Grace had absolutely no idea how long she had remained unconscious, for she had swum reluctantly toward the surface of reality, afraid that if she did awaken, the horrible nightmare would be there to greet her.
Slowly and painfully she staggered to her feet. She hurt all over – vagina, rectum, head, mind! Dully she surveyed her apartment, not really seeing anything in it. Her brain was trying to tell her something, but she was too weary to know what it was saying.
She felt dirty, but she knew she had on her a dirt now that could never be washed off in a shower. And because it was all really too much to think about at the moment, she went into the bedroom and lay face down on the bed.
The children screaming outside awakened her shortly before ten o'clock in the morning. She felt different. Something had changed. She tried to think of what it might be, then felt the slow growth of new hope in her mind as she suddenly realized she was finally free of Ricky and Andy and the debt. This realization made her sit up in bed. Was it true? Could it be true? Oh, God, am I free of those filthy beasts? Have I escaped their trap? Am I… am I a free woman? Instinctively she knew the answer was in the affirmative. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to shout. She wanted to weep from joy.
Quickly she leapt from her bed and went into the front room, really seeing it now for the first time in weeks. This was her home. She was safe here. Reaching up on the mantle, she pulled down Stan's picture and kissed it. She had neglected him terribly, but she had been sick. Now that sickness, that horrible fever was gone, never again to plague her. She would write him two and three times a day to make up for her neglect. And she would be a much better wife in the future. He would never know the torture she had gone through, never know the horrible things she had done, never know that her traitorous body had betrayed him.
Her loving glance around the room and all the familiar wonderful belongings came to rest on the table beside the door. The mail was there, quite a few letters in fact, for she had been too involved to check the mailbox for the last five days, and the manager must have emptied the box for her and brought them upstairs. Suddenly she felt the need to read a letter from Stan, to mentally hear his voice pronouncing the words of love and concern.
She began rifling through the mail. The third letter down was a brown envelope from the Internal Revenue Service. She blinked, then smiled in wide-eyed delight. Their income tax refund! Why… why, there was almost $600 coming back to them, and she had forgotten all about it! It was a sign from the heavens. A blessing. A good luck omen.
Quickly she ripped open the envelope. Yes, it was all there, $584.
Now she truly felt free. It was as though a great cloud had lifted from the face of the sun. There was enough here to pay off everyone of the bad checks she had written. She would do that today, right now… after she took her shower. She would explain to the store managers that there had been just a mistake in addition, which had been discovered – fortunately in time. She knew they would believe her story. The lie had worked with other store managers, it would work with these. Besides, all they would care about was getting their money!
She was singing as she stepped under the shower… feeling a greater happiness than she had felt in months. She felt good physically, mentally, emotionally. It was a beautiful day outside… a splendid day. Really, too good a day to waste in the house. She needed to get outside, to get next to people.
It would take only thirty minutes or so to pay off all the bad checks. When she finished doing that, she would still have almost forty dollars left and a glorious afternoon to spend.
Maybe, she thought with a sudden quickening of breath and pulse, she might even stop by the track… just for a quick race or two…