Chapter Forty Five

During the second week at her new job, Jacob came inside to wait for her. He took a seat in an empty booth and watched her as she worked. It made Kily nervous to see him sitting in the booth while he watched her finish her shift. Kily’s boss happened to notice Jacob sitting in the booth with no food and asked Kily if she had waited on that customer. Kily nervously explained that it was her husband, and he was just waiting to give her a ride home. Then to her surprise her boss approached Jacob and introduced himself. Kily finished her order and quickly got her things then she hurried over to the booth to let Jacob know she was ready to leave. Her boss stood up and said, "Kily, I didn’t know the two of you were looking for a place to rent?" Surprised, Kily glanced over at Jacob , then back to her boss, smiled sweetly, and said, "well, yes, I guess we are." "I happen to have a little apartment for rent not far from here," her boss said with a broad smile. "Why don’t the two of you go over and take a look at it," he said. "Sure," said Jacob. Kily’s boss handed Jacob the keys and told Kily to bring them back with her when she came to work the next day. Kily was not happy about this. She wanted to get away from Jacob. It would definitely complicate things if he became friends with her boss. Let alone rent an apartment from him. Jacob drove to the apartment, they climbed the stairs and entered. Kily had to admit that it was very cozy. The kitchen was small and quaint and the living room was to the right with a hallway that led down to the bedroom and bathroom. "We’ll take it!" Jacob exclaimed. "It’s perfect, it’s close enough for you to walk to work and the price is right," he said with finality. The next morning Kily told her boss that they would take the apartment. Arrangements were made to deduct the rent from her paychecks and Kily’s heart sank as she realized that this trapped her even more into staying with Jacob.

By the end of the week they moved into the little apartment and Jacob informed Kily that was now going to be walking to work as well as walking home from work. "No more free rides Kily," he told her. "You are costing me a fortune in gas!" Kily sat in the small living room listening to Jacob’s plan. She would leave the house with only enough time to walk to work, and would return on time or face the consequences. Kily had given up trying to think of a way to escape from him. She had come to believe that there was no escape. Every plan she had come up with had failed and it had only gotten her beatings when she tried. She now lived in a world of resignation to how her life was to be and she moved through each day numb and emotionless.

With resignation Kily walked to work each morning. On pay days Jacob would show up at her work and demand her pay. Not wanting to have Jacob create a scene, Kily quietly handed the money over. Jacob bought macaroni and cheese for Kily to make for every meal and Kily grew to hate the taste of it. She never complained though, because it was better than not eating at all. Jacob had contacted Mother and told her about the new apartment and Kily’s job, then invited her to come over and see how well things were going between Kily and himself. A month after moving in Mother came to visit and was shocked when she opened the cup boards and saw nothing but box after box of macaroni and cheese. "Don’t you eat anything else Kily?" she exclaimed! "It’s the only thing Jacob will buy," Kily told her. Even though mother had done her best to accept Jacob, she never really liked him and seeing all the macaroni and cheese in the cupboards didn’t help her attitude towards him at all. The next day mother made an unexpected visit to the apartment with a friend of hers. They carried in bag after bag of groceries. In wonderment, Kily unpacked vegetables, fruits, meat, bread, milk, and a whole variety of different foods. Kily was ecstatic. " Real food!" Kily excalimed. Mother beamed as she saw the look of joy on Kily’s face. Jacob came home in the midst of all the unpacking of groceries. "What’s this?" he said as he stared at the food on the counter. Mother spoke up and said, "we’ve gone shopping." Jacob stood there and stared at her for a long time, he walked over and looked in the refrigerator, he surveyed the contents on the counter and looked in the cupboards. Then he silently went into the other room. Kily knew she was in for trouble when mother left. Mother stayed and helped Kily put away the food, she visited for a little while and left. Kily stayed in the kitchen for as long as she could. What she really wanted to do was cook something yummy and have a good meal. But, Kily knew that she couldn’t cook the food until Jacob gave his permission or until he was gone. "Kily," she heard Jacob calling her name from the other room.

Kily cringed and felt sick. She dreaded going into the other room. "Kily!" Jacob demanded. With a heavy sigh Kily walked into the other room. Jacob’s voice dripped with sarcasm as he said, "What have you been telling your mother Kily?" Kily began to tremble, "I haven’t been telling her anything," Kily said nervously. "Then tell me why she brought all that food here?" He said with equal sarcasm. Kily looked around the room, she knew he was working up to rage and she felt like a trapped animal looking for a way to escape. "She.. she just did it as a surprise is all Jacob, there wasn’t anything wrong with what she did, it just made her happy to do it is all." Jacob jumped up so suddenly he knocked the small coffee table over. He grabbed Kily by her hair and yanked her face up to his, "Then why is it that all the food she brought is all food that I don’t like Kily? Why is it that its only food that you like?" He spat at her. Kily winced as he tightened his grip on her hair, "I don’t know, I don’t think she thought about it Jacob, really it was just a nice surprise she did is all." Jacob’s other hand came up with a hard slap to Kily’s face. Her head jerked hard from the impact but Jacob held her hair tight and pulled her face back up to his. "You’ve been telling her lies about me haven’t you Kily, you’ve been trying to get her to think I’m a bad person, haven’t you?" He said and slapped her again. When Kily’s head jerked back from the slap, Jacob lost his grip in her hair. When her hair came free of his grip Kily ran, she made it to the door and managed to open it before Jacob realized what she was doing. She half ran half fell down the tall stairs and when she hit the bottom she continued to run. She heard the clatter of his feet as he raced down the stairs behind her and she willed her feet to run faster. Kily ran down the street, crossed the road and looked behind her. Jacob was closing the gap between them. Kily saw a police officer just up the block from her and she ran as fast as she could go in his direction. She glanced back as she ran and saw Jacob was almost to her. "Please help me," Kily said gasping for air. The officer seemed startled as she ran up to him and looked around quickly. Jacob arrived seconds later out of breath as well. "What’s going on here?" the officer demanded. "Please help me," Kily pleaded. "She’s my wife!" Jacob spat out, "and she’s being a bitch!" The officer looked from Kily to Jacob, "Let’s all calm down here" the officer said as he stepped between Kily and Jacob. "Please help me," Kily pleaded again, "he’ going to beat me," she finished with tears in her eyes. The officer looked back to Jacob, "I haven’t hit her," he stated firmly, "look at her, there isn’t a mark on her." The officer looked back to Kily, "No, I don’t see any marks," he said and looked back to Jacob. "Look, she’s my wife and we are just having a fight is all," Jacob said more calmly. Kily stood in silence as Jacob insinuated to the officer that she had emotional problems and he was just trying to catch up to her for her own safety. Kily tried to protest and tell the officer that she needed his help, but the officer held his hands up and said, "This is a civil matter and the two of you need to work out your differences with the courts, not me." The law doesn’t give me authority to get into domestic disputes. Jacob beamed in triumph. Kily stood there with her mouth open in total shock. She could not believe that the officer was not going to help her. Her mind struggled with the knowledge that not even the police would help protect her from Jacob. With this realization Kily felt total defeat and despair. There was no hope left, no way for her to escape him. All she could do was wait.... wait for the beating she knew was to come. Jacob said a few more words to the officer assuring him that he and Kily would work things out, he grabbed Kily firmly by her upper arm and led her away. That night he beat her as he always had for daring to defy him. Her punishment lasted until the sun began to creep up above the horizon bringing with it another day. Jacob lay on the bed next to her, she could not tell if he was asleep or not, but she did not dare move. Kily was lost in her anguish when suddenly she felt the strong loving arms slip around her and the soft whisper of the man’s distant voice saying, " I will find you." Kily was so startled to hear that whisper and feel the embrace again, that she sat straight up in the bed. "What IS that!" she thought to herself. "What does that mean?" Who will find me?" She looked over at Jacob, he was staring at her, "What are you doing Kily? Did you think you could sneak out of bed?" "No, no I wasn’t doing that," she stammered out, "I was just going to get ready for work." she added. Jacob eyed her suspiciously, "Go ahead then, I need some money," he said after some thought. Kily winced and willed her body to move, she slowly slid off the bed and limped to the bathroom. "What is that? Where is it coming from?" she thought to herself. Kily stared at her reflection in the mirror. "How would she explain the bruises on her face to her boss when she arrived to work," she thought. She tentatively touched her fingers to the large lump just above her eyebrow and winced, she soaked a washcloth in cold water from the sink and placed it on the lump and over her eyes in an attempt to diminish the swelling. "Who is going to find me?" she thought, and when when?" Tears welled in her eyes and flowed onto the washcloth that covered them. Kily sighed deeply, removed the cloth from her eyes, and whispered, "It has to be Jacob that will find me if I leave, I don’t know anyone else." Kily’s mind was confused, the embrace that came each time she heard those words felt loving and kind, it did not feel anything like Jacob’s harsh touch, but he always told her that if she left he would find her. "I don’t know what that means," Kily whispered to herself with anguish. She looked up into the mirror once more, then opened the door to the medicine cabinet so she wouldn’t have to look at how ugly she was.

"What are you doing in here?" Jacob demanded as he entered the bathroom. "I’m getting ready for work," Kily said softly. "Well get a move on," Jacob said, "You’ll get another ass beating if you get money deducted from your pay for being late. And by the way, you tell them you fell down those stairs outside when you get to work Kily" he added as he walked out of the bathroom.  

Copyright 2010