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heavenly Trinkets
Heavenly Trinkets
GhostWriter Ebooks
Category:
Drama
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN-10: 194260
Type: Fiction
Pages: 281
Copyright: March 2006
Debra’s main fault was that she was too trusting of the wrong people, and when her already stressful life with her husband turned sour, she turned to the only real friend she had. Shamone and Debra were as different as night and day, but they’d still managed to remain close, long after high school. Debra had been Shamone’s solace from a bad home life when growing up, and in Debra’s time of need, Shamone was ready to help. Debra’s need for a temporary escape, took them to the mountain cabin that was given as a gift to Debra and her husband, Brad, when they were married. A peaceful retreat for Debra to clear her mind, but when Shamone met the new neighbors, Debra’s peace was interrupted.
The waitress soon approached them. She was a young girl, not more than seventeen. Her long reddish hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes were a blistering green, and she chewed gum, snapping it several times as she stood beside the table.
“What can I get ya?” she offered.
Debra looked at Brad for direction.
“Our regular?” he asked Debra as he looked back at her.
Her head nodded, listening as he ordered a large half cheese, half pepperoni pizza.
They sat quiet for more than ten minutes, before Debra broke the silence. “So when were you going to tell me about your trip?” she courageously began.
“What trip?” he ignorantly questioned back.
“You know, the one you’re planning. The cruise?” she said with lifted brows.
His face drew tight as he looked at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he insisted, moving nervously in his seat.
“I heard you on the phone, Brad,” she stated.
“You were listening to my phone conversation?” His annoyed voice challenged. “How low.”
“Low?” she eased back. “Aren’t you turning things around?”
“You’re getting it wrong, Deb,” he insisted, but she could read the nervousness in his eyes. He couldn’t finish his defense before the waitress returned with the pizza, lying it and the drinks down in front of them.
“Can I get you anything else?” she offered.
“This is fine,” Debra told her, anxious for her to leave so she could return to her conversation with Brad.
“Why couldn’t you have brought this up at home instead of bringing it up in a public place?” he angrily whispered to her, after the waitress left the table.
“There is safety in numbers,” she told him.
“Safety…?” he repeated. “I can’t believe you, Debra!” he scolded.
“I also found this,” she said, pulling the wrinkled photograph from her pocket.
“You went through my wallet too?” he questioned with disbelief. Brad covered his face with his hands. “I can’t believe this,” he grumbled.
“Knock it off, Brad. Face it; you’ve been caught. So why don’t you level with me? Start telling the truth for once,” she implored.
“In the first place, Deb, I’m not planning any trip,” his voice rose.
“That’s not what I heard,” she defied.
“It’s not what you think you heard…” he told her. He shook his head as he stared at her. “I’ve been investigating her husband. I caught him doing some unsavory things. She wants to divorce him, but she needs my report. I guess she plans on taking a cruise after the divorce,” he explained, looking into Debra’s eyes as she considered his story.
“Sounds like a marriage made in Heaven,” she snidely said, and then her mind recalled the conversation she’d overheard, and she knew he still wasn’t being honest with her, and that he probably wouldn’t change his story. “And what about this, Brad?” she asked further, holding the picture out in front of him.
“That was from last year. Remember the bachelor party I went to for Steve? The one where I came home drunk and you wouldn’t talk to me for three days?” he reminded her.
“Yes,” she answered with a slow nod of her head.
“Well the party was held in a strip joint, and she was one of the strippers. She gave all thirty of us one of those pictures,” he explained.
“And you just decided to keep it in your wallet?” she distrustfully questioned.
“I forgot it was even there, Deb,” he innocently relayed.
She let out a deep sigh. “I’m not going to let this thing slide, Brad. I will find out the truth, but until I do, I’m staying elsewhere,” she defiantly announced.
“Why?” he quietly protested.
“To keep away from you,” she coldly replied.
“Deb…” his pleading voice gasped.
“Just eat your pizza, Brad,” she broke in, taking a slice of hers and biting into it, while he watched her with bewilderment.
“You’re doing the wrong thing,” he insisted.
“Until I find out what’s going on, Brad, I have to protect myself,” she told him.
“Protect yourself from what?” his voice rose.
“I don’t know!” she yelled out, drawing the attention of the small crowd.
“Debra!” he scolded. “Lower your voice.”
She stood up from the table, tossing her napkin down as she walked to the restroom.
“Everything okay here?” the waitress came to the table and asked.
“Yea, fine,” he smugly answered.
Brad watched Debra through the corner of his eye, as she stood at the pay phone in the back of the room. He threw his napkin down on the table and quickly approached her. “Don’t do this, Deb,” he urged.
She ignored him, continuing to dial the phone. “If you’re innocent, Brad, then you have nothing to worry about,” she told him as she held the phone to her ear.
“How are you going to prove I’m not?” He wanted to know.
“I’ve been married to you for four years, Brad, I’ve learned some tricks.”
His actions proved his annoyance as he paced back and forth behind her, watching her as she hung up the receiver.
“No answer?” he guessed, with knowing satisfaction.
“No, but she’ll be back,” she told him, wishing she hadn’t said that. She didn’t want Brad to know what her plans were, although she really didn’t have any. She hadn’t really thought it all the way through. In fact, she wasn’t really expecting to leave him.
“I want to talk about this, Debra, alone, in private,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere with you, Brad,” she insisted.
She walked back toward the table, leaving him standing by the phone. He followed her, snatching the keys from the table before she could. “Give me a call if you get stranded,” he snarled, turning his back to her as he walked toward the exit, leaving her at the restaurant, alone. Knowing it wouldn’t be long before she called him to retrieve her.
Shamone parked halfway down the street. She could see the outside light shining over the doorway. Debra’s car sat still in the driveway, and Shamone could see the partially opened drapes. She took a deep breath as she exited the car and walked toward the house, peeking in through the front windows, but she saw no one. She rang the doorbell then anxiously knocked, deciding to check the back of the house for an unlocked door.
Brad entered the driveway and turned off the engine. He didn’t notice Shamone’s car parked down the street, as he approached the front door and unlocked it, moving himself inside.
The newspaper sat untouched over the table. He snatched it as he passed the table, unfolding it as he moved to the couch and sat down, not noticing Shamone as she peeked in at him through the window. Slowly she backed away from the window, moving toward the back of the house. She spotted the cracked opened basement window, sighing with her thoughts. It had been a long time since she’d had to do anything this risky, but she had to know if Debra was okay. She bent down to her knees and she pushed the window further, removing her shoes before she shimmied through the narrow opening, thankful that she was still thin enough to get through it.
Her nyloned feet touched the cold hard basement floor with a quiet thump. Slowly she tiptoed through the dark, hanging on to the walls, as she moved to the cement stairway. Her hand easily turned the doorknob leading to the kitchen. She listened before stepping in. She could see Brad sitting on the couch, totally unaware she was there watching him. She stepped back when the phone rang, listening as he spoke quietly into it.
“She’s on to us.” Shamone heard him say into the phone. She watched his image through the window, wondering where Debra was, fearing he had done something to her. ‘What had he meant by she was on to them?’ she wondered. She backed away from the doorway, stopped as she bumped into a stool. Her breath stopped as she saw Brad’s image look up from the phone.
“Hold on a minute,” she heard him say, watching as he laid the phone down on the table, before walking toward the kitchen.
Shamone scurried down the basement steps, and hurried to reach the window in which she’d entered the house, knowing she couldn’t let him find her there. Her heart raced as she pushed herself upward, barely squeezing through the window in time, before the basement door opened and Brad turned on the light. In her nylons, Shamone ran to her car. She hadn’t done anything like this in years, noting that her adrenalin was rushing far faster than she was in shape for. Her head fell back against the back of the seat as she laughed. Waiting to catch her breath before she started the car, telling herself she needed to get out of there before she was caught.
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