Chapter 21

 

        Sean walked down the street and cut through the small yard of his house. It was Sunday and he had just gotten off of work. Sean entered the house and looked around a little to see his parents sitting in the living room.

        “Your Aunt Kathy's going to be coming soon,” his father said as Sean started to walk towards the hall. “Try not to screw anything up while she's here.”

        Sean stopped in his tracks and looked at his father. Ignoring the last bit, a large smile crossed Sean's face. Aunt Kathy was the only relative Sean actually liked in the family. She was the only one that was nice to him. When Aunt Kathy used to live here in the town, she always visited them frequently. However, that was many years ago. She moved away when Sean was six years old. Since then, Aunt Kathy has never visited them, but she has written to them quite a few times in the past, especially around the holidays and Sean's birthday.

        The dark-haired boy rushed into his bedroom to get out of his work uniform and put some different clothes on. By the time he finished, there was knocking at the door and Sean quickly went into the living room while his dad went to get the door. There was a quick exchange of greetings before his father stepped to the side to allow a rather plump woman to walk into the small house.

        “Hi Aunt Kathy!” Sean greeted happily as he walked over.

        “Hello dear,” she said, sounding just as happy as Sean did.

        “Come over and have a seat,” Sean's father said as he walked over to the couch.

        Aunt Kathy walked over to a blue, worn down armchair and took a seat. Sean went to get a kitchen chair and brought it into the living room so he could sit down. Jim now came out from his bedroom and he did the same thing Sean did.

        “It's been such a long time since I've seen all of you,” Aunt Kathy said. “I've almost forgotten what all of you look like. Oh!” she exclaimed as a look of sudden realization appeared onto her face. “Before I forget, I want to give Sean and Jim the gifts I've gotten them.”

        Both of the boys' faces lit up as they heard that last bit. Aunt Kathy sat her purse onto her lap and rummaged through it.

        “Sean, this is for you,” she said as she pulled out a black MP3 player and held it out for the younger boy to take. “It's a good thing you told me what music you like in that last letter because I was able to put some songs on there for you.”

        “Thanks!” Sean exclaimed.

        He took the small music device and turned it on, searching through the songs. Like Aunt Kathy had told him, there were already songs on it. Most of them were by his most favorite bands too. After placing an ear bud in his ear, he started to listen to a song.

        “And this is your present Jim,” Aunt Kathy said.

        A dull look quickly replaced the excited one that was on Jim's face when he saw the gift. One of his hands reached out and took the watch from his aunt. He looked down at it for a moment before looking at Aunt Kathy.

        “But that's not fair!” cried Jim. “Sean got something better than me.”

        “I'm sorry, but I didn't know what to get you because you never told me what you liked in the last letter,” Aunt Kathy apologized. “You should be happy that I got you something though.”

        Jim sighed, still rather disappointed with the gift he got. He mumbled something completely inaudible before getting up and walking to his bedroom. Aunt Kathy watched him for a moment before looking towards Sean.

        “Say, how did you get that nasty black eye Sean?” she asked the boy.

        “He got in a fight at school,” Sean's dad answered for him rather defensively.

        Aunt Kathy eyed Sean's father suspiciously for a moment before saying, “I asked Sean, not you.” She then looked back at Sean.

        Sean glanced at his father before looking at Aunt Kathy.

        “It's true,” he lied. “I got into a fight during school.”

        “Oh, okay,” she said.

        “So why did you come all the way from Florida just to visit us?” Sean's dad asked, trying to change the topic.

        “Oh, did I not tell you?” Aunt Kathy asked. “I moved back into town. It was great down there, but I wanted to be closer to relatives again. I've been a little lonely ever since Henry passed away. But since I just moved in, I thought I'd come and see all of you since it's been such a long time.”

        Sean's face lit up once again when he heard this. His aunt had came back here to live, which meant that he would be able to see her more often. Not only that, but he hoped that just maybe his father would stop beating him so much now that his sister was finally back in town.

        The dark-haired boy remained in the living room, listening to the conversation between his parents and aunt. He never spoke unless he was spoken to, knowing that his dad probably wouldn't be too pleased if he did.

        “Well, I should probably be going,” Aunt Kathy said about thirty minutes later as she slowly stood up from the chair. “There are a few more people I need to visit. I'll probably be back later though.”

        “Alright, bye,” Sean's dad said.

        Sean and his parents watched Aunt Kathy until she disappeared outside the door.

        “Thank God she's finally gone,” Sean's father said. “I thought that woman would never leave.”

        Since Aunt Kathy was gone now, Sean didn't see any point in staying in the living room. This was one of the very few times Sean was willing to sit out there with his parents. He returned his chair to the kitchen before heading into the room to continue listening to his MP3 player.

 

        A couple hours had passed since Aunt Kathy left. Sean was still in his room listening to his music. It wasn't long until his father ended up bursting into the room, an angered look on his face. The boy slowly looked towards the door as a hand reached up to removed one of the ear buds from his ear.

        “What the hell are you doing?” his father yelled. “I asked you to make dinner thirty minutes ago!”

        “Sorry, I didn't hear you,” apologized Sean. “I was listening to the MP3 player Aunt Kathy got me.”

        “I don't give a damn about what you were doing! When I ask you to do something I expect you to do it!”

        “I couldn't hear you from the living room. I had the earphones in.”

        “You have one of them in your hand there.”

        “I just now took it out so I could hear you.”

        “Uh-huh, sure. You just want to pretend that you didn't hear me because you're too damn lazy to feed this family. So you want to pretend to be deaf? I can make it so you don't have to pretend if you want me to!”

        “I'm serious. I was listening to my music so I didn't hear you. I wasn't ignoring you.”

        His father walked over now and yanked the music device from Sean's hand. The ear buds were also pulled away from him before his father dropped the MP3 player onto the floor and started to stomp on it.

        “There, now you'll be able to hear me from now on!” his father yelled.

        Sean looked down at the small pieces of what used to be his MP3 player. Without even thinking about it, he glared up at his father, which only infuriated the old man even more.

        “Don't look at me like that!” his father snapped before slapping him in the side of the head. “Show me some respect d****t!”

        “I'm sorry!” Sean quickly apologized while covering his head with his hands in a protective manner.

        “Like hell you are!” his father said before hitting Sean a few more times.

        Just then a gasp was heard from the doorway. The strikes stopped and Sean slowly uncovered his head and looked up at his dad, who was looking towards the doorway. Sean looked there now to see Aunt Kathy standing there with a shocked look on her face.

        “Uh, it's not what it looks like,” Sean's dad said.

        An angered look now came on Aunt Kathy's face. She walked over to Sean's dad and smacked him before looking at Sean.

        “Sean, pack your bags,” she told him. “You're coming with me.”

        “Can't we talk about this?” Sean's dad said.

        “There's nothing to discuss!” Aunt Kathy snapped. “I'm not letting you come anywhere near the poor boy if you're going to be this violent!”

        Sean had grabbed a bag and started to shove clothes and other essentials in it while also getting his backpack. Afterwards, Aunt Kathy took him by the wrist and led him out of the house.

        “Put your things in the backseat,” she told him as she got in the driver's seat.

        Sean nodded and did what he was told before getting in on the passenger side. Aunt Kathy backed the car out of the driveway before driving off. She glanced towards Sean a couple times, who just stared out at the road.

        “You okay dear?” she asked him.

        Sean nodded.

        “Has he done this to you before?”

        “Yeah.”

        “I'll kill that horrible brother of mine for this.”

        Nothing else was said. A couple minutes later, Aunt Kathy pulled into a driveway of a two-story house. They both got out of the car and Sean grabbed his bags from the backseat before following Aunt Kathy up the wooden porch.

        Upon entering the house, Sean looked around a little. The carpet was brown and the walls were beige. A couch and two armchairs sat a few feet away from the large, flat screen television in the living room. An archway that led into the kitchen could be seen in the back and wooden stairs were just to the side a ways away.

        “Come up here and I'll show you where you can sleep,” she said before walking up the stairs.

        Sean followed her up to the second floor and into a small bedroom. The carpet was blue and the walls were a light blue. A bed with a wooden nightstand sat in one corner of the room. To the right was a door that must've been to the closet. A dresser sat in another corner of the room and a desk was pushed against the wall so it sat underneath a window that overlooked the front lawn.

        “I know it's not much, but it's the only other bedroom in this house,” Aunt Kathy said.

        “It's fine,” Sean replied as he looked around the room a little more. He then turned to face his aunt. “How long will I be staying here?”

        “I'm not letting you go back to that wretched house. You'll be staying here with me.”

        Sean smiled a little and gave a small nod. Perhaps he would finally be able to escape his father?

        “Come on downstairs,” she said. “We'll get something to eat.”

        After placing his two bags on the floor next to the bed, he followed his aunt down the stairs to eat dinner.

Reviews

[Amund Schofield]

this chapter is ok, but the Aunt should have used a curse word when she saw the dad beating on his kid. Also why didn't the father try to stop his child?

[Amy]

YAY!! I love his Aunt Kathy!!! She's awesome!! AWESOME CHAPTER!!!!