Eunice hadn’t quite realized just how much work it was going to be to take care of a small baby; there had been no younger siblings in her household, or nearby relatives who had them. She’d done very little babysitting with children that young, so there was a lot she had to learn. Fortunately, she had both her mother and Jeff’s mother no more than a phone call away and from time to time she found herself calling them for advice, or occasionally assistance. In time she was to learn that Ann was no more trouble than an average child that age, but that wisdom didn’t come all at once.

Jeff was a lot of help with Ann, especially in the early days. He’d taken to fatherhood with enthusiasm, and with the heating season over he had a little more flexibility and free time than most new fathers, so that eased things as well.

By the time June rolled around and Eric had been gone for a couple of months, they’d started settling into a new routine around the house. The warm months had come, and Eunice had done well at getting back to her pre-pregnancy weight, so the playsuits and swimsuits came out of the drawers where they had been stored for the winter. Being able to wear them frequently in the summer was one of the reasons they’d bought the lakefront house in the first place. Very often their relaxing time was out on the lawn in front of the house, with Ann in her baby carrier in the shade. They had to be careful about it; mosquitoes could be very bad around that time of year, and were enough to drive them into the house in the evenings, but during the day, with the sun out and a breeze blowing it could be very idyllic.

On one of those nice days in the week after the Memorial Day weekend, Jeff was at work while mother and daughter were relaxing in the shade. Ann was asleep in her basket while Eunice was getting some sun in one of her smaller bikinis when she heard a car drive in on the far side of the house. Since the bikini she had on was rather diminutive, even for her, it wasn’t something she wanted strangers to see, so she grabbed one of Jeff’s old shirts she kept nearby for the purpose and pulled it on. Hoping nothing would happen with Ann for the few seconds she was gone, Eunice hurried around the house to see who was there.

She was a little surprised to see it was Donna, driving an unfamiliar car, but loaded with boxes and bags. “Hi, Donna,” she called, glad to see her old friend again, and even gladder to know that she was by herself, and didn’t have Frank with her. It had been a long time, almost a year since the unhappy occasion when she’d last seen her friend. “How’s it going?”

“Not real well,” Donna said, getting out of the car. At one glance Eunice could see she had several bruises around her face; they’d been covered by makeup but not well enough to keep them from being evident.

Eunice let out a gasp. “Did Frank do that to you?” she couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah, the asshole,” Donna snorted. “It’s a long story.”

“Look, I left Ann out on the other side of the house, but I don’t dare leave her by herself for long. Why don’t we go out and sit in the lawn chairs.”

“Ann?” Donna frowned. “If you have visitors, maybe I’d better just go now.”

“It won’t matter,” Eunice grinned, realizing that Donna must not have heard the news. “She’s not quite three months old.”

“Three . . . you had a baby?”

“Back in March. I was pregnant the last time you were here but didn’t know it.”

“Wow! This is the first time I’ve heard anything about it.”

“Come on out front. You can see her, but she’s asleep and I hope we won’t wake her right now.”

Eunice led Donna around to the front of the house. It was very clear that something had happened between Donna and Frank, something bad. She’d never cared much for Frank, and the bruises on Donna’s face showed it must have been for good reason. This was probably not going to be a happy story, even though Ann’s presence would take some of the edge off of it.

Over the next few minutes, she found out that her surmise was correct. While Frank had been acting like a drunken asshole when he and Donna had been there the previous summer, it proved that he was like that a lot of the time – and it had gotten worse as the months had passed.

“During the last school year he didn’t knock me around that much while school was in session,” Donna reported. “But he was just saving it up until school let out and I wouldn’t have to go in every day. The day after school got out – well, it was really bad. He hurt me, Eunice. Hurt me so bad it wasn’t funny. There wasn’t any reason for it besides the fact that he was drunk and wanted someone to hit, and I was available.” She let out a sigh and continued, “It taught me one lesson, though, and that was there was no reason to put up with any more of that stuff from him. I won’t go into the ins and outs of it, but it took me a couple days to make my getaway. I got what I could take from the house in the car with me, and I hadn’t cashed my final paycheck yet, and got out of there.”

“Didn’t he object?”

“He was a little too drunk to object, and I filled him with enough Seconal that I knew he’d stay knocked out long enough for me to leave. That was yesterday. He’s probably come to by now and is looking to knock me around some more.”

“Donna,” Eunice said. “I’m sorry this had to happen, but at least I think I can say that I’m glad you came to your senses. I could never understand what you saw in him in the first place.”

“I wonder about that myself,” she sighed. “He wasn’t the gentleman Eric was, that’s for sure, but he was available and not too bad at first. I guess I thought he was better than nothing. I sure was wrong on that.”

“So what happens now?”

“I wish I knew,” Donna shook her head. “I know one thing: there’s no way in hell I’m going back to him, and I guess that means there’s no way in hell I’m going back to Hughesville. I guess that’s all right – I was a long way from getting tenure there and I never liked the damn place all that much in the first place. The biggest thing it had going for it was that it was a long way from my mother.”

“How’d she take the news?”

“I’ll give you three guesses,” Donna snorted. “This would never have happened if I’d listened to her about Jerry Peters.”

“I never met him other than the time we went to that dance with him, but from my impression of him I can’t see that he’d be much better than Frank.”

“Well, maybe a little better, but not much. Of course, as far as my mother is concerned Jerry can do no wrong, and I’m not sure why she thinks that way. I mean, there’s a reason why he’s never gotten many dates over in Meridian, clear back to high school. I’ll tell you what, they talk about going home to mother, but they also talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Right now it seems like pretty much the same thing. I am sure not looking forward to having to be around Mom all the time. I’m never going to hear the end of it. She’s going to be like she always is, pick, pick, pick until I explode, and then get mad at me for exploding. In the mood I’m in right now it won’t take much of her crap to get me going. On top of that, I’m sure that’s the first place Frank will think of where I could be, and I don’t want him to find me. I really don’t want him to find me with Mom around. I’d never hear the end of that!”

“I might have an idea,” Eunice smiled. “I’d have to run it by Jeff to be sure, but I could call him. I don’t think he’s doing anything today he can’t put down.”

“You mean, stay with you guys? I really don’t want to have to ask you to do that, but I may have to ask you to do it if I can’t think of anything better. All my stuff is still out in the car, I didn’t even want to haul it into Mom’s house.”

“It’s a possibility,” Eunice said. “But you wouldn’t exactly be staying with us. There’s a guest cottage out by the garage, it’s sort of like a very small apartment, but you could live there for a while. Eric spent last winter living there.”

“Eric?” Donna’s eyes lit up. “He actually made it back? I’m a little surprised.”

“He came back, in November, I think it was. He spent the winter driving a delivery truck for Jeff, and left for California a couple months ago. We’re not sure when or if we’re going to see him again, but we get a postcard every now and then that doesn’t say much. You know Eric.”

“Yeah,” Donna sighed. “I guess I do know him, and it sounds just like him. Do you think he might be staying in California?’

“There’s no way of telling,” Eunice shook her head. “All I can say is that there are a few of his things up in the attic, and that Jeff has promised him a job driving a delivery truck again next fall. That might be enough to bring him back, and it might not be.”

“I take it he had a good time in Europe.”

“Oh, yes, he told us all about it. Look, keep an eye on Ann while I go call Jeff and run the idea of you staying in the guest cottage past him. When I get back, I can tell you a little about what Eric told us, and we can talk about Ann and some happier things.”

“Sure, go give him a call. I really hate to put you guys out but it’s the best idea I’ve heard so far. If I’m not going back to Hughesville, and I don’t plan to, that means I have to get serious about looking for work, and this time I don’t think I’m going to try to look for work quite so far from home. I’ll go far away if I have to but I missed the living heck out of being able to see you guys, Frank or no Frank.”

Eunice went into the house and called her husband, explaining the situation. “Sure, I don’t mind if she stays with us for a while,” he replied once Eunice had given him a brief description of the problem. “The guest cottage is supposed to be for guests, after all. I’ve missed Donna too, and I’m sure glad she’s getting rid of that joker.”

“I am, too,” Eunice agreed. “I sure hope she learned her lesson with him.”

“I do, too,” he agreed. “I’d like to think so, anyway.”

After Eunice got back out to Ann and Donna, she told her friend that Jeff had no problems with the idea. “Let’s go take a look at the place,” she said. “You may think it’s a little small, but Eric never seemed to mind it. He seems to like things pretty Spartan, anyway.”

“Sure, if it’s not going to bother Ann.”

“She seemed to be pretty sleepy and she hasn’t been down for long, so she probably won’t mind. If she does, well, she does. I’m learning that’s what life with a baby is like.”

“She sure is cute,” Donna smiled. “Maybe someday I’ll be able to have one, but there was no way I wanted one with that asshole. I guess I’m just lucky that he never got me pregnant, but it wasn’t for the lack of trying. Let me tell you, it wasn’t a heck of a lot of fun, at least with him.”

“It’s over now,” Eunice told her, not really wanting to hear about that part of Donna’s problems. “Let’s go see the guest cottage.”

Donna agreed that the place was tiny, but Eric had left it in good shape, and it would be room enough. “This will more than do the job,” she said. “Eunice, I don’t know how I can thank you and Jeff for being willing to help me out with this. I’ll try to not be too much of a bother. Maybe I can help you with Ann a little. That might at least cover part of what I owe you.”

“I’ll take you up on that,” Eunice said. “And since she’s still asleep, why don’t you get on something cooler? We can start bringing your things in and getting you set up in here.”

“I wouldn’t mind wearing something a little cooler than jeans and a long sleeved shirt,” Donna said. “But my face isn’t the only place on me that’s black and blue.”

“I won’t mind for now, but maybe you’d want to change back before Jeff gets home.”

It proved that Donna was right – Frank had worked her over rather thoroughly; she had many more bruises over much of her body. “You know,” Eunice said. “Maybe you ought to see a doctor.”

“I did,” Donna reported. “This morning. He says they’re old enough now that there wasn’t much he could do about them, but that the worse of them should be cleared up in a couple of weeks. Eunice, if you ever see me trying to do something that stupid again, would you please shoot me?”

Donna’s bruises did fade, but they were still prominent a couple days later when she and Eunice were once again sitting on the front lawn, just getting caught up with things while Ann was again asleep. Suddenly they heard a car door slam, and Frank came racing around the house. “I thought I’d find you here, bitch,” he yelled. “Get the hell out of that chair. You’re coming with me where you belong.”

“There’s no way in hell I’m going with you,” she said. “Not after what you did to me the other day, and what you’ve done to me the last year. Just get out of here. I don’t want anything more to do with you, ever.”

“I’m your fucking husband,” he snarled; Eunice could smell the alcohol on his breath at that distance. “You’ll do what I fucking tell you to, or you’re going to fucking pay the price. If you think what I did to you the other day was bad you don’t fucking know what bad is.”

“You can go straight to hell,” Donna sneered. “This is where I am, and this is where I’m staying.”

He dived for Donna, who was sitting in one of the Adirondack chairs, but somehow she managed to roll out of his way. He tripped, stumbled over the chair, and wound up sprawled on the lawn. “You bitch!” he yelled. “You’re going to fucking pay for that.”

“Ladies,” they heard, “is there some sort of a problem here?”

Eunice looked up when she heard the quiet, gentle voice of their neighbor, Wilt Aldrich, to see that he was standing a few feet away, a double-barreled shotgun on one arm.

“Yes,” Donna snapped. “I don’t want him here.”

“You stay out of this, old man,” Frank snarled. “This ain’t none of your business.”

“These are my neighbors, so it is my business,” Wilt said, not raising his voice in the slightest. “Now, I think it would be better for all involved if you’d just quietly pick yourself up and get out of here without causing any more problems.”

“Fuck you, old man. It ain’t none of your business. Now just get out of here and let me teach this bitch about where she belongs.”

Wilt raised the shotgun slightly, and his voice got a harder edge to it. “I think I told you to leave,” he said.

“Fuck you,” Frank yelled, and charged Wilt, who, without very much effort, swung the shotgun around and gave his assailant a huge hit in the groin with the butt of the gun. In an instant, he’d raised the butt of the shotgun and slammed it into the side of Frank’s head. In but a moment more, Frank was lying on the grass, out like the proverbial light.

“Thank you, Wilt,” Eunice managed to say after a moment of stunned silence. “I didn’t know what to do! Where’d you learn to do that?”

“I was in the infantry during World War One and in the SeaBees in World War Two,” Wilt smiled. “Somewhere along in there in bayonet training I learned how to do a butt stroke with a gun. I’m glad I did, since I didn’t have the time to load this thing. Now, if you don’t mind, I think maybe someone ought to call the sheriff.”

“I’ll go,” Eunice said. “Maybe you’d better be here in case he starts to come around.”

“Might not be a bad idea,” he smiled. “Both of you are all right, aren’t you?”

“He never laid a hand on me,” Donna said. “This time, anyway, but he sure did it enough over the last year to make up for it.”

It wasn’t long before a county car showed up with a couple of deputies. Frank was coming around a bit by that time, and even tried to hit one of them and yell at Donna before he was handcuffed and stuffed unceremoniously in the back seat of the patrol car. It proved to be the last sight Eunice had of Frank, and that was more than enough to suit her.

Frank wound up doing some jail time in the next few weeks; while he was in the Bolivar County Jail, Donna and Jeff drove up to Hughesville to retrieve more of her things that had been left behind when she fled the first time. While she was there she could do a few other things that needed to be done, like turning in her resignation at the school. It would be over a year before the divorce was finally settled, but the important part was that Frank was now effectively out of Donna’s life.

Even though it would have been a little bit easier for Donna to have moved home with her mother by then, she didn’t want to do that and go through all the picking, complaining, and I-told-you-so’s she would be hearing. She spent the summer in the guest cottage, helping take care of Ann and sending out literal clouds of applications and résumés, enough so that she had a print shop in Wychbold run off several hundred copies.

While she was doing that, she spent a lot of time with Eunice. There had been times in the spring when Eunice had been a little lonely while Jeff had been at work, and she had been at home with Ann. Now she had her best female friend right out in the back yard, and that changed things considerably; the two of them spent a great deal of time together, and Donna decided she liked having a small baby around.

After her bruises faded, Donna spent much of her time wearing swimsuits, or playsuits Eunice sewed for her – it gave Eunice another excuse to do some sewing, one of her more favorite pastimes. The three of them often ate dinner together, and always seemed to find something to talk about; often enough it was Eric, although they had little clear idea of what he was doing and his sometimes cryptic postcards filled with unfamiliar names didn’t enlighten them very much.

As the summer passed, Donna started to get some responses to the many résumés she had sent out. There was one offer from a place far west in the Upper Peninsula that sounded especially interesting and offered good money. But while the money was good she wasn’t sure she wanted to be that far from her family, no matter how well she wasn’t getting along with them at the time. And she didn’t want to be that far from her friends who had reached out to her at a troublesome time, either. So she put them off and hoped a better offer would come in. When it was getting down close to decision time, one did, at Lansing Southwestern High School. It wasn’t extremely close but close enough that she could visit when she needed to. Jeff and Eunice helped her find an apartment close to the school, and toward the end of the month helped her move in and get things set up.

This time, she had hopes that things would go much better than they had at Hughesville. It was a chance for a fresh start, and she intended to make all the use of it she could.

“I’ve never heard her come right out and say it,” Eunice told Eric, “but I think Donna was hardly less amazed than we were to be at Lansing Southwestern until she retired from teaching. Of course, meeting Trent there had everything to do with that, but that came several years later and there were other things that happened to her in that time.”

“Quite a bit,” Eric agreed, glad to be away from a subject he considered to be on the personal side. “It still took her several years and they weren’t always easy. But that was quite a summer for me, too, and really more eventful. That was the summer Chip and I started brushing up on our rock climbing moves at Tahquitz, then went up to Yosemite and got involved with the big walls they have there. We weren’t the best climbers there, not by a long shot, since there were guys like Royal Robbins around, who clearly were a lot better. But we were pretty good, and we could see there was room for improvement. We sure learned a whole lot, though.”

“Your cards that summer didn’t tell us anything about the degree of risk you were going through,” Eunice pointed out.

“I never intended for them to,” he smiled. “I didn’t want to worry you guys. You were shocked enough to find out about it the following fall, after it was all over with. But it was quite a summer, lots of climbing, lots of partying, and lots of good memories. Of course, the best part about it was meeting Luke Hayward.”

“You know, as much as you’ve talked about Luke over the years, I never really understood how you met him.”

“It’s not much of a story. There were a bunch of us sitting around Camp Four in Yosemite one evening, talking about climbing and everything else, of course. There was one guy who commented that while climbing big walls was all right in its place it wasn’t real mountaineering, it was only part of the package. That was pretty close to heresy at that place and time, but Chip and I had all that Alpine experience in Europe, so the three of us got talking and one thing led to another. There was nothing spectacular about our meeting at all, but it led to a lot of climbing over the years, and a lot more than that. That was one of the more valuable connections I ever made. After the three of us got a little tired of the Yosemite Valley big wall scene, we went up to the Pacific Northwest and learned that we got along well together in Alpine conditions. Luke kept talking about how he wanted to do some bigger stuff in Alaska the next summer, and it didn’t take much to talk us into it.”

“Yes, I know, and it led to more adventures for you,” she smiled as they heard a car pulling into the driveway. “It looks like Ann and Bob are here. I suppose we’d better go greet them.”

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