There was a neighborhood on the east side of the city which provided residences for a band of misfits, hoodlums and quite a few castaways from what is considered to be "normal" as far as mental capacity and understanding is concerned. The houses were once beauties during their inception sometime near the dawn of the previous century, but nowadays things were looking a bit shabby and unfortunate. The crayola-color paint which varied considerably from one house to the next added something lovely to the mystique, in spite of the fact that many windows were boarded up from stray bullets and condemnation, that is, on top of them often having ominous black bars bolted onto their frames as well.
This part of town was sometimes referred to as "Crimson Alley," due primarily to it having such a high rate of murder and violence, since misunderstood and poverty-stricken people often act out in ways that are generally unpleasant. The residents there were called "Alley Rats." Not everyone who lived there was a troublemaker, however. In small pockets here and there were ordinary people who simply couldn't afford to live elsewhere, or old hippies who loved everyone and believed that living in an area such as this made them more loving and cultured than the rest of us.
Falling into the latter category was Mary Lee Abramssen, a statuesque young woman who could easily be modeling the runways of New York rather than earning a meager living as a cashier at the market a few blocks away. That is, if it weren't for the one stray tooth which was off-set and rebelling against the rest of the teeth in her mouth. She was teased mercilessly for it as she was growing up, but Mary Lee refused to ever get it fixed. She liked her tooth just as it was, and modeling was never something that interested her anyway, in spite of her otherwise stunningly beautiful exterior.
Mary Lee had moved to Crimson Alley by way of Iowa, where she'd grown up in a small farm town outside of Dubuque. Her life in Iowa held very little promise, and she had never felt comfortable living so far away from the city lights; sure the stars in the night sky were incredible, but to Mary Lee the expanse of their origins only served to remind her of how big the universe is, and it made her wanderlust positively unbearable. As soon as she had graduated high school, she took the small nest egg she'd earned babysitting over the years, and moved to the nearest big city she could find. She didn't know what she was getting into when she wound up in Crimson Alley, that's for sure.
There was a certain young man who lived in the apartment building next door, who Mary Lee would often see hanging out on the stoop when she left to ride her bike to work at the grocery store. He would be out there seemingly watching over the neighborhood as some sort of good samaritan, but of course what he was really doing was keeping an eye out for rival gang members and very likely dealing drugs. Mary Lee was flattered that he seemed to stare at her whenever she rode past him, but she was terribly shy so his glances also made her horribly embarrassed to the point of turning as red as a beet. She secretly wished to have the courage to smile at him, but she would always put her head down and ride away on her bicycle as quickly as humanly possible.
One crisp night in October, there was series of loud gunshots coming from the house across the street which alerted not only all of the Alley Rat residents, but also the police, fire department, and paramedics, who arrived at the scene a brief time later. The ruckus brought everyone out into their yards, some spilling onto the sidewalks, to see what had happened and to whom. It was then that the young man next door and Mary Lee were formally introduced. His name was Ernesto, but his gang name was "Lil Mousey," which she recognized from the sloppy spraypainted graffiti upon the walls of local buildings and bus stop benches. He had apparently acquired that name because of his ability to scurry out of sticky situations undetected.
Ernesto grew up in Crimson Alley, and lived in a small two bedroom apartment with his entire family, including his mother, two brothers, and three sisters. All of his siblings were much younger than he was, so he was often in charge of keeping an eye on them. His mother was barely able to feed all of them and keep a roof over their head, for she had immigrated to the United States illegally and had no means of supporting herself beyond that of welfare and food stamps. Ernesto tried his best to do his part, even if that meant selling drugs. He had never known his father, but he tried his best to be a father figure to his family.
Ernesto and Mary Lee had quite a long chat on either side of the chain link fence that had separated them that night, and even continued to get to know each other after the excitement of the evening's disruption had long passed. The next day, when Mary Lee left for work on her bicycle, she and Ernesto were free to smile and say hello now, and it wasn't long afterwards that they madly fell in love. They made a rather odd couple, you could say. Mary Lee was nearly 6 feet tall and of very blonde, wholesome, Scandinavian descent, while Ernesto was all of 5 feet 4 inches tall, and had grown up on the streets in violent gangs, trying to support his Mexican immigrant family. They were an unlikely match, to be sure.
Mary Lee usually didn't mind her job at the grocery store too much. There were many unruly children who would be misbehaving and driving their mothers insane, but she loved all children just the same, and would smile at them, engage them in conversation, and give them a lollypop from the jar she kept beside the cash register. The frazzled mothers were usually incredibly thankful for her patience and ability to distract and quiet them. The downside of her job, however, was her boss, the store manager named Darren. It is easy to presume that Darren hired Mary Lee, not for her skills at doing basic arithmetic, but rather because he was happy to admire her beauty day after day after day. It is one thing to know someone is beautiful and to appreciate that beauty, but Darren was not very adept at hiding his amorous feelings for her, and his crude advances were both unwanted and unpleasant.
To make matters even more unseemly, Darren was at least 25 years older than Mary Lee was, and he had a wife and three children. He was handsome for his age and had a certain sex appeal, but even so the thought of having anything to do with Darren's blatant sexual fantasies made Mary Lee's stomach turn far more than it titillated her. She would do her best to let his flirtations roll off her back, and she considered him to be generally harmless. Mary Lee assumed that he was likely unhappy at home, and thus, he saw her as some sort of escape from his otherwise mundane and sorrowful life. She felt sorry for him.
One evening after her shift was over, Mary Lee went outside to unlock her bike and ride home, only her bike was no longer chained to the street sign where she had been routinely parking it for the past six months. There, on the grubby sidewalk, lay the remains of the chain and padlock she had used, but the bike was long gone. Her house was only a mile or so away, but a beautiful young woman would not be safe walking those streets after dark all by herself. She went back into the store to phone Ernesto, but he wasn't home and his mom didn't speak English so she had no idea what his mom was trying to tell her, just as his mom had no idea what Mary Lee was trying to say. Darren overheard her misguided telephone conversation, and eagerly offered to give her a ride home. This made her more than a little uneasy, but given the situation, she had little choice but to take him up on it; the alternative was far scarier than he was.
Darren's car was a rusty old Toyota Corolla. It was this ugly brown color with orange stripes down the sides, and the bumper was attached via bungee cords and duct tape. Mary Lee could tell that he was embarrassed when he had a hard time getting the passenger side door open for her; it was dented on that side from an accident that happened many years ago, but Darren could never afford to fix it. He rarely had passengers in his car anyway, so ordinarily the stuck door was not an issue. The inside of the car was not much better than the outside. There were fast food wrappers strewn on the floor, and the ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts. Cigarette ashes created a fine dust on everything else, too, including the dashboard and the center console between the seats. Mary Lee soon felt sorrier for Darren than she ever had before.
It only took a couple of minutes for the ride home. Mary Lee thanked Darren, then attempted to let herself out, but the door was of course stuck again. Darren turned off the car and got out, then took her hand to help guide her across his own seat so that she could get out on his side of the car instead. He then insisted upon walking her up to her door to "be sure she got inside safely." It was then that she turned the key, turned around to once again say thank you and wish him a good night, that he suddenly put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her! She was so surprised by this, that she didn't even pull away from him; she just sort of stood there, lost in the moment, paralyzed, and not knowing how it had happened. As soon as he pulled away from her, she stammered the words "good night," then quickly went inside, shut and locked the door, including putting the chain on it.
What neither her nor Darren realized at the time, was that Ernesto had gotten home shortly before their arrival, and he had been watching the whole spectacle from the window next door. He had no idea what events lead up to that moment, but he was furious and full of jealous rage. He came flying down the stairs, grabbed Darren by the scruff of his shirt collar, and began relentlessly punching him in the face. Mary Lee went to peer out her own window to make sure that Darren had left, then was mortified to see what was happening outside. She too flew out of the house, and tried to pull Ernesto away from Darren, but she was screaming and crying and afraid that she would accidentally get punched, too. Thankfully her screaming attracted some of the other neighbors, and a man from down the street was able to separate the men and end the fight. Darren clearly had a broken nose and a black eye, and Ernesto had a fat lip and a cut on his eyebrow that was bleeding profusely. With her face sopped with tears, she looked at Darren with great pity and regret, then took Ernesto by the hand and lead him inside.
Nobody had ever fought for Mary Lee before, so she wasn't certain how she should be feeling in a moment such as this. More than anything her maternal instincts kicked in, and all she wanted was to soothe Ernesto, care for his wounds, and hold him in her arms as tightly as she could. Ernesto was very quiet, too. Mary Lee held him to her breast (for as tall as she was and as short as he was, his head was quite conveniently located there whenever they stood face-to-face). Never had she imagined that something like this could ever happen to her. Never had she thought a man would love her that deeply, and certainly she had never wished for her creepy, perverted boss to intrude upon her life to this extent. It was clear at that moment that she would never return to her job at the market, and that her life would never be the same.
Once the newness of the excitement wore off, Mary Lee explained to Ernesto about her bike, and how Darren had offered her a ride, and how he had always been fonder of her than made her comfortable. Ernesto was relieved that Darren's advances had been unasked for, and was proud of himself for protecting his woman from a predator. That night Mary Lee and Ernesto made love in a manner that they never had before. This time it was sweet and passionate, and it was everything a young girl would've hoped for when she first dreamed of being in love. She knew that her family and friends back in Iowa would never understand her new life in Crimson Alley, but she was happy there. She had created a life for herself that while modest and unusual, was perfect to her in its own way, and she didn't miss those starry skies one bit.
