"Jim," Destiny cried, "Say hello to your daughter and son."
That phrase brought my life to the spot that I had wanted to be for quite some time.
But lets backup a bit. I go back two years. My name is Jim, I am thirty two years old and a widower. My wife Sheila passed away three months earlier from cancer. Thank God it was quick and she didn't suffer. We had met in high school and married after we had graduated from college. She was the love of my life.
After my wife passed away, I was a mess for about a month. I wandered about our house, and just didn't care about anything. It took a friend coming over to check on me and ripping me a new one to get me out of my funk.
After I got myself straightened out I got my house in order, and decided that I didn't need the big house that we had bought. I put it on the market and had it sold within a week. I moved into an apt. while I decided what to do. It didn't take me long to decide to buy another house, and soon had purchased a character home in an older part of the city.
From the get go I had decided to completely renovate the house and soon had it gutted and was working on getting it brought to code. I had decided to not move in until I had at least the master bedroom, kitchen, and a downstairs bathroom ready to go.
As I was getting close to moving in, I was taking a break on the patio one day when I noticed that a young couple was moving in next door. He looked like your typical twenties male, tall and seemed to be in pretty good shape. She, on the other hand, was not quite as tall and very skinny, almost anorexic. She had ribs showing and there was no meat on her ass, and her face, although looking kind of cute, was very gaunt, and very pale. It probably didn't help that her hair was jet black.
About four hours later, I was sitting on the patio, having accomplished all that I could that day, when they walked over to the fence and introduced themselves. He was called Mike, and her name was Destiny. We chatted about small stuff and soon they went back to their house, and I went home to the apt. and ordered the stuff that I would need to continue on the house.
A month passed, and I had finally moved into the house, and I was now working on getting the rest of the house ready. Mike came to the fence one day and asked if I needed help. I said no thanks, as I was pretty well finished the heavy work and was working on the finishing touches.
The house turned out beautiful, and my real estate agent told me that she could get me double what I had paid for it if I decided to sell.
July came and I was on the patio quite a lot and I saw Destiny out in the yard quite a lot as she spent a lot of time tanning and working in the yard. We talked a few times, and I noticed that there was a sorrow in her eyes, but I stayed out of it. A good way to piss off your neighbors is to interfere in something that has nothing to do with you.
About two weeks later, I noticed her limping as she was walking around the yard and I asked her what was wrong. She said "Just a little stiff this morning."
I kind of knew that something else was up, and about two minutes later she came to the fence with tears in her eyes and blurted out that Mike had beat the crap out of her the night before.
I took one look at her and said "you have to get out and now."
She said, "I know, but I have no where to go."
I said, "throw you stuff in a bag and come here, you stay here while you sort things out."
Her face lightened as she headed to the house and ten minutes later she was handing her stuff over the fence and climbing over. I took her into the house, and soon we had her set up in one of the other bedrooms.
I told her, "Use my phone and call your place and leave a message that you are not coming back. And don't worry, I have my phone set as a private number so he won't be able to trace the call."
After she had done that we planned to keep her protected, but it turned out it wasn't necessary as after he got home he ranted for a while, and we found later that he took off that night and never came back.
