WC-Cassidy's Red Right Ankle

"Are you feeling alright, dear? You don't look so well he said to me. I lay in his arms and he was gently stroking my hair.

"I¦ think I'm fine. I was just thinking about things I replied.

"What kinda things?

"¦just the past.

"You still think about those things?

"Once in a while. They just keep popping up now and again to give me grief. I wish they wouldn't anymore.

"Do you wanna talk about it? Maybe that'll help you get over it.

"Only if you make me a cup of tea I said with a smile.

"Oh alright he said. Letting go of me he went into the kitchen to oblige. He returned a few minutes later with a hot cup of tea and handed it to me.

"Here you go. Be careful, it's still hot.

"Thank you, Donovan dear.

"You're quite welcome. Do you wanna talk now?

"Sure. Hmmmm¦Where should I begin? Oh yes. With my leg and my red right ankle.

"But you're right leg looks quite normal. It looks no different from you left leg or even my right leg.

"That's true. But it didn't always used to be that way. When I was younger my right ankle used to be all red and swollen. But there wasn't anything wrong with it at the time¦It wasn't until I started high school that complications began to arise.

"The redness kept growing and growing...one day my leg started to hurt. I remember some of the first nights that it happened, I'd spend the whole night crying because it hurt so much. When I went to the doctor they would always tell me that there was nothing wrong with my leg despite my cries of pain. Everyone at school always though I was some kind of weirdo 'cause of my swollen leg¦ I looked almost club-footed. So¦I ended not having many friends back then. I narrated the story of my past, pausing every now and then to remember details.

"I never knew about this¦ he said.

"There is more. Can I continue?

"Only if you want to.

"Well¦Because I didn't have many friends I spent a lot of time with my mom. You know I have no siblings, and my dad was always at work, so mom was the only one left to keep my company¦ She told me a story once about my uncle, who lived in Europe. I smiled thinking of my mother's stories.

"I didn't know you had an uncle.

"I did.

"Did.

"Yeah, but I never met him since he died before I was born. Apparently my mom told me that my uncle had similar problem. She told me that it was a rare disease that happened to people that had Gypsy blood, I said staring at Donovan.

"But you don't look like a gypsy he said, confused.

"I have some gypsy blood in me. My uncle was a full gypsy though. He originally lived in Germany, but fled to France when Hitler and the Nazis came to power out of fear of his life. But when he was about fifty or so his ankle had begun to turn red, just like mine.

As my mom tells me he didn't make much of it at first, but soon it began to engulf his leg. Eventually the redness began to cover the rest of his body until it overwhelmed him¦in the end, the redness was what killed him. When my mother came over here from Europe she brought a small trunk of some of his belongings, which she showed to me. In it were photos of him, some things he collected throughout his life, and strangely enough, a key.

"A key?

"Yeah. It was a key to his cabin he had in the Pyrenees. My mom also told me that before he died my uncle had figured out a cure for the reddening. And that he kept the secret for the cure in his cabin hidden away. She and I both agreed that I should go there before the redness took my life. So¦ the summer before my senior year I went to visit my uncle's cabin in the Pyrenees. It took my mom and me a few days to find the cabin tucked away, out in the middle of nowhere.

"When we finally found a cabin, we tried to see if the key fit into the lock ' it did...that's how we knew it was my uncle's cabin. It was barren and undecorated. My mom had always told me that my uncle was a plain man and kept little. But still in the middle of the room there was a trunk, which suppoedly held the secret cure for the reddening. My uncle left instructions directing that whoever used the cure must stay and apply the cure for a few days for the cure to take full effect. We followed the directions, and I took the cure. When it was all done, mom and I went back home. I said.

"What was your uncle's secret to the cure? And what does this have to do with- he said, but I interrupted him.

"My mom and I agreed to keep my uncle's decision to keep the secret what it was - a secret. We threw away the key so nobody else would ever go inside my uncle's cabin ever again¦

"But I'm not done, Donovan - this leads into what has been troubling me so much. I've had no problems overcoming my ordeal with the red right ankle, even though it caused me so much pain. It is the removal of this red right ankle that really caused the problems. It took a month or so before the reddening disappeared. It kind of surprised me when it began to disappear. I had nealy forgotten that my leg was actually not red!

"When I returned to school the next year everybody seemed to notice immediately. People began to talk with me, and I quickly made some new friends. But the boys at my school also began to notice this change. They had previously ignored me, because they thought I was ugly. But now that I was no longer reddened they thought differently of me¦I guess they were just shallow like that, to finally notice me for who I was without the abomination on my leg¦ On several occasions they tried to woo me. A few of them had even gone to the extent of asking me out. But I wasn't really up to it, and if I were to date I would've only gone out with somebody I liked. And for certain I didn't like those superficial boys who tried to flatter me. Eventually they grew weary of my denial of them and decided to take action to satisfy their new taste in me.'

'One day after school, I was walking back home after school when they came from behind and grabbed me. They dragged me back to their car. I remember screaming at the top of my lungs, shouting for help the whole time as they were dragging me into the car. But my cries for help fell on deaf ears. Once they had me in their car, they drove off, I couldn't tell where they were taking me since they had placed a blindfold over my eyes. I continued to cry out for help, even though I knew that it was useless since nobody could hear me other than the boys...

"Eventually the car came to a stop, through my cries I failed to hear anything outside. I had no idea where we were but I think they took me out of the car¦ They savagely tore off my clothes and one-by-one had their way with me... Every one of them made sure they had their fill of me. I never stopped crying as they ravished me¦I still remember the sharp pain, I couldn't help cry out sometimes. But¦they had driven to a place where nobody could ever hear me.
"Once they got tired they just left me there, naked, and drove off. I managed to get off my blindfold and find my clothes. I put them on, and went off to find my way back home¦I cried the whole way back.'

'When I got home I rushed to find mom and told her everything that happened to me¦I couldn't bear to keep it inside. I wouldn't even keep rape a secret from my mom. After I told her she called the police. I just went to bed though, crying myself to sleep. I didn't go to school for a few weeks afterwards since I was too hurt to even think about my academics. My mom agreed with my actions, and when my teachers had begun to call about my periodic absence she valiantly defended me. That whole time I would just cry¦ I couldn't even think of doing anything else. After three weeks I managed to make it back to school, where I discovered that those awful boys were arrested. The few friends I made at the beginning of the year tried to help me through that rough period, but I could tell they weren't sincere...especially since I couldn't tell them what was really bothering me.

"I began to take walks with my mom once I got home to try to rid my memories of that awful day. One afternoon, my mom couldn't go out with me because she was ill. By then, I felt confident to go by myself. It was on that walk that I met you. And well¦You know the rest of that story

"I do. I think that part is best he said.

"So do I I said. Giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Are you feeling any better?

"I think I am, now. Though I'm getting kind of tired after all talking. Telling you took a lot out of me though¦I'm tired of all this talking. I think I'll go to bed, I need some sleep.

"I think I will too.

"Alright. I said and smiled at him one last time that night as I reached over to the lamp and turned out the light.