OK, this one is done. Finally. For those of you who hate stories that drag on, huzzah. Except, of course, Fillmore's Oil of Roses. I hope that one never ends. Thanks to all who constructively criticize, but just to a point. I'm no lawyer, I just put people into a little world I thought up and let them take the story whereever it wants to go. Yes, I do use spellcheck and a dictionary and a Thesaurus as well.
*
'Damn women,' George thought angrily, 'can't live with them, can't live without them, no deposit, no return.' He rolled over in his bed and looked at Lynn sleeping peacefully, then slid out of bed and padded into the living room. He slumped on one end of the couch, punching one of the little pillows into a more comfortable position as he lay back on the arm.
It had been five months now since he had found Lynn and brought her back home with him. Five months since he found his wife being beaten on a street by a pimp and his enforcer. He'd listened to her story and found it plausible. He'd made doctor appointments for her and had asked that she be tested for all kinds of diseases.
He'd known Dr. Baker since he was a child. Well, ol' doc had delivered him into this world, after all. She had a case of Syphilis and some 'residual diarrhea', whatever the hell that was, but no AIDs or anything else. Doc had also told them that she had scars from the rough vaginal and anal sex she'd been subjected to, but it wouldn't cause her any problems with having children. If indeed they wanted children. He did seem somewhat surprised that she hadn't been forced onto hard drugs to keep her in line. That was the usual practice.
He also confirmed that the scars on her ankles were from the plastic handcuffs Joseph used to tie her to the bed when she wasn't working. He'd kept her purse and her clothes and locked her up in the motel room until it was time for her to go to work. Then he'd cut off the plastic cuffs, hand her clothes back, and take her to the bar for work.
"Well," Dr. Baker said, "plastic cuffs were a damn sight cheaper to acquire than hard drugs. This way if they were busted, they wouldn't be facing any drug charges. Plus if she wasn't found wearing the cuffs, it would be a simple case of he said, she said as to whether she was kept captive or kidnapped."
'Christ, eight months of hooking for Joseph and only one case of clap,' he thought. He'd known guys in the Army who'd been there done that every month. And, after all, she'd been forced into it. There was no doubt of that.
George had been vigilant since he brought her home, but had not noticed anything or anybody out of place in his neighborhood. He'd wondered for a while how much Willie was pissed about not getting her since he'd paid Joseph, but George figured that the problem was Willie's and Joseph's, not his. He had changed his working hours some so he was leaving and coming home at different times and he tried to take different ways back and forth to work. He'd also talked to his cousin Larry over in Junction City about borrowing a gun, and then he had stashed it, loaded, in the back of the house. He didn't know how long he would have to be watching his back, but after this much time, he was thinking that things had blown over and they were safe. Of course, Joseph did have her purse with her ID in it. Well, rather safe than sorry, he'd keep his guard up for a while longer.
No, it was just that after this long with her back in the house he still had problems thinking about her with all of those men. Every night of the week, bringing home as many men as she could fuck and then giving the money to Joseph. That was a hell of a lot of sex. He knew that the AIDs would show up at the six month mark at the latest and it had been five months now. She wasn't positive so far, thank God, and she had taken her fifth test last week.
So why couldn't he make love to her? She hadn't forced herself on him, choosing to let him make the choice for them. He had held her, cuddled her, stroked her back, let her know he was there and she was safe, but he hadn't made a move to have sex with her. Not even a blowjob, even with a condom. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what tricks she had learned while away.
'To go from multiple times nightly to nothing overnight and then longer must be hell on her,' he thought. 'Maybe we should have gone in for some marriage counseling or something when I got her back home. I think I will talk to her about setting it up when I get home tomorrow from work. Maybe a third party could help him sort out some of his feelings.' Finally feeling a little better, he went back to bed. He did have to get up early tomorrow for work.
The next day at work, Jimmy the new guy was getting a box in the back room when everyone heard him scream in pain. George was one of the first ones back there and was moving the box off of him when Harold his boss arrived. Jimmy had slipped off a stepstool and landed on his back with the box on top of him. After they got him up and looked him over, they decided that maybe he had dislocated his shoulder. He didn't have any obviously broken bones. He would have some nasty bruises for a while, that was for sure.
"George, take Jimmy to the hospital and then take him home after that," said Harold. "I don't want him to work any more today. After that, just go on home and I'll see you tomorrow."
Then turning to Jimmy he said, "You just take it easy for a couple of days. I'll take care of the workman's comp paperwork. Don't worry about your job or anything else, just get healed up, ok?"
Jimmy said, "Okay."
George nodded and helped Jimmy out to his truck. Two hours later, George helped Jimmy to his front door and explained what had happened to Jimmy's wife, Maureen. After he gave her the pills for Jimmy from the doctor, George drove on home. When he got to his street, he kept driving past the house. A black foreign car was sitting in his driveway and he didn't know who owned it. He also noticed that all the curtains were closed across the front of the house.
With a bad feeling in his heart and a cold block of ice in his gut, he drove around the block. He pulled into the alley and drove slowly until he was behind the neighbor's house. He stopped and turned off the motor. There were trees, shrubs, and board fences along the alley. He was sure he could get to the back of the house to see what was going on inside. His cousin's gun was just inside the back door in a closet. He moved into his back yard and waited a moment between his garden shed and the lilac bush. He didn't see anyone in the yard and these curtains were all drawn also.
'Crap,' he thought. 'Let's just hope the back screen door is still unlocked'. He edged up to the door and gave it a tug. It was unlocked. Pulling the keys from his pocket he quietly unlocked the inside door and moved into the mud room. He stood still and listened for any sounds, but all he could hear was the pounding of his pulse.
