Chapter 4

Tina Young packed quickly. She only took one suitcase of belongings, a few dresses, some underwear, a couple pairs of jeans and some personal things. She didn't want anything from the house. He could keep the house and the car and all of that shit. What she did want from him was money, and she made that very clear to the lawyer. She was going to make that bastard husband of hers pay her a handsome settlement once a month in retribution for what he had done to her.

He would think twice before doing to another woman what he had so savagely done to her.

Tina stayed at a girlfriend's house until Monday morning. Then she went to the bank and drew out all of the money in their joint checking account. It wasn't that much, but it was enough to let her buy a small used car and get her set-up in an apartment in some little suburban town far away from Glendale where they had lived since they were married three years before.

Tina had sworn the lawyer to secrecy. She did not want Paul to know where she was. All of the legal things would be handled through the mail. She wouldn't even have to appear in court unless Paul rebutted the charges, which her lawyer assured her he would not do. He told her that she was actually letting him off easy. She could press assault charges against him and an assortment of other things, but she was just suing for divorce. The lawyer said Paul would know he was getting off lucky and wouldn't hassle her at all, or try to contact her for some type of easier settlement or reconciliation.

The lawyer said he would handle everything and Tina trusted him. He had been pretty shaken up when he had had to take the pictures of her bruised and battered body. That was more than enough evidence to keep Paul Young's mouth shut and make him pay the settlement that he would demand for Tina.

Monday morning Tina Young was on her way to a new town and a new life. She drove and drove, trying to think what would be the best thing for her to do. She hadn't worked since she was married and decided that she would return to her old profession, photography.

She had majored in it in school and quite a few people had told her that she had quite a feeling for it. She had worked for a newspaper on her college campus and then later for a magazine doing spreads of apartment and house interiors for a fairly handsome salary.

Tina knew that money was not something that she was really going to have to worry about, but she didn't want to just lie around doing nothing. She wanted to work and to be useful.

As for sex and love, she decided that she would put it completely out of her mind for at least a hell of a long time. She had given herself completely to Paul, both her body and her spirit and he had abused it. She was too hurt to think of any kind of a relationship with anyone and as far as sex went, she didn't care if she saw another cock as long as she lived. The thought of some man's huge hairy penis getting anywhere near her frightened the shit out of her.

No, she would get a little apartment, try and find a job as a photographer for some magazine or pop paper and try to sort out her relatively confused and disturbed life.

Anything that she came up with was going to be better than what she had just left, so the future began to seem relatively bright for her.

She felt she could be successful if just given the chance and she hoped that those chances came her way.

She pulled into a motel for the night and got some sleep. The next morning she was on the road again. She wouldn't rest until she was at least five hundred miles away from Glendale.

Around lunchtime that day she pulled into a little suburban community called Seatonville. It had a little church with a white steeple, a local school house, a small shopping center, and some very pretty little houses with fences and lawns. It was almost storybook in quality and she fell in love with the place immediately.

She parked her little VW and went to a phone booth. She looked through the yellow pages and found that the town housed a small fashion magazine. She felt her luck was changing already and dialed the number quickly.

"Wow, isn't this a coincidence," the business-like female voice said on the other end of the phone, after a few preliminary introductions, "my head photographer just left for California two days ago, and I've been frantic to replace her. Do you have a portfolio?"

"Yes I do," Tina said, glad that she had remembered to bring it with her. There were-spreads of all of the major jobs she had taken on both in school and afterward for the fashion magazine.

"Well come on over here, girl," the older woman said.

"I'll be right there," Tina said. She liked the sound of the woman's voice. It was one of experience and age and the authority seemed comforting to Tina. She felt relatively lost in this new town and some wise guidance was just what she needed most right now.

She grabbed her portfolio and drove to the woman's house which was also the headquarters for the magazine. It was about a mile out of the mail part of town and Tina had no trouble finding it.

Mrs. Wilson opened the door with a smile and ushered Tina inside. The house, which seemed quite serene from the outside was a bustle inside. There was a staff of about ten or twelve attractive young people busy with the latest issue. The woman showed Tina around the entire lay-out and then brought her into the office.

"Well, now do you like our little business so far?" the woman said.

"It looks really great," Tina said, hoping that her enthusiasm wasn't too obvious.

"I've worked hard to build the magazine up. It was just ready to fold when I bought it over. I think that my success has been due to the high level of good photography that all of our spreads represent. And now Clara, that's the woman who worked for me for the past two years, just decided to run away and get married. I can't really blame her. She was thirty-one and was really longing to settle down."

"Yes, I know what that can be like," Tina said, trying not to show her real feelings.

"Oh, are you married my dear?"

"Well, no ... I mean I was just separated..."

"Oh, that's too bad," the woman said.

"No, actually I'm quite happy about it. Now I just want to get back to work."

"Well that's good. Do you have a place yet?"

"No, I just got into town about an hour ago. Actually I can't believe that I'm already at my first job interview. You see, I haven't done much shooting in the past few years, but I have kept in practice just doing my own photography and developing."

"Oh you know darkroom too?" the woman said enthusiastically.

"Yes."

"That's great! I mean, well, we have a staff, but it's always good to know everything, don't you agree?"

"Yes, I do," Tina said. She was smiling from ear to ear. She already was sure she had the job and that the rest of the interview was just ritual.

"May I see your portfolio now?" the woman asked.

"Yes, of course," Tina said.

She handed the woman the huge black portfolio containing all the better clippings of the more serious jobs she had taken on when working.

The woman studied the various shots of the apartments for quite a while.

"Have you ever done fashion photography?"

"Oh, just a little. I was more into doing houses and things like that, but the fashion world interests me tremendously. I've always envied people who work around it and in it, ya know?"

"Yes, it can be quite exciting, but it can also be quite demanding. Sometimes schedules call for late nights and deadlines, and things like that. Do you think you would be up to that kind of thing?"

"Oh, if I'm interested in something there's no stopping me," Tina said, and she meant it. She longed to get really involved in a good job, to get her mind off Paul and all of the shit that she had recently been subjected to.

"Well, you have a job, Miss Young, if you want it!"

"Oh, that's great! Please, call me Tina."

"Okay, and you can call me Maggy-"

"Okay, Maggy," Tina said, jumping up off her seat and shaking the older woman's hand. "When do I start?"

Tina was anxious, and it showed.

"How about tomorrow?"

"Great."

"Now let me see. What kind of a place are you looking for? I've been in this town for quite a while and I have lots of friends."

"Well, a tiny house if it isn't too expensive would be nice. Or maybe just an apartment, I'm not sure."

Tina knew that once her money came from Paul, which would probably be a few months with all the legal junk that had to be done first, she would be able to afford a nice place. For now anything comfortable would do."

"Well, it just so happens that my friend Mrs. Edwards has a tiny one-bedroom house on part of her property. The woman who had this job before you used to rent it. It's only one-hundred a month and that includes electricity."

"Oh, it sounds great."

"Okay, now I'll write the address down and you go over and see her. Tell her I sent you and that you're starting to work for me tomorrow. Did you bring all your equipment?"

"Well, I have my cameras, but not my tripods and things like that."

"Well, I can get you everything else you need. We're pretty well stocked on stuff like that. Now you be here at nine sharp tomorrow and I'll get you going on an assignment. We're doing a children's fashion spread."

"Oh, that sounds interesting," Tina said. "See you then and thanks, thanks for everything."

"Oh, don't mention it my dear, thank you!"

The house was just perfect, and Tina took it. She knew that her luck had changed. The past forty-eight hours had been a nightmare, but now at last things were looking good for her.

She was a little worried about doing a children's fashion apread. She had never shot young people before and she knew that it probably took a special talent. She hoped she had what it took. Apparently Maggy thought so and she should know, shouldn't she?

Tina unpacked and got settled in her tiny house. It was about a ten minute drive from Maggy's house and about a five minute drive from Main Street. It was on this woman's property, but it was far enough away from the main house so that Tina really had all the privacy she could have asked for.

Privacy was important to her right now. The little house was tucked away behind three huge oak trees and it gave Tina a feeling of seculsuion and security which she loved. She felt like it was a little nest where she would be able to pull herself together until the vivid memory of her savage rape by her disgusting pig of a husband was at last freed from her mind.

She didn't actually think that she would forget the event totally, that would be too much to ask for. But she did want it out of her every thought. Right now it was consuming her like a cancerous growth and she knew if that continued it would destroy her and everything around her.

This house and Maggy and the new job she would be starting the following day was a break for her. This could be the start of something new, something to lift her up out of the depths of depression she had allowed herself to sink into because of her fucking husband and what he had done to her.

She didn't want anything to stand in the way of her new chance, and she was determined that nothing would.

Children, children, she thought to herself. That might be a refreshing change. They're probably fidgety and hard to photograph, but at least they don't go around raping you and giving you sexual problems.

Yes, Tina thought to herself as she finished up unpacking, working with children might just be the change she needed to get her mind off the older male population in general.

Yes, this might turn out great after all.

She could hardly wait until the following morning when she would report to work with her cameras. Something told her the day was going to hold lots of surprises for her and all of them would be good.