When Justine arrived she told me that she would go to the police station to see about Flynn, but she figured nothing could be done until Monday morning. I wanted to go with her, but she adamantly said that she was taking me back to Mrs. Hendersen’s. She told me not to worry about Flynn. She would get him out. “You don’t know ’bout these things,” she said. “You been a protected girl. I’ll handle it.”
Flynn was in jail for three days.
On Monday evening Flynn arrived at Mrs. Hendersen’s. I went right into his arms. His face was terribly bruised and swollen, his lip was cut, and he looked tired, but his first thoughts were of me. “Are you all right, Cassie? Justine told me what you went through.”
“I didn’t go through anything, not really, nothing like you.” I pulled away to look at him again. I gently touched his face. “How are you?”
He enfolded my hand in his. “I’m all right, Cassie. I’ve been through it before,” he said, dismissing the beating he had taken. “But I was worried about you. I should have been there for you. Those boys—”
“I’m all right too. They never even got close to me.”
Flynn pulled me back to him. “That’s all that matters,” he whispered.
I asked him about the arrest, about the charges, about his car. He said the police had charged him with resisting arrest. He said he would have to go to court and, like Justine, he said he was taking care of it. He told me not to worry about any of it.
“But I do worry. Your face . . .”
“It’ll heal. What I need now is sleep.”
“Then you need to go home and sleep.”
Flynn cupped my face in his hands and stared into my eyes. “Not without you. We can sleep at Justine’s. She says she’ll clear out a room for us. She’s sending the children over to a friend for the night. Sleep, that’s all I mean. Tonight, that’s all I need and want . . . and for you to be with me. I don’t want to be without you tonight.”
“Why Justine’s? What about your place?
“It’s better for us to be at Justine’s.”
I was silent.
“Tomorrow, I’ll bring you back here before I go to work.”
“Flynn—”
“I’ve hardly slept in three days, Cassie.” He held my face. “Will you come with me, Cassie? Everything else, we can talk about tomorrow.”
I pulled from his arms and went and told Mrs. Hendersen I would not be spending the night at her house. “He’s out there, isn’t he? Then you do what your heart—and God—tells you. But you put God first. He won’t guide you wrong.”
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
Flynn fell asleep minutes after we lay down. We were fully clothed, not even under the covers except for a blanket that Flynn had thrown over us. For some time after he fell asleep, I studied the outline of his face, shadowed from the moonlight shining in. I studied him and pondered our future. I lay against his chest and wondered if this was what marriage would be like. I felt such warmth and comfort lying next to him. With him, I felt protected and secure. Finally, I too fell asleep and rolled over on my side, but when I did, Flynn stirred and, without a word, pulled me back to him. We both fell back into sleep. We were jolted awake when a voice screeched into the night. “What’s that?” I said.
Flynn didn’t answer as we heard Justine’s voice loudly saying, “Get outta my house! That fool J.D. had no right to let you in!”
And then the voice that had woken us, the voice of a woman screaming, cried out, “I want to see him! I know he’s here! His car’s out front!”
Suddenly Flynn was out of bed.
“Flynn—” I started.
“Stay here, Cassie,” he ordered, but I too got out of bed and followed him to the door. He turned before opening it and looked at me. “Do what I say, please.”
Flynn opened the door and closed it behind him. A moment later I heard the woman’s voice again. “I knew it! I knew you were here!”
At that, I cracked the door open. The hallway leading to the living room was dark, and only a small lamp was lit there, but I could see Flynn standing beside Justine. I couldn’t see the woman.
“See there! You gone and woke him up!” admonished Justine. Then, in a softer voice, she said, “You didn’t have to get up, Flynn. I can take care of this. That fool J.D. let this crazy woman in here!” J.D. sat on the sofa, his head lowered, looking chagrined.
“I knew you were here!” the woman cried. “I went to your apartment. Why didn’t you come home?”
Justine turned on the woman. “Why don’t you just shut up and get outta my house?”
Flynn touched Justine’s arm. “It’s all right, Justine,” he said quietly.
“It’s not all right!” exhorted Justine. “You need your sleep!”
“I needed to see you, baby!” the woman exclaimed. “I need you to come home!”
“And we need sleep!” Justine retorted. “You got any idea what time it is?”
“Look, Justine,” Flynn said, “you and J.D. go on back to bed. Faye and I’ll go outside.”
“Not going back to bed ’til that crazy woman’s out of my house and you’re back there getting yourself some sleep!”
Flynn said nothing else to Justine, but passed by her and away from where I could see him. I heard the door open, then close. After that, there was only silence as Justine plopped down on the sofa beside the forlorn J.D. For a few minutes I waited quietly beside the cracked door, then finally closed the door and sat down on the side of the bed. I sat there for some time. I glanced at the clock. It was ten past two. I watched the hand on the clock slowly turn as I waited out the minutes for Flynn to return. I wanted to turn on the light, but was afraid that somehow the light would be seen outside, that maybe that woman would see it. I left the light off. At two thirty-six, I got up and sat in the chair beside the bed. At two fifty-six, I heard muffled voices down the hall, then a few minutes later the door to the bedroom opened and Flynn came in.
“Cassie,” he said softly.
“I’m here.”
Flynn came over to the chair and touched my face with the back of his hand and sat on the bed in front of me. “That was Faye,” he said as he turned on the lamp beside the bed.
“I gathered that. Is she why you didn’t want to go to your apartment?”
He nodded. “I told her it was over between us, but she’s not willing to accept that. She keeps coming by there, calling my friends. One of them told her I was in jail and she wanted to bail me out.”