She did not speak for a long moment then said, “Sometimes.”
“You need to call the police. I get can get my lawyer to get a restraining order—but, really, we wouldn’t
even need that. There is a law against stalking.”
“I don’t want to talk about it now. Give me some time to calm down and I’ll tell you about him.”
Sossity called a bar where she had an arrangement with the owner. When they got there he ushered
them to a private room. Leah ordered a lime daiquiri. Sossity ordered a neat double shot of Forty Creek
Barrel Select. She was getting drunk and knew she should not be driving. Leah had sipped her daiquiri.
“Lázaro and I dated all last year,” she said. “Things went well then he got to doing coke a lot. He
started getting violent. I told him to leave and he did. Everything was fine. But the last month he’s been
pulling stunts like this. I’m afraid.”
“You should be. If he is that out of control, he could hurt you. You don’t have to put up with that
kind of thing at all, Leah, and you know you don’t have to.”
“I know.”
Sossity got out her phone. “Here. Call the cops now. It will put you in a better disposition when
you go to rehearse.”
Leah called. The police said she needed to come in to headquarters and file a complaint. After she
gave back the phone, it rang. Sossity answered.
“Sossity, what the hell is going on?”
It was David, her ex-husband. She felt her anger pique.
“Hello, David. Nice to hear from you,” she said. “You have such good phone manners.”
“Cheryl needs to talk to you.”
A moment’s silence then her daughter’s voice came on.
“Mother, are you okay?” He voiced quavered.
“Yes, honey, I’m fine. What’s wrong?”
“I saw you on TV. Was that man trying to hurt you?”
The video clips. They had frightened her daughter.
“No, honey. He was not trying to hurt me. He was in an argument with his girlfriend and I told
him to leave her alone—that’s all.”
“I saw it on the internet. It scared me.”
“Sweetie-pie, I’m so sorry. There’s no need to be scared. It was just a little incident and it’s over now.
I’ve got Jason with me. He won’t let anybody hurt me. Are you okay?”
“Yes, Mother. I miss you.”
“I miss you, honey. How’s school?”
“Good. I like my teacher.”
“What’s her”—David took the phone back.
“Whatever happened, it scared Cheryl,” he said.
“Yes, she was telling me that before you grabbed the phone. I got between a friend of mine and her
boyfriend,” she began. He interrupted her.
“Look, I don’t care what’s going on in your so-called life. Just remember you have a son and a
daughter and what you do in public affects them."
“I had a son and daughter till you took them away from me half the year, you worthless bastard.”