Chapter 2
Molly Ann Simmons looked out at the smooth waters of the lake. Everyone that knew her knew her as Ann; she hated the name Molly. She rarely told anyone that her first name was Molly. Even her checks said Ann Simmons. Her maiden name had been Tyler but she had kept her married name; more for convenience than out of love or respect for Ray.
This was one of the few get-aways that she allowed herself. Her friends owned the condo on the lake and rented it out in the summer by the week and by the day in the ski season. Since it was late fall and it hadn't snowed yet, they let her use it for the weekend.
The condo was really a series of small townhouses that a developer had put up quickly when the area became popular. The units were not that well built and she knew that her friends had paid a lot for it and continued to pay a lot for upkeep. She had heard her friends talk about how there was always something going wrong at the condo.
Ann enjoyed the mountains but she could never have afforded to buy one of the condos on her own. Her florist shop supported her and her daughter fairly well but there was little left over. Now that her daughter was in college things were starting to get tight. Ann didn't have any idea what she was going to do to pay for med school. As it was, if her daughter hadn't won the scholarship, Ann wouldn't have been able to send her to college. This was why she had come to the lake. She needed time to think.
Ann had been offered a good price for the florist shop. A husband and wife wanted the shop as the husband had just taken early retirement and they thought that the shop would be perfect for them. Ann owned the building and lived above the shop with her daughter. She knew that if she took the offer for the shop she would have to find a job fast and also find a place to live. The last 2 years of college and then med school would take the money she got from the shop and plus a lot more. She had told the couple that she needed some time to think about it. If only her husband hadn't been such a louse!
The wind rattled the sliding glass door facing the lake and Ann went into the living room and turned on the TV. She started to click the remote trying to find a program that would hold her attention. She settled on the news channel and she watched it for about a half an hour and then turned the TV off.
Ann picked up her brief case and walked into the kitchen and took out the latest figures from her accountant. The offer for her florist shop was sitting on the table because she had reviewed it for the umpteenth time a short while ago. The figures in the accountant's report were familiar to her. She knew them by heart.
The florist shop had provided her a good living and the offer from the couple was more than fair. These 2 facts were causing her quandary. If she accepted the offer for the business she would have been giving up everything that she had worked for since she left her husband. The shop was like part of her family. There was just no other way to pay for her daughter's college. Selling the business created it's own set of problems.
Ann pushed the papers away and looked out at the lake. She loved the serenity of the lake. Being alone at the lake didn't bother her. She was used to being alone. She had never remarried after she left Ray. There had been some dates over the years but it seemed that many men felt that a single woman with a child was desperate for any man and was interested in only one thing. The times that she had sex with the man she was dating at the time were always unfulfilling for her. She could never get the terror of her rape out of her mind. In the past few years the dates had gotten fewer and farther in between.
Ann's grades had always been excellent in high school and she had won a full scholarship to college and dove into the college life headfirst. She kept her grades up in college but never passed up a weekend party. She saw Ray at a frat party and watched as he bedazzled the room. Ray was a star on the football team. He was making his rounds, enticing the women, and then flitting off to flirt with another. Ann was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. They soon became an item and moved in together off campus. In her senior year Ann became pregnant and gave birth to her daughter the day after graduation. She and Ray were married a month later. They decided that Ann could pursue her MBA after their child was in school.
Ann's parents threw the best wedding that they could afford and Ray's parents helped provide the extras. Ray's parents sent the pair away to Bermuda for a honeymoon and kept Brenda, their new granddaughter, for the week.
As soon as the baby was born Ann went to the doctor and went on birth control pills. Ray constantly talked about the big family he wanted but Ann knew that it would be awhile before they could afford to have another child. She didn't tell Ray that she was on the pill.
Ray had grown up in an upper middle class family as an only child and his parents indulged his every whim. Ray's father had an excellent job and, although they were not filthy rich, they didn't want for much. It became obvious right after Ann and Ray married that Ray couldn't handle money. In many ways he still had the emotional stability of a teen-ager. He would get paid and stop off at some store and buy an expensive gift for Ann or Brenda. They were constantly arguing about money. Ann took care of several of the neighbor's kids during the day to help out with the bills, but they just seemed to get deeper and deeper in debt. Several times Ray's parents gave them money to help get their heads above water. Within a month or two after accepting the money they were as deep in debt as they were before Ray's parents had given them the money.
About a year after they got married Ray started gambling. It started as small card games with the neighbors. He soon progressed to placing bets on everything that he could think of. The bills kept piling up and they continued to fight about the money problems. Often Ray would come home broke on payday and they would have a big fight. Several times Ann didn't see him for weeks. She finally sat him down with his parents and questioned him about his gambling. After he admitted that he was heavily in debt to loan sharks his parents walked out of the house and refused to help him anymore. They told Ann to pack up her things and move in with them until Ray straightened his life out. Ann refused their offer and tried to get Ray to stop gambling.
One night Ann answered the front door at 11 o'clock at night. She opened the door a little to see who was knocking at this time of night. The first thought that came to her when she heard the knock on the door was that something had happened to Ray. The door was suddenly kicked open and she was knocked to the floor and her breath was knocked out of her. As she struggled on the floor to get breathing again two pairs of hands grabbed her and started dragging her into the bedroom where her daughter was asleep in her crib. One of her attackers put his hand over her mouth.
"You'd better be quiet unless you want to wake up the kid. Come to think about it, it might be a turn on to have her watch her mother put out for us."
"Please don't," Ann wailed when the man removed his hand.
In reply the two men started tearing her pajamas off. When they had her naked the larger of the two threw her on the bed. He pulled some short lengths of rope out of his jacket pocket and knelt on her arms while he tied her wrists to the bed. As he climbed off of her the other man grabbed her ankles and tied them to the foot of the bed.
"Now pretty lady, we'll just have ourselves some fun while we wait for your husband to get home. We need to talk to him," the larger of the two said.
Ann tried to look at the men through her tears and asked hysterically, "What do you want with my husband?"
The man closest to her grabbed her breast and squeezed it and twisted it cruelly, "Your husband should learn to pay his debts. We gave him an extra week to come up with the money, but he seems to be avoiding us."
"What does he owe you money for?" she asked though her tears, "Maybe I can borrow some money from my parents. Please untie me and I'll see if they have any money in the house."
The man laughed cruelly, "Do your folks keep $30,000 around the house? No? Well we'll just have to take a little out in trade while we wait for him to come home."
The man got on the bed between her legs and put his hand between her legs. He shoved two fingers into her and began to move them in and out of her, fucking her with his fingers. She was not lubricated and it felt like there was a fire or burning acid inside of her. She heard the sound of a zipper being pulled down and the man lowered himself on top of her. He guided himself into her. As he quickly pushed forward Ann screamed in pain. Luckily Brenda didn't wake up. The man chuckled deep in his throat and urged her to fight him.
"I like it when my women fight back. It turns me on."
For the next several hours Ann was raped and sodomized repeatedly. One of the men got his kicks jabbing her with his penknife, beating her with his belt and burning her with his cigarette. She bit her lip to keep from crying out and waking Brenda, but at times she was not successful and cried out. She passed out several times from the pain and the exhaustion. Just before dawn she started to regain consciousness in time to hear one of the men talking.
"It looks like he's not coming home tonight. She's not worth screwing anymore. All she does is lie there and moan and cry."
The man saw that she had come to. He grabbed her jaw and shook her hard, "Tell your old man that if he doesn't pay up, we'll come back for a little more of that fine pussy in two days."
She felt the man doing something to her stomach. The next thing she heard was the front door closing. A minute later she lost consciousness again.
When she woke up Ray was cutting the ropes on her wrists with a kitchen knife, "I'm sorry honey. I never thought that they'd come here. If they had seen me they would have killed me. You know that I couldn't have stopped them don't you. I'm sorry honey. I'll straighten this out, I promise you."
Ann pushed him away and struggled off of the bed; he had as much as told her that he knew that the men were in the house but he was afraid to come inside and see if she was OK. As she stood up the room started to spin and Ray started to grab her. She knocked his hand away and fell against the wall and leaned on the wall until the room stopped spinning. She started toward the bathroom. The pain between her legs was horrible. She could feel the men's cum and her own blood running down her legs. She pushed the bathroom door shut so that she could see her stomach in the full-length mirror on the back of the door. She gasped and put her hand over her mouth when she saw what was written, in lipstick, on her stomach-$30,000 WHORE.
Ann staggered to the shower and turned on the water as hot as she could stand. She soaped up the washcloth and washed herself over and over until the water got cold. She still felt dirty. When she couldn't stand the cold water beating down on her bruised and burned body anymore she got out of the shower and dried off and put a robe on. She tensed when she heard the front door close again and she feared that the men were coming back.
Brenda started crying and Ann leaned against the bathroom door and listened for Ray to pick the baby up. Brenda kept crying. Ann went into the bedroom and saw that Ray was not in the room. She picked Brenda up and walked through the house looking for Ray. It suddenly hit her. Ray had fled the house fearful that the men were coming back. She shook her head hard. She did it both to shake the tears out of her eyes and in rage. The bastard had left her and the baby here alone. What if those two gorillas had been watching the house and saw Ray come in the house. What if they came back and killed all of them.
Ann sat down hard on the bed holding Brenda. She started shaking uncontrollably. She turned and laid Brenda on the bed beside her and tried to think what she should do. She was terrified that her rapists would burst through the door any minute. She forced herself to calm down and think. She had to get out of the house for her safety and Brenda's safety. She reached for the phone and then stopped. She knew that her parents didn't have any money in the house and Ray's parents wouldn't help him any more. Ray's parents would probably call the police right away and maybe get Ray, Ann and Brenda killed.
Without having a plan in mind Ann started grabbing all of her clothes and Brenda's clothes and baby needs. She started throwing everything into the car until the car was as full as she dared. The trunk was full and the back seat was full except for a spot for Brenda's car seat. In her haste to get out of the house she had left Brenda on the bed playing. Ann rushed back into the house in a panic. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Brenda had gone back to sleep. She quickly gathered up the little bit of money that she had hidden from Ray. She counted it and saw that it was only $67. She snatched Brenda off of the bed and headed for the car.
Ann headed away from the house as fast as she dared. The sun was just starting to lighten the eastern sky. Ann wasn't sure what she should do and just kept driving away from the house. Before she realized where she was she saw the ramp for I-95. She turned onto the ramp without even thinking or caring about what direction she was going. After driving on I-95 for a while, she saw that she was heading south. She continued to drive away from the house. All she thought of was putting as much distance between her and those men as possible.
Ann continued driving south. She and Brenda stopped several times to eat and get gas. In Baltimore a fan belt broke and she had it repaired at the first gas station that she came to. Luckily she hadn't burned up the engine. Since it was almost dark by the time that the car was repaired, the owner let her spent the night on a couch in his office. He woke Ann up when he opened the gas station at 5:00 A.M. After putting the charge for the fan belt on the one credit card that she had left, she pulled out of the gas station and continued to drive south on I-95. She still had no idea where she was heading or what she was going to do. The gas and the money ran out in Alexandria, Virginia.
Ann left the car drift toward the curb and coast to a stop. She had pulled off of the Interstate when the gas gauge was on Empty. Actually it had been on Empty for quite a while. Panic started to set in and Ann forced herself to calm down and try to think. She looked around to see where she was. Across the street was a Catholic church and she could see people going into the church. She looked at the clock on the steeple and saw that it was 7 A.M. Ann got out of the car, pulled a bottle out of the baby bag and hurried across the street to the church. She had never been religious, her parents didn't belong to a church, but she needed a lot of help and the only one that she could think of to right now to talk to about it was God.
Ann opened the door and saw that the service had already started. She sat down in one of the back pews and started to feed Brenda her bottle. Brenda finished the bottle and her eyes started to close. Within a couple of minutes she was asleep in Ann's arms. Ann gently laid the sleeping baby on her coat that she had placed on the pew next to her. She watched the baby sleep for a minute and then turned toward the alter and put her head on her hands and started to pray.
Ann kept praying intently oblivious to the mass going on at the front of the church and the worshipers watching her. Ann was praying so hard that she didn't realize that she was saying the prayers in a soft voice and sobbing at the same time. A rustle in the pews caused her to realize that she was calling attention to herself and she watched as several of the worshipers walked to the alter for communion. The priest stood in front of each worshiper as he made the blessing and then gave the bread to the kneeling person in front of him. As he stopped in front of an older woman Ann saw the priest pause as the woman spoke softly to him and the priest said something to the woman.
The worshipers returned to their seats and the mass continued. After the last blessing had been said the priest and the alter boy left the sanctuary and the worshipers began to file out of the church. Ann sat in the pew wondering what to do next. Outside sat her car that needed gas and she had less than a dollar on her pocket. She had no idea how she was going to feed herself and Brenda much less find a place for them to live. She felt the tears starting to run down her cheeks again. The older woman that had talked to the priest at communion slipped into the pew next to her.
"Hello, sweetie," the old woman said, "It looks like you need a friend. Is there anything that I can do to help?"
Without thinking Ann shook her head. She knew that she was in such deep trouble that no one could help her. The priest came into the sanctuary and started down the aisle toward Ann and the woman. He had taken off his robes and had his black suit on with the Roman collar. As he neared Ann he smiled and stretched out his hand.
"Hello, I'm Father Adams. My mother here says that you were crying a while ago. Is there anything that we can do?"
Ann looked down at her hands, "If you have a few dollars to spare, I'd like to get the baby something to eat and I ran out of gas in front of your church."
She felt lower than a worm. This was the first time in her life that she'd ever had to beg. She wanted to run out of the church and hide and never face anyone again.
The priest sat in the pew in front of her and turned toward her and Brenda, "Where are you from? It sounds like a New York or New England accent you have there."
"I'm from New York," Ann stammered.
"What are you doing in Virginia? By the way we don't know your name and the baby's name."
Ann looked over at the baby sleeping next to her and told the priest her name and Brenda's name. She started to tell the priest that she was just heading south but when she started talking the tears started again and she was soon sobbing so hard that the priest and his mother couldn't understand her. They waited for her to calm down and then asked her to tell them again how she came to be in Virginia.
This time Ann told them the whole story including how Ray had gambled and gotten into trouble with loan sharks and how she had been raped and threatened and how Ray had left them and run off. After she was finished the priest took her hand and looked at his mother. He didn't say anything for a while, just sat and looked into his mother's eyes.
"What can we do for this family, Mom? I only have about $47 on me."
His mother thought for a minute then her face brightened, "What about Rosie? Her son's looking for somebody."
The priest started to nod his head, "Sure that'll work. Will you go into the rectory and call her son. He's in town this week and we just might solve this problem today."
The priest's mother got up, patted Ann on the shoulder, and left the church. The priest reached into his pocket and pulled out his money clip and handed the money to Ann. She kept her hands folded in her lap. The priest took her hand and shoved the money in her hand.
"Rosie Bradbury is 83 years old. She needs someone to help her out with the chores around the house. She's a bit forgetful lately and her health is not all that good, so she needs someone to make sure she takes her medicine and do the grocery shopping and such. I think that it would be perfect for you and your baby. Rosie's a pleasant woman and I know that she would be delighted to have a young one around the house again. She has a son but he lives on the west coast and he's been looking for a live-in companion for her. He told me that he was willing to pay $100 a week plus room and board. He's talked to a few people but he hasn't been satisfied with the few responses he's gotten to his ads. It would give you a place to stay and get your feet on the ground and the yard is fenced so it would be great for Brenda when she's old enough to walk."
They heard footsteps coming down the aisle and Father Adams turned as his mother walked up to him and Ann. She sat down next to Ann with a big smile on her face and patted Ann's hand.
"Rosie's son is on his way over to my house. I explained the situation and he wants to meet you. He's anxious to get back to California. I told him to bring a 5-gallon can of gas with him. Now let's go to my house and get you and the baby some breakfast. I only live 2 blocks from here. By the way, my name is Ethel."
Ethel got up and put out her hand to Ann. She helped Ann up and the
three of them walked out of the church and started toward Ethel's home.