BAMBI

XIX

The next four days were a bit of a catch 22, I wanted them to go by fast so I could see Prince, but I hadn't heard from Janet since she took off, so every day that passed, I reached a new level of anxiety. Although my heart was done with her, I still wanted to know that she was safe and not lying face down in a ditch somewhere.

As much as I didn't want to bring any unwanted worry to Janet's mom, I finally broke down and called her. Janet's mom, Ann, was a sweet older woman who was riddled with health problems. Janet often took advantage of her mothers limited mobility and health issues to get what she wanted from her. Ann didn't have the energy to argue with her daughter so she enabled her by just giving her what she wanted, which was usually money. When I spoke to Ann, she said Janet told her she would be staying with me. She never mentioned anything about St Paul to her mom.

After contemplated what to do next, I decided that Ann had a right to know what Janet had been up to these past few months. I told her about the relapse, the lies and the theft. She wasn't too shocked to hear Janet that had stolen money from me because apparently Janet had stolen money from her recently. But when I told her about the jewelry she quickly put the phone down to go check on her own collection. As it turns out, Janet had stolen valuable jewelry from her too.

Both of us came to the conclusion that there was nothing anyone could do but wait until she got back from whatever dingy corner of St Paul she got herself into. After hanging up the phone with her, I ate a little breakfast and planned out my day.

Prince's plane arrived at 2:00 pm, so I knew I had some time to kill during the day. I imagined I wouldn't see him until well passed sun down, since he would have to go home and unpack.

For once in my life, I was all caught up on work, so I didn't have that to keep me busy. I worked on the usual house work like cleaning and laundry until I finally forced myself outside to do yard work. I hated yard work, but with the upcoming fall season, the plants needed to be trimmed back and whatnot.

I spent the entire morning rustling around the yard trimming back all of my plants and pulling weeds. At around 2:30 I stopped working and went inside to take a break. Right when the cold tea I poured hit my dried lips my motivation to finish the yard dwindled down to almost nothing, especially since I knew Prince had touched down in Minneapolis by then.

After a lot of self convincing, I decided that manual labor was the best way to get the eagerness that kept me looking at the clock out of my mind. With my cup of tea empty, I made my way out of the house, picking up the pair of garden shears that had been my tool of choice before the break. Cutting small branches off of the little trees that lined my yard and piling them in a heap behind me, I made fast progress as I zipped around the property.

I sighed a breath of relief when I made the final cut on the last little tree. My eyes admired the trimmed greenery, proud of myself for completing the task in only a few hours, when I noticed I missed a branch on one of the trees. So I sauntered over there and quickly cut the branch. Stepping backwards to look over my work, I lost my footing on a stack of sticks that had been stacked behind me and fell right onto the pile of jagged wood.

My jean shorts were no match for the branch that ripped a 3" hole through the butt. I cried out in pain, instinctively grabbing my own butt cheek. Making my way into the house and up the stairs into my room, I stripped the ripped clothes off of my body and stood with my back towards the mirror, turning to look at the wound.

As I studied the bloodied cut in the mirror, I thought I heard a car door close. I figured it was one of my neighbors so I didn't bother going to check, plus by that time, the wound was starting to really sting so I didn't want to move.