Lost in the Woods
Part 1
I told Betty that I'd help her find Kate and I wasn't lying. As soon as we got off work we asked around the factory. No one had seen or heard from Kate since before her lesson with Leon at the bar. Everyone was chirping about Hazel MacDougal's early outburst, the one that got her sent home from the factory for the day. I decided to go home and change then maybe try again at the boarding house after all the girls had simmered down.
When I asked at the boarding house if anyone had seen her drive off, everyone just shook their heads. With Betty by my side they were acting like a thing from another planet. Betty insisted that she shouldn't be out there right now with everyone knowing what they know. Or at least, thinking that they know what they know. We have little time for trivial things, she had to snap out of it.
"If we give up now we may just lose her forever." That's what I said. She nodded her approval, she knew we had to act fast if we wanted to see Kate back to the factory or at least pry her from the abusive hands of her terribly misguided father.
Hate to say it, but, our last hope was Lorna. After plenty of back-and-forth, Betty and I both accepted that fate. We took the Packard to the hospital. I needed to beg Sheila for a favor. Betty thought I was mad. We both knew that Lorna would never give out serious information like an address or a phone number. Lorna was a stickler for the rules and usually we were capable of understanding why. But everyone at Victory Munitions knew, if Kate Andrews was back with her father, she wasn't at all safe, but far from it. The sad truth of the matter was, the people closest to Kate, were the people she had tried her best to avoid. She found a home with us at the factory, a home that was much more accepting than the one she had always known. Being the optimistic cad that I usually was, I thought maybe, just this once, Sheila might bend the rules. I knew full well that Lorna would never stick her neck out to help the likes of me but Sheila just might, being kinder and well, younger.
"Please Sheila, can you just check the files."
"I don't know Gladys, it sounds a little underhanded. You know my mother, she may as well kill me if she ever finds out." I had found her in the hall of the hospital, she had just tucked a man in for the night, a man who may very well die in the next few hours. How she does that job is beyond me. I thought I was helping at the factory, but Sheila, her burden is much more clear. She actually has to see people die. In the hallway I whispered, trying hard not to give myself away, or, even worse, get Sheila into some sort of trouble.
"It's Kate Andrews! You know yourself she's my greatest friend, second only to Carol Demmers who I've bonded with since infancy!" Sheila knew I was desperate, if my fingernails on her shoulders weren't getting the word out, then my muffled pleading surely was. Of course, she knew I was desperate, I mean, why else would I ask Sheila for anything? We've never really run in the same circles. I've commended her repeatedly for her tireless efforts as a nurse, but Lorna gives me the stink eye whenever she sees me talking with her precious daughter.
Deep down I know that Lorna doesn't exactly loath me. She abhors my money, much like myself. Of all people, I understand that the most. Just think about poor Vera. She almost got skimmed over in surgery just because she wasn't a male soldier or some opulent sycophant, so well-off and yet eternally bored. Why should anyone have to suffer just because their family doesn't own half the town?! The laws are backwards, and Lord do I know it!
Some loathing I can take but Lorna Corbett can be downright pig-headed when she wants to be. Just this morning there was a confrontation in the office. Hazel MacDougall decided to stir up more trouble. She must have had a cross to bear with Lorna with that tantrum she pulled up with Mr. Akins. Who knows if it was even the truth… Hazel accused Lorna of landing Marco in the hot seat during inspection. Of course, being Hazel, she waited for things to explode before coming forward with this information.
Incidentally, I need to thank her. During her loud outburst she also took credit for the forged pregnancy test that somehow had my name on it. She claimed it belonged to a girl from home but she couldn't explain how it got to the factory. Either way, she knew it wasn't mine and she stuck up for me in the end. After all that time we spent fighting, I'll never know why she did what she did. I always thought she was jealous of me, but really James had lied to her fiercely. I don't know who to believe, she hasn't been the most honest person in the world. But James did have a Doctor visit that turned up some horrible news. The woman on the phone thought I was his wife, so she told me the worst of it. James Dunn… animal. God forbid that pregnancy test belongs to Hazel… Can you imagine the mess she would make if that baby belonged to James? I shudder to think. But it would serve him right in the end, not that I'm a saint!
Shelia got back to us in a jiff. We took her home in the Packard and waited four houses over for news to come back. Lorna was speaking at a veteran's dinner, giving hope to all the mothers and wives with men at the war. Her stories always helped the community. People see that Bob came back and they see that Lorna's boys are still both alive and kicking, they see these things and they find comfort. She's an amazing lady, just wish she wasn't such a hypocrite.
Betty's nerves are getting to her, she can barely sit still.
"Here," Sheila said, tucking a folded piece of paper in through the half-opened window. I held her hands from the passenger seat window; she was almost in tears along with me. "You bring her back, Mother told me all about that family of hers… And those scars. Pity. She's such a marvelous person, so bright and gay, all of the time."
"Thank you Sheila. You don't know how much this means. You may have saved her life!" Sheila sniffled hopefully, pulling a handkerchief from her hospital apron. Just as I turned to Betty to tell her to move, Sheila stopped us in the drive, bending down so that Betty could see her better through the crack in the window.
"Betty, I want you to know that I've always liked you and so has my mother. You're a wonderful person, a hard worker, and a loyal friend. Don't ever think that you can't come to me for anything. You're practically family since we took you in a while back." A while back? I thought. Betty tightened up her lips, biting them from the inside. Affection from others wasn't something she was used to getting. Word had spread like wildfire if even Sheila heard about Betty. Sheila smiled at Betty and they both looked like they were going to start crying just then.
"You're a doll Sheila. You know the same goes for you. You're the sister I never had, I mean it! Just let me know if Marco ever gets a little too frisky. I know you're strong on him but his reputation is even worse than mine!" Sheila laughed and shook her head, tears tumbled out of her eyes. Betty revved the engine and Sheila stepped back from the car, hugging herself with her arms in tight, the handkerchief dangling from the tips of her fingers. I watched her figure disappear from view as we drove away from her in the cold night air. All I could think about was how I could ever thank her after this was all over and done with. If Lorna were to find out, I'd be doubly fired! Seems there are a lot of people I need to be grateful for these days.
Part 2
The address Sheila had found was for the Rowley family.
"Marion." Betty whispered dazedly, staring down at her lap in a brief moment where a stop was required. I watched her eyes glance down at the numbers and her fingers brush lightly along the paper; she touched her skin to the handwritten note.
Betty and I were almost certain that Kate had delivered this paper to Lorna herself sometime before quitting. Who knows when it happened, Lorna accepted Chet's dirty passport because she thought Kate was harmless. Betty knows Lorna, sometimes I wonder how well. She knew that even with Chet's passport, Lorna would let it slide. Lorna knows a lot more about troubled youths than she ever let on to anyone but Betty in moments of weakness or maybe strength. Betty told me all of this on the ride up but she wouldn't tell Lorna's secrets, she wouldn't say how she knew what she knew. Or even how her life was when she first came to Toronto. All she knew was, Lorna knew a fake when she saw one, no matter how grand Chet was with a camera, Lorna would have known it was meant for the washroom and not the official files.
Since Betty opened up accidentally on the first part of the ride, the rest of my ride consisted of me creating imaginary scenarios in my head where Lorna confided these things to Betty. Lorna is even harder to affect than Betty, how on earth these truths had come out, well it made me dizzy just thinking about it! In the end I had to stop my imaginings. Perhaps Betty and Kate are even more alike than I know and perhaps even Lorna had her hand in a dark and dank past, one with skeletons, forged papers, and a family so bad that leaving can never erase them.
We drove for hours until we found a gas station out in the middle of nowhere. Betty set up the guy at the pump, handed him a few coins and showed him the paper.
"Help a girl out?" She asked, holding the paper to the boy's eyes while he used the pump. Discouraged by her obvious lack of awareness for personal space, the boy hesitated and rocked back on his heels.
"Oh, them the Rowleys." He said eerily. "Whole town knows the Rowleys. They the Gaaaod folk." He was starting to remind me of a scary movie. The way he stretched his vowels sent a shiver down my spine. Good thing he was a kid, even I could take him in a fight. Just a quick pinch and he'd be down for the count.
"Yeah well, where can I find em?" Betty asked, quickly. She was no nonsense and this boy was all nonsense.
"Why would you wanna find them? Folks here mostly dodge 'em. That Rowley's about as crazy as they come."
"Yeah, you're preachin' to the choir! Look, we're in a hurry, and you won't hear me call your bluff." Betty said. Her agitation was growing, only a matter of time before she took her answers by force. Why was this boy just gossiping on about the people in his town? Everyone knows that small towns are rife with fodder but this boy was just too much.
"That whole family's a crazy farm. Even the young ones."
"Hey!" Betty said, having enough of his cheek. She grabbed him by the collar, holding it tight with both her hands. This boy was a fink and you could see a tight lipped girl like Betty wouldn't make time for no fink. That was her girl he was talking about. The kindest girl she had ever met in her life. "They're just children, half-wit! It's the Preacher, got the problem… I would know, we're practically family!" I could tell that Betty said this just to shut him up. Unlucky for her, it didn't work.
"Don't think so," He said, bravely, lifting his chin almost to the point of not seeing her. Betty's hands were always ready to take a punch straight at his face. "I aint never seen yous. Them Rowley's been livin' here since I was a boy, probably even before that." You are a boy. I thought.
"Look, do you know Kate or not?" Betty asked. She let up on him and straightened his buttoned collar. Nervously, she glanced over at the gas station window to make sure no one was watching. There was no one there. This boy was all on his own. I suddenly could not stop thinking about "The Cat and the Canary." In this gas station out in the middle of nowhere, miles from the town, and not even an adult to oversee things. Anyone could just drive in here and unleash their insanity upon this odd boy. I thanked my stars that it wasn't a girl working the pump. And I shuddered to think that maybe there was a girl at one point, out here all alone, dealing with all sorts of odd men. Men like Vernon, Russel Joseph, or even my father.
"Kate Rowley?" The boy said with relief. "Course I know Kate. Poor thing. Old Rowley treats her the worst... I think it's cause she's pretty... Grabs her right out in the street. Yells at her, you know. Now that I think of it. I haven't seen much of her lately. Hope she got out, kid deserves a break." Betty shot me a glance that could freeze ice. She was livid. All these details were mortifying. We already wanted to skin Vernon Rowley but this was adding insult to injury. We might not be able to stop ourselves if we ever met him in a dark alley, the whole gang of us bomb girls just out on the town. I even had an inkling to steal a bomb from the factory, just incase it came to hard blows. Betty and I both found it odd that the young gas station attendant was calling Kate, "kid." She was old enough to wipe the floor with him. I don't know about Betty but I started to feel cold in that moment. Thinking about Kate in that town with people constantly bringing her down, even this kid thinking he was older, wiser, and more in control of her life than even she was. I had yet to see the town but I already wanted it abolished…
"Enough with the song and dance. Which way to the Rowley house, kid?" Betty was feeling the same. She called him kid and he puffed out his chest. He didn't like it any more than Kate would.
"Look, you can ask what you want. I just don't want no one hurt. Pastor Rowley has a reputation for getting his way around here. The church backs him up, he's his own ruling giant. Bigger than Rockafeller somehow, though I don't know many who like him. Why you think so many folks live outside the town?" The boy turned to look back at the gasstation as if he were displaying some sort of evidence. I stretched my head out of the car enough to see that there was actually a house way off in the distance. My fears from before began to dissipate. Too many books I suppose, too many true to life tales of women getting abducted, roughed up, and mistreated. Too many late night horror films with Hitchcock directing or Poe as the writer.
"Look. I don't know you, and I don't know this town. All I know is... Pastor Rowley makes me want to do things I'll regret. And I have to get Kate away from him. She's almost old enough to be your mother, kid. So back the hell off and don't call her kid until you're man enough to stick up for her in front of her daddy!" Steam may have been billowing from her ears. I tapped a hand on her shoulder, hoping it would calm her, she simply stared at him.
"If that's your fight, good luck to you. You just come back here if you need some help. My brother Jeb is kinda sweet on Kate. He'd love to see Pastor Rowley get his ice cream."
"Just desserts." I haughtily corrected. Betty shot me another look, this time to scold me. I guess I deserved that one. He did offer to help after all that Betty said. I tucked myself back into the car in an attempt to rush along a rather unpleasant encounter.
"Towns only got one road. One way in, one way out. The Rowley's house is right at the end. They have a big moving trailer, only one in town. Rowley's sorta well-off for the likes of us. No one else leaves this place. He's up here almost daily." One pump town, I thought to myself. Some towns don't even have pumps, I guess this boy's lucky.
"Thanks. We gotta get goin." Betty shook his hand, he almost dropped the pump he was so nervous and yet elated. It was like reading one of those academic essays on animals in the jungle and how they interact with one another. I couldn't stop myself creating a voice-over. The angry female aggressively approaches the small male. Life in the jungle isn't always so easy.
"Martin." He said, "Name's Martin."
"Martin, I'm Betty and this is Gladys. Didn't mean to scare ya, we really are close with Kate." Betty looked so excited now, her anger melting away. Martin packed the hose up and tipped his white hat to us graciously. The smile on his face was rather dopey, he really wasn't kidding about never getting out of town. All I could do was thank goodness that I was born into the Witham house because even the Withams have it better than the Rowleys and Martin's of the world. Betty got back into the car, the smile on my face must have been telling.
"What's gotten into you?" Betty asked.
"Nothing." I said, keeping my Jungle Book narration to myself. Betty smiled back lightly. She didn't know what I was thinking but I think she was finally a little hopeful about our journey.
Part 3
Night time crept up on us. We really didn't want to go knocking on doors at night but if the door we wanted would lead us to Kate what choice did we have?! Betty was getting nervous, the Packard jerked around from left to right since she was twitching with the jitters.
"You need glasses McRae?"
"Whatda you think, Princess?!"
"I know you're tired. We can stop, spend the night somewhere? I'm sure we can find a field to park in." A field would be nice.
"Hold it, Princess, I thought this was your adventure. You wanna find her don't cha?"
"If you're going to lose your sanity, I'd rather take it slow."
"Thanks Gladys." Betty breathed angrily, her teeth resting hard on the 's' in my name. I must be upsetting her by pointing out her nerves. "The closer we get, the harder it is…" She confessed. "What if…. I don't think she wants to see me, Glady." No anger now, just sadness. The more time we spent together, the more I got to know her moods. She's always beating herself up inside, though no one ever sees it.
"I doubt she can be upset with you. This is Kate Andrews were talking about."
"That's right, it's Kate Andrews. The gorgeous redhead scat singer who once told Miss McRae that she never wanted her in the first place." Betty's voice trailed off bitterly but she turned to look me in the eye, as if to say, 'you didn't think she'd say that, did ya?'
"She did not! She couldn't!" I paused, sitting up off the seat. Kate couldn't breathe those words, she didn't have it in her. "You're joking, Betty." I insisted sternly. These had to be lies.
"Wish I were Princess… Wish I were." Everything in Betty's face was telling me it was true.
"Than it's true." Kate Andrews washed her hands of McRae. In what world? I'll tell you what world, a world I'll never want to live in! "Betty. .. she was with her father. That man has a leash on her, a tight one. She probably saw him and just, knew she had to be what he wanted, simple as gravy. You saw how I almost reverted into infancy when my father stormed the factory that day..."
"That's a comforting thought." Betty grumbled. She's right, thinking about my problems really wasn't much help. Even if Kate was just saying what her father would want her to say, it was a horrible thing to do. Horrible words to speak to someone you've been such great friends with.
"Well, you know what I mean. What did her face look like when she told you?"
"I'd tell you but you'd think I was mad."
"You better just tell me. I already think you're a loon."
Betty looked over at me, an endearing smirk playing on her lips. The blush in her cheek flushing red.
"She said it, and it hurt to hear, I'm sure you know… But.. in her face it just looked like she was hurting. She wasn't angry with me. Not like her father wanted. She looked sad. Almost as crushed as I was, I'm sure of it."
"See, now, that sounds like our Kate!"
"Eh, what do you know. Withams don't know heartache. They only know dollar signs and business deals." She smiled slyly so I punched her shoulder and the car swerved.
"Oh, oh, oh," I said, moving my voice into a whisper. "This is it, that's the end of the road, it dead ends up there. "
"Why are we whispering?" Betty asked, her head hanging low as not to be seen.
"I don't know…" I admitted. The Rowley house looked dark but a man was outside with a dog, he was chopping wood and yelling at the wind.
"You think that's him?"
"Who?"
"The tyrant." Betty spit out, unable to contain her distaste for Kate's wretch of a father.
"Hmm, he does look like a tyrant. But I never got a good look at him."
"I did… twice! Coward."
"Watch it!" I yelled, thinking she was talking about me.
"Not you, bright eyes... Rowley. He's a coward. Anyone who can take a hand to his woman hasn't got it right up in the head. A zero." We both sat parked off the road with the headlights off. We idled for a while before Betty shut off the ignition.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
"Got me."
"Maybe we should just walk up to him."
"Something tells me that's not such a good idea."
"What if I go? Just me." I suggested.
"To Pastor Rowley?"
"Sure"
"No." Betty said simply.
"What, you're not scared of him are you?" I shouldn't have said it, seconds later I noticed the bruise again on Betty's fair face. This wasn't about being scared. Betty was never scared of him, nothing could change that for her or for me. We had to be smart now, she was right.
"That man gave me this shiner." Betty turned her head towards mine, as if reading my thoughts out loud.
"Oh Betty, I didn't mean… I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It's not like you hit me" She said, shooting me a soft smile. "We just better wait until Mr. Rowley is not at home." We rolled up the windows and huddled into our coats. I remembered I had kept a few in the back seat. We both climbed back there and cuddled up together, making sure to hide our heads from the open windows where Vernon could see in, should he wish to do so. Betty tried to be strong like usual but I pulled her close to me, so I could hold her through the night.
"Don't move." I said, hugging her too me, fitting us both on the long seat of my parent's town car, so we could lay as comfortably as possible.
"I bet you do this with all the girls." She breathed, accepting my will, probably feeling the same warmth that I was feeling, the same comfort in knowing that we were in this together and that someone in this damn world cared about us.
"Only you McRae." What a terrific turn of events. Betty McRae is actually flirting with me. Those were my last thoughts before drifting off to sleep.
I fell asleep with her in my arms and held her all through the night. When I woke the sun had yet to rise and she still lay tightly against me, my arm pressing her into me like a lock around her midsection. Her frame is so small, I always forget how girly she is until I see her in a vulnerable position like this. I brushed her hair with my hands as she slept. It was cold in the car but I didn't mind. Betty had become my family somehow. I sniffed the powder in her hair and kissed the top of her head gingerly, lingering still to breath her in once more. What a perfect morning. Just then, Betty stirred
"Oh, you're awake. Sorry." She said, fighting a little to move away from me.
"Don't be." I said, pulling my arm in closer, hugging her to me, this time on purpose.
"I wasn't snoring was I?" She asked, giving in.
"Like a foghorn." This was a lie but I may as well have some fun with her while Kate's away. It's nice having her all to myself for once.
We heard a car pass suddenly and both of our heads bolted up to see the back of Vernon's head at the helm of the vehicle.
"That was him! Now's our chance!" Betty jumped in the front seat and started the car before I could move. I was thrown backwards with the thrust and I rested there on top of my mother's fur coat, watching Betty's determined eyes in the rear view mirror. She was squinting at the morning sun, just rising up over the trees.
We got to the house in seconds and she parked in the road right out front. "Come on Princess, we gotta do this quick. She's not gonna come with me, it has to be you." Betty was so determined; I hadn't the heart to object.
Betty offered me her hand and helped me out of the car, I threw the mink back on the seat and we both tiptoed through the field cozying up to the side of Kate's house so that we could peek into the windows unseen. Noise trailed from the windows and there were animals in the yard creating a familiar ambiance, one I had only experienced in the theater. Kate had a proper farm with chickens and cows, even a goat. The sound of a rooster almost knocked Betty off her feet.
We peaked in the first window, a woman was on the floor cleaning it with a rag. "That must be Kate's mother. She hasn't got any sisters. Come on." Betty pulled me around to the next window. This room had three boys inside, two were awake, dressing and fighting.
"Brothers." Betty breathed, pulling me along again. We turned the corner and stopped right away. We had come face to face with Kate, she was using a washboard but she stood up at the sight of us and tried to let out a cry. Betty lunged at her and covered her mouth quickly. "Don't scream Kate, don't scream. He's gone." I could see the fear in Kate's eyes. Betty had been right, she was going to scream to save herself from him should he also see the girls that had come all the way from VicMu.
"Wh-what are you doing here. You have to go." She said, angrily and yet out of strength.
"Come back with us Kate." I pleaded. Kate was in rags and her face was streaked with tears, she looked an awful mess, I wanted to hold her but there was no time.
"He knows where I am and mother, she's sick."
"So you won't come back with us?" I asked. Just the thought of her staying here alone in the state that she's in, is enough to make me explode!
"This is my family. My only family. If.. if my mother passes away… I have to be here." Betty gave Kate a nod, stepping back from her with a silent and heartbroken expression, she still hadn't said a word. The look on Betty's face clawed at my insides. They were both giving up now. I watched Betty wipe at her eyes and looked back at Kate to see that she was concerned for Betty and not for herself. She was holding her arms up in such an odd way, almost like she was pulled towards Betty but fighting the urge to take her in her arms. We hadn't the time, so I ignored them at once.
"But are you safe here Kate? Can we trust that your father won't hurt you." Kate looked down in sorrow and held her side trying to hide something from us. There was a long awkward pause in which I watched Betty's face turn from sadness to a knowing anger.
"Come here, Kate." Betty spoke, finally. She held out her hand and motioned for Kate to walk to her. Betty wasn't looking at her, just offering her hand and trying not to feel. Surprisingly Kate did walk to Betty and she let Betty lay her hands upon the area that Kate had been trying to hide. When Betty's hand touched Kate, Kate hissed, and pain shot through her body.
"Ow, it hurts!" Kate yelled, not backing away.
"My God, Kate!" Betty gasped, tears gushing from her eyes, anger billowing up inside of her. "Kate, what has he done to you?!" Betty needed her to answer. She was no longer controlled by her fear and want to be noble and be gone like Kate had suggested back at VicMu. Betty was determined now that Kate leave this place, that she escape the maniac. That she cut ties with a man who could hurt her in such a way.
"I-I know he's a bad man." Kate wavered. "But my mother. She doesn't deserve this."
"Christ Kate! No one does!" Betty yelled, in her rage she had forgotten that we were not supposed to be here at all. If Kate's mother should hear, who knows how badly things could go, and what could happen to Kate for something she could not control, something that was entirely our fault. I kneeled down in front of Kate to get a glance at where Betty was touching. Lifting her thick shirt, I caught a glimpse at the damage. Kate's stomach was bruised and bumpy, it looked atrocious, like a bag of potatoes. How he had hurt her was plain for me to see. I wanted him dead, right then.
"Heavens." I whispered, tears spilling from my eyes. "Isn't there anything we can do, Kate." My eyes must've conveyed my pity and my longing to help her. She looked down and touched my face. Despite her pain, her expression must've been serene now because Kate smiled down at me like a knowing angel.
"You can stay…" She murmured, before panic darted through her eyes. "Behind the house, in the woods. And just a ways in beneath the treeline, there's an old abandoned cabin. It used to belong to Grandpa Rowley before he got pneumonia."
"You… You want us to stay here?" Kate looked at Betty with tears in her eyes, it looked like she was trying to apologize but she didn't know where to even start.
"Please." Kate said, her face turning up in a hopeful, yet pitiful, expression that conveyed so many things, most of all desperation.
"Yeah, but Kate, for how long?" Betty asked.
"At least the weekend?" She asked, her voice shaking in terror, her body shaking now from either the pain or the excitement, or perhaps the fear.
"I'll stay." Betty said, stepping forward. "I'll do anything you want me to, Kate, anything." How heroic, I thought instantly, the most romantic thing I've ever seen.
"I'll stay too. At least the weekend." I added in, realistically. The way Kate looked at Betty nearly crushed me. She was holding my hand and she almost dropped it and escaped off into a dreamy place where time stood still. When I added my say, she turned to me slowly, nodding her appreciation and tightening her grip on my hand.
"Thank you," Kate said, tears dripping down her face. I pulled her in and hugged her quickly, trying not to push her whole body into mine. Betty stood back awkwardly; she was still ashamed, confused, and bruised by all that had happened before Kate left. We turned to go, Betty accepting that she wouldn't try to touch Kate ever again, should Kate not first ask her to do so. She was almost like a knight in medieval times, sworn to protect the princess at all costs and no matter the personal feelings. She would go to death for her, regardless of her feelings.
"Betty!" Kate gasped, moving forward on her toes, closing the distance between them. "Betty, I'm sorry. You know you're my whole life. I should never have said those things."
"D-don't sweat it." Betty said, looking down at the ground.
"Betty, look at me," Kate said, she was close enough now to reach out to her. Using her hand to lift Betty's chin up, she forced Betty's eyes to meet up with her own. "I do love you Betty. I just, I don't know what that means." Kate's eyes searched. Betty just stared back at her and I watched it all like it was a movie. Kate took Betty's hands and wrapped them around herself until Betty was made to hug her. I watched as Kate gathered her in tightly, holding Betty like she was fragile and in danger of falling. "Please, stay." She said, her mouth near Betty's ear. I could barely make it out but I think that's what she said.
"I will." Betty breathed. "I promise, I will." She let Kate hold her for as long as she wanted. It must've hurt Kate to be pressing her body up on anything but I swear she burned brighter than the sun with Betty in her arms. When she finally let go, all I could see was her smile, she was filled with hope, and nowhere near the girl that we had met just moments before, the girl who wasn't expecting us to come, the girl with the panic and despair.
Leaving was hard but we were all too frightened to be slow about it. I parked the car at the edge of the field and we took off into the woods, with no supplies whatsoever. The only thing we had on us were those fur coats of my mothers and a basket filled with rations that I had brought from the house in case we got lost. It was filled with the best from my father's store: canned soup, meat, beans, tea, and crackers, anything we could possibly need or want on our journey.
On the way out, we were scared that Kate's father would come back. The field before the trees was long and open. He might have even seen us this morning and grown leery of the abandoned car near his home, knowing all the people in the town. I dragged Betty along, linking my arm with hers.
"You still want to do this?"
"Don't think you could stop me."
"I heard what she said back there."
"Here we go with the water works." She joked. "She loves you, did you hear that? She said she loves you. You're her family."
"Yeah, yeah, words are words."
"I love you too, you know. You're my family too."
"Your family is rich gits, what would you want with a mess like me?"
"You're better than rich gits." I said truthfully. I looked to Betty and she flushed red. It was like those brief words from Kate had turned her whole life around. There was life in her eyes now. I wondered how long her cheeks would stay flushed like they were, and I hoped they would forever.
"You're getting soft Witham." Betty shot back, like her old self. We disappeared into the trees, reaching the cabin long before noon.
Part 4
I unpacked my basket. The cabin wasn't a mess like we had both assumed it would be, it almost looked like someone had been living there. It was overly quaint, like a house you would read about in a story book. There were a few drawings up on the walls, a new looking rug on the floor and plenty of firewood in a basket by the fireplace. Dust littered the room, it rested on every surface, on all the old books and chairs. It just looked like someone was living a lonely life here and then they abandoned the place, never thinking to take their things. After only a few moments of scanning the space with our eyes, we realized that this was Kate's cabin. She was the reason for the dust on the shelves. She must've used this place before running off to VicMu. And she must've used it often.
"This is Kate's secret home." I said. "She used to come here before she left." My hand rested on a book, I took a finger down the front and watched the trail of dust disappear beneath it, it said Wuthering Heights on the spine in golden fading letters.
Betty sat down in the rocking chair, feeling the smooth wooden arms and closing her eyes. She rocked back and forth, smiling at the old creaking wood. Then she picked up the book on the wooden side table there by the chair. It was the only book in the room that didn't have dust all over it. "Jane Eyre," Betty sounded out. Only, she didn't really say Jane Eyre… Believe me, she butchered that last name. What should have sounded like "air" ended up sounding like "Ivory." "What do you think it's about?!" Betty asked, her naivety on her sleeve.
"Oh, it's ghastly," I said, not thinking. Then I remembered something rather horrible, I remembered the whole of the story from beginning to end. "It's a lot like Kate's life I guess..." I murmured in my surprise. I looked at the room and had a silent sort of revelation.
"Ghastly…" Betty whispered. "You say strange things, princess." Betty tucked her arms around herself, as if to avoid her thoughts that very much agreed with my previous statement. Betty knew that Kate's life wasn't a picnic and I knew that too.
"I'll tell you though, if you want to know." I said, trying to cut the air with positivity.
"This book looks real old. I don't know what she did to it, it looks ruined. There's all this writing in it. Look." Betty urged.
"Goodness," I gasped, "It's her bible!"
"Bible? No, it's not." Silly Betty. She had mistaken my words for the exact truth. I didn't at all mean that Jane Eyre was THE bible.
"No, I mean. She cherishes it." I insisted, forcing the book back into Betty's hands. At the sight of the notes I instinctively snatched it away. It was more important that Betty understand. "Look at the pages, all warn. Every corner has a fray." I moved her hands to the page, so she could feel how aged they were. "And these notes," I continued. "They're on every line. She loves this book, it's her salvation." Betty stared at the book between our hands, and I brushed my fingers over hers lovingly.
"You said it's about her life?"
"Well, not her life, really. Just a life similar to her own." I held off a little, trying not to gush. Suddenly the comparisons were too loud for even me to avoid. I found great pleasure in noticing the hopeful message that Kate could easily take away from this book. "See, there's this girl and her parents die. She's given over to the worst family imaginable. Actually now that I think of it, Kate's family is actually worse than this family in the book. But, never the less, the girl, Jane, is sent off to an orphanage but her evil aunt tells the headmaster that the girl is evil, when the girl has only ever been kind. So it's about this kind girl who's been treated horribly her whole life without really deserving any of the unkindness, any of the hatred or abuse." I watched Betty's face, the wheels in her head were beginning to lock into place.
"This already sounds like slop. Why would anyone want to read that?" Betty said indignantly
"The girl, Jane, well, she gets what she wants in the end."
"What does she want?"
"What does anybody want?" Betty looked at me, not speaking. If I didn't know any better I would think she didn't want to understand the book or why Kate loved it so dearly.
"Love, silly. She wants to have love!"
"Oh," Betty said. She took the book from my hands, taking comfort in Kate's notes. I watched her for a while. She perused the pages, never spending long on one or the other. I was certain she was reading the notes, but knowing Betty she probably wasn't sure what most of them meant. Something in her eyebrows signaled a change. She was no longer acting stubborn and I couldn't help but smile. I turned away so she wouldn't see me watching her and getting pleasure from her moods.
The cottage needed a fire if we were to survive the night without freezing. And a few cups of tea would do us nothing but good. It was alright that we hadn't brought much food, cause Kate had planned for everything. The preparations were probably for herself in desperate cases. There is no way she could've foreseen us finding her, especially this soon after her escape. I looked at the extra supplies and felt a pit in my stomach.
"I wonder if she used to hide out here." Betty noticed my eyes on the basket. "You think he knows about this place?"
"I bet he thinks it's cursed, a superstitious man like that. Kate wouldn't come here like this if she didn't feel safe from him. She's got enough food and supplies to last a whole winter." I knelt down to rifle through the basket of fresh vegetable from the farm. Kate must've just come up here. Last night or even as early as this morning before her father had time to wake and wash and drive off to God knows where.
"Christ, what if he made her stay out here?" Betty's voice frightened me. I had been lost in thought for a moment, picturing Kate running out to the woods before the sun came up. Anyone could be out here, she must know that she could need to leave at a moments notice should the rage be upon her father. Leave it to Betty to immediately think the worse. She wasn't wrong though.
"What? Like a punishment?" I asked, composing myself. I had dropped a few ears of corn on the cabin ground and Betty stared at them. "Compared to what he does to her, this hardly seems like a punishment." I looked around. "It's nice really." I thought about this for a while. After I left the basket on the table and poured some tea for the both of us, I retreated into my secret daydreams.
Drinking tea on the cot and thumbing my fingers through Kate's copy of Wuthering Heights, I thought little of the books and instead pictured Kate's every waking move. Right about now I bet she's tending to her mother, stopping her from wanting to help and work, making a safe place for her to rest. "I think she loved it here." I said, finally, out of the blue. "Why else would she send us out here?" My thoughts returned to her books all of a sudden. "This is like her manor…"
"Huh?"
"Wuthering Heights," I said, pointing to the book. Forgetting again that Betty McRae wasn't one of my schoolmates. I've only ever seen Betty with a pen in her hand once and that was all my doing with that damn suggested box. She doesn't seem the kind of gal with endless time on her hands. The day Betty has time to toil, is the day my father turns into a saint! I can't see Betty alone in her room spending hours with a book any more than I can see James on a public bus next to Louis and Leon on his way to attend some monotonous day job like mine at the factory.
Only rich people have time for things like books… Nevertheless I did bring it up. Betty's sure staring at me now. If she doesn't think I'm insane I'll be highly surprised. All this talk about books and bibles, goodness, what has come over me?! "Like Heathcliff and Catherine." I said plainly, thinking of Betty and Kate and what their life may have been like should they of had each other growing up... I knew full well that Betty had no idea what I was talking about. "In this book they are in love with one another and they grow up on this manor, this place where they both started, a place they always seem to come back to, whether they like it or not. This is probably Kate's one personal secret, the only place she feels safe." How lovely. I was talking about the book but imagining a little Kate and a little Betty growing up together on a farm, hiding out from their parents and making a home in this cabin. The thought of it was adorable. I only wished it was reality. Their lives would've ended up nothing like that awful book. I was never really fond of Wuthering Heights but if Kate was fond of it, I would surely be fond of it now.
Betty didn't say much but I couldn't stop thinking about it. The cabin was so done up, it was so personal. Even the drawings were sentimental. There was nothing negative here, nothing that couldn't belong to Kate herself and be cherished by Kate.
"She's sharing this with us Betty. Her one safe place. She must've been a child here once." Thinking about it made me feel so loved. I was so glad that I forced Betty to come out here and look for her. If I hadn't of done so we never would've learned all this about Kate. There were children's books on the shelf next to the adult ones and she kept her herbs in an old cigar box that she must've found a long time ago. She must've spent all her alone time here, daydreaming and losing herself in the lives of these other people. I had heard of people finding escape in novels but it never seemed to make sense until I thought about Kate in this cabin with these books and how absolutely alone she would've been without them. I wanted to hold her and never let her go. The impulse was strong. I swore to myself that the next time I saw her I'd hold her extra long and never tell her why, not even if she begged me.
After a while of quietly musing, I found a basket full of freshly picked veggies. There was plenty enough to make a stew. The ingredients were probably meant for Kate alone but she sent us out here with nothing so I put two and two together and decided to take the risk. Betty watched me from the chair but she was restless I could tell.
"You've got to calm down." I said, finally. I was attempting to follow a recipe I found in a box and it proved to be quite difficult.
"I don't like not knowing. He could be hurting her right now."
"There's nothing we can do. Kate's a smart girl, she wouldn't stay if she thought he would hurt her."
"Damn right there's nothing we can do. What about Jeb and Martin."
"The boy from the gas station?" I tried not to laugh but that proved impossible.
"Yeah, why not?!"
"Kate asked us not to, for one. That's the most important thing." Ignoring her was my only tactic. I kept on with the recipe and refused to meet Betty's eyes.
"Kate doesn't know what's good for her."
"And you do?" I scoffed. I wasn't really angry with her but this talk did nothing but wind her up and I knew that would be no help to any of us.
"I know she shouldn't be around her father."
"But her mother, Betty. She came back for a reason."
"I can't take this." She was pacing. I wasn't sure how long I could keep her here or how quickly she had lost that comfort she had felt just this morning after talking to Kate.
"Sit." I found a mug and filled it with tea. "You, drink." She reluctantly took the mug from my hands and burnt her mouth straight off.
"You trying to kill me?!" She choked.
"Oh, it's hot." I added, rubbing the hair on her head.
"Watch it princess, I may just go crazy out in these woods."
"That's what I'm counting on." I wouldn't mind it. After the week we both had, we should both be at the asylum.
The fire was roaring and Kate had more wood around the cabin. We really wouldn't need anything out here but Kate's father had to know something was going on if he ever saw smoke coming up out of the forest, he had to know about the house.
Betty was so worked up all day that she fell asleep right at nightfall, leaving me entirely alone with my thoughts. I watched her rest, and covered her in Kate's blankets. The crackling wood was very soothing and I sat in Kate's rocking chair, reading her notes in Jane Eyre as the stew continued to boil. It must've been the only book she brought with her to VicMu, Jane Eyre. All the other books had been covered in dust.
A lot of the notes in the margins were bible quotes. Sometimes she would just have numbers but other times she would write out the whole verse. But then often there would be thoughts, originals. Things that Kate could not shoo away, and when I read these, I felt guilty. Next to some of the characters she had placed names, and I only had to guess at it to figure out that these names were all her family members. What surprised me the most, was how intune our thinking was. Kate had circled entire passages, ones that, if I were to read them now, and think again of her, I would circle them as well. One in particular caught me in the heart strings and stopped me from reading straight away. The quote went as follows and it burned within me after I read it, as if her pain was my own:
"Her coming was my hope each day,
Her parting was my pain;
The chance that did her steps delay
Was ice in every vein."
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
I had barely gotten through a third of her notes before running into this, but it stopped me in an instant, for written right beside it, in Kate's delicate handwriting, was a single word:
"Betty."
Part 5
I never felt the cold that night, I snuggled up into Betty's arms, forcing myself beneath the covers. The fire ran out completely and I woke long before sunrise to find Betty awake near the fireplace, fiddling with the wood and matches, trying shakily to light the flame.
"Oh, Betts. Here, let me." I said, surprised to find her in such a state. "Have you been up long?" From the looks of it, she had a terrible sleep. "Nightmares?" I asked, taking the matches from her hand, and brushing her hair from her face.
"I thought I heard… Well, now that you mention it, yeah. Nightmares." She walked back over to the bed and put herself beneath the covers again. I lit the fire almost instantly. I wasn't cold like she was, for some reason, I was even warmer now than before. Perhaps it was the stew. I never woke her to eat.
"You've been up a while. You're shaking."
"I'm fine."
"Come here." I said, lifting the covers up again and placing myself beside her.
"You act like I'm a child."
"I know you're not a child." I breathed, forcing her to hold me. "Come on now Betts, tell me the truth. What happened?"
"Just a dream, like you said. I had a dream about the cabin."
"Oh... Maybe I don't want to know, then."
"It's not important."
And just like that a noise came from the woods, like cracking pine needles and crunching leaves, we both sat up, frightened. We didn't have long to react, a small knock came at the door and then it slowly creaked open. It was Kate! We jumped up.
"Kate!" I cried, "You must be frozen!" She didn't have a thick coat like the ones me and Betty had been wearing the night before. And she carried a basket in her arms beneath the thin hooded cape she was wearing to hide herself.
"I brought you some biscuits." She said, setting them down on the table and pulling the cape off of her frame. I reached to help her but couldn't help hugging her yet again. That feeling from earlier in the day hit me like a ton of bricks and I couldn't bring myself to let her go.
"It's so good to see you!" I breathed in her ear, clutching her too me. I stared at Betty on the bed over Kate's shoulders, she still had that expression on, like talking or moving could change the way Kate thinks about her in an instant.
"I see you found my books!" Kate said apprehensively. "Oh, please tell me you didn't read them." She looked like she had forgotten they were all here until just now when she saw us standing next to them and knew that if we could read we could've learned all kinds of things just by snooping.
"We didn't." Betty assured. It was a lie but Kate looked a little less mortified after hearing it.
"Well, we did a little…" I confessed. There was no point in lying to a good friend. She'd find out eventually. Kate's eyes grew large and then relaxed, there was nothing she could do about it and she knew it.
"Oh dear…" She breathed feeling embarrassed at once. I could only hope that Betty read what I did, that she knew how much Kate cared for her.
"The part with the girl in the orphanage?"
"Huh?" Betty grunted. She hadn't read it, that silly girl.
"The part with the girl in the orphanage." I repeated, nodding my head and smiling tenderly.
"That's where I stopped." I said. "It felt all too personal then and I didn't want to be intrusive."
"It's ok Gladys. I'm glad you read it." Kate smiled. Betty looked up at her regretfully and Kate went over to her, throwing her shoes off in the half dark room and striping herself of her extra sweater.
"Should we light a few candles?" I asked, but Kate was nestling into the bed. She laid her arm out with the covers lifted, ushering me to join her. "Oh, no you don't, I'm far too awake now. I'll fix us breakfast." Watching Kate pull Betty to her and cover herself in the blankets was a sight that cheered me.
"I'm so glad you came." I heard Kate mutter, and very quickly they both trailed off to sleep. I could hear their matched snoring even before the water got to boiling over the fire.
It didn't take long to reheat the stew and the sun slowly rose up over the mountains, and began to pour into the trees, lighting the only window in the cabin. I propped the door open so the heat would seep in and a I waited for the girls to wake, not wanting to stir them or rush them into wakefulness.
Kate had a copy of Rebecca on her shelves and I indulged in a little morning reading to pass the time. Thinking all the while about how all these stories were about truly unhappy people. Even Jane Eyre was unhappy, despite all her positivity and stubborn willing.
The sleepyheads woke up to the smell of the stew on the fire. I was already almost a hundred pages into Rebecca when they stirred behind me through the doorway. I decided to leave them alone but I couldn't help but overhear.
"Morning sleepy head." Kate said.
"Morning." yawned Betty. Why we were here was somewhat beyond me. Was Kate expecting us to visit like this in the future? Was this all an attempt to make her feel at home? I know that I wouldn't mind it but it wasn't realistic. Vernon could not be happy about Kate having friends out here in the woods. If he were to find out, who knows what would happen.
I rose once Betty was seated at the small table in the center of the cabin. Kate had already begun to serve up a few mugs filled with stew.
"Did you make this Gladys?"
"I sure tried..." I admitted sheepishly. It wasn't the best stew I had ever eaten but I really had never made stew before. I was just so ravenous that I had to attempt something.
"Mmm. It's good." Kate smiled taking a spoonful in her mouth.
"Great!" Betty smiled as well. I knew that McRae was probably just starving but it still felt good to hear a compliment.
"So what are we doing here?" I asked. Kate sighed heavily.
"I thought maybe you'd tell me." She said.
"You know why I'm here. We came to get you." Betty said, her stew almost gone. Kate noticed and got up to refill Betty's cup. Betty tried to grab it from her hands but it was too late.
"I don't know what I'm doing." Kate admitted, spooning a few ladles full of stew into Betty's cup.
"Is your mom really sick?" I asked. Kate paused before sitting down.
"No. She's unhappy." She wouldn't look at me.
"You don't want to leave her." I said.
"No... Not yet..." We ate quietly now, no one really speaking. Soon Betty got up and threw herself back on the bed, her hands behind her head, relaxing.
"This place sure is nice."
"It was my grandfathers... It's mine now, he gave it to me." She walked over to sit on the bed by Betty.
"And your father doesn't mind a few mice hiding away in here?" Betty asked.
"What he doesn't know won't hurt him. He's scared of this old place." Kate admitted, smiling at me.
"He died here, didn't he." I said.
"Yup. At least five years ago. Father won't come here now. He thinks if he does, he'll die too. I figured it out right after. When I want to run away, I just come out here. Father knows where I am but he doesn't dare come looking." We all smiled at this news.
"In my solitude..." Kate began to sing, "you haunt me.. with memories of days gone by." I watched Betty relax into herself on the bed and I stood up to dance around the room. Kate stood to join me and Betty watched with one weary eye before closing it with a smile.
Kate took the lead and kept on singing. "In my solitude, you taunt me, with memories that never die." She seemed to be singing just to me, her expression truly angelic. "I sit in my chair, I'm filled with despair, there's no one could be so sad..." We swayed around the room, her singing trailing off at that last part. I cut away from her, sitting down in the corner chair next to the night stand.
"Is that you then..." I asked, pulling Kate to sit on my knees. I cradled her ontop of me, like santa cradles a child for her christmas wish.
"Mostly..." Kate said sadly, a smile still resting on her serene expression.
"I knew it the second we walked in. This is your own safe little place. It's wonderful." I brushed the hair from her eyes, cupping her face with my hands. "Thank you Kate! Thank you for being my friend." The words just rolled right out of me. Betty stirred from beside us, she sat up on the bed.
"When can we take you home?" Betty asked, causing Kate's smile to fall just the slightest bit.
"Soon I hope." Kate admitted. She obviously wanted to be with us, there was no doubting it. I just wish there was something I could do to speed this along.
Just then we heard a loud scream and a crash.
"It's father!" Kate shrieked, jumping off of me in a frenzy. She ran to the door, then ran back to us. "You'll be okay won't you?"
"Of course." Betty mumbled. She had got to her feet too, not knowing what to expect. We heard a loud crash.
"What in the heavens could that be?!" I asked.
"I don't know... but I better go and find out." It was quick like that. As soon as she had spoken, she was gone. Betty grabbed the sweater Kate had left, and pushed it to her face, smelling the scent of her sadly and hugging it too her, thinking that I wouldn't see.
"I don't like this..." She said...
"Me neither..." I admitted. We both watched the door, afraid to run out into the woods. It her father knew we were here, he'd probably take it out on her. That was the last thing either of us wanted.
"Do you think he found the car?"
"He may have..." I admitted. The afternoon flew by quickly. We paced around the house, trying to listen for noises that didn't come.
The night fell on us, shrouding us in darkness. We found some cards on the small book case at the foot of the bed and began to lose ourselves in conversation.
"Do you think you'll love anyone else?"
"Do you?" I asked.
"I don't want to." Betty smirked.
"Me neither," I admitted. "I think that people are just meant to fall in love with one another." I could see the doubt in Betty's eyes. "Take you and me for example." I said, cocking an eyebrow her way. Betty looked skeptical. "Did you ever think when you first saw me walk towards the factory, that we would one day be held up in the woods together, living together peacefully like common folk in some Grimm fairy tale?!" I laughed.
"No... No I did not!" Betty admitted, her smile cracking into a laugh. She got up suddenly and pulled a bottle from under the old cot.
"You little devil!" I gasped. "How did you find that."
"Kate brought it with her. She had taken it from my room before leaving. I guess she felt bad."
"I don't know why she would!" It was after all fortuitous and somewhat fated that Me and Betty should find this bottle and drink it in the end.
"I didn't even know it was gone..." Betty said sadly.
"Thank the gods for Kate and her foresight!" I took the bottle from Betty and drank from it joyously. Before long we had drank it down to nothing. Betty asked me about my home life and that topic kept us busy for a good long while. I told her about my brother and we both ended up crying like drunken fools. You just can't help the people you miss and the people you love.
Eventually we fell asleep without eating any more than those biscuits that Kate had brought earlier. We were too on edge to think of good and too busy seeking mental distraction to actually think of making something.
I awoke in the middle of a dream to the sound of rustling on the forest floor. Not two seconds after I woke up, Kate flew through the door panting heavily. It was too dark for me to see her but I knew it was her.
"Kate?" I asked.
"It's me." She whispered. Betty somehow didn't wake. I lit a candle quickly and brought it to the table where she had sat down. Even in the candlelight I could see that Kate had been hit again. This time on her face.
"Oh no..." I gasped. "Oh Kate..." I didn't know what to say.
"I know..." She heaved, trying to catch her wits. "When Betty wakes up she's going to be very angry." It made me smile to think that she was only worried about Betty's reaction and not about her own pain and how much the beating must've been hurting her right now.
"Did you run all the way here?" I asked.
"I think it's time." She interrupted, ignoring my question. I reached my hand over to hers and held it.
"Are you sure?" She looked at me and shook her head. "Betty is right. I can't stay here. My mother wouldn't want it." She was truly shaken. Her hand beneath mine was shaking even though it was at rest and in the dark her face seemed to dance in the flicker of the candle.
"Okay." I said firmly. We both got up and began to gather anything she would want. Kate pulled a suitcase from under the cot and began to throw things inside of it. I grabbed her copy of Jane Eyre from where I had left it earlier and she took it from my hands slowly as though I was giving her a gift. I couldn't help it, I kissed her lips suddenly and pulled her in for another long hug. She was so strong to have survived such a hard childhood, I felt like an idiot for complaining so often about my own. "You're a treasure, Kate Andrews." I whispered into the night. I felt her bring her arm up suddenly, as if to push me away, but I wouldn't let her leave me, not just yet.
After the water works and my forced affection, we shook Betty awake softly. She woke confused but we shushed her and told her it was time to go. Since Kate was there she just accepted it. We had made the decision without her. In the night it was frightening to be walking through the woods. All the noises seemed to be magnified, even those from beneath our feet. I had a fear that Vernon would come running out of the woods after us. What if he had followed Kate and would want to hurt her even more? We didn't speak. At one point Betty tripped over a branch and fell down on the forest floor. Me and Kate both bent to pick her up and asked her if she was alright. As far as we knew everything was fine but we were in a real hurry. When we reached the car, everyone got in quickly and we slammed the doors absentmindedly, knowing for sure that we would be far from this place by morning.
Starting up the car there was a panic in our eyes. No one spoke but you could tell in our stares that we all expected Vernon to chase after us like a ghost. He didn't.
We drove for miles before anyone spoke. Betty remembered how she got into town so she had no problems wordlessly getting out. It wasn't until we passed the familiar gas station that we all seemed to feel relaxed. That's when we knew we had escaped. Kate was the first one to break the silence.
"He knows where I'll go." She said. Betty and I didn't know what to say. I just reached back behind me and held her hand.
"We're together now." I offered. She seemed to smile at this. I looked to Betty and she also smiled. Who knows what she was thinking during that ride home. She was driving so fast that I was really afraid to ask, so I didn't. Halfway there, the sun came up. Kate sat up from the back seat, leaning over between me and Betty, acting like her old self again, more excited than a kid in a candy store. She really did want to be free, it was written all over her face. I just hoped her freedom would last. We would be back in time for work, like nothing had even happened. But we all knew that a lot had happened. I would remember this trip forever and I never wanted to forget a single thing about it, not a single little thing.