The House

By Dawn Natelle

The little break helped. A story today, and I have the one for tomorrow well underway. I will try to get you four this week: Dawn.

Chapter 13 – More friends

It was about a week after Grey returned to the house following Maple Syrup season when he was alerted by Flint that Dan had picked up someone from a ditch outside of Belleville, the city of 50,000 about 30 miles south of Tweed. He was bringing him back to the house, for some reason.

Almost a half hour later Dan parked his pickup in the yard, and went to the side door, and got out a barely conscious child from the passenger side. The boy was small for a 12-year-old, and soaked to the skin. Sun and Grey went out, and the big woman took the boy from Dan, and headed into the house. “He’s burning up,” she said as she headed to the house.

On the way in Dan explained: “Flint found him and directed me to the ditch where he was laying. He was able to talk for a bit, and said he was running away from home, and was in a panic that I would take him back there. Only when I said I was taking him to Tweed did he relax, and finally fall asleep. That was when Flint said I should take him to you, our medicine man.”

Inside the house they found that Sun had taken him to the Great Hall, and stripped him of his soaked clothing. She had him bundled up in deerskins, lying on the big table. “His temperature is way too high,” she said as Grey sat in the chair facing the boy. He put his hand on the lad’s head.

“He is about 103,” Grey said, not realizing how he knew. He started his healing chant and soon found himself inside the boy. It only took a few seconds to clear up his cold, emptying his sinuses and easing the strep in his throat, lowering the temperature by a degree. But he knew the boy was still was perilously ill. He had pneumonia.

Almost as soon as Grey realized it, he found himself in the boy’s lungs, the more severely infected right one first. He also realized that he was holding his stave. Looking around he saw that many of the air sacs in the lung were filled with liquid. He pointed the stave at one, and a blue ray flashed out, and the sac was empty. He worked his way up and down the lung. It only took a fraction of a second at each sac, but there were thousands. When he had finished, and the lung glowed with a healthy pink, he found himself transported over to the other lung, where he repeated the session, slowly clearing the rest of the disease away.

He then looked around, and saw the boy had countless bruises and welt marks on his arms and back. He had been whipped hard with a belt. One arm had been broken, and had reset slightly off, limiting its use. Grey healed the bruises and then straightened and reset the once-broken arm so it would be as good as new.

He came to in his chair: tired but not exhausted the way he was after curing Rabbit of his injuries. Dan got him a drink of cold water from the fridge, and he drank it down, which refreshed him almost completely.

He went into Daisy’s living room, and saw Sun on the couch, cuddling the boy in her arms. He looked even smaller as she held him, with Daisy looking on, concerned.

“He is well now,” Sun reported. “No temperature, and he is only napping.”

“I know,” Grey said with a smile. “I did it.”

Just then the lad stirred, looked up at Sun’s smiling face, and then just snuggled tighter into her arms. “I like you,” he said in a small, adolescent voice. “Will you be my new mom?”

You could see Sun almost bursting with desire, but instead she said: “What about your old mom? Don’t you want to be with her?”

“She is alright,” the boy said. “But she lives with Earl, and I hate him. He is not my real dad, but he acts like he is. He is always beating on me, ‘to toughen me up’ and if my Mom tries to get him to stop, he beats her too. On Monday he was watching football on TV and at halftime he said I had to learn to play that. When I said I thought it was a stupid game, he started hitting me. He switched to hitting Mom when she took my side.”

“They thought I went to my room, but I just went to pack up some things, and then crawled out my window. I headed north, where the man in the truck found me the next night after it started to rain.”

“Son,” Dan said. “It is Thursday now. You were out there for four days. What part of the city did you live in?”

“The north end,” the boy said. “Would you be my new Dad? I like you too.”

Sun hugged the boy tighter as Dan spoke: “You were about 10 miles out of town. You probably walked that far before dawn, and then were lying in that ditch for the next three days. You are lucky you didn’t die.”

“It would be better if I had. I don’t want to go back there, ever,” he said. “Don’t make me go back there.”

“We can’t promise you anything,” Sun said with a sigh. “But you need to call your Mom and let her know you are okay. I’ll bet she is super upset, not knowing if you are alive or not. Will you call her? For me?”

The boy hesitated for a moment. “If I call her, then Earl will know where I am. I don’t want him to come get me. He will hit me again.”

“The boy was badly abused,” Grey said. “Unfortunately I healed the injuries so the man cannot be charged.”

“Hey, my arm is good again,” the boy said. “And my back doesn’t hurt where Earl hit me last week with the belt.”

Sun finally got the boy to call his mother.

“Hi Mom, it is Darryl.”

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“I’m okay. I’m with some friends.”

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“No, outside of the city. I’m not coming back.”

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“No. Earl will hit me again.”

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“I know, but he drinks all the time. And then we get beat up. I’m not coming home.”

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“I will stay with these people. They don’t hit people.”

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“No, I won’t say where I am. Earl will come get me.”

At that point Sun took the phone away from Darryl.

“Hello Mrs. …”

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“Mrs. Carson. I am Sunflower Wolf and we are taking care of your son for you. He appears to have been beaten badly.”

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“I’m sure Earl is quite sweet when his is sober. The problem is when he is drunk. He will not hit Darryl again. We have promised the boy that. Now we just have to figure out how to make that work.”

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“Of course Darryl is gay. I could see that immediately. What is wrong with that?”

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“I don’t care what Earl thinks. What do you think? Do you think Darryl is sinning by being gay?”

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“Do you know that many gay teens commit suicide if they are not supported at home? Would you prefer a dead son to a gay one?”

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“Look. There is a way. Do you love your son more than you love Earl?”

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“It is not that hard a question.”

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“They you can come up here and be safe with Darryl. We can have a car down there for you in a half hour. Pack up a few things. What is Earl doing?”

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“Well be quiet and don’t wake him. How long is he usually out when he gets into a drunken stupor?”

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“You can leave him a note if you want. And if he does find where you two are, you can be certain that he won’t be able to come and get you. I kinda hope he tries. I don’t like men who beat smaller women and kids.”

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“Give me your address. We will be there in about 40 minutes.”

Sun hung up the phone, then spoke to the boy on her lap. “Your mom is coming here. She will be here in the morning. Daisy will get you to bed before she arrives, and Grey will be here to. Have you met Rabbit?”

Rabbit jumped off Daisy’s lap and went to the boy. “Rabbit is a funny name for a dog,” Darryl said, wrapping an arm around the dog’s neck. He looked at Daisy. “You look like a Grandma. Will you be my grandma?”

“I certainly will, sweetheart,” Daisy said, glowing with pleasure.

“And I like you too,” he said to Grey. “Can you be my friend?”

The boy then looked at Sun. “If Mom is coming, then you can’t be my mom. Can you be my second mom?”

“How about I be your friend too. Grey is my bother.”

Sun then slid the boy off onto the sofa and got the address she had written down. “We should take the LTD,” she told Dan, and the two left minutes later.

Once they left, Grey set up a room for Darryl, and an adjoining room for his mother. While there were a lot of rooms in the house, not all had beds, and on some of the beds, the mattress was downright funky, and had been taken to the dump recently. Grey actually had to take the mattress and bed from his room to furnish a room for Darryl’s mother, if she returned as everyone was hoping. He was just as comfortable sleeping on the floor on deerskins. Sun would do the same if it turned out another room were needed.

By the time he finished, and went back to the living room, where Darryl was curled up on Daisy’s lap, Sun and Dan were at the address that his mother had given. A thin woman, clearly native, came to the door as the car stopped. Dan was out first, and walked up to the porch quietly, with Sun right behind.

“Oh thank you gentlemen for coming,” the woman said quietly. “Oh, I am sorry. I guess I should say lady,” she added as Sun got close enough to see well.

“I spoke to you on the phone,” Sun said softly. “Sunflower Wolf. This is Dan Smith. I was the one who spoke to you on the phone.”

“How is Darryl? Is he all right?” the woman said. “Oh, you can call me Jennifer.”

“He is fine. He had a bit of a cold but that is better now. I suspect right now he has an arm around Rabbit or he is sleeping on Daisy’s lap. He named her his new grandma, and she was tickled to hear it. I suppose he has other grandparents.”

“Not really,” Jennifer said as she lifted several suitcases out on to the porch. “My parents cut off contact with me when I married Earl. I don’t even know if he has any. I didn’t even tell my parents about Darryl.”

“You will now I hope,” Sun said, picking up three of the larger suitcases. Dan took the other two. That only left Jennifer to carry a box of photos and other mementos she wanted to keep. “A boy should know his grandparents.”

“Perhaps,” Jennifer said. “They were right about Earl. I should have listened to them instead of fighting them about it. You say you have a pet rabbit? Darryl loves animals: Earl wouldn’t allow him to have a pet.”

The three got into the car, with Dan driving and Jennifer curled up next to Sun in the passenger seat. “Rabbit is not a rabbit, strange as that sounds,” Sun said. “He is a dog, mostly German Shepherd, and we call him Rabbit because he was chasing a rabbit to our house when we adopted him.”

“German Shepherd,” Jennifer sounded surprised. “Darryl doesn’t like big dogs, usually.”

“Well, Rabbit has a way with people,” Sun said. “He tends to worm his way into your heart easily. You will see.”

Just as Dan was pulling away the door to the house slammed open, and a man on the porch started yelling at them. He took a few steps, tripping off the steps and face-planting into the uncut lawn.”

Jennifer snuggled in to Sun. “Oh my. I was hoping he was too drunk to wake up. He’ll get in his car and follow us.”

“Not a chance,” Dan said. “Drunk as he is we will have several miles head start on him. I wish I had one of those cell phone things. I’d call the Belleville police to be on the lookout for a drunk driver.”

“He drives drunk all the time,” Jenn said, still snuggled into Sun. “They haven’t caught him yet. What will happen if he catches us? I don’t want to go back with him.”

“You don’t need to go with anyone if you don’t want to,” Sun said. “Is he bigger than me?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone bigger than you,” Jenn confessed. “He isn’t even as big as … Dan?”

“Well, Dan is ex-military, and could handle your ex alone. And I could handle him, but I might kill him. I don’t look kindly on men who beat up women. I saw you limping to the car, and how gingerly you got into it. Mark my words, if you and Darryl stay with us, no man will ever hit you again.”

“That sounds like heaven,” Jennifer said. “But will I be able to stay? I have my work. I am in the bakery at the grocery store in Northland Mall. I need to be there on Tuesday.”

“That gives you a day to decide what you want to do. Daisy has already said that Darryl can live in the house. I doubt you will be turned away. As for your job, I can let you borrow this car, or my truck to commute if you want. But I’m not sure I want you down her by yourself with that man around. Does he have a job?”

“No. He used to work at a gas station, but he went to work drunk too often. Customers phoned in saying he was pumping gas with a lit cigarette, and he was fired. For the past year he has been ‘looking.’ We have been getting deeper and deeper in debt. I would buy groceries on payday, and then he would take the rest of the money for his booze. We rent the house, and got an eviction notice last week. All the bills for everything else are far behind, too. The only bill he ever paid was his tab at the bar.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about him tonight,” Sun said. “Just nestle in next to me and rest.”

In a few minutes she was sound asleep, and not long after they arrived at the house, where Sun carried her up the steps and into the living room.

“Mama,” Darryl shouted from Daisy’s lap before he leapt to the floor. That woke Jenn up.

“Dary,” she called as Sun let her down. She put out a hand as the boy was about to leap on his mother.

“None of that, son,” Sun said. “She is sore from the beating your father gave her.”

“He is no father of mine,” Darryl spat out, stopping dead and taking his mother’s hand. “I hate him. Is he coming too?”

“Not likely,” Sun said. “Now let’s take your Mom into the Great Hall for Grey to take a look at her. He is a kind of a doctor.”

In the Great Hall she was helped up on the table by Sun, and Darryl again took one of her hands. Grey approached, and Jenn thought the young, small man couldn’t possibly be a doctor yet, unless his name was Doogie Howser. She certainly wasn’t going to take her clothes off in front of him.

But Grey merely started singing. Jenn was Ojibwe, but didn’t speak the language. She had heard her parents speak it though. Soon the boy/man was in a trance, with his head slumped on the table in front of her.

Then she could feel something odd moving about inside of her. She felt it near her ribs, which suddenly stopped hurting. She suspected they had been cracked, but Earl forbid her from going to the hospital for fear that the abuse would be discovered.

After that the moving sensation travelled to different parts of her body, and one bruise after another was healed. Last it went down her leg, which had been broken by a kick a year ago. Earl had made a splint for it, and it healed, but never correctly. Now she felt the bones being taken painlessly apart, and then aligned properly, and finally healed. Suddenly the singing stopped.

Jennifer looked up. Sun held a huge glass of water, and Grey drank it in one long gulp.

“It was easier with the boy holding her hand,” Grey said. “And I think I am getting better at it.”

“At what?” Jennifer said. Then she suddenly noticed that there was no pain. She hadn’t felt ‘no pain’ for nearly two years since Earl had taken a logging job in BC that lasted four months before he was fired and came home. He had money, so it took him two months to drink his was across the country. Those six months had allowed Jenn’s bruises to heal. Within a month of his return he had broken her leg.

She gingerly got up from the table and tested her bad leg. It was now a good leg, and she did a little dance on it.

“Now you can hug her,” Sun said, and Darryl immediately leapt on his mother, nearly knocking her over. He was small, but weighed almost as much as she did. Sun had to put out a hand to keep her from toppling over.

“I thought I lost you for ever,” Jenn said. “And Earl was irate. All he ever did was beat you, but when you left he acted like something was stolen from him. He hit me till I passed out.”

“Never again,” Sun said softly, but Jenn heard and smiled. It was nice to feel safe.

Another voice came from the end of the hall. It was Daisy, carrying two plates: “Time for food,” she said as she walked in. Darryl ran to her, giving her a hug, and then taking one of the plates.

“This is my grandma now, Mama. She is just wonderful. Look at the nice meal she made for you,” the boy said as Daisy beamed. He set the plate in front of Jenn.

“And another plate for you, my boy,” Daisy said. “We fed him a few hours ago, but both of you need to get some meat on those bones. Eat up.”

“Coffee, tea, or water,” Sun said, walking to the kitchen. “There is nothing alcoholic in this house.”

“Coffee would be nice, but I saw the way that Grey downed that big glass of water. I think I will try that: but in a normal-sized glass.”

“Water will be better for you this late,” Grey said. “I have beds set up in adjoining rooms for you. We’ll get your things moved in after you eat. I want you to stay up for at least an hour after eating. It is best not to eat a big meal and then go straight to bed.”

“And it is a wonderful meal,” Jenn said. “And I can see why you like this water so well. It is so cold and lovely.”

“It is just some leftovers from supper,” Daisy said. “The beef would have gone into sandwiches tomorrow for lunches. And the potatoes would have been hash browns for breakfast. I just love cooking for my new family. And since Darryl has adopted me as grandma, I will have to adopt you as my second daughter, after Sunflower.”

They were in the living room now, and Jenn noted: “Sunflower. That is such a pretty name. I wish I had a native name. Jennifer is so ‘white’ and I don’t match it at all.” She looked down at her dark arms, finally without bruises.

“If you want I can make a suggestion,” Grey said. “Unbroken Willow. Willow for short. You bent under pressure, but you never broke.”

“Wow, I absolutely love it,” Willow said. “Do you like it Darryl?”

“I prefer Mama,” the boy said, nearly asleep on Daisy’s lap.

“I’ll take him to bed,” Sun said, picking the boy up and carrying him off. “You can stop off and say goodnight when you go,” she told Willow.

In the room Grey had picked for the boy, Sun laid him on the bed and helped him out of his clothes. He said he slept in his underwear, something Earl had made him do. Apparently it was manly and pajamas were not. When Sun had tucked him into bed, he held his arms out wide until she came close enough for a hug. “I love you Sun,” he said softly.

The tall woman choked up. “I love you too, Darryl,” she was finally able to whisper.

She walked back to the living room in tears, and finally blurted out: “I love that little boy. He is so sweet.” Willow just smiled a motherly agreement.

They had been talking about Willow’s future while she was away. The consensus was that in the morning she would phone her boss and tell him that she was taking a week off.

“Not asking, telling,” Dan insisted. “You have a little boy who spent three nights in a ditch, and you need to spend time with him. If your boss argues, quit on the spot. I have heard that Frank has been thinking of getting more help in when the buses come in. With you close here at the house, you could walk there in a couple minutes, and a few more in winter.”

“Do you snowshoe?” Grey asked.

“No. What kind of Ojibwe woman am I?” she said.

“We will make you a pair: small enough for you to manage. And we will teach you how to use them. And don’t worry about money. If Frank takes you on, you will have a little spending cash for you and Darryl. Rent here is reasonable. You pay in love for Daisy.”

Willow jumped up and went over and hugged Daisy. “Here is the first month’s rent, and expect several more payments like that every day. You are my new mamma and I have missed this with my real one.”

“Remember, you are to call your parents during this break week you have,” Sun admonished.

“Can I go to bed now, doctor?” Willow said to Grey, giving him a big hug as well. Then it was Dan’s turn, as he was headed out the door to get back to his Mom at the cottage.

Sun showed her to her room, and they peeked in on the sleeping boy. Willow leaned over and kissed his cheek, and “Night, Mama” could barely be heard.

They then went into the next room. “I don’t know if you will be able to fit all that into your little closet,” Sun said, looking at the five bags.

“Two of them are Darryl’s things,” she said. “And I will manage the rest somehow. A lot of it is winter wear. Can that be stored somewhere?”

“Oh, we have tons of space in the basement,” Sun said.

Willow wrapped her arms around Sun, not quite reaching at the back. “I guess you are my sister now. I love you too.”

Sun choked up for the second time in an hour. “I love you,” she said as Willow closed the door.

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You will notice that I used a new (to me, anyway) writing technique where I only used one side of a telephone conversation, the way you hear it when you are listening to someone else on the phone. Let me know in the comments how it worked. Could you figure out the unsaid side of the conversation, at least most of the time? Thanks