Chapter 5

"Gail?!"

Kevin's girlfriend looked startled when I answered the door. Beth looked up, saw the expression on the younger girl's face, jumped up and bumped me out of the way to let her in.

"Gail, what are you doing here? I thought your family moved to California." At the mention of her family the girl flinched. What was going on here?

I looked at the wet, miserable-looking waif dripping all over our entryway. "Gail, are you here with your parents?" I asked.

As I spoke she ducked behind Beth and only shook her head.

"Gail! What are you doing here?" Kevin walked into the living room. I didn't even realize he was in the house, not at his party. As he came over to embrace her, Gail gave a little whimper, ducked further behind Beth and shook her head as if to shake off a bad dream. I didn't know what was going on, but Gail was clearly scared of both of Kevin and me.

I put out my arm to stop my brother. "Kev, why don't we let Beth take Gail upstairs and let her clean up a little." I glanced at Beth and saw her nod. She turned to the younger girl. "Come on, Gail, let's get you out of those wet clothes."

As the two of them started for the stairs I noticed Gail kept Beth between herself and the two of us. What was going on here?

I stopped Kevin as he started to follow them. "Kevin, stay here. I think we need to talk about something."

"But I want to help Gail," he said as he tried to shrug off my arm.

"I know you do, but right now I think the best thing you can do for her is just leave the two of them alone."

"Tommy, that's my girlfriend and I'm going up there!"

I grabbed his arm. "Kev, don't. Something is wrong here and I think it's better if you let Beth talk to Gail for a while. Did you notice how she was hiding behind Beth when you came in the room?"

"Well, yeah, but what of it?"

"I don't know, but if anybody can get answers it's my lady."

Half an hour later Beth came down. "Kevin, do you have anything you've outgrown—some jeans or something, and a t-shirt? Gail's stuff is all wet. She needs something dry."

As Kev started up the stairs, I followed him. We'd been brothers too long for me not to recognize when he was planning something. He'd grabbed some of his old clothes and was just ready to knock on the bathroom door when I put my hand on his shoulder. "Kevin, give her a chance. There'll be plenty of time to talk later. Don't rush her."

He looked ready to argue, then his shoulders slumped. "Tommy, what's going on? Why is she scared of me?"

"I don't know, but crowding her now isn't going to help. C'mon back downstairs, maybe Beth can tell us something."

He gave the clothes to Beth and waited until she came back downstairs. "Beth, what's going on? Why doesn't Gail want to see me?"

Beth sat down next to my brother and looked at him. "Kevin, this isn't easy. Gail ran away because, well, because of her father." I'd never seen Beth so nervous and unsure of herself.

"What do you mean? What about her father?"

"Kevin, Gail's father has been abusing her. She told her mother about it and finally convinced her what was happening. Her mother was going to ask him to explain what was going on and Gail said the next day her mother had a bunch of fresh bruises—her dad had beaten her when she confronted him.

"Gail said she ran away that day while her parents were at work."

I looked at Beth. "So what now?"

"I don't know. I'm going to call my folks and see what they think." As Beth walked out of the room I thought about how much I'd looked forward to a weekend with my folks out of town. And how much I wished they were here now.

"Tommy, I'm going to go up and talk to Gail. I don't care what her dad did, I know Gail loves me!"

"Kevin, wait for a second. Do you remember our conversation about love?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Okay, let me ask you—do you want to see Gail to make her happy or to make you happy? Think about it."

"But what's the difference? I love her and I'm going to be with her!"

"So you don't love her, you're just selfish."

"I AM NOT! I LOVE HER!" Kevin shouted.

"It doesn't sound like it to me. You want to go up there because it'll make YOU feel good, even though you've seen how she tried to hide from us. Kevin, you're going to have to back off until SHE'S ready. You've got to think of what she's going through, not just what'll make you feel good. Can you see that?"

"Well..."

"C'mon, little brother, look at it from Gail's side. I mean she traveled two thousand miles to get here and she came to our house, not anyone else she knows around here, but yet she's scared to let us get close. Does that sound like somebody who's got problems? It does to me."

"But I want to help her!"

"I know you do. But I guess sometimes helping means backing off, even if it hurts."

"Tommy, if this is what growing up is about, I don't want to."

"You just said a mouthful, Pest." I saw him bristle a bit when I used my old nickname for him, then he grinned a little.

Beth came back in the room. "So what did your folks say?" I asked.

"They think Gail should call and let her mother know where she is."

"Is she going to be willing to do that? I mean, isn't that like inviting the same trouble all over again?"

"Yeah, but if she doesn't call and stays here your folks could get in trouble." Beth turned and started back up the stairs. Leaving the two of us looking at each other.

"How could her dad do something like that? I thought parents were supposed to love their kids." Kevin looked like a lost six-year-old who'd just found the Easter Bunny dead on the front yard.

"I don't know, Kev. I just don't know."

A few minutes later Beth and Gail came downstairs. Gail looked lost in Kev's clothes and still had a haunted look in her eyes. When they sat down on the couch, she made sure Beth was between us.

Kevin started to stand up until I grabbed his arm. He relaxed back into his seat and looked at his erstwhile girlfriend.

"Hi Gail. How are you?" he asked quietly.

Gail just shook her head. "I don't know, Kevin. I just had to get out of there and I couldn't think of anywhere else to go!

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come here," she said with a sob.

"Gail," my brother whispered, "I just want to help. I'll do whatever you want."

Suddenly they were both in tears. I looked at Beth and saw she was as worried about the situation as I was. "Tommy," Beth asked, "can you get a hold of your folks? I think they should be here."

I hated to disturb my parents on one of their few weekends alone, but Beth was right—they had to be in on this as quickly as possible. I checked the kitchen note board and found the number for the hotel. As I waited for someone to answer, I wondered what my folks could do. It was obvious that Gail wouldn't be willing to go back to her parents, or at least not her father, but I didn't know what other options she had. Finally Mom picked up.

"Mom? I had to call. Gail showed up here tonight. She's run away from home. I'm sorry I had to call you but..."

"Tommy, is she there now?" My mother sounded worried.

"Yeah, Beth is here too."

"We'll be there as soon as we can. How'd she get here?"

"Mom, I don't have any details. Beth's spent more time with her than Kevin or I have."

"Okay, Tommy, I'll grab your dad and we'll be there as quickly as we can."

"I'm sorry to break up your weekend."

"Don't worry about it. You did the right thing calling us," she said as she hung up.

I walked back into the living room. Gail had just started to tell Beth and Kev what happened.

"I-I just had to get out of there and I d-didn't know where else to go!"

"Gail," Beth asked as she tried to calm the younger girl down. "How did you get here? I mean, it's two thousand miles!"

"I had some money saved so I went down to the bus station and got a ticket here. But that took all my money!"

"What'd you do when you got here? I mean the bus station is downtown, that's at least ten miles." Kevin asked quietly. Even so, Gail flinched as she tried to look at him.

"I-I hitchhiked, until a guy picked me up and t-tried to-to ... I jumped out of the car when he stopped at a light. I lost my suitcase and everything! So I just walked." The young girl just collapsed, face in her hands and tears streaming everywhere. Kevin started to get up but Beth motioned him back. "Come on, Gail. Let's go upstairs so you can rest." As she helped the sobbing girl upstairs I glanced over at my brother only to see tears streaming down his face. I moved over and put my arm around him.

"Oh, God, Tommy, what am I gonna do? I can't just sit here!"

"Kev, it's exactly what we're both going to have to do. Mom and Dad will be back soon. We'll have to wait for them. I know it's tough sitting here doing nothing but I don't think there's anything else we can do right now." My stomach was knotted up just thinking of what Gail had been through and how frustrating it must be for my brother to sit and wait. I thought back to the emergency room and how utterly helpless I'd felt while I waited to hear how Beth was after the accident last winter.

Our parents got home about a half hour later. Kevin had gone up to his room after promising to stay out of our parents' room.

"Tommy, what's going on?" Dad asked while Mom headed right upstairs.

I explained what Gail had told us, and saw his mouth tighten when I told him about Gail's father. "That son of a bitch," I heard him mumble. He started to go upstairs but I stopped him.

"Dad, I think we should leave this to Mom."

He looked at me like he wanted to argue, then stopped. "Is she spooked around men now?"

I nodded.

"Then why did she come here?"

"I don't know. I think half of her is spooked by Kevin because he's a guy, but the other half thinks he'll protect her. I can't think of any other reason she'd come here out of everybody she knows in town."

"Oh, that poor kid," Dad whispered. I wondered if he was thinking of Gail or Kevin.

Mom came down a while later. "Oh, that poor girl," she said as she plopped down in a chair. "I can't imagine a parent acting like that. Why didn't her mother stop it?"

"I think her mom is pretty quiet," I said. "Gail's dad probably had her cowed."

"Do you know if Kevin has their phone number?" Dad asked. "We're going to have to call them."

Beth came down just about then.

"How's she doing?" I asked.

"Tired, confused, worried, scared. About what you'd expect."

"How is she going to react to having us call her parents?" Dad wondered.

"I don't know. Right now she's jumpy about everything."

"Do we have to call them right away?" I asked.

My folks looked at each other. "I don't think we can stretch it past tomorrow," Mom said.