Revenge

A Family tragedy that should never happen to a young person, but it does.

On a Sunny morning Ben his three brothers Cole, Dalton, Randy and one sister Ruth were cleaning the house making sure everything was in order. There Aunt and Uncle and cousins are coming to visit. Their mother wanted the house to be cleaned when she got there. So they were cleaning the house. While Ben was doing the living room his sister Ruth was playing around with her friend.  Ben got on to her. 

“You need to clean the kitchen,” said Ben. 

“I am going, you don’t have to boss me,” said Ruth going to the kitchen. 

“I am not,” said Ben.

When they were done Ben finished the living room. Then they heard a knock at the door, Ruth answered it. It was there Aunt and Uncle and cousins. Ben’s sister Ruth was a tom boy so she dressed like he dressed, nothing but black clothes. One of their cousins always has a bad comment to say to Ben on how he looks, and now they are starting to do the same with Ruth. 

While they were sitting down talking, there mom came in and put her stuff up and sat down. Ben’s father said. 

“I got a call from your teacher, she said that when you were outside talking to your friend, and your girlfriend came up from behind you and wrapped her arms around your stomach and you flinched, like you were in pain or something, so are you okay, are you in pain?” asked the father. 

“No, nothing happened I promise, I am fine,” said Ben. 

Cole and Dalton told him to go in his room. So they went also. 

“You have to tell him the truth,” said Cole. 

“Yes, you do, I hate keeping things from him, we have to tell him, it’s the right thing to do,” said Dalton. 

“But if I do he won’t trust me anymore, and beside he thinks I am still a kid, well I am 19 years old, almost graduating at school, I should be able to do whatever I want,” said Ben. 

“One of these days we are going to have to tell him what we have been doing on the streets, were as bad as you are about keeping things from him, especially this,” said Dalton. 

“I’ll tell him when I am ready to tell him, but not right now, I have a fight coming up,” said Ben. 

Ben had to fight a guy twice his size, they had to meet behind an old a banded building in the alley way. The guy took the first hit at Ben, then it was Ben’s turn and he hit him hard and the guy went down.  

It was the other guys turn. The guy punched Ben in the stomach and Ben went down and stayed down for a few minutes, then he got back up. Ben swung his fist at the guy, and the guy went down hard, he was out cold. Ben won the fight his two brothers, Dalton and Cole walked up to Ben. 

“I felt like somebody was watching around that corner, I could see a shadow on the wall,” said Ben. 

“I think you need to lie down,” said Cole. 

“Yeah, nobody was standing over there,” said Dalton. 

It was probably 10:00pm at night and when they got home, there dad was waiting for them as their cousins and the rest of the family were sleeping. When Ben walked in the house he saw his father sitting in the chair. 

“Ben,” said Father. 

“Oh, uh, hi dad, what are you still doing up?” asked Ben. 

“Waiting for you guys, sit down now,” said father. “What were you guys doing in the alley, and on the wrong side of town, that part of town is dangerous,” said father. 

“So it was you, I knew somebody was standing by the building, I could see your shadow,” said Ben. 

“You lied to me, all three of you lied, and kept a secret, Cold and Dalton, you guys no better, Ben this has to stop, I don’t want you to fight any more, you have one cousin here who looks up to you, do you want him to see you fighting like that, and then he’ll think that is cool, and sooner or later he’ll start fighting, that is not being a good example,” said father.

“I guess he will have to find another role model then, I can’t stop doing what I like, it’s who I am dad,” said Ben.  “I am not a little kid no more I am 19 years old now, stop treating me like a kid,” said Ben. 

“I’m treating you like a kid,” said father. 

“Yes,” said Ben. 

“I guess I am doing that to protect you, to keep you from getting hurt,” said father. 

“Dad, I can take care of myself,” said Ben. 

As the day went by, Ben went back to fighting and he tells the cousin that looks up to him. “Never go out and try to pick or start fights, it will just get into a lot of trouble.” 

Ben’s cousin listened to every word Ben was telling him.  On Ben’s birthday, late last night at 9:30pm there older brother Randy was in a car wreck, the police called next of kin. 

“This is the police were calling from the hospital, about your son Randy, he has been in a terrible accident, I need you to come down to the hospital,” said the police officer.  

So they put on their clothes and drove to the hospital. Well Randy was sitting up in bed.  

The doctor came and met the family at the door. 

“He’s in really bad shape, I’ll show you to his room,” said the doctor. 

They walk in and see Randy sitting up in bed watching television. 

“Who did this to you?” asked Ben. 

“Ben do not even think about it, I know what you are thinking, but it’s not going to solve the problem or make it go away,” said Randy. 

“Tell me now,” said Ben getting angry. 

“Brother, fighting does not solve anything, it just makes matter worse,” said Randy in pain. 

“Where”? Asked Ben. 

“Did you see a guy with a light blue shirt on sitting on the steps of the hospital?” asked Randy.

“No,” said Ben.

“Well he is really drunk, he ran into me and caused a wreck head on collision,” said Randy in pain. 

“Alright, I’ll just be a second,” said Ben. 

So Ben walked out of the hospital and saw the guy sitting on the steps with a blue shirt on, he could barely sit he was so drunk. Ben walked up to him and grabbed him from behind the collar of his shirt and pulled up off the ground. 

“If my brother dies, you die as well, the doctor said he is not looking good,” said Ben. 

Ben put him back down on his feet, he could barely stand. The drunken man took a swung at Ben. 

“I’ll take you on anytime,” said the drunken man. 

“Really,” said Ben. 

So they walked towards each other and started fighting. Ben had him pinned down to the ground, he raised his fist about to hit the guy, when Ben heard a voice he lowered his fist. It was his brother Dalton. 

“Stop this now,” said Dalton. 

Ben got off the man and said,

“If my brother dies, you die also,” said Ben in anger. 

“Come on lets go,” said Dalton. 

So they left the hospital and went home to relax and went to sleep. 

Next morning came the doctor called telling Randy’s family that he has to stay there another night. To see how well he’s going to do before he gets to go home. As Randy was in the hospital he went into a coma. So they rushed over to the hospital and stayed one night and then left and went home. Another day and night went by and Randy was still in a coma. 

It has been 10 days and Randy still hasn’t woken up. So the doctor called them again to have come up there to make a decision.  

“I need you come down and make your decision, on taking him off life support,” said the Doctor. 

So the family drove down to the hospital and saw him laying down, with all the hoses and tubes hooked up to a machine, the mother just cried, she didn’t like seeing her baby like that, in that condition. His face was swollen the bruises started to show now. They looked at him, and the mother looked at the doctor. 

“Can we wait one more day, maybe he will wake up, I am not ready yet,” said the mother. 

“Alright, we will give him another day,” said the doctor walking out of the room. 

Well that day came and went. He has been in a coma for 13 days now, they waiting again. They went up to the hospital again and stood by his bed side. 

“You need to make a decision ma’am, don’t make him suffer,” said the doctor. 

The father nodded his head, and the doctor went over to the machine and turned it off. The mother was crying and the sister was also, Dalton was to, so was Cole.  Ben had on tear rolling down his face, and he was angry. 

Ben ran out of the hospital, ran downtown looking for the drunk driver who killed his brother. As he was running he finally saw the guy, and ran up to him and pushed him down. 

“Today is your lucky day,” said Ben. 

“Why is that,” said the man.

“My brother died, because of you, now you’re going to die,” said Ben. 

So they started fighting, they were fighting quite a while, then cops started to show up, they knew that Ben’s brother died, so they went  and searched for the drunk guy, and they ran stopped the fight before Ben became murderer.  They arrested the guy and they drove Ben back to the hospital to his family, to tell them the news. 

Many and a years have come and gone, Ben never did forget his brother’s killer, or even his brother being gone. Ben is now 25 years of age now, he has his own kid’s and wife.  Cole has a wife and a kid on the way. Dalton has a wife and two kids. Mary has a husband and two kids and another one the way. 

They have been doing well, even their parents, they still talk about Randy, and tell all their kids stories about him and what happened to him.  

“Sometimes we all think that could never happened to me, but it can, you never know when your next. Just like on roller coasters, you hear and see stuff happened to people, they fall out, or when they go upside down they fall out, or when a roller coast goes up its supposed to go backwards, but it doesn’t it keeps going forward and lot of people get killed or badly injured.” “And then you take your kids a year later or two and get on them same rides and tell your kids that will never happen,” your literally putting your kids and yourself in danger, especially when you’re telling them it’s okay and that will  never happen to you.” This world is crazy, I just hope it will get better someday.