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| NEVER AGAIN BY TIMA |
CHAPTER 8 |
NEVER AGAIN
chapter 8:
[Tea doesn't respond to Todd's pleas. She turns from him and returns to the conference table in the middle of the room. Todd watches as she sits down and stares at her clasped hands on the table in front of her.
Slowly Todd moves closer to her and squats next to her chair.]
Todd: Delgado? Tell me it never happened to you.
[Tea turns her head toward him. She's overwhelmed by the sad intensity in his eyes. She reaches her hand out and touches his cheek, needing to comfort him, while taking her own needed comfort from him.]
Todd: I'll kill him if he made that happen to you, too. I'll make sure he really dies this time.
Tea: He didn't hurt me, not in the way I think you mean.
[Todd stands up and moves toward the nearest window. He stares with disinterest at the view, worried that, in his concern for Tea, he revealed more than he should have to her.
Tea stands up and cautiously approaches him. She stands at his side and lightly places her hand on his arm.]
Tea: It's okay, Todd.
Todd: Nothing happened.
Tea: Is that why you came? Do you need to share that with someone?
[Todd responds by jerking his arm from her touch and raising his voice in anger, frustration and embarrassment.]
Todd: I told you, nothing happened.
Tea: Todd...
Todd: Drop it!
Tea: It's dropped. I'm sorry.
[Todd is painfully aware that the sympathy in her voice is because of the revelation he just made to her about events in his childhood he had hoped would stay hidden from her forever, even though at times he had wanted to share them with her, to help her understand him better, to allow her the chance to lessen his pain the way that only she has ever been able to accomplish.]
Todd: You want me out of here, right? You want to get home to your hubby.
Tea: We're not married.
Todd: But, you give a damn about him, right? A hell of a lot more than you ever did about me.
Tea: Don't do this.
Todd: Do what? I'm just trying to figure out what the hell you want, just like old times.
Tea: Let's sit down. I'll tell you how I know Mitch Lawrence.
Todd: Did he hurt you?
Tea: I didn't think he had but now I'm beginning to wonder if he may have been responsible for the worst pain anyone has ever caused me.
Todd: I'm the one...
Tea: You and I have caused each other too much pain, but we both know that the most painful moment in each of our lives was when our mothers left us.
[Tea gestures toward the large conference table and they both silently return to their earlier seats.]
Tea: My memories of that time are vague. I was so young. I do remember meeting him once, though.
[Tea notices Todd's hands tightly gripping the conference table. She places her hand over one of his in an attempt to help calm him.]
Tea: He didn't hurt me.
Todd: That's all he does to anyone he touches.
Tea: He did touch me. I remember that.
[Todd pushes himself back from the table with such force his chair hits the wall behind him with a loud thud.]
Todd: He's dead!
[Tea rises and tries again to calm him with her touch. He refuses the contact as he paces like a wild animal about to break free of the cage he's been trapped in too long.]
Tea: Listen to me.
Todd: I don't care if I end up in prison again, that monster will stop breathing with my hands around his throat. I'll enjoy it, too.
Tea: Don't do anything stupid.
Todd: He deserves it for what he did to you, and Viki, and my mom...
Tea: What about what he did to you?
Todd: He never did a damn thing to me. That never happened. But, he'll die for what he did to you.
Tea: I want you to calm down and listen to me. He didn't hurt me.
Todd: You just said...
Tea: I said he touched me. I didn't say he hurt me.
Todd (appalled): You liked it?
Tea: He touched my cheek, that's all he did. Maybe it isn't even the same Mitch Lawrence.
Todd: Did he make your mom go away?
Tea: I don't know...maybe.
Todd: He made mine go away, too...sort of.
Tea: It has to be a different man. It would be too much of a coincidence for it to be the same person.
Todd: What did he look like?
Tea: I don't know. Like a normal man, I suppose, except...
Todd: Except what?
Tea: There was something in his eyes and something in his touch when he touched my cheek. He didn't hurt me. His touch was gentle. But...
Todd: But what? Spit it out.
Tea: Even at that age, I sensed that his gentle touch masked something more disturbing. His face was the same way. He was charming, but in a frightening way.
Todd: It's the same guy.
Tea: Do you know what the odds would have to be for the same man to be responsible for both our mothers leaving us, while we lived so far apart from each other and neither of our families knew each other?
Todd: Evil travels easily. Look how easy it is for me to travel.
Tea: You are not evil.
Todd: He is.
Tea: What happened with your mother? I thought she left because of your father's abuse.
Todd: Dear old Dad! He didn't give a damn about whatever Mr. Evil was selling about religion, or whatever. He just liked being able to do the stuff he wanted to do to us, and being able to use us to trade with the other perverts, while pretending the whole time that everything that was going on was all okay because The Messenger told him it was okay.
Tea: The messenger?
Todd: Did your mom talk about that?
Tea: I don't know. I don't remember.
Todd: You're lucky.
Tea: I just remember meeting him one day and my mother being gone the next. I think that's why I remember him. I always wondered if that scary man had something to do with Mami leaving.
Todd: She probably went with him to protect you.
Tea: Is that what happened to your mom?
Todd: Mine split to protect herself. She left me behind so no one would care enough to go after her, since they still had me. If your mom split the day after you met Mr. Evil, I bet she struck a deal to sacrifice herself so she could save you.
Tea: That can't be.
Todd: Why not?
Tea: She would never join a cult.
Todd: Are you sure about that?
Tea: It just can't be.
[Tea returns to her seat at the table, trying to force some additional memories from long ago that would help her make sense of why her mother abandoned her and left deep wounds inside her that still haven't healed almost three decades later.]
to be continued...
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2003 COPYRIGHT BY TIMA
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