Now that I knew that going to work would be impossible in the daylight hours, I had no choice but to quit. I was in the middle of trying to find a night shift job, preferably one where I’d work alone when there was a knock at my door.
I walked slowly towards my front door. There were two heartbeats so out of sync with each other that the dissonance was deafening. I could also hear the heartbeat of a much smaller person.
I didn’t need many more clues to know who was at my door. My first thought was to just ignore them and pretend that I wasn’t at home…
…but after one more knock, Lizzie called out, “Val…we insist on finding out if you’re okay and will not leave until you open this door!”
But I couldn’t just have them hanging around my door either. I decided to just try and quickly appease Lizzie enough to get her to leave. I opened the door and saw that the whole Gunn family was standing there…just as I expected.
I looked over at Dray with disgust. I couldn’t believe that he had the audacity to show up at my door after what he tried to do the day before.
The other Dray shot me a threatening look which told me that I’d better keep my mouth closed about our prior meeting. While he was putting up his brave front, I could hear from his pulse that he was terrified of what I’d do.
Luckily, Lizzie didn’t catch any of our silent exchanges. She was just happy to see me. “How are you? I’ve been so worried about you! Are you eating again yet?”
Dray busied himself with Dray Jr., while I tried to come up with a lie that was not too obvious.
I discovered that I didn’t have to lie. I thought about the rat. I tried to speak while holding my breath. “Yeah…actually,” I paused to inhale and exhale quickly, “I finally found something that my stomach could tolerate.”
She continued… “We were all on our way out to take a little walk around the block and we wanted to know if you wanted to join us.”
“Uh…I’m not quite ready Liz. I’m feeling better, but I don’t think I can handle physical exercise yet.”
I stepped back quickly to release myself from her grasp, trying my best not to be so abrupt that it would alarm her. Lizzie had more to say, but I really wanted her to take her family and go away.
“Good! I’ll see you later then!” Lizzie turned toward her son. “Are you ready to go walking sweetheart?”
I turned to look at him and he stared back at me … his expression challenging me, but at the same time…showing a hint of his underlying desire.
He knew his wife was listening, so he said what he knew would please her. “Yes, like Lizzie said. We’re here for you whenever you need us.”
While Lizzie’s words were sweet, warm, and comforting…Dray’s sounded like they were secretly laced with venom. It was like poison to my ears and made my stomach want to turn.
I mumbled a thank you, just because Lizzie was listening and I didn’t want her to suspect that anything was going on.
…glad to finally be able to have a closed door between them and me.
