Good Afternoon

Chapter 9.

Upon arriving home, it was almost dark outside, lights from many of the apartment building windows shown through the windows, a few were open with their curtains flowing in and out of the window with the slight breeze that carried with it a cool dampness. Officer Blake wasn't anywhere to be seen, but there was a young attractive female officer walking around the building entrance. Justin leaped up the apartment building steps taking 3 steps at a time. The young woman stopped him before he could reach for the door knob.

"Do you live here?" She said rather flatly.

"Yes, I'm Justin Justice. There was a break in in our apartment this morning. That's why you're here, isn't it?"

"Affirmative. Officer Blake's shift ended, so I've taken his place." She looked him over somewhat suspiciously, "He had nothing out of the ordinary to report, but I've been assigned to patrol this area on foot for the night."

"Great. I know my Mom will rest more easy knowing someone is on the watch tonight."

With that he entered the building and leaped up the steps to the second floor taking 3 steps at a time. As he walked down the corridor, he had an urge to see if Marty had gotten home yet, so when he came to Marty's apartment door, he knocked a couple of times. There was no answer. Just out of curiosity, he tried the door and found it was unlocked, so he slowly opened the door.

"Marty, are you here?" He called out as he stuck is head into the barely opened doorway. There was a light on in the bathroom, but the rest of the apartment was dark, so he came in and closed the door behind himself.

"Marty? Its me, Justin." He looked around and slowly approached the open door of the lit bathroom. There was no one there, but the sink faucet was dripping onto the sink which was almost over flowing with water. Justin looked closer to find a white t-shirt covered with blood stains was being soaked in the sink.

"Holy shit!" He stepped back a step in shock at the sight of the blood stained t-shirt, turned and rushed back out of the apartment.

- - -

"Mom, I'm home!" Justin called as he entered their apartment. He could smell food cooking and heard his Mom humming a melody as she was cooking in the kitchen. "I'll take this trash out." He sat the bag which contained the phone and paperwork on the little table next to the doorway, then picked up the 3 trash bags, sat them in the hallway for a moment while he closed the apartment door. The bags were heavy with their contents, so he had to shift his grip a few times so the plastic bag didn't cut off his circulation as he gripped them firmly in his hands. He headed down the back steps of the apartment building where the trash dumpsters were lined up against a delapidated wooden fence that separated the area from the back are of apartment building next door. He opened the dumpster lid, then threw each bag in one at a time. He heard a shriek as one of the bags hit a rat that had been scavenging food from the dumpster. He slammed the lid shut then headed back into the building. Before he opened the door, he stood on the back stoop and looked around and up at the buildings which were on the other side of the wide alley way. He was looking for a window from which the picture in his pocket might have been taken. From that angle, he really couldn't see much more than the lights shining through the windows. After a short while, the opened the door and returned to his apartment.

When Justin entered their apartment, Cindy was just coming out of the kitchen. "Dinner's ready dear, go get washed up so we can eat."

And so he did, he washed his hands and face, and combed his hair. He hung the hand towel on the towel rack before turning off the bathroom light and heading back to the kitchen.

"I got a little surprise for you Mom." Justin held the bag behind his back as he entered the kitchen.

Cindy was already seated at the kitchen table serving herself with some of the food she'd prepared. "Oh? What is it?" she looked up from the serving bowl of mashed potatoes.

Justin handed her the bag. "The cell phone plan I got gave me an extra phone and number for only a dollar more so now you have a phone too!" he was excited and showed it in his voice and actions. "Isn't that great?"

She removed the box containing the new cell phone from the bag and looked it over, "This is wonderful. I'm glad we finally have a phone once again."

So, as they sat there and ate together, Justin told her about how to use the cell phone. He also showed her how to enter phone numbers into the phone's phone book by entering his cell phone number into the phone book. They were both excited like children on Christmas morning playing with their new toys. He removed the phone battery charger kit from the bag, placed it on the counter next to the digital clock and plugged it in. He placed his own phone in the charger rack before setting down to finish his meal.

After the meal was over, he helped clear the table and helped do the dishes. He dried the dishes as Cindy handed them to him after having rinsed them in the warm flowing water. She hummed a random melody as she washed the dishes. Occasionally, she brushed the hair out of her eyes out of habit without even thinking about doing it.

With the dishes done, the kitchen back in order, they both went into the living room where they both sat on the sofa. Cindy had started another sewing project, so busied herself with that while Justin found a magazine he'd not read before and thumbed through it looking for something interesting to read.

"In going through your room, I found a nasty paperback book on the floor." Cindy didn't look at him as she spoke, "Where in the world did you get such a book?"

Justin blushed, "What book? You found a nasty book in my room?" He knew what she was talking about but played it dumb.

"It was a paper back book with the cover torn off." She looked at him briefly before returning her attention to the sewing. "I don't know why, but I opened it and read a few lines from a random page." She continued her sewing but didn't say anything for a few moments, "Is that the kind of stuff you spend your time reading when you go to your room to read?"

"Oh, THAT book," he chuckled, "I found that outside the front of the apartment building on the side walk. I was going to read it, but didn't have a chance to yet." He paused, "It's a nasty book?"

"Yes. I threw it in the trash with the rest of the broken stuff. I don't want you reading such filth." She stopped her sewing and looked at him sternly.

"That's cool. I'm sorry, I didn't know that's the kind of book it was. You know how much I like to read, so I couldn't pass up a book laying on the sidewalk. What do you mean by nasty?"

"Well, it had sexual stuff between a man and a boy. I only read a few lines, but it was revolting."

"Oh. I'm sorry I picked it up. I guess I shouldn't pick up stuff I find on the sidewalk. There must be some perverts who live around here or something." He desperately wanted to change the subject. "Would you mind telling me again what happened this morning?"

"I told the investigator this morning, you were there, you were listening weren't you?"

"Yeah, but I'd like to hear about it again if you don't mind, I mean, I was pretty shook up and all, so I wasn't focusing very well. I was so worried about you being okay and everything."

"It wasn't long after you left that I heard someone knocking on the apartment door, I thought maybe you'd forgotten your key and locked yourself out, so I opened the door only to be hit in the face by this man dress all in black. He wore a stocking cap that was rolled down over his face so all I could see were his brown eyes. He violently pushed open the door, hit me in the face with his closed fist which sort of knocked me out. The next thing I knew, my wrist ached from the cloth he'd bound my hands together with, my cheek really hurt, and my mouth was taped shut with duct tape. I looked around still not seeing too clearly to realize I was laying on the floor in my bedroom." She rubbed her cheek which was swollen and bruised. "I heard crashing and breaking sounds coming from the living room, then your bedroom. I feared for my life, so I just laid there as still as I could with my eyes closed." She looked into the space before her, looking but not really looking, visualizing the experience. "I don't know how long it was, but eventually the sounds stopped and it became very quite." She looked at him, "Then I heard the door open and you call to me. You know the rest."

"How tall was he? Could you tell me anymore about his size and stuff?"

"I can't say, I only caught a glimpse of him before he hit me." She paused, "What kind of awful man hits a woman? If your father was still here, that man would have hell to pay for hitting me like that."

"He'll have hell to pay if I ever get my hands on him." Justin said angrily.

"I didn't really mean that, I mean, let the police handle this. Its bad enough that our home was broken into, I don't want anything worse to happen, especially to you."

"I'm no fool ya know. I know how to take care of myself." He thought back to his high school days, "Taking that self defense class at school was time well spent."

"Fighting someone with helmet gloves and padding isn't anything like fighting someone on the streets." She looked him straight in the eyes, "I want you to promise me you won't take the law into your own hands. I want you to promise me that you will let the police take care of this."

"What if the police never do anything? What if that guy comes here again when I'm here? Do you want me to hide in a corner and let whatever happens happen?"

"There are a lot of "what ifs" that I don't have answers for, but I do know I love you and don't want you to be hurt. Please promise me you will let the law handle this."

"Okay, I promise, but I'm not going to stand by and let someone hit you again without doing anything to defend you."

"Fair enough."

They sat there for a long time in silence, Cindy working on her sewing project and Justin reading the magazine article. Time passed and it seemed that the evening and night routine returned as much to normal as it could without having a working TV or radio.

Justin looked at his watch to see it was already ten o'clock. "I'm gonna go to bed. Good night Mom." He leaned towards her while still seated on the sofa, kissed her on the cheek that wasn't bruised, then got up and headed for his room, "I love you Mom."

"Good night sweet heart. Sweet dreams." She put the remainder of her project back in the basket, stood up, stretched then said, mostly to herself since Justin had already left the room, "I'm tired too, I think I'll hit the hay as well. Its been a long hard day."