Alice's Story pt. 3

Alice's Story (cont'd)

The smell of fresh ground coffee stirred me from a fitful sleep. The sound of sizzling breakfast made me smile. Mom always made the best morning food. I threw the blankets over the back of the couch and stood up stretching. I could hear Mom humming as I walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning darling." She chimed, pouring two large mugs of the delicious brew. "Milk and sugar, right?"
"Yes please." I settled into a chair at the table and breathed deeply the smell of her cooking. Mom went back to the frying pan and I felt nervous all of a sudden. I don't normally just show up at her house in the middle of the night without a good reason. "I'm sorry for barging in on you Mom."

"It's ok baby. That's why you have a key." She smiled and slid some eggs and bacon onto two plates and the toaster popped. "Like I said before, you don't have to tell me any reasons to why you're here. I'm just happy that you're here and you're safe." She set down one of the plates in front of me with a fork.

"Thanks Mom." I began to dig into the yummy over easy eggs and chewy bacon. She let me get a few bites down before she started talking about the upcoming garage sales she was going to go to and her plans for the day out shopping.

"Want to hang out with me today? It's only a couple errands and then we can hit up the bookstore or something." She sipped her coffee.

"I wish Mom. I have to head into work this afternoon. I was just hoping to hang at your house until I had to go in. Last night was.." My throat seemed to close down on the words. My eyes started tearing up and before I could get out another word a sob came out instead.

"It's ok Alice. It's ok baby." She came around the table with her chair and sat next to me, wrapping her arms around me. I don't know how long exactly I sobbed, but it felt like forever. My eyes were red and sore and my nose as bright as Rudolph's when I finally regained control. "It's ok Alice. It's over, you don't have to deal with it anymore."

"Thanks Mom." I sniffled. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. Last night was.. Last night was scary. Nothing bad happened that I can remember. I was walking home from work, then I was suddenly on the ground. Next I remember waking up in some old apartment with these two guys and they just let me go. I don't think anything happened, but I was so scared, so confused. They just let me go though. One of them put a weird necklace.." I reached up and fingered the rope around my neck. It was soft as silk, flat but about as wide as a pencil, with three flat oval beads spaced on the front.

"That's a beautiful necklace. Why do you think they gave it to you?"

"I'm not sure. But I couldn't understand what they were saying at first, and after he put it on me, they made perfect sense."

"Hmmmm." She touched the necklace softly. "Maybe you should take it off?"

I reached around the rope trying to find a clasp. Mom went to her junk drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. When she came close and tried to slid one of the blades under the necklace it seemed to tighten on my neck and she wasn't able to get around it. I started choking and she moved away and it loosened.

"Oh my god Mom. This is not good." My eyes felt hot again.
"Don't worry, we'll figure out how to get it off."
We spent the next hour trying different things to get the necklace off. Any attempt though made it tighten and start to suffocate me. As soon as we backed off, it loosened again.

"We might just have to leave it for now Mom." Tears were streaming down my face again and my neck felt raw from trying to remove the necklace. She sat down again next to me and held me in her arms.

"Ok. Well, I think you should call in today to work and just rest on my couch all day. You've had a rough night and deserve to relax. I'm going to clean up in here then get ready to head out. You can come with me if you'd like, but otherwise I think you should rest."

"Ok Mom." I gave her one more tight squeeze before standing and walking back into the living room. "Thank you for breakfast. And the hug." I smiled at her and she smiled back. I curled up on the couch with the blanket and used the remote to turn on the TV to a news channel.