Finding Sam (Featured)

Chapter 43 - Imperfect Hero

It took me more than ten minutes to step out of the bedroom, the phone still ringing from the living room. My legs simply refused to work, and in the end, I crawled to the living room to get my phone which by now had gone silent. It was Anna and Erik. Between them, they had called a total of ten times.

The sound of wheels crunching against the gravel of my driveway made me jump and for a moment I thought that David had returned. I scrambled back to the bedroom, not wanting to risk looking out the window. Maybe that's how the mind worked, I thought then. Self-preservation always came first.

"Sam? Are you in here?"

Anna.

I scrambled towards the door, opened it and rushed towards her. That movement - running into her arms - brought me back to a time when I was a little girl. It flashed before my eyes and stayed there as Anna let go of Michael's hand and caught me in her arms, holding me for a few moments. Then she pulled away and looked at me, her hand wiping the blood that flowed from a cut on my lip.

"Jesus H. Christ, Sam. Did David do this to you? I've been trying to call you but your phone just kept on ringing - oh, here's your phone."

She bent down to pick up my phone from the floor, its screen lighting up from an incoming call. "It's Erik."

In my rush to run back into the bedroom when she drove in, I'd dropped the phone back on the floor instead of taking it with me. I could have called the police by now, I thought then. It had simply never occurred to me.

As she answered the phone, she pulled me down to the couch, her hand stroking my hair. "Erik, it's me, Anna. Yes, she's fine. Shaken up with a few bruises, but...she's fine." Anna looked at me, a steely resolve in her eyes as she hung up.

"He and Josh are at the airport," she said. "They landed but have been stuck on the tarmac for the last half hour. Don't show your face to Michael, Sam. You're a mess."

Anna let go of me and bent down to talk to Michael. "Baby cakes, why don't you go to your room and check out the trains? James and Gordon must be lonely!"

At the mention of his other trains, Michael marched into his room and within seconds, we heard the sound of toys being laid out on the floor from his toy bin. "That should get him preoccupied for awhile," Anna said. She led me to the bathroom and helped me freshen up the best I could.

David had hit me right under my left cheekbone and it was already puffy. The time he hit me had split my lip. "Shit, let me get some ice for you." Anna said and left the bathroom.

Alone in the bathroom, I dared to look at my bruises up close, tears welling in my eyes again. I thought of Erik and why he'd gone to New Mexico to investigate David, and why he hadn't bothered to tell me. I wondered then if it would have made a difference? I'd had still gone home to pick up my mail even though Erik usually did it while I was in the middle of my therapy sessions.

Anna returned to the bathroom with an ice bag and gently pressed it against my face. "Let's get you out in the living room, Sam. You need to sit down."

"Erik's on his way here," she said. "You and him can go together to the police station and file a report while I take Michael back home."

"I want to go home," I whispered.

"What?"

"I want to go home," I repeated, this time more forcefully. I set down the ice bag on the couch and went into Michael's room. I grabbed whatever was left of Michael's clothes in his dresser and stuffed them into the first bag I could find in the closet. Then I tossed in two brand new toothbrushes and a handful of my own clothes. Two pairs of jeans, underwear and four t-shirts.