Redeemed

Chapter 1-2

They held hands.

Aww.

When had Katty held hands with a man without him wanting favors? Without him expecting a return on his investment?

When the couple stepped to the cashier to pay, they still held hands. “I’m buying my sweetheart here, brownies.”

His sweetheart giggled.

“Well, is she going to share any with you, sir?” The cashier smiled and slid the tray of brownies into a plastic shopping bag and shoved it to the woman. He pulled the brownies back out of the bag and counted. “There’s five for you … and one for him, right?”

The woman giggled again. “He gets some, too. He deserves them.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

Katty blinked. Never in her life had she—

“How long have you two lovebirds been married, now? Two years?” The cashier knew Katty was in a hurry. He always did this, played on her needing a drink. Drag it out.

The couple turned to leave, still holding hands, only now Katty could see their faces. The gentleman had a kind look in his eyes, a sweet smile. He nodded at Katty as they stepped out of line. He held his arm out for his sweetheart to grab. She fumbled with the plastic bag, then found his arm. She turned directly toward Katty—face-to-face.

Katty blinked again.

Totally blind. The woman’s eyes were white. Cataracts?

Katty couldn’t breathe. She stepped back. The woman even smiled as she passed Katty.

“Sorry to make you wait for us old people, dear.” The woman spoke like she could see Katty. There was no way she could see. The lady couldn’t see the freckles on her own face.

The man gently grasped his sweetheart’s hand on his arm and patted it, his eyes never leaving Katty’s face.

“It-it’s okay. Ma’am.” Katty swallowed and blinked tears away. “I-I’m not in a hurry.” Liar. You want your booze. Bea is at home alone. Holy cow. That man could leave his sweetheart forever and she’d never know it. Well, she’d know he was gone, but she couldn’t do anything about it. She’d be all alone and helpless. But he stayed. Why? Why did a sweet man like he seemed to be, stay with a woman like that? Why did he stay?

Liar.You want your booze. Bea is at home alone.The man seemed to read Katty’s mind. “We’ve been together for sixty-seven years. Through the good times,” he looked at Sweetheart, “and there have been some good ones, right Nelly?”

She nodded vigorously.

“And there have been really rough times, too.” His eyes welled up. He checked Nelly’s face—her eyes. Seemed to want to make sure she was okay with what he shared openly.

Nelly slowly nodded, blinking herself. The old woman didn’t need eyes with sight, for tears to well up. Nodded again, turned her head toward him. “Fires.” She breathed. “Babies dying.”

Katty gasped. She wiped a tear running down her own cheek.

Nelly’s face remained still, sweet—even though her own cheeks were wet, now. The man’s were wet, too. They breathed almost in unison. She seemed to know he was looking at her and raised her hand to find his cheek. She held it there. “Such a good man.” She tilted her head toward Katty. “He never left. He’s a faithful man.” She searched the air with her other hand, until she found Katty’s and grabbed it. “Find yourself a faithful man—faithful and true.” The woman’s touch zinged Katty’s skin. Nelly wouldn’t let go, in fact her grip became almost painful. “You’ll know, dear—you’ll know when you’ve found him. He sees you like a queen, when you know you’re still a scullery maid.” She shook her head, her face toward his. “A queen.”

He nodded. “A queen.” He smiled at Katty as they walked to the door.

No one in the store said a word. Only four or five people had heard or even seen what Katty had—close up—but each visual became a snapshot in Katty’s brain. Like her photo app on her phone held progressive shots—blink, blink, blink of a scene when Bea licked her first ice cream cone. Lick—click. Expression on Bea’s face when she tasted—actually tasted the treat—click. Another lick—click.

Katty’s brain had a whole movie sequence of screen shots with the old man and blind old woman in her head.

Breathe.

Breathe.The casier tapped the counter.

Katty stretched to watch them leave the building. Slowly the man helped Nelly into their car. His eyes never left his wife as he made his way slowly around the car to the driver’s side and got in.

“Ahem. You gonna take pictures?”

“Uh, what?”

She’d never have that kind of love. Like Clarence and Mrs. T. Their kind of love. They probably didn’t even have s*x anymore—it’s all kindness and love. A deeper kind of love that Katty has never experienced—or never will. If that bastard, Phil, had not been at the convenience store that night. But then she wouldn’t have Bea.

Bea! She had to get home!

Katty turned away from the couple and back into the store. She was living inside a dream or a movie. She twisted to watch them drive away. A big truck blocked her view, but when the truck pulled away, their car was nowhere to be seen. Katty stood on tiptoes and searched the parking lot. They just disappeared. Gone. Vanished.

Slowly she regained her bearings of standing inside the store, people making noises, a cash register ringing up items. Back to reality. Back to … s**t!

Katty stumbled up to the cashier. He was ringing up a young woman, lugging a little girl. The woman glanced at her. “Hey, don’t butt in line.” She tilted her head behind her. A whole line of people waited their turn.

“Uh, sorry.” Katty glanced at the cashier. Dork was smiling to himself. Damn him. He won. She glanced back outside as she took her place last in line. They were gone. The line moved forward and she followed. Gone. She studied the freckles on the guy’s shoulders standing in front of her. He carried a twelve-pack of beer. She studied the colors on the cardboard box. Blues. Back outside. She shook her head. Her stomach rumbled. Belch. She covered her mouth with her hand.

Where had the couple gone?

Her foot tapped the floor—almost on its own. Bea. Shooters. Breathe.

Breathe.“Can I help you?” Same cashier that had sold her the shooters before—he had ripped her off. She held up ten fingers. Twice.

He reached into the case and pulled out shooters of whiskey, tapped on the cash register, and dropped the tiny bottles into a bag, just out of her reach.

Bastard.

She threw the money at him, along with her ID, climbed up the shelves of candy in front of her and grabbed the sack out of his hand. Bea would never have gotten away with kicking all those rows of gum and candy bars around. She gave them another kick, scattering some onto the floor.

She made her way to the door, but as she pushed it open, she glanced behind her.

The cashier waved her ID. “Need this?”

She took one swipe at his hand and nailed it. “Dork.” Slid it into her back pocket and rotated again.

The store spun.

No.

Help. Help. It had been so sweet and pure just a minute ago and now, the world, her world, crashed down around her again. A sob threatened to surface, but she choked it down. She left the building and once more, searched the parking lot. She hadn’t even seen what kind of car they drove off in. White something. Nowhere. Gone.

herJust like Bea always said, Bad Mommy was back. “You are so stupid.” She opened her car door and slid into the car, glaring at herself in the rear view mirror. “Never happened. They weren’t real. You are the crazy person. Love like that doesn’t exist! They don’t exist!”

Bad Mommy was backTheySlammed the door shut. Hard.

Bea would have been s*****d by now for kicking all that candy off the shelf inside.

She unscrewed the cap on one bottle and slugged it down. Someone sitting at a lunch table inside pointed at her. Yeah. She just openly took a drink.

She started her car.

They still pointed.

She flipped them off. Tears stung her eyes.

One person’s hand flew to their mouth. Another grabbed a cell phone.

“Bitch.”

Katty backed out, muttering. “Damn them. What’s it to them? None of their business.” She shifted into drive. “What should they care if I drink and drive?”

A car passed beside Katty’s on the way to park at the gas pumps.

Noell.

Katty swallowed and tried to calm down. Slow down.

Noell waved. She was so beautiful—all that blond hair. She couldn’t be Katty’s cousin. Oh no. She was rolling her window down. Breathe. “Hi, Katty!” She was so excited. “How are you?” she stretched to see the back seat. “How’s Bea?”

Breathe. Katty chuckled. Play along. Pretend. “We’re fine.” She nodded toward the back seat. “Bea’s at my neighbor’s right now. Mrs. Nosy? She babysits sometimes.”

Noell smiled. “That’s great.”

“Yeah. It’s pretty convenient , too, so … and Bea likes her.” Bea didn’t have a clue. Lies.

“Well, anytime you need someone else, or if Mrs. Nosy can’t babysit, I’d love to play with Bea.” Noell shut off her car and opened the car door.

Oh no. Not gonna happen. No long cousin visit today. “Well, I should get back and relieve Mrs. Nosy.” She started to leave. “But thanks for the offer. Maybe that’ll work out. It’d work out great.”

Noell nodded and waved.

Katty pulled away.

Not on your life, Noell.

Not going to have Noell babysit. Not today. Not ever. She already suspects something. She’d seen Katty drunk probably. Not ever going to have her babysit.

Bea would tell it all anyway.

She stomped on the gas and barely missed a truck. “What do they care? I’m gonna drink until I’m so sick, I’ll never drink again. Or I die.” She yanked on the steering wheel and swerved out of the parking lot onto the highway. A car took to the shoulder to avoid hitting her and an oncoming truck screeched their tires.

She gunned it, as she swerved around a slow moving camper. “Out of my way!” Swerved back in her lane just in time to avoid an oncoming semi.

The driver laid on the horn, as the truck passed.

“Damn you!” She flipped him off and kept on driving.

Katty patted her pocket. Where were those bottles? She’d bought extra. Just in case. She’d heard somewhere that it made a person stronger if they could quit drinking with booze still in the house. She was gonna try that. Make sure she had some, but not drink it. She patted the seat next to her—there. In the plastic shopping bags.

Her insides jiggled. She could do this.

A mile passed.

Who was she kidding? She pulled over on a side road and ripped open the cap. She loved that sound. It even said, “Rip.” Rip rip rip. She was gonna drink them all. Or at least one right here along the side of the road.

Bea might be watching TV at home, so she was okay. She even knew how to get her own supper. Cereal bowl, spoon, cereal box, and milk. They might be out of milk, but Bea had munched on dry cereal before. Many times. She was okay. Pretty strong for a four-year-old.

Katty downed the shooter bottle and started the car again. Checked her mirrors. Nothing coming. At least she could see behind her, toward the convenience store. There had been a time, not too long ago, when she’d checked her mirrors on the way home and cop car lights flashed right behind her. Not this time.

The sun was bright this time of day. Sunglasses. Where was her purse? She dug for her purse, but only found bottles. She twisted open another one and downed it. Nothing coming. Easy to make sure nothing was coming up behind her from the direction of the convenience store.

But from the west, toward home, it was impossible to see. She shielded her eyes. Dang. She carefully edged onto the road.

Back on the highway, she sped up. Gotta get home to Bea. She reached for another bottle and braced the steering wheel with her knees. There. Perfect driving. Rip. She lifted the bottle to her lips, looked ahead on the highway and the sun completely blinded her. She blinked and dropped the bottle without taking a drink.

Blam!

Katty gulped and threw up.

And blacked out.