Chapter 17
Tuesday morning in West Bev High School hallway, Naomi is around the corner as she overhears Silver telling Annie, "Mr. Cannon just told me he wants to show me a film that he has been working on, but it's at his house, do you think I should go?"
"Why can't he show you here?" Annie asks Silver.
"He said it would be too much of a hassle to move all of the equipment here to school, it's some special program that the school can't afford. I mean, you trust him, right? Even with everything that Naomi tried to tell us last week?"
Silver asks Annie. "You know, Naomi, she lied about it before earlier in the year, why wouldn't she now?" Annie questions.
"Yeah, you're right, well I'll see you later," Silver says.
Naomi is still around the corner and decides that she needs to tell Ms. Taylor everything before Silver gets hurt also.
That morning Brandon calls the Wyatt Foundation to set up a meeting to find out more information about the possible job. He also starts to think more seriously about what Kelly said about working for either the Chronicle or the LA times, but he doesn't really want to think about until after he has finished everything with the New York Times and National Geographic.
Later that afternoon, Kelly sees Silver in the hallway, "Hey, can I talk to you in my office for a second."
"Hmm, yeah sure," Silver says a little confused why she has to go to her sister's office just to talk with her.
"What's up Kel," Silver asks as she sits down in her sister's chair.
"I heard earlier that you're planning on going over to Mr. Cannon's this evening by yourself, is that true?" Kelly asks as she sits on her desk facing Silver.
"Yeah, so what's the big deal, Kel? I live with you and you're a teacher here at West Bev. What's the problem?" Silver questions.
"Well, I'm also you're legal guardian and I just don't feel conformable with you going over to his house, that's all," Kelly tries to explain without going into the details about Naomi.
"But you're fine with me going over to Mr. Wilson's?" Silver asks questionably.
"Silver, that's different," Kelly says.
"No it's not Kel, I don't see what the problem is, I'll see you later," Silver says as she walks out of the door.
"Silver, please come back," Kel tries, but it's no use because Silver won't listen to her either way and Kelly knows it!
That evening Naomi decides to follow Silver to Mr. Cannon's place, when Silver arrives, she realizes that Kelly was right because there was a bottle of wine out ready to drink and Mr. Cannon was acting a bit forceful on her. Silver tries to come up with an excuse to leave, but he starts to force him onto her by standing extremely close to her and putting his hands on her hips.
Naomi, who is outside looking in through a window, picks up a large stone and throws it into Mr. Cannon's window that gives Silver enough time to smash the wine bottle to use it as a weapon, as she saw Naomi outside. Silver runs out of the house, and gets into Naomi's car as soon as possible.
Naomi hugs Silver and asks, "Are you okay?"
Silver replies, "Yeah….how did you…?"
"There's no time now, we got to go," Naomi says as she sees Mr. Cannon stumbling out of the house with a cut on his head and part of the broking wine bottle in his hand.
Silver turns from Naomi and sees Mr. Cannon and she has a terrified look on her face, "why didn't I listen to Kelly…I'm so stupid," she asks herself out loud.
Naomi steps on the gas quickly, "Hey no you're not! You had no to reason to believe her about Mr. Cannon, it's my fault, I should have told her last week when she called me into her office," Naomi says as she is driving fast out of Mr. Cannon's neighborhood.
Silver asks, "What do you mean?"
Naomi takes some time to confess her secret while driving, "I wasn't lying when I said that Mr. Cannon raped me on prom night, but I didn't know what to do because I falsely accused him of the sexual assault. I knew that wasn't right and I shouldn't have done it, but it just kind of happened and I hate admitting that I'm wrong. Well anyways, your sister noticed something wasn't right, but I refused to tell her anything until this morning after I overheard you talking to Annie about going to Mr. Cannon's this evening," Naomi finishes as they pulling into Kelly's driveway.
"Naomi….wow, I don't know what to say," Silver pauses and goes to hug Naomi, "I'm sorry for everything. Thank you for watching out for me tonight."
"Is it okay if I come in with you?" Naomi asks, "Kelly told me, she would go to the police with me when I was ready."
"Yeah, come on lets go find her," Silver says.
As the evening progressed with Naomi and Silver, Kelly has been at home thinking about her own rape and killing Joe Patch. She is trying to hide from Brandon that anything is wrong.
While Kelly and Brandon are washing the dishes, Sammy runs up behind Kelly with a drawing, "Mommy, look at my…."
But before Sammy could finish his sentence, Kelly jumped and screamed, allowing the dish to break directly in front of Sammy.
"Kel," Brandon rushes over to grab her to try to calm her down because she was still shaking, "you alright?"
After Kelly catches her breathe, "Yeah, I'm fine…I should go clean this up." She goes to grab the broom and dustpan completely ignoring Brandon and Sammy.
When she returns, Sammy tries to apologizes, "Mommy, I'm," but Kelly cuts him off, "Sammy go to your room please."
He stands there besides Brandon for a moment, not moving, "Sammy, I said NOW," Kelly says raising her voice a bit. Sammy runs out of kitchen, up the stairs and into his room crying.
After Sammy left, Kelly goes back to putting away the dishes; Brandon tries to speak with her, "Kelly, what's going on?"
"Nothing, Brandon, just let it be," she replies.
"NO, you just yelled at Sammy for no reason," Brandon said raising his voice a bit also.
Kelly tries to reply with an excuse, "Well he scared me and frankly so have you."
"Kelly, I know that's not true, I'm sure he is always running up from behind you. I can also tell by the look on his face that you have never yelled at him like that before. Kel, please tell me what is going on. What is bothering you? I can tell that something isn't right and you weren't like this all weekend."
Kelly stands there for a for almost a minute with her back to Brandon, trying not to cry and debating if she should tell him, but she knows that she can't say anything without breaking her confidentially to Naomi.
She turns around to face him still trying not to cry as she looks him into the eyes, "Brandon, I'm sorry but I can't."
"Kel, why not? Please tell me," Brandon begs.
Before she could respond, Silver and Naomi walk in through the back door.
"Kelly, I'm sorry, you were right," Silver tells her. Kelly rushes over to give Silver a tight hug as she starts to finally cry a bit, "its okay and I love you, Erin."
"I love you too, Kel. Naomi just told me everything, she followed me tonight and saved me," Silver told Kelly.
Brandon is even more confused by what he is witnesses, but decides not to ask any questions yet. Kelly lets go of Silver and turns to Naomi also giving her a hug, "Thank you, Naomi."
"I'm ready to go with you now, if you still willing," Naomi tells Kelly.
"Yeah, sweetie, we can go right now," Kelly says.
Brandon finally erupts, "Kelly what's going on here, where do you guys need to go?"
As Kelly wipes her tears she walks back over to Brandon and places her hands on his arms, "Brandon, just please. I'm sorry, I can't explain yet. Could you please take care of Sammy for the night? It will probably be best if you take him back to your parent's with you."
She turns back towards the girls, "Silver could you please go take out the booster seat for me, I'll be in the car in a few minutes?"
"Yeah sure," Silver replies as she and Naomi goes outside.
"Brandon, please just be patience with me right now. I need to go apology to Sammy now before I leave with the girls."
She steps away from him before he could embrace her into a hug; nonetheless, he follows her up to Sammy's room. When Kelly reaches Sammy's door, she can hear him still crying, she knocks softly, "Sweetie, may I come in?"
Sammy doesn't say anything, but turns his head towards the door as Kelly opens it. She finds him curled up in a ball on his bed. It breaks her heart, knowing that it's her fault. Brandon stays by the door, watching Kelly move towards their son's bed so she can sit down next to him. She goes ahead and gently wipes away Sammy's tears and gives him a tissue to blow his nose.
"Honey, I'm really sorry I frighten you. I really didn't mean to scare you or yell at you like that. It's not your fault."
Sammy sits up so he can crawl into Kelly's lap, "Mommy, I'm sorry too."
"There's no reason for you to be sorry honey, it's just been a really rough day for me." She pauses, "how would you like it if Daddy took you to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's? Would you like that?"
Kelly asks him, but he responds instead with, "but I want to stay with you, Mommy. Can't I please?"
Kelly is trying so hard not to cry again, Sammy notices a tear and wipes it away for her.
"Thank you honey, I wish you could right now, but I really need to go help Aunt Silver and her friend tonight. That's why I've been so jumpy all evening because I've been really worried about them."
"Are they going to be okay?" Sammy asks.
Kelly replies, "They will be in time honey. I'll see you tomorrow okay."
"Okay mommy," Sammy says.
"Be good for Daddy tonight, ok," Kelly tells him.
"I love you, mommy."
"I love you too, sweetie."
Brandon walks fully into the room, "hey bud, how are you doing," he asks Sammy.
"Better," he replies.
"Good, why don't we get ready to go surprise grandma and grandpa," Brandon asks him.
"Okay," Sammy says giving Kelly one last hug.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow, I'll stop by for breakfast, okay," she says looking directly at Sammy. Then looks up at Brandon and simply says, "Thank you." Kelly lets go of Sammy and goes to join the girls waiting in her car.
When Kelly sits down in the driver's seat, Silver asks her, "Kel, you okay, you don't look so good."
"Yeah, it's just been a rough evening. Alright, well let's go to the police and get this done so we can all move on," Kelly replies.
After reporting the Naomi's rape and Mr. Cannon's attempt to rape Silver, Kelly brings the girls back to her house, as a police car goes to observe Mr. Cannon's house. Kelly tells the girls to stay in the guest room, as she goes into her room, but she didn't even try to sleep that night, she knew that she couldn't with everything that is on her mind. Instead to try to keep wake she choose to watch a few old movies in her bedroom. She eventually did fall asleep for only her alarm to go off before her dream could really progress.
