Bookfield, Chris - Part 2

That night, when I came home and went upstairs to our apartment, Mary and Chris were busily rinsing something out in the sink of our kitchenette. I tried to get a closer look, but they purposefully blocked my view. Chris looked pale and frightened. When I finally got closer, I could see that they were rinsing out bloody, torn jeans and a tee shirt. Then I noticed a small stitched cut on Chris’ face.

“Okay, guys. Tell me what happened.”

“It will ruin your sales.” insisted Mary hastily.

“Fuck the sales. I come home and you guys are rinsing out torn up, bloody clothes that look beyond saving. It would ruin my sales even worse if you didn’t tell me and I was left to worry.”

Chris hesitantly told me what had happened to her. She was selling in a nice neighborhood and was approaching the walk up to a house, when the owner released three smallish dogs on her (that from her description of them must have been pit bulls). They ran down the walk, without barking and attacked her on the side walk. She tried to keep her feet, but they pulled her down to the concrete. Getting pulled down when facing dogs is very bad.

She managed to protect her throat or they could have killed her, but they literally tore her up. Her arms, legs, ass, back and chest everything was bitten and slashed. The neighbors pulled the dogs off of her and rushed her to the hospital. She needed literally hundreds of stitches to sew her up. Her lovely body would be disfigured permanently. I looked more closely and she was shaking with the telling of it. Fresh tears splashed down her cheeks and she wiped them away with a tissue that Mary handed to her. I tried to give her a hug, but she was tentative and in pain.

I was really angry about what had happened to her. “Those dogs should be put down.” I said.

“I’ve decided to do nothing about it. Jesus said that we should turn the other cheek.”

I had forgotten that my roomies were religious freaks; excuse me, born again Christians. “Okay, but just stop a minute and think that you could sue him and get enough to pay for your college tuition.”

“It’s against the bible’s teachings to strike back in any way.” Mary nodded in agreement.

“Okay. But you see the money could go for a good cause, your education. See how you feel tomorrow, or the next day. Maybe sometime you will decide to do it.”

She agreed to think about it, but to my knowledge, she never took action. What a great legal case she had. She was attacked on public property without provocation, for Christ’s sake. I hated the thought of her being so disfigured at such an early age, especially when she had such great looks to begin with. Having to look at those scars forever and handle the knowledge that the dogs were allowed to live, and that there was no remediation for this horrible crime. Also, I thought that free education was pretty attractive too, at least in my situation. It would also seem to restore balance, at least to me. But, it wasn’t my body, or my life.

Chris was really stiff the next couple of mornings and stayed home for a few days. I’m not sure I could ever go out again if I were her. She had to have been afraid for her life during the attack. As it was, I was wary of all dogs just from my experiences.