It Was a Dark and Stormy Night....(Part Two)

As soon as the doors locked I knew I had made a huge mistake. Knowing I was trapped, I felt a wave of panic rush through me. I quickly searched through my purse for my ativan, remembering that I had given my last one to a girl friend, who was having a “crisis,” at the party. When I rehashed this story later on to my friend at “The Centre,” he actually scolded me by saying that no one gives away his or her LAST ativan, and that was even a bigger mistake than getting into the car. The stranger stopped the car at the red light and waited. The whole Paul Bernardo/Karla Homolka incident flashed through my memory for a few seconds, but my thoughts were interrupted when he asked me my name.
      “Andrea,” I said, with some hesitation. He told me his name was K. The light turned green but he didn’t move. I notice a small tube of hand lotion sitting in the cup holder beside me and hoped he wasn't going to make me moisturize, "Silence of the Lambs"-style.

      “Is everything okay?” I asked. He laughed and said that since I hadn’t told him where I live, he didn’t know where we were going.
      “Bathurst and Sheppard,” I said. K turned right, driving in the opposite direction.
      “You could just drive up Bathurst,” I suggested. He told me he knew a quicker way where he could avoid the icy hills. I stared out the window. I was thinking that if I just unlocked the door and jumped, I probably wouldn’t get too hurt. Since there was so much snow, I wouldn’t break that many bones. Plus, there were no cars around to hit me once I landed. As I was practicing the jump a few times in my head, K broke my focus by asking what I do for a living. I told him that I was a teacher on movie sets and then went on to explain what that was. I went on and gave him my whole sob story about how I was unhappy in the schools and this great opportunity came along. I thought this would make me seem more human to him. I also told K that I’m an author.
     "My book is at Indigo and I did a lot of press for it." He took his eyes off the road and stared at me for a moment. I imagined he was seeing a big steak in place of my head, like Wile E. Coyote did when he looked at the Road Runner. However, instead of clobbering me and making me his next meal, he told me he was pretty sure he had seen me on Entertainment Tonight Canada, and that was why I looked so familiar. I was shocked at his discovery. K turned onto the Don Valley and headed north. The snow was still coming down hard and the SUV was sliding back and forth in the lane. Just then K’s cell phone rang.
     “Shit, you still need me tonight?” he asked the caller. He looked over at me, staring back at him. “Yeah I’ll be there. I just need to take care of something first.” Take care of something? I looked at the screen on my own phone. Why hadn’t my friends called to check up on my yet? Weren’t they worried at all? Had they tried calling, but I had no reception? I was freaking out inside and tried to take my mind off my inevitable death. I had no intention of giving K the impression that I was terrified.
     “So what else do you do, besides work at the club?” I asked.  K told me he was trying to move away from the whole club scene and was interested in becoming a full time personal trainer. He asked my opinion. Without a delay, I blurted out,
     “You should do it!” Those were the last words I remembered about that particular conversation. Even though I remembered babbling away about following your dreams and bla bla bla, I got distracted when K reached into his pocket to pull something out. I thought it was going to be a gun. It was gum. He offered me a piece.  I started to change my mind about K. Could he just be a nice guy that had come to my rescue on this snowy night? We finally reached the 401 and headed west towards home. I sighed. K turned to me and admitted to me that if I hadn’t been so pretty, he probably wouldn’t have offered me a lift. That’s when I realized I had been so focused on him killing me; I hadn’t even considered the possibility of getting raped.
     “Oh come on. You’re just saying that. You would have helped anyone in my situation. Right?” I asked, laughing off his comment. He shrugged his shoulders and said maybe. As we passed the Leslie exit, K's phone rang again. Same friend. He told him again that he would be there soon.
     “So where are you going after you take me home?” I asked. K told me his friend had a snow plowing business and he needed help tonight because of how bad people’s driveways were. He was supposed to go there right after work, but now he was really late. I started apologizing, feeling guilty that I was making my future rapist late for work. Suddenly, K passed the Avenue Road exit.
     “You were supposed to get off there!” I said, pointing to my neighborhood and freaking out. He apologized. He said he was busy thinking about our conversation a few minutes ago. I had no idea what conversation he was talking about. At this point I was so traumatized, I could barely remember how many children the Octomom had just given birth to. I directed him to my house from the Allen Road, going through all the side streets. We finally ended up in front of my house and I sat there paralyzed. I was unsure what to do. Cry? Laugh? Count my blessings?  I sat there thanking K over and over. He told me it was his pleasure and felt like he was the one who should be thanking me. Huh? More confusion. He said for me to put his number in my phone and that maybe we could go for lunch one day.
     “I would love to!” I said, excitedly punching his number into my cell. Was I the same psycho, who five minutes ago thought I would never eat lunch again? I leaned over and gave K a huge hug goodbye. I felt my eyes tearing up as I realized this had been luckiest night of my life. As I got out of the car his last words to me were, “Andrea, if you ever need anything, you just call me.” I smiled. We had entered the car as strangers, but we were leaving as friends. (Please stay tuned for the conclusion of this story. It is VERY special. Includes: the reaction of "The Centre," The conversation with K that I did not remember having, and how I learned to laugh through this.  I will post it tomorrow)