There sat Angela. Early thirties and five months pregnant, sitting on the sidewalk in a city that she was unfamiliar to her on a fall evening. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail. Her coat was loosely pulled over her nightgown. The glazed over eyes stared straight forward as she thought about what had just happened. She couldn't believe it. Michael, her husband, had just abandoned her and their unborn child. Just left her right in the middle of the city where he had taken her. She had no idea where he was going, but it didn't seem important to her anymore. He was gone.
She was scared, nervous, cold, tired, and quite frankly, just desperate. All her emotions though, she kept to herself. This was not the area where she wanted to look her most vulnerable. Then again, how could she not? Just the way she was dressed told everyone that she had ran away from something and that she had no where to go. Great.
Although it had felt as though she had been sitting for hours, she reminded herself that Michael had only left her moments ago. No matter the time though, it still all seemed like some nightmare to her. The last forty eight hours had been completely horrific. All she had wanted to do was to somehow get home.
It was time to stand up and take some sort of action, anything to get herself closer to home. As soon as a young man carrying a little girl had passed her, she stood up and sighed. It was going to be miserable, but she figured that if she were going to get anywhere that she was going to have to walk most of the way. It took her a moment, but she decided to follow the direction that the man and child were going in. It somewhat seemed like the direction that she had earlier come from, if she were remembering right.
Trying to guess on which direction to walk in, she just blankly stared. This was something that she had never had to do before, and now was definitely the time to learn, if she could. If she didn't, there was no telling where she would end up. The most that she knew was if she got to New York City, that she could get to the train that she took to work everyday, but what ever direction that was in, she had no idea. So far, she had not seen any signs, which was honestly starting to make her more and more nervous.
"Daddy!" a little girl wailed.
Angela was brought back into reality as soon as she heard the little girl start to whimper. A couple of feet ahead, she could see a red ribbon on the sidewalk, one that she could remember seeing on the little girl as the man had walked past her. She went over and picked up the ribbon and walked over to the man who was trying to figure out what the girl was fussing over. "Excuse me, is this what you lost?" Angela asked standing beside the man as she held out the ribbon to the girl.
The little brown haired girl squealed in delight as soon as she saw the ribbon. As quickly as she could, she leaned over and grabbed it which caused Angela to laugh.
The man turned with a warm smile to thank her, but that quickly faded as soon as he saw the woman. She had a black eye. His first thought was that she was abused. "Ma'am, are you alright?" he implored. His eyes remaining on the injury.
Angela just nodded. "I'm fine," she answered as she forced a smile. Receiving a disbelieving look, she felt the need to reassure. "Really."
He could see that he was making her uncomfortable. "I'm sorry," he replied. He was about to go on and give the woman an explanation, but was stopped.
Angela put her hand up, "trust me, I understand. The eye right?" she casually questioned.
He slightly shrugged. "Well, yeah, that and the outfit, but I guess if there's a way of showing off that you have silk pajamas, there it is." The man softly laughed as he motioned to the part of the nightgown that was showing under the coat.
Angela laughed. "Don't worry. The black eye if from walking into the door because my stupid husband turned the light off and then the outfit is because he got called to go away and he had leave right away and I wanted to see him off," she explained. She hated lying to people, but no one, especially a stranger, really needed to know. It wasn't their problem to deal with, it was her's and only her's.
He didn't fully believe it. The eye part, well, he had done that himself. The part explaining the outfit? No. There was still that lingering thought that had told him that she had been abused. Instead of letting her know that though, he laughed. "I've done that with the eye." There was a small silence after she had softly laughed. "Hey, one good deed deserves another," casually mentioning the ribbon. "You need anything?" he offered. It was the only way that he could think to bring up asking her if she needed help or something without making things to obvious.
"Actually," she hesitantly started. She was starting to think that she might as well get some small help to get her home quicker. "You think you could tell me the quickest way to get to Fairfield Connecticut from here?"
"Well," he started. "I've never been there, but I have a road map in my apartment if you want," he offered.
Angela let out a small sigh of relief. "That would be wonderful. Thank you very much," she said, but stopped as soon as she realized that he hadn't introduced himself yet.
"Tony," he informed her. "I would shake your hand, but uh," he motioned his head towards his daughter. "I got my hands full with Samantha here."
"It's okay," Angela assured him. "I'm Angela by the way."
Tony smiled to her. "Nice to meet you." Although, he had really wished it were under different circumstances.
Almost silently, the three walked to his apartment building. Angela was just relieved to be able to figured out a way back home with out so much guess work. After everything that had been going on lately, she wasn't so sure that she was thinking all that clearly to begin with, and adding that to the sleep depravation, she was pretty much lost.
"We're not getting too far from where your car is are we?" Tony inquired as they turned the corner. Right now, he didn't think it was such a good idea to have her out wondering the streets by herself. If they were getting too far, he would have offered to drive her bak to where they started.
Angela just shook her head. "Its fine," she lied. The last thing that she wanted was more questions. The eye was the only mark that she wasn't able to cover. As she walked, she could still feel her nightgown sticking to the blood on her back, right below her right shoulder. One thing she was glad about though, the baby was not hurt. That was the one biggest thing that she was grateful for. Most of the injuries were to her shoulders, upper back and a few on her chest. As soon as she got to the apartment, she was going to ask to go to the bathroom to try and see exactly what had been done to her.
"Okay, here we are," Tony announced as he lead her up the steps to the front entrance.
Angela studied the place as they made their way up to his apartment. The inside, so far wasn't all that bad. It wasn't what Angela was used to, but it was better than she had thought it would be. They walked over to the elevator and got up to his floor. Tony's room was the last down the hall, where he opened the door for Angela and allowed her to go in.
Angela stepped in and looked around. The place was kept up, for what was there. It all seemed a little run down, but she was not about to complain about that.
"I'm sorry about the place, I've been busy the past few days," Tony said. He could tell just by the looks of her, the clothes that she was wearing, that she was a bit used to a fancier life style.
Angela just laughed. "I understand. My housekeeper quit a while ago," she stated without even thinking about where she was at the moment.
"Whoa, a housekeeper," he teased, impressed at her wealth. That was something that people rarely ever heard of where he lived, in Brooklyn.
Angela turned to him, instantly embarrassed at her last remark. "Well, with both Michael and I working," she started to quickly explain. Even though, after she started, she felt that it really didn't help anything.
"Yeah, that makes sense," Tony said. Tony had discovered that Samantha had fallen asleep and gently set her down on the couch. "Here, I'll go grab you the map. Meanwhile, make yourself at home," he instructed.
"Do you mind if I use the bathroom?" Angela implored. She was somewhat anxious to see how bad the damage was so that she could at least try and clean herself up a little.
"Sure, down the hall and to the right," he motioned to towards the small hallway.
"Thank you," Angela said. She turned and walked the short distance. As soon as she closed the door behind her, she stood before the mirror. Cautiously, she slid off her coat, revealing blue and purple bruises covering her chest and shoulders. Reaching back while she slightly turned to see her back in the mirror, she carefully pulled the cloth off of the wound. The dried blood stained her back, but the deep red seemed to blend in with the bruising. The cut which had just started to feel better was now stinging as it began to bleed again from the removal of some of the scab. Instead of letting the blood dry to the nightgown again, she took some tissue and lightly wet it, then used it to wipe the blood away. While the water was running, she decided to rinse her face off. After she was done cleaning her wounds, she turned off the water and stepped back and looked at herself in the mirror. How did this happen? How could she have gone from strong, successful business woman, mother to be, happily married woman to bruised up, bloodied, lost, scared, and husbandless in one day? Well, the happily married part was a stretch, but the rest was still there.
What bothered her deeply was that she had let this happen. Everything that Michael was able to get away with within the last couple of weeks was because she was weak, and this was where it had gotten her. Worse yet, if this stranger could tell, she knew that when she walked into work, which she hoped could be tomorrow since her boss wasn't too thrilled about her taking off today, that people would know. They wouldn't come right out and ask, but they would know. Scattered whispers amongst themselves. Pitiful looks. Random gestures that had never been considered before. All the things that would make her feel defenseless, pitiful, pathetic. Even so, was that so much worse than what had all just happened? Did her wounded pride really compare to her current situation? "It won't come down to this," she whispered to herself as she put her coat back on over her night gown.
Out in the small living room, Tony sat down on the couch next to Samantha who had just woken up and was now coloring. He had the map opened up before him. As he looked over the roads that lead to Connecticut, Angela's words kept going through his head. It didn't make sense to him. She was trying to hide something, something dangerous.
"Daddy?" Sam called over to him. Her deep brown eyes, her mother's eyes looking to him.
"Yes?" he responded, turning his attention from the map to the little girl.
Angela was about to walk out into the living room area, but overheard the two talking and decided to wait a minute.
"Why doesn't mommy want to come home?" Sam questioned.
Tony's expression softened. This was not the first time that he had heard the question Marie, his wife, had been dead for about a week now. Samantha, getting ready to turn five, was not able to understand the concept. Sighing, he leaned forward. "Sam, honey, your mom didn't want to leave." There was no way for him to really explain this to her, but he knew he had to say something. "Remember when she was sick? How she told you that one day she might leave and not come back? That she would fall asleep and stay asleep?"
Samantha just nodded. For a young kid, she seemed to have a distant look to her. "Why can't she wake up and come back?" she implored, her expression steadily growing sadder.
Angela brought her hand to her mouth. It brought back some of the memories from when her father died, the only difference being, that she knew what was going on, and she knew that it was going to happen. Looking up, she could see that Tony was uncomfortable and finally decided to walk out and join the two, careful to cover up that she had heard any of the conversation.
Tony looked up as she walked over. This was his chance to change the subject. "Here," he said laying the map down flat on the table.
Angela sat down and followed where his finger pointed down on the page. All the roads and everything seemed so easy now. The only problem was that it made it seem like a long walk. Although, now that she knew where she was going, she could catch a bus. "You don't know how much you've just helped out tonight," she informed him.
"Anytime," he replied, closing the map. "Need anything else?" He looked up to her with genuine concern.
"No, I've already put you through enough trouble," she reassured.
Tony laughed. "Not at all," he said. Really, he liked having someone there. The apartment had seemed lonely for the past week. It didn't help that the only visitors that he had had were there to give him sympathy and ask how he was doing. Knowing that it was all in just trying to help, he didn't say anything, but all it really was to him was a painful reminder.
Samantha just sat there and watched the two. Never was she known to have spoken in front of someone unless she knew them somewhat well. As shy as she was to new people though, there was something that she wanted badly to ask this woman. "Did you get in a fight?" she asked.
Tony looked over, hoping that she hadn't upset Angela. "She already told us that she walked into a door."
"But when Randy told you that, you called him a liar, then asked who gotted him, then called him a wimp," Sam explained.
Something hit Angela, right then and there. She was a wimp, she let it happen. Desperately trying to cover up the emotions that Sam had just stirred up within her, she softly laughed. Tony was about to say something, more or less on the lines of scolding her. "I think this is a little different," she lied.
"Are you sure?" Sam asked, her little face scrunched up in confusion.
Tony smiled back to Angela and then looked back to Sam. "I don't think she looks like the fighting type." The darkened night sky through the window caught his attention. "Speaking of which," he turned back to face Angela. "I don't think you should be out there alone after dark. I'm gonna go ahead and walk you to your car."
"I think I can manage getting to my car," Angela quickly stated. The last thing she wanted was for him to find out that she didn't have a car. The only thing that would come of it would be more pity, something that she refused to accept.
"Ay oh oh ay, from what I heard today, you ain't used to this place. I just think that you should at least have one eye that's left uninjured," Tony told her. Deep down, he really did feel bad for her. There was something that was telling him that he shouldn't even allow her to go back home, but he knew that wasn't his place. This was the least he could, and he wanted to do it.
He wasn't about to give up. She knew that he wasn't about to. If she really did have a car, she would have been grateful, but right now she was just annoyed. Why did he care so much anyways? It wasn't like they had even met before, well, she was pretty sure that they hadn't met before. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar to her, but that was beside the point. "Look, before this goes any further, I really think I should tell you something," she started. If he was going to find out more about her situation, this was going to be the time. "I don't have a car with me. My husband took it. I told him that I would be able to get a ride back so that he wouldn't worry about me. Now that I know the streets a little bit and where I'm going I'm pretty sure that I could take a bus or find some other way back home," she confessed.
Tony sat there and stared for a brief second. "How did you really get here?" The question slipped without him even thinking about it. His eyes desperately searched hers for something other than the phony happiness that she had shown earlier.
Angela locked her eyes with his. Bringing herself out of the trance like stare, she shook her head. "Look, you really are a nice person, but I barely even know you. I highly doubt that you really need to be concerned with any of my problems."
Tony sighed. "Maybe I am just a stranger, but that doesn't mean that I feel right letting someone go back into a dangerous situation." He might have just over stepped a few boundaries, but it didn't matter anymore. There was no way that he could just let her go off out there unsure of where she was going. Even though he didn't know her, he would have felt extremely bad if he ever found out that something had happened to her because he let her go.
Angela saw a true sincerity in his eyes, something that she had not seen from Michael in a long time. Sighing, she thought through what to tell him, and what to keep to herself. "You're right," she admitted. At the moment, she wasn't quite sure what drove her to the small confession. It could have been the sincere caring that she had been longing for for so long in her damaged marriage, or it could have been the fact that she was completely exhausted. "It was my husband who did this, but he's gone. He took the car and left me and he's not coming back. I have nothing to worry about." That too, was a lie, but not as big as she had been telling him. She really had no idea whether or not he was going to be coming back. There was also the fact that she had so much more to worry about. The baby, whether or not she would get mixed into what her husband had been doing, whether or not he would come back. "All I want to do now is to go home, go to sleep and try to forget about today."
Tony sympathetically looked to her. "Can I at least get you to a train station or something like that?" he offered, feeling that it was the least that he could do for her.
"I'd appreciate that," she gave in to his offers. She had decided that she was done with turning down offers. He really was a nice man, and he was just trying to make things easier on her. "I have some money for a train ticket if that's close by," she told him.
Tony politely nodded as he offered her a small smile. He then turned to Sam. "How do you feel about going over to Mrs. Rossini's?" he asked.
"Okay," Sam answered as she stood up. She quickly grabbed her coloring book and teddy bear, which Angela now noticed had the ribbon on it, as she headed for the door. It was almost as if she had gotten used to having to go to someone else's place. "Ready!" she called out.
"Alright, lets go," Tony stated, heading towards the door. "Mrs. Rossini is only across the hall," he explained to Angela as he turned to face her for a second before leaving.
As the door closed, Angela leaned back into the chair. Just wanting to make sure that everything was alright, she unzipped her coat and placed her hand on her belly. As soon as she felt the baby kick, she let out a sigh of relief and then zipped her coat back up.
Tony poked his head back into the apartment. "You ready?" he questioned.
Angela lifted her head back up and looked to him. "Yeah," she flatly replied and then stood up. The idea of going home was the best idea that she had thought about all day. As she walked over to the door, she grabbed the map. Right before leaving the room, she stopped before Tony. "If there's ever anything I could do to repay you," she started, but Tony cut her off.
"Ay, don't worry about it," Tony said. In reality, he was just glad to have something to focus on other than Marie. Everyone had told him that it would get easier as the days went on, but really, he just missed her more and more every passing day. The reason that his place was a little messy was because he was afraid to change it. Marie's clothes were still in the hamper, Marie's dishes still in the sink, her make up and brush still in the bathroom, her shoes still at the front door, and her coat tossed over the side of the bedrail in the bedroom that they once shared. Everything was still in its place from the night that she had died, and he couldn't bare to change it. Tony waited for her to walk completely out of the room and then closed the door behind her.
"Are you sure?" Angela implored as she turned back to him. If she couldn't get herself home, the second best would be to be able to return the favor. The last thing she wanted was to take advantage of someone.
Tony walked up beside her and sighed. "You already have," he answered and then walked up ahead of her.
Angela stopped for a brief moment as she thought about what he had said. She had done nothing but take up his time. Either way, she dismissed the confusion and caught up to him. Why bother with it now?
The two walked out together, and she followed him to the old blue van that was parked out in the street. "Bet you don't see too many of these where you live," he mentioned as he walked around and climbed into the drivers seat.
Angela just laughed. "No you don't," she responded as she climbed into the passenger side. Tony leaned over and grabbed her hand to help her in, and she accepted the gesture.
Once they were both settled, they took off in the van towards the train station. Each of them sat there in silence, each of them had questions for each other. Neither of them wanted to talk though. Once a question was answered, it opened the right for the other person to receive an answer, and both were too proud to say anything that would bring pity upon themselves.
Angela finally grew tired of the silence. "You're daughter is adorable," she mentioned as she smiled over at Tony.
Tony smiled at the comment. "Yeah," he said more as if he were reminiscing. "Looks just like her mother." He loved hearing compliments about Samantha, but he wasn't sure if he was really ready for the memories of Marie. It wasn't like he didn't think about her a lot, it was just that he wasn't sure that he wanted his attention brought to the subject. "You have any kids?" he asked bringing himself back.
Angela's head quickly jilted up. Should she tell him? The only problem she had with telling him about her pregnancy was that she didn't know whether or not it would just bring on more concern from him. She convinced herself that it didn't matter. She already looked bad and she was getting home. "Actually," she said as she smiled down towards her stomach. Instead of telling him, she undid the bottom part of her coat and revealed her small, but noticeable bump.
Tony looked over. "Well, well," he said. "Congratulations!"
"Thank you," Angela said. For some reason, she was really starting to feel comfortable around him. It wasn't completely out there, he was a nice guy, it was just kind of early for any sort of trust.
"I remember how excited Marie was when she found out that she was pregnant," Tony stated. Now he was really starting to go down memory lane. "She ran down to a bachelor party that the guys from the team were throwing and I ended up getting up on the table and telling everyone. I took her home, cooked dinner for her. We didn't have much money, so I couldn't afford to take her out or anything like that."
"That's sweet though," Angela replied as she thought back on how Michael reacted when she told him. He seemed a little excited for a few minutes. It did seem fake though.
Tony looked over and saw her eyes lower down. The look itself showed that she was disappointed. An obvious reason for this might be the situation that she was currently in, but he wasn't about to ask about it. She had already been through enough that night, from what he could see. "Here we are," he announced, pulling up to the train station.
Angela smiled over. "I can never thank you enough for this," she said, opening the door.
"Just take care of yourself. Alright?"
Tony watched her smile back and then walk off to get her ticket. There was something that he had just now noticed, a slight limp that she had to her walk. Of course though, she was gone. In the back of his head, he had doubted that he would ever see her again. Even though that was really no reason for him to stop caring, it was enough to let him know that what ever happened to her was really out of his own control.
She must've been gone about ten minutes before he even started the van back up. Through out the entire ten minutes, he had been fighting the urge to go in and make sure that she got her ticket and that she got onto the train alright. But again, this was someone that he didn't even know. He had to let her go back home. Go back to her life.
When Tony finally got home, he slowly walked into the dark, empty apartment. There was no use in going to get Samantha. She needed a good night sleep, and waking her up would completely ruin that. He closed the door behind him, not even bothering to turn a single light on. Why try to see what's there when all it will do is remind you of what's not?
He was able to make it to his bedroom. He dressed for bed and then laid down on the mattress. The lonely mattress. As he tried to sleep, he realized that he still laid his arm out over Marie's side of the bed. It used to be a habit of his to put his arm around her when they would go to sleep. Now he often had to place a cold pillow there in place of her warm body.
Angela returned back to her empty house that night. She went straight up to her bedroom, threw her coat onto the floor and laid down under the covers. She was alone. Not in the sense that there was no one there, but in the fact that no one really cared. The way that she had felt tonight was no different from the way that she had felt when Michael was there laying next to her.
When she had told Michael he got a call to go down to Brazil to do a documentary, he was so excited that he had to tell everyone. He went out and celebrated. He took her out to dinner. When she had told him she was pregnant, he hugged her, kissed her, smiled. Nothing special.
When she announced it to some of the women that she worked with, one of the things they started to talk about was how annoying it was to not be able to do anything. That other people, their husbands in particular would step in and tell them to take it easy. She herself was independent, and very proud of that, but it would have been nice if Michael would have stepped in at least once. She was expecting him to, and when he didn't, she felt ignored, forgotten.
As she allowed the tears to fall, she slowly fell asleep.