Chapter Sixteen - Never too late to grow?
The hospital in Pasha was not very busy. Doctors and nurses walked around the halls, going room to room on rounds while other people hustled through on their own routes with somber faces.
Just in the hallway, Ol iva stood looking into one of the room. She was so still as she leaned against the doorjam, not moving or even mildly fidgeting. Her face was drawn and full of gloominess, her eyes were locked on whatever it was that was in the room in front of her.
The woman was watching as Sunny sat next to a bed inside of the hospital room. Mandy was the one who was laying in that bed, and she was so very still. The petite woman’s head was bandaged tightly, a heart monitor beeped constantly while she layed there like if she was asleep. The ugly truth was far from that since coming into the hospital after being attacked back at camp, she had not regained consciousness.
With anguish now creeping over her face, the woman stood there for a few moments more, then started to turn as to leave but stopped. Beside her stood Officer Livingstone and Miss Ashfield had appeared there almost as if out of the blue. Olivia looked into each face of the women that stood there, and could see the deeply pained expressions of worry that was in them both. She knew that look all to well.
Miss Ashfield looked at her head councilor, her face showing even more weariness than it had earlier.
“ No change in Mandy?” Alexis asked.
“ None...” Olivia said stone faced. “ She still has not come out of it yet.”
Miss Ashfield took a deep breath, it seemed to waver a little as she did. Silently, Olivia knew what was going through the Boss’s head.
The officer next to them both started to speak at that time, so as to relive the uncomfortable silence.
“ We have charged Doug Lankers with the attack he did on Mandy... he confessed to everything the minute we put the handcuffs on him.”
Olivia shook her head with the information, a look of pure shock had replaced her anguish.
“ So it was not Allen who was the rapist, even with his record of doing the same thing.”
“ As stranger as it seems, that is not correct to assume...” Dana said.
“ It’s not?” Asked Olivia, a little stunned with the officer’s statement.
Officer Livingstone shook her head.
“ Doug has a lengthy record in his own right... but it was hidden because he changed his name from Richard Cole a few years ago...” She said. “ We ran his prints through, and that popped up plain as day.”
“ I cant believe the coincidence of two Sex Offenders getting work at the same camp and at the same time.” Olivia commented. “What are the odds of that ever happening?”
“ There is more to this, that you know...” Entered in Alexis, flatly..
The officer’s face became stiff and professional all of a sudden. Olivia clearly was not following what she heard. The officer then spoke.
“ It seems that Allen and Doug, now known as Richard, knew each other from court appointed Offender classes a few years back...” She started. “ They had became friends then, and it seemed like they hatched a plan together...”
“ A plan?” Said a clearly shocked Ol iva.
“ Our man in custody explained it all to us while he was being booked.” Dana said. “ He spilled it more in depth when we interrogated him...”
“ What the hell?”
The Officer took a long breath of her own, as she looked at the puzzled woman.
“ They came to camp under a plan they had plotted over a long time, wanting to simply rape and punish these young girls they deemed almost like traitors to their gender, and to make sure they turned out ‘normal’...” Dana explained.
“ That is sick...” The senior councilor commented, feeling queasy with it.
“ When Allen, who also like the challenge of trying to get adult lesbians into bed once in a while... he actually scored one and got her pregnant, and thought it out that it could be such a good cover to have, so he continued to play her as his lover. It was a bonus that Alison was going to be working at this camp for the summer”
“ They pulled that off? How?”
“ With Allen’s huge money reserves, he payed off a few people and got the both of them hired on at Pawa and they could put their warped daydreams into play.”
“ So this all was some sick plan?”
“ Precisely..” Officer Livingstone said. “ With Richard being the pure pedofile of the two, he was the one that would attack the girls and Allen would be waiting nearby to join in, or just masturbate while watching because he like the power of it all... and because they both hated lesbians young and old, it was a match made in their twisted heaven.”
Olivia gasped, as this sounded so disgusting. She thought for a moment.
“ But Mandy here is not a kid anymore... why did Richard target her?” She asked. “ Why not Allen, who we all knew loved to torment Mandy...”
“ With the stress that came with the last attack, and the fact that our force was there investigating, made him snap and needed to release it.” She started, then added. “ He attacked her for two reasons: she is known to be gay and the fact that she was such a petite woman, looking still like a young teen girl... it fit for him. It was also luck that she had walked in on where he was hiding out to think, because his partner in this had ran off with his girlfriend.”
“ Just opportunity?”
“ Not exactly... he was targeting her before, but never had made a move.” She informed. “ To him, when she came in to the boathouse and was alone, it probably felt like Christmas for him.” She frowned. “ The plan was originally for him to attack Mandy, incapacitate her, then Allen... because of his disgust for Mandy being a ‘pure’ Lesbian would do the rest... he wanted to rape her. Richard said he wanted to because he already had Alison ‘changed’, Mandy needed to be as well.”
Olivia understood, but it made her nearly vomit with it. These two’s insidious plans were the most grossest ting she had ever heard.
“ That means that Allen is still out there still... And Alison is following along love struck.”
“ And Alison probably does not even know any of his past probably.” Flatly said the cop. “ But we will find him... and hope like hell that she is not going to be hurt when we do.”
“ But he got her pregnant...” Olivia pointed out. “ He already proved his suppose it ‘manliness’.”
“ He knows that she was with Mandy, and in his mind, she still was a traitor to her gender even though she has discovered that she was bi-sexual.” She explained. “ We think that he may also snap one day... because she had been sexual with another woman.”
Olivia nodded, as sick as it was.... it was genius.
“ Was Allen then there when Doug...er... Richard raped Tabitha?”
“ Initial tests confirmed that there were two different male’s sperm present inside Tabitha’s body that proves two were involved... and Richard said that he was there when he confessed...” Dana said tightly. “ It meant that he probably also raped the girl...”
“ But Tabitha said there was only one...”
“ She also had said that she blacked out for awhile.... she probably did not even know that there was a second attacker.” Explained Dana.
The senior councilor was going to ask another question, when the officer’s radio came on loudly.
“ I have to go...” Dana said. “ When Mandy comes to, call us... we need to talk with her.”
The Policewoman hurried off, leaving Olivia and Miss Ashfield standing there. The head of Camp Pawa turned and looked at her employee.
“ Lets wait in the waiting room... I want to talk with you anyways.” She said.
“ With ... me?” She said, her instant reaction was to look back inside the room where Mandy was.
“ Yeah... I do.” She said.
The two women walked off towards where the waiting room was at the very end of the corridor. Olivia was a little uneasy with this all, but wanted to know what was so important to talk about when Mandy was still unconscious.
The waiting room was empty at this time, and strangely it was eerie that it was. The two took a seat next to the window.
“ You seem to be disturbed by what happened to Mandy the most..” Bluntly pointed out Alexis..
“ Guess I am..” Agreed Olivia. “ Knowing her for so long, and now working along side of Mandy... I feel close to her.”
“ Is that all... or more?” The tall lean head of the camp asked.
Olivia gave a surprised look to her boss, as the words seemed strange.
“ What do you mean?”
“ I am thinking that there is more than that to it.”
“ I care about Mandy... what in hell are you reading into it?”
“ All I am saying is that you may be feeling more than comradery towards Mandy...” Softly suggested Alexis.
“ Like I am in love with her?”
“ That would be what I am seeing...” The woman smiled.
Olivia’s mouth fell open, as her boss’s words struck her deeply. She looked at the taller woman, who seemed so calm in suggesting such a thing to her.
“ I am not gay though...” She said to Alexis. “ What makes you think that I have fallen in love with Mandy?
“ I may be an administrator of the Camp, but I am also Gay and I have never hid that fact.”
“ So?”
“ I see it in your face, the way you are so concerned with Mandy and everything... I also have seen you looking at her in a way that tells me that.”
The middle aged woman shook her head, although it was a slow way.
“ I am not gay... I have been married twice before...” She pointed out.
“ I know that in both of them, you were not married for long...”
“ So?”
“ Why did you get out of them?”
“ They just fell apart after a few months..that’s all” Explained Olivia. “ There was no communication of anything... And what I felt for both of them had vanished.... showed me that it was not time to be married.”
Miss Ashfield looked into the woman’s eyes.
“ Have you asked yourself why they just collapsed like that?” She asked slowly. “ Was it your husbands... or you?”
“ We just grew apart fast... it almost felt wrong from the start” Almost suggested Olivia. “ I found that I could not relate to them after awhile... no communication and noting else also.”
“ Was it that you could not relate to them... or was it that once in bed with them, there was no spark as well?” So bluntly asked Alexis. “ They just never give you what you wanted, or were you expecting something else?”
Olivia seemed to make a few sputtering sounds, as the conversation had now changed to being very personal very fast.
“ How could we, if I could not relate to them... my one husband cheated on me, I thought... and only after four months.” She said with a sour tone, then she sighed. “ I never honestly knew if he did for sure or not, but we never had sex much in those few months... we split up before I could find out for sure.”
Alexis looked at Olivia’s face, as if reading it. She was seeing something in there, but was not sure of it. She snuffed and leaned towards the woman beside her.
“ Were you two were not active in the bedroom at the time then...” Alexis asked, as she was being even more blunt than ever. She watched the lady’s face changing expressions as she spoke to her“ I am thinking that neither one of you were...”
Olivia seemed to not like where the questioning was going on this. She eyed the woman with a scowl.
“ If you must know...we never had sex a lot... is that what you want to hear?” She admitted, her tone getting louder, her face becoming more animated. “ Having sex with Robert never felt right... you satisfied.”
“ Question for you to put to yourself is if you have not resolved the reasons for both of your marriages breaking up like they have.” She plainly stated back to Olivia. “ And you always have stated that Mandy was your favorite Camper of all time...”
Olivia stood up and began to walk away, seemingly upset with what Alexis was implying to her. She stopped and looked over her shoulder.
“ I don’t know you can even suggest that I am attracted to Mandy... I have known her since she was a little girl.” She said with wild eyes. “ It’s been about eight years that I have known her... maybe even nine.”
“ That may be true... but if you have not noticed, she has now a very beautiful young woman...” Alexis calmly pointed out. “ The shy teenager or the all too demure pre-teen is long gone...”
“ I have see that...” Olivia said with a snappiness in her tone. “ What are you getting at?”
“ If you look at Mandy as a whole... She has blossomed into someone that is amazing in so many levels.”. She said. “ There is no shame in the fact that you probably have always felt something for her for years, and as she grew up... so did your feelings as well. Realizing who you are happens at any age, and you are perhaps on that edge...”
The woman stared at Alexis, her mouth falling open even more. The woman’s words shocked her.
“ You are insinuating that after all of these years, I am gay?” She spat with a gasp.
“ I am saying that you might be, and have refused to think that you are gay all along because of your views.”
“ How can you say that?” She said, now getting louder. “ I don’t have any sort of thing against anyone...gay, straight, people of all colors and backgrounds...none...”
“ I know that... but I am thinking that you are denying that you could be in fact, gay.”
Olivia stormed off right then. She could not believe that Alexis would even thing that she was feeling attraction to Mandy. It was, way out there.
“ That is just preposterous!” She grumbled to herself as she walked back to Mandy’s room. “ It’s just too screwed up to even think like that... That I am attracted to Mandy like that when I am not gay to start with...”
Miss Ashfield stayed in the waiting room for awhile, watching the woman walk away. She looked out of the window at the bright hot day that was starting to wain into evening. She snuffed and smiled as she enjoyed the beauty of the hospital grounds while she dialed a number on her cellphone.
******
The Tree line bar was nearly empty, only scattered locals sat nursing their beers and talking over the sounds of the music the jukebox was pumping out. The older gentleman behind the bar looked rather bored at this point as he served the customers the drinks, but it seemed like he was doing it with great dignity and pride as well.
Olivia was in the bar this early evening, sitting at a table all alone with a mug of beer placed in front of her. She seemed to be totally in a world of her own, not even venturing to look around the establishment, or trying to listen to the noticeable music of the band RUSH pumping out.
The woman seemed to be heavily thinking on things very hard, as her beer looked half full and had lost all of it’s frothy head. If the beer was warm as well, it seemed like Olivia would never notice it in any case. She had been siting there for some time by now, and the other in the bar had simply left her alone.
A voice broke her out of wherever her mind had drifted off to, and she looked up slowly. She found Sunny and a dusty skinned woman at the side of her table.
“ After a day like we had today... guess we were not the only ones that felt a need for a drink..” Sunny smirked.
“ With you here, I think that is safe to assume...” Said Olivia, trying to be pleasant through her somberness.
The two women ordered a few drinks and ended up joining Olivia at her table. Sunny looked at the strangely quiet woman they had set down with a bit of curiosity... she had noted the somberness the woman had in her eyes, but she also was feeling that it was no way mixed with sadness... it was as if she was torn with something on the inside.
“ It’s great that Mandy now has woken up and the doctors are sure there are going to be no lasting effects from that blow she took.... she just had to get twenty stitches and watch for any signs of a concussion” She said, trying to start a conversation. “ I was sure relieved to hear that... she could have been worse, the doctor told me.”
Olivia nodded as she looked at the woman
“ Gotta tell you, I was very worried watching when she was being loaded on to the ambulance” She agreed. “ Seeing her like that, was so hard... seeing her so still in that hospital bed, was harder still.”
“ Everyone seems to be worried about her.” The dark skinned woman said, tipping her beer to take a sip right after she spoke.
“ It is hard to see someone like Mandy, in that vulnerable of a position...” Sighed Olivia, expressing her self. “ Especially when it is someone you know.”
Sunny looked at Olivia as she spoke, and saw this little glint of light dance in the woman’s eyes as she talked. She watched Olivia a few more moments more, almost like she was captivated with the feelings that flowed out of the woman.
“ You have known Mandy for a long time, haven’t you?” Sunny asked.
The older of the three nodded. She was looking right at Sunny, her mind drifted to think on just how much Mandy liked this woman. Sunny had beauty, and she seemed so nice as well... she could tell why Mandy liked her. Strangely she began to feel almost irritated with the woman... it felt almost like she was resentful in some ways..
“ It’s almost like I’m jealous... could that be possible?” She asked herself, as she realized what she was feeling on the inside. “ Oh my God!”
Sunny broke through her thought, and her own unusual reactions to Sunny. Olivia became aware of the girl staring at her right then.
“ Have you known Mandy that long?” She asked again, obviously wondering why there was not an answer.
“ Eight or nine years by now...” She smirked, her mind returning fully. “ Seen her really grow over that time, it is so amazing. She was just this small, very shy little girl with a sweet smile back then, now look at her.”
“ That is a long time...” Agreed Sunny, taking a sip of her own beer. “ It’s probably the reason why you looked so worried about her back in the hospital. After all of the years you watched her... you could not help but worry.”
Olivia smiled in reply, not disagreeing with the woman. What she had felt when she heard about Mandy being hurt, was undescribable... and she could still feel that still. She sat there, feeling so much better that Mandy was awake and doing great... yet the words she had with Pawa’s boss picked at her.. as did the strange feelings that still hung inside herself. It was like Alexis’s words had hit a chord in her... and like a stubborn pitbull, it was refusing to let go. That was why she felt like she did... but curiously, she found she could not blame her feelings on Alexis.
Reminding herself that she had came here to forget everything for awhile and relax a little... She still was aware that her thoughts have been constantly rolling over every last word that Alexis had said to her back in that waiting room. She just wanted to relax, all of this could be delt with later. She decided that sitting with Sunny and her friend would help her divert all of this that was clogging her mind... and hopefully that resentment she was feeling towards the pretty woman, could somehow simply fade away..
She took another swallow of her drink, willing herself to stop thinking like this for now and simply relax a little. She entered into the conversation with the others, the topic had no changed to something lighter than it had started as. Her mind though, still was at work on things.
******
“ This room is so fucking still, it’s almost freaky in a way..” said Olivia to herself as she layed in her bed in the still of the night. She was awake, and not even sleepy for this late.
For the last two hours, she had layed there trying to sleep, but finding that was not even close to coming. Even with the four beers she had in her, which normally did not get her drunk, but always made her sleepy....it did not help at all. All she could think about was Mandy.. and her little ‘talk’ with Miss Ashfield.
The woman sat up and rubbed her bare stomach, getting a little worried about not being able to sleep. It was like something was not right, and her mind was making her deal with it. It was way too weird.
She just sat there on the edge of her bed, feeling the heat of the air hang around her naked body as she looked over at Mandy’s bed. The room seemed so empty at the moment, dispite how small it was in the first place. To Olivia, it really had this strong sense that something was missing to it... and it’s name was Mandy Thayer.
She rubbed her face a little, as she could picture a sleeping Mandy laying there... she could almost hear the soft constant breathing the young councilor made deep in slumber. She smiled as she thought on that image...it was bringing such a marked sense comfort with with it.
“ Is Alexis right about what I am feeling?” She whispered to the heated night air, her mind pounding through memories of her ex-husbands. “ Am I just ignoring the facts here?”.
She turned away and picked up a book that was stashed under her bed. Opening it up, she looked at the envelope that was tucked in between the pages. This was the letter that was left by Alison for Mandy that night only a short time ago. Olivia had no idea why she had fished it out of the trash and put it away like this when Mandy had thrown it out in the first place. It was still unopened, but it seemed as if it was speaking to her at this point... leading her heart to do something.
Looking at the envelope carefully, it came to her that she knew exactly what she had to do now.
“ I will give this to Mandy...” She said to the emptiness of the room, feeling something overtake her. It was as if a little light had gone on in her soul “ It a feeling here... but I need to do this.... and another thing...” She sighed and closed her eyes. “ Damn you and your logic, Alexis... you are right... I do love Mandy”
She closed the book again, keeping the envelope safely in the pages. She after looking at the leather cover fort a second, she slipped the large book back under her bed and found that she could not stop herself from smiling.
Getting herself into bed, Olivia lay there without the covers on and closed her eyes, feeling a small light breeze on her entire body. She pictured the small woman with the long dark luscious hair in her mind, and soon had drifted off to sleep. She dreamed of nothing but Mandy for the rest of the night.