Scooping up my sleeping boy from the crib, I make my way out to my trusty Honda. He only stirs a little, and once I have him buckled in, he goes right back to sleep. When he was born, Elizabeth changed her work schedule to be opposite of mine to help babysit while I worked. In a sense, I am taking their baby away from them too. They are standing on the sidewalk with tears in their eyes, so before I break down and cry, I wave, climb in and drive away from the only family my son has ever known.
One week free
The dining room is quiet, just the way I like it. I was a little nervous when Marge told me she had an entire wedding party checking in. I hate crowds because the more people see us, the more exposed we are. I feel bad that they all canceled on her, though. “Hey, Marge, is it just us tonight then?”
“Oh, no, a nice couple checked in about an hour ago. They should be down in a minute.”
Marge owns the bed and breakfast I found on the way to Florida. I don’t know how far I’ll go, but traveling with a twenty-one-month-old baby is slow going. Hawkinsville seems like a nice enough small-town to stay in and I can’t imagine Jerry searching for me here.
Just then, an incredibly hot guy and a strikingly beautiful woman walked in and sat at the end of the table. The guy has dark hair like Alexander’s, but his eyes are electric blue. The woman has the clearest green eyes I have ever seen with long, brown hair that cascades down her back. They are an incredible looking couple with mutual love and affection written on their faces. The hot guy guides his woman with his hand on her back to my table and pulls out her chair. He looks around with careful eyes as if waiting for something or someone to jump out. He seems a little paranoid, but I guess I have been that way for the last week myself.
Alex starts vrooming his toy plane around the table, and I don’t have the heart to stop him. We have been traveling for days and it has taken its toll on both of us. Originally I was going to head west, but my gut instinct kept nudging me to Florida. After driving to Birmingham Alabama and spending the night, then to Montgomery Alabama to spend another night, then to here, he has been stuck in a car seat and I want him to be able to stretch and play.
“Wus you name?”
The man is the one who answers, which I thought was weird since Alex was looking at the woman. He seems like a controlling man, and I am making every effort to avoid those; lesson learned.
“Hey little guy, this is Jen and my names John, what’s yours?”
That’s one more mark against him. Anyone with the same name as my ex-boyfriend, John, who stranded me on a beach in Miami, I avoid also. Although, I just might thank him, if I ever see him again, for dumping me that fateful day. If it hadn’t been for that, I would have never met Alexander who is the reason I have Alex.
“My name Ax.”
He grins at them showing off his eight teeth. “He has trouble saying r’s and l’s.” I say no more letting them draw their own conclussions as to why someone would name their child after a cleaning chemical. “Thank you for being patient with him. All of our traveling has been hard on him.”
The woman stares at me for a minute, probably noticing the black eye that doesn’t seem to fade.
“Daddy hits.” Ax blurts out.
“Oh honey, these nice people don’t need to be bothered. Just finish your soup so we can go to sleep.” Shit, shit, shit! Maybe they will pretend they didn’t hear him or think they misunderstood and not say anything.
“Please excuse me, ladies.”
The man named John kisses his wife’s head and wanders off. As soon as he is out of earshot, the beautiful woman leans over and whispers quietly,
“I want you to know that you are very brave for getting out. No one should suffer any kind of abuse and I’m sorry that your son had to see it.”
“Oh, I’m not brave. I ran like a coward. I couldn’t protect my son anymore, so I took what I could and ran. My ex-boyfriend is not Alex’s dad, but he has been in our life since Alex was nine months old. The older Alex gets, the more he resembles his father, and the angrier Jerry got. He would break Alex’s toys and then put him in time out for long periods of time because he would cry over the broken toy. A week ago, I tried to soothe Alex and get him out of time-out and that’s when Jerry hit me in front of Alex. He has hit me before but never in front of my son. I knew then that it was time to leave. I vaguely remember the first time he slapped me, but I excused it away. Every time after that he would cry and plead for me to forgive him, stupidly I would when he would promise never to do it again. He would blame it on the lack of physical contact and say if I would just have sex with him that it would calm him. I’m Olivia by the way. I’m so sorry to dump all that on you, but we have been traveling and I only have an almost two-year-old with limited vocabulary for company.”
I don’t know what made me tell her my real name, but she just looked so trustworthy and sincere. I had only given my real name to Marge when I needed to pay by credit card because I didn’t have any cash. I just pray that Jerry can’t
