After the highs I had experienced in Vegas, it was hard to come back home and go to work again. I couldn't wait until my next vacation so that I could do that again. But I had to get back to reality.
One thing I had found that was that Abed had kind of gone a little crazy over Colz after I last saw him. I heard that he was trying to come back to San Diego and had sent her a message that said, "I'm coming for you!" It made me kind of glad I didn't stop to see him in Tularosa on my way to Vegas. Otherwise, he would have told me that I needed to bring him back, right away! He would have grabbed his stuff and hopped in the car. THAT would have been our first trip to Vegas. (We did one years later.) Colz supposedly freaked out after she got the message about him returning. I only ever saw her one more time at the Hillcrest Cinemas after that and she didn't have anything to say to me. As it turned out, Abed came back out to San Diego about a year later, but I don't think he tried to track down Colz when he did.
The other big thing that happened was a week and a half after I'd come home. My phone rang and I picked it up. "Is this Fayd?" "Yes." "This is Chez' father. Listen, Road beat up Chez really bad today..." My first thought was that Chez was either dead or in the hospital. I didn't know what was going to come out of his mouth next, but he continued. "...and she called the cops and has checked into a battered women's shelter here in Roswell." (Okaaaaay...) "She wants to know if you'll still have her and if she and Joad can move out to San Diego with you."
I did not have any time to process everything he was telling me. All I knew was that it meant that Chez still loved me and was willing to move out to San Diego to be with me. I know there was no hesitation between the end of his question and me answering, "Yes!"
He told me that Chez would be allowed to stay at the shelter for one month. That meant I had one month to get everything in place for her to move out here. I was going to have to find a new apartment. I was going to have to buy furniture. I was going to have to get my hands on a crib. I was going to have to go to U-Haul to rent something that would bring all her stuff back. I was going to have to get a few days off from work to drive to New Mexico and bring her back. A month really did not seem like it was long enough, but I knew I had to do this and get it done.
Chez would be calling me collect later that night. Before we got off the phone, I asked him how he got my phone number, because I hadn't given it to Chez. He said that he called directory assistance and they listed the people with my real last name and they ran through all the first names. At the time, I only had my middle initial and last name listed with no address because I didn't want to pay the extra fee to have an unlisted number. But he knew my middle initial and figured out that was me. I kind of wondered what he would have done if my number had been unlisted. Chez didn't have my address at the time, so he couldn't have mailed me. And I'm not so certain any of them knew which movie theatre I worked for. I can't imagine him making dozens of phone calls to showtime recordings to get the office numbers to try to get a hold of me.
I immediately went into action. First, I went over to the home of my landlords and explained what was going on. They didn't require me to put in a full month's notice that I was going to move out. Then I went to the Hillcrest Cinemas and told Anz what was happening. She was aware of all the drama that had been going on between me and Chez and was rather surprised that everything had led to this.
I got back to my house and waited for Chez to call me collect. The phone rang and it was her. She told me that what had happened earlier that day. She and Road were fighting over the TV. He picked her up and threw her against the stove. After he left, Kiz examined Chez and saw that she had been severely bruised on her back. Kiz recommended that Chez call the cops and check into the battered women's shelter and that's what happened.
(A brief commentary here: News reports that covered incidents of domestic violence at the time would often state the reason for the altercation. Usually, it was of some low-level concern, like the TV, that sparked the incident. News stories would make it seem like the victims and perpetrators would fight over ANYTHING. Actually, these were usually the culmination of a history of arguing about all sorts of issues and the idea that they were fighting over something of so little consequence would just seem so ridiculous, but the person who often got the short end of the stick would think that they were not going allow themselves to lose this battle and choose this hill to die on. In my experience with Chez, I found that the causes of domestic violence are so complex, they can't be properly explained in a 30-second news report. However, I have noticed that many news outlets no longer cite the reason for the fight that resulted in injuries, arrests or death.)
Chez told me that when I last saw her and hugged her goodbye, she could feel me kissing her cheek. When I did that, all the feelings she'd had for me before had returned and it was very overwhelming for her. After I left, she started crying uncontrollably. Kiz saw what was going on and asked her, "You wanted to go with him, didn't you?" Chez said that if Road hadn't been outside, she would have grabbed Joad, some clothes and supplies, gotten in the car with me and left.
Then she asked me if I remembered going with her to see Kiz at the hospital in Clovis. I told her I recalled seeing the baby in the maternity ward and how she asked me if I wanted one of those. Chez seemed quite pleased that I remembered that. Before we got off the phone, we told each other, "I love you." It had been almost two years since we had said that to each other.
I had a lot of work ahead of me. More on that on Monday.
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