Rotten Apples
Alex raced home faster than I had ever driven with him. I had to assume he either practiced this run several times or he was damn sure lucky as the car weaved over the center line on every turn. It was dark so he could see the lights of some of the oncoming cars, but what about the people—like Alex—who never bothered to tun on their headlights until the way bitter end. If I had a guardian angel, he was either very good at his job or he was setting me up for something even worse.
We arrived at the house just as Wednesday and Paul were walking out the side door. Paul had something large in his hands.
“Mom’s miter saw,” Alex said through clenched teeth as he turned the car off. “Stay in the car, Cherry!”
I didn’t listen as I climbed out the passenger side.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“He can come here whenever he wants.” Wednesday calmly replied, as if she had the whole scene rehearsed.
“The saw, Wednesday!”
“We’e borrowing it.”
“You’re borrowing mom’s touch it and I fucking kill you, saw?”
“She said it was okay.”
Alex laughed, in a high pitch manner, which was sign that he was really pissed off. “Dry that out and you could fertilize all of Lincoln County!”
Paul tried to move by, as the saw appeared to be heavy and he wanted to get it in the car.
“We’re not done, Nelson,” Alex said as he motioned for Paul to put the saw down.
“Not dealing with you right now, Alex.”
“No, I think you are, right now. Put my mom’s shit down!”
“What do you care, Alex?”
“Because it’s not yours to take! Do we need to chain down everything in the house? Oh wait, you pawned the house by now, right?”
Wednesday got in Alex’s face, but she still had to look up at him. “Get. Out.Of. Our. Way.”
“Make me. Nightmare,” Alex replied, Wednesday’s middle name was “Dream” but Alex, if calling Wednesday by her full name, would refer to a bad dream. He once, in front of Paul, used the term “nocturnal emission”. I had no idea what he meant at the time. Sometimes, I wish I still didn’t.
“If you don’t move!”
“Then what? You’ll sic him on me? Have you been demoted to the rank of Chihuahua, there, Pauley boy?’
I turned to look to the road and saw a car driving up. It was John’s car.
Wednesday took a step to the side and Alex matched with her. I jogged past the three of them
“Shits about to hit!” I yelled as I ran into the house and up the ladder to the upstairs. If only there was a way to pull he ladder up as anyone would only have to climb up and then walk through the white sheets that separated my bedroom from the rest of the upstairs; only Alex and mom had doors to their rooms.
I sat in the corner of my room, not wanting to hear the yelling that would eventually occur, and it did.
“What the hell were you thinking!” John’s voice reverted through the floor.
“Getting away from you. Apparently I can’t do that at my own home!” Alex yelled.
“Where’s Cherry?” Leah asked.
Damn, had he brought the whole Daniels clan?
“Do you have a warrant?”
“What is you problem, son?” John growled
“I’m looking at four of them!”
Wednesday and Paul must have been in the room with them.
“The only person who has a problem is you, Alex.”
“No, John, the problems are the four of you! Wednesday and Paul are robbing the damn house of anything that isn’t nailed down! You and Leah seem to think you’re my surrogate parents! Sorry, I have two parents, even if one is gone from my life and the other is almost never home, she can tell me what to do. Not you!”
“She told you to take the bus, genius!” John screamed.
“And what about everyone else?”
“Since when did you care about anyone but you?” Wednesday asked.
“Quiet!” Leah yelled. I couldn’t imagine Wednesday taking that well.”
“Why don’t you two talk to Bonnie and Clyde here? I brought the car home. They’re taking things.”
“Mom said we could.”
“Sell her tools?”
“Yes!” Wednesday screeched. “The ones that are fucking old and rusty!”
“Like your bed springs!” Alex said.
“Fuck you!” Paul growled.
That was it, I thought, a fight would start and it would take over an hour before the Lincoln County Sheriff department ever arrived. I got off of the floor and walked to the ladder, waiting for the shoving and breaking of shit to occur.
“Sit down, all of you! Linda is on her way home. We’ll get to the bottom of all this.”
Leah walked to the ladder area, looked up and saw me standing at the top. “Cherry, come down here, now.”
I wanted to tell her to go to Hell, but since we were already there I only sighed and climbed down.
The tension was high in the living room. Normally, a fight like this would go on for a few minutes with maybe some hair pulling or a shove to the ground, if it was between my sisters. Alex would yell a few choice words and then retreat to either his room, the locker, or he’d take the car somewhere—anywhere to avoid hearing us bicker. It would subside after some time and then everyone would be back to talking to each other. We would remember what was said though and would bring it up again another time.
This wasn’t one of those times as the Daniels had us all crammed on the couch. Leah sat at the kitchen table and John stood guard—literally, as he kind of paced back and forth. All he needed was a rifle.
I wanted to ask why I had to sit at on the couch line-up. I only wanted to get away from Josh, not get involved in a jailbreak—only to end up a prisoner in my own home. I closed my eyes and tried to stir my inner bitch like I had done a little over an hour earlier. If I could get Josh on the phone and hear his voice, then it could come out and show everyone in the room that I didn’t do jack shit and that Leah should just left me alone in my room. I was a hostage when Alex took the car, a hostile witness to the what Wednesday and Paul were doing, and guilty of being a Moone to John and Leah.
We sat on the couch, Alex, ,myself, Wednesday and Paul with each of us showing our anger or boredom in different ways. Paul must have stayed only because of Wednesday, as he could probably care less about what John said and, if Wednesday gave the order, they probably would have marched right out of there. Wednesday didn’t want Alex to say anything to Mom about the what occurred without having a say in it. Alex had taken the car against Mon’s orders; and, again, why the Hell was I sitting there?
Mom’s car pulled in an hour later. Either she had gotten off of work early or she had driven faster than Alex to get back home. The kitchen door opened and closed with a light slam. It didn’t vibrate the glass in the kitchen windows and it didn’t reverb through the house, but we knew what was going to happen. Mom stood in the arch between the kitchen and the living room and stared at the four us. This was actually worse than yelling. She would look at all of us but we would all see a different form of that everlasting gaze. A glance that spoke millions of words, most of them the four-letter variety. Mom took a breathe and then looked at Leah.
“What happened?” She said with a loud sigh.
Leah and John laid out everything, in their words, and Alex was left slack-jawed as they left out anything that occurred between him, Wednesday and Paul. They also said I was in the car, waiting for Alex.
“That’s bullshit!” I yelled. “I was just sitting in the car. I didn’t know he was going to come out and drive away!”
The three adults looked at me for a second and then back to talking amongst themselves. Mom stood in one place and nodded every once in a while as John and Leah talked. She took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter as she stripped off her purse and coat, allowing them to just drop to the living room floor.
Wednesday and Paul didn’t say a word until Mom asked a question. “Did you take me tools?
“The old ones, Mom,” Wednesday said. “The ones your said didn’t work and were cluttering up the garage and we should get rid of anyway.”
“The miter saw is not old.” Alex spoke up. “And neither is Alexis’ money.”
“Are you accusing me of stealing?”
“Accused? You’re guilty as sin..”
“Oh, my I repent of my sins before you, Father?”
Mom rolled her eyes.
“They’ve been stealing our stuff!” Alex said as he got up front he couch. If his attempt was to keep a cool head and keep everything civil, he failed.
“Sit down, Alex,” Mom growled.
“No, because you need to listen to what I’m saying.”
“Like you listened about the car?”
“The car is here. Not like I hocked it. Should I give them a set of keys and the title?”
Alex has everyone’s attention.
John looked like he wanted to punch him.
Leah’s expression was of contempt.
Wednesday’s face was contorted in a mix of rage.
Paul tried to look away from everything.
Mom was just pissed—it showed through her blank expression.
“I gave Wednesday permission to go through the garage and get rid of stuff we don’t need anymore. The miter saw was not a part of that deal but it was there. What has been taken so far, Wednesday?”
“Besides Alexis’ twenty bucks?” Alex asked.
“Am I talking to you? No! So sit your ass down, Alex!”
I really wanted to get out of there.
“Mom, don’t you see what’s going on?”
“I see a kid who’s about to get slapped. I also see him getting the damn car taken away and if I have to remove a few spark plugs to get my point across I will!”
Alex stammered for a moment and then stomped from the living room and into his room. He didn’t slam the door but he did lock it. Not that the lock did any good. A click flick of an ice pick or a flathead screwdriver and it could be unlocked anyway.
“Cherry, you can go.”
I didn’t say another word but ran to the ladder and went upstairs to my room.
My mind raced with every single though imaginable as I laid on my bed. I was sure Alex wasn’t lying about the money and Wednesday had been stealing things but maybe Mom did give her permission for some of the stuff. Maybe she would let me sell a few things to raise money to see a doctor to deal with my issue. I mean Alex could get in trouble at school and with every adult he knew then surely Mom would look at my condition and approve of it. Since Alexis could just forget about living with the family like she talked with Wes, then Mom could see that I wasn’t trying to leave, but trying to not bring anyone new into the house. I wanted to tell her what happened, but I didn’t want to talk to her with the Daniels’ still there, even though it would have been something to see their expressions.
No, because maybe Leah would go all crazy about being a grandmother and force me to get back with Josh on their terms and not mine. She would cite some rule that I was too young to understand and I would counter that I was old enough to have sex. It would probably breakdown into a screaming match between Leah and me so it was best to keep her and the rest of her family out of the discussion. I already had enough shit to deal with.
