know what steps she would need for starting over. The advocate would help her assess the situation and see what would be the best ways to accomplish getting back to a semi normal state. Megan had signed the papers for Allie to be on the school list of approved people that could pick Sally up. Since it was only eight in the morning, Allie planned to get some deliveries made and be back at the hospital by 11 so that she could hear what the lawyer had to say.

Allie headed to the bank, since it was the closest and she needed to deposit the money from yesterday. Allie didn’t like to have money lying around that could be an incentive for someone to rob her. Having lived in a big city for most of her life, Allie always took extra precautions to ensure her safety.

There was a whole box of orders for the ladies at the bank. Allie collected the demo for the week, her newest fragrance from the car and armed herself with the latest brochures. The goal was to sell at least 10 bottles this week by giving the customers $10 off the price. Allie would still make $5 a bottle and it would help her sales go up so that she could hit the next selling level. By giving the ladies a discount it allowed them to save money while keeping them as returning customers who were satisfied. This was the fun part of delivering that allowed Allie to find out what was going on in her customer’s lives. Through chatting about their daily activities; it allowed Allie to see what products from the brochure would fit best with their needs this week.

It was hard being cheerful while Megan was in the hospital hurt. Most people were so caught up in their own lives that they unintentionally didn’t notice those that might be hurting. They simply were not focused on others around so they missed when they were hurting. It wasn’t that they were trying to being mean or unfeeling; many people just tended to ignore situations that made them feel uncomfortable or they simply didn’t know how to react.