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Blogs by Sandy Knauer
Lori 2/6/2005 7:39:09 AM
She had to pee so bad it made her head hurt.
Back to the wall and eyes glued to the door, Lori’s sat with a screaming bladder and legs that refused to move. With the bathroom at the end of the hall, she’s be trapped if he came in while she was back there. It wasn’t worth the risk so she curled her leg under her and sat on a foot.
Changing locks and forfeiting groceries for the security system had done little more than waste money now that the court psychologist assured her nothing would stop a sociopath. It wasn’t very comforting to know the legal system couldn’t stop bad guys even when the labeled them and predicted their next moves.
It’s hard to pee with a phone in one hand and the butcher knife in the other anyway. The bladder would have to understand, at least until she worked out a plan or found some courage.
Three jobs. Damn him. HE had caused her to lose three jobs and now she was too nutzo to concentrate even if someone would hire her. Mr. Johnson knew how badly she needed the money. He also knew it wasn’t her fault the lunatic kept coming into the store to harass her while she worked. Much as she wanted to resent being fired, she couldn’t really blame Mr. Johnson. His customers shouldn’t be exposed to sociopaths when they ran in to pay for gas or pick up a bag of chips.
Angela had used absences as her reason for letting Lori go, like she wanted her to come in with black eyes and broken ribs. It would have been different if it wasn’t so soon after the week off with the bleeding ulcer, Angela explained, or in the same evaluation period with the dislocated shoulder. The action was mandatory under company policy, not an option.
Thomas had flat out given her an ultimatum. Leave Joe or quit. He was tired of the personal phone calls and wouldn’t listen when Lori explained that she had left Joe and that only caused him to call more often. Even when she refused to accept the calls, Thomas insisted Joe still disrupted the office and it wasn’t fair to the other employees or to the company.
Her parents wouldn’t take her back again, especially without a job. Joe had wrecked their house the last time, throwing bricks through the window and driving across the lawn. He scared her younger sister and threatened her parents.
God, she had to pee so bad it made her head hurt.
He should be off work now. If he stopped at the bar, she would have a one-hour window of freedom. That’s how long it usually took him to either start a fight or become so obnoxious Fred had to call him down and he’d leave, sulking. He used to come home and take it out on her. The restraining order put an end to that, but they told her it was only temporary. Eventually, he’d stop caring about the order and come back anyway, madder than ever.
Fifteen minutes, she promised her bladder. In fifteen minutes she would call the bar and find out if he was there. If so, she’s dash to the bathroom. Later, she would worry about the house payment.
Maybe they were right; she should leave town and start over somewhere else where he couldn’t find her. It just didn’t’ seem fair that she should have to leave her life behind because he was a sociopath. He should have to leave.
