Chapter 11: Bottled water
Just to keep herself busy she washed her clothes, ironing them in the evening. Thoughts came and went, yet she did not allow them to grab a hold. At midnight she fell in her bed feeling deadly tired.
The shore of an ice-cold river bed. They weren't far behind her. She couldn't hear them but she felt them. A prickly mark on her skin making her stomach turn. Disgusted she moved a little faster. She climbed into the freezing water, keeping to the side where overhanging trees gave her some protection but stepping far enough to the middle to avoid any sandy spots where her foot-steps would be seen. The stones were slippery, she couldn't keep up her stride. She struggled against the current. They came closer. She heard the dogs bark in the distance. But safety was close ahead. She had to keep up just a little longer. Renewing her energy she went faster. But her legs were so heavy and the stream so cold. Even redoubling her efforts she slowed down. Closer, ever closer. Tears began to stream down her face, her legs hurt so much. She had to get there, she just had to. Suddenly her right foot stepped into emptiness. She lost her balance and fell. The iciness crushed together above her head. She screamed und screamed.
She woke up shuddering. Her sheets were soaked with sweat. All her limbs hurt as if she had really been running. Sighing she checked the time, 7 am, time to get up anyhow.
After a hot shower she felt better. The dream had been strange, not one of her usual nightmares. She wondered what that place of safety was that she had been running to.
She was still thinking about it when she drove to work. She jobbed in a small gift shop in a mall nearby. Her boss, Mr Parker, was a nice enough guy, calling his three employees, Julie, Jodie and Ann his "Angels", because he said they reminded him of Charlie's Angels. There was not much to do during the week usually. Fridays and Saturdays were pretty busy and the time before holidays, be it Christmas or Valentine's Day.
"Hey, Julie!"
"Ann, hey. How are you?"
"Better, thanks. Missed me much?"
"Course we did! But we managed. Autumn is just not the time for gifts, neither in general nor for this gift shop in particular." Julie sighed.
"Yeah." Ann smiled sympathetic and went to the back to get her apron.
They all had some kind of trouble, the three Angels. They never talked about it but this was a job you took when you needed a rest from your life. Mr Parker knew and was ok with it. He was close to 70 already and had the shop more as a hobby than to make real profit.
Ann started sorting the new stuff in the back and filling up empty shelves. Once she had gotten into the flow, the morning rushed past quickly.
As usual she worked over lunch-time so Julie could go eat without the shop having to close. There weren't many actual customers today, only lurkers. At 2 pm Jodie came to take over from her. They had a deal that Jodie worked the afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Ann on Mondays and Wednesdays. Fridays and Saturdays they did on rotation, meaning that Ann would have a free Friday tomorrow but would have to work the whole Saturday.
Ann said bye to the girls and went to the supermarket to buy her mother's beloved bottled water. Already she had to bite her lip to keep calm. Visits to her mother's were a very special strain on her nerves. Her mother just really knew where it hurt when she wanted to hit. Ann tried to tell herself that her mother was sick. That she just couldn't take all that had happened. But that didn't make it any easier. Damn it, mothers were supposed to love and help, not to terrorize and disparage their children.
She took four six-packs of water and went to her mother's place. It was not the house she had grown up in, rather a flat in a shabby quarter. Her mother had hated the house ever since the father of her daughters had left her. Ann looked at the big grey apartment house with its many small windows. They stared at her empty eyed. She stared right back, quelling the urge to just turn around and drive home. She somewhat reluctantly opened the car door and stepped out. Walking twice to get the water she climbed the steps to her mother's floor. She rang the bell thrice, their sign that she was no burglar.
She heard the locks click as her mother opened them one after the other. Then the door opened an inch.
"Yes?" Her mother's voice was sharp and suspicious.
"It's me, Mom, who else. I got you four six-packs of water."
Her mother closed the door again to unlock the chain, then she finally let Ann in.
"Where shall I put the water?"
"In the kitchen, under the table."
"Alright."
"Will you stay for coffee?"
"No, Mom, I got no time."
"What does that mean, no time? You're off work. What would you have to do?"
"I got an appointment."
"At the doctor's? Are you sick? Pregnant? I knew it! There's no good in young people, I…"
"No! I'm not pregnant. And I'm not sick."
"What then? You meeting a boy? You having fun while your old mother sits alone here in this dreadful house with dreadful neighbors stealing from her whenever they get a chance? You are such a selfish…"
Ann let the words wash over her. She was exhausted. There was no way to appease her mother when she was like that. So Ann decided to for once go for the truth:
"Mom, I'm not meeting a boy, I'm meeting a man. And not for a date, it's a business appointment. I bought a motorcycle of him, a white Titan."
Her mother's mouth fell open. She looked thunderstruck. Instantly Ann rued her words but it was too late to take them back. So she just waited.
Her mother seemed in shock. Suddenly she snapped out of it: "This was your father's idea, right? Only he could do that to me."
Ann rolled her eyes: "No one is doing anything to you. I am buying a bike. And you know pretty well that I don't have any contact to my father."
"No, you're lying! You have been lying to me all along! Leave my house, leave it! Right now!"