Trading places part 1

Chapter 47

Trading places

Part 1

No one said a word on the way home; you could feel the tension in the car while Dad pressed the gas pedal going beyond the speed limit. It was short drive only being ten miles from home. Dad knew I was shaking and it wasn’t a fever and wasn’t from the cold being since it was in the high 80s. It was from absolute fear. Dad tried to lean me against him but I flinched. Dad was angry, we both knew I was the cause; Mom wiped the tears from my cheeks and squeezed my shoulders telling me. “Dad knows it’s not your fault; it’s our fault for not doing anything about sooner.”

When we got home, Dad said. “It would be best if you stayed in your room with Eric while I deal with Shawn. Kerry and Mom can help with Arthur while Jody gets the boys ready for bed. Tonight, Hell, I don’t know what to do about Arthur tonight. He can’t be in Shawn’s room with him any longer since he can’t be trusted, and he certainly can’t be in his own room until we take the junk out back out.”

My mind couldn’t grasp what happened. I didn’t know what was taking place down in the basement, but it sounded really, really bad. It sounded like Arthur was more of a prisoner than I was, and had been since he’s been living with the Rothwell’s since he was 8 years old. I was wondering if that would soon be my fate when they decided I was no longer useful or the newness wore off. Or when people started to think I was safe and adjusting. I had a bad, bad feeling that when social services stopped coming so frequently that’s when they would move me down in the basement and chain me up like Arthur.

I needed Jeff right now more than ever, but every time I tried to link with him there was nothing as if our link had been disconnected. So far I had been lucky that Mom and Dad haven’t found the note or the money I had hidden under my dresser between the drawers. I needed to somehow smuggle it out of the house before my luck runs out, considering I am not a lucky guy. My only thought is brother Nile's or Bishop Lanwall could possibly hold onto it and I can tell them that I am in danger. Perhaps tell them about Arthur, but if I do. I need to make sure it doesn’t lead back to me or I am dead.

Dad sighed wiping the sweat off his face even though we had cooled ourselves pretty good, but it was going to be another hot night even with the swamp cooler on it was barely given enough cold air to sleep comfortably. Shane told Mom that it might be better to have Shawn sleep in our room and Arthur could sleep in Shawn’s room by himself tonight. Shane and I would sleep in the family room on the floor in sleeping bags.

Dad growled at the idea and said, “I will not have Shawn sleep in a comfortable bed while you sleep on the hard floor just to accommodate him after what he has done. I would rather him sleep in the hot box overnight and all day tomorrow before I let that happen, but that idea is sound. I want you to bring both the mattresses into the family room and then he will sleep in there until I have decided what to do with Arthur and Shawn.” The decision was made and Mom agreed, provided there wasn’t a chance for me to run out the back door if I had another night terror. Even though she didn’t say it, I wondered if she was more worried I would run away.

“Not going to happen unless he goes through the window, and they’re both locked. He can easily do that to the back and family room doors. If I have to, I’ll nail them shut. Since he’ll be so medicated he will most likely sleep through the night. It will probably be the best night’s sleep we’ve all gotten since Eric has been home,” Dad said. I knew he was right. When I looked up at the sky I saw nothing but the moon and stars. Shane led me back to my room so that I couldn’t hear Dad punish Shawn. I cringed as I watch him take the belt off his pants; leaving all of our clothes on the couch as we walked through the backdoor of the family room. Jody hurried the boys to their room, closing the door behind them.

Mom ran the tub for Arthur placing the first aid kit on the sink and some fresh towels. Arthur screamed, “No tub! No tub!” I had a very bad feeling that Mom had tried to drown him too, and I didn’t want to think about it. Shane closed the door, letting Kerry lock it behind us. He told me that she would be in there with Arthur and would make sure nothing happens. “It’s just that, like you, Arthur prefers the shower so that he doesn’t have to feel embarrassed. He forgets that Mom and Kerry have been bathing him since he was eight years old,” he said.

I asked “Did Mom try to drown him, too? Is that why’s he afraid?”

Shane shook his head. “She did try it with two other foster boys; James being one of them. He was so mean and angry all the time. He was continually running away and then when he was home, he would hit Mom and Kerry constantly. The majority of the time it would be for no reason. He was always calling her foul names. He came here a drug addict and smoked all the time; he would rob from stores when he was supposed to be in school. Those days he would come home drunk or end up in jail where he would be drunk or stoned.

“He was 15 when he came to us and stole Dad’s car and to go joyriding with a bunch of his friends from school and was known as the school bully. So in a way we were glad when Dad said no more and just let him go. Since then Dad and Mom been really hard on Arthur and the kid before you, he didn’t last three months with James always getting in trouble together. Social services took him and moved him to a home for boys.” Somehow I felt that there was more to the story, but I doubted that Shane or Kerry would tell me more, and I wondered why I wanted to know. I kept my mouth shut; storing the information away until I had all the facts, confirming them with real facts.

I did learn that he went to Lehi High School like all of the foster kids. Shane said that it was because Mom and Dad thought it was the best thing for all the foster kids. That way they had a chance to be on their own, and have their own circle of friends without them causing trouble for the Rothwell’s.

I could see the logic, but I still felt that it was because we weren’t good enough to breathe the same air. It just made me want to work that much harder to prove that I was really a good kid that just needed somebody to love me; instead of someone to constantly abuse me and uses me as a meal ticket. I would never forgive my parents or the courts for ruining my chances to have a better life with a family that truly loved me and wanted me with all of my faults.

I had a feeling that I would never see the Downing’s again and that would never happen. It was what it was. Sometimes Aunty M would say ‘Sometimes a person needed to make their own luck to survive in a world that had monsters at every turn.”  Just thinking about her made me miss her that much more, and I really missed Jeff when things were so unsettled. Shane helped me change into some dry boxers and we began to fold up our bedding. He also decided on what clothing he would wear to school since Dad had not said anything to the contrary. It was Mom who had made the decision; telling us that she needed to do some grocery shopping and run some errands after our appointment with the doctor tomorrow, so she would need his help.

Mom also said that both he and Shawn wouldn’t be going to school tomorrow either. Dad wanted to keep Shawn home so he could decide what to do about Arthur. Kerry would pick up their assignments so they wouldn’t fall behind. She would provide a note that both were out with the flu and would be out most of the week. She hated the idea of any of us missing school, but rules were meant to be broken and this was one of those times. We all needed to eat.

It took several trips to and from the family room as Shawn would growl at me, which earned him a slap on his bare butt; when he made his way to the tub with Kerry and Jody waiting. Dad was right behind him, placing a new coarse brush on the bathroom sink. He looked to Kerry and said, “That water had better be ice cold, even if you have to put ice cubes in it.” To Mom, Dad said, “He won’t be needing boxers tonight and I want to make damned sure that there weren’t any clothes in the room for him to change into.

“He thinks that he can treat Arthur like an animal; he can feel what it feels like. I made him jog ten laps around the field, naked, and made him roll in horse manure and mud. Please, pardon the smell. I did hose him off the best I could. I didn’t want him to track it on the carpet; he did anyway. He can scrub it and the tub, and the bathroom floor before he goes to bed. He’s also grounded for six months, if he even thinks that it’s unfair, then, with God as my witness, I will place him in that hot box for three days and nights.”

Dad helped Shane carry our mattress into the family room and quickly cleaned out mine and Shane’s closet, and our dressers. Folding our clothes neatly on the on the couch and hung are shirts, church slacks, and jeans up in the laundry room across the long bar; where Mom stores our clean clothes before we take them to our rooms and put them away. Shane carried our hamper so Mom could wash them without having to go in there and given Shawn the opportunity to wear them, dirty or not considering he could easily wear mine or Shane’s clothing.

In a way I felt sorry for him as Dad watched him scrub the dining room naked on his hands and knees all the way down the hall having Dad slap his butt if he wasn’t moving fast enough to his liking. It was none of my business so I looked away making our beds. Hearing Dad says you missed spot mule boy, and if he so much as growled he earned another slap on the butt.

Shane closed the family room door and turned on the TV. He found another basketball game and asked if I would like chips and orange soda. I said I would and laid down next to him. I wondered if it was going to be another long night. Shane had me lie down so he could tend to my back since Mom was tending to other things. She wanted to take a hot shower before Dad, Jody, and Kerry had the opportunity before family prayer.

I wasn’t really running a fever that needed cooling, so it left the shower free for everyone else. It was nearly 10 o’clock before Mom came in to get us for family prayer. Shawn wasn’t among us as we all took hands. I had very little doubt that Mom and Dad would make him say his own prayers being naked and locked in a room made little difference to them. Considering I had already lived through that experience and rather not do it again. Afterward, Dad secured the backdoor in the family room with a two by four across the top and four nails and made sure the alarm was set.

Mom came in, took my stats, and logged them into the book. She said it was one of the best ones of the day, considering the trauma I had experienced early on. She gave me a stronger dose of the sleeping pill, mixing it with a large glass of orange juice. She set the baby monitor on the TV and the hospital container in case I needed to pee, providing I woke up at all. We were told that Kerry would be checking on us every few hours. Dad said that their door would be open, in case Shane needed any help. Like if the breathing technique didn’t work. Mom told us goodnight and kissed us both on each cheek and turned off the light. Dad placed something against the family room door. I looked at Shane and said. “He could share my container if he needed, too.”

Shane shook his head. “I’ll pee out the window before that happens.”