I looked up just as I sat down on my bike to start for home and saw the guy that Jimmy had turned in earlier heading toward me in his truck, at a high rate of speed. I gunned the bike and took off like a scalded dog. I was just in time, to have him miss me and hit the guard shack I was parked right next to. Becoming Antonia Part 21. By; Toni, with help from Zomba

The talk I had with Jen really helped me realize that just because life has thrown me a curve ball, it’s not the end of the world. I actually started to feel up-beat about the whole experience. I had a way to start over and live as I would have liked to. I was going to have a nice big check in my pocket from the settlement with the school, and I had a great girl who was going to be having my baby. How could life get any better? I doubt it could.

Have you ever noticed how much life is like a roller coaster? One minute you’re at the top of the world, and, the next minute, something comes and gives you a bitch-slap to remind you that reality is seldom pleasant. That is exactly what happened when Brenda and Helen finally cleared me to go back to work. I’d been told by Sal and Terry, that they contacted the aluminum plant and explained the extent of my injuries well enough for the plant to agree to hold my job, but they left out anything that would have gone against the non-disclosure agreement with the school.

I’ve never been more uncomfortable at a job than that first night back at the plant. It seemed like everyone was trying to get a look at the new me. Truth be told, I now know why people climb bell towers with high powered rifles. Some of my crew were pretty cool about it though. My department head was waiting for me when I walked into the crew room and so were all the crew leaders. For the first time in a couple of weeks, I had that déja vu feeling as I saw Helen and Rachel, and felt a shiver run down my spine. Ed, my crew leader, looked lost at first. I don’t really think he understood that I was the same person he used to go golfing with. The other crew leaders were kind of cool about it, but I could still feel their eyes on me as we all sat there talking about what had happened. I couldn’t say much, but I could still almost hear the dirty thoughts of the guys in the room as their eyes ogled my body.

Once the rest of the crew showed up for the start of the shift, Helen made the announcement that I was back, and that everyone was to remember what they all had learned in the sensitivity training they had all received while I was out. I looked around and saw everyone nodding in agreement, but I still couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy about the whole thing.

It was about half way through my shift when I came to the realization that I really need to start listening more closely to my inner voice. You know, the one that usually tells you when something doesn’t feel quite right. I think if I’d listened closer to it, most of this would never have happened and I could have just gone on living my life like the happy asshole I used to be. But, like an idiot, I didn’t listen, AGAIN!

I had gone to the cafeteria, to get my meal for the night, and was walking back when I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and saw the floor rushing up toward me. I did feel the floor hit my head, right before everything went black.

I woke up behind the mill, and it just happened to be at the time that a couple of guys were pulling my pants off me. I tried to scream, but soon realized that they had jammed a leather glove in my mouth and held it in place with duct tape. I tried to thrash around, but there were five of them, and as near I could figure, each one held one of my limbs as the fifth one readied himself to rape me. Just as he got his pants down, I saw Ed, and Jimmy, one of my crew members, jump him and wrestle him to the ground. The other guys took off, and left me laying there on one of the thirty-five thousand pound ingots.

Tears were running down my face when Ed finally helped me to my feet, and I could see that Jimmy had the guy that tried to rape me tied up with a zip tie. I couldn’t do anything but hug Ed, and sob into his chest. For his part, he just stood there and softly patted my shoulders while I did. Ed took me to his office while Jimmy took the would-be rapist to the security shack. Once I finally had some coffee in me, Ed asked me what happened.

“I was walking back from the cafeteria, when something hit me in the back of the head,” I told him, as I started to think back to everything I remembered. Which wasn’t much. “I remember hitting the floor, and blacking out. The next thing I know, four of them are holding me down, while the fifth one is pulling down his pants. I tried to scream for help, but they had that glove in my mouth. That’s when you and Jimmy showed up,” I told him as I broke down and started crying again.

“It’s alright Toni. You didn’t do anything wrong,” He said, as he squeezed my hand. “We noticed you missing and asked if anyone had seen you. Dog, from the soaking pits, said he saw you laying in the back of one of the scooters, but he thought something had happened and the guys who were with you were taking you to the nurse. I called over there, and they hadn’t seen you. We just went the same way they did and found you outside. I’m just glad we got there in time.”

“Me too, Ed,” I told him as I started to smile. “You really saved my bacon tonight.”

“Look, I called your dad, and Sarah’s coming to get you. Why don’t you go home, and get some sleep. I’m sure Tom (the plant manager) is going to want to see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks Ed,” I told him as I gave him a friendly hug.

I headed to the showers and cried. They were those heavy tears that you cry when you know your life almost just ended. And you know what? It actually made me feel a bit better. My friends saved my life, because they realized I was missing and came to rescue me. I still had some friends left.

I dried off and dressed in my street clothes to head for home. I saw Dad, and Sarah waiting for me at the gate when I got there. They both hugged me. Since I’d taken my motorcycle to work that night, they agreed to follow me home, while they rode in Dad’s Jeep. That’s when I had that déja vu feeling again. I saw all five guys that had attacked me being escorted out the gate. I looked up just as I sat down on my bike to start for home and saw the guy that Jimmy had turned in earlier heading toward me in his truck, at a high rate of speed. I gunned the bike and took off like a scalded dog. I was just in time, to have him miss me and hit the guard shack I was parked right next to. Luckily, the guards were all on the other side of the gate, not in the shack.

But, it wasn’t over. The guy sprang from his truck and headed toward me on a dead sprint. I saw he had a knife in his hand, so I let instinct take over. I grabbed the hammer from the loop I have on my bike and heaved it at him as hard as I could. Either he was blind with rage, over just being fired, or the lighting where I was parked wasn’t that good. Regardless of the reason, he obviously never saw the four pound ball-peen hammer until it actually hit him right in the head. I don’t think I need to tell you that he was knocked out colder then a ‘well digger’s ass in January’, but he was.

I shut the bike off and shook my head while the guards tended to him to see if I’d just killed him. I hadn’t. The guards told me they saw the whole thing, and saw that he had a knife. So, when the police showed up, I wasn’t brought up on charges, but the guy who tried to hit me was. I also told the cops that the whole lot of them, the guys the guards had in the back of their truck, had tried to rape me. I could see the look on the female cop’s face as I told her what I’d told Ed earlier. Lucky for those guys, she has extensive training, to help her control her emotions. Once the guard told her what I’d done, she looked at me and smiled.

“Somedays, I wish that I could get away with doing that,” she told me as she handed me back my hammer.

“Someday’s I wish I would have stayed in bed,” I told her with a slight giggle.

She took my information, and I was finally able to head for home.

Try as I might, I just couldn’t sleep that night. I tossed, and turned, but sleep never came. So, after a couple of hours of laying there trying to calm down, I decided to take my shrink’s advice. I started writing down everything that’s happened. This is being used as a journal, so I can remind myself, if I ever need to that is, of everything that’s gone on and what happened next.

The plant manager called and asked to see me around noon. So I got dressed in some business casual clothes that Sarah had picked up for me and drove in to hear the good news. It’s never good news when the plant manager calls you into his office. However, after the night I’d just had, my ‘give-a-damn’ was busted. I got there a few minutes early and waited in the reception area, trying to remember as much as I could about last night. That’s when Tom came out.

“Toni, I’m glad you could make it,” he told me, as he held out his hand to me. “I hear you had one hell of a first night back.”

“Truth be told, sir, I haven’t slept yet,” I told him, shaking his hand.

“Well, come on in, and let’s see if we can figure out what to do next.”

He read to me, the incident report Ed had helped me file last night, before I went home. Then, he read the incident report the security guards filed about the smashed guard shack and having to call the cops.

“Why did you throw a hammer at that guy?” he asked me.

“It was the only thing I had available. He was coming at me with a knife.”

“So, you threw a sledge hammer at him?”

“No sir, it was a ball-peen hammer.”

“Alright, let me ask the important question. Why did you have a ball-peen hammer with you?”

“I always ride with one.”

“Why?”

“I use it to get the attention of people in traffic that aren’t paying attention. When I’m on my bike, if you try to hit me with your car, I’m going to let you know I’m there. Usually the horn works, if that doesn’t get their attention, a shattered window usually does.”

“So you’ve done this before?”

“No sir, that was the first time I’ve actually had to use it.”

“I’m not going to sugar coat this,” he told me, as I saw him get serious. “We do not allow violence of any kind here. I’m afraid I’m going to have to suggest an administrative separation.”

“Why beat around the bush Tom? Just say it. I’m fired,” I said shaking my head.

“Alright. You’re being fired for fighting.”

“Fair enough. I hope you’re doing that to the other five workers from last night.”

“Why is that?”

“Because Tom, I’m sure the press would LOVE to hear that a woman got fired for defending herself, while the five guys who tried to rape her, one of who tried to kill her with a truck, were not,” I told him straight faced, and could see that he was nervous. “So, by all means, go ahead and give me my walking papers. I want it in writing why I’m being dismissed, and I’ll expect that you’ll supply my lawyer with a copy of the terminations of the other five. Go on, have Cathy draft it up. I’ll wait.”

He nervously got up and told his receptionist Cathy to type up a letter stating that I was being terminated for fighting with five other employees. She brought it in about a minute later and Tom signed it and handed it over to me.

“Oh, one more thing, I’ll take a copy of that incident report Ed filed last night about my attempted rape. I’m sure my lawyer will love to see these together,” I told him as I sat there reading my termination letter.

Once I had the incident report and my termination letter, I headed for Sal’s office and handed everything over to him. Sal told me that he could sue the company so I could get my job back. I just shook my head. I didn’t really want to work for a place that didn’t treat me with the enough respect to figure out that I was the victim. It was then, that I found out Sal had my check from the school. He’d looked over the statement I had to sign and it all looked good. Once I signed and had my check, I went across the hall from Sal’s office, to the CPA I’d been having do my taxes.

I explained the situation to Marilyn, and she agreed to help me set up a college fund for the baby and invest the rest of them money properly. We first took a look at taxes. That took care of a third of the $13 million right off the top. Next, she deducted all the bills that were in my father's name and mine. Next we factored in three new cars, since Sarah, dad and I were driving high-milage used cars. It still came out to just over $7 million left. She suggested I invest half and put the rest in a bank. Sarah and I could very easily live off the interest of the money in the bank, so that’s what I had Marilyn do.

I felt like I was back on that roller coaster again. I’d just had a down, by getting fired for defending myself, and now I was bill free, and ready to take my dad and fiancé shopping for new cars. I’d ask the big question to the universe right now, but the last thing I need is Officer Murphy enforcing the law right now. You get my drift.

To Be Continued.