‘What are you talking about?’
Darlene had looked about to be getting in her car and leaving, but Kurt could not see how that was going to help the situation.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked. ‘The best place is at home until he leaves.’
‘Are you serious? I’m not letting you out of my sight until this matter is dealt with.’
‘But what can be done? Stalkers don’t get prosecuted, it’s too difficult.’
‘I’m not having you waiting around for this to end, wondering whether he’s going to appear around the next corner. It isn’t on!’
‘But… I have to go home. Kurt, we’ll give the game away.’
She was right, unless he kept his distance their families would find out all about them.
‘I’m not ready to tell my father about us. It’s… it’s just happened so quickly and I’m sure he’ll think less of me.’
‘I don’t want anyone thinking less of you, sure, but–’
‘Look, we’ve dealt with him before. I’d better go in case he reappears to follow me.’
‘But he’ll know where you live.’
‘I’ll call home before I get there,’ Darlene insisted, getting in her car despite his protests and adding, ‘I don’t know when we’ll see each other again but I’ll be in touch when this dies down.’
Kurt was still in protest mode, but Darlene was far more strong-willed than he had previously given her credit for. Unfortunately, her vision was limited in terms of getting rid of this Jefferson. He could tell she was going into siege mode and believed the matter needed to be dealt with more directly.
It had been a strange day with strange twists and, if Kurt had been capable of thinking faster on his feet, he would have got in that car with her. Regrettably the instinct to be more assertive with protecting his girl only set in once he saw her speeding off around the corner.
Driving off like that was a daft idea; Jefferson could be lurking in wait from numerous streets and it was more than an hour’s drive to her home in Portland.
A sensitive family atmosphere had tired him out, but it was time to get his head in gear and decide what should be done. Either that or lose Darlene for good. Previously he had not been one for complicated relationships but seeing her speed off like that – possibly in danger – did something to him.
There was something unbearable about the whole thing – and then it dawned on him what an idiot he had been.
The nightmare had returned and Darlene’s stomach was in knots.
She did not know what to make of Jefferson’s psychological problems and, as she sped away from the Wyden’s place, any way she decided to look at the problem proved disheartening – if not downright disturbing.
Just when life seemed to be getting good. Just when she had found a man at last and
seemed to be spreading her wings (albeit far from her father’s view), she had ended up taking two steps back instead of forward.
All those sinister overtones that had been hanging around in Boston ever since she had broken it off with that creep had returned. Back then she had always resisted reporting him to the police; had suffered the phone calls through the guilt she felt about letting someone down, when she should have been focused on acknowledging how disturbed the man was.
Escape back to Portland had been her way out and, rather than complicating things further, she had looked to that as the end of it all. When she was done with college she would be free and that thought alone had caused her to hang on in there. She had a lot to learn about getting herself into situations that were imposed upon her by a restrictive familial outlook and regretted ever walking into the situation. Even so, she thought the time to make up for that mistake and learn from it would be ahead. Instead, as she caught sight of him watching them, Darlene learned that the mistake would keep following her around.
What could possibly be done about such an obsessive and offended individual? She had closed her Facebook account because he had been sending lengthy and unhinged diatribes about purity and righteousness. Implying to her that she risked being turned into a whore like the rest of society’s women. All because, during one frank conversation, she had admitted lamenting the fact that she had not had at least some experience of being with the opposite sex.
When it came to leaving him, that admission gave Jefferson his ammunition. He accused her of giving into the devil and chasing those lustful dreams. She was leaving him to be seduced and would soon be wanton.
Of course, though she would have expressed it in different terminology, the irony was that this was exactly what had happened. She had met up with the Wyden she had always fancied and found that he now liked her too. But that was none of Jefferson’s business. Returning home had offered a certain amount of clarity on life and she no longer believed in hiding herself away from the world. It was there to experience and they were two consenting adults. His disapproval, or his daft old mother’s, for that matter, did not mean anything to her anymore – if she could only kick him out of her life for good.
Feeling she had succumbed to a false dawn, Darlene began to reflect on all that had happened over the last couple of weeks. Though she had wanted to seek a more expansive lifestyle, she had expected to discover one very slowly and had been completely surprised at a handsome man turning up to sweep her off her feet.
Giddy from the attention, in the back of her mind it had occurred to Darlene that Kurt deciding to look her way was unforeseeable, in that nothing had ever passed between them to suggest he might. Maybe he had thought her too young to flirt with before and so held back. Whatever the decision she would admit to finding no issue with his change of mind. It felt good to have been noticed so quickly and, though what then happened contrasted sharply with her tendency to be so regimented and planned with everything, allowing him to lead the way was a real turn on. Kurt was helping her to discover so much about herself that she had always repressed. He had always struck her as confident and focused. Two character traits she really admired. So, she had taken a chance in deciding to trust his intentions and the chance seemed to have paid off, even though their relationship felt like it was a no-strings style. But now Jefferson had turned up again and reminded her of that old proverb. That you may be through with the past but the past sure isn’t through with you.
The idea that God might be punishing her for being promiscuous after all flashed through her mind. She found the strength to dismiss it for now, reminded of her last New Year’s Resolution to have the courage of her convictions. Darlene did not believe in all the restrictions she had allowed overcautious parents to place on her life, though those convictions would have to survive a lot more tests than ever before. Jefferson was edging towards the extreme – if he had not already – and the journey home was not yet proving effective enough in seeking a solution.