"Uh-huh...Uh-huh...Oh, jeez...Uh-huh...Oh, yah?...Oh, yah, yah. You betcha, yah...Uh-huh...All right, thanks a bunch...Uh-huh, bye."
Marge hung up the phone and turned back to look at Elena, who was sitting on the couch, holding a bag of ice to her left cheek.
"Can I get ya anything, El?" Marge asked her cousin.
Elena lowered the bag of ice and turned her head right, revealing a deep bluish mark on her face. "No, thank you very much", she said, calm but with fuming eyes.
Sensing a sharp air of tension filling the room, Marge nodded her head and said to her cousin, "Okay, I'll just leave you be then."
Elena Olmsted looked away from her and applied the bag of ice back onto her cheek again.
With that in mind, Marge walked away and into the kitchen, where her husband Norm was sitting at the dinner table talking with Anton.
"What is his job?"
"Oh, I don't know. I hardly know the guy."
Both men noticed Marge's presence and turned their heads to look at her.
Marge smiled politely at Anton and said to him, "So, that was Mrs. Erikson on the telephone just now."
Anton stared at her, his dark brown eyes devoid of emotion, and said to Marge, "I didn't start that fight."
"Oh, no, no", Marge reassured him. "Annaliese said it was Mr. Burrows who started the whole bunch. She said you were only trying to defend El from being hurt after he called her a nasty name."
"I got hurt either way, Marge", said Elena, raising her voice so that the others could hear her from the living room.
Marge paused for a minute, staring at her cousin, before returning her attention back to Anton. "Anyway, she's not pressing charges against either one of ya, but she did say to let you off with a warning. She also thinks it would be best if neither you nor Mr. Burrows would set foot in her husband's bar for a while."
"I don't think he'll be a problem anymore", said Anton.
"Oh, sure! Just because Gambler Lady isn't pressing charges on me, doesn't mean Gordon won't either, right?" Elena called out, her voice filled with sarcasm. The brunette woman placed the icepack down and stood up, walking into the kitchen area. She looked at the hitman with cold eyes and asked him, "Tell me, Anton. Is that what you were thinking when you nearly tore his arm off?"
"It doesn't make any difference now", Anton informed her. "I gave him a choice to redeem himself. Instead, he chose stupidity over reasoning. He brought his own misery upon himself by deciding to play by his own rules."
"Anton, I swear to God...", Elena warned him. "If that little girl gets taken away from me and I die from guilt of not keeping my promise to Natalia, you're the one I'm coming after for. Now if you're not in the car in five minutes, I'm leaving without you. Good night, Norm. Good night, Marge. I'm sorry you had to be put in the middle of my mess tonight."
With that said, Elena clicked her heels together and saluted the Gundersons, before turning around and walking over to the front door, slamming it on the way out.
"Oh, for Pete's sake", Marge said to herself, surprised at Elena's behavior.
Anton looked at the cop lady and said to her, "I'd tell you your cousin is a feisty woman, but that would be considered an understatement."
"Oh, yah", said Marge, nodding her head. "El always was a gutsy woman, even when we were kids."
"So, how's the arm, Anton?" Norm asked him.
Anton looked at him and answered, "Not as bad as it used to be."
"Well, you and El best be getting back home", said Marge. "Come on, I'll walk ya out."
The hitman stood up and walked over to the door with Marge, who turned to him and said, "Can I ask you a favor, Anton?"
"What favor would that be?" Anton asked her.
"Well, it's just that Elena looks to be in a bit of a sting right now", said Marge. "I don't know what happened tonight, but she does tend to get a little sensitive sometimes. So, if it's not asking too much of ya, could you please keep me informed if anything else comes up? I just hate to see anything happen to El, especially after everything she's been through."
"You hardly know me and yet you trust me enough to put your cousin's life into my hands?" Anton questioned her.
"Oh, yah, for a long time, in fact", Marge answered him.
The hitman looked at the lady cop for a minute, his resentment of her greatly lessened. Though her sugar-sweet persona and chipper outlook on life was still something to take into consideration, Anton had gotten somewhat used to being around Marge at this point. Perhaps it was out of respect for Elena, who he was already highly amused of, seeing how the beautiful young woman had showed a sense of fortitude for herself this night, even when taking a blow from people who mistreated her. With that in mind, the hitman walked out the door and left the Gunderson residence without another word.
The drive back to Elena's house was anything but pleasant. The young woman with turquoise eyes remained silent during the majority of the ride, almost never taking her gaze off of the road, making sure to avoid as much eye contact with the man sitting right next to her as possible. She wished the events of the night had never happened.
Anton looked at her out of the corner of his eye and blinked and looked forward, as he said to Elena, "So, that explains the florescent decor of your guest room, as you call it."
"Shut up", Elena told him. Her voice was stern.
Normally, the hitman wouldn't have mind the silence between them, but seeing how she was refusing to speak him, Anton decided to switch on the radio to see if she would react.
"-And now for the weather report: temperatures are looking sunny tomorrow, with-"
Elena turned off the station immediately and put her hand back onto the wheel.
After another minute of silence passed between the two, before Anton looked at Elena and said to her, "There's nothing wrong with adopting a child and raising it as one of your own as a favor to your friend."
"I'm aware of that", said Elena, still not looking at him.
"So, why didn't you say anything about having one?" Anton questioned her.
"You don't need to know everything about me, Anton", said Elena.
The hitman stared at her for a minute, his dark brown eyes searching her for whatever secrets she was hiding.
"It's not that I'm ashamed or anything, it's just that Sophia is..." Elena did not have the courage to finish her sentence, as her eyes suddenly began to fill up with water, her lower lip trembling as a lump developed in her throat.
Seeing that misty look in her eyes again, Anton shook his head and asked her, "It's just that she is what?"
"She's not a retard. It's not a physical formality. It's just...a thing she has about her that I'd rather not talk about", said Elena, sounding choked up as tears began to fall down her cheeks.
Anton looked at Elena for a minute and said nothing more. He then turned his head to look out the passenger's side window.
Elena took one hand off the wheel and wiped the tears from her eyes with the tips of her fingers, taking a deep breath as she put her hand back onto the wheel.
The hitman looked back at Elena, who was still avoiding eye contact with him, and asked her, "Did you help bring her into this world or were you just her mother's nurse during the time of her death?"
Elena threw her head back and said to him, "Cripes! Will you stop asking me about it?"
"I didn't say you were incapable of having children", Anton told her.
The young brunette nurse took offense to that. She turned her head and looked at the hitman with wide eyes and said to him, "Okay, wait a minute! I am incapable of having children?"
"I never said that."
"No, no, no, no, no. You're the combat medic! You tell me! Because clearly I'm just a-"
Anton's provoking and questioning of Elena worked in getting her to finally talk to his face, but just as she started to chew him out on his meddling into something he knew nothing about, the nurse paid no attention to where she was going and unknowingly started to drive her vehicle off of the road. The hitman was the only one who seemed to notice, though he spoke not a word until after she had finished her rant.
"-And quite frankly, Anton, you strike me as less of a doctor, and more like the fifth Beatle boy!"
"You want me to drive?" Anton asked her, his voice calm as usual.
"You can't drive with a broken arm", said Elena.
"You can't drive when you're dead either", said Anton, focusing his eyes back onto the road. Elena did the same thing and saw they were about to hit a tree.
"Fuck!"
Elena swerved back onto the road and came to a stop in the middle of the street, slamming hard onto the brakes as she did. Both of them slammed back against their seats, and even though Anton seemed unfazed by the near-fatal impact, the heavy breathing that came from Elena's throat forced him to look over at her. She was startled, but other than that, she was unharmed. Elena slowly turned her head, eyes wide with shock, and looked over at Anton, who raised his eyebrows and asked her, "You were saying?"
The next morning, Elena continued to stay silent and kept her head down as she ate from her bowl of cereal. The hitman watched her the entire time, chewing slowly as he ate from his own bowl, and noticed that the nurse had covered up the bruise on her face with foundation makeup.
"You're awful quiet this morning", said Anton.
Elena, not looking at him, put a spoonful of cereal into her mouth and told him, "I don't have anything to say."
"You're acting foolish", Anton told her.
Elena chewed her food and shook her head and said to him, "No, I'm not."
"You're mad at me", said Anton.
Elena lifted her head and shot vengeful eyes at him. "No."
"Is this because I refused to tell you about how I broke my arm?" Anton asked her.
Elena swallowed and answered, "No."
"Then it is the way I have been acting towards the Gundersons?"
"No. Leave Marge and Norm out of this", Elena warned him, raising her voice a little.
"All right", said Anton, standing up. He picked up his bowl and walked over to the sink with it.
Elena lowered her head, hoping to finish the rest of her breakfast in peace, and spooned more cereal into her mouth.
Anton placed his empty bowl into the sink and looked out the kitchen window, seeing a white rabbit drinking from the river behind the house. The hitman stood there for a minute, silent as stone, before he turned around to look back at Elena and said to her, "You never did answer my question last night about the child-"
Slamming her hand down on the table, Elena stood up and yelled at him, "Shut up, all right!? This isn't your bullshit to deal with, Anton! It's mine! It's not for you to worry about, I don't want to talk about it, and that's the end of the conversation."
Picking up her bowl, Elena walked over to the sink and placed it inside. She then looked at Anton, eying him angrily, and said to him, "One more thing: I don't want to hear another word out of you for the remainder of the day...Comprendo?"
Hearing a familiar tone in her voice as cold and deadly as his own, Anton Chigurh said nothing and stared back into the turquoise pools of her eyes, feeling the tension between them, but also admiring just how authoritative Elena sounded on that last word.
"Why do I even bother talking to you?" Elena asked herself, before walking past the hitman and into the living room, picking up her keys from off the coffee table and heading out the front door, slamming it behind her as she headed off for work.
Nurse Olmsted went about her daily routine at the hospital that day, her work helping her to take her mind off of Anton, and everything seemed to be going as smooth as silk, until around noon, when Elena looked up from her clipboard and she gasped at the sight of Gordon Burrows existing one of the rooms, his right arm in a cast. The bright-eyed man noticed her and stopped dead in his tracks, his face turning pale as a sheet.
Swallowing nervously, Elena approached him and said, "Gordon, let me explain-"
Gordon raised his left hand and spoke to her in a calm, sincere voice, "Elena, please. I would like to apologize to you for my behavior last night. It was wrong of me and I pray that you will forgive me for the way I acted. I have no excuse."
Confused at his causal demeanor, Elena nodded her head in response and said to him, "Yes, I forgive you...But I thought-"
"I've been thinking all night", Gordon interrupted, ignoring her. "And you're right. I went and talked with those people over at the Catholic church on Crane Street this morning, and I've agreed to begin attending their recovery meetings on Saturday and Sunday nights."
Elena nodded her head again and said, "That's good, but I still don't-"
"I know you did your best for Natalia", Gordon continued. "Heck, you've been there for her ever since the two of you went to high school. She always said you were the best friend she ever had. And the day Sophia was born-" Gordon laughed at his own memories, a happy smile spread across his face. He looked to his left and shook his head, bittersweet tears filling his eyes. He then looked back at Elena and said to her, "You know, I really thought Natalia would pull through with her disease,...but in the end, I guess things didn't turn out the way I planned, right?"
Elena said nothing and looked at him with sadness, as if she would breakdown and cry at any given minute.
With that all said, Mr. Burrows sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes, before he reached into his coat and pulled out a piece of paper, handing it to Elena, who looked over it carefully.
A minute later, the young nurse looked at him with terrified eyes and said to him, "Gordon...this is a restraining order."
"I know", said Gordon, handing her a pen. "Just sign the papers and you and your friend will never hear from me again."
Elena shook her head and said, "No, I'm not gonna do it."
"Sign it, Elena", said Gordon.
"No", Elena protested. "Gordon, I can't let you do this."
"Elena, sign the goddamn papers or else!" Gordon's voice sounded threatening.
Not wanting to cause a scene in front of her coworkers, Elena took the pen from Mr. Burrows and signed the documents on her clipboard. She then handed the pen and restraining order back to him.
"Gordon, what about Sophia?" Elena asked him.
"I've already talked with her", Gordon answered. "She said she understands and that everything will be all right for me. Have a pleasant day, Miss Olmsted."
And just like that, Gordon Burrows turned around and walked away from Elena, never to bother her again.
As soon as her shift ended, Elena headed straight back home, feeling guilty for the way she had acted towards Anton this morning. She had gotten angry at him over nothing and was now feeling deeply ashamed of herself for snapping at him. In her mind, Elena knew damn well that she had let her fears take control of her, but in her heart, she also knew that her behavior towards him was no excuse for rudeness. If there was anything she could do to make it up to him, she would do it.
Elena did not know what to expect once she got home, but when she stepped out of her car and walked up to her house, the turquoise-eyed woman opened the door and found Anton sitting on the couch, watching a soap opera that appeared to be in Spanish. The dark-clothed man with the pageboy haircut turned his head left and looked at her. As usual, his face showed no emotion. Not anger, not annoyance. Not one scrap of resentment.
Remorse was the only emotion that painted the face of the brunette nurse, as she closed the door behind her and said to him, "I owe you a very, very big apology right now. I understand that fear is no excuse for me snapping at you like that the way I did, but I just thought that if the adoption agency found out about what happened last night, that Gordon would try to take Sophia away from me. I realize now that it was a foolish thing for me to even think that for one minute. I saw Gordon at the hospital this afternoon and had a civilized conversation with him and he said he's not pressing any charges against us. He admitted his mistake and said he was sorry and that he would never bother me again. In other words, you were right and I was wrong. Anton, can you ever forgive me?"
The hitman sat there in silence for a minute, contemplating on the honest sincerity of her words. Finally, he turned his head and looked away from her, as he stood up and walked over to turn off the television. Anton then turned around and looked back at Elena, nodding his head in response, before heading down the hall.
Elena followed after him and said, "Okay, you don't have to look at me, but could you at least talk to me?"
Anton walked into the bathroom and turned to look at her again, before shutting the door in her face.
Elena opened her mouth and was about to knock on the door, but then stopped herself from saying anything else she would regret later on and lowered her fist, sighing in defeat.
Elena did not see him again until about forty-five minutes later. Just as she had finished setting the table for the two of them, Anton walked into the kitchen and eyed her with cold annoyance. Elena noticed his presence and looked up, smiling at him. "Hello", she said. Anton said nothing, let alone any such thing as a greeting, and sat himself down at the table. Disheartened over his lack of speech and glacial demeanor, Elena's smiled melted away. She sat down opposite from him and scooted her chair closer to the table, saying nothing else until after they had finished their meal.
The main course that night was meatloaf, a recipe Elena had found in one of her late grandmother's cookbooks. Several times, she looked across the table at Anton to see if his reaction would change, but there was no detection of emotion from the silent man with the pageboy haircut, as he avoided eye contact with her by staring down at his own plate and the glass of water next to him. Was this a punishment? Was he still mad at her for yelling at him this morning? Or was it payback for the way she had acted towards him the other night? Despite there being no hint of hostility in him and that fact that he seemed to be ignoring her made Elena worry how long Anton would continue to give her the silent treatment.
After a long silence, Anton finally looked at Elena, as he placed the last piece of food into his mouth, chewing slowly as he stared her down with those big, dark eyes of his.
"Well? Did you like it?" Elena asked him.
Anton said nothing. He then stood up and downed the rest of his drink, before walking back into the living room.
Elena sat there for a minute, a look of disbelief on her face, before she sighed to herself and stood up and began to clear the table. After she finished putting everything away, Elena went back into the living room and found Anton sitting back down in his usual spot on the couch, his right arm held across his left arm, which was still in a sling.
Elena walked over to him and said, "Look, Anton, I don't know what else to tell you. I said I was sorry. What else do you want from me?"
Anton did not respond or even look at her, his mindset elsewhere as he stared into the dead screen of the television.
Frustrated by his lack of cooperation, Elena turned around and marched down the hallway to her bedroom.
A full seven or eight minutes went by, but Anton hardly seemed to notice. The sound of an object rolling across the floor caught his attention, as he felt something hit the side of his boot and looked down to see what it was. He leaned over and picked up the object with his right hand and found it to be nothing more than a baseball with a heart drawn onto it.
Looking up from the item, the hitman's eyes laid themselves upon Elena, who had switched out of her nurse's uniform and was now wearing a magenta-colored lingerie, revealing the alluring frame of her slender body. Her brown hair was tied back into a low bun and her lips were painted bright red, as though they had been kissed by a Spanish rose.
Letting the ball slip from his grasp, Anton dropped his hand down into his lap, an indistinguishable look on his face. Was it Confusion? Disgust? Horror? Perhaps even shock. Either way, he did not know what to make of the nature of this situation.
Elena placed her hands on her hips and spoke to him in a seductive voice, "Hello there, big boy."
Anton said nothing and slowly tilted his head to one side, wondering exactly what was going on inside that fevered head of hers. Whatever she was thinking was something far beyond his interest. And if she thought the promise of sexual intercourse was going to provoke him and get him to utter so much as a sentence, she had another thing coming.
"Miss Olmsted told me you two were having trouble communicating with one each other, so I thought I'd step in and see what was the matter", she continued. Elena walked over to Anton and sat down on the coffee table in front of him, their eyes meeting each other. "Unless, of course, if you prefer to skip the talk and go straight for the foreplay instead", she said. Elena lowered her eyes and placed her left hand on his right knee, trailing up along his pant leg, as she said to him, "I bet you can't say no to this, can you?"
Before she could reach his pelvic region, Anton grabbed her wrist tightly and forced Elena to stand up on her feet and look into his eyes, dark and savage as they were. The evidence of frustration and rage written all over his face. The hitman released his grip on her and walked away into the kitchen, returning less a minute later with a pencil and notepad. He sat back down on the couch and placed the notepad down on the coffee table, writing something in it before he set the pencil down and tore the page from the notepad, handing it to the scantily-dressed Elena, who read it out loud.
"'Yes I can, for your hourglass figure and attempts at seduction are fruitless and in vain'."
Elena paused for a minute before casting a look of annoyance down on Anton, who said nothing and remained silent as the grave.
"What is that suppose to mean?" Elena questioned him.
Anton picked up the pencil again and wrote something else down in the notepad. He set it down and tore the page out again and handed it to Elena.
"'You said you didn't want to hear another word from me for the rest of the day. Until the hour of midnight comes to pass, I refuse to brake my word'."
Elena looked at him again and exclaimed, "Are you really that literal-minded? Look, just because I said I didn't want to hear another word from you for the rest of the day, doesn't mean I meant it."
The hitman stood up and took a step towards her, as Elena said to him, "Look, Anton, if you would just tell me what the problem is, I wouldn't have to-"
Before she could say another word, Anton grabbed Elena by the back of her hair and pulled her head back, before locking his lips onto hers. Elena was stunned by this action, but did nothing to stop him. It seemed to last forever, but it was only for a few seconds.
Anton released her from his grip and took a hidden piece of paper out of his shirt pocket, shoving it into Elena's hands before walking past her, leaving her at a loss for words.
Elena stood there for a minute, confused and in a daze, before she looked at the note Anton had written and read it to herself. "I only have two words for you: shut up."