WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

I hadn't talked to Wendy in a week. She'd been remote and uncommunicative-and she didn't look good at all. So, on that Friday night, I decided to go to her house.

Colleen answered the door. "Hi, Carl," she said. "Wendy's in her room. Maybe you can get her out." I went up, and tried to go in. I came back down.

"Coll, why would your door be locked?"

"I don't know. We never lock the doors. Did you knock?"

"No, because, frankly, I'm worried. I decided to come talk to you first." She looked at me, then went to a drawer in the kitchen. She handed me a key. I went up and unlocked the door. 

She looked up. She had the razor blade in her hand. I could see where she'd already started to cut along her wrist. Luckily, not much at all. I'd got there just in time.

"Wendy, God, don't!" I shouted.

She looked up, shocked. "Carl? What are you doing here?"

"Wendy, don't do it, please, please, don't do it." I'd never been so scared in my entire life. What the hell had happened to her? Finally, after staring at me, she dropped the razor and collapsed in tears, her head in her hands. I walked over, sat on the bed next to her, and put my arms around her.

She was shaking. I think I was, too. I'd just walked in on the girl I was in love with attempting to kill herself. I was numb. At least she stopped.

Colleen then appeared at the door. "What's going on?" she asked. Wendy wailed louder.

I took a deep breath. "I just walked in on her as she was about to slice her wrists." I held up the razor. Colleen turned completely pale.

"Oh, God, Wendy, why? Why would you do this?"

Just then Cat came in with her boyfriend Colin, and stopped at the room to see what all the ruckus was about. Wendy was still crying, in my arms. It was a zoo. Finally, Wendy calmed down, looked up at us, and told us.

"Last week. Jon raped me."

That son of a bitch. If I'd had a gun in my hand at just that moment..........

"Did you go to the police?" Colleen asked her.

"What's the point?" she wailed. "I'd willingly had sex with him dozens of times. I'd never be able to prove that this was a rape."

"It couldn't hurt to try," I said.

"It's useless. And he's supposed to be here in an hour. I wanted him to find me dead, to know what he did to me." Then she started crying again.

"He's coming here?" I said.

"Someone's gonna have to hold me back," Carl-Colleen's new boyfriend-said.

"Ain't gonna be me," I told him.

"Wait a minute," Colin said. "I have a plan."


Wendy agreed to it, though it was going to put her in some danger. When that asshole showed up, we were all in Cat's room, ready. Colleen's computer-in their room-was hooked into a network with the others in the house, including Cat's. Setting it to pick up what happened in the room, and transmit that to Cat's computer to be recorded, was child's play.

We heard Wendy tell Jon she never wanted to see him again. We heard the threats. We heard Wendy scream "NO!" more than once. We heard him slap her-Colin had to practically restrain me after that. We heard her clothes being torn off. We heard her begging him "No, please, no!"

That's when we burst in. How I managed not to strangle him right on the spot is completely beyond me. But I told him. "We got all that little scene recorded, asshole. How's jail sound to you? Now get your hands off her before I break them." He did-and got out. Cat was going to burn the conversation onto a CD. Wendy agreed to go to the police the next day.

"I can't thank you guys enough," she said shakily after it was all over.

"What are friends for?" Colleen said.

We started to file out of her room-when she said, "Carl? Will you stay with me?"

"I'd be glad to," I told her.

She managed to fall asleep in my arms. I stayed with her all night-even after Colleen came in, she saw me, grinned, and waved me to stay. "She needs you," Colleen whispered. I slept with my arms around her.

I was just hoping it was enough of a help.

--The End-

This is the third story in this story arc. The previous is called Run For Your Life. The next is as yet untitled





