Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Trigger warning: domestic abuse

The year was 1979 and Cindy Martin was a 22 year old mother of two toddlers , Brent age 4 and Barry age 2, and she had just left her husband of five years, Rob Martin.

Cindy was currently staying with her friend Kathy. She and Kathy had met the same summer she met Rob when they all three had summer jobs working at a local amusement park. From there however they had taken very different paths. Even though Kathy had tried to warn her that something was “just off” about Rob and her parents had threatened to disown her if she married him, Cindy had dropped out of high school and married Rob. Kathy had gone on to graduate and attend beauty school and, with a little help from her parents had bought her first home and started her own salon in her basement. She was building a pretty good clientele.

It didn’t take long after they were married for Cindy to realize everyone had been right, at first the fact that Rob was extremely jealous, even though she gave him no cause to be, was kind of flattering. He just loved her so much he thought everyone wanted her and was afraid of losing her, but when he became so controlling that she couldn’t check the mail or go to the store alone , it was no longer charming

The first time it became physical they had been at the grocery and ran into his friend Matt. Matt said “ Hey man I tried calling you earlier but Cindy said you weren’t home yet. Wanna come over and play cards tonight?”

Rob smiled and said “sure” but as soon as Matt walked away, Rob roughly grabbed Cindy by the arm and herded her out to the car without e getting their groceries.

“ What do you mean answering the phone and telling him I wasn’t home?! I guess you wanted him to know you were alone so he could come over huh?!

No, what should I have done? Lied said you were in the shower? What?

Then he had slapped her so hard that an hour later the print was still there, of course later he apologized and even brought her flowers. He said he hadn’t meant to get so upset but it was dangerous for a beautiful young girl to let people know she was home alone,that she could be raped ,kidnapped , anything.

“ By your friend?”

“Look on the phone it could have been anyone pretending to be Matt, so stop being stubborn and don’t talk to ANYONE unless I’m here okay.” and with that he completely isolated her from everyone but him.

She stayed for four more years, through two pregnancies and many more slaps and beatings. Finally after a particularly bad one Cindy knew she couldn’t raise her boys in this . She managed to contact Kathy while Rob was out with his friends and she came and picked up her and the kids.She said they could stay with her till Cindy could get on her feet.

Pretty quickly Cindy go a job at a factory about a thirty minute drive from Kathys house. Kathy not only let Cindy drive her car to work but also agreed to watch the boys. “ The perks of working from home “ she had said, but Cindy knew her friend was going way above and beyond.

After Cindy had been at the factory a couple of weeks, she pulled into the driveway at Kathys house one afternoon and a black impala pulled in behind her. A tall slender young man with curly dark hair got out.

“Hi! I’ve been following you home from work , oh geez that sounded creepy as hell. Let me start again. My name is Johnny and apparently we work at the same plant on the same shift. I’ve been noticing every morning and every evening you are either right in front of me or right behind me. I just love a couple houses down on the right. Anyway, I thought I would ask if you might be interested in carpooling, maybe take week about driving or something, save us both on gas ?

Cindy was a little hesitant but she decided that was just all the paranoia Rob had instilled in her. This kid didn’t look more than 18 or 19 and seemed harmless enough, if he would drive and let her pay gas it would free up Kathys car . So they struck a deal.

Turned out Johnny was only 17 and super nice. He and Cindy soon became very close friends. One thing they had in common was Johnny had an abusive stepfather named Frank and was trying to save for his own place and get away but Frank took most of his money. Cindy confided in him about her situation and they had many long talks. Soon the commute to and from work was the best part of the day for both of them. They could actually talk and laugh and even joke. Eventually their great friendship turned to love.

Then somehow Frank found out they were sharing more than rides and was not pleased. He beat Johnny and threatened if they continued to see each other he would have Cindy charged with statutory rape. He also had apparently been digging for awhile because he threatened to let Rob know where his wife and kids were!

This just made the couple more determined to get away. She wanted to protect Johnny from ever getting beat up again and he wanted to protect her and so on their next payday they took the kids and ran away together.

They resettled in a town about 200 miles away. They found a house where Johnny could work off the rent doing odd jobs for the landlord.He also got a part time job doing ride alongs with truckers to load and unload freight. Cindy got a waitress job.

Life was as close to perfect as life ever gets. The boys loved Johnny and he loved them. He and Cindy both finally knew what it felt like to truly love and be loved in return .

Then one day while Johnny was on the road Cindy came home from work to find the babysitter gone and Rob sitting there with the boys.

Where’s Tara? What are you doing here? How did you find us? What do you want?!

Calm down girl. I sent her home, told her I was their dad and I had it from here . You have been a REALLY bad girl! She thought that dude you been whoring with was their dad, had to show her our family photo. Don’t worry though I’ve missed you so Im gonna forgive you and let you make it up to me,

You’re crazy get out!

It was then that Rob pulled a revolver from the back of his pants. “Ok you can either be a good little wifey and do exactly as your told or I can blow your brains out in front of the kids and wait for your boy toy to get home and give him the same, totally your choice.

Cindy would have gladly given her life for the boys or Johnny but she couldn’t risk what would happen if she wasn’t around. She agreed to do what he said in the hopes of getting away again later. He made her write a letter to Johnny telling him that she was sorry but she realized she didn’t really love him and to please don’t make it harder by trying to find her , then he took them away.

Eventually, a little over a year later, with the help of an agency for abused and battered women she was able to escape from Rob for good. He ended up in prison. She did try to find Johnny, she heard that after she left he had started drinking and moved somewhere in Florida. She got her G E D and eventually an associate degree in elementary education and became a teacher but she never stopped loving Johnny. When the internet and Facebook came on the scene she was finally able to track him down. He was indeed in Florida but he was married now with a couple of kids. She considered contacting him just to set the record straight but he looked happy she couldn’t risk hurting him again. Agee years later she met and married Hank Gordon. Hank was a good man and he loved her and all three of her sons, she loved him too but she never forgot about Johnny.

Johnny got divorced and one day while thinking about all the failed relationships in his life he decided to do a little internet investigating of his own. He finally found Cindy even though her last name had changed. She was married to someone else. Guess she really hadn’t loved him like he thought. He didn’t contact her.

The year is now 2020. Cindy is a 63 year old widow, a grandmother, and great grandmother . Her health is not good, as she is sitting contemplating life once again she looks up Johnny. The years seem to have been kinder to him at 58 he is still an extremely handsome man, maybe even more so than as a teen. He reminds her of her youngest son Jake. He is still working, an independent trucker with his own rig. He’s divorced and has moved back to their home state actually less than an hour away. She should contact him see if they could meet finally tell him the truth the whole truth. But who would that benefit ? If and that was a big if he still loved her he didn’t need saddled with a sickly old woman and Jake was grown with kids of his own and Johnny had kids from his marriage. It was too late to make things right it would disrupt too many lives. She had sacrificed for the man she loved and her kids she would continue to do so. Best to let sleeping dogs lie. She whispered but I will always love you Johnny. Switched off her computer and went to bed.