Road Doc
Chapter 19
A knock on her hotel room door startled Theresa, causing her to drop the book she wasn’t really reading. She had been day dreaming more often than not lately, and it seemed a reasonable escape from all of the insanity going on around her.
“Brian, hi. Come on in” Theresa said, stepping aside to let him through the door.
“What’s up?”
“I need to talk to you.” Brian said, awkwardly standing there.
“Okay. Have a seat.” she said, motioning for him to sit down in a chair while she sat on the corner of her bed.
“It’s about AJ” he said.
Theresa cringed at the very mention of his name. It was an involuntary instinct and one she knew that Brian had noticed.
“He told me what’s going on between you two” Brian said, being straight forward.
“There is nothing going on between AJ and I Brian” Theresa said harshly.
“No. I don’t mean like that. Look. This morning AJ showed up at my door wanting to go to church with me. Now, trust me when I say that this is a pretty uncommon thing to happen. I was waiting for someone from Candid Camera or Unsolved Mysteries to pop out and say ‘Gotcha!’. But anyway....he didn’t say two words the whole way to the church, and he sat there bawling through most of the service.”
Theresa sat there listening, trying to control the anger that had started to rise in her when Brian had mentioned AJ’s name.
“On the way back to the hotel, he asked the driver to stop at this park and said he needed to get some air. I’m still kind of freaking out, because...well....this just isn’t AJ...you know? So we start walking and he starts talking.” Brian pulled his chair closer to her, put his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together and leaned down to look up at Theresa’s lowered face.
“He swore to me that he doesn’t remember raping you” Brian said quietly.
Theresa looked at him. “What?” she said, her voice a mere whisper.
“He told me what happened with Howie at the club, and what Howie told him that you said he did. He swears to God that he doesn’t remember even touching you.”
Theresa shook her head and the tears began to fall.
“I knew he’d deny it, Brian. I knew he would” Theresa said through her tears.
“No. Now wait. He says he doesn’t remember doing anything to you. He doesn’t deny it. He says he just doesn’t remember” Brian said, pulling an handkerchief out of his pocket and handing it to her.
Theresa laughed a little when she took it. “I didn’t think people carried these things anymore” she said, wiping her eyes with the soft cotton cloth.
“Well I’m just a good ol’ boy from the south. We do things different down there” he said in an exaggerated southern twang.
Theresa laughed again.
“Brian, I just don’t know what to do” Theresa confessed.
“Try blowing your nose into and then folding it up so you don’t get any boogers on the inside of your pocket. That’s what I always do” he said, smiling.
“That’s not what I meant, silly” Theresa said, laughing.
“I know. I’m sorry. I just hate seeing pretty ladies cry” Brian said in a soothing voice. “Look. I believe AJ. And I believe you too. We’ve all seen AJ get stupid, go out and get drunk and do things that he doesn’t remember the next day.”
“But something as extreme as what he did to me?” Theresa asked.
“Just talk to him, okay?” Brian said after a long pause.
“I don’t know if I can do that, Brian. I can hardly stand to look at him, let alone sit down and talk to him” Theresa said honestly.
“Just give him a chance” Brian said, standing up and placing a hand on Theresa’s shoulder. “Just talk to him, please.”
Theresa sat thinking for a long time after Brian had left. She came to the conclusion that accepting Brian’s explanation for what had happened would be much easier on everyone than if AJ had raped her knowing full well what he was doing. She closed her eyes and thought of Howie, and how he had attacked AJ at the club. She knew she had to do something, or the tension between AJ and Howie would never end.
20