Saturday was more of the same just plain busy. If anything more busy. There were always lines for the tanning booths even starting at 7am. The Marathoners were in use as soon as the doors opened. They were booked most of the day for two weeks out. There were even more demands for the gift packages.

The office was getting calls from Delaware Pennsylvania and Virginia inquiring and booking the marathoners. The out of state calls were sent to us from the manufactures web site. One group of 8 runners from Pittsburg had inquired about booking an entire weekend 24 hours each on both machines at the end of January. They were going to book rooms in the Holiday East chain for the weekend. With dollar signs flashing in Marcy’s eyes she agreed. Jenny and I both suggested that Marcy try her connections to see if she could get another one or two at least for a while.

In the conversation with Marcy about them I found out that the connection was Jeanna. Mid Western Bank was doing the financing for the manufactures R&D department and the bank had the option to do their own evaluation of all products. We were the banks evaluator with the Marathon tread mill line.

The girls had all the Christmas decorations up on both the house and gym. We had a live tree in the house. The spruce forest smell was all over the house. I wouldn’t let them put a live tree in the gym. I was afraid some might be allergic to the aroma from the tree so we had fake one that looked close to a live one. I had to chuckle at the tree they must have bought every kind of tree decoration the store had.

Jeanna called to say that she would be back a few days early. Mid west bank was looking at a group of Delaware Banks for acquisition in to their bank conglomerate. She was in charge of the pre purchase audit. Marcy’s Christmas present a candy apple red suburban was in at the dealer and asked if I knew of any where it could be hidden till Christmas. She also had another surprise for us for Christmas but would not give any hints as to what it was.

We also had another surprise delivered in the mail on Saturday. It was called the electric bill and it was a whopper for no more than we thought we were using electric for. The gym heat was gas fired and the hot water was gas so we were surprised at the cost of electric. The biggest part of the cost was the commercial rate we were being charged. Marcy had estimated the cost before we added the tanning booths and the classroom. I never would have dreamed that the tanning booths were going to cost that much to operate. It was a still within our budget with the extra income they were producing but never the less it was a shock.

On Saturday I spent another full day doing assessments. In the morning I worked with Carla James while Kirstin worked out in the gym. In the afternoon they swapped places.

At five the South side Girls came in even though Shelia was not having training today. They changed and began their weight work out routine that Shelia had designed for them. I noticed that the smallest of the group seemed to be moving slow. I had heard her called several things. Joey was her name but she seemed to prefer to be called Bones. I just assumed that she had over done the workout the day before.

I continued with the assessment I was doing but also made sure to keep an eye on the gang. It took an half an hour for me to finish up. Bones was sitting on one of the exercise bikes holding her side with one of the other gang talking to her.

I walked over to her and asked if she was ok. I could see she was in pain.

“I’m ok, just leave me alone,” she replied.

“No you are not ok. Come with me. Let me get you checked out,” I said.

One of the other girls they called Snooty who was the leader said, “Were leaving to take her home.”

“She is not leaving until she is checked out,” I said as I whistled to get the attention of Vicky and Lorrie that had just come in to work. I also waved Kirstin over. We all walked over to the store room where the whole gang wanted to come in. I held up my hand and pointed to Snooty motioned her inside. I also called Jenny to come in.

“You are to observe and to say nothing,” I told Snooty.

I helped Joey take off her long sleeve shirt. Both her sides were red and starting to lightly bruise. Both her arms had bruises. Her stomach was pink. It was easy to see that someone had held her while her ribs and stomach had been worked over.

I asked her,”Who did this to you? You were fine when you left here last night.”

“I fell down the stairs,” she said.

“You want to try that one again. I know what a beat down looks like. Your arms are going to be bruised where they held you while you were beaten,’ I said. “Now who did this to you?”

She looked at the floor for a moment then said, “The North Gang. They were waiting for me when I left the house this morning. They were hiding in the alley. They tried to get me to tell them where we were taking off to every afternoon. I didn’t tell them anything,” she said.

“How did you get away?” I asked.

“Some one must have heard me screaming and called the cops. A cop car went by the ally with it’s siren on. Then it backed up to turn into the ally. They dropped me and ran off. I ran the other way as best as I could,” she said.

“She needs to have x-rays to see if there are any broken ribs,” Kirstin said.

“NO, No doctors. Just let me rest a while,” Joey said.

“Are you in trouble with the law?” I asked.

“No. My mom died in a car accident a few years ago. She had an insurance policy that turns into a college trust for me when I turn eighteen. I get part of it each year to pay for college. If I go to jail or juvenile detention I lose my control of it and my dad gets full control. Dad’s new wife wants the money. She has already tried to get me locked up. It was so bad that I went to live with my older sister.

She and her boyfriend fight all the time. He also has a habit that she seems not to know about. They make me give them most of my monthly allotment to stay with them, now they want it all and I have to do most of the house work for them. I sleep in until they are gone so I don’t have to deal with them and then I clean the house, do the clothes and dishes. That’s why I was late leaving home this morning. They had a party last night, beer cans and bottles everywhere and trash dumped in the floor. It took me a lot longer to clean it up.

If I get in trouble with the law, well I just can’t that’s all there is to it.” She said.

Snooty said, “We were part of the North side for while. Just a group of girls hanging out together during the summer, we spent time at the pools and playing softball. When school started back up the North girls wanted to get rough. A couple of them had boy friends that were in the real gang Dulusta. Their boy friends tried to get all of us involved in prostitution and drugs. We were looking to have a little fun during the summer not jail time so we split.

The result was them in the north and us in the south. a couple days after the split Dulusta was busted in a shoot out and two of their girls are in jail waiting trial. Karla Johnston, the bitch as she calls herself thinks we had something to do with Dulusta being busted. Now they hassle us every where we go. We find a new place and they show up in a few days and create a scene and we get the don’t come back here anymore lecture.

When we saw that Shelia was going to give boxing lessons here we thought we had a way to get away from them and maybe give us some equalization. But this moves things to a whole new level. I know you don’t want any trouble here. I don’t know what we are going to do now.”

“First thing we are going to do is get Joey fixed up then deal with them.” I said.

Kirstin had been checking Joey out while Snooty and I were talking.
“We have got to get some x-rays of her ribs and they will call the police as soon as they look at her,” Kirstin said.

Jenny looked in deep thought then said, “Let me make a call.” In a few minutes Jenny called me and said, “Get her dressed and meet me out front I’m going to get the car.”
Jenny and Joey were gone about half an hour. When they came back Jenny said, “Two ribs with hairline cracks no exertion and rest for the next week ice for 20 minutes then hot packs for 20 minutes an hour later.”

Joey said, “Look at the pill bottle my name is Joey Coles female Great Dane. She took me to a vet. I got dog pills to take for pain. If it didn’t hurt so much I would be laughing.”

Jenny said with a laugh, “At least he didn’t ask you to bark.”

“I have to go home tonight and be able clean tomorrow morning how am I going to be able to do that?” Joey said.

“You are not going to. If anything happens and you finish breaking those ribs you will be in a mess of trouble. I will call and get you a motel room at the Holiday East Inn down the road. You are about the same size as Ching Lee you can borrow a change of clothes from her and she and Vicky will go stay the night with you incase you need anything,” I said.

Jenny’s Mom had come in to operate the office with all this going on and said, “SHE WILL NOT. Jenny’s old bed is already made just waiting for some one to get under the covers. Joey can stay with me and Jason as long as she needs to. We are not going to argue about it’s settled. It’s been a long time since I tended to a sick little girl. Tomorrow you can go get all her things. Then you can figure out how to deal with the rest of the problem. Get Ching Lee to get her some pjs and a change of clothes for tomorrow and nothing that is tight.”

Jenny looked at Joey and said, “I hope you like home made chicken soup.” Then we all started laughing.

Joey and Mom went over to the house to meet Ching Lee for the change of clothes and then to the Coles residence. Jenny remarked she will get pampered for the next few days.

The rest of the evening was quiet but busy. As the south side girls left I said to them make sure you stay together and take extra care for the next few days.

Snooty said, “We will and we will be back tomorrow to check on Bones and work out some more.
EDIT by Alfmeister