Kelly

It was Kelly’s 10th birthday on that eventful day. Her mother, Betty, was a single mom, and they lived in a small single wide trailer, which they were lucky to have. Betty’s only source of income came from State Disability. She was not a beautiful woman, quite average in looks, and extremely overweight. But that was not always the case. Ten years ago, she was a beautiful, full figured woman with long red hair and pouting lips. Now, she is 30 years old but looks more like 40.

Betty didn’t know who Kelly’s father was. She had been given the drug ‘Ecstasy’ by a supposed friend and taken to a fraternity sex party where she had non-consensual sex with at least a dozen different guys. The father could have been any one of them.

Betty’s own father had left her mother the day she was born and had not been heard from since. Her mother had remarried a high school boy friend that became very abusive towards both mother and daughter. He raped Betty several times during her adolescence and, she swore to herself that she would never place her daughter in a similar position. Since Kelly’s birth, she had shunned all men and turned herself into an undesirable recluse.

Kelly was outside playing on an old tire swing which hung by a thick rope from the lower branch of a large pine tree.

Betty called out the kitchen window “Kelly, can you come in here please. I want you to go to the store and get me a pack of cigarettes.” Kelly came running into the house and said, “OK mama.” Betty gave Kelly a $5.00 Bill and said, “Get me a pack of camels and you can have the change, unfortunately, that’s all I can get you for your birthday this year.”

“That’s ok mama, I understand and thank you”, said Kelly enthusiastically as she skipped out the door.

The clerk at the 7-11 store knew Kelly and Betty and knew that she was getting the cigarettes for her mother. It was a common occurrence; many kids bought the cigarettes for their parents. Kelly had enough money to buy a can of soda and 2 candy bars with a little bit left over. She paid the clerk and left the store.

When she was a couple of blocks from the store, she was humming a song and eating her candy bar when a man jumped out of a car and grabbed her around the waist and clamped a hand over her mouth. It happened so fast she didn’t have time to scream. She was thrown into the back seat of the car and the man who grabbed her was lying on top of her. She struggled but he was too big and heavy and was crushing her with his weight.

A few minutes later the car pulled over to the side of the road. The door was jerked open, and the man grabbed her and dragged her into a corn field and threw her onto the ground. She started to scream, and the man hit her hard in the face knocking her unconscious. She regained consciousness a short time later, and again tried to scream, but another man placed a knife against her throat and told her to shut up. He then proceeded to rape her. She lost consciousness again. The next time she’d regained consciousness the man was standing over her and there was a knife in his hand. He knelt down next to her and said something. She felt the pain on her throat, and she knew what had happened. She knew she was going to die.

Steven was 12 years old he was riding his bike on the way to the 7-11 to pick up some milk and bread for his mother. He noticed a car coming out of the thicket on the side of the road ahead of him and took off very fast towards the highway. Thinking it was strange for a car to be in there, he decided to stop and see what they had been doing. He saw Kelly’s feet sticking out from between two rows of corn. He ran over and looked down on Kelly. He knew who she was, she was one year behind him in school, and he knew where she lived. He quickly got back on his bike and pedaled to the 7-11 store and yelled to the clerk “Kelly’s been killed. Call 911.”

The clerk thinking the young man was putting him on said, “Yeah sure, come on Steven. You don’t kid around with things like that.”

Steven said, “I’m not kidding; Kelly is dead in the corn field, 2 blocks down. Call 911.”

When the police got to the 7-11, Steven was waiting for them and guided them to the field where Kelly lay. The officer was Dave Hamilton, a 6-year veteran for the Sonoma County Sherriff’s department. He took one look and said, “Oh my God that poor kid.” Then he knelt down and noticed that her eyes were open, and she was looking directly at him. He moved his hand toward her face to close her eyes, but she flinched. He was shocked to see her move assuming that she was indeed dead. He quickly checked her pulse and although faint, she did have one. He immediately radioed his dispatcher and said, “Get an ambulance out here pronto. She’s still alive.” The paramedics arrived a few minutes later and managed to stabilize her and got her into the ambulance. The county hospital was about 10 miles away, and they got there in record time. Kelly was immediately taken to the operating room. She was in surgery for over 6 hours but the quick response by Steven, the 7-11 clerk and the emergency personnel managed to save her life. However, she would carry the scar on her throat and her psyche for the rest of her life.

The police conducted an investigation but there was no evidence and, in those days, no DNA testing. The two rapists were never found. At least, not by the police.

Kelly woke up to a bright light. She was thinking that she was dead and in heaven. Then, she heard her mother’s voice. “Kelly, baby are you awake?”

She tried to talk but it hurt too much. It felt like someone had poured hot sand down her throat. The light finally went away, and Kelly could see her mother, several nurses and a doctor all looking at her and smiling. She tried to talk again but it was just too painful. Her mother explained that she was in the hospital and the doctors had bandaged her throat so she would not be able to speak for a while.

Suddenly, Kelly remembered the two men and frantically looked around the room to see if they were here. Her mother said “Honey, they’re gone. They won’t hurt you anymore.” She started to cry.

The doctor asked everyone, except her mother, to leave the room and asked a nurse to send in the police detective that was waiting outside in the hallway.

A large man of about 30 years of age walked in and smiled at Kelly and her mother. “Hi, my name is Detective John Fallon, and I am working on finding out who did this to you Kelly.”

Betty said “She can’t talk detective. They cut her vocal cords. She may never talk again.” She sobbed.

“Now Ms. O’Malley,” said the doctor. “Don’t give in to that way of thinking. Kelly is a very strong little girl and I’ll bet you that she will be back to her old self in no time. She is also very lucky. This type of injury is almost always fatal. Fortunately for Kelly, the person that did this hesitated at the last minute. I don’t think he really wanted to kill her.”

Betty smiled at him and said, “I know she will overcome this doctor and thank you.”

“The young heal quickly but she will require therapy. They can do wonders these days.” The doctor said and left the three of them.

“Kelly, do you remember what happened to you?” Detective Fallon asked.

Kelly shook her head yes. She flinched because moving her head even a little bit hurt.

“Do you know who they are, or have you ever seen them before?”

No, she nodded. Unfortunately, Kelly had no information that would assist the police in finding the duo.

It took another 2 days in the intensive care unit and then 2 weeks more before the doctor would let Kelly go home. This was followed by several years of intensive physical therapy.

During the many days spent at the hospital, Betty became more outgoing and started cleaning herself up. She actually enjoyed the brief period of fame that she and Kelly received. She met several male nurses and doctors and found one physical therapist had started paying special attention to her. This evolved into a romance and after a six-month engagement, a marriage.

Every time Steven would ride past that cornfield he would think of Kelly. One day he stopped and planted Marigolds to mark the spot where God had saved his friend from death.