Josiah
~
Against my better judgement, I followed Pepper Milo into her house, and it was hard not to take inventory of how I looked, smelled, and spoke.
It was one thing to be outside in the fresh air and open space, but it was quite different to be near me in a confined area, and a kitchen or living room would count.
Standing by the doorway, though embarrassing as it was, I asked, “Are you sure that you’re okay with me coming inside? I mean, I don’t exactly smell fresh.”
Pepper immediately scowled. “Are you kidding me right now?” She jerked her chin towards one of the front-facing windows. “You sound like Officer Dipshit out there.”
“I’m sorry?” I chuckled.
“Do you honestly believe that I care how you smell or what you’re wearing?” she asked, planting her hands on her hips. “You saved my life, Josiah. How much of an asshole do you think I am that I would care how you smell?”
“Most people would,” I replied carefully. “Once the adrenaline of the night began to wear off.”
“Well, those people are dicks,” she retorted. “Now, don’t upset me further with this nonsense. Take a seat, and I have wine, water, soda, and orange juice.”
“Water would be good,” I said as I made my way to the kitchen, figuring that the chairs in there could be wiped off easier than the fabric on her couch.
As she grabbed a cold bottle of water from her fridge, she said, “Well, I’m having wine. I need wine if I’m going to get any sleep tonight.”
Getting as comfortable as I could in her home, I said, “I’d also like to apologize for trespassing on your property. Even though Officer Morton’s a jerk, he wasn’t wrong about what I’ve been doing.”
Pepper set the water in front of me, then went to preparing herself a glass of wine. “While I can admit that I’m a bit...feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, you were sleeping in my shed, Josiah. That’s hardly casing the joint.”
“How do you know that I wasn’t?” I posed, the woman way too trusting.
“Because you admitted to sleeping in it for over two weeks,” she drawled out as she poured the wine into her glass, and I was honestly surprised that she wasn’t just drinking it straight from the bottle after the kind of night that she’d had.
“If you were going to rob me, I’m sure that you would have done it by now. ”
“I could have been lying,” I pointed out.
Pepper took a seat across from me at the table before saying, “Yes, you could have been. However, it makes more sense if you’d told the officer that you’d only been staying in there a couple of days. Why admit to a couple of weeks?”
Unable to help myself, I opened the bottle, then guzzled it in practically one swallow, and it tasted so damn refreshing.
Her home was also temperature-controlled, and that also felt nice for a change.
I couldn’t remember the last time that I’d been invited into someone’s home, and it felt weird and emotional all at the same time.
Ignoring her very valid point, I asked, “Are you sure that you’re okay? Your screams took twenty years off my life.”
Suddenly, she looked unsure. “Physically, I’m fine,” she answered quietly. “I mean, my shoulder is probably going to hurt like a bitch in the morning, but...” She shrugged. “Other than that, I’m okay.”
“Mentally?”
“Mentally, I’m a mess,” she admitted, and that kind of honesty was a virtue in my book. Pride was a motherfucker, and it caused more problems than not. “Mentally, I’m probably not going to get any sleep tonight.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, meaning it. “I...I can understand how...how your brain can be your own worst enemy sometimes.”
After finally taking a drink of her wine, she said, “I just...no matter what he was here for, I just...I turned into one of those people that think it’ll never happen to them, and I just feel...stupid.”
“You shouldn’t feel stupid for believing that the people of this town are good,” I told her, hoping to help. “In a perfect world-”
“But we don’t live in a perfect world,” she said, interrupting me. “If we lived in a perfect world, then you wouldn’t be homeless. If we lived in a perfect world, then every veteran would be taken care of. Instead, money has become everyone’s god, and that’s all that everyone cares about.”
While I appreciated her consideration, it was obvious that she was upset and needed to rage out at something. “Well, we’re not going to fix everything that’s wrong with the world tonight, so how about you do your best to get some sleep.”
“Do you honestly believe that I’m going to get any sleep tonight?” she asked, and the tone of her voice felt like a heavy weight on my chest.
“Look, I know that...that I can’t live in your shed forever,” I said, embarrassment creeping up my neck. “And I’m more than happy to move along and get out of your hair. However, I can...if it’ll make you feel better, I can sleep outside tonight again...you know, one last time.”
Some unknown emotion flittered across her face, and it was clear that Pepper Milo had no poker face whatsoever.
“First of all, you aren’t living in my shed,” she said.
“You’re sleeping in there, and there’s a difference.
Second of all, you’re still talking like you sleeping in my shed is more important than the fact that you saved my life, and I don’t like that. ”
Since she felt free to use my first name, I returned the favor. “Pepper, I’m a homeless man that’s been sleeping in your shed without your knowledge. How can you not feel...feel doubly violated?”
“Probably because you saved my life,” she repeated, stressing each word like I was slow or something. “Why is that so hard to understand?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to give this woman a lecture on personal safety, but that was the last thing that she needed to hear right now. She’d just been attacked, and I needed to remember that. Whatever it was that she was thinking and feeling right now, that mattered more than logic.
“Okay,” I said carefully, doing my best to understand. “Then I’ll head on back outside and make sure that everything’s okay.”
She looked hesitant for a second before asking, “Am I overreacting?”
I shook my head. “No matter what, taking your safety seriously is never overreacting, Pepper.”
Pepper just sighed, and I knew that no one was going to be getting any sleep tonight.
~
Pepper~
I hung up the phone, thankful for Roxanne all over again.
After Josiah had gone back outside, I’d taken a shower, then had immediately called Roxanne to tell her what had happened.
Like the gem that she was, she’d been ready to board a plane to whisk me away to the safety of her home, and it’d taken quite a while to settle her down, something that was making me smile now.
Anyway, the phone was ringing in my ear now, and I knew that I was going to have to make one more phone call after this one. Even though Tullie and I were no longer married, we still lived in the same town, and it’d only be a matter of time before he heard about what happened.
“Mom?”
Leah’s voice sounded alert and worried, and as her mother, I didn’t like hearing her like that. “I’m fine,” I quickly assured her. “I’m safe, and I’m home.”
“What happened?” she asked, still sounding worried. “You wouldn’t be calling me this late if something hadn’t happened.”
“I was checking the locks before I went to bed tonight, and some...some guy came out of nowhere and attacked me.”
“Oh, my God,” she cried out. “Oh, my God...Mom, I’m on my way-”
“Leah, calm down,” I instructed, using my mom voice to reassure her that I was okay. “Honey, I’m fine.”
“I don’t care,” she said. “I’m coming home-”
“Leah, honey, listen to me,” I ordered. “I am okay. I promise you.”
After a few seconds, she asked, “Well...well, what happened?”
Even though my nerves were still a bit shot, as calmly as I could, I told Leah everything that’d happened to the best of my recollection.
Admittedly, some of the details were rather blurry, and I was still hearing phantom noises throughout the house, but I didn’t need Leah racing home when I knew that I was going to need some time to fully process what’d had happened.
When I was finished, she asked, “So...they’re keeping him in jail, right?”
“I believe so,” I answered. “I’ll also be calling first thing in the morning to get as much information on what happens next that I can.”
“And what about Dad? Have you called Dad?”
“Not yet, but I will,” I promised. “I don’t want him hearing it from anyone else, either.”
“Mom, I don’t feel right-”
“Leah, you coming home isn’t going to change what happened,” I pointed out. “And as much as I love and appreciate you wanting to be here for me, you’re coming home soon enough.”
“I can cancel the trip,” she offered. “Plus, with Dad’s promotion-”
“Leah, honey,” I said, interrupting her. “You’ll be home in a few weeks, and we don’t even know if your dad has gotten the promotion yet. I promise you, if anything else happens, I will let you know if you need to come home.”
“Mom, I don’t feel right about this,” she replied brokenly. “I mean, you were attacked in your own home, and you’re acting like it’s no big deal.”
“I’m not acting like that at all,” I assured her. “I’m just...panic just leads to more panic, and I don’t want that. I want to approach this calmly and reasonably, and rather than freak out over what could have happened, I want to focus on how lucky I am that it wasn’t worse.”
After another few seconds of silence, she said, “Yeah, you’re right. We should be counting our blessings that nothing worse happened.”
“I’m also going to get cameras to make us all feel better,” I informed her.
“Well, that will definitely make me feel better,” she retorted. “Plus, I can’t see Dad not insisting on it once he finds out.”
“Which means that I should probably call him now,” I chuckled.
“And...and the homeless guy?” she asked tentatively. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, not for nothing, no matter that he saved you, I can’t see Dad okay with this.”
“Your Dad’s main concern will be your safety, so the most that he’ll do is insist that you stay with him when you come home, and I don’t think that’s a bad idea,” I told her, and I knew my daughter well enough to know that she was ready to object.
“At least, until we find out what they’re going to do with the guy that attacked me. ”
“Mom, c’mon...” she whined, bringing a smile to my face. “If I go stay with Dad, he’s going to make me help him pack and move if he gets that promotion, and we both know that he’ll get it.”
“I love you, Leah,” I said, appreciating how she was trying to lighten the mood for me. Leah was good at reading the room, and so she knew that having her panic was just going to stress me out more.
“Look, it’s late, and I still have to call your father,” I sighed. “But I promise you that I’m fine, and I can also assure you that Josiah isn’t a threat in the least.”
More silence before she said, “Fine. I’m going to choose to trust your judgement, Mom. However, I want to meet this man when I come home, and I want Dad to meet him, too.”
“Of course,” I semi-lied. “And I promise to call you every day with updates on what’s going on.”
“I love you, Mom.”
“I love you more, Leah.”
After hanging up, I glanced around the living room, the lights bright in an otherwise dark neighborhood.
It was also almost midnight, and so I knew that I needed to get to bed soon, though sleep was probably a pipe dream at this point.
Still, continuously checking all the windows and doors wasn’t going to help anybody.
Letting out a bracing sigh, I dialed Tullie, hoping for the best, and when he answered on the first ring, it was safe to assume that the news of the break-in had made the rounds already. Though Macon was a big enough town to need a Costco, it was still small enough that privacy was a privilege.
“I was five minutes away from heading over,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I promised. “How did you hear?”
“Joanie Hull decided to post it on social media, and well...Ryan Starr ended up calling me...” He trailed off, the details not important. “You should have called me first, Pepper.”
“Tullie, I’m fine,” I repeated. “I called Leah and Roxie already, and Leah agreed to stay with you when she comes home. At least, until we find out what happens with the guy.”
“Pepper, we’re not that divorced couple,” he said, his voice a bit rough, his version of a reprimand. “I care what happens to you, and that means that you are going to tell me everything that happened, and we’re getting you a security system first thing Monday.”
Grateful that my ex-husband was a decent human being, I told him everything, including how Josiah was still sleeping in my shed, and it wasn’t until two hours later that I was finally in bed, sleep not coming for another two.