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January 1971
“Dr. Goodman?”
Ellen looked up from her desk, where she was making notes in patients' charts.
“Yes, Jessica?”
“That girl I told you about is here, the one who called from the bus station.”
“Oh yes. That’s fine, just bring her back to my office. Ask Mrs. Ruiz to get an exam room ready.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
Jessica withdrew just as Ellen’s private line rang. She picked it up, knowing already who it was.
“Hello.”
“Hi, babe,” came Angelo’s smooth voice. “We still on for dinner?”
“Yes, we are. I can’t wait. When I finish this afternoon, I want to run home to shower and change before dinner.”
“Hmmm... .maybe I should come over and wash your back for you.”
“Oh no you don’t! It won’t stop with washing my back and we'll lose our reservations. You're just going to have to wait until you feed me before any... hanky panky,” she laughed.
“Ha! I knew it... you’re nothing but a gold digger, you just want me to spend money on you for fancy dinners.”
“Oh, poor wounded male ego! Well, mister male chauvinist, you take me home after dinner and I’ll show you what else I want you for.”
“It’s a deal,” he said.
The door opened and Jessica appeared with a young girl behind her.
“Thank you, Mr. Smith,” Ellen said in her professional voice. “I'll get back to you on that matter. Goodbye.”
Ellen hung up the phone and smiled warmly as she stood and moved around the desk to greet the girl. Jessica was helping her with two large suitcases. They set them down just inside the door.
“Please come in and sit down,” Ellen said. “Can Jessica get you anything? Coffee, water, a soda?”
“A Coke would be nice,” the girl said tremulously as she sank into one of the chairs.
Ellen nodded at Jessica, who left and returned quickly with a cold can of Coca Cola. Jessica then left, shutting the door quietly behind her. Ellen sat in a chair next to the girl, turning it so that she was facing her. The girl was pale and very young. Her brown eyes were luminous with unshed tears and filled with fear.
“Now,” Ellen said. “Jessica says your name is Janie and you're pregnant.” The girl nodded wordlessly. “What's your last name Janie?”
“Aronian.”
“OK, and how old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
“I see. Are you sure you're pregnant? Have you been to a doctor?”
The girl nodded miserably. “Yes, my sister took me to one in another county.”
“Then your family knows about the pregnancy?”
“Just my sister. My parents are dead.”
“I’m so sorry, Janie.”
“I went to live with my sister and her husband after my parents died.”
“So your sister knows that you are pregnant. Is she supportive? How about your brother-in-law? What was his reaction?”
“Oh, he doesn’t know!” Janie looked at her with alarm. “He can’t ever know!”
“It’s all right, Janie. That's up to you and your sister. If you don’t want him to know, he won’t hear about it from me. Have you given any thought to what you’re going to do? What does your sister say?”
Tears trickled down Janie’s cheeks.
“My sister wants me to go to a home for unwed mothers back east, have the baby and give it up for adoption, then come back here and act like nothing ever happened.” Her bottom lip trembled as she looked beseechingly at Ellen. “That’s where I’m supposed to be headed now. She gave me a plane ticket and dropped me at the bus to LAX.”
“Oh... and instead of getting on a bus, you came here. Why is that?”
“Because I don’t want to go to New York... and I especially don’t want to go back to that house. I can’t stand being around him anymore.”
“Him? Your brother-in-law?” Janie nodded. “Janie...is your brother-in-law the father of the baby?”
The girl burst into tears and buried her face in her hands, rocking back and forth. Ellen sat silently and let her cry. When her sobbing began to abate, Ellen gently patted her back. She pulled some tissues from a box on her desk and handed them to Janie. She took them and sat up, wiping her face, her breath still shuddering.
“When did it start,” Ellen asked gently.
“T..two years ago.”
“When you were 13?”
Janie nodded and more tears flowed. Ellen again waited for her crying to lessen. She thought about Janie’s brother-in-law. This was not the first girl she had come across who had been abused by a family member or friend of the family. Nevertheless, it never ceased to disgust her that there were men out there who preyed on young girls like Janie. At 13, a girl should begin to be aware of her own budding sexuality. She should be developing crushes on boys at school or on movie stars. To take that girl’s innocence and skew forever her views and feelings about men and about sex was beyond despicable.
Ellen knew what she should do and what she was required to do, report this to the police. Let them arrest the pervert brother-in-law and get Janie and her sister into counseling. Ellen doubted that would be a happy ending for Janie. Her sister obviously knew what was going on and was more concerned with covering it up than with helping or protecting her little sister. The best thing that she could do for Janie, Ellen thought, was to help her escape from that home and give her a fresh start, far from her twisted family. Reporting it would also rob Ellen of the opportunity to place Janie’s baby with a good family, as well as rob her of the fees.
“Janie, I want you to listen to me,” Ellen said when the girl once again regained control of herself. “What your brother-in-law did to you was wrong. But it wasn’t your fault. You were a child and he was an adult. He had no right to do those things to you.”
“He... he said that it was my d..duty... that he took care of me when my parents died and now I n..needed to... take care of him.”
“He lied, Janie. It was his duty to take care of you. You were a child and it was his responsibility to take care of you. You owed him nothing. He was wrong, dead wrong. And he should go to jail for what he did to you. I'm required to report this to the police.”
“No!” Janie jumped up, her eyes wide with panic. “You can’t! They’ll make me go back there! And if... if he has to go to jail, my sister will hate me! And when he gets out of jail, it'll be so much worse. Please, please, Doctor! Please don’t tell anyone!”
“It’s all right, Janie, sit down here. Calm yourself.” Ellen took the girl’s hands and guided her back to her seat. “I won’t call the police if you’re that afraid. Calm down now.” She patted Janie’s hand. “Now tell me what you plan to do. Are you planning to keep your baby?”
“No,” Janie said emphatically. “I don’t want it! I don’t want to see it and have to remember what he did.”
“All right, you don’t want to keep the baby. You have options. We could... end the pregnancy.”
“End it?” Janie looked at her for a moment in confusion, and then comprehension dawned. “Oh... you mean... I don’t think I could do... that. I’ve heard that girls die doing that.”
“Well, it’s actually quite a simple and safe procedure, especially when done by a qualified doctor... such as myself. But if you don’t want to do that, it’s fine. You could give the baby up for adoption.”
“I heard you could help girls like me... that you could give me a place to stay, find a home for the baby, and then help me go somewhere else. Somewhere that Ar... that my brother-in-law can’t find me.”
“Yes, I’ve helped lots of girls just like that, Janie. And if that’s what you want, I can help you, too. Do you know where you want to go after you have the baby? Do you have family or friends that can take you in?”
“No family... , none that wouldn’t send me back to my sister. I have a friend in Washington state. She’s 18 already and she’s working and going to school. I think she'll let me stay with her until I can find a job.”
“What about school? You’re still in high school, aren’t you?”
“I’ll finish; I’ll find a way to finish. I just want to get away from here and try to forget.”
“I have some apartments where girls who have no place to go can stay. I provide you with everything you need while you’re pregnant. Once you deliver, you’ll continue to stay at the apartment until I've given you a six-week check-up and see that everything is all right. Then I'll give you some money, provided by the adoptive parents, to help you get on your feet. The baby will go to a good home and you’ll be able to get away from an abusive home and start over. Does this sound acceptable?”
Janie nodded. “Yes.”
“Now I have a few rules. You'll have to eat healthy food, which I will provide. You'll get plenty of exercise. We want you and the baby to be as healthy as possible. And... ” Ellen paused and made sure Janie was looking at her. “I need to know the name of the father of the baby.”
“Oh no! I can’t tell you that... ”
“I need to know so that I can be prepared for anything that might happen. I mean, what if your family reports you missing and the police show up on my doorstep. I need to know who your family is, Janie, so that I can keep an eye on the situation.”
“No one will report me missing,” Janie murmured.
“That may be, but I need to be prepared. You're going to have to trust me, Janie, if this is going to work. You'll have to follow all of my rules or we can't enter into this relationship. And one of my rules is that you must answer all of my questions truthfully. I don’t ask frivolous questions. If I ask, it’s because it's important for me to know.”
Janie hesitated and began crying again. Huddled in the chair she looked small and forlorn. Ellen sighed as she caressed her long, dark hair. She held Janie’s chin in her hand, gently tilting the tear-streaked face to her.
“It'll be all right, dear. Don’t worry about this right now. Let’s just get you in an exam room so I can check you over. I’ll want to run a pregnancy test myself. Then I'll have Jessica take you to the apartment and get you settled. You rest and think about what I’ve told you. We'll talk again in a week, so that I can see how you are doing.” She smiled warmly. “Does that sound all right to you, Janie?”
“Y..yes, Dr. Goodman,” Janie said softly.
“OK then, let’s have a look at you. And you can call me Dr. Ellen. All my girls do.”
Angelo took Ellen dancing that night. Holding her close, Ellen marveled that even after 20 years together, she was just as attracted to him as the first time they made love. The sound of his voice, the lingering scent of his cigars, his hand on the small of her back as they danced, was all it took to arouse her passion for this man.
“You know,” she said as they moved around the dance floor, “my mother thought dancing was of the devil. We were never allowed to go to dances in high school.”
“No? So when did you learn to dance, babe?”
“Oh,” she sighed. “A long time ago, when I was living in LA.”
“Who taught you,” he asked with a chuckle. “Some rich young doctor?”
Ellen rested her cheek against his shoulder. “He was young,” she said dreamily. “But not rich and not a doctor.”
“So who was he?”
She closed her eyes, recalling how she felt dancing with Abraham. “Someone who, once upon a time, loved me,” she said softly.”
Over dinner, Ellen told him about the new girl who had arrived that day. She also told him that the girl had been sexually abused by her brother-in-law, resulting in her pregnancy.
“God,” he said with disgust. “Guys like that... I’d like to resort to some of my grandfather’s kind of retribution.”
Ellen smiled. “We could go into business together... rescuing girls from their abusers and sending the pedophiles to hell, where they belong.”
“Sure. We aren’t too old to start a new career. So how far along is she?”
“Oh, only three months. We’ve got some time. But before I commit, I need to work on her a bit. She wouldn’t tell me the name of her brother-in-law today. I’m going to give her a little time and then talk to her again.”
“You know her name, don’t you? Can’t you find out who her family is?”
“I could. But it’s important that she trust me, and that she does whatever I tell her. I’ll give her a week. If she’s won't tell me, I’ll send her on her way. The last thing I need is a rebellious teenager on my hands.”
“Do you have a couple looking for a baby?”
“Yes, I do. They came to me last month. I told them it might take some time because the babies I’ve got coming right now are all promised. So this might work out. It’s even poetic because the husband is a cop.”
“A cop? Babe, this could be a sting.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve tried it. But in a sting, he wouldn’t tell me right up front that he’s a cop. No, he’s not in this to bust me; he’s in this to get a baby for his wife. I can tell that he’s not happy doing it. And think of it... the illegitimate child of a pedophile, being raised by a cop who broke the law in order to get a baby. I rather like it.”
A week later, Janie returned to Ellen’s office. But this time she seemed calmer and happier.
“How has this week been for you, Janie,” Ellen asked.
“Oh, it’s been wonderful, Dr. Ellen! I love the apartment, and the other girls are so nice. And it’s the first time in two years that I’ve felt... safe.”
“I’m glad. Now, we need to talk about that little matter of the name of the father of the baby. This is information that I insist on having from every girl that I help.”
Janie squirmed uncomfortably. It’s just that... well, he’s kind of a big shot and I’m so afraid he is going to find me.”
“I understand, Janie. But think about the position you're putting me in. I'm required to report your abuse to the police. I could lose my license, even go to jail, if it’s discovered that I knew about it and didn't report it.”
“Oh,” Janie said faintly. “I didn’t think about that.”
“But more importantly, Janie, I make a commitment to my girls... to take care of you and to protect you. I can’t protect you if I don’t even know what I’m dealing with. I need to know who he is so that I can be prepared in case he tries to find you.”
Ellen leaned forward to look her in the eye, putting her hand on top of Janie’s. “I told you last week that for this to work, you have to trust me completely. Do you trust me, Janie?”
Janie clutched Ellen’s hand and nodded her head. “Yes, Dr. Ellen, I trust you. You probably know who my brother-in-law is... he owns Bedrosian Ford in Coalinga. His name is Armen Bedrosian.”