Love Knows No Season

Her eyes glazed and she seemed to be far away in her mind, living a fantasy. Heather saw her chance. Her hand closed around the measuring cup, then threw it at Dottie and dove for the floor, rolling over in a desperate attempt to escape, expecting to hear the thunder of the pistol firing and feel the chunk of lead ripping through her body.

Dottie shrieked in agony as the measuring cup struck her squarely in the breast bone, spraying the corrosive liquid into her face, then shattering on the tile floor. Dropping the pistol, she reeled out the door and down the hall, pawing at her face, squalling in pain as the mixture seared her eyes, nose and mouth. She tripped on a throw rug, fell heavily and lay there whimpering like a spanked puppy.

Ray, hearing the screams, came running in from the garage brandishing a crowbar shouting "Baby, what's wrong, are you hurt?" He saw the crumpled figure of his ex-wife on the floor and Heather leaning against the door jamb of the laundry room, her face pale. "What the fuck happened? What's she doing here?"

Heather began to cry, realizing how close she had come to death. "Oh, baby, she was gonna kill me," she sobbed, "She just appeared ... she had your gun ... I threw the mixture in her face ... I had to do it ... I didn't mean to hurt her ..." She trailed off and continued to cry.

Ray took her into the kitchen, sat her down, and then called 911. Dottie had stopped whimpering and lay still. The EMS Unit and the police arrived at the same time. The EMS techs seeing to Dottie, the police asking what had happened. One officer picked up the revolver, jacked open the cylinder and said "There's no bullets in here."

"I never keep that one loaded," Ray said, with a sigh. "She knew where I kept it but didn't check it. I keep the bullets apart from it anyway."

"Lucky for you, ma'am," another officer said to Heather. She nodded dumbly and buried her face in Ray's chest. "If you folks will come down to the station later on,' he continued. "We'll get statements from you and your daughter." Neither bothered to correct him.

Air horn blaring and siren warbling, the EMS unit sped away carrying Dottie to the ER for treatment, then the police left and Ray and Heather were alone again.

Ray drew a hot bath for Heather who was unusually silent, gently washed her still shivering body, dried her off and put her in bed where she immediately fell asleep. He soon joined her and they cuddled until he drifted off himself.

***

Heather and Ray gave their statements about the incident to the police the next day. Dottie remained hospitalized with chemical burns under police guard. At her subsequent trial on a charge of Attempted Murder, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and remanded to a mental institution where, hopefully, she could be rehabilitated and returned to society.

It had been a sobering experience for the both of them to be confronted with their own mortality and, after much discussion, they decided they wanted children. Ray's vasectomy was successfully reversed, Heather stopped using birth control and, after numerous enjoyable attempts, she became pregnant. She gave birth to a son which they named Andrew, Andy for short, then two years later, a daughter who they named Margaret after Ray's deceased mother.

The Wilsons were enthusiastic grandparents, inviting the children for visits to their home, giving Ray and Heather time alone to make passionate love without nocturnal interruptions such as "Daddy, are you hurting Mommy? Her yelling woke me up."

Ray restored many other old cars and sold them, but he'd never sell the Ford because that was what he was working on the day they first met and Heather needed his help. It is of such serendipities that people meet and romances begin.

End.