1 Kind Thing Poetry

Close Page to Return to Home Page...

Cut And Run

Chapter 7

3/19/2004

Came as no surprise there was a rape...

Yeah, her instincts had gotten better and better, as time went by. When there was danger close by, she could feel it. She couldn't expalin it, but alarms went off in her head and her senses became very acute.. Othertimes, her judgement was still sadly lacking. A few decades later, she was sitting in her little car, in Camarillo Springs Park waiting for her man. She was in a place she considered to be safe. One of their little secret roundevous spots...

While she was waiting, listening to music from her radio, she looked around the park, taking in the rural setting and thinking of thier name for this spot; The Kissing Tree. When she looked at the farthest end of the park, she noticed a guy standing behind his beige VW camper van with the back door open. He was aimlessly messing around with stuff in the back of his van. He was parked behind her car and about 20 yards away. Ever watchful, she watched him in her rearview mirror. She was here to meet her man, who was also her connection so she was feeling like she was on high alert, and in the moment.

As she watched, the stranger as he closed up the van, and started walking towards the center of the park. His path took him right by her car, and as he passed, he acted as if she did not exist and cut left so he actually went closer to the foothills, and away from her and her car.

She didn't know why, but her alarms were screaming inside her head. She had learned, years ago, even as a small wild child – to just listen – and to just watch. So she watched him. At the same time, she got her cell phone out of her purse, and pushed 911 - but did not hit send. She locked her car door, leaving the window rolled down just one inch for fresh air, in case he came by, as predators do when they troll, when they try to catch you off guard.

He walked all the way down the length of the park on the left hand side, very casual like. Then he turned and walked back, still on the other side of the open and grassy area. Never making eye contact, acting as if she was not even there.

This was a park, that if you did not know how to find it, you would never know it was there. It was at the end of the road, off of a seldom used road, except by local ranchers and a couple of retirement communitites. There were lots of times when she met her man here, they would be the only people in the whole park, having it all to themselves.

On this day, there was really no one else in the park, but them. The closer he got to her car on his return walk, the more she tensed. She kept the phone in her hand and never took her eyes off of him. Suddenly, he swerved towards her car, head down and walked right by her, so casual, so cool, still as if she did not exist, as if she was not sitting almost directly in his path. And her head was talking to her like crazy. He passed her by, head still down, his brimmed hat pulled down low, dressed in almost the same beige color of his van... Then, he stopped, backed up about three steps, looked towards her window with a side glance, and asked her, "Do you have the time?" She remembers the whole event, start to finish still, even though it's been a few years. She can play the whole occurance in her head, like a video. It burned that deep into her soul, that day.

She held up her cell phone showing it to him, growling at him, as aggressively as she could manage, “I already punched in 911, all I gotta do is punch "send". You need to keep on moving and get the hell away from me! Dig!?” And she shot him the meanest look she could manage, lips clenched, eyes narrowed, like a lioness ready to pounce on it's kill. He acted as if if she had just told him, to have a really nice day. He calmly walked away, and returned to the VW camper, opened the rear door again, and started messing around with the stuff in the back, as if they had not just had a confrontation. Her heart was racing like a freight train.

When her man drove up, in his little white compact Ford escort, she jumped out of her car and ran over to him. Her words tumbled out, at high speed and with an intensity her man had never seen in her before. She was usually pretty hard to get a reaction out of, by this point in her life. He should know. He used to try and do stuff just to freak her out, heavy stuff related to their business, and she would always acted as if anything he did or showed her, did not really effect her at all. She had learned to hold her emotions in check. But not today... She told him, “Hey baby, you see that freak over there? He’s a FREAK and I know it! He tried to get me off guard, he was prowling the park, and nobody else is in here, and he is up to something, and I told him, get the fuck away or I was calling 911 on his ass. Baby, I KNOW he’s got a rape kit or murder kit in the back of that van. He’s a freak baby, and he tried to get me!”