Sunday, December 5, 2010

Chapter 10

“Hey Bro!” Was all I heard as Richie, with his hand at my back, pushed me up the steps. My heart was thundering in my ears, palms were sweaty, the whole shebang.

“Hey Dean! Hiya Syd!” Jon stood about 5’9 with sandy brown hair, sparking, intense blue eyes, and a kind smile on his face. “The kids are all gone to friends houses, so it’s just us and Dot.” Jon continued, holding the door open so we could walk through. It was very French chateau-ish, but looked comfortable. “So how are you doin, Syd? Glad you finally came to mi casa!”

I grinned at his attempt at an accent, it wasn’t all that great but hey, he tried. Must be something he and Richie did often.

“I’m okay, Jon, and you? Nice house!” I said, smiling slightly. I wasn’t exactly sure what I should say. I've been talking to Jon on the phone, but in person, well, lets just say I’m pretty unsure of myself.

“Thanks, we call it home. Come on in to the living room so you can meet Dot.”

We all headed out through an archway into a cream coloured formal living room. A woman was sitting in one of the armchairs reading a magazine. She heard us walk in and looked up, as a wide grin spread across her face. She had a beautiful, kind face, long dark hair and pretty brown eyes. She held her hand out, exclaiming, “You finally brought her, Richie! Gee, we thought you’d never get here!” I looked up at Richie, grinning slightly, as he looked back at her.

“Ah, Dot. Looking as stunning as usual. Have you lost weight?” he asked with a cheeky grin.

“Oh, shut up. Lord knows you’ll never change, but we can always hope! And you must be Sydney. I give you credit for living with this one,” she said, grinning. I knew there was no malice to her words, simply sarcasm bantered between family.

“I am. And I need all the sympathy I can get, it isn’t easy living with this one!” I replied, jerking my thumb behind me in Richie’s direction. I grinned up at him again, attempting to look innocent, but apparently failing miserably. Jon and Dot roared with laughter. Richie looked offended and somewhat proud. “She’s got you there, Rich! I agree, you aren’t the easiest to live with! I’ve done it off and on for some 27 years!” Jon grinned that easy grin, and Dot snorted into the mug she was holding.

“Would you like some hot chocolate, Hun?” Dot asked me, holding up her mug as if to say she needed a refill. I nodded. “Hot chocolate sounds great, thanks!”

“Well lets go in the kitchen and see what trouble we can get into there” she replied, grinning. We headed in to a large open concept kitchen. Where Richie’s was more classic, colourful and dare I say country, Jon’s was more modern, with Stainless steel and whites. It was gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but where Richie’s was warm, Jon’s was cool and contemporary. It fitted his personality perfectly, but I highly doubt he spent and real time in here. Dot bustled around, grabbing another mug and heating up the water. “The powder stuff is in the cupboard above the sink, Hun, if you could grab it for me. Spoons are in the drawer beside the oven,” I went as directed, noticing how open she as about her house. It was obviously a household where if you wanted something you helped to get it, don’t expect to be waited on. As we waited for the water to boil, we talked about how I was doing at Richie’s house, how school was going, etc. I was doing my schoolwork online, which was working out perfectly. I didn’t have to deal with snarky kids or annoying teachers. I could do the work at my own pace and get stuff done as I felt the need to.

I really enjoyed talking to Dot, she reminded me a lot of my mom, and I felt a pang of sadness go through my heart. I wasn’t ready to start comparing people to my parents, but I could very easily see that Dot and I were going to become close. She was definitely an independent woman, and I admired that. It couldn’t be easy with your husband travelling all across the world, with you at home raising four kids. We walked back into the living room with our warm hot chocolate in our hands. She put marshmallow fluff on top with some cinnamon. I’d never done that before but I had to admit it was really good. Jon and Richie were sitting across from each other on separate sofas discussing something or other with a pad of paper and a pen on the table in between them. Dot headed over to Jon and I went to Richie who looked to be pouting.

“What, you didn’t bring any for me?” He asked, with giant, sad looking eyes. I took a sip, enjoying the sweet flavour for a minute and then looked back up at him and replied “You know where the kitchen is!” He grinned and said, “Yeah, I think I remember where its located.” He had a look of mock confusion on his face, scratching his stubble covered chin thoughtfully. I just shook my head and looked at Jon and Dot, who were looking back at us with Cheshire grins on their faces. “What?” Richie and I both exclaimed at the same time, then looked at each other, and burst into laughter. “Apparently, you two have been spending too much time together!” Jon said, through his own laughter. I just grinned and took another sip.

Richie looked up and said “Man, you guys should have seen Syd at the store today! Some random guy came up and asked for her number and she told him that he’d be calling 911 if he didn’t back off! I was so proud!” Jon looked shocked and said, “Where’s the shy Sydney who didn’t feel the need to speak to anyone?”

I looked up and thought about it for a moment and replied, “Well, she’s still here. But he caught me off guard and I hate that, so I came back with what came to the brain first.” What I hadn’t said was it brought back memories of the rape, and the only way I could figure out how to stay away from that was the sarcastic comebacks. Richie squeezed my arm gently. He got it. Jon and Dot didn’t know about that apparently, and at the moment, I was grateful. We sat and chatted for a couple hours. There were times where Jon and Richie would say something, look at each other and one would write it down. I looked over at Dot who looked at me, shrugged her shoulders as if to say “It happens all the time.” I just shook my head. I don’t think I would understand it anyway. By the time we were getting ready to go home, they had filled a couple pages of random scribbles. I’m assuming they used it for songs. Would  make sense in my head.

“Well Syd, you definitely need to come back soon, meet the kids. You and Steph will probably get along well. She’s about your age. Romeo will love you, he’s the youngest. Jesse and Jake will probably be pretty indifferent. Promise to come back soon?” Jon asked, as we were walking out to the truck. “Yeah for sure, I’d love to. Plus, I have someone to help me gang up on Richie!” I said, grinning at Dot. Throughout the afternoon we had came up with some pretty good comebacks. Apparently she was fluid in sarcasm as well.

“You’re always welcome, Hun. Maybe you can come over and we’ll bake cookies or something.”

“Sounds good, Dot, and thanks again!”

We waved our goodbyes with plans to get together within the week. Richie and I climbed back into the truck and I heaved a sigh of relief that I had gotten through it and not freaked out, cried or screamed. Richie looked over at me and said “I’m proud of you. You did great in there. Definitely made me proud. I knew you could do it! You and Dot seemed to get along really well, too, which is good, ‘cause I can’t be a good female role model, as good as I am.” I nodded and grinned. “I can totally see us being close. They are very close as it is to becoming ‘Uncle Jon’ and ‘Aunt Dot’.” Richie smiled, and whispered, “Good.” He grabbed my hand and rubbed small circles into my palm to sooth me. It worked every time.

I eventually fell asleep and didn’t wake up again until I felt him carrying me to the house. He took me to my room and I went to the bathroom to change into my pyjamas. I came back out to find Richie sitting on my bed, waiting for me. I walked out and snuggled up next to him, under the covers with him laying on top of them. It had become a ritual. We would lay and talk until I fell asleep, then he’d go to bed. He wanted to make sure I fell asleep alright without any problems.

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Tires screaming. Glass shattering. Three voices screaming. Bright lights. Then the man who took away my innocence was standing there in front of me with a gun. Standing next to Richie, who was looking at me with pain and sorrow in his eyes. I screamed.

My eyes shot open, breathing uneven, sweat pouring out of me with the gunshot still ringing in my ears. I jumped out of bed and padded over to Richie’s room, only to find he wasn’t there. Panic shot through me. I ran down to the kitchen hoping he’d be there and sighed with relief that he was. He had his back to me at the bar, drinking a glass of water looking over some papers. He jumped as I turned up beside him, but one look at the tears rolling down my face had him pulling me into his arms. I couldn’t help it, the sobs racked through me. He rubbed his hands up and down my back, humming slightly and rocking me as you would a small child. I eventually calmed down enough to tell him what the dream was about. He tightened his arms and whispered “I’ll never leave you, Syd. Never. And you know he can’t get to you ever again. It’s okay, it was just a dream. Nothings going to happen to us. Promise me you’ll never leave me too?” I nodded through my tears and whispered “I promise.” We stood like that for a good ten minutes until I got myself calmed down enough to go back to bed. Richie brought me up to his room and we crawled in bed. I felt so much safer in his arms. Nothing could get to me, and Lord knows I needed that safety.