"They will be. Honey, it might get a little scary before it is normal so you have to be prepared for it. I think maybe we will put you in a karate cla.s.s or some kind of self-protection cla.s.s. You might need to know a few moves to get yourself out of trouble," my mom said.
"I don"t know if they do karate any more, Mom, I think it is called Tae Kwon Do or something like that," I said.
"Then, that is what you will join," my mom said.
"Can the boys join, too?" I asked.
"We will see if there is a family plan or something like that. Maybe I will join, too. I know your father would love to also, if his arm and leg weren"t broken," my mom said.
I couldn"t wait until Jordan and Jacob came home. I was excited to tell them the news about starting martial arts training. I went with my mom to pick them up because It was too scary to stay alone in the house. Wherever Mom went, I wanted to be with her.
When the boys got in the car, they were talking ninety miles an hour about school. I listened for a while and then I interrupted them and told them the plan about the family learning Tae Kwon Do. They were very excited to hear it, Jordan said he knew some kids at school who went to a Tae Kwon Do school and they had earned blue belts already. It might be fun to earn different-colored belts.
We stopped at Burger King for Slurpees and then we went home, there was a package on the doorstep and I got a stomach ache just looking at it. "Don"t touch it, Mom!"
"I am going to look at it, briefly, and then I am going to call the police. We are not going to open this," she said.
The boys asked what it was.
"We don"t know yet," I said.
She tentatively went over to the package and looked at the front from a small distance away.
"There is nothing written on the package. It wasn"t delivered by the postal service or any package delivery service. I am calling the police. Everyone stay in the car," my mom yelled.
She came over to the car and got her cell phone out of her purse. She dialed 911 and briefly told the dispatcher the problem. I guess the dispatcher said she would send someone out because my mom thanked her.
We waited in the car until we heard sirens. My mom told us to stay in the car again and she got out to meet the police officers. She talked to them for about a minute then they went over to the package and looked at it. One officer said they were going to pick it up and listen to it.
He picked it up and listened to the package and he said he didn"t hear anything, so he was going to open it.
Jordan said, "They should call the bomb squad."
I was even more scared. I was afraid it was a bomb, too, but the police would hear something ticking, right? Or would they use a digital timer, like in the movies where the LED counted down?
The policeman carefully took out a Swiss Army knife and cut open the package. It looked like a doll was in it. He opened the package that held the doll and said they were going to take it downtown and I wondered why. They bundled up all the papers and the doll into evidence bags that they sealed and they asked Mom to unlock the house and then they went inside to make sure no one was hiding inside.
"It"s clear," one of them said to Mom and they went to their squad car. They left quietly without the siren.
When Mom came to the car, her face was white as a ghost.
"What was wrong with the doll?" I asked.
"I will tell you later, right now we are going to go in the house and lock all the doors and windows," she said.
Even though the police had already checked the house, after we looked under the beds and inside the closets, and peeked behind shower curtains, we locked up every door and window and checked every one. My mom waited until Jordan and Jacob were busy with their video games and she asked me to come to her room.
"Mom, you are scaring me," I said.
"Honey, I am not trying to scare you, but this guy is really sick and I didn"t want to terrify the boys," she said.
"What was wrong with the doll?" I asked.
"Well, the doll had your hair color, brown, and an outfit similar to your dress we got you at Easter," she said.
"Okay, so?" I said, not understanding her concern.
"And she had a wire around her neck and there was some sort of substance dripping down that was supposed to be blood," she said.
"Oh, my gosh," I said. "That"s sick! They wanted to use the doll to threaten me!"
"That"s what I thought," she said.
"Mom, do you think he"s going to do that to me?" I asked in a whisper. "Around my neck?" I gulped.
"No one will ever hurt you, not as long as I have a breath left in my body," my mom said. "I would fight to the death for my children."
"I know, and thank you but I don"t understand. Why has he gone from sending flowers to this?" I asked.
"I don"t know. Who knows what is going on in his sick little mind?" she said.
I was so scared and I literally was shaking from head to toe, thinking of what the doll meant.
"Mommy!!!"
My mom came over and hugged me.
"Honey, you are freezing. Let"s get you into bed," she said.
"No, I want to be with you. Can I help you make dinner? I don"t want to be alone," I said.
"Of course, sweetheart," she said.
We went into the kitchen and we got out the meat she had thawed yesterday.
"I think we will have tacos. What do you say?" she asked me.
"Okay," I said looking in the refrigerator for the tomatoes and lettuce to cut up.
I was really trying hard to not think about the fake blood on that doll but I was really freaked out. After I chopped the lettuce and the tomatoes, I asked my mom if we should cut some onions.
"No, I don"t think so. Usually, it is only your father who eats them," she said.
I could tell she was trying to be brave as she cooked the hamburger meat. I got the cheese grater from the shelf below the counter and I got out the block of cheddar cheese. I cut a hunk off the block and started grating it and I was really careful not to grate my knuckles, I had done that once when I was little and it really hurt.
After my mom was finished with the meat, she started frying the tortillas. She made eight tacos and then we set the table and called the boys for dinner. We ate solemnly and the boys knew something was up, but they weren"t asking for details. I didn"t know if they didn"t want to know about the doll or if they even saw it.
After dinner, we cleaned up and it was Thursday so we watched a couple of our favorite TV shows, cop shows, of course. My mom asked me if I wanted to sleep with her again. I said yes and we got Gretchen all settled in after she did her business outside and we locked up the door again with the deadbolt. I was so scared to go outside with her that I stood by the door with it locked while I waited for Gretchen. Mom was watching with me and she was scared, too. I was having horrible anxiety and I knew if this kept up, I would have to take something.
I went in to kiss the boys goodnight and they were very quiet, I asked them what was wrong.
"We saw the doll. It had blood on it," Jordan said.
"I don"t think it was real blood," I said.
"Still, she looked like you did last Easter," Jacob said.
"Mom is going to look into learning Tae Kwon Do for us, remember? We won"t have to worry. We are going to be tough," I said smiling.
"I am going to make black belt," Jordan said.
"I am going to make double black belt," Jacob said.
"Me, too," I said ruffling their hair.
"Black belt or double black belt?" Jacob asked.
"Both," I said laughing.
"Good then, you will be safe," Jacob said seriously.
"I am sorry you guys are worried. Mom said she thinks the police will catch this guy soon and then this mess will all be over," I said.
"That will be great," Jordan said.
"Good night, sweethearts. I love you both," I said.
I left the door open and the light on so they could play video games until they fell asleep. I went in my room and put on my pajamas and I felt so creeped out in my own house, I felt scared to even be in my room by myself.
I was so glad we had Gretchen, she wasn"t a human, but she almost felt like it. She would look at me with such empathy in her eyes and I wished she could talk.
My mom and Gretchen were all settled down for the night when I went to my mom"s room. I was really tired, not having much sleep the night before. I was pretty sure the creep wouldn"t be calling on my phone, since I had changed my number. He didn"t seem to know my mom"s cell number, so I thought we would have a peaceful night and I went right to sleep.
Suddenly, I woke up. Gretchen was growling and barking. She was at my mom"s bedroom window, with her paws up on the windowsill. She pushed the curtains out of the way and stuck her face against the gla.s.s and barked like crazy and the fur on the back of her neck was standing on end. I jumped up from the bed and looked outside. I couldn"t see anything because it was still dark. I praised Gretchen for being such a good watch dog. She calmed down. I went to bed and looked at the clock. It was two a.m. I felt nervous again. My mom was awake and she was looking at me.
"I didn"t see anything," I said.
"I figured you didn"t," she said.
"I don"t know what Gretchen was barking at."
Mom looked worried.
"Can I read for a while?" I asked her.
"I think I will, too," she said, turning on her bedside light.
I went to my room and picked out one of my favorite books to read. I brought it back into my mom"s room and I turned on my dad"s lamp beside the bed.
"I miss Dad," I said.
"Me, too," Mom said.
Gretchen wouldn"t settle down completely and she would whine, and then growl, I was really scared, I tried not to show it and I tried to read I think I read the same sentence about twenty times.
Finally, Gretchen calmed down and went to her dog bed. She didn"t go to sleep though, she stayed alert. Her eyes were wide open and her ears were up. She wasn"t curled up. She was ready to spring up if necessary. Her amber eyes were looking right at us, as if there was no way that she was going to sleep.
I couldn"t keep my eyes open any longer and I shut off my dad"s lamp and put my book on his nightstand and my mom was already asleep.
Gretchen and I stared at each other in the darkness. "Thank you for being here," I said to her. Her tail thumped.
Suddenly, she snarled and ran to the window. I had never heard that sound come from a dog. She sounded like a wolf in the movies.
Mom ran to the window and hissed to me, "Son of a gun, he"s at the back door, unscrewed the porch light and is trying to break in!"
Gretchen was about to go out the second-story window gla.s.s. She was barking like crazy and snarling, jumping against the window with her claws.
I grabbed her collar. "Mom, I"ll hold the dog. Call 911."
The boys ran in my parents" bedroom, screaming. Holding onto Gretchen was hard.
"Lock the door, Jordan!" I yelled. He locked the door and the boys dived under Mom"s bed and sobbed. Gretchen dragged me to the window.
But Mom didn"t call 911. She did something else. She grabbed my dad"s prized Mickey Mantle autographed baseball off the pedestal on the dresser, opened the window, leaned out, and threw the ball as hard as she could.
In shock, I watched as the ball beaned the guy on the dark head with a loud smack. He dropped like a rock, just crumpled on the darkened porch steps. I couldn"t see who it was or what he looked like. All I could see was legs in black jeans and they were still.
"Holy cow, Mom!" I yelled. "That was great!"
"Girls" softball All-Stars team. Senior year," she said. She closed the window and locked it and then called 911 on her cell phone, her hands shaking. The boys came out from under the bed and put their arms around Gretchen.
Breathing heavily, Mom said our address when the dispatcher asked and that she had just hit an intruder in the head with a baseball and knocked him out.
I heard a moan and peered into the darkness. "Mom, he"s awake!" I screamed, while she was on the phone with the police dispatcher.
I saw a shadow cross the lawn. "He"s getting away! He"s dressed all in black and wearing a black knit cap. I can"t see his face!"
Gretchen barked like crazy again, snarling and lunging at the window. If I wasn"t holding her, I wondered if she would have just busted through the window. I didn"t want her to get hurt, so I hung onto her collar.
Mom stayed on the phone with the police dispatcher, but it was too late. Whoever he was, the stalker had stumbled away, probably with a huge lump on his head and a concussion.
The police got there in about ninety seconds and there was more than one car. The second car sped around the neighborhood with their spotlights on. It was the most exciting night of our lives.
We all went down to let the police in and when we opened the door, they had a K-9 with them, and Gretchen stopped in her tracks, woofed and then ran past the leashed K-9 officer to potty outdoors, she must have really had to go.
When Gretchen came back in, she had the Mickey Mantle baseball in her mouth. I cringed. I hoped there wouldn"t be teeth marks. That was my dad"s most cherished manly possession.
"Bring!" the officer said to Gretchen. She walked to him, laid down and dropped the ball at the officer"s feet. I was shocked that she listened to someone outside of our family.