The Two Amys by Esther Minskoff

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“Phil, I have a gun and a permit for it. After all this happened, Keith got us
both guns. I had a guy teach me how to shoot. I keep my gun in my bedside table. I
haven’t touched it in years. Maybe I’ll practice shooting again.”

After Amy got off the phone, she called Teri and told her to come over with
Dan after supper. She told her to get the teenager next door to baby sit with the
kids. Teri wanted to know what had happened, but Amy told her she didn’t want to
talk on the phone, and she wanted Dan to know first-hand. When she said that, she
was struck by how Dan had become so important to their family. His acute
perceptions of situations made everyone trust him. And he radiated strength, both
physical and mental. But mostly what made him an integral part of the family was
the mutual love he and each family member had for each other. Now Amy had two
strong men to rely on.

As soon as Keith got home from work, he knew something terrible had
happened. He felt a heaviness in the air when he entered the house. He found Amy
sitting at the kitchen table looking as if someone had died. Indeed, there had been
a death, but it was not of a person; it was the death of her feelings of security and
peace. And what remained was her fear of evil and violence again entering her life.

“Amy, what happened?”

“Phil called. He said that Evgeniy is back in town. He went to the Russian
bar looking for work. The bartender called Phil, but he didn’t know where he was
staying or have a way to reach him. He wouldn’t give him his phone number. The
bartender is scared after he attacked Mischa so he got a gun. I’m glad he contacted
Phil. I think he realized that protecting Evgeniy could mean his own death.”

“We have to tell Teri and Dan. We never really told Dan the whole story, did
we?”

“No. We foolishly thought that Evgeniy was out of our lives and that this
whole mess was behind us. We figured he went back to Russia and maybe he did,
and he came back here. Who knows why he came back to town? He told the
bartender he was looking for a job, but I think he also came back to get me. How
stupid we were to think that he was out of our lives. He won’t be out of our lives
until he’s locked up in jail or dead. Hopefully dead. I can’t believe I said that. I
can’t believe that I wish for someone’s death. With all my heart I want to see
Evgeniy dead. That’s the only way I’ll ever have peace.”

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Amy felt her heart racing as she voiced thoughts that she tried to bury.

“After I talked to Phil, I got my gun out. I hadn’t touched it in ages. I need to
go back to the guy at the gun store and have him give me a refresher course on
how to use it. I want to be able to kill Evgeniy if I have the chance. Can you
believe this is your sweet wife Amy talking like this? Maybe it’s because our lives
have been so blessed with Dan and Adam. We’ve been blissfully happy but now
there’s danger lurking out there. Now out happiness could be destroyed. Our
family could be destroyed.”

“I need to practice my shooting too. I don’t know when I last touched my
gun.”

“Keith, I’ve been thinking about whether I could really kill Evgeniy and I
have no doubt that I could. Here I am this peaceful, non-violent person who
believes that people are all basically good, except Evgeniy. But I become
transformed into a different person when I think of him. It’s like I have different
compartments inside me. One of these compartments is filled with love for my
family and doing good things for people. It’s where the good Amy is. But another
compartment is filled with blinding hatred for Evgeniy. It’s where an Amy I don’t
know lives. But I have to get rid of Evgeniy so I can empty that compartment and
just be filled with the real Amy – the good, loving Amy. I can’t stand living with
this split personality.

I know this sounds crazy, but I feel that God has commanded me to get rid
of Evgeniy, even if it means killing him. He wants me to stop him from spreading
his evil in the world. I don’t think that the commandment ‘Thou shall not kill,”
applies in this case. I think I’m commanded by God to kill. That this is a justified,
honorable kill. Does that sound crazy? Me – a killer? And God ordering me to kill.
Bizarre!”

Keith looked at Amy with concern and said, “Amy, I can’t believe you’re
talking like this. You’re over-reacting. You’re not yourself. When I look at your
face, I see it twisted. You don’t even look like the Amy I know. I hate to say this,
but I think you’re temporarily unbalanced.”

“You mean crazy.”

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“I wouldn’t go that far, but you’re not yourself. Your obsession with
Evgeniy has warped you into someone different – someone scary. I’m also afraid
of you having the gun. I’m afraid you’ll do something irrational. Or you’ll have an
accident and shoot someone you don’t mean to shoot, like me or Tammy or Dan or
Adam.

Amy, maybe you should go away for a while until he’s caught. We have to
let the police get him. I’m sure they will. Phil is totally committed to getting
Evgeniy. Maybe you should stay at the Teppers for a while. Joe is home all day
and he could protect you.”

Keith took Amy’s hand and said, “I know how you feel, but we have to
protect you from what you might do, from who you’ve become. If you kill
Evgeniy, you’d be tried for murder and sent to prison. You know we couldn’t live
without you. None of us could.

Amy, give me your gun for safe keeping. You know he won’t be able to
break into the house with the cops outside and our security system.”

“Keith, after I got off the phone with Phil, I looked in the mirror. I saw a
different person from the Amy who picked up the phone before he called to tell me
that Evgeniy was back. We have a magnificent family and we’re all so happy. I
can’t let that man destroy what we have. He might even go after our grandkids –
our Tammy and Adam. Just to get at me. If he’s not caught by the police and I
have a chance to kill him, I will. I won’t hesitate. I have to prevent him from
hurting us and I have to punish him for what he did to Ashley and her family. I
have to be the avenging angel. I think people would support me killing him to
defend myself and my family. I don’t think people would support me for getting
revenge. But I don’t care. I can still picture Ashley when I found her. I will never
be able to erase those bite marks and bruises. I have to punish the animal who did
that to her. A human being would not do what he did. Only a vicious animal.

And no Keith, I won’t give up my gun.”

And to herself, she said “And I have to make sure that my friend the Angel
of Death is my partner in this.”

“Amy, if I have a chance to kill him, I will too. I have to protect you and my
family. But I also want the police to do their job.”

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“If the police arrest him, he’ll go to jail for a while, but eventually he’ll be
out and he’ll be after me again. I can’t let that happen. I can’t live my life knowing
he’ll always be after me.”

Keith looked deeply into Amy’s eyes and read the ideas darting around in
her head because some of them were the same ones in his head. The ideas having
to do with protection were the same, but not the ideas dealing with revenge.

Neither Amy nor Keith felt like eating dinner. They both drank glass after
glass of iced tea.

Exactly at 7:00 Teri and Dan came. They hurried into the kitchen and were
stopped by the expressions on Amy and Keith’s faces.

“Mom, what happened?”

“Evgeniy’s back. He went to the Russian bar and asked the bartender if he
knew of any jobs. He didn’t give him a phone number or address where he could
be reached, but he’s going back there so maybe the cops can get him. They have to
get him, or I don’t know what he’ll do to me.

Dan, you know a little of what happened with the rape of Ashley Bennett,
but now we have to tell you the whole story with all the details, so you understand
what the return of this animal means to me, to all of us.”

For 20 minutes Amy described every aspect of the rape and the hunt for
Evgeniy. Dan listened with rapt attention processing every word and the danger
threatening the future of his family.

When Amy finished, Dan said, “I don’t know if moving in with the Teppers
will solve the problem. If this guy is intent on finding you, he will. We have to
have a plan to protect Amy and all of us. She can never be left alone in the house.
And I think you shouldn’t get rid of Amy’s gun. In fact, I think you need to get
more than one gun. Amy and Dan keep your guns in the house, but you need to get
guns to carry on you, so you’ll need to get concealed weapon permits. I’ll help you
get them because one of the guys I work with sells guns on the side. If you don’t
mind, I’ll tell him about this and get his advice.”

Keith said, “Dan, I don’t agree with you on the guns. Amy is too emotional
and too irrational to be trusted with a gun right now. What do you think Amy?”

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“I don’t know. I’d feel safer if I had a gun around. I feel so unprotected
without one. I have no way of protecting myself against this animal.”

Keith said, “Okay. Keep it for now. But I’m not sure it’s a good idea. I’m so
worried about what you’ll do. You are not the Amy we all know. The stress you’re
under is changing you.”

“I don’t want to be that sweet, fearful Amy. I have to take control and act
when I have to.”

As Amy spoke these words, she didn’t really know who she was. She felt
herself fluctuating between sweet, good Amy and the newly emerging Amy who
would be strong and do as she saw fit to overcome evil, even if it involved
violence.

Dan asked, “Do you have a picture of this guy?”

“Yes, but it’s old. It’s the picture that the police circulated after the rape.
It’s from his driver’s license and I have one from his immigration papers too. I
don’t have a current picture of him. We have to get Phil to ask the bartender if he
changed his looks in any way. And maybe there’s a more current driver’s license
picture of him from here or New York.”

“Maybe the two of you should take some time off from work so you can
protect yourselves here at home. Or maybe you should both go to the Teppers.
You can’t come to our house because he’d figure out that you’d gone to your
family.”

Amy said, “I don’t think that’s the solution. We have to draw him out by
having him come after me.”

Dan said, “Let me talk to some of my co-workers and some of my military
buddies and see what they say. This is almost like a military operation.”

Amy said, “Dan, we knew you’d help. We need your strength and guidance
to help get us through this. We may be blinded by our fears and our memories of
what happened.”

She clutched his hands tightly.

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“Don’t worry. The police will get him, or we’ll get him. He’s not going to
get away again. I have a gun too so I can protect you, but most of all I need to
protect my family in case he finds out about us.”

Teri said, “I don’t think he’ll come after us. I think he’ll only go after Mom
because she’s the one who identified him as the rapist. He holds a grudge against
her like he held a grudge against Ashley for having him fired.”

“I’m not sure about that. He may find out how much you and the kids mean
to her and that hurting them would hurt her even more.”

Teri shivered with fear as the impact of Dan’s words hit her.

“He doesn’t think like that. He thinks like an animal, only wanting to get
revenge against the one who he thinks is his enemy.”

They talked till 11:00 and would have talked longer, but Dan had to get up
early for work the next morning. Before they left, everyone did a group hug. How
they treasured each other. How they needed each other. Now more than ever. What
a blessing Dan was to the Petersons. And Dan felt that he had been blessed by
becoming part of their family, so he had a responsibility to protect them. It was no
longer the Peterson family; it was the Peterson-Curry family.

The next day Amy and Keith called work to ask for a week off. Their bosses
were understanding and told them to be cautious and protect themselves. Then
Amy called Phil to ask if she and Keith could see him. They went to the police
station, to the rooms they thought they would never again see. Phil told them that
he planned to post a plainclothes policeman at the bar in case Evgeniy returned. He
reported on what he had heard from the Brooklyn police about Evgeniy’s wife.

“I called Evgeniy’s wife and she told me that he lived with her off and on for
the past 3 ½ years. He also had a girlfriend who he lived with some time too. But
he beat her up, so she threw him out. She didn’t report it to the police because she
was afraid that he’d kill her. The police think that he’s been involved in some
robberies as a way of getting money, but they have no proof. The Russian
community was starting to turn away from him and the police were also closing in
on him, so he came back here to Franklin, the only place he had left to go.

Evgeniy has a 13-year-old kid named Ivan who dropped out of school and is
probably with him now. The Brooklyn police asked his mother why she let him go

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with Evgeniy. She said she couldn’t control him, and that the boy hit her, so she
was glad to be rid of him. Now we have two violent, out-of-control Russians. The
Brooklyn police sent a school picture of Ivan who looks like an adult, not a 13-
year-old kid. In fact, he looks like Evgeniy. He looks like a brawny, mean adult. I
hate to think of what he’ll be like when he becomes an adult. They also sent a
current photo of Evgeniy from his New York driver’s license. He doesn’t seem to
have changed much. I showed it to the bartender and he said that Evgeniy looked
the same. He cringed with fear as he looked at it.”

When he showed Amy and Keith each of the pictures. Amy stared at
Evgeniy seeing the personification of all the evil in the world concentrated in his
ugly face.

Phil continued. “The police think that the father and son have been involved
in some robberies in New York. The kid inherited his father’s genes. Like father,
like son.”

Amy and Keith were overwhelmed with this information. Now they had to
worry about two enemies, not one.

As they were leaving, Phil said, “It’s our top priority to catch Evgeniy so I
don’t want you to worry. We’ll get him. Just stay home and keep your security
system armed.”

Amy thanked him for his help, but she didn’t share her belief that it would
be her and not the police who would ultimately get him.

There were no sightings of Evgeniy locally for two weeks but there was a
sighting back in Brooklyn. His wife reported that they had come back to get fresh
clothes, food, and money. He didn’t say where he was going but he was driving a
new car – a light blue Toyota Highlander. She didn’t know the license plate. The
police assumed it was stolen. The New York police were working on tracing it.

After two weeks with no sighting, Phil pulled back the police guard at the
house. There would be a police drive-by every two hours. Amy and Keith had gone
back to work, but with trepidation. They knew that they couldn’t be barricaded at
home indefinitely. After another two weeks with no sighting of Evgeniy, they
started to relax. They felt that maybe he realized that there was no work for him in
Franklin and that he had no contacts in town who could help him get a job. How

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wrong they were. Evgeniy was returning for more than a job. He was returning for
revenge, revenge against Amy. They had no way of knowing that for over three
years Evgeniy had constantly thought about how he would retaliate against Amy.
He fantasized raping her, then biting her breasts off, and then carving her up with
his knife which he sharpened daily. He usually masturbated while he fantasized
and ended his fantasy with Amy’s death and his climax.

Chapter 21

It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving and Amy had gone shopping for the
big meal she was going to cook for her family, the Teppers, and the Silvers. Amy
had bought a 25-pound turkey and a 15-pound ham along with all the ingredients
for the fixings and side dishes. They were planning on celebrating not seeing
Evgeniy and their hopes that he was gone. This time for good. Maybe he was
scared off by seeing a police car in front of Amy’s house and maybe because of his
inability to find a job.

Keith was happy to be back playing guitar with his group for the first time in
a year. Making music was his therapy. He was especially happy because the group
had booked a gig for a New Year’s Eve party. He was spending the afternoon
practicing with the group and told Amy to leave the non-perishables in the car so
he could unload them when he got home.

Amy drove into the garage and opened the side door leading into the
kitchen. She turned the alarm off and kept the door open as she carried the bags
from the car trunk into the house. It was a perfect scenario for Evgeniy to attack –
the alarm was off, Amy was alone, and Amy was distracted.

With Ivan, Evgeniy had been watching the house from his car. When he saw
her pull up alone, he hid in some tall bushes next to the driveway waiting for the
moment when Amy would be vulnerable. He knew there was an alarm system and
he saw her turn it off when she went into the house. He quietly rushed into the
garage and when he got to the kitchen, he jumped her from behind. He repeatedly
hit her face and head as she lay on the floor amidst the groceries which were
covered with blood pouring from her nose. He repeatedly screamed Russian
profanities as he viciously pummeled her.

He dragged her into her bedroom and threw her onto the bed. He pulled up
her sweater and then pulled her bra over her breasts. He sucked her breasts and

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then started biting around the nipples. Not nibbles as he had done with Ashley, but
chunks. Amy cried in pain as she looked at Evgeniy who appeared to be a
ferocious beast attacking his prey. He was in a frenzy. She had never been more
frightened in her life, but somehow she remained in control. She knew she had to
act, or he would rape and murder her.

Although e was holding her arms down, she was able to free one when he
went to unzip his pants. From working with her patients, Amy was strong. She had
learned to deftly lift her patients, even the heavy ones so she was able to wrestle
with Evgeniy. She realized that Evgeniy was small and scrawny and that she was
taller and heavier than he was. She was filled with adrenaline pumping through her
body making her even physically stronger. She forcefully stuck her right pointer
finger hand into Evgeniy’s eye socket. He put his hands to his eye as if trying to
hold the eyeball in the socket. He screamed with pain as he groped around trying
to pin down her arms again. Her attack on him enraged him even more. He
screamed, “You fucking whore.”

Amy knew her best chance for survival was to reach into her bedside table
drawer and get her gun. She twisted her body and opened the drawer groping for
the gun. When she found it, he tried to grab it from her. He couldn’t see clearly
and was flailing around. She clutched the gun tightly and pressed the trigger
repeatedly. She was shooting wildly. Bullets were flying everywhere, but
suddenly Evgeniy stopped moving. She looked at him and saw that a bullet had
entered the center of his head as if she had aimed for a perfect death shot. It
appeared as if he had been executed, and from Amy’s point of view he had been
executed for his crimes against Ashley and her.

Hovering behind Evgeniy Amy saw the Angel of Death. For the first time,
she clearly saw his face. His black skeletal face was grinning widely. Amy felt
that he had directed that bullet into Evgeniy’s head. He was rejoicing over
Evgeniy’s death. Amy tried to empty the rest of the bullets into his head, but the
gun was empty. When she looked back at Evgeniy, the Angel of Death was gone.
He had done his job and disappeared.

Amy pushed Evgeniy onto the floor. She lay on the bed and gasped, “Thank
you God for letting me kill him. Ashley, he’s dead. You can rest in peace now. We
have justice.”

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When she said this, she wasn’t sure if she felt a sense of justice or a sense of
revenge. Really, both. Weren’t they partly the same? Didn’t they overlap? Wasn’t
revenge a personal form of justice?

Then she cried hysterically. Her breath was convulsive. All the pent-up
emotions from the time of Ashley’s rape came gushing out in an avalanche of
tears. She had to stop so she could call the police, but she couldn’t produce
intelligible words.

At last, she staggered into the kitchen to find the phone in her purse which
she had put on the kitchen counter when she had first entered the house. But
before she could dial, a young man appeared at the garage door. For a minute she
thought it was Evgeniy rising from the dead. But then she realized it was Ivan who
resembled Evgeniy.

“Where’s my father?” he screamed hysterically. He looked frighteningly
frightened. He had been waiting in their car outside and had heard the shooting.
His fists were balled up and he was ready to attack Amy.

She yelled. “Get out. I’m calling the police.”

As she put the phone to her ear, Ivan pulled out a knife, the same kind of
knife that Evgeniy had. He lunged at her with the blade aimed at her heart. She
jumped sideways so the knife slightly grazed her upper right arm. He tried to stab
her again when he was grabbed from behind by Dan who had come by to drop off
two pumpkin pies that he were a Thanksgiving gift from the Chief of the
Emergency Squad. Dan had decided to drop them off at Amy’s because she had an
extra refrigerator in the garage. He hadn’t told Amy he was coming so it turned out
to be life-saving that he appeared when he did. Amy was more convinced than ever
that God had sent Dan to protect her family.

Ivan pulled free from Dan’s arms and slashed out at him with the knife, but
missed. Dan hit Ivan’s hand and he dropped the knife and ran out to his car. Dan
followed him and got into his car. Ivan was speeding, trying to get away. He
wasn’t paying attention and as he turned a corner, he crashed into a light pole. He
was going 50 miles an hour so the front of his car was demolished. It looked like a
squashed accordion. Dan got out of his car and carefully approached Ivan, fearful
that he might still be alive and possibly have a gun. He saw that Ivan wasn’t
moving. His head had slammed into the windshield. He was covered with blood.

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His facial features were obliterated. It was obvious that Ivan was dead. There was
nothing Dan could do despite his training.

Were Ivan alive, Dan would have been conflicted about using his EMT
skills. He didn’t know if he would try to save him or let him die. Throughout the
rest of his life, Dan could never answer the question about what action he would
have taken had Ivan been alive. He knew that if he were a medic in battle and he
could save a dying enemy, he would do so. There were rules for fighting wars; but
there were no rules for fighting the war against evil in real life. He also knew that
if he were on duty and was called to this accident scene, he would do all he could
to save Ivan’s life. But this situation was different. He knew Ivan, and he knew he
had just tried to kill Amy.

Over the years, Dan and Amy talked a lot about their actions on that
catastrophic day. They didn’t discuss this with Teri and Keith. It was a topic they
could only discuss with each other. No one else could understand their actions or
their emotions.

In their discussions, Amy would tell Dan about her difficulty separating
justice and revenge. She believed that she got justice for Ashley even though most
“authorities” say that justice is meted out by a court of law. She believed in justice
based on the biblical rule “an eye for an eye,” and that an individual can mete out
justice.

Dan cited examples of how he saw justice meted out in war when US troops
killed enemy families to get revenge for their fellow soldiers who had been
viciously killed. They never agreed on the difference between justice and revenge.
Amy felt that she had achieved both with her killing of Evgeniy, but the real
unanswerable question for Amy was whether she would have killed Evgeniy if she
had not been in a self-defense situation. There was no doubt that Amy was justified
in killing Evgeniy to protect herself, but would she have been justified in killing
him if he wasn’t trying to kill her? Wouldn’t that be murder?

Dan called 911, told the police to come immediately to the accident scene,
and then he drove back to the house. He found a dazed Amy sitting on a kitchen
chair, staring blankly into space. She was covered with blood from the beating and
bleeding from her arm where Evgeniy had cut her. She hadn’t pulled her shirt

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down, so her breasts were exposed. She had gouges in her right breast. Dan pulled
her shirt down. Then he held her close.

“Amy, you’re safe at last. Evgeniy and Ivan are both dead. You’re free.
We’re all free now.”

He wasn’t sure if she understood what he said. She just stared ahead looking
as if she had been in hell, and indeed she had been.

They heard sirens, many of them. They grew deafening as they neared.
Suddenly, the kitchen was packed with police. Phil came a few minutes later. He
tried to talk to Amy, but she was unresponsive, in a state of shock. The EMTs who
were Dan’s co-workers at the rescue squad examined Evgeniy and pronounced him
dead.

The house was in a state of chaos. It looked like a slaughterhouse. The
kitchen floor was littered with blood-soaked groceries and smashed pumpkin pies.
The bedroom was in a shambles with Evgeniy’s body sprawled on the floor. He
was on his back with his limp penis hanging out of his pants. A small bullet hole
was centered in the middle of his forehead. Blood trickled from it. His eyes were
open staring with disbelief from witnessing his own death. In the fraction of a
second before the bullet ended his life, he realized that Amy was going to kill him.
The bed was covered with blood and pieces of flesh from Amy’s breasts. A stray
bullet had hit a lamp that was upended. Another had shattered glass in a window.

There was confusion as the police tried to figure out exactly what had
happened. When Phil arrived, he took charge. The police took close-up photos of
Amy’s wounds and the bedroom and kitchen. The medical examiner arrived and
examined Evgeniy’s body. He found that he had released semen when he attacked
Amy. There was no doubt that he was in the process of trying to rape her.

The EMTs examined Amy, but found that she didn’t need any emergency
treatment at that time. They were loading her into an ambulance to take her to the
emergency room for further evaluation when Keith arrived. He didn’t have to be
told what happened. He knew. He hugged Amy tightly and said, “I’m here now.
You’re safe. We’re all safe now. Our nightmare is over forever.”

He joined her in the ambulance and clutched her hand tightly. She stared
ahead, oblivious to her surroundings.

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Dan called Teri and told her an abbreviated version of what had happened.
He told her to meet Amy and him at the hospital as soon as she found someone to
care for the kids.

Phil went to Ivan’s car and found that the police had taken pictures of him
and the scene. They were now moving him to the morgue. Often the police grieve
when a child of 13 dies, but in this case there was no one grief. No one viewed him
as a child. They viewed him as a psychopathic killer who happened to be 13.

Phil and the police were at the house and the accident scene for the next
eight hours. They would spend many more hours there over the next few days.

Teri met her parents at the hospital. She talked softly to Amy as she stroked
her hands. This was a reversal of roles. Amy had always comforted Teri, but now
Teri was comforting her mother. She had learned the lessons of solace well from
her mother.

At the hospital, a surgeon stitched the bite marks on Amy’s breast and
predicted that they would eventually be almost invisible. A gynecologist examined
Amy and confirmed that Evgeniy had not entered her. He had ejaculated on her but
fortunately not into her. Amy felt good to know that Evgeniy had not been inside
her body. Had he entered her, she would have felt defiled for the rest of her life. A
CAT scan of her head was taken because of a suspected concussion from the fall,
but fortunately there was no indication of any head injury. A psychiatrist was
called in to prescribe tranquilizers and spend some time calming Amy. Pictures
were taken of all her injuries since they would be needed for the police
investigation.

The attending physician decided that Amy should spend the night in the
hospital, and of course Keith stayed with her. He couldn’t stop looking at her
because he realized how close he’d come to losing her. During the eight hours he
spent with Amy, he prayed to God for strength for both he and Amy to survive this
ordeal. He thought that Ashley’s rape had been a tragedy, but this was tragedy had
a happy ending – Evgeniy’s death.

Later when the police called Evgeniy’s wife to ask if she wanted Evgeniy’s
and Ivan’s bodies sent to New York for burial, she said no and to burn them like
their souls were burning in hell.

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The next day Amy refused to go back to her house, the place she lovingly
called home for over 20 years. She couldn’t bear to see the place where she had
almost died. She didn’t want to picture herself in the bed where Evgeniy bit her
breasts and almost raped her. She didn’t want to picture ever cooking in the kitchen
where she lay on the floor being savagely beaten by Evgeniy.

She and Keith stayed in a spare bedroom at the Silvers. They moved out all
the clothing and furniture they wanted to keep. Everything else would be thrown
out, including every piece of furniture from the bedroom. Although two dressers, a
chair, and a bedside table were undamaged, Amy couldn’t look at them because
they witnessed what had happened in her room.

The house was eventually cleaned by an agency that specialized in cleaning
up crime scenes. They sold it without reducing the price. It was a popular house
because of its notoriety. Some people like the idea of living in a house where
someone had been murdered. Most do not.

Amy and Keith bought a house near Teri and Dan so they could provide
support to each other. They found a house in Teri’s development that was being
foreclosed because the owners were divorcing. They were filled with sorrow at
leaving the house that they had loved so dearly, the place where they thought they
would live out the rest of their days. They knew that the horrific memories of
Amy’s attempted rape and attempted murder would always overshadow the many
beautiful family memories. The ugly memories were permanently etched into the
floors, walls, and air of the kitchen and the bedroom. To Amy, they could never be
removed.

The police didn’t bring charges against Amy because it was evident that she
acted in self-defense. The case was closed. Ivan’s death was ruled an accident
because of his reckless driving. That case too was closed. Legally, the cases
involving Amy were closed, but they would always be opened in her mind.

Chapter 22

For the most part, there’s a happy ending to this story. It took time for Amy
to heal psychologically, but gradually she returned to her positive, kind self. It
helped when she returned to working half-time on the day shift in the assisted
living unit at Shady Oaks. She found that the more she nurtured her patients, the

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more she nurtured herself. Nursing reinforced Amy’s view of herself as a healer of
others and a good person.

As expected, there was lots of publicity about Evgeniy’s and Ivan’s
sensational deaths. There were stories on TV, the print media, and the internet.
Amy was portrayed as a brave heroine protecting herself from a brutal rape, and
Dan as a hero protecting Amy from Ivan’s attack. Some of the stories portrayed
Evgeniy as more than a rapist and murderer, but also an immigrant who should
have been banned from entry into the US. Feelings of xenophobia were fanned.
Anti-immigrant groups contacted Amy to use her as a spokesperson for their
views, but she refused and espoused her pro-immigrant views.

Financially, Amy profited from her ordeal. She was approached by a
journalist who wanted to write a book about her experiences. She gave Amy
$10,000 for the rights to her story. Amy agreed as long as she retained final
approval of the content to ensure that everything and everyone was portrayed
accurately. Gradually the notoriety died down which was fine with Amy. She was
glad to return to anonymity.

The Peterson-Curry family gradually moved on with their lives. Teri devoted
herself to being a mother and wife. Dan relished his role as husband and father,
spending as much time as possible with Tammy and Adam. He especially doted on
Adam who with time demonstrated intellectual giftedness. He spoke in complete
sentences at a year and started to read words at two. Everyone in the family
marveled at this cute tyke who looked like a two-year old but behaved like a five-
year old. Every day Dan thanked God for blessing him with such a special family.

Amy kept in contact with the Bennett family who had moved away to be
farther from the tragic memories of Ashley. She was pleased to learn that Courtney
had made excellent progress psychologically and was planning to attend the
University of Virginia and major in pre-med. She hoped to eventually do research
on Alzheimer’s so she could prevent tragedies such as the one that had befallen her
family. The Bennett family moved ahead with their lives despite the permanent
scars from their tragedy.

The Peterson-Curry family faced various issues, but the one that they were
unprepared for was racism. Occasionally, Teri and Dan experienced snubs socially
because of their interracial marriage. Dan learned from some of his co-workers that

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some people joked that the only woman a black guy like Dan could get was a
“retard.” One of his friends almost got into a physical fight when he heard
someone say this. Dan didn’t share this with Teri because he knew she would be
devastated. Unfortunately, Dan was not surprised by this because he had suffered
racism throughout his life, but it didn’t reduce the pain he continued to feel.

What surprised them most was the racism directed at their children. A boy in
Tammy’s class asked her why she had a black father and if he hurt her. Why would
a black father hurt a white child more than a white father?

When Teri and Dan brought Adam to a psychologist to be evaluated for
intellectual giftedness, he viewed them as being unrealistic about Adam’s potential
until he completed his evaluation. He was surprised by the test results showing
that Adam performed above the 90th percentile on all intellectual and pre-academic
tests. He secretly attributed his giftedness to the white genes from Teri and the
white genes from Dan’s mother. Even a well-educated psychologist can harbor
racism.

Amy was reminded of her mother’s racism toward the black child she played
with in the sandbox many years earlier. Sadly, she realized that people were still
teaching their children to hate at very young ages.

Two years after the attack by Evgeniy, Amy felt it was time for her to help
survivors of sexual abuse. She felt that her experiences with Ashley as well as her
personal experiences made it possible for her to ease their pain. Through a
community organization for survivors of sexual assault, she participated in a group
therapy program for women who had been raped.

In addition, the director of the organization felt that Amy could be most
helpful with Margaret, a 13-year old girl with Down’s Syndrome who had been
raped by her father, Bert. Margaret told her teacher about the sexual abuse.
Although she believed it, others at the school did not because her father was a
well-known realtor in the community and because of the view that no one would
want to have sex with a mentally handicapped girl, especially one who was obese
and often dirty.

But that changed when Margaret came to school and showed her teacher
bruises on her genital area. Social services was brought in and the examining
doctor found that she had been raped repeatedly. Margaret was removed from the

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home because the mother knew about the rapes and did nothing to stop them. It
was reported, but not verified that the mother even watched Bert have sex with
Margaret.

Margaret was placed in a supportive foster home and given therapy. But the
best therapy she received were visits from Amy who shared Tammy’s Barbie dolls
with her. Sometimes, she also brought Tammy to play with her. Every time
Margaret saw Amy, Tammy, and the Barbies, she glowed. These were the times
when she was truly happy. The psychotherapist who worked with Margaret also
used Barbies and found them effective in reaching her. It is amazing that a piece of
painted plastic can provide access to a child’s deepest feelings.

Amy was livid when she learned of Bert’s sentence for Margaret’s rape. He
was sentenced to three years, and upon release from jail was ordered never to see
Margaret again. Amy’s old feelings of exacting revenge and meting out justice
returned. Three years for rape! She could think of little else other than the easy
sentence he had received. She believed that he had been given this short sentence
because Margaret was mentally challenged and because he was well known in the
community. Had he been a janitor and had Margaret been of normal intelligence,
Amy was certain that he would have been given a more fitting sentence.

Memories of when Teri was raped at Sasha’s house came flooding back to
Amy. There were similarities to the current circumstances – a mentally challenged
girl (Teri and Margaret) and a rapist respected by the community (a football hero
and a realtor). She knew back then that she could not get justice for Teri because
she was mentally limited and because the boys at the party were “well-respected”
football players. Amy regretted hiding the crime and not getting justice for Teri’s
rape, but at the same time, she realized that if that experience of more than 20
years ago happened again, she would act the same way. She wouldn’t focus
attention on Teri who would end up being vilified rather than the boys.

Although she had no grounds for her belief, she feared that Bert would try to
retaliate against Margaret when he was released. Amy talked to Margaret’s foster
parents about her concerns. Her foster father was a state policeman who was
prepared to protect Margaret if the need arose, but he was doubtful that Bert would
try to see her. Amy was relieved, but she still found herself with recurring thoughts
of revenge like she had when Evgeniy stalked her. She again saw herself the
defender of the victim.

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Amy knew that she had to resolve these feelings and the only one who could
help her was Dan. Although she and Keith were as close as ever, she had a special
separate relationship with Dan, one based on their involvement in the deaths of two
evil men.

Amy and Dan met in her yard while everyone was at the park celebrating the
first warm day of the year.

“Dan, I can’t believe it, but I have these crazy fantasies about Margaret’s
father trying to get back at her for reporting the rapes. I have to protect her, and I
end up killing him. I shoot him even though I don’t have a gun anymore. I see
myself as a vigilante who has to bring villains to justice. I thought those ideas were
long gone, but they’re still lurking somewhere inside me. They’re making me
crazy.”

“Amy, I suppose you’ll always have those feelings. You’re a good person,
but somewhere inside you there’s a person who wants to fight evil even if this
involves violence. Just recognize it and store it away and get on with your life.
There are two Amys – the good one we all know and the other one who is capable
of revenge to fight evil. But we know this Amy will be locked away so don’t
worry. I’ll make sure she never escapes.

Amy, I think we all have two parts to ourselves – the good and the evil
capable of violence. Even a person like you.”

“What should I do?”

“Nothing. Just focus on the good Amy like all of us do.”

“And that’s it?”

“Yes.”

Dan kissed Amy and they went to the park to enjoy the warmth of the day
and the warmth of their family.

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