Chapter 19: Nightmare On Elm Street

The woman glowered at Cole, but made no move to help him, as he struggled to open the door. Sam appeared outside the glass door and shoved it open for the teen. Cole told him, "Thanks, man. Old asshole over there by the register likes to see people struggle."

"What did you do to tick her off?" Sam raised an eyebrow and added, "Usually you're the one who is loved by everyone and Mark's the dude who has the personality clashes."

"Aw, she caught Wendy and me with a security camera when I, ah, sort of hugged her and stuff in the restroom there." He turned his head and glared at the sales clerk. She gave him a dirty look in return.

Cole steered his wheelchair through the now open door and headed straight toward Wendy. "I got something to show you when we're alone."

"What you got, Cole. Tell me." She didn't see any new package and decided he meant himself. She bent over and whispered in his ear, "I only got a little peek at it. So you can show it to me as soon as we're alone." Her face turned a bright red at the way she embarrassed herself with her newfound personal freedom.

Cole let out a loud, "Haw!" He shut up when everyone else turned to look at him. "Oops?" he whispered, and then continued in a whisper, "That's not what I meant."

"Oh? What is it then?" she whispered back.

Cole placed his lips closer to her ear and told her, "There was a security camera in the bathroom when I helped you change into a new outfit."

"No!" she shrieked. "That dirty bitch! I'll..."

"Do nothing," Cole told her in a normal voice. "I got the disk right here and nobody has seen it yet."

"Well nobody is going to see it either. I already went through all of..." She let her voice trail off. She shook her head back and forth and eased her body up onto Cole's lap. "Take me home, Cole. We're going to destroy that thing as soon as we get there."

"Don't you want to see it first?" Cole asked her.

Wendy heard the hopeful sound in his voice. "Cole, I went through all of the humiliation I ever intend to. My brothers came in my room whenever they wanted and even took pictures of me. My whole family is nothing but eastern Oklahoma hillbilly, red neck, trailer park white trash. The only difference was they were able to get a free house through the Habitat For Humanity people. Until I met you on line, I lived in hell. I thought I'd be better off dead. Then you came into my life."

"Wendy, I was always a burden to my mom and then I lived in Mark's shadow. I never got to be me, except on a computer and that only does so much for me. Then I got to be important to someone, you."

"When can we have some private time?" she asked Cole. "I mean just you and me." Wendy leaned back against Cole and rubbed the back of her head against his chin.

Cole's left hand slid over the slid over the raw silk of her dress until it rested in her lap. "Just as soon as we get home. After I have my fight with Mom, we'll have all the time we want together."

"Fight with your mother!" Wendy exclaimed. Her voice was filled with dread when she asked, "What's wrong now?"

Cole snickered, "A whole lot when I tell her that you're going to be my new room mate. Then we'll just move your stuff into my room and we'll make your room..."

"Cole, your mother isn't the only one you're about to have a fight with. Just who do you think you are that you start to plan my life out for me?" Her voice went from soft to almost a yell.

Cole looked over at Sam and the three bodyguards. "Don't mind us, you guys just get in the car and follow along. Wendy doesn't understand yet."

"Yo!" Sam called back at Cole and Wendy. He motioned for the three men he had brought along to get into the SUV. "I'll follow along on foot, in case we have any more interruptions. You guys just ignore me, go ahead, and have your fight." He smiled and gave them a friendly wave. He remained a twenty-five feet distance away from the two teens.

The three bodyguards in the SUV followed along behind Sam at a slow idle. Sam picked up his pace to stay close to Cole's power chair. "I got this all planned."

Wendy interrupted him. "Cole, if you think I'm going to be your little sex bunny, you can just forget it. What we did back there in the store was, was, w..."

"Wonderful," Cole finished for her. "Wendy, that happened and I found out that I am in love with you. I want us to be together always and get married and have kids and all the rest. Now if you don't love me, just say so and I'll not bother you any more."

"Cole?" she asked.

"What?" he asked.

Wendy's voice sounded faint and far away when she asked him. "Do you really mean it, that you love me and want us to get married?"

Cole squeezed her with the arm he had around her waist. "Well, of course. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it."

"When were you going to ask me what I wanted?" Wendy's voice was a little stronger, but sounded strange to Cole.

She continued, "Have you thought about whether or not I agree with your plans?

"I don't see what the problem is. It's what we both want."

Cole, stop this thing right now. I want to ride with the guys in the van.

"It's not a van, it's a SUV." Cole tried to correct her.

Wendy yelled, "I don't give a fuck what you call it! Stop or I'm going to get off while we're still moving."

Sam had been listening to the argument while it escalated from a slight squabble to a full-blown argument. He became alarmed for Wendy's safety. "Cole, stop right now."

"Why?" Cole was oblivious to everything around him except his own feelings.

"Wendy is about to try to get off your lap while you're still moving."

"No she's not, she'd get..."

"Oh yes I will!" Wendy yelled and lunged forward.

"Damn!" Sam yelled and leaped toward the struggling girl. He caught her as she almost fell under the wheels of the power chair. She began to cry.

"What's the matter with her?" Cole looked at Sam for an answer.

Sam called over to the SUV, "One of you guys escort young lover boy here home.

The man in the back seat got out. And joined Cole, while Sam carried the half hysterical Wendy over to the SUV and got in back with her. He held her tight against his chest. He told the driver, "Home."

Cole took off after the departing vehicle at top speed. "Hey, kid! Wait for me! Slow down!" the bodyguard yelled. Cole ignored him and shoved the joystick hard forward, with the gear selector in the high speed range. The guard slowly fell behind as the power chair headed out at nine miles an hour.

Halfway home the bodyguard slipped his I-phone off his belt and called ahead

"Yes," Mark answered the phone.

"That kid ran off in his wheelchair and left me behind." Mark could hear the cigarette wheeze when the man tried to catch his breath.

"We already know," Mark told him. "Sam just got here with Wendy and told us what happened. I'll send someone back to get you."

"Don't bother. It's only about a half mile. I'll jog back and get a chance to cool off. Right now I want to strangle that damned kid."

"Get in line, his mother has first dibs on his ass. I'm next and you can have what's left. Sam's so mad at him, he'd kill Cole if he started in on him."

When Cole came in the front door, Rachel pointed at him. "You," she said. "There," she said and pointed at the pool through the French doors to the back patio.

"What's the matter now?" Cole demanded.

Wendy, Rachel and Mark followed him outside. Wendy spoke first, "I have to move out. Your mother will help me find another safe place to stay."

Cole's face turned a pasty white. "Why," he asked in a bare whisper. "Don't you like it here?"

"I love it here, Cole." Wendy gave him a sad look. "Well, I did before you started making plans for me and refused to hear what I wanted. You leave me no choice. You know how my parents treated me. My father took my disability check and cashed it every month. My mother got one of my brothers hired by the state to be my care taker and I told you what he and his friends did to me."

"Wen, you know I'd never do any of that stuff to you." Cole looked at her, horrified that she would ever think of him as an evil pervert.

"Cole, I was ready to kill myself. Then I met you online and I began to feel hope." She looked at Cole and saw he still didn't understand. "Cole, you showed me I had value as a person."

"Well, you do." The anguish showed in his eyes as he continued. "You are the most important person in the world to me. I want to spend my whole life with you."

"Oh Cole, you also want to run my life for me and plan it down to the last detail. You expect me to just be your puppet and do what you say all the time."

Cole's cheeks puffed up in indignation, "Well there are times when I know what is best for us."

"Cole Jones, shut your stupid mouth. I want the right to make my own mistakes. The only difference is that you want to control my life with love and things. They controlled me by taking away everything I owned. Can't I get it through your stupid head that I want to be me?"

"But ... what if I'm right? I was just doing what Mark does. He knows what's right, he goes ahead and does it and things get better. I want to be just like Mark."

Rachel cut in, "Cole, thank god you are not like Mark. You are a teenager who is able to walk for the first time since he was a little toddler, thanks to Mark."

"See?" Cole looked at his mother and told her, "Mark knew what to do and made Mom do it. He knew what was to be done and did it."

"And I almost lost your mother and you in the process of being right. Cole, I had a brain tumor and a lifetime of neglect to become what I was. What's your excuse?" Mark's hard voice penetrated to the very center of Cole's consciousness.

"But I just wanted things to go right," Cole protested in a weak voice.

Mark shook his head and tried to explain, "Cole, I was an angry teenager with a brain tumor that made me irrational. Is that the type of person you want to be like, a pissed off nut?"

"Cole I have fallen in love with you and want to learn if what I feel is real or just gratitude because you are my white knight who saved me from a life of hell. You've started to drive me away. Then today, you wanted to show that awful spy camera recording. Cole!"

"But I just wanted us to see it and share it. It's a record of the most wonderful thing in my life. I'd never show that to anyone else." Cole looked down and seemed almost ready to cry.

"Cole, you never explained what you planned. You just began to decide for me and expected me to go along with you and never question anything."

Cole reached in his shirt pocket and removed the offending disk. "Here," he told her and held it out. He looked angry.

"Thank you, Cole."

"Please, Wendy, won't you please stay? I'm sorry."