Eastward Bound

Tina’s body suddenly jerked forward as Bradley down-shifted the truck, pulling her back to reality. Shaking with fear, she tried to focus and slow her breathing while remnants of the nightmare clung to the edges of her mind.

The dream never changed and had haunted her for several months now– ever since the first time Michael hit her. That first time was just a slap to the side of her head and took her completely by surprise. She remembered being shocked and confused at first. But most of all she remembered feeling embarrassed as it happened in front of his old college buddy, Rudy.

Rudy roughly pulled Michael away from her, yelling, “What the hell, Mike? What’s wrong with you? All she did was ask you to stop drinking and you fucking hit her!?”

Rudy was a big man, with a teddy bear’s heart, and towered over Michael as he stared into his eyes with anger rising. Tina would never forget the look on Michael’s face at that moment. He stood in front of her looking lost and trembling, as he apologised for what he’d done.

“Oh, my god, Tina, I’m so sorry, honey. I don’t know what happened, please forgive me. You know I love you. I swear it will never happen again.”

Tina knew that Michael said a lot more to her on that day but she couldn’t remember what, as all she could remember was the look in his eyes as he spoke. She could see the truth in his eyes, a truth that chilled her to her core. The words he spoke on that day were not for her but for him, so he would look good to his friend. He had other words for her that would be spoken later.

“Pig, idiot, moron and ugly fat bitch,” were just some of the words he used before the hitting began. At first he would scream the words as a precursor for the upcoming punch or kick. But things got much worse when he stopped screaming the words and started speaking them with a cold calm and a smile on his face. He was starting to enjoy the power that he held over her, and the fear in her eyes, as she rolled into a ball on the floor while he kicked and punched her until he was too tired to continue.

The last time was different. She felt he was trying to kill her as he slammed her head into the floor, several times, before leaving her nearly unconscious to go to the bar to meet his buddies. She knew it would come to this and, with Rudy’s help, had been planning her escape for weeks. It was Friday night and Rudy had promised that Michael would be staying at his house that night.

It took Tina an hour to drag herself to the bathroom and get cleaned up, before grabbing her go-bag and heading to Calgary’s downtown bus depot. The bus for Winnipeg would be leaving at 8am, which meant she had almost eight hours to wait. Moving quickly with her head down, she entered the depot washroom where she would spend the next hour changing her appearance. She pulled the makeup kit from her bag and slowly changed her complexion from pale white to slightly tanned. After staring in the mirror for a long time, trying her best to hide the bruising on her face, Tina finally gave up and pulled the wig from her bag. She put her black hair into a bun and pulled the blonde wig with blue streaks over her head. She then changed her clothes and shoes before taking the picture that Rudy had given her and turning to look in the mirror. The transformation was magical– she looked almost identical to the girl in the picture.

Avoiding the cameras, she walked to the ticket booth and bought a one-way ticket. Tina acted exhausted as she was informed that the trip to Winnipeg would take about twenty hours. But several hours later as she boarded the bus, she couldn’t help but feel free knowing that in less than nine hours she would be getting off that bus, in Moose Jaw, where she would switch places with Rudy’s friend, Martha.

The switch in Moose Jaw went perfectly. She met Martha in the washroom where she changed wigs and clothes before giving Martha her ticket to Winnipeg. The two women hugged for a long time before Martha told Tina to walk about ten minutes down the highway where she would find a large truck-stop with showers and good food.

She said, “If you’re lucky you’ll meet a guy named Bradley. He’s a good man and I know he’ll help you.”

“How will I know him?”

“Don’t worry you’ll know him. He’s a lot like Rudy. He’s a big guy with an even bigger heart and a pair of eyes that will take your breath away.”

After a long hot shower at the truck stop, and reapplying some camouflaging makeup, she walked to the restaurant with her stomach growling. The first thing that struck her was the overwhelming noise. The place was packed and alive with loud conversation and laughter. She felt her mouth water as the smell from the fryers entered her nostrils and dragged her to the counter. A few minutes later, with her club sandwich in her hands, she made her way around the restaurant looking for a seat. The place was completely full except for one table at the back where a big guy sat alone!

Struggling against fear, Tina walked up to him and quietly asked if she could please share his table. He was looking down at his food and when he raised his head to look at her she was struck speechless by his eyes. She had never seen anything like them; they were the most incredible shade of blue imaginable. Feeling that a woman could easily become lost in those eyes, she felt it difficult to look away until he smiled and said, “Are you okay? Did you hear me?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just so loud in here.”

He laughed, “I know. It’s always like this here as it’s the last stop for a long ways.”

He pointed to the seat across from him, “Please sit down. I could use the company.”

Tina took the seat as he put his hand out and said, “Nice to meet you, I’m Bradley.”

She shook his hand, “Thank you, Bradley. My name is Ti…”

“Your name is Tea?”

“Sorry I’m a little tired. My name is Teresa.”

He smiled, “Okay then, Teresa it is.”

Something in his eyes reminded her of Rudy and made her feel safe. He was a handsome man in a rough kind of way. His face was all sharp edges and hollows, shadowed by a couple of day’s growth of facial hair. But she felt that there was much more to this man than just appealing features, of which there were plenty. Kindness and laughter danced in his eyes but she could also see the pain that lived there. She recognised that pain as she’d seen it in her own eyes and knew it was the kind of pain that scarred your heart and stayed with you.

Bradley was a little confused by this woman at first. It seemed she was trying to hide her beauty behind makeup and clothes that hid her best features. He didn’t know why she lied about her name or what she was running from. But what he felt, for certain, was that she was running. They sat at the table for over an hour, talking and laughing, before Tina gained the courage to ask if he was heading east. He could easily see that she was nervous but he could also see great fear behind her eyes and said, “It’s ok Teresa. Yes I’m heading east, all the way to Newfoundland. I’ll gladly take you as far as you want to go. God knows, I could use the company.”

She said she had friends in Toronto, and if he could get her anywhere close she would be grateful.

Bradley said, “It’s a little out of my way but I’ll take you there.”

Touched by his kindness, she said, “Thank you so much but I don’t want you to do that. If you drop me where I can get a bus that would be fine.”

Tina could see the concern of a good man in his eyes as he leaned forward and spoke softly,

“Sorry Teresa but I know what it feels like to be hurting and living on fear and adrenaline. I don’t know what you’re running from, but I have a good idea, and I insist on placing you safely in your friends’ hands. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you because I didn’t get you there.”

Several hours later she awoke from her nightmare in the cab of his truck.

It took Tina a minute to shake the cobwebs away before turning to see Bradley smiling at her as he was pulling the truck into a parking area. Stretching and smiling back at him she asked, “Where are we?”

“Well, sleepy head. Welcome back, we just crossed into Ontario, we’re in Kenora now.”

“How much farther is it to Toronto?”

“It’s about twenty hours but I have to stop here for eight hours before I can drive again.”

During the long drive from Moose Jaw they had talked about many things, including safety rules for drivers. They could accumulate thirteen hours of driving before having to take an eight hour break. She quickly did the math in her head, “So counting this break and one more it should take about thirty-six hours. Am I correct?”

Bradley couldn’t help but laugh as she looked at him like a proud school kid.

He said, “Yes, Miss Teresa, that’s correct and you’ve won the prize.”

Her playful smile pulled at his heart strings as she asked, “Oh, Mr. Bradley, what have I won? Is it something special?”

“Yes it’s something special. You’ve won the right to a hot shower before a hearty breakfast with me. What do you think? Is it a good prize?”

She thought about how this man was only concerned with helping her and not why she was running, before answering, “Yes, Bradley, It is a good prize. I think it’s the best prize I’ve ever won.”

As she sat there looking into his eyes he couldn’t help but think of another woman that had looked at him like that, years before. That woman had fractured his heart and the heart of their six year old son, when she’d left them both to be with another man. It’d been two years since that day and he could still feel the pain as if it was yesterday. His mother, worried about the burden of heartbreak that her son carried, spoke to him before this trip.

She said that it was time for him to move on and stop living in the past. He argued that it wasn’t about him but about his son, Jerry. He couldn’t risk Jerry getting hurt again. That’s when she said, “Jerry is hurting, Bradley. Can’t you see that? He needs his dad back, not the ghost of what he once was. It’s time for you to step up and be the man you are. It’s time for you to get back to being you.”

A day and a half after leaving Kenora, after an overnight stay in a motel, they arrived in Toronto. During that overnight stay they’d shared their truths. She’d told him that her real name was Tina and how she’d never really had a loving home. She was taken from her alcoholic parents at a young age and raised in foster care until she aged out. His heart broke for her as she spoke about being homeless and couch-surfing from one friend to another before meeting Michael and jumping from the pan into the fire. He held her tight as she cried after telling him about what Michael had done.

He’d told her about Sherry and what she’d done to him and his son. When Bradley talked about his son, Tina could see the strength of his love and it warmed her heart. As he spoke, Tina wondered if she would ever be able to trust a man again and if so, could it be this man.

Later that night as Bradley lay on the floor listening to Tina sleeping, he felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time– he felt alive.

They met Tina’s friends in a coffee shop, where they talked for an hour before Bradley asked her to come to his truck. He pulled a photo from the driver side sun-visor and handed it to Tina, saying, “I want you to have this so you don’t forget me.” The picture showed Bradley and his son standing on a rocky beach in Newfoundland, smiling at the camera, and had his phone number on the back.

He said, “I know you have a lot to deal with right now but when you feel the time is right please call me. I’ll be waiting.”

Over the next three months they talked over the phone several times and face to face twice. They met at a coffee shop both times as Bradley was passing through town on his way out west. After that second visit when Tina returned home, her friend Mary sat her down and asked her what the hell she was doing. She said, “This guy is obviously in love with you and would never do anything to hurt you. What are you waiting for? Are you going to wait until it’s too late?”

She thought about Mary’s last sentence for a minute before grabbing her phone and making the call that Bradley had been waiting for.

A week later, Tina rode the escalator down to the arrivals area at the St. John’s airport, with her heart on her sleeve. Tears filled her eyes as she saw a little boy at the bottom of the escalator with the most incredible blue eyes she had ever seen. He waved and smiled while holding a homemade sign that read, “Welcome home, Tina, my daddy says he loves you!”

For the first time in her life Tina felt at home. She understood now that home wasn’t a place but a feeling and that feeling was love as Bradley pulled her close and kissed her before whispering, “Please don’t hurt me.”

She held him tight, crying, as she inhaled the scent of this man- this real and good man that she knew would never hurt her.

Bradley felt something in him change as Tina stared into his eyes with an understanding that touched his soul, saying, “How could I ever hurt you, Bradley? Your kindness has saved me.”