Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 01 - Blood on White Wicker (15 page)

Nana was telling them, “He only wanted one of them.”

One of the men said, “We’re not leaving a witness.” Then he took me and went over to Nana and hit her on the head.

It was the weirdest sensation, a part of me knew I wasn’t really there, but then another part of me was that little girl and I couldn’t talk like I did today. I was still talking in a little girl’s voice while I was trying to describe it.

Suddenly, with just a snap of John’s fingers, I was in present day time.

“That’s enough for today. You weren’t making any sense. I got the part about Nana telling one of the men that ‘he’ wanted just one. After that you were running you words together.”

I felt wrung out. When Rosa came over and sat on the bed and put her arm around me, I burst into tears.

John patted my back, “Cry all you want. You’ve earned it.”

Just that little bit of sympathy sent me into nearly hysterical sobs. John went downstairs and brought back a glass of water for me.

After John left, I told Rosa I was going to take a nap and she said she was going to join me.

“That wore me out just watching you,” Rosa said.

We slept like the dead and didn’t wake up until eight fifteen.

“Oh shit,” Rosa said jumping out of bed. “It’s a good thing I had to pee or we might have slept through the night. We’re going to be late again. If Frank didn’t need girls so badly, we’d probably both lose our jobs.”

We had eight girls altogether that night, so it was an easy night, even though we were busy. Just before closing time, at three forty five, I was sitting at the bar talking to Frank, when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, someone sit down beside me.

This happened sometimes. Someone would sit by me and buy me a drink. I glanced over and saw a man who looked to be in his late twenties. He was a little overweight, but when he smiled at me, he reminded me of a big sweet teddy bear. I noticed that he had a gap between his two front teeth, he had light, almost blond hair and blue eyes, and I was immediately attracted to him.

But it was his soft soothing voice that did it, “My name’s Ben. Can I buy you a drink?”

Before I had a chance to answer him, Frank said, “You’re up Brandy,” and I had to get on stage.

The whole time I danced, Ben and I kept looking at each other. I couldn’t wait to get off stage so I could find out more about him. Just before I got off, he took a table and motioned for me to join him over there. I nodded slightly, and when the final number was finished, I was so anxious to get to him that I forgot to pick up my money airplanes off the stage floor.

Then I remembered it just as the next girl was getting on stage and my heel caught on the step leading up on the stage and I tripped and almost fell. Everyone was laughing at me as the next girl, Sharon, helped me gather up my tips.

Then everyone was craning their necks, trying to see who I was so anxious to get to in such a hurry. When I sat down with Ben, everyone clapped. I got up and bowed. And they clapped and laughed some more.

Ben had joined in the clapping and laughing and when I sat down the second time he said, “You do a great show, Brandy. What do you want to drink?”

He looked around for a waitress and Rosa came over. She was grinning like some kid who had eaten all the cookies. I told her I just wanted a coke. And Ben ordered another beer.

When she left to get our drinks, he smiled at me again and in his soft voice he said, “My name is Ben Justice. I work on an oil rig. I’m a roughneck. I work two on and two off. I live with my grandmother when I’m onshore. What about you?”

To avoid talking about me, I asked, “What did you mean by working two on and two off? And what’s a roughneck?”

Just then Rosa brought our drinks. Ben gave her the money and a twenty dollar tip. She and I caught each other’s eye and shrugged. She thanked him and left.

“A roughneck is someone who does the rough stuff on an oil rig. We handle all the pipes etc. I work two weeks offshore on the rig and then I’m onshore two weeks.”

He took a couple swallows of beer and set it down and smiled at me again, “I still want to hear about you. Where did you come from? How did you end up working here? And why did I have to wait all my life to meet you?”

I liked this guy so much that I was terrified that if he really knew me he wouldn’t like me. I started looking everywhere but at him. I noticed Frank laughing and talking with a fat bald guy at the bar. I noticed Rosa getting up on stage. I liked watching her. She was such a good dancer. People all over the club were laughing and talking

“The answers aren’t out there, Brandy. We’ll start with that. Is Brandy your real name?”

“My real name is Victoria Masters. I mean….that’s the name I’ve known ever since I can remember.”

He smiled in a confused sort of way as if I had given him some sort of riddle.

“O…kay…, I’ll just continue to call you Brandy for now. Next question, you sound very southern, like you’re maybe from Alabama or maybe Mississippi, but not New Orleans.”

“I’m from Bishop Georgia. At least, that’s the last place I lived before I came here.”

“Oh, a military brat, huh? You moved around a lot.”

It would have been so easy to lie to him, but I felt like this guy was so special and I didn’t want to start lying to him. I told him that I had grown up in foster homes. When I told him this, he put his hand over mine and I’ve never felt a hand so warm in my life.

“You’ve had to learn to be tough, I’ll bet, growing up like that.” He said.

I felt so grateful to him for that. Instead of making me feel like an outsider, what I had felt all my life, he made me feel strong. And I did feel stronger than when I got off the bus from Georgia.

“Okay, next question. How did you end up working here? No, don’t answer. You ran away from the foster home?” I nodded and he went on. “Because they were mean to you? They beat you?”

“Not exactly,” I said “My foster dad raped me.” I couldn’t believe I had told him that. It just came out so easily. “I was a virgin, and he raped me.” To my horror, I started crying. Frank was there within seconds.

“What did you do to my girl?” he asked.

Ben stood up and I thought they were going to start fighting. “Sir she was telling me a sad story and I was giving her sympathy. That’s all. I would never do anything to hurt her. I’m just trying to get to know her.”

“Well, continue this after she gets off. I don’t want the other customers to see her sitting over here crying.”

“I’m sorry,” I said when he left.

“You don’t have anything to apologize for. But he’s right. We need to continue this conversation when you get off. Why don’t I take you out for breakfast when you get off?”

“Okay, but I need to tell Rosa. We share an apartment and a car.”

“Why don’t I take both of you out for breakfast? I know a place that serves really good steak and eggs and champagne. How does that sound?”

I told him it sounded wonderful and it didn’t seem like that long before we were in a very nice restaurant, pigging out. Ben could be so funny. He had us almost rolling in the floor. He told us about his life on the oil rig.

He worked twelve hours and was then off twelve hours. He told us about when it was really cold on the rig some of the men would wear women’s panty hose under their clothes. There wasn’t much to do during the off hours, and some of the men got addicted to soap operas. When he told this part, I almost lost it. I screamed with laughter.

Later Rosa excused herself and said that she wanted to go get some sleep. Ben asked me if we could go to my apartment and talk.

“You think it will disturb Rosa? I would take us to my grandmother’s, but she’s a light sleeper.”

I told him that my place would be good because Rosa would be upstairs sleeping and that she could sleep during a war. When we got back to my place, I made coffee and we sat on the couch.

“Mmm. Good coffee,” he said, “Let’s continue with what you were talking about. How did it happen, the rape?”

“He just came into my room one night and raped me. He didn’t say anything. Just stripped me naked, climbed on top and did it. After he fell asleep, I took every last penny I could find on him and took off. I got a bus to New Orleans because it was the next one leaving.”

“I’m glad you at least took his money. I wish you had hurt him. I’ll tell you something, Brandy, every time I hear about something like this it almost makes me ashamed I’m a man. I hope you don’t think all men are like that.”

“No, I know, I’ve met some decent men.” But as I said this, the only one I could think of besides Ben was Mark. And I wasn’t real sure about him since it looked like he had forgotten about me.

“So, you ran away and came to New Orleans, and then what? Got a job at Kit Katz?”

“No, first I met a man named Dave Boudreau.”

When I didn’t say anymore he said, “You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

“It’s just that I’m afraid if I tell you too much, you won’t like me anymore.”

He pulled me to him and pushed my head down on his shoulder, “There’s nothing you could tell me that would make me not like you, unless you told me you murdered someone. You didn’t murder anyone did you?”

I laughed, “No, but I’ve wanted to kill a couple of people.” His reassurances made me want to confide in him. I told him all about working with Dave, getting arrested, living in the run-away shelter, running away from there, getting arrested again, doing community service and then living with the Lessiters.

When I told him what Mr. Lessiter did to me, he looked real angry, “I wish you had killed him when you hit him on the head. Too bad you didn’t have a tire iron.”

I didn’t tell him about Julia or the FBI or any of that part. I thought enough people knew about that already. And I didn’t want to overwhelm Ben at this point. Ben started yawning and said that he was going home so I could get some sleep. I would soon learn that this was his sense of humor. He faked a yawn so he could go home and let me get some sleep.

For the next two weeks, Ben and I spent most of my free time together. He would pick me up at seven each night and we would go out to eat, then a movie.

Sometimes he would come over and we would stay home and Rosa and I would fix a meal and we would all talk. Rosa liked him a lot and we all three got along well together. Rosa was seeing John Shepherd and confided in me that she may ask me to get a hotel room for the night pretty soon.

John had hypnotized me a couple more times and each time it was less traumatic. He said that I was becoming desensitized which was good. We didn’t learn anything new but he believed there was more for me to remember and we needed to be patient.

CHAPTER 13

I missed Ben so much after he went back offshore. A couple of days after Ben left, Rosa said that now that Ben had left she was going to invite John to spend the night, and asked if I would mind staying in a hotel. She offered to pay for half of the room cost, but I said no. Besides I might ask her to return the favor when Ben got back.

We slept until five that evening and then washed the sheets and cleaned the apartment. By the time we were finished and had a meal of po-boy sandwiches, it was time to shower and get ready to go to work.

That night Frank told all of us that we would be open next Thursday night which was Thanksgiving. I couldn’t believe the time had gone so fast. He said we would be having turkey with all the trimmings. He did this every year, one of the girls said. It was all catered and the customers loved it.

Later that night, while I was on stage, Mark walked in. I was so shocked that I almost stumbled. It had been almost a year since I had seen him and didn’t think I would ever see him again. Now that I had met Ben, I wasn’t that excited to see Mark. He barely glanced toward the stage, but went over and started talking to Frank.