Living with the Enemy part 1

Chapter 70

Living with the Enemy

Part 1

It was hard to say goodbye knowing you won’t see them for three days was almost unbearable as it ripped my heart in two, and we had postponed it by having one last family outing at the pool. My mother and I had become close during the week, but I didn’t trust her enough when it came to promises. I knew she was doing her best and seemed liked she truly wanted to make up for her mistakes, but 16 years of mistakes is a lot for one boy to reconsider if this was just a dog and pony show. Always wondering if the monster was at the edge hiding and waiting when nobody is looking.

Yet it was true, well it seemed true according to Aaron, that our mother really was what she seemed to be; but trust had to be earned, and right now she had earned enough to hear my deepest secrets and my fears. Yet when it came time to face my father, would she still protect me and Aaron or will she joins him by becoming the monster I know so well? I had feeling it was going have to be me to make that first move by letting my father back into the house. The question was, was I really ready for that to happen?

It was nearly 9 pm by the time we pulled into the driveway, Aaron and I helped Mom carry in the groceries, my foster Mom had loaned my mother a cooler filled with meat and ice so the meat wouldn’t spoil by the time we came home. Having frozen the meat beforehand while us boys were at the lake made it keep longer safely. Officer Kenly was waiting at the door and took the cooler out of my hands so I could grab the rest of our things. Once again he let the strip search go, considering I had been with my foster parents for most of the entire day.

What I didn’t say that my foster parents were just as capable of harming me as much as my parents are, but then again if I mentioned that, more questions would be asked, and when those questions were answered. I would be taken out of the home and placed in a home for boys considering my age.

Right now the Rothwell home was the closest thing I had to a family other than the Downing’s. I also knew there wasn’t a chance that I would see them again or unless I was counting on a miracle. Miracles are hard to come by and right now the way things stand. God wasn’t about to deny my mother a chance to redeem herself.

The question is if she breaks her promises will God step in and provide that miracle. When I already had a family that truly loved me, somehow I doubted it. Giving to the fact there was a reason Jeff and God had seen to it that another messenger of God had been selected to watch over me, and he was my parent’s Bishop.

Fate and God can be sometimes cruel, but the message is clear that he intends to help me adjust to the fact that my mother was on my side. It also said that something bad was coming if God had decided to step in and prepare me for whatever bad thing was about to take place in my life. I prayed that it might never happen, but something inside of me tells me, that one day soon, my life was about to change. I prayed that I will be ready for it when that happens, even more so not having Jeff by my side to face what fate and God have in store for me.

I watched my father leave out the backdoor instead of the front door, after another confrontation regarding the money my mother had spent during my stay here. The bills had arrived and he was furious. Shaking the bills and the bank statement in his hands, listing all the checks she had written nearly draining their bank accounts. My mother was never good with money. She had the mentality that having checks meant she had an overabundance of money to spend; putting us all in the poor house. I knew whose fault it was, and having him point his fingers at me didn’t help the situation.

If wasn’t for Officer Kenly having been present, I had no doubt that he would have laid into me and my mother. He simply said that this wasn’t over and walked out the backdoor. Mom was crying as she shook in fear watching him go. I knew she was just doing it to show me she cared about me. But even my foster parents fight over money from time to time. It was one of the reasons why they take foster kids in, to help suppliant their income, and why Mom works a part-time job as in-home bookkeeper for a doctors office. Dad simply didn’t make enough money to support us all without it. Even he could be cruel and I have seen my share of fights, but I also knew that my foster parents loved each other deeply and their family, relation or not.

In the past, Mom would have taken it out on me and Aaron after a fight such as this, and once again I was waiting for the monster to come out of its cage. All Mom did was take a walk, telling me to watch the house, putting me in charge of taking care of my brother and sisters.

Susan and Becky growled disdained the idea of me, of all people to be in charge, even more so over her and her sister. Susan stomped her foot angrily was about to take it out on me to show that she was the alpha male or in her case the alpha female, and I was nothing but dirt or an insect dying to be crushed.

If wasn’t for my quick reflex she would have hit me hard enough to cause serious damage, by grabbing a large wooden bookend and swung it at me, but I luckily simply step out of her way making her even angrier, watching it miss my head by inches as it sailed right through the front room window. Mom turned hearing the crash of glass and Susan yelling words that I knew grandma would wash her mouth out with soap.

Becky quickly came back with a baseball bat out of my parent’s bedroom. I could see dry blood on it and I knew whose blood was on it. I could feel the breeze as she swung it at me having me dodge her and the bat, and the same time keeps flying, lethal objects from hitting me.

Aaron had left the room the second the window had been broken and high tailed it to his room down in the basement, and no doubt barricaded himself in. There were two holes in the wall where I should have been where Becky had missed me. The living room looked like a tornado had been through it, by the time my mother came into the house.

If I thought she was furious before, she was more so seeing the havoc my sisters were causing. Mom had given me strict orders to defend myself, as I stepped into the bat and quickly grabbed it out of my sister’s hands and threw it through the broken window and quickly grabbed my Susan by the wrist and flipped her onto her back, knocking the air out of her. I ducked and twisted away and round Becky, and grabbed both her arms and held them behind her back.

Susan tried to get up but was too late seeing Mom walk in the open front door breathing hard. Susan pointed a finger at me trying to say it was my fault, but Mom wasn’t buying it having heard her halfway down the block and the window break. Susan called her f’n b***h and “M, F” w***e and a traitor. Earning her a slap across the face, Becky tried to break lose calling me “M- F- A” copying my sisters vocabulary, only to scream that I was breaking her arms

Mom knew I would never do it, growling at me to release her. I did what I was told, but Becky came back and wasn’t done, tuning quickly to punch me in the face, but I had learned my lesson long ago. The punch never made it as my hand came up and pushed her arm out of the way long enough to grab her other wrist, and ducking just enough to bring her down as I rolled her over my back onto her stomach; placing my right foot on her back in the middle of her shoulder blades, having her scream in pain unable too move; while I held her wrist with my right hand behind her back.

Mom was furious and I could see the monster at the edge, bent down and grabbed her by her hair yelled. “Do it again, I all have him break that pretty little arm.” I let her arm go, but my foot remained where it was, out of nowhere.

Susan punched Mom in the stomach said. “Take that you filthy b***h. Dad was right you are nothing, but money grabbing lying w***e.” Mom was winded, but in her eyes, I knew someone was about to die. She punched her so hard that I could have felt the wind and watched the blood spit out of her mouth. The force of the swing turned her almost completely around. It was like watching it in slow motions as Susan fell to the floor as shocked grabbing her jaw.

By the time the police arrived with Officer Kenly, it was all over. Becky and Susan were in tears and both had taken a beating from Mom and me. I knew it didn’t look good, but it was my sister’s fault, not my mothers. I described what had taken place, Susan and Becky denied it, of course, trying to place all the blame on me and Mom. Aaron confirmed it that Susan and Becky had started it and the neighbors backed mine and Mom story. Saying they heard the crash of broken glass and my sisters yelling at me using foul language, having seen my mother run back to the house watching the bookend and the bat fly out the window.

Telling the officers I was only protecting myself. Susan called us F’n liars pointing fingers at me and the neighbor that had heard and saw most of it through the open doorway and the broken window and called for the police. Susan and Becky were too young to go to jail and too young to go to juvie, but even that was on the table. It was more than obvious where they had picked up the foul language, but using such language wasn’t a criminal offense, and neither was siblings fighting one another. No one was hurt, well except my sister’s pride.

Officer Kenly suggested a very hard spanking and their mouths washed out with soap, but he didn’t trust my mother not to go too far or my father when dealing with punishment. Personally, they should consider themselves lucky that they weren’t under the Rothwell’s roof. I could only imagine the punishment that they would insist upon. In the end, they were sent to their rooms and my caseworker would be called to decide on how to handle my sisters. That way if she decides a spanking was necessary my mother would be the one doing it, but under supervision with him and her present.

Susan and Becky called him an f’n pig and f’n cowered, no one said anything when my mother slapped their faces or when he drags both of them into the bathroom and washed their mouth out with soap or the fact he and his partner manhandled them and tossed them into Becky’s bedroom, slamming the door closed. Or when they threaten them if they came out of the room before morning, they could see what inside of a jail looks like.

Officer Kenly said he was spending the night on our coach, after taking a long walk too cool down, to make sure my mother doesn’t take matters into her own hands or either my sisters decide he was joking. I knew he wasn’t, inside I was hoping that they would, who knows maybe a night behind bars would teach them a lesson; then again maybe not.

When I called grandma and told her about my day and what Susan and Becky did. I could tell she wanted to paddle both their bottoms to the point they would never sit down for a month. She totally agreed that it would best that my caseworker resolved the issue rather then my parents, but she intends to have words with both of them, and they weren’t going to pleasant; telling my mother that if they didn’t intervene she would.

I had learned that my father had broken many wooden spoons after his butt before his father died and eaten enough soap that he could fart bubbles for a month. Yet apparently he hadn’t learned his lesson, she said. “If his father was alive, he would switch his backside. That he would never sit down again without feeling it until his head had gray hair.”

Mom brought Officer Kenly a pillow and a warm blanket after we cleaned up the mess. I knew my father wasn’t going to like the bill of replacing the window or the cost of fixing the walls that were damaged, but that was just plain tough. Glass and walls are cheap compared to a hospital bill if any of us were injured. I knew my foster parents and the State would make him pay for it, considering it would be my parent's fault for raising my sisters into their likeness. All I can say is some mistakes come back and bite you. Even more so when my parents have anger problems, having my sisters learn from them that these actions and attitudes are acceptable.

In many ways, if it wasn’t for the Fry’s, Steeds, and the Downing’s teaching me that this was unacceptable behavior, I can imagine that I too would be just like them. I can even thank the Rothwell’s as well, even though they go too far when it comes to prison style punishment. Then again they too are paying dearly for their mistakes, having passed them on to Shawn and Arthur. I would like to include Danny and the other boys they had taken in, but they came bad, from the beginning.

I couldn’t say I slept well that night, even with my meds. I still tossed and turned as much as Aaron did. We finally both gave up and I asked Aaron if rather sleep or help me make Mom and Officer Kenly a nice hot breakfast? Hoping to relive the tension that was over the house. We were all lucky that it was warm night after a very hot day having the broken widow vent air. It became apparent that Officer Kenly was having the same difficulty sleeping as we were, watching him pad in the kitchen in his bare feet, and his stripped PJs bottom.

Unlike my foster Dad, he had a very hairy chest, almost as hairy as Bishop Lanwall and a couple of my best friend’s fathers, he simply said. “You can’t sleep either?”

We both said, “not a wink.” I handed him a block of cheese and cheese grader, while I had Aaron make toast using the toaster and spread lots of butter and Jam. I chopped up onions and green peppers while I cooked the sausage adding some fresh tomatoes. I had decided to make cheese omelets for all of us, including my sisters even though they didn’t deserve it, with frozen orange juice from the freezer.

Mom came in soon after smelling the aromas and hearing noises in the kitchen; Mom saying, “what a wonderful surprise.” Giving both me and Aaron a kiss on the head, feeling his very warm sunburned skin, one of the reasons neither of us could sleep. Him always trying to get comfortable and finding no relief, I personally knew what he was going through. Yet it would be another day or two before he found the relief, but for now, he would just have to suffer through it. I told him after breakfast we would take a nice cold bath and have Mom rub him down with the lotion. Saying “trust me, it will feel so good. That you will think you died and went to heaven.”

It didn’t bother Officer Kenly having my Mom see him without a shirt, and Mom just thought it was no big deal simply said she likes hairy men one the reasons why she married my father. At first, I thought he would blush, but he didn’t, instead said. “His wife and two daughters love to snug up to him, calling him their fury teddy bear.” It was a shock to me and Aaron to learn that my father had a hairy chest, considering neither of has ever it seen it, but only stands to reason that, of course, she would, I was old enough to know about the birds and the bees. When came to how children are made, but it did surprise me none the less.

The only ones that were embarrassed by it were my sisters; seeing their eyes pop open, seeing him in the house not wearing a shirt. Having their brothers not wear one was one thing, but a full grown man was another. Personally, I don’t know what the big deal is, considering they had seen plenty of men on TV, at the pool and working in the yard on hot days. I tell you they seemed to be living in shelter life than the rest of us.