My number was finally
called again. My friend had come to see me and she explained to me what had
happened. She wanted me to know that if I chose not to be bailed out, I will
have a hearing on Monday morning. If I chose to be bailed out, I would have to
wait several weeks for my hearing. That is when I would know if my case would
be dismissed or if I would be charged. If I was charged I could ask for bail
then and would not have to come back.
If I knew then what I
know now; it would have been cheaper for me to stay there. I had no idea what I
was being charged with. For all I knew my husband could have taken a knife to himself
and blamed me for it. I was scared to death; not knowing what else he was
capable of. I looked at my friend. “Please
just get me out of here.” I cried.
The bail bondsman
came through. I met with him. He told me that it would be another 8-12 hours
before I was out. Because I had gone through the process before, it was now a
bit easier to tolerate. I finally walked out of the jail at 2:00 am Saturday
morning. I had been in the jail since Thursday night but it had seemed like an
eternity.
Upon my release I had
to turn in my bedding and had to go through the identification process all over
again. They walked me up to a particular point and told me to walk along this
long hallway. When she opened the door, I saw a hallway that looked a block
long and it was very dark. I began to walk but the further I went the slower
became my gait became. It was getting darker and I could feel panic beginning
to set in. I was so exhausted I had trouble walking. I finally got to a door
but was afraid to go through it without permission because I had now been
trained to not do anything without permission. I was afraid of getting into
trouble again. Finally after a long wait, the door opened and a female officer
started yelling at me.
“What the hell took
you so long? Do you want to stay here?”
“I didn’t know if I
was supposed to wait here or open the door.”
She looked at me with
disgust. “You want to leave don’t ya? Geez! Go into the room and sit there
until your name is called.”
I did as I was told,
sat down and was told to go through some plastic bags that had my clothing and
underwear in it and to sign off that everything was there.
“Go change back into
your clothes, then go sit in that room and wait until your name is called!”
I waited for what
seemed like another half hour. Finally my name was called and I was given one
last bag to check which contained my cell phone, driver’s license and a credit
card. I was finally escorted to another door down another hallway. I went
through another door into a dark waiting area with all kinds of seats and a
payphone I could use to call. I called my friends, Arlene and Stewart who said
that they had been waiting for my call for the past 24 hours. They immediately
rushed over and picked me up.
By the time I got to
their house it was around 4:00 am. I didn’t have any clothes to change into.
“Do you have to be at
work today?” My friend asked.
“Yes, I have two
classes that I have to teach today.”
“I think it would be
best if you didn’t let anyone at work know what happened. Let’s go to a garage
sale, and get you some clothes so you can go to work.”
Despite my
exhaustion, we hit pay dirt and found clothes that I could wear to work. I
finally got to take a shower and reported for work on time. I taught my classes
having not slept since the Wednesday night before.
When I arrived at
work, my friend and supervisor confronted me. Her face was stricken with
worry. “Rhonda! Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to get ahold of
you for three days!! I worry sick if I can’t get ahold of you!”
I hesitated. A year
earlier she and the store manager had discovered copies of my husband's journals that I had been hiding in my teacher’s cabinet. Unsure of what they
were, they had read a portion of them and grown very alarmed. They were so
concerned that they had even sat me down and talked to me about it, urging me
to leave my husband.
“Just as you feared,
my husband did do something to me. He accused me of a crime, a felony and had me
arrested. I’ve been in jail for the last two and a half days.”
Her face went pale.
“Oh my god! I told you! We tried to warn you, Rhonda! We knew he was going to
do something like this!”
“How did you know?”
They just stared at
me. “Rhonda, I’m going to have to talk to management about this.”
Because I taught
children sewing, I had to have a background check and be fingerprinted every
two years. I was concerned that this incident was going to have a bad impact
upon my work.
“Don’t worry, I’ll
talk to corporate and HR on Monday,” she assured me. I went to my classroom and
taught for the next 6 hours. I thought I was going to die of exhaustion. I was in
a state of trauma. Throughout that day, my supervisors continually checked in on
me to make sure I was okay. At the end of the day, using my friend's car, I drove
to her home and collapsed. I wasn’t allowed to go back to my home because my husband had put a ten day temporary restraining order on me.
