The Past I part 7

The Past I
part 7

February 12, 1982

The plan was to slip out of their rooms late Saturday night and meet, with baggage and stolen cash, in Dan’s old apartment. They would leave a note for Paula Kawolski, telling her they had gone to early Mass, and would be staying to decorate for the Valentine’s dinner and social. That way, no one would expect them back until eight or nine on Sunday evening. By that time, they hoped to be in Indiana. The Greyhound bus left the station at 2:30 am on Valentine’s Day. They would transfer buses in St. Louis, Missouri, and again in Denver, arriving in Boise on Tuesday, the 16th, at 3:45 in the afternoon. After that, everything was up in the air.

For two days they planned and plotted.

In the end it came to naught.

Friday dawned clear and cold. Dan showered and dressed for school, avoiding Archie snoring on the couch as he left. After a quick breakfast, he and Tessa started for school. There was a barely-contained thread of excitement between them. Today and tomorrow, and they would be gone.

When they returned to the brownstone that afternoon, Archie was pacing, clutching an envelope and obviously agitated. Tessa and Dan made themselves scarce. Soon they heard Shirley arrive, her voice calming Archie as she led him into his apartment.

It was nearly 10:00 p..m when Dan and Tessa crept up the back stairs. At her bedroom door, Dan held her and they kissed goodnight. He brushed a stray curl off her face and whispered, “One more day. One more.” Tessa smiled and went into her room. Dan stood leaning on her door for a while, then reluctantly started down the hall.

Tessa changed into flannel pajamas, brushed her teeth, washed her face and braided her hair into a single plait. Out of habit, she checked her duffle bag before turning on her lava lamp, turning off the overhead light and crawling under her blankets. The rhythmic motion of the lamp and its soft glow was soothing, and Tessa soon drifted off to sleep.

Dan dawdled in the hall. He peeked into the lounge and spied Paula Kawolski sitting on the couch. She was wearing an orange house dress and balancing an open book on her lap, as she ate cookies from a plate on the coffee table. She saw Dan and smiled, patting the seat next to her. “Come join me, Dan,” she said. “Have a little bedtime snack, and save an old woman from her sweet tooth.”

Dan joined her on the couch, unconsciously rubbing the half-healed burn behind his left ear. Anything to delay the inevitable, he thought. He munched on a cookie, and thought about how much he would miss Mrs. K’s cooking. For a long while, neither spoke.

Finally, Paula Kawolski broke the silence. “Be careful when you go in to bed, Dan. Archie is upset about something, and he has that woman with him.” Her face pulled into a sneer. “I think they’ve been snorting something, too, and I know they’ve been drinking. So you be careful.”

Dan stared at her in disbelief. Weeks of frustration bubbled to the surface and he could hold back no longer. “Why?” he asked. “I haven’t done anything wrong, and I have to be careful because he’s stoned? How can you let him do what he’s doing? This is your house, but you let him bring that stuff in, bring her in, and you make excuses for everything he does. Why?”

Paula Kawolski looked at Dan sadly. “Because he’s my son,” she said softly. “This is his home, too, and whether or not I approve of what he does or how he lives, he is my son. Mothers forgive, Daniel. Yours did.”

Dan felt as though he’d been punched in the stomach. Sure, his mom had forgiven his adolescent acting out, his defiance and generally bad decision-making, but he had a hard time believing even his mother would have forgiven him as an adult, the behavior Archie displayed. Dismayed and disgusted, he rose from the couch and muttered a sullen, “good night” before stomping off to his room.

If he hadn’t been so angry, he might have thought twice before he let the door slip from his hands. Dan would replay the next several moments in time again and again in his nightmares:

The door flying closed, slamming hard enough to shake the frame.

The ugly landscape on the hallway wall crashing to the ground.

His realization that he had just drawn far too much attention to himself.

Archie’s wild-eyed glare as he turned from the table, traces of white
powder ringing his nostrils and dusting his upper lip.

Shirley’s surprise as Archie knocked her over, her head hitting the corner
of the table as she fell.

For a moment, time stopped. Too late, Dan turned to run. Archie caught him before he had taken three steps; shaking him and slamming him head first into the wall, over and over. Archie was yelling, but Dan couldn’t decipher what he was screaming. When Archie tired of throwing Dan against the wall, he let his fists fly. Unable to escape the larger man’s blows, and knowing from bitter experience what would happen if he tried to fight back, Dan dropped to the floor. He managed to roll himself into a duck and cover position, losing a shoe in the process, but protecting his head with his arms. He heard the soft snick of the belt exiting the belt loops, and tried to brace himself as the first blow landed across his shoulders.

Archie lashed out with his foot, kicking Dan’s legs out from underneath him. As Dan struggled to pull up his legs, Archie stepped hard on his calf, rendering him prone. The beating continued, punctuated with insults, kicks, and obscenities.

“Archie! Stop that and help me.” Shirley’s voice, weak and shrill with pain, broke through the man’s rage. Archie turned away from Dan, and seeing his girlfriend’s bleeding head, dropped his belt and hurried to help her. Dan took advantage of this momentary respite and crawled quietly toward his room.

Dan had just reached his door when Archie realized he had gone. The enraged roar from the living room spurred Dan to action. He lunged into his room and closed the door, locking it. Gasping for breath, he looked frantically around for something he could use to defend himself. Archie began pounding on the door, demanding entry. Backing up against the far wall, Dan heard a soft tap. Tessa! He didn’t have time to answer as the door came crashing open.

Archie stood in the doorway, red faced, wild-eyed, with fists clenched. Dan looked around again, for a weapon, an escape route, anything. There was nothing. He was well and truly trapped. Archie grinned evilly and reached again to the waist of his pants, but his belt was gone, dropped in the other room. Reaching around, Archie tore a piece of molding from the broken door frame. With his free hand he grabbed Dan by the hair and began beating him with the molding. Dan twisted, trying desperately to escape, but the coked-out Archie was a formidable force. Finally, the molding strip broke. Enraged, Archie threw Dan against the far wall. With another roar, the man grabbed Dan’s clock radio from the night stand, ripping it from the wall. He swung it at Dan, who twisted away, causing the radio to bounce off his shoulder. Archie was left holding the radio cord. Advancing on Dan, he kicked aside the shattered radio and began lashing out with the electrical cord.

“You little bastard!” he shouted, striking again and again. “You made me hurt my woman! Did you think I’d let you get away with that kind of shit?” As Dan hit the floor, Archie kicked him in the side. “Answer me, you stupid son-of-a-bitch!”

Dan was beyond answering. Lying flat on his face, he was holding onto consciousness by his fingernails. Finally, Archie paused, his breathing hard and fast. He glared at the bleeding boy before him. “Look at me!” he demanded, yanking Dan by the arm and rolling him onto his back. Dan looked up warily, his vision blurred.

Archie pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it. Taking a deep draw, he leaned over Dan, blowing smoke directly into his face. “I said answer me, boy.” His voice was calmer now, and ten times more frightening. Dan struggled to remember the question.

“I asked you if you thought I’d let you get away with causing my woman pain.” Archie moved closer, but Dan couldn’t answer. His eyes were locked on the burning end of the cigarette. Archie continued, “Because you’d be wrong. I’m going to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.” He grinned again. “And then I’ll cause your little girlfriend some pain. How does that sound?”

“No,” Dan croaked through swelling lips. “Please, no.” His eyes were still glued on that burning tip. He knew it was going to be bad. He tried to brace himself, but the pain became so intense, he didn’t realize the screams he heard were his own until just before he lost consciousness.

Tessa woke to the sound of a door slamming. A quick look at the clock told her it was twenty minutes before midnight. Then the yelling started. Tessa sat in her bed, huddled under her blanket, waiting. She heard Dan’s door close, so she tapped lightly on the wall. There was no answer, and her heart dropped as she heard the crash of Dan’s door being kicked open, followed by Archie’s furious voice. Shoving her feet into her slippers, Tessa ran down the hall to the door to Archie’s apartment. Paula Kawolski was already there, pounding on the door and shouting for her son.

Seeing her foster daughter, Paula stopped. “Tessa, go back to your room,” she ordered tersely.

“He’s going to kill him!” Tessa was distraught. “I have to stop him!”

“You can’t stop him. He’ll just hurt you, too.” Paula took Tessa’s arm and started dragging her down the hall. “Stay here where you’re safe. I’ll stop him. I promise.” She shoved Tessa into the bedroom and closed the door. That was when the screaming began.

Tessa pounded on the bedroom wall, shouting, “Stop it! Stop it!” She continued until the room on the other side went silent, and she fell to her knees sobbing in her helplessness. She barely noticed the noises coming from the main room.

Tessa was still crouched by the wall when the door to her own room was flung open. Rising to her feet, she faced off against Archie. He was disheveled, sweating, and crazy-eyed. He moved toward her, muttering under his breath.

Tessa feinted left and ran right. Archie grabbed for her and missed. But he regrouped quickly and grabbed again, this time snagging her by one braid as she darted for the door.

“Let me go, creepazoid!” Tessa screeched as he dragged her toward the bed by her hair.

“Nope. It’s my turn, little girl. I get my turn, and you get to know a real man.” Archie forced his mouth down over hers. Tessa bit him, drawing blood and earning herself a sharp slap across the face. “Little bitch!” he slapped her again. “Remember, I bleed, you bleed.” He threw her down on the bed, and buried his face in her neck.

Tessa struggled against him, trying to push him off of her body. She couldn’t breathe with the behemoth atop her. She tried to knee him, but he twisted and she missed. He bit her earlobe and she yelped; he ripped her pajama top open, and she began to scream.

Dan was lost and drifting. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. All he knew was pain and darkness--until Tessa screamed. Instantly aware, he knew what was happening. Adrenaline streamed into his body and he gained his feet. Pain shot all the way up his legs. He looked at his feet. They were bare. Confused, he looked around for his shoes. Tessa screamed again, the sound cut off abruptly. Dan hobbled quickly if unsteadily toward the screams. He didn’t notice Shirley lying on the couch, unconscious and bleeding. He barely took in the overturned vase in the lounge, or Paula Kawolski’s bedroom slipper in the hall. He was focused on getting to Tessa before Archie could finish what he had started.

Tessa was still screaming when Dan got to the room. He could see Archie on top of her, his hands and mouth on her body while she screamed and struggled to get free.

“Get off her you rat bastard!” Dan’s voice was raw and hoarse. He jumped on Archie, pounding on him with his fists and trying to drag him off of Tessa. Archie grunted and rolled off the bed. Dan came at him again and managed to land a couple of punches before Archie picked him up by the throat and hurled him at the wall. Dan smashed against the door frame. His back hit first, knocking the wind out of him. His head hit next, stunning him and dimming his vision.

Archie advanced, shaking his head and his fist. “You stupid little punk. Now you’re really gonna get it!”

Dan once again found himself unable to move. As Archie charged toward him, he closed his eyes and gave in to the darkness. As it took him away, he felt hot liquid splattering his face and chest.

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