Tangled Up Hearts (18 page)

Okay, calm down. They’ll see the car and come back to call the police
. She’d just wait for them to return. It shouldn’t take long.

Alyssa limped the rest of the way to the house. Though she had no intention of entering their home without them being there, she tried the front door. It was locked. It figures she'd find the only place in the country where the owners locked up when not at home. With a weary sigh, she sank down on the doorstep and waited. After a half hour she began to have doubts. Surely they had seen her car? Could they have missed it? Her teeth began to chatter. Darn but it was cold. Wondering if she could take shelter somewhere, she scanned the area around her and came to rest her gaze on the barn. Well, beggars couldn’t be choosy. She headed for the only protection she was going to get.

The wide old door creaked in loud protest when she pulled it open. The musky mixture of hay and cows assailed her nostrils. She pulled the door shut behind her then waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark. Moonlight flooded in from two large grimy windows facing each other from opposite walls, casting a silvery, shadowed look throughout the barn. She was too tired and sore to be intimidated by the shadows and moved carefully about while searching for a spot to lay her weary body. Hay was strewn high in one of the stalls. Using the meager light, she found a thick, heavy blanket hanging over one of the stall partitions. Grateful to have something to help ward off the cold, she sank onto the fresh hay and covered herself. So what if it was a little scratchy, she was grateful for the warmth it would offer. It smelled strongly of cows. Lord only knew what kinds of things were crawling around her. But it was warm. She’d take what she could get.

With nothing to do but lay there in the dark, she found herself with plenty of time to think. And though she'd wanted some time to do just that, she suddenly wasn't sure what to think about. She could think about how nice it would be to have a glass of water. And some aspirin. Her head was throbbing. If only she hadn’t been so careless. Country roads were no place to let the mind wander. Animals were everywhere. Obviously.

This was all Cole’s fault. It was easy to blame him for he was usually the cause of all her troubles. If she hadn’t been so intent to be alone so she could think about him, she may have paid better attention to her driving. It was irrational thinking, of course, but at the moment it gave her some small comfort. With a tired sigh, she let her head relax against the hay and closed her eyes.

It still amazed her, this strange twist of events. She was supposed to be with her parents celebrating her mother's birthday. What would they think when she didn’t show up or even call? What were they going to say when they found out she had totaled the car? They would be happy she was alive
,
of course. The car wasn’t as important as her life. Cole wouldn’t think too highly of her actions. She could picture his derisive look boring into her. Could hear the caustic tones of his voice as he told her how irresponsible she was. Cole was always voicing his negative opinions of her. He just would not let up.

And so it was, as she lay there in the dark, old barn, she came to the conclusion that Cole had a hand at influencing nearly every course of action her life had taken.

When she was sixteen he told her she was getting fat. She went on such a strict diet she made herself sick. After collapsing in her home one evening, her parents feared she had an eating disorder and put her in therapy. Alyssa was humiliated and it was all Cole's fault. When he told her that her short hair made her look like a boy, she let it grow long. Then he told her he hated long hair. She grew it longer. When he hinted how cowardly she was for not wanting to water ski, she took lessons. The accident was a fluke, they said, but Alyssa had almost drowned. It was one of the most terrifying moments of her life. Her rage knew no bounds. In retaliation, she sunk his boat. Though to be truthful, she hadn’t quite meant for that to happen. Still, Cole was livid.

It wasn’t long after that when Cole and his friends put a band together. Trisha dragged Alyssa along to wherever they were playing and one night after having a few too many drinks, Alyssa asked the drummer, who seemed to have a bit of a crush on her, if she could sing. Despite Cole's argument against it, he'd readily agreed. She'd smirked at Cole as she took the microphone and he'd scowled in warning, hoping, no doubt, to intimidate her off the stage. She knew he thought she couldn't carry a tune for he'd done nothing but complain when he'd had to listen to her sing on Trisha's karaoke machine a couple years back. He was sure she was going to ruin his gig with a terrible performance and she was tempted to do just that. But she was more eager to show off what two years of singing lessons had done for her. So she chose a sultry tune and directed it at Cole, knowing it would annoy him. Was it her fault his girlfriend took exception? The ensuing fight ended when said girlfriend smashed his guitar against a support beam and stormed out the door. As far as Alyssa knew, he never played with the band again.

The one thing that had really set her life on course, though, was when his mother got her first computer and turned to Alyssa for help when things went wrong. Cole had scoffed at the idea that she might know how to solve complicated computer problems and since she was determined to show him up, she'd learned everything she could about the things. Now she designed websites and could pretty much fix anything that typically required Technical Support assistance.

Why had she given him so much power over her? No other person affected her so profoundly. No one else’s criticisms affected her to the extent that it changed her life. Paul was right. Cole carried far too much influence over her life. She could have just ignored him over the years but she had not. Instead she had taken everything he said to heart. Well no more. It ended here. In this stuffy old barn she made her monumental decision. From now on, Cole could take his criticisms and snide remarks and go straight to hell.

With that decided, she grew sleepy and soon nodded off.

The sound of a car woke her some time later and confusion assailed her. It took a moment for her to realize where she was and remember what happened. Then it sunk in that help had finally arrived and she pushed the blanket away and stretched her stiff limbs. There was no telling how late it was but the barn was pitch black. As she pushed herself into a sitting position, she moaned softly. Boy did her head hurt and her stomach was still queasy too.

She listened as the car came to a stop on the other side of the barn and sighed in relief. It was about dang time they came home. Hoping to catch them before they made it to the house, Alyssa scrambled to her feet as fast as her tired, sore body would allow and hobbled to the door, pushing it open and hanging onto it for support. A man and woman had just stepped out of the car and both were staring at her in shock. Alyssa raised her arm toward them in entreaty. “Excuse me. I’m so sorry to impose on you like this but I’ve been in an accident.”

They recovered pretty quickly and rushed toward her, the woman reaching her first. “Oh my God. It’s her … you. Are you okay? Have you been here this whole time? You poor dear.” She put her arm around Alyssa’s shoulders and started walking slowly with her to the house, glancing back as she did so to address the man following behind them. “Sam, call the police.”

“Yes, yes of course.” Sam rushed ahead to open the door for them and fumbled about in his coat until he pulled out a cellular phone.

So that was why they hadn’t returned to the house when they found her car.

“My car.” Alyssa’s throat was so dry her voice came out weak and scratchy. She'd give anything for a glass of water.

“Totaled I’m afraid, dear. We saw it on our way to our daughter's house. She thought she was in labor but it was a false alarm. So anyway, we called the police and they’ve had search parties out looking for you.”

Alyssa stopped walking and gaped at her. “What?”

The woman patted her shoulders gently, soothingly. “We just didn’t think that you would have made it here without our knowing it. Your family is worried sick.” She turned to Sam who was now talking to someone on the phone. “Tell them to send an ambulance.”

“No. No, I’m fine, really.” It made her sick inside to know that her family already knew about the accident. The worry they must be feeling made her anxious to talk to them.

“We didn’t know what to think, my dear. We saw the car but couldn’t find the driver … you. Then we found the shoes and stockings and the bandages covered in blood. We thought maybe you were kidnapped or some such thing.”

The woman switched on the light as soon as they entered the house and that's when she got a good look at Alyssa's appearance. Her mouth dropped open in a gasp and her eyes widened in sympathetic shock. "Oh my God. You don’t look very well at all.”

A mirror hung on the wall next to the coat rack and when Alyssa saw what the woman was looking at, she let out a gasp of her own. She looked like a candidate for a horror movie. Her hair was sticking up every which way and snarled into a tangled mess. Worse, strands of it was stuck to her blood streaked face. Her white sweater was soaked in more blood and further perpetuated the gruesome look. Her forehead sported a large bump which had split across the middle and her right eye was beginning to turn black and blue. To top it all off she was covered in dust and bits of hay.

"I look like a zombie."

The woman gave her a gentle hug. "No, they couldn't hold a candle to you. And I mean that in a good way." As they were standing in the living room, she motioned toward the couch. "Why don't we go sit down."

Alyssa allowed herself to be led across the room and tried not to let it show that it hurt to walk across the hard wood floor. Her feet hurt like the dickens. She must have done some damage to them when she ran across the sharp rocks in the pasture.

Her kind rescuer pressed her gently down onto a couch. "I am so sorry we didn't come back to the house the moment we saw your car."

“My family. You said they know?”

The woman sat down beside her and patted her hand in comfort. “Yes they know." Seeing the anxious expression crossing Alyssa's face made her look over at her husband who was perched on the arm of an armchair across from them. "Sam? Did you get the police? Are they on their way?”

Sam nodded his head and pointed at his cell phone which was pressed to his ear. A big burly man with red graying hair and a homely freckled face, he came across as a very kind soul and when he met Alyssa's eyes he crossed the room and knelt in front of her. “I think it’s your mother. She wants to talk to you.” He held the phone out to her.

Alyssa stared at it in confusion. How could it be her mother? When Sam pressed the phone into her hand, she still did nothing but stare at him. "My mom? But how?”

“The police station had the operator put the call through.” He lifted Alyssa’s hand and gently pressed the phone to her ear.

"Mom?" Although she wanted to keep it together, the moment she spoke her voice started warbling. Though she couldn't explain why, she suddenly wanted to start bawling like a baby in need of comfort.

“Oh, Alyssa, we have been terrified out of our minds. Are you okay, honey?”

Her mother’s voice nearly broke the dam but she fought hard to maintain control. “Oh, Mama, I’m so sorry about the car.” It was all she could think of to say.

“Sweetheart, we don’t care about the car. Just please tell me you are okay.”

Alyssa nodded, the lump in her throat making talk difficult. Realizing that her mother was still waiting for a reply she managed to croak out an answer. “Yes, Mama, I’m fine.”

“We’re on our way, darling. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

"Okay. I love you." Certain she couldn't speak another word, Alyssa handed the phone to Sam.

Sam's wife, whose name she had yet to learn, touched her arm to get her attention. "Can I get you anything? A glass of water perhaps?"

Alyssa nodded that she would very much like that and the woman rushed off, returning moments later with a glass in hand. "Here you are but drink it slowly."

Sam sat down in a chair across from her and shook his head in mild disbelief. “That was quite a wreck. You actually look better than we expected.”

Alyssa managed to smile. “I was very lucky.”

Sam's wife sat down beside her. “I don’t understand how you got here without our seeing you.”

“I was standing in the pasture when you drove away.” Her face reddened at the look of surprise on their faces, their eyes questioning how she had come to be there of all places. “I didn’t have any shoes you see. The driveway looked a little rough to walk on.”

Sam's brows rose high with apology. “You’ve been waiting here that whole time? I am so sorry we stayed away so long.”

Alyssa looked at her watch and gasped. It was after midnight. What she must have put her family through. Trailing that thought was Trisha. Oh God, did Trisha know? This was sure to stress her out and she said the doctor’s orders were that there was to be no stress.

No longer concerned about herself, Alyssa began to worry for her friend.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cole had just sat down to eat some take-out Chinese food when the phone rang. He lifted the receiver, looked at the caller ID and put the phone to his ear, holding it there with his shoulder while he took a bite of a spring roll. “Hey, Mom.”

“Cole, something terrible has happened.” His mother’s frantic voice put him instantly on edge.

“Trisha? Is it Trisha?” A cold band of fear wrapped around his heart.

“No. It’s Alyssa, Cole.”

Rather than feeling relief to know that Trisha was okay, he found himself just as disturbed to hear that Alyssa was not. “What’s happened to her?”

“They found her car wrecked a few miles off the interstate. The police can’t find her.”

His heart pounding hard, knocking against his chest until it hurt, Cole's hand tightened on the receiver. He had to force his voice to speak slow and distinct. “What do you mean the police can’t find her?”