Author, Abigail L. Johnson lives and works in Sheridan, Wyoming USA. For paid employment, she presently works as an activities assistant in a nursing home. On a volunteer basis, she is involved at other facilities in the community that serve senior citizens. She has also facilitated a support group for the visually impaired and has served on the advisory board to a state trust fund which allows visually impaired people in Wyoming to purchase adaptive equipment and services.
"Your Honor," said Mary. "I don't think I should be a member of this jury. Last year, a close friend of mine was raped by someone she knew and so in a case of acquaintance rape like this one, I don't believe I can provide an unbiased opinion."
"Hmm," said the judge thoughtfully. "Was this guy ever prosecuted?"
"No, sir," replied Mary. "Unfortunately, my friend waited three days to report it and so there was little evidence to prosecute the case. However, she was able to get a restraining order against him in your court. I was with her when that happened. At the end of the proceedings, you said that you had been having a rough week and you wished this guy had shown up at the hearing so you could yell at him."
"Hmm," said the judge again, scratching his head. "Now that I think of it, it seems to me that I do vaguely remember something like that. Ok. I won't ask who your friend is because I'm sure she wouldn't want her name known here. I'll just take your word for it. You're free to go."
It had been a long morning and Mary was hungry. As she finally left the courthouse, she breathed a sigh of relief and checked her talking watch. "It's 11:45 A.M.," said the soothing female voice on the watch. Good, Mary thought. She had arranged to meet her friend Sue at noon for a quick lunch before returning to the courthouse to continue the trial at one. However, Mary was glad that she had been disqualified from the jury. Now, the two friends could have a nice, leisurely lunch. The diner was a few blocks away but Mary figured if she hurried, she would probably just make it. As she walked quickly down the street, sliding the ball tip of her white cane in front of her on the sidewalk, she thought about the incident that happened to sue a year ago.
Like Mary, Sue was also visually impaired. But Sue's condition was due to diabetes. However, Sue had more vision than Mary. For the past few years, Sue had been working as a certified nursing assistant at the nursing home where Mary worked in the recreation and leisure department.
A little over a year ago, Sue had met Ted at a church gathering and they soon became fast friends. At that time, Ted had told her that he had just wanted a friendly relationship and that was what Sue wanted too. Then a couple of months later, things changed dramatically.
Mary had never had a chance to meet Ted. So, the only information she had about him was what Sue had told her. Ted's father owned and ran a coin-operated machine business in town but Ted had become estranged from his father because he no longer wanted to be involved in the business. Ted had also done drugs but at the time he met Sue, he was in rehabilitation. He had bought an old trailer and was in the process of renovating it. He also had plans to start a home improvement business. To support himself for the time being, he was working at a local supermarket.
Soon after Ted met sue, he started inviting her to his trailer where they would often eat dinner and watch Tv. One night, Ted offered to show Sue his bedroom, which he had just finished remodeling.As they were sitting on his bed, it happened.
As Sue told Mary later, Ted suddenly put his hand inside the front of her blouse and began touching her. When Sue resisted, Ted assured her that he would not hurt her and that he wanted to have a sexual relationship with her. Sue passed out, either from the shock of what was happening, or because her blood sugar had gotten too high, or, as Mary suspected, the ice cream Ted had given Sue earlier was laced with the date rape drug. In any case, when Sue woke up, Ted was on top of her and inside her. Afterwards, as Ted was driving her home, he told her that he really cared about her and that he wanted to continue having a sexual relationship.
This had happened on a Friday night. All weekend, Sue told nobody,not even Mary. As she told Mary later, she thought the incident was her fault. Mary and Sue had lunch on Saturday and Sue seemed normal. Mary had no idea that anything was wrong. So on Monday night, when Sue finally told her, Mary was just as shocked as Sue had been when it happened. By that time, Sue had reported the incident to the police and had sought counseling at a local women's center. Sue heard from friends, after the fact, that Ted had been in trouble with the law for domestic violence. This prompted her to seek a restraining order against Ted.
A few days later, Sue was scheduled to appear in court to request that restraining order and Mary agreed to accompany her. That was when they had met that same judge that Mary saw this morning and the order was issued. Although Ted had called Sue once between the time of the incident and the time the order was issued and left a message on her answering machine, Sue heard nothing from him since the order was issued. He hadn't even shown up in court, to Sue's immense relief.
A month later, Sue heard from another friend that Ted had left town. Apparently, he had been fired from his job at the supermarket for failing a random drug test and decided to hit the road. However, this fact did not help Sue's recovery very much. She had trouble sleeping at night and suffered from panic attacks. One of these attacks happened at work, while she was bathing an elderly man. Fortunately, the resident was not injured. Sue felt compelled to see a therapist three days a week in order to deal with her feelings of shame, fear, and betrayal. Mary felt useless because she didn't know how to help her friend. But Sue assured her that just being there was enough.
Gradually, with the help of family, friends, her therapist, and her cat Tabby, Sue began to heal. The sleepless nights and the panic attacks eventually decreased and Sue got to the point where she only needed to see her therapist one day a week instead of three. At work, once she told her supervisor and co-workers why she had the panic attack, they were very sympathetic and after that, she was not expected to do any work with male residents that required her to see them naked. Now, a year later, it seemed to Mary that Sue had finally put the incident behind her and was moving on.
As Mary entered the crowded diner, she looked and listened for Sue. With Mary's limited vision, she could not pick out faces in a crowd but Sue was able to do that and if she had gotten there first, she would have been keeping an eye out for Mary. After waiting a minute or so, Mary realized that Sue had not yet arrived. She wandered in search of a table, knowing that Sue would find her when she got there.
The diner was spacious and clean. A jukebox stood near the door, and just to the right of it, Mary noticed a man removing a sack of money from somewhere inside the machine. Mary was immediately reminded of Ted and his family's coin-operated machine business. On Mary's left, there was a counter with stools and on her right, a row of booths lined the wall. Mary finally spotted a booth and made her way to it.
As Mary was settling herself. A waitress appeared with a coffee pot. "Would you like coffee?" she asked.
"No thank you," replied Mary. "But I will have a glass of water. And there's someone else coming so I'll wait to order until she gets here."
"Sure thing," replied the waitress with a smile before hurrying away.
A few minutes later, a man approached Mary's booth carrying a sack in one hand and a box in the other. Mary instantly recognized him as the man who had been removing money from the jukebox. "Excuse me," he said. "Do you mind if I sit here for a few minutes and count these coins? There aren't any other tables available right now."
"Well," said Mary rather hesitantly. "I am meeting someone here but she's not here yet so you may as well sit here until she shows up."
"Thanks," said the man with a smile. "This won't take long."
He settled himself opposite Mary and dumped the coins from the sack onto the table. He then began counting and sorting the coins into piles. "By the way," he said as he worked. "I saw you in court this morning. I don't know much about the law but you probably did the right thing by bowing out of that jury."
"You know," said Mary. "I was tempted not to say anything at all and see if I could get this guy convicted, even though he's not the one who did that to my friend."
"But he might not have been guilty," replied the stranger.
"Exactly," replied Mary.
"So, whatever happened to this guy, anyway?" asked the man. "Is he still in town?"
"No, thank God," replied Mary. "He had been working at Karl' IGA North when this happened. About a month later, my friend heard that he had failed a random drug test there and as a result, he was fired and so he hit the road."
"That's very interesting," said the gentleman, his eyebrows raising slightly. "I was working at Karl's IGA North last year, too. One day, I made the mistake of sampling the bakery's poppy seed bread. Then, I was randomly summoned to take a drug test. Did you know that if you eat poppy seed bread and then pea in a cup, some chemical in the bread turns up as LSD? Well of course, I was fired because nobody believed that I had actually eaten the bread."
Mary felt a creeping suspicion. "It's funny that I should meet you," she said, hoping she was wrong. "This guy's father owned a coin-operated machine business."
Before the man could respond, Mary's suspicion was confirmed by a startled cry of a familiar voice. "Ted!" Mary turned her head and saw Sue standing at their table, her face white.
"You're Ted Winston, aren't you?" she asked the man, her anger rising.
"Yes," answered Ted nervously, continuing to count his coins.
"It's Ok, Sue," said Mary. "I had no idea this was the guy. We'll go eat somewhere else."
Mary quickly put on her coat and grabbed her cane. In her haste, she accidentally hit a pile of coins that was close to the edge of the table and sent them clattering to the floor. Ted looked up, startled. Mary sensed that people had turned to look in their direction but she figured she was on a roll now. Another purposeful sweep of her arm sent the rest of the coins on the table clanking to the floor. She then glared at Ted. "Since Judge Watson didn't have an opportunity to yell at you last year, I'll do it now. You're scum of the earth. You're the lowest of the low. You've got a lot of nerve, buddy, you know that." At that point, the diner fell silent.
A woman in her mid fifties appeared. quickly appeared. "Is there a problem here?" she asked.
Mary guessed that this woman was probably the manager and she realized that she was probably making a fool out of herself but she didn't care anymore. First pointing at Ted and then at Sue, she said, "Yes, there is. This man raped my friend here a year ago and he's still free today. As a matter of fact, he services your jukebox and as long as he's doing that, I will not eat in this place again!" A collective gasp rose from others in the diner. Then, putting her arm around Sue, she said calmly. "Come on, Sue. Let's go."
"Wait a minute, Mary," said Sue, having apparently gained some of her composure. She looked straight at Ted and said coolly, "You know, Ted. Someday, You will have to account to God for your actions."
The ball tip of Mary's cane scattered the coins on the floor as the two friends made their way to the door. As they stepped outside, Sue said, "I need to sit down for a minute. This has been such a shock."
"Of course," said Mary. "I think there's a bench around the corner to your right."
As the two settled themselves, Mary noticed a green pick-up truck parked directly in front of them but she thought nothing of it as she told Sue what had happened in court that morning and how she had come to meet Ted in the diner.
"I wonder if Ted is on that jury," said Sue.
"I doubt it," said Mary. "Or he wouldn't have taken the time to collect the money from the jukebox. We would have had to be back at the courthouse by one."
At that point, their conversation was interrupted by a commotion at the entrance to the diner. Around the corner came Ted and a couple of other men wheeling the jukebox. In astonishment, the two friends watched as the jukebox was loaded into the back of the green pick-up truck. Without a word to anyone, Ted got in the truck and drove away.
Then, the two men who had been helping Ted approached Mary and Sue. They looked like cowboys, dressed in jeans, denim shirts,cowboy hats, and cowboy boots. They appeared to be in their mid sixties. They removed their hats and smiled at the two women.
"Hi," said one of them with a smile. "You don't have to worry about Ted Winston coming around this place anymore. Shirley, she's the owner, she told him flat out she no longer wanted his business after you two left. Ted said he'd have to get one of his men to help him move the jukebox out but Shirley wouldn't listen to that. She just kept telling him to get the hell out of her restaurant and take his damn jukebox with him. So, Slim and I, having nothing else to do except drink coffee and shoot the breeze, offered to help Ted move the jukebox. Shirley wouldn't even let him pick up his money that you tossed on the floor. So, like I say, Ted would be pretty stupid to show his face here again."
"Thanks so much for that information," said Sue and after saying good-bye, the two men sauntered towards the entrance to the diner.
"Wow," said Mary. "It looks like Ted may be accounting to more than just God for this."
For the next few weeks, Mary and Sue did not eat out at all because Sue did not feel safe venturing out, unless absolutely necessary. "Who knows where I might run into him? And I don't know what I would do if I did." The insomnia and the panic attacks returned and Sue increased her visits to her therapist. The two friends either ordered pizza or took turns cooking for one another in their apartments.
One day however, Sue said to Mary on the phone, "Let's go to that diner again."
Mary was stunned. "You have got to be kidding. I could never show my face there again after that scene I made."
Well," said Sue. "As that one cowboy said, Ted would be pretty stupid to show up there again so I know I would be safe. Besides, it's a beautiful day and I've got spring fever. And I'm sick of pizza and hamburger helper. So, what do you say?"
"I don't know," said Mary. "Why don't I run over to that Chinese place and pick up some food. I could haul it home in my little grocery cart. Or maybe they deliver. We haven't had Chinese food in a long time."
"Oh, come on," said Sue. "I'm tired of eating at your place or my place all the time. I want to do something different, Ok?"
After a short pause in which Mary thought about this, she said reluctantly, "Ok." and hung up the phone.
Mary and Sue met in the lobby of the apartment building where they both lived and walked to the diner, which was only a few blocks away. With some trepidation, Mary followed Sue inside. Immediately, she noticed that a different jukebox stood where the old one had been.
"Wow," said Sue. "This jukebox looks brand new. The other one Ted had looked kind of beat up."
"Yeah," said Mary, uncertainly.
"Come on, Mary," said Sue, putting an arm around her friend. "Nobody's going to bite you."
They found a booth near the jukebox and settled themselves. As they did so, the jukebox suddenly began to play. Both women were startled.
"I don't think anyone put any money in or made a selection," said Mary in bewilderment.
You're right," said Sue. "I'm starting to wonder if this place is haunted."
"Oh, no," said a smiling man in his mid fifties who was passing their table apparently on his way out the door. Mary noticed that he was carrying a box almost the exact same size as Ted had been carrying but Mary could not tell what was inside. "That jukebox will play a song at random every twenty minutes if somebody doesn't play it. That's supposed to get people to play it. I should know. That machine has been leased to this place by Black Hills Novelty, my new employer."
"Your new employer?" asked Mary, suddenly curious.
"Yeah," replied the man. "I used to work for Winston Novelty but Ted had to sell out pretty quick. You see, there was some scandal about him raping a woman a year ago which came up all of a sudden a few weeks ago. Since then, hardly anyone wants his business anymore. So, he put the business on the market and Black Hills Novelty snatched it up right away. And Ted told them I was a good worker and so they hired me."
"So, is Ted planning to leave town, do you think?" asked Sue hopefully.
"Definitely," replied the man. "He and his mom are moving to a new town they haven't decided on yet but Ted told me he would rather go into the home improvement business instead of the coin-operated machine business."
"It must be a relief for you to still have a job, even though Ted's gone out of business," said Mary.
"Oh yeah," replied the man with a shrug. "But I'll miss Ted. I've known him for years. I even worked for his father before he died last year. When that happened, Ted had left town because he and his dad just weren't getting along. Then, when Lee died, Ted's mom, Patty, needed someone to run the business because she knew nothing about it. You see, Lee had been doing all the managing and all Patty did was answer the phones and tell us what machines had broken down where. So, Ted came back as a favor to her but I think he would have rather gone somewhere else and started his home improvement business."
"When did Lee die?" asked Sue.
"It was in May of last year," answered the man. "He was only in his fifties but he had heart trouble and diabetes and he was drinking too much and not taking care of himself. Of course, the difficulty with Ted wasn't helping much either. You see, Ted was Lee and Patty's only child and Lee was afraid that without Ted, the business would go belly up when Lee died. Of course, Lee's drinking got worse during the last couple months of his life. That was when Ted had left town."
Mary did some quick calculating. Sue's assault had happened in March of the previous year. Apparently, Ted had left town soon after that. Then, two months later, Ted's father had died and Ted had been forced to return to run the family business. Mary found it amazing that Ted and Sue had not run into each other since the incident. She figured that Ted had probably gone out of his way to avoid Sue, since he knew where she worked and what her habits were.
"Ted's a pretty good kid," the man was now saying. "He just made some mistakes and hopefully, he'll be able to start fresh somewhere else." He then put the box he had been carrying on the table, reached into his pocket, and extracted some coins, which he placed on the table as well. "I don't need these for anything. You gals play the jukebox." And with that, he picked up the box and walked out the door. No sooner had he left when there appeared that same woman in her mid fifties, who had shown up when Mary had first yelled at Ted. Mary cringed inwardly. But the woman had a broad grin on her face and was carrying a manilla envelope, which clanked as though it contained money.
"Hi," she said brightly. "I'm Shirley. I own this place. After you girls left that day, I was so mad at Ted, I told him to get out and take his jukebox with him. I didn't even give him a chance to pick up the money you knocked on the floor. So, as the guys were moving the jukebox out, everyone else was on the floor, picking up coins as fast as they could. Then, they all decided that you should have the money." With that, she placed the envelope on the table in front of Sue. "I know it won't change what happened but I hope it'll help. It is Ted's money."
"I believe I owe you an apology," said Mary. "I didn't mean to make a scene."
"Nonsense," said Shirley. "Thanks to you, this town has less scum. Who knows how many other women he might have harmed? We take care of our own around here and if Ted can't keep it where it belongs, then he doesn't belong here. By the way, your lunch is on the house. Order whatever you want."
"Thanks," said Mary and Sue in astonishment as Shirley walked away, leaving them to reflect on all that had happened.
"Would you like to hear about our specials, today?" asked the waitress a few minutes later, as she was pouring coffee.
"Yes," answered Sue. "But first, I would like a chocolate shake." Before Mary could say anything, she continued, "To hell with my diabetes, I want to celebrate."
"Sure thing," replied the waitress and she hurried off to make the milk shake.
Sue then stood up, picked up the envelope with the coins as well as the extra coins the serviceman had left, and walked over to the jukebox, which had stopped playing by now. She methodically inserted coins into the jukebox and made selections. And the music played.