Part 2

The coffee shop was Mary’s favourite place in the whole town. It was nothing unusual, as far as café’s went, but it was next door to the local cinema and had tables and chairs outside. She loved the time she spent there with her new friends from the counseling group. After seeing a movie they would sit at one of the sidewalk tables and talk until the staff, eager to go home, would throw them out. The once a week outing was very special to her. It was the first time she had felt comfortable socialising since she had broken up with Rick. It was how she had become friends with Sonya.

Today she was sitting inside the shop. Today she and Sonya were pretending not to know each other. Mary sat at one of the outside tables sipping a cup of coffee. She had ordered it hoping it would settle her stomach. It wasn’t working. The smell of coffee and cooking food from inside the café nauseated her. The chatter and clatter from surrounding tables assaulted her nerve endings as if she was being pelted with tiny stones. She watched the road, the footpath, carefully, her eyes darting from car to car, observing everyone who walked by. It was Friday evening. Cars were pulling up outside the cinema depositing parents and children. Children seemed to be everywhere. Excited. Happy. She missed her own children so much it hurt. It was the only reason she was here.

When she had left Rick, no more than two months ago, she had taken their four children with her. For so long she had told herself that the kids would be better off with both parents together. No matter what Rick had done to her, she wanted what was best for the children. She was not sure what had made her think differently. Returning to study perhaps? Realising the terrible example she was setting for her children? Whatever it was, one awful day she had packed the car, taken the kids and fled to a women’s refuge.

Of course, Rick was not content to let things be that simple. He took her to court for custody of the children. Naively she had thought that the courts would be behind her. After all, Rick was the one who had committed assault. He was the one who had broken the law.

The morning of the hearing, the sight of him strutting around the court house had started flashbacks to one of the times he had held a knife to her throat. He blew her a kiss and she burst into tears. By the time she entered the court room she was a shaking, crying mess. The judge had taken one look at her and given Rick custody of the children. She was only allowed weekend access.

Each weekday she buried herself in her studies, trying to block out the pain of missing her children. She lived for the weekends. But Rick would not allow her even that time unsullied. He took each handover as an opportunity to torment her. Threats, harassment, assault, stalking – he had done them all. She took out an AVO. He only laughed. When he breached it, over and over, she went to the police. They would hand the restraining order back to her and say ‘anyone can get one of these.’ When she told them what he had done, they said that without a witness, it would be her word against his.

‘You look like shit, bitch.’ The voice spoke quietly in her left ear. She leapt to her feet. The chair and cup of coffee crashed to the ground. Her breath seemed to catch in her throat. Her head throbbed in time with her pounding heartbeat. How did he do that? It didn’t seem to matter how carefully she watched for him, suddenly he was just there. The children stood behind him, pale and anxious-looking. He was holding the toddler.

‘Stupid bitch,’ he said, looking at the spilt coffee. Her husband – God, she wished he wasn’t anymore – glared at her. She wished she’d never laid eyes on his short, skinny body or his bald head.

‘Please don’t start, Rick,’ she said softly. ‘Let’s just do this and go our separate ways, OK?’

‘You’d like that wouldn’t you,’ He thrust the toddler into her arms.

‘Yes Rick, I would. That’s why we’re getting a divorce, isn’t it?’ She tried to speak firmly, she really tried. But her voice sounded thin and reedy to her ears.

She began strapping the toddler into the car. The girls clambered in. Rick crouched down and whispered something to their boy Steven. The little boy ran to his mother and kicked her hard in the shins. ‘Steven, stop it, please.’ He kicked her again, grinning.

Rick walked to the car and leaned in close. ‘Do you remember what happened to Jessie?’

‘Our dog?’ she said, confused. ‘She was run over by a car.’

‘No he wasn’t. I killed her.’

‘You...’

‘I beat that stupid animal to death with my baseball bat.’

She stared at him. Horrified. Her beautiful Jessie. So loving and protective. She fought away the image of a bloody corpse.

‘If you take my children away from me, that is what I’m going to do to you. Understand me, sweetheart?’

She wanted to scream, yell abuse at him, but she couldn’t even look at his face.

She stopped trying to do up the toddler’s seatbelt. Her hands were shaking too much. ‘Rick, if you could just be reasonable...’

‘Reasonable? You expect me to be reasonable? You walked out on me, bitch.’

‘Rick, you held a knife to my throat.’

‘You fucking liar, I never did that.’

‘Rick, I know what you did. I was there. There is no point in lying to me.’ Was he crazy? He seemed to really believe it.

‘You’ll say anything to win the custody case won’t you? It isn’t going to work. Do you think anyone is going to believe a little toe-rag like you?’ He spat. It landed on the sleeve of her jacket. She looked at the gob of saliva and wanted to vomit. A hand shot out and grabbed her face and squeezed, hard. He leaned in close.

‘I’ll be here Sunday to pick the kids up. Don’t be late. Be good, sweetheart.’ He planted a kiss on her lips and walked away.

She leaned against the car, shaking and fighting back tears. Steven hugged her. ‘I’m sorry I kicked you, Mummy. Daddy told me to.’

‘I know he did, sweetie. He always does.’ She hugged him back. ‘It’s all right. He’s gone now. Hop in the car.’

‘He’s wrong, you know.’ Sonya smiled at Mary. ‘The cops’ll listen to you now with a witness. It’s more than your word against his this time.’

‘You heard it all?’ Mary said distractedly as she strapped Steven into the car.

‘Every word.’

‘Are you sure you want to do this?’

‘Absolutely.’

Mary hugged her. ‘Should we go to the police now?’

Sonya grinned. ‘I haven’t got anything better to do.’

‘OK. Let’s go.’