Laura Ray (Ray Series) (4 page)

Mary smiled at her, “No apology necessary. I’m glad you had a good time.”

Laura scooted the remainder of the cookies over onto another plate and picked up her cookie platter. She gave Mary a hug and said, “Thanks for inviting me. I did have a really good time.”

As she walked to the door she called to Danny to come with her and
goodbye to the men.

The next afternoon Laura asked Danny
, “Has Bobby Jackson bothered you anymore?”

Danny sat there and debated in his mind, how much he should tell her. “Mr. Roberts is helping us.”

“What do you mean? Mr. Roberts is helping you.”

“Remember when I got the black eye?”

“Yes.” She replied grateful that he had finally decided to confide in her.

“Well, Mr. Roberts told us that we needed to stand up for ourselves.”

“And what happened?” Laura encouraged.

“That’s when we got beat up, because there were some other boys who stepped in and helped him. Mr. Roberts said to wait until he was alone
before we tried again. He said to be smart and choose the time when we had the advantage.”

Laura waited until Danny went to his room and she called Harold on the phone. “Danny told me that you have been coaching the boys about how to
handle Bobby Jackson. He told me that you encouraged them to fight him. Is that right?”

“Laura, I don’t want to offend you or teach Danny to do something that is against your principles
. I believe that if they don’t stand up for themselves, he will continue to bully them.”

“I suppose you are right. I just don’t want him hurt.” Laura said wishing it could be otherwise.

“Laura, I understand this is painful to you, but if Danny is to grow up to be a man instead of a wimp he needs to learn to stand up for himself. You know that Danny spends a lot of time with Aaron at our house.”

“Yes,” Laura agreed, “I really appreciate you taking an interest in the boys.”

“No problem, I talk to him just like I do Aaron. They are like two peas in a pod,” Harold replied. “I bought some boxing gloves and I let them spar a little. They really are getting good at it.”

“Danny has never told me about that,” Laura said surprised.

“He told me that you didn’t approve of him fighting so I think he is being a little cautious about telling you, afraid that you will tell him that he doesn’t have permission.” Harold stated hoping he hadn’t gone over his bounds on this.

“Danny is right about that. I have always told him to turn the other cheek so to speak. As far as him sparring with boxing gloves in a controlled environment, that’s a different issue.” Laura explained. “Mostly I have taught him not to fight because I didn’t want him to become a bully and become offensive to other children.”

“Right,” Harold agreed. “I know that these things are hard for women to understand. Mary has had a hard time accepting that Aaron needs to defend his rights. Laura, this is something that boys go through, part of growing up.”

Laura groaned.

Harold chuckled. “It’s okay. Our boys will be just fine.”

She hung up the phone and put her face in her hands.
“Oh, God. I don’t want our boys hurt.”

Aaron and Danny were waiting for the right time
to take on the bully, Bobby Jackson. Laura remembered reading in the paper a while back that the divorce for Bobby’s parents had gone through. Obviously the boy had anger issues and was taking it out on Aaron and Bobby. Because she had forbid him to fight, Danny had become an easy target for him.

She reasoned with herself as she shook her head in frustration, this is one of those issues where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Still her son was in danger from a bully every time he went to school. The boys were biding their time to take him on. Any day she could come home to a son with cuts and bruises, broken arm, or maybe worse.

Chapter Four

As Laura went to work the next morning, she still felt like a cloud hung over their heads. She tried to shake off the glum and paste a happy smile on her face when she greeted Mr. Hudson. She would push all that out of her mind and have a happy work day.

Ralph Hudson noticed
again that Laura had something worrying her. “Laura, is something troubling you?” he asked.

She turned a sweet
smile his direction and declared, “Oh, no. I’m just fine.”

He walked back to his office with a satisfied smile. He knew exactly how he could help her. He sat down behind his desk and rubbed himself in anticipation. Now wasn’t the time yet.

He watched the clock all afternoon. He must time it just right. Stands to reason he told himself, if she had nothing bothering her then she must be sexually frustrated. He touched himself again. He was the man for the job. He smiled in anticipation. At precisely three, Mr. Hudson called Laura into his office.

Laura walked in with a questioning look on her face, “What do you need, Mr. Hudson?”

He stood up and walked around his desk and put his hand on her shoulder, “I noticed that you are still troubled about something. How can I help you?”

She smiled shaking her head and tried to step back, “Oh, no, Mr. Hudson. I’m just fine.”

“Well, in that case, I know just what to do for you.” He still hadn’t turned loose of her shoulder.

That’s when she looked closer and saw that leer in his eyes again. The smile with the dirty, stained, yellow teeth came closer to her face
. Frantically, she tried to dart toward the door.

He held on and maneuvered himself between her and the door. She tried to dodge around him to no avail. He put his arms around her and said, “I can help you, Laura.”

She attempted to whirl around hoping to break loose from his hold. She was amazed at how strong a skinny man could be.

He ca
ught hold of her arms just below her armpits and pushed her arms back. Her blouse ripped and a button popped off exposing part of her front to him much to her humiliation.

“I don’t want your help!” She said through clenched teeth as she twisted trying to break her arms loose.

She kicked him in the chin and tried to kick him higher but he expected it and dodged just in time. He still didn’t turn lose of the grip he had on her upper arms. She knew that the way his fingers were digging into the flesh she would have bad bruises on her arms. She thought if she could break her arms lose she could hit him in the stomach really hard with her elbow.

She began to yell, but nobody else was in the building since he had a private building. Then she remembered that all the doors and windows were closed.
She realized too late that nobody could hear her no matter how loud she yelled.

She
scolded herself, why didn’t she think about this? Why didn’t she quit before when she threaten to leave? She had been forewarned from the way he acted the last time. How could she be so stupid to not recognize the signs?

She renewed her energy. She stamped on his toes but by this time he was pushing her backward onto the couch. She fell unable to keep her balance. He immediately piled on her holding both her hands in one of his
stretched the full length of her arms above her head. There was no way she could pull them loose. With his other hand he unfastened his pants and pulled her skirt up. She could already feel his engorged shaft.

When he turned her hands loose to support his rhythm, she scratched his face and neck. Nothing seemed to deter this man.

She reached to pull his hair but he was too fast for her. She screamed over and over but to no avail. She tried to bite him on the face. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head to the side while he sucked on her neck. Over and over she felt the hickeys grow. She twisted her head back and forth trying to break his face away from her neck.

All this time he was driving into her. Finally he finished with a jerk. He lay on her and jerked about four times then he relaxed. She waited for him to get up.

Finally he stood up, “Now, Laura, you won’t be so uptight. You’re good though,” he said with a smile. “I like a fighter.”

Then he had the gall to say, “You can straighten up now. I hope you enjoyed it.”

By this time Laura didn’t even have the strength to yell at him like she wanted. She rolled off the couch onto her hands and knees.

He stood watching her tumble to the floor and then said, “I’m going to leave now so you can get yourself back together. Lock up when you leave.”

Laura managed to get to her feet and walked to her desk on wobbly legs to get her purse and coat, thankful that it was a long coat to cover her nakedness on the drive home. As she left out of the office, she deliberately left open the office door hoping somebody would rob him blind.

When she got home she filled the bathtub as full and as hot as she dared. She scrubbed herself over and over until her skin was red as much from scrubbing as from the hot water. She went to John’s closet and found the biggest robe that he had and wrapped it around her. She went into the living room and sat in John’s big chair and fell asleep.

Danny came in from school and that’s how he found her. He started to touch her to wake her but when he saw all the bruises on her neck, he whimpered, “Momma?” He watched her but she didn’t respond. He left her sleeping and went into the kitchen to call Mary on the phone.

When she answered, he said in a little voice half in tears, “I don’t know what happened, but Momma’s hurt. Would you come over?”

Chapter Five

Mary walked in the door and saw Laura in the big chair. Danny sat stiffly on the couch with his hands together between his knees. Tears streamed down his face.

Mary took a closer look at Laura and put her hands over her mouth and said, “Oh, my God! No!”

“Danny, I need you to go stay with Aaron. I need to talk to your mom privately.”

Danny stood and grabbed his coat off the floor where he dropped it earlier. When he got to the door he turned to ask, “Is she going to be okay?”

Mary went over and hugged Danny, “Yes, Danny, your mom is going to be okay. I’m going to take really good care of her.”

Mary rubbed Laura’s hand to wake her.

Laura woke with a start and jerked her hand away. She couldn’t stand anybody to touch her.

When she saw Mary kneeling before her with tears in her eyes, she reached out and the two women embraced each other until their sobs subsided.

“He raped me, Mary, he raped me.”

“Who raped you, Laura? Was it Mr. Hudson?”

Laura nodded and the tears gushed out of her eyes again.

Mary brought a kitchen chair in so she could sit beside Laura and talk to her.

“I should have known better.” Laura berated herself. “I saw the signs that he could be that way but I thought he had changed.”

“What do you mean, you saw signs?” Mary asked.

“Back before school was out last year, he used to brush up against me in the wrong way. Or he would accidentally touch me where he shouldn’t. Once he even massaged my shoulders in such a way that he kept pushing his fingers down touchi
ng the tops of my breasts.” Laura stopped feeling the anger boil up within her. “That’s when I told him if he ever touched me again, I would quit and never walk in the door again.”

She shook her head and began to cry again, “Today, he-he just came unglued, so to speak.”

She rubbed her neck where the awful bruises were, “He was like a mad man, determined. No matter how much I yelled or fought.”

Mary looked at Laura’s fingernails. They were torn and she could see where in places they had been bent backwards.

“I don’t want Danny to see me this way. Could you have him stay with Aaron a few days?” she begged.

Mary wiped tears from her eyes, “Sure Danny can stay with us as long as need be.” She hung her head, “I’m sorry.” Mary smoothed the hair away from Laura’s brow, “It’s too late. Danny is the one who called me and told me you were hurt. I sent him to stay with Aaron until I decided what to do.”

“Oh,” Laura leaned her head back on the big chair. “I should have called you when I first got home. I couldn’t think about anything but washing.”

“Sure,” Mary said in a soothing voice, “I understand. Danny will be just fine. I agree that maybe he shouldn’t have seen you, but he also needs to understand
some of why you are sick. This is hard to get well from--not only physically but emotionally.

Mary tried to get Laura to eat some soup but she was too nauseated so she tucked her in bed. Mary went to the kitchen phone to call Harold. She explained what had happened.

Harold took care of the boys and sent them to bed. Danny was really worried about his mom but Harold assured him that Mary was taking care of her and she would be okay.”

After Harold knew that the boys were asleep he called Mary’s brother, Arthur. “Could you come over? I have a job to do and I hope you’re with me in it.”