✔ ✔ ✔
Helen Left Roger's house. She knew how Mark had sacrificed his everything for her! With the existence of all the camera at home, what he did for her was beyond friendship. Mark had become like a real father to her during the one and half year stay in that house of horror. The fact that he was black and she was a natural blond, and blue eyes did not make any difference in their relationship. She had met Mark's family, his wife, two daughters, and a son. She had had lunch at their house a few times. This was the very first time that she truly liked a man as a friend or even a father. He knew about her life, about her father molesting and abusing her and her sister!
As she walked slow first, getting away from Roger's house, she thought about her young life! If any one's life would be like hers at such a young age, did it worth living? She knew that Mark would be in a real trouble with Roger. She stopped walking. Should she go back and save Mark, or continue walking and save herself? She recalled that once Mark told her that he would do anything to save her. She knew that he was telling the truth. She knew that his affection for her was real. He had said many times that if he could he would rescue her, that she was like his own daughter!
She again started walking while saying loud to herself: "What's done is done! I can't save Mark even if I go back. He's in all the videos that standing inside the door of the bedroom and looking at me while I am packing my bag; and letting me leave, playing with the dogs and feeding them, so they don't attack me!"
If she returned, they both would be in hell, if she did not return, only Mark's life would turn upside down. She thought hard! "What would Mark would want me to do?" He most likely would tell me:
"Go, go, save your self. I take the fall for you!"
Her berating was laboured! Her chest was heaving! She had lived under the tyranny of Roger for so long. Now she began running. She was far enough from Roger's home to run. First she had to act normal, like someone that walking in the neighborhood. She had her hair in a bun and was wearing a baseball cap. As she was running, the September sun's severity brought beads of sweat to her forehead and she felt sweat running down her back. She was wearing one of the sweater that she had brought with her from Chicago. She had other clothes, but she had not taken any of those with her; she did not want anything that Roger had bought her. There was just this one big piece of black cloud which unexpectedly covered the sun! All of the sudden, huge drops of rain began falling from sky. It seemed as though only where she was walking, was getting the rain; since a little further down, the sun again began piercing her through. Now the heat, the sun, the humidity, the anxiety, the fear, her shaking, and her sweater, all of them seemed were stifling her! She had taken the money because she believed that the money belonged to her and perhaps other girls who danced, but she did not know any of them by their real name, or where they lived, or who they were. It was better that she had the money than Roger.
It was only eighteen months passed from the time she and Jacob had run away from Chicago. "What happened to Jacob? How can I find him?"
Now she was familiar with the streets. Going out with Mark during the day, she had always bombarded him with questions about the geography of Dallas:
"What is this street? what is that?" She had eyed landmarks for herself so she would remember if one day she had a chance to run! Mark himself lived in Richardson. He had a nice home. He had a nice family. She had thought to herself then. She wondered if Mark ever molested his daughters! But she immediately changed her mind. "No way, not Mark, not my good, old Mark, never...!"
To Be Continued
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