Her Choice(part 2)

It took Karen several moments to realize that she was safe in her home and that the phone was ringing. A groggy "Hello" escaped her lips before she thought to check the Caller ID display. Immediately she prepared herself for the threatening tirade of a bill collector. The debts were coming in fast these days and she had grown weary of making deals with those that they owed money to. So the new rule was to not answer any unfamiliar numbers. They had become a family of artful dodgers, but her sleep-dazed state had momentarily left her slow witted and now she waited for the repercussion. Time crawled as the caller remained silent.

"Helloooo!" Karen stated more forcefully. Her senses were awakening and moving quickly into their defensive positions. The pause of the caller had given her enough time to brace for a fight. She needed someone to vent her frustrations at. Better this stranger than her family. When the caller finally spoke she was blindsided by shock and she felt the air rush from her body, leaving her defenses battered. Instantly, she recognized the voice from her past that had somehow found her.

"Hi Karen, how’s it going?"

Now it was Karens’ turn to remain silent. Time had slowed for her as her mind tried to recover from hearing his voice.

"Do you know who this is?" the voice inquired.

Oh she remembered. It had taken her years to hide from his memory. His ghost still haunted her in her deepest sleep when she could not control her thoughts.

"It’s me, Bobby…ummm, are you still there?"

"Yes" was all that Karen could manage to whisper into the phone.

"I ran into Terri Simpson the other day and she said that she thought you were living there in Coltrane so I decided to try to find you. Thought it would be nice to talk to you."

Her mind was swirling in disbelief. After all of this time, his voice still held her spellbound. Immediately she was swept away to when they were teenagers and she had lost her heart to him. It was a love that had consumed her and she had sacrificed herself totally to him. He had once asked her if she would die for him and she had replied yes, and she had truly meant it. In a way, she had died for him. At least a part of her soul had.

"It’s good to hear from you Bobby. I…I can’t believe I’m actually talking to you."

"Yeah, it’s been a long time. So, what have you been up to?"

As she began retracing her life without him, Bobby craftily filtered through her words, picking up on the points that he considered useful and discarded the rest. He had already learned a lot of the information that he needed from Terri. He was a master of intuition, a predator of emotions, and all of his hunters’ instincts were at full awareness. In less than ten minutes he knew that he had her heart in his grasp, but he timed his responses carefully. He only brought up the good times from their past. Laughingly reminding her of funny or loving incidents they had shared, laying down the bait leading to his trap. He wasn’t surprised when she agreed to meet him for lunch the next day.

Bobby felt the old power that he used to hold over her building inside of him again. ‘Sure Karen, a little lunch, a little small talk…and then we’ll have a big play time’ he thought to himself.

He hung up the phone and shook his head. "Women are unbeleivable!" he mused.

Leaning back in his chair, he took a long drink from his beer. "My, my…ain’t life grand!" he said to the quiet room.

Then he burst out laughing.

to be continued…