The Second Rape of Dr. Emily Pershing - C3

Chapter 3

“Hey, Super Star!” Ashley casually sung out at the tall, slender man behind the glass case filled with rows of fresh donuts.

“Hot Wheels!” he returned with an exuberant smile.

Luckily, there were no patrons in line—if there had been, I’m afraid it wouldn’t have changed the attitude of little, boisterous “Hot Wheels” at all. Still, she had caught the attention of the few people who sat quietly enjoying their coffee—’til now.

“Got a donut for me, Boyfriend?” asked the seven year-old diva.

“You know I do. What kind are you looking for?”

“Hmmm… you got anything good, or just this stuff?”

Chuckles came from every table overhearing such boldness from such a tiny voice. Kendall could not be more embarrassed. She slyly sat down at a nearby table as if she’d never seen any of us before.

“You know, it just so happens that I’ve been working on something new in the back. You wanna try it?”

“Let’s see what you got,” answered the tiny donut critic, and off went Super Star Coleman—Jack Coleman—donut slinger, Karaoke master.

It was another typical, abnormal trip to the donut shop. Jack and Ashley became friends on that wonderful day last summer. That day, he told us a story about this remarkable little girl who came prancing in late in the morning with gusto no different than what we all just witnessed a minute ago. He had just started working there after transferring from the east side location and she was his first tough customer. She acted as if she had the world on a string and nothing and nobody was going to stop her from getting what she wanted. He said she marched right up, inspected the whole case with a discerning eye—occasionally looking up at him to see if he was paying attention. Every now and then she would stare at one particular tray of donuts, and then shake her head with disappointment as if she had been confounded by the notion that anyone would ever eat such a thing. After a good three minutes of inspection, she took two steps back, crossed her arms, and with a grunt, she focused directly at the center of the case for just an instant. Then she immediately turned her silent deadly gaze upon Jack who froze like a deer in the headlights, not expecting to suddenly have every bit of her attention set on him.

“See something you like?” he asked politely.

“Seriously?” she retorted without blinking an eye.

Jack’s eyes squinted and he leaned forward with one elbow on the counter, “I can see you’re no ordinary little girl on a donut quest.” Ashley shook her head. “Do I know you?” Another shake. “That your bike outside?”

Without even acknowledging the last question, Ashley explained, “The way I see it, Mister, we got us here a donut shop. I just rode my bike half-way across town to get me a donut, and I don’t see one single donut here that makes this whole trip worthwhile.”

Jack was dumb-founded. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a situation.”

“Looks like it,” she agreed.

“You know what? I just came here from another store to try and fix this very situation—and until now, I didn’t really think it was that much of a problem. Luckily, I’ve been working on expanding the selection and the truth is: I’ve been holding out…”

“Holding out? What’s that mean?”

“Well, ‘holding out’ means that I’ve been keeping some a secret. There aren’t enough for everyone, so I didn’t want to put them out here for people to see yet,” he answered, “but for you… I may have just the thing to justify your coming all the way here.”

“I’m listening,” she said as she cautiously approached the counter.

“Wait right here and I’ll bring you something called, the Boston Crème.”

Jack turned to go to the kitchen but was halted by a squeak. “Hey!”

“Yeah?” Jack said as he spun back around.

“Before we do this, I only have twenty-eight cents and some Gummy Bears—just so we’re straight,” she bargained strictly, “but my family should be along any minute and they can pay you the rest.”

“Gummy Bears, huh… You got red ones?” Jack asked.

“Of course,” Ashley said with a growing smile. She liked anyone who appreciated the quality of the red ones.

“We can work something out,” he smiled right back.

Jack brought out the chocolate-covered, crème filled, freshly baked delight and presented to

Ashley, who had already plopped the change down and sorted out seven red gummies on the counter.

“I found all these red ones for you, and here’s the twenty-eight cents—that’s all I got,” she said.

“Okay, what do you think of this?” asked Jack as he slowly presented the chocolaty masterpiece to his new friend.

“Uh-huh,” she forced herself to respond, and in way that allowed her to keep her mouth open the whole time.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Jack said as he raised the donut out of her reach, “You get the donut, we’ll split the bears, I’ll wait for your parents to pay for the donut, but I need to talk to them first to make sure they’re headed here to pay for it before my shift ends. Deal?”

Ashley contemplated the terms… “Donut first.”

“Nope. Parents first,” bargained Jack.

“Fine, deal,” she agreed.

That’s when we got the phone call. We were hysterical. Danni, Kendall, and I had destroyed the house looking for Ashley, we searched the yard, the street; we called the neighbors once Kendall discovered Ashley’s bike was missing. Everyone on the street knew Ashley—she’d made sure of that over the years. We were absolutely panicked. The last time we had seen her was about half an hour ago, and we’d been searching for about fifteen minutes—that meant she could have been gone for fifteen minutes before we’d even realized she was missing. Fifteen to thirty minutes—an eternity for a kid to get lost—but nothing compared to the eternity of searching frantically for even five minutes when your kid is gone. The phone rang. Danni lunged so quickly that she said hello before she even picked up the phone.

“Hello?” she fumbled, “Hello? —Oh God, Baby, where are you?! It’s her!”

“Is she okay?” I demanded.

“WHAT?! You’re kidding me?!” It seemed every possible emotion came to a crescendo when Danni started laughing and crying all at once. “She’s at the donut shop!”

Exhilaration and fear rolled into jubilant laughter in the streets as the news quickly spread that all was well. Tears flowed in every household for the pure joy of knowing little Ashley was alright.

We raced to the shop to collect our missing little girl. I drove because Danni would have nearly killed us all just to get there two seconds sooner. It took everything in her person to keep from jumping out of the car and running when we hit one red light. Kendall held her hand from the back seat and belted out, “Mom!” whenever Danni squeezed it too tightly. There are almost three miles and exactly fourteen “Mom’s!” between our house and the donut shop. Danni hit the pavement running and blasted through the glass door to find Ashley, face just covered with chocolate and crème filling, sitting on the counter next to the register.

In seconds, Danni’s face was also covered. Of course, Ashley was startled—to her, this was all part of the plan—get donuts and wait for the family, which had now arrived. By the time Kendall and I got inside, it looked like the both of them had been eating liquid fudge for hours. Ashley, by then, had figured out that she might be in trouble though she didn’t know exactly why; but, she knew her punishment would, for some reason, include being kissed and squeezed to death, and perhaps even being eaten alive, by her own mother.

After the emotional reunion, I looked at the man who was standing on the other side of the counter with a proud grin. “Thank you for keeping an eye on her.” I extended my hand.

“No problem at all. She’s a real neat kid,” he replied as he shook my hand.

I turned to Ashley, still smothered in her mother’s arms, “So you just rode your bike here… couldn’t wait for the rest of us… just git the donut?”

Ashley gave me the universal shoulder shrug, letting me know that rhetorical questions are wasted on seven year-olds.

“How far away do you live?” came the voice from behind the counter.

“Just about three miles up,” I answered.

“That’s a pretty good ride, Hot Wheels,” he told her with a smile.

She threw out a bold thumbs up and exclaimed, “It was worth it!” Ashley’s got a knack for saying just the right thing to lighten the mood.

“Come on, Hot Wheels, let’s get you cleaned up,” offered Kendall, who was doing a great job of keeping composed throughout this ordeal. “Um, Mom?” Kendall hinted to her mother, who was also in desperate need of a towel.

“Oh! Right! Coming with… got it.” Danni’s emotions had subsided back to within the realm of humility.

“Well, that was fun,” said the slender man.

“Yeah!” I started, “Hey, I’m Beau.”

“Jack.”

“Jack, what do I owe you here… you know what, we were coming here for donuts, so we’re getting donuts! I’ll wait for the girls to come back.” I was rambling nervously and didn’t even really know why.

“No problem at all. What can I get you to chew on in the meantime?” he asked with a rescuing man-to-man voice.

“You got anything with alcohol in it?”

It wasn’t a particularly funny quip, but we laughed like little girls at one of Kendall’s slumber parties. Hardy laughter is a man’s S.O.P. when a public display of emotion is about to happen. It was actually quite convenient to help mask the pesky tears that showed up. A few minutes later, the girls joined us, we ordered up a baker’s dozen with a round of chocolate milks, and Jack and Ashley told us their side of the story. Danni had asked him what we could do to repay him for his kindness. He told us he was starting up a side business doing karaoke at kids’ parties and that we could help him by just spreading the word. In the months since then, he’s done four parties on our street alone—not a bad set of pipes on this guy—and he does a bang-up job on “You Aint Never Had a Friend Like Me.”

By the end of our little visit, Ashley had realized what everyone had been through on her account and had cried along with her mom and sister as they relived the recent events along with our new friend, Jack. It was a heck of a start to a Saturday, that’s for sure. On our way out, Jack had gone to the back to gather his things—his shift had ended a good half-hour ago. Ashley made us stop and wait for him to come out. She insisted that she had to give him something before we left. Of course, we all knew she wanted to give him a hug, so we agreed to wait as we piled her bike into the back of our SUV. When Jack came out, Ashley went over to him. We watched with an endearing anticipation.

“Hey, Hot Wheels, did you forget something?” Jack asked as she approached.

We could see from inside the car that she reached into her little fanny pack, pulled something out, and gave it to him. Turns out she really did just want to give him something, though we couldn’t tell what it was. We were all a bit disappointed that it wasn’t what we’d thought it was going to be. I thought, for sure, she would show some typical, little girl affection for her new buddy. Maybe she’d had enough affection for one day.

“Hey, Hot Wheels, did you forget something?”

“No, it’s just that… I said I only had seven red gummies for you… and well… I was holding out.”

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