Tribute

“And you’re a liar if you say different.”
    “I’m not a liar, Mrs. Hennessy, and I’m not a whore.”
    “I don’t know what you are.”
    “You know, unless you’re as crazy as he is, that I’m not responsible for what happened to your son.”
    “Don’t talk about my boy. You don’t know my boy. You don’t know anything about it.”
    “That’s absolutely right. I don’t. Why would you blame me?”
    “I don’t blame you.” Weariness simply covered her. “Why would I blame you for what happened all those terrible years ago? There’s nobody to blame for that. I blame you for bringing the police down on my husband when we did nothing to you.”
    “When I went over to his van to introduce myself, to express my sympathy, he called me a bitch and a whore, and he spat at me.”
    A flush of shame stained Mrs. Hennessy’s cheeks. Her lips trembled as her eyes shifted away. “That’s what you say.”
    “My half sister was right there. Is she a liar, too?”
    “Even if it is so, it’s a far cry from everything you’re laying at our door.”
    “You saw the way he looked at me last night, in the park. You know how much he hates me. I’m appealing to you, Mrs. Hennessy. Keep him away from me and my home.”
    Cilla turned away. She’d only gotten halfway down the ramp when she heard the door shut, and the lock shoot home.
    Oddly, the conversation, however tense and difficult, made her feel better. She’d done something besides calling the police and sitting back, waiting for the next assault.
    Pushing forward, as that was the direction she was determined to go, she swung by the real estate office to make an offer on the first house she’d selected. She went in low, a fair chunk lower than she felt the house was worth in the current market. To Cilla, the negotiations, the offers, the counters, were all part of the fun.
    Back in the loaner, she contacted the agent in charge of the second listing to make an appointment for a viewing. No point, she decided, in letting the moss grow. She drove back to Morrow Village, completed another handful of errands, including a quick grocery run, before heading back toward home.
    She spotted the white van before Hennessy spotted her. Since he came from the direction of the Little Farm, she assumed he’d had time to go home, talk to his wife and drive out while she’d been running around Front Royal and the Village.
    He caught sight of her as their vehicles passed, and the flare of recognition burned over his face.
    “Yeah, that’s right,” she muttered as she rounded a curve, “not my truck, since you beat the hell out of it last night.” She shook off the annoyance, took the next turn. Her gaze flicked up to the rearview mirror to see the van coming up behind her.
    So you want to have this out? she wondered. Have what Ford called a face-to-face? That’s fine. Great. He could just follow her home where they’d have a—
    The wheel jerked in her hands when the van rammed her from behind. The sheer shock didn’t allow room for anger, even for fear, as she tightened her grip.
    He rammed her again—a smash of metal, a squeal of tires. The truck seemed to leap under her and buck to the right. She wrenched the wheel, fighting it back. Before she could punch the gas, he rammed her a third time. Her tires skidded off the asphalt and onto the shoulder while her body jerked forward, slammed back. Her fender kissed the guardrail, and her temple slapped smartly against the side window.
    Small bright dots danced in front of her eyes as she gritted her teeth, prayed and steered into the skid. The truck swerved, and for one hideous moment she feared it would flip. She landed with a bone-jarring thud, nose-down, in the runoff gully on the opposite shoulder as her air bag burst open.
    Later, she would think it was sheer adrenaline, sheer piss-in-your-face mad that had her leaping out of the truck, slamming the door. A woman ran across the lawn of a house set back across the road. “I saw what he did! I saw it! I called the police!”
    Neither Cilla nor Hennessy paid any attention. He shoved out of the van, fists balled at his sides as they came at each other.
    “You don’t come to my house! You don’t talk to my wife!”
    “Fuck you! Fuck you! You’re crazy. You could’ve killed me.”
    “Then you’d be in hell with the rest of them.” Eyes wheeling, teeth bared, he knocked her back with a vicious shove.
    “Don’t you put your hands on me again, old