Lead me From the Darkness

September 6th, 2011
Tuesday
The Julien Household, Lexington, MA
5:00 P.M.

Donna remembered him from the practices. He stared back at her with a blank expression. Donna became aware again that Henry was next to her and snapped out of her trance, looking away, feeling her cheeks redden.

“How do you like Boston Donna?” asked one of the guys. Not wanting to explain that she had been born and raised in Boston she said

“It’s great so far.”

“You guys should go out and explore, Boston has a lot more to it then the North End.”

“We will,” said Henry. Henry pushed her behind him so he could command the group’s attention. He held tightly onto her arm so she couldn’t go off on her own.

Greg saw Henry grab onto Donna’s thin wrist. She had a look of fear on her face. It disturbed him how much control he seemed to have over her. He was holding her wrist so tightly it looked like it would snap. None of the other guys seemed to notice this as they laughed about a joke Nathan had told. She tried to wriggle her wrist from his hand and he turned and said

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to get a drink of water.”

“Well be back soon.” He said. He let go of her and she quickly headed across the room. Instead of going to the refreshment table she went into the Julien’s library. He excused himself from the group and followed her. The Julien library wasn’t that big and he easily found her sitting on one of the couches looking around at the books. He took a step further into the room and she saw him. She jumped in fear and looked up at him.

“Sorry I scared you,” he said concerned.

“It’s alright,” she said, her hand over her chest. “I thought you were Henry.” He smiled trying to comfort her a bit and said

“Well I’m Greg, and you’re Donna right?”

“Ya,” she said. There was an awkward silence and then Greg said

“So do you like hockey?”

“Ya, I don’t always understand what’s going on but I like it,” she said. Greg looked at the books lining the shelves noticing they were all hockey books. He spotted a black and gold book and went over and pulled it out. The title was The Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Photos. He went back to the couch and sat with Donna. He flipped open the book and the first page was a full picture of the team on the ice after winning the cup.

“Is this from last year?” asked Donna.

“Ya it was the best year of my life.” Donna got more curious and turned the page. A large photo of Zdeno Chara’s yelling face as he lifted the cup. “That’s our captain Zdeno Chara, we call him Big Z.” He kept flipping the pages and showing her all of the players. Finally they came to his picture. He had a broad toothy grin as he lifted the cup high above his head.

“You must have been on top of the world,” she said smiling.

“Ya it was the best feeling in the world.” As they were about to move onto the next page they heard someone say in an angry voice.

What the hell are you doing?” They both looked up to see Henry standing in the doorway. Greg saw her fear stricken face and said boldly

“We were just reading,” He held up the book as proof. Henry narrowed his eyes at Greg and then turned to Donna. In a commanding voice he said

“Donna let’s go,” She looked over at Greg with an apologetic and fearful expression and got up off the couch. She walked over to Henry and he took her wrist in his tight grip again. He had never gently held her hand; he always grabbed her wrists like she was a prisoner. She felt like turning around to Greg and mouthing “help me” but she followed Henry out of the library back into the ballroom.

“What the hell was that?!” he snarled in her ear.

“It was nothing,” she said. “He was telling me a bit about the Bruins history.” He just groaned in disagreement. Donna noticed dinner starting and people gathering at the long table. There were small name cards set up by Karen Julien for seating arrangements. She and Henry found their names at the far right end of the table. They sat across from Zdeno Chara and his wife who were trying to calm their excited toddler daughter. Raina and Milan took a seat next to her making Donna happy she was next to someone she knew.

“Hi again,” said Raina cheerfully.

“Hi,” said Donna. She noticed their children were gone. “Where are the babies?”

“We put them to sleep upstairs,” said Raina. Donna nodded and then she heard Henry butt in.

“So how long have you been on the Bruins Milan?”

“Five years this season,” he said surprised at his sudden question.

“Oh so are you one of the top candidates to be the new assistant captain?” Donna knew Henry; despite being new he thought he was in the running to be the next assistant captain. She knew there was no chance in hell he’d get the title.

“I don’t know,” said Milan. “I think it might go to Krejci.” Henry kept watching Milan even after he had he’d turned away from him to talk to another teammate. She saw Greg sitting a little further up the table. He noticed her watching him and he smiled warmly at her. She smiled back wishing she was sitting with him. She noticed that there wasn’t a girls sitting with him meaning that he didn’t have a wife or serious girlfriend. Several chefs came out holding large platters of food. They placed them down in the middle of the table. Donna’s eyes instantly went to the platter of turkey and gravy feeling her stomach growl. She waited for the chefs to leave before politely taking a piece onto her plate. She ate quietly, listening to the buzz of conversation around her. She wanted to look up at Greg again and see if he was watching her but she didn’t dare. She felt Henry’s cold, hateful glare on her, watching her critically.
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