3.
~ Alex had found the woman at the cabins interesting. He'd expected the boy's mother to be an older, more haggard woman. Perhaps in her mid thirties with a pack of dirty, out of control kids around her; all yelling to go home. Most likely with a husband who was ten beers into the afternoon and watching the game inside instead of spending time with the family.
But what he found was a young woman who was barely knocking on the door of her twenties. Who couldn't possibly be anyones mother with a body that looked so striking in a sky blue summer dress with spaghetti straps. Her short blond hair was perfect for summer and made her look fresh with life. As if she belonged on a beach somewhere and had taken a wrong turn, landing here and with a kid in tow. She seemed all wrong here. A mismatched game piece who'd been placed in the wrong box.
"That's your mom?" Romero had asked in disbelief and John, sometimes Dylan, had nodded as if it was normal to have someone so attractive in his life.
She's been skipping down a path and smiling to herself before she saw them. As if she was thinking of something funny. Perhaps an inside joke, a cruel one she'd played on someone. The kind of thing all pretty and popular girls were known to do when Alex had been in school.
It was delightful to see her this way. To see her before she'd seen him. Before she'd even known he'd existed. Like he was spying on her and seeing things she hadn't intended for him to see. A forbidden glance at something, that made it all the more beautiful. Like watching a doe in a springtime meadow when it thinks it's alone.
A long time ago, when Alex was in Boy Scouts, he'd taken up star gazing and fallen for the brightest star he'd ever seen. She'd winked and smiled at him in the night sky on the big camping trip that summer. She's seemed to illuminate brighter than any other star there. Making the other stars envious and ugly things by comparison. She was the first star he'd spotted and she was the bell of the ball.
Only it was all a lie. She wasn't a star at all. It was Venus the planet disguising herself as a star and tricking him. Her brightness was only an illusion and she'd played him for a fool.
All the same, she knew he would forever see her first and love her best because of the trickery. She still shone brightest. She was still the most beautiful. Whenever he thought of how this rueful planet had so cleverly tricked him, he thought of her smirking, in just that way. Just the same way this woman smiled now. A mischievous smirk of hidden meaning that took nothing away from her beauty.
'Ha, ha silly boy. You've gone and fallen for me and it wasn't the real me you fell for after all. But you'll always love me and you'll always look for me in the night sky first. You'll always chase me and you'll never catch me. Just like thousands of men before you.'
Somehow that was okay and Alex would forgive her, because seeing the kids mother reminded him of that moment for some reason. Of falling in love with a star that wasn't what she pretended to be and loving her anyway.
She shone a little brighter than the other women he'd known and her face looked oddly guilty when she saw him which made him happy. Not because he liked to abuse power, but because it kept him from thinking she was too perfect.
Once she'd come down from the heavens she'd acted just like a normal mother. Nervous and scared to be around a cop and afraid of men in general. She was running from an abusive husband or boyfriend. Alex could see that; it was clearly written on her's and the boy's faces. He also knew he'd have to be back tonight and in the morning. Last year there was a rape at these cabins. Local 'good old boys' taking advantage of the isolation and he didn't want that to happen to this woman.
He wold try and convince her to leave and if she didn't want to, he would be honest and tell her about the bad history of the place. How it wasn't safe and he could take her to a better motel if she wanted. Hell, even the Sea Fairer was better than these run down cabins. He didn't want to scare her, but he also didn't want word to get out she was all alone here.
So, Alex drove by the cabins on his way back home that evening, and saw the boy was playing by the condemned pool and his mother was sitting on the porch.
The boy waved at him and the mother scowled. Her form was illuminated by the front porch light and she sat in a rocking chair as he drove slowly by. Her pretty face distrusting and angry; but still bewitching.
~ We may have to leave sooner than I expected. It would be one thing if Barney Fife was driving by here but this cop looks halfway component. He looks like he knows things about us to. I can't explain it and I've asked Dylan to tell me everything he told him but he looks at us like he suspects us.
Why can't he be like every other cop in every other town? Not caring. Just minding their own business. He's already driving past here tonight and waved at us. What if he recognizes us?
~ Norma put her pen down. She shook her head, picked her pen back up and started writing again.
~ No. I can't think like that. We're a long way from home and we've barely made the papers back there. I've got no family and no one to start a national campaign to search for me. I won't make the national news. Dylan and I can start over and Norman will be with us soon. That cop was just trying to be helpful.
~ She put her pen down again and felt better. It was better to sooth her own fears. To go to bed feeling like she'd solved her own problems. She'd stayed up late that night simply because she could. She had nowhere to go now. Nothing to plan or plot. Nothing to do except wait until the time was right to snatch Norman from daycare.
She'd decided on her walk back from the front lobby that was how she would do it. Rose would put Norman back in his daycare. A place he was comfortable and, most importantly, paid up for the next year. His schedule was routine and Norma knew the routine well. They took little field trips and Norma knew the schedule by heart. She could cherry pick her moment. She'd been delighting over this sudden realization when she spotted the police SUV and that tall dark stranger with his strange, intelligent eyes.
'Don't think about his strange intelligent eyes!' she snapped at herself stashing her diary under the mattress. She wished this cop had been an ugly, older man. It would be easier to dislike him. She distrusted men in general but it was easier to distrust older men. Older police men especially because they were always the type that came to the door when she and Sam were first married and she didn't know how things were. How, when he beat her, she wasn't supposed to call the police for help. Because these older men would look at her as if she were crazy and hysterical. Something to be ignored and the man listened to instead.
They would talk to Sam and joke with him awhile until the bleeding stopped and Norma was no longer crying. They didn't look at Norma, not in the eye anyway. They looked at her sideways. Like she was that unfortunate girl in school who no one liked. The one who smelled funny and wore ill fitting clothes and who they didn't want sitting next to them on the bus.
They didn't talk to her either. Didn't ask if she needed a hospital or any kind of help. They just left. It was like she was a disobedient child who'd acted out and the cops sympathized with the parents. Or in this case, Sam.
Sam would ignore her for a few days. Tell her he forgave her for embarrassing him and it would start all over again. Eventually she learned not to call for help. No one helped her. No one felt sorry for a woman who was well provided for in a rich man's house with a luxury car.
Norma closed her eyes at the memory. No. She couldn't trust the police. They never helped her. They never would. Why this cop was sticking his nose in her business now was anyone's guess but he would grow bored with them and move on.
~ Except he didn't seem to grow bored with them. Norma checked the news reports once a day and was disappointed to see the snail crawl pace her own story seemed to progress at. Sam still hadn't been arrested and he wasn't even under suspicion. It had been almost a week since she left Arizona and he didn't report her missing for two days. Didn't tell deceives Dylan's arm was broken. The living room was a mess and there was blood in her bathroom that hadn't been cleaned up well. She'd seen enough CSI reruns to know they could look for that. Surely they would look for that!
Norma was feeling frustrated and maybe the summer heat was getting to her. She was feeling a little too warm. She hadn't eaten anything that day and had woken up feeling a little off to.
'Probably something I ate.' she decided. Although Dylan had been eating the same thing she had and he seemed fine.
~ Their daily routine was boring and predictable. Mother and son got up, had breakfast. Watched Tv together, went for a hike in the woods, talked a lot about their plans for the future and then Norma checked the news for anything about the case in Arizona.
Then, they would venture into town to rent a movie at a dying little video store and watch it that evening over dinner. It was simple and easy and comfortable. A life without fear and Norma loved every second of it.
One thing she didn't love was that Deputy Alex Romero had learned their routine to and knew exactly when to catch them before they left for town.
She saw the deputy with the sleeves of his uniform rolled up and talking to her son on the porch of her cabin, as though the two of them were old friends.
"Deputy Romero." she said in a sour voice. She hoped it would sound hateful. Hoped it would sound like he wasn't wanted here. That he would take the hint and go away.
Romero looked intrigued and cast his gaze onto her. She didn't like that and looked away quickly. Eyes seemed to have power. Just like the other cops who didn't look at her had left her powerless, Romero looked at her now and it seemed he wanted to steal her power away. She could actually feel her body growing weaker when he tried to look her in the eye.
She moved away from him. Breaking the connection.
"Well, I'm glad you showed up Miss. Deeds." he said. Her new named sounded odd in his mouth. Like he was lying. "Some friends of mine are having a birthday party. It's a pool party and they have boy about your son's age. He's not very popular in school, and I know this sounds weird but I was hoping the two of you would come along. It would mean a lot to his parents, he has a hard time making friends."
Dylan looked at Norma excitedly. He loved swimming.
"He can't." Norma said automatically. "He… he's got a cast on his arm." she said thankful for the ready made and believable excuse. She waved her arms like a 'Price is Right' girl at the cast as if to prove to Romero she wasn't lying about this.
Romero looked over the cast.
"When's that thing coming off, John?" he asked.
Dylan looked deflated and glared angrily at his mother.
"Not sure." he said.
"How'd you break it?" Romero asked.
"I'm supposed to say I fell." Dylan said spitefully.
Norma opened her mouth in shock. Dylan had always played his part better than she ever did. Why was he betraying her now? Because she wouldn't let him go to a party?
"Hey!" she scolded, but her son turned tail and ran back into the cabin, leaving Norma and Romero alone.
"It's okay." the cop said. "I figured as much. Single mother out here. It's pretty obvious you're running from a bad relationship."
"I'm not running from anything." Norma snapped and this time she did look him in the eye. A fire seizing in her belly at the apt accusation.
Romero took a step back; perhaps sensing the dragon inside her.
"Look, I didn't want to say anything before, I didn't want to overstep my bounds." Romero said throwing up his hands. "But I think you and your son might be better off in a nice motel closer to town. These cabins have… a bad history. There was an incident last year. A woman was alone and some men found her. It's why I've been here so much."
Norma didn't break the eye contact. Didn't look away and Romero didn't flinch. A strange current was running through them and she was afraid to break it. Afraid words would disrupt it and ruin the effect. She knew that he was telling the truth then. That he wasn't here because he was suspicious of them or because he was trying to hit on her. He was sincerely worried about her. Worried about the two of them alone in this cabin with no way to get help if they needed it.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. A white business card with his information snapping through his fingers.
"Look, my cell phone is on here. Call me if you change your mind and want to leave. I'm the only one who knows you're up here. I didn't want the whole town knowing. You can guess why."
Norma snapped his card away. The fire breathing dragon inside her ready to spit. She didn't want to like him. She didn't want him to be nice to her. It would be easier if he was indifferent or mean to her. Why did he have to be nice to her? Why did it feel like it would be a comforting thing to trust him?
'You can't trust him.' the dragon inside her hissed. 'You can't trust anyone. Remember Norman. Norman and Dylan are your top priority. When they are safe, you can find some brainless, pretty boy to wrap your legs around and scratch this itch. Not this one though, never this one. He's too smart and he's a cop. He could hurt you. He could take the boys away. You can't trust him. You can't sleep with him. Not this one, never this one.'
"Fine." she said looking at the numbers and pretending not to care.
Alex backed away as if he'd been trying to tame a lion in the circus and Norma went back into her cabin feeling slightly victorious. She spitefully put his business card on the fridge and held it in place with a long forgotten frog magnet. He was a fat, lazy looking frog sitting in a lawn chair, with a speech bubble saying 'I'm so happy I could just shit.'
She could feel a headache coming on and decided to go to bed early. She didn't even make an entry in her diary because she knew that she would want to write about Romero. She would want to write about Romero and how she'd made eye contact with him and how that had meant something and it would sound like a teenage girl writing about a boy she liked.
But still, it had meant something. It had meant something and it had felt oddly intimate and frighting to have him look into her eyes and convince her that he was telling the truth.
She neglected her diary and let Dylan sulk in his little room. She collapsed in her bed and feel asleep.
