Straightjacket (20 page)

“I’m sorry.” He pulled his hand away quickly. “Did I hurt you?”

“No, no.” Her search for socks was almost frantic.

“Where’d you get that from?”

She continued to look busy. “I—um—I got it a couple of years ago.”

“It’s a weird shape. What happened?” He didn’t want to pry into more than she was willing to reveal, but he couldn’t help himself.

“I don’t—I don’t know.” The pain hiding behind the words was obvious.

“You don’t have to tell me. It’s okay.”

She sat down on the corner of the bed, tracing the twisting vines on the bedspread with her finger.

“My father gave it to me. It’s from a belt buckle.” The words hung in the air for a moment while she circled the blue flowers at the tips of the vines.

“A belt buckle? You mean…” Labeling the horrific image in his mind with words would make it too real.

“That’s what would happen when I didn’t behave like they wanted me to,” she said very quietly, smoothing down the bedspread with her hand. “I think the one on my back was from the time I embarrassed my mother at one of her dinner parties. She thought I said something that made her look bad in front of one of her friends.”

“You said it was bad, but…” Even though every cell felt like it was going to explode, he made himself stay calm for her sake. “I don’t know how anyone could do that.”

She wiped a tear off her cheek with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry,” he said as his arms wound their way around her waist. “No one’s ever going to hurt you again. I promise.”

“So now you know everything. I’m pretty messed up. I know.”

“What are you talking about?” He smiled. “You are the
least
messed up person I’ve been around over the last few weeks.” They both laughed, and he nudged her gently with his elbow. “So are you gonna let me take you on a tour or what?” His anger was far from gone, but he tried not to show it anymore so he wouldn’t upset her.

The tour led Anna to two more bedrooms and the kitchen. In the back corner of the house sat the study, and when they walked in she stopped in the doorway and let go of his hand, peering into the room in awe.

“Look at this; it’s amazing,” she whispered, eyeing the books that lined the walls from top to bottom. Her fingers ran across the length of one of the shelves, touching the spine of every book. She stopped on
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
, pulled it out, and thumbed through the pages. “I’m definitely going to start with this one.” She giggled and tossed it at him.

“Ooh, baby,” he said in an exaggerated, deep voice and set the book on an end table. Anna sat down in the window seat below the bay window.

“This is definitely my favorite room,” she said as she peered outside at the lake.

“Me too.” He took a seat at the desk in the corner, which faced out another window. “I used to love to draw right here.”

The books lured her away from her seat. While she was busy skimming the titles printed on the book spines, Caleb went downstairs to rifle through the duffel bag again. Once he’d found what he was looking for, he sprinted back upstairs.

“Here, this is for you.” His outstretched hand held a tattered old spiral notebook.

“What’s this?”

“It’s your new journal. I found this at my house and knew it would be perfect for you.”

“What are you talking about?” Her thumb and forefinger dangled it in front of him like it was a dead rat.

“I figured those nice hardbound journals are the problem. You think you have to write something perfect in them because they look so perfect. Now you don’t have to worry about it. You can take this and write something messy and stupid and totally un-perfect and it won’t matter.”

“Hmm,” she said, the suggestion of a smile spreading across her face.

“Anna, I’m offering you one of my most treasured possessions.” He took the notebook away from her and balanced it on the palm of his hand, bowing his head as he offered it up to her. “Will you accept it?” He peeked up at her, waiting for her to answer.

“Yeah, I’ll accept it.” She flung her arm around his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek. “You’re the best, you know.”

“Don’t you forget it. So you wanna go see outside?”

“Saving the best for last, huh?” He grabbed her hand and she followed him to the massive deck. It had been so dark the night before that she couldn’t have seen how huge it actually was, with a wooden table, chairs, and flowerpots that lined the tree-trunk railings.

“Come with me, down to the lake.” Already he was a few steps ahead of her. She followed him down some more stairs and onto a worn dirt path that sloped leisurely downward. Rows of stones created steps every few feet. The path dead-ended into a small wooden dock lined with more tree-trunk railings. Her steps almost bounced as she walked down the length of it to join him standing at the end.

The curved toes of Caleb’s sneakers were even with the edge of the dock. He scanned the water and listened closely to everything—its lapping against the rowboat on the shore behind them, the call of a bird that he could have sworn was an eagle, the occasional breeze that would urge the tree branches away from their familiar pose. But what struck him the most was what he wasn’t hearing. There was no moaning echoing down a hallway, no screaming, no madness. Just peace. Everything was in its place, doing what it should be doing, and he was finally a part of it.

“This is paradise.” Anna’s voice nudged him out of his meditation.

“It’s perfect.” A gust of wind swirled around them. His T-shirt soaked up the heat of the sun, funneling it onto his skin. It made him feel happy and loved and like the sun was meant for him.

But suddenly there was the sound of something else besides the water and the birds. The dirt gave way softly below the tires of an approaching car. Its gears shifted. The engine stopped. He couldn’t make out much, only bits and pieces of the car through the heavy pine branches. It was either the doctor or the groceries.

He turned to Anna, ready to grab her hand and walk back toward the house, but when he saw her face he didn’t move. She stood frozen and terrified, her chest rising and falling quickly with each shallow breath.

“What’s wrong?”

“Who’s here?” she blurted out, panicked. “Who knows we’re here?”

“It’s all right,” he said taking her hand.

A voice muted by the dense trees called out. “Caleb?”

“We’re coming,” he shouted. Turning back to Anna, he tried quickly to explain. “It’s just the doctor from town. I wanted him to come over and take a look at your arm, make sure it’s healing the right way.” Her breaths grew slower. “Who did you think it was?”

Before she could answer, the doctor appeared at the other end of the dock, waving his hand broadly in the air with a pleased look on his face. He laughed loudly and made his way toward them.

“Caleb, I can’t believe it’s you!”

Chapter Twenty

Anna hadn’t told Caleb about the phone calls. The hospital had returned her own cell phone to her a little while before they left, and she had charged it up while she was waiting for Caleb to come get her. Since then she’d kept it buried in the pocket of her jeans with the ringer set to off. The number of missed calls and voice mails inched upward with every passing hour. She wouldn’t listen to the messages. But when she woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep, couldn’t stop obsessing about what her parents had to say to her, she snuck out of the bedroom, tucked her legs underneath her on the living room couch, and listened to every message.

At first her mother’s recorded voice was panicked, asking her to call and tell her where she was. But message after message, the voice became angry and finally hateful. Her mother, and sometimes her father, rambled on and on, spewing their poison. They told her what a horrible daughter she was to do this to them, how irresponsible she was, what a disappointment she’d become, how this was a stupid way to rebel against them. Why couldn’t she stop listening? Like an automaton, she pressed the buttons on the phone, playing message after message.

After a while she was numb. Her mother called her “an unrespectable girl,” and she didn’t even flinch. When there were no more messages, she slid back underneath the covers and wedged herself against Caleb as close as she could manage.

In one of the messages, her parents had threatened to come find her themselves. As the car drove up the dirt road, Anna thought they’d managed to do it. The adrenaline surging through her body just a few seconds ago began to dissipate as soon as the old man came into view.

Caleb took her hand and walked her toward the man. The sleeves of his off-white button-down shirt were rolled up, the sloppily folded cuffs resting at different lengths over his elbows. His brown khaki pants sat high on his waist, cinched with a worn brown belt, and instead of dress shoes he wore boxy white sneakers. He was almost completely bald, with dark brown age spots speckling the top of his head. His smile was huge and genuine. As he met them in the middle of the dock, he reached out his hand toward Caleb.

“Well, this is a surprise!” He laughed deeply and shook Caleb’s hand with vigor, resting the other hand on his shoulder. “What a difference a few years makes.”

“I guess it has been a long time,” Caleb answered with a smile. “It’s good to see you, Dr. Hillman.”

“And who’s this pretty young lady? I figured you’d be here with your dad.”

“This is Anna.”

“It’s a pleasure,” he said, taking her hand into his own.

“Nice to meet you.”

The doctor’s eyes traced the length of her arm, starting at the shoulder and moving down the sling to the fist that stuck out the end of it. She made an effort to relax her fingers.

“I see now why you needed my services. Why don’t we go into the house so I can take a look? Let me just grab my bag from the car.”

“We’ll meet you in the living room.”

“What happened?” Caleb whispered once Dr. Hillman had veered away from them toward his car. “Who did you think it was?” He held the door open for her, and they stepped into the living room.

“I didn’t want to tell you before. I—I thought it was my parents. They’ve been leaving me some messages. I thought they found us.” Caleb smiled, which was not the reaction she was expecting. She squinted back at him, shaking her head. “What? You find that funny?”

“First of all, I’d be surprised if they could hunt us down so quickly. And second, who
cares
? You’re an adult. They can’t make you go with them if you don’t want to. That would be kidnapping.”

Anna’s face relaxed. He was absolutely right. Even if they did find her, they couldn’t take her away. All they’d have to do was try, and she’d call the police.

“You’re right. I didn’t think of it like that before. I’m not going anywhere.” There was a hint of cockiness in her voice. “I just hope they don’t actually try to find me. It could get ugly.” Caleb winked at her and she smiled. The guilt loomed in the back of her mind, though, no matter how much she tried to ignore it.

Her focus shifted away from her parents and onto another unwelcome thought: Why did Caleb even call a doctor? She was fine and it was unnecessary. He really should have asked her first, but when she spotted him sitting in the overstuffed leather chair, looking cool and handsome as usual, her annoyance dissolved in a split second.

The sound of the screen door squeaking open made them both look over to find Dr. Hillman making his way into the room. One hand gripped a black leather doctor’s bag, its surface marked with deep lines and scratches. He motioned for Anna to join him on the couch.

“Now let’s take a look at this arm. What’s the problem?”

“I broke my collarbone.”

“And how’d you manage that?” he said, removing the sling. Anna’s mind went blank. She couldn’t tell him what had really happened, and she was terrible at lying. The silence in the room ballooned.

“Just an accident,” Caleb said simply, through a smile.

Dr. Hillman looked over at him suspiciously. “What kind of accident?”

“I fell—while we were playing tag football,” Anna burst out. She ignored Caleb, who was trying to stifle a laugh.

“I see.” Dr. Hillman’s face relaxed. Anna knew what he’d been thinking. A fierce instinct to protect Caleb tempted her to yell at Dr. Hillman, tell him how crazy it was that the thought of Caleb hurting her could even enter his mind.

“I’m just going to feel around a bit, to see how you’re healing.” His fingers poked along her collarbone. They probed gently, but when he hit a certain spot, the pressure made her wince.

“That hurt?” he asked, his eyes still focused on her body.

“Yeah, right there.”

“Hmm,” he said absentmindedly. “Let’s check your range of motion. Try to move your arm around in a circle. I’ll help you.” He rested his hand underneath her elbow and lifted as she tried to move her arm. It was a strange sensation; she hadn’t taken off the sling that often or tried to move her arm very much. He pushed her arm back gently, and she grunted when a sharp pain stung her.

“I’m sorry.” He guided her arm in the other direction. “And how long ago did this happen?”

“Umm, about a week ago, I guess,” she said in between deep breaths, bracing herself for another stabbing pain.

“Well, it seems to be healing like it should. I’d like to see an X-ray, though, just to be sure. Would you be able to get to the hospital this week? Could you have your doctor forward me the X-ray of the original break?”

“Is all that really necessary?” Caleb chimed in. “We don’t have the first X-ray. And it’s just a long drive to the hospital from up here.” Anna didn’t like the idea of being near a hospital any more than he did.

“I suppose it’s not essential.”

“We’re just trying to lay low,” Caleb said, hoping to ease the concern that had crept back into the doctor’s face. “A vacation, just the two of us. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t let it out that we’re up here. Just looking for a little privacy.”

Dr. Hillman winked at Caleb, to Anna’s surprise. “Of course, of course.” He chuckled. “I remember those days.”