Navigating unusually thick traffic, Carrie thinks the classroom morning disaster is behind her. She calls out loud “Oh nuts,” as she pulls into the full The Greenmont Mall parking lot. The stress of the day squeaks through her gritted teeth, “My air condition dies on the hottest day of the summer. Mom asks me to go to the mall on the same day of their back-to-school sale and I have to park a mile away.” After passing through four different aisle, she finds a lone spot open as the noon sun radiates straight over her head. She uses her shirt to wipe the perspiration from her face as the tropical humidity makes it unbearable.
Her light summer slip-on shoes meet the scorching blacktop, and it burns through the thin soles. With each step she cries to herself, “Stupid, stupid, stupid. How could I be that stupid? I know the proper combination to make auburn but used the wrong red hair dye making it appear like Ronald McDonald. Just stupid of me.”
After three minutes of burning feet, she reaches for the mall entrance. Carrie shivers as a blast of cold air smacks her like walking into a refrigerator. “At least my feet aren’t burning anymore” barely audible under her breath. Skipping breakfast from waking up late, her stomach growls for the food court and makes her way upstairs. She chooses the shortest line for a slice of New York pizza and a coke and then looks for a place to eat.
Being lunch time, the dining tables fill up fast and in no mood to share with anyone, she meanders to a bench open across from the court. Finally, the hunger pangs with her growling tummy succumb with the first bite. As the oversize slice disappears bite by bite she thinks, “This isn’t half bad and the rest of the day will be great because what else could go wrong?”
As the last bite enters her mouth, a rotund man with a scraggly beard shuffles to her. His immense girth invades her personal space. A smoked induced hoarse voice scratches out, “I need you to look at my shoulder. There’s a blister I don’t know what it is.”
“What – Why,” mumbles out of her confused mouth.
“You’re a nurse and you should know what it is,” stated with authority.
“I am a student at cosmetology school,” pointing to the logo on her smock.
“Those are scrubs, only nurses wear them!” he angrily chastises her. He pulls his wrinkled stained T-shirt from his shoulder to show her the problem. She rises up and turns away.
“Don’t ignore me, I am your patient. By law you must help me.”
“I’m not a nurse!” she shouts back at him.
“C’mon it will only take a minute to look at it. It might be cancer.”
Then well-built man standing six feet tall abruptly enters the discord. She welcomes with blond hair styled professionally with polished blues eyes and a clean-shaven chin into the conversation. His smooth and silky voice clearly states “She is not a nurse and leave her alone. Look at her shirt, it says Rebecca’s Cosmetology School. There is an odor of hair dye emitting from her clothes. You can’t be that stupid.”
With this, the overweight man waddles off.
“Jeremy,” as he offers a hand in friendship.
She shakes his hand, “Thank you, Carrie.”
“You seem upset, are you okay?” said with empathy in his voice.
“Yes, it’s just one of those days when everything seems to go wrong. I be alright,” as frustration cracks her words.
“May I buy you a drink or a cup of coffee? You still seem a little rattled.”
Holding up the rest of her drink, “No, I have a lot to do today.”
“If you need someone to talk to, come find me.”
She looks into his eyes again and her heart stress decreases seeing the calm in his soul. “You know what, I could go for some coffee.”
“I know just the place, Gabriel’s at the other end of the mall makes the best expresso in the area.”
Carrie starts walking alongside the tall handsome man with the appealing smile and fine mannerism. The elevator doors open with no one inside and no one waiting, so they take it to the ground floor. The doors open to police officers pointing guns at them. They aggressively yell at the man to get on the floor, and he complies with their commands.
Carrie feels the back wall press against her back and freezes in fear. Two officers rush the elevator with one kneeing on the back of Jeremy and the other handcuffs her crush. They pull him out of the elevator and a detective asks Carrie to come out. She ushers Carrie to a sitting area away from the mainstream of people.
“Sergeant Calloway,” in a just the facts kind a way comes from her mouth. “I am a special investigator for sexual crimes. Did you drink anything around him, or did he offer you anything to drink?”
“I drank some of my coke while talking with him and we headed for coffee at Gabriel’s.”
“Was your drink ever out of your hands?” direct and precise question.
Stuttering a little, “No, I had it the whole time. What’s this about?”
“Did he touch you in anyway?” ignoring her question.
“We shook hands during introduction.”
“Give me the drink I want it analyzed.”
Calloway takes the drink and puts it in a bag held by another officer. The detective walks over to another woman with the same hair color and style as Carrie. The woman points at Jeremy and starts crying. Carrie watches closely as Calloway walks over to Jeremy and can hear his rights being read to him.
The two officers shepherd Jeremy out of sight and Calloway talks with another man. The man turns and Carrie sees the silver badge clipped to his belt. He holds up another evidence bag with a small vial in it. The junior detective obtains her drink from the officer standing near her and heads to the exit where Jeremy went out.
Calloway comes back and non-passionately explains, “We been looking for this man for three months. He gives a drug to his victims without their consent or knowledge. This drug leaves with little to no resistance to his advances. They can still walk in a drunken way, so observers believe it is consensual when they walk away. I have an idea what the drug is but he always holds the women until it cleared their system so we couldn’t find it in any of them. We know of three women already raped and violated by Jeremy. To be sure, we have an ambulance coming to take you to the hospital for evaluation.”
The paramedics wheel her out the front doors and Carrie spots at least ten police cars blocking the main drive-in front of the mall. Carrie tells herself, “With all that has happened today, I’m lucky to be alive and thought my day couldn’t get much worse than walking on the hot blacktop in my moccasins.”
High school student Kevin Borden has a secret and his name is Louis Lannegan. He also has an overbearing mother. A tale of coming out in the shadow of parents and friends. Award winning novella.
Part Three in the Mu Series - Sarah Thompson reluctantly abandons her desperate search for her soul mate on Maui and returns to her Montana hometown. Her brother has had a terrible accident...
