Angela

I was never so happy to see a road in my life. Roads meant that it would get me out of there and after a short time on it I was blessed with a sign. I couldn’t believe how far I was from the city, but at least I knew where I was going now. I had lived here and grown up in the area so I knew the direction I had to go in. I didn’t trust any of the few cars that passed down the road and hid when I heard one approaching.

A black car raced past a little after sun up and I was sure that it was Chris. It wasn’t the same car that was parked outside when I left, but I knew that there were more of them. There had to be. He was the leader of a gang and to me that meant a bunch of people. I didn’t want to take the chance that they were out looking for me. To them I had no value and I was nothing but a loose end.

The saddest part of it all was that Marcus felt the same way. He had known that I was in trouble and he had basically told the man that I meant nothing to him. I didn’t know if I was ever going to be able to live that down. It still rung in my head as I walked towards home.

I felt like I had been walking for days. I was in the next town now and as it got later in the morning, I was just too tired to pay attention. I had started with avoiding all cars because I didn’t know who they were, but as my legs got tired and my feet felt like they were going to fall off, I decided that maybe it was worth the risk. The sooner I got home, the sooner I could get out of here and start my new life over. I felt like I had gotten a new lease on everything and I was going to make the best of it. It was true what people said, you didn’t appreciate something until it was taken away. I wasn’t going to need to lose it. Just the thought of it all ending was enough for me.

The next car that passed me was an old beater with red paint and a nice looking old man in the driver’s seat.

“You need a ride darling?”

I shook my head that I did.

“What are you doing out this way?”

“I came to visit someone and got stuck here.”

“Well come on in little lady. I will get you home before you know it. This is no kind of place for you to be walking by yourself.”

I got in. I was too tired to think about it really and the man looked nice enough. At least he wasn’t covered in tattoos and I was just going to have to hope that he wasn’t with the guys from last night.

Virgil was not at all with Chris and his gang. The ride back to the city was a while and we had time to talk. He was married and about to celebrate forty years of marriage. I don’t know why, but I got misty-eyed as he talked. I wanted that, I think everyone wanted that kind of love.

“Sounds like your wife is a lucky woman Virgil.”

“Not hardly Angela. I am the lucky one. I don’t know what I would have done without her. It was hard to convince her, but I never gave up and eventually I got my way and she became my bride.”

It was sweet and I couldn’t help but smile. I was close to home and even though there was a lot ahead of me, I knew that it was going to be okay, it was going to have to be.

I got to my house and I had him drop me off a little ways away from it. He didn’t question me, not really, but he did give me his number if I needed anything. I missed kind people like him. I missed home, but home was not as safe as I remembered. Not when there were people like Marcus and Chris in the world.

As soon as I got in through the back door, I started to pack. I really didn’t have a plan, except that I was going to wait for it to get dark and then I was walking to the bus stop. That was going to take me to the train station and then I was going to get on a train and leave this place for good. I don’t know if I wanted to go back to Dallas or what I wanted to do, but what I did know was that I had to get out of here. There was nothing for me. Not anymore. I had some family I could stay with for a while in Pascagoula and I knew that it would be better than anything here. My job sucked and the man I loved didn’t care. I had some biker guys after me. It couldn’t get much worse. My ex was starting to seem sane compared to all of the rest of them.

***

“What are you doing here Marcus?”

This was the last person that was supposed to be here. I had moved hundreds of miles away, well I had ran that far away to get away from him.

“I have been looking for you Angela. I thought you were dead.”

He moved to embrace me and I took a step back. Did he not think that I knew about him, what he had done and said? What the hell was he doing here? The man that didn’t care.

“I’m not dead, no thanks to you. What are you doing here Marcus? I left to get away from you and all of the men like you.”

“They are gone. They will never hurt you again.”

“Chris was nice to me. He didn’t have to be the way he was. I hope you didn’t hurt him.”

The look on his face told me that Chris was likely not walking the planet anymore. How could I have been so wrong and not seen it for what it was? Why hadn’t I really seen what kind of man he was? I should have gotten a clue from the bullet hole.

“I did what had to be done. He wouldn’t talk and tell me where you were.”

“He didn’t know. I took off when he went outside, walked back to the house on Lakeland Drive and got the hell out of town. I am sorry you wasted your time here Marcus. It seemed from what you told Chris that you weren’t that worried about what happened to me.”

“How do you know him enough to call him by his first name?”

“We talked. We talked while he decided what to do with me. I guess he wanted to use me for leverage, but once he realized that I meant nothing to you, I wasn’t worth anything.”

He moved towards me again and I stopped him. “You need to go. I don’t want to do this with you. I still really don’t understand what it is you are even doing here Marcus. What is the point?”

“The point is that I love you.”

I had heard that before and I didn’t believe it now anymore. Not after everything that has happened.

“You need to go. I heard what you said to Chris.”

“What do you think would have happened to you if he would have known how much I cared? The man had nothing to lose and everything to gain from hurting you. I wanted to give him less of a reason to. You got away and you are okay, that is what matters.”

“Yeah well I am here now no thanks to you.”

“I came for you.”

“I never saw you Marcus.” I shook my head and tried to make sense of this. I was at my grandmother’s house and lived several states away now. I might have said something about her years ago, giving him a clue to where I would be now, but I really wasn’t sure. All I knew was that she was going to be home in a little while and there was no excuse for the man in front of me. I wanted him gone, for both of our sakes.

“You were already gone. Lucas and I had the guys check the swamp for a couple of weeks looking for you.”

“If they would have done anything to me, the alligators would have gotten me. A guy like you should know that.”

His face screwed up a little bit and he pushed his way into the door. “If you are going to look at me like I am a criminal, I might as well do some criminal shit. I came for you. I am here now. What do I want? All I want to do is kiss you Angie, I don’t want to fight.”

“I don’t want to kiss you or have anything to do with you, not after hearing what you said. I should have never come back to New Orleans. If I would have thought that I would have run into you, I promise that I wouldn’t have come at all.”

“You don’t mean this Angie.”

“Stop calling me that. It is Angela. Everyone calls me that.”

“Not me.”

“Why are you different?”

“Because of what we had. If you wouldn’t have left…”

I wasn’t going to let him get any further. I was done listening to it. “I left because I had to. You left me no choice and all of this has just showed me that I did the right thing. Our child was better off.”

Shit. Did I just say that out loud?”

“Our child?”

“Huh?”

Marcus was not smiling anymore and I could tell that he was pissed. Why had I said that? After all of this time and all of his questions, why in the world would I just come out with something like that? I must have lost it. That was the only thing that even made sense. It had to be that.

“You said that our child was better off. What do you mean?”

It wasn’t hard to understand, but maybe for him it was. He was looking at me as if he had seen a ghost and I didn’t know what to say. What could I say, but finally the truth?

“I was pregnant when I left. You were getting into trouble, getting into fights at school and after talking to my parents, they decided that sending me away was for the best. I didn’t want to, but now I see it as the best thing that could have happened. I can’t even imagine what life would be like the way you live.”

It was going to take him some time to wrap his brain around it. I didn’t blame him, but I still didn’t know why he was here.

“So we have a child?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“In Texas. I gave him up for adoption.”

“Him?”

Every word seemed to bring him pain and I felt a wave of guilt. My own anger was gone and I found myself sitting next to him to comfort him on the couch.

“I am sorry about this Marcus. But you can see that this is for the best, right? It was all for the best.”

Marcus’ green eyes were filled with anger. It wasn’t a look that I had seen before and I can’t say that I liked it.

“How can this be for the best when we aren’t together? How could keeping my kid from me be for the best?”

That was a question that was hard to answer. Really hard and I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t the one that left me for dead with those bad men. I had to focus on that, as opposed to focusing on my own wrong doing. I didn’t mean anything to him, I had to remind myself of that several times. It didn’t matter how I felt, it mattered that I was the only one that felt it.