Chapter 6

Marsha came in about 7:30 and said, "The weirdest thing happened at the hospital. While I was visiting with Nancy, I went down the hall to get us a soda. The machines were near the emergency door. While I was standing there, they brought a Gurney in. You're not going to believe this but Jim from the agency was on it. He was beat up pretty badly, he had to have 18 stitches on his forehead and 6 above his eye. He also had a broken nose. He looked worse then Nancy when she was brought in. He said he was jumped by two men while entering his motel room. They took his watch, and wallet. He told the police he didn't get a good look at the assailants. He will have to spend the one night in the hospital."

"The reason I'm telling you this Roger is because I don't want anymore secrets between us, even though we won't be together. I promised myself that I would never lie to you again. I know it's to late but I'm still going to keep that promise."

"Jim called me earlier today, and wanted me to get with him tonight. I told him I wanted nothing more to do with him. He wanted me to meet him at a motel, but before I could tell him I wasn't interested, he hung up. Could you imagine what would have happened if I would have been there? Even if it was just to tell him to stay away from me? It might have been me on that Gurney. I just thought you should know, even if it doesn't make a difference between us."

I thanked her for telling me, I would have hated to here it from someone else.

On Thursday Nancy was released from the hospital. Marsha picked her up and took her and the kids home. She stayed for awhile and helped her get adjusted. She promised to stop by every day to help out until she was well enough to do it herself. The two of them had become good friends.

I was moving my stuff to my new apartment, it looked nice. It had two bedrooms in case of company. I had a nice family room where I also kept my computer. It didn't have a woman's touch but I was happy with it. My only problem was that I was lonely.

I stopped by on Friday to see Nancy. She said she was coming along fine but was worried about her future. She was pretty sure Bob would be locked up for awhile and they would run out of finances. She needed a job.

I asked her what type she was interested in.

She said she had a degree in business administration, but stopped working after she and Bob had gotten married.

I told her she shouldn't have any problem finding work. I'll do what I can to help her out. She gave me a big hug, it felt like more then just a friendly hug, but maybe I was reading to much into it.

I looked at my watch and found out it wasn't 6:00 yet so I went over to talk to Mr. Little, Marsha's old boss. When I walked in, Mable, the receptionist looked stunned. I said there's no problem Mable, but I would like to speak to Mr. Little. She looked relieved as she paged him. When he came up to me I held out my hand, he shook it and asked me to step in his office.

"What can I do for you Roger", Mr. Little asked?