Chapter 19: The Rules Change

Nothing else major happened for a while. My budding relationships with my two new girlfriends continued to progress slowly and smoothly. Okay, smoothly may be a stretch. The 'relationship' part was smooth, the more dynamic aspects, you know, the sex, was getting very frustrating. Shannon in particular was really starting to show signs of stress. She really wanted to get physical. But between school starting for them, and my joining the cross country team, I didn't get to spend any real time alone with her. Of course Allison and I were free to spend as much time together as we wanted. However that did not include sex; Allison was adamant that we had to wait for Shannon. Even though she wasn't any happier about it than either Shannon or I, as she had some things she wanted to get to as well.

Her self-imposed ban extended to dreams as well. We slept together regularly; all non-school nights and once in a while during the week if one of us really felt like being held. Otherwise, we cuddled a lot and tried not to get carried away making out. Far from perfect, but we tried to make the best of it when we had the opportunity. The girls of course could spend time together after school, and when the families got together for dinner or time on weekends I grabbed what time as I could with Shannon, but even this was more difficult than you would think. Especially since we were trying to keep our relationships off the parental map. The last thing we wanted was for the 'rents to discover there was more to us than just friendship. It was hard enough getting to see Shannon now, if either set suspected she might me having sex with one of us? I don't think the odds of our spending any quality time alone would be going up. Mom and Dad may be okay with the Allison and me, but I didn't think that would extend to either of us having sex with another girl. And while I don't know what Tom and Karen would think about Shannon having sex with Allison, I had a pretty good idea how Tom would feel about her and me. So, the one fabulous time with Allison was my most cherished memory and I held it close every day I had to wait. The girls were being fair about it, too; the ban extended both ways. They had spent a couple of more nights together but were avoiding new territory as well. Even though I'd made it clear that I would not care or be upset either way. I guess they were serious when they said they wanted me to be first in everything. I had to respect their resolve, and it was flattering in a way, but it was a frustrating situation all around.

Meanwhile, I kept finding myself in some strange places. Frequently it was the result of meeting new people. I would meet someone at school; it didn't seem to matter who they were or even if I was interested in them. Their dreams didn't even need to involve me. I met that girl Marsha in my psychology class, and that night I watched her and her girlfriends storm the mall, and I mean storm the mall. It looked like the Marines storming a fortress. I met a guy named Rick in my social studies class and discovered that he dreamed of being an archaeologist and traveling the world digging through ancient sites. Maybe archaeologist was a little strong though. His dream was more reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie. There was only one dream that was significant enough to garner any serious comment from Bob.

It was a bad one. I was in a house I didn't recognize. A girl was hiding in her closet. She was not a little girl, but younger than Allison, maybe eleven. I'd never seen her before yet she somehow seemed familiar. A man's voice echoed through the house calling her name. It was weird, I couldn't actually hear it, yet somehow I knew that's what was happening. Eventually he found her. The closet door slid open and all I could see was a man's feet in work boots. An arm snaked through the clothes and landed on the girl's head. He grabbed her hair and pulled her roughly out of the closet. He slapped her several times then shoved her toward her bed. Tears streamed down her face as she began unbuttoning her dress and he began removing his belt. I never saw the man's face. Thankfully the scene faded, unfortunately the remembered images stayed with me.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Jimmy," Bob said. "I don't need to tell you that there are some bad people in the world, and bad things happen. Unfortunately, this sort of thing is not as uncommon as you might imagine. Statistically it's a small percentage but still too high for me because I'm one of the people who have to deal with the fallout from those statistics. The people whose lives are messed up for years afterwards, some never really recover. And it's not just the victims themselves. Many times it's the other parent who has to deal with the fact that this was happening right under their noses and they didn't see. Or worse, they let it go on. The guilt can be almost as bad as the abuse.

"Many times the victim has to deal with false guilt. They somehow convince themselves that they did something to deserve the treatment that they got. This can lead to a lifetime of abusive relationships as they try to fix the problem they perceive in themselves. Like they are somehow doing something wrong and if they can just learn not to do it then everything will stop. The road to recovery is a long one.

"And that's just the stuff we know about. You see, Jimmy, the largest part of abuse never even gets reported. In cases of non-sexual abuse it can be very difficult to stop. At best the first report would be dealt with by means of a simple intervention, to let, in this case him, know that the police or social services had been contacted and interviews would be conducted. Depending on the outcome of the interviews he may be required to go to anger management or something similar. If a second report comes in quickly he may be arrested and detained, but would most likely be out on bail or on his own recognizance very quickly with a stronger warning to behave himself. That's assuming he didn't already beat the crap out of someone or everyone until whoever ratted him out confessed. The other family members may turn on that person as well, blaming them for his kicking their asses. And of course if he is arrested, thrown in jail, etc. the family suddenly finds itself with greatly reduced or even no income at all and they are really screwed. Faced with homeless and hopeless as an alternative, many will simply shut up and put up. It's very frustrating. What you saw was clearly sexual assault, but it still takes someone to report it before anything can even begin to be done about it.

"So what can I do?" I asked.

"Honestly, not much. But there may be ways you can help. If you find yourself in a situation like that again? Look around if you can. Try to find an address, something we may be able to give to the police. Don't worry; you won't have to come forward to do it. An anonymous tip to a help line saying that a girl may be in danger, or is being abused at such and such an address. The police or social services can check it out. Unfortunately, in many cases, unless they literally walk into a situation, they can't always do much. In too many of these cases the victims will not admit what is happening to them, but there are signs that professionals are trained to look for. If they see them they can quietly begin watching for an opportunity to do something. They take molestation cases very seriously. If they see the signs they'll pursue it. I know it may not seem like much, but sometimes it's all we can do, so if you get the chance..."

"I'll try. That shouldn't happen to anyone. I don't know what I would do if anyone ever tried something like that with Allison. Actually I guess that's not true. I'd lose it; I'd do whatever I had to and worry about the consequences later."

"Well, at least we know that could never happen with Allison. You are far too tuned-in to her for something like that to happen and you not know about it."

The weekend before Halloween things changed.

It was a typical Friday night after another long week at school. It seemed like I had just pulled the covers up over me when I found myself standing in front of a door. Looking back, this should have been my first clue that something was not right. Normally if I use a door in a dream, it's as a transition point; usually it's the door to my bedroom. This was a different door, standing in the middle of my room. Still I didn't give it much thought. I opened the door expecting to find myself in the picnic glade. Instead I found myself on an empty sidewalk. I recognized the street from our shopping trip, but I doubt that Rodeo Drive was ever quite this empty. There was no one in sight. As I looked around I realized that I had been wrong. There was one other person present.

Sitting on the bench that the girl in the white dress had occupied before was a woman dressed in dark jeans, a men's dress shirt and a dark windbreaker. Black shoes and sunglasses completed the look. She was not moving and as I realized this it occurred to me that there was no motion anywhere on the street, and no cars, not even the rustling of leaves on the breeze. It was just the two of us, alone. I walked towards her but she gave no outward sign to acknowledge my presence. I walked right up to her. Nothing. I realized then she wasn't even breathing. It was like I was walking through a photograph rather than a dream.

She was seated on the bench much as a man would be. Legs comfortably apart, one arm draped across the length of the back. I started to examine her more closely, trying to determine who she might be. She had medium length dark brown hair. I couldn't see her eyes for the glasses. On a whim I reached to remove the glasses, expecting to have my hand slapped at any moment, but nothing happened. I pulled the glasses down enough to see and discovered that she had hazel eyes. Her hair was drawn back over one ear revealing a simple gold stud. I checked and the twin was set in the other ear. Unusual in today's society was that she only had one in either side. Many women seemed to have multiple piercing in at least one ear. Looking closely at her face I decided that she was no more than mid to late twenties. I glanced at her hand and noted that there was no wedding ring. More unusual was that there were no rings at all, on either hand.

Something caught my eye as I looked back to her face. I took a closer look and there was something in the shadow of the jacket that looked odd. Opening her jacket I found that it was a gun. Drawing the jacket open further revealed a medium sized automatic. Both the weapon and the holster had a well-worn look. Curious. I closed the jacket back up and stepped back to study her further. But as I stepped back there was a rushing sound and suddenly the street was again busy. Traffic, people, cars, and noise; all the usual trappings of a busy downtown shopping district were back. The woman glanced up but seemed not to see me.