Page 9 of Cullen
He laughed all the way to pick her up.She wasn’t that far out of town yet, so it was easy for him to find her.As they headed to the burger place in Zanesville, he introduced himself to the kids again.
“I remember you.You got Dad in trouble when he locked us up to the car.”Cullen told Beth that he shouldn’t have done that.“I know that.But he don’t see it that way.He said it was your fault he got arrested, too, when we went to see him the other day.I don’t like going to the jail to see him.He’s nasty dirty.”
The restaurant was busy, but the kids were only bothering their parents.He enjoyed his mealtoo when Emmie offered to pay, he said that he had it for having to intrude on their dinner meal.He didn’t know about going to the movies with them, but it was Marshall who convinced him that he’d have a good time.
So he made his way to a seat with the kids and Emmie and watched a silly cartoon on the big screen that made absolutely no sense to him at all.Something about a bunch of teenage fighting machines that saved the world.He didn’t get it at all.
After the movie, they wanted snacks, so they all got pretzels to go.He didn’t mind that they ate in his car, but he wanted a fee for allowing it.Each of them had to give him a nugget of their pretzel so that he could be paid.He thought that they tasted better when he did that to them.Laughing on the way home, he was dismayed to find the police in front of the house when he got there.Telling them to stay put, he went into the house to find out what was going on.
The first thing he noticed was all the blood.Then the stench of the house.As he was looking for one of the police officers that he knew, he found Joey there, and he said that she’d been beaten up.That Mary Beth was on her way to the hospital because someone had tried to break into her home, and she’d fought back when they tried to get her to hand over any cash she had, including the food card.
“Do you know who did it?”He said that Mary Beth did and that she’d told them it was her neighbor from down the street.He was pissed off because she got more food money than he did on account of her having two kids to feed.“Doesn’t seem all that smart if you were to ask me.She probably knows everyone in this place.”
“She said she does.Nothing much wrong with her that a couple of stitches won’t take care of.She wasn’t all that happy that her kids weren’t here.Something about them protecting her from intruders.What are they, about six and seven years old?”He saw Emmie coming up to him and took her into his arms.After telling her what the officer told him, she said she’d have to go to the hospital with her.“She’ll need a ride home for sure, but I’m betting by the time you get there, she’ll be finished up and ready to go home.Like I said, she only needs a couple of stitches on her lip, and nothing else is broken.”
“She’ll complain like they broke every bone in her body.”He had already figured that out, and he’d not even met the woman.“I’ll see to her if you can just drop me off with the kids.I’ll have the car service bring the car to the hospital.They said it was finished.Then I can see you tomorrow.”
“I would love that.”After getting them situated, he decided to stay anyway.He didn’t want to leave her there alone, and with the kids would make it twice as hard.He started talking to the kids when Emmie went back to see her sister.“You get robbed all that often?”
“Only at the beginning of the month.Usually, Dad scares him away, but this time, she was alone.We should have been there with her.”He told Marshall that he might have gotten hurt as well.“Dad is going to be ticked off that we didn’t protect her.He’ll say that we should have been hurt other than Mom.He already told us that he loves her more than he does us anyway.”
“That’s not right.”Marshall shrugged.“I’d never tell my kids that I loved them less than I did anything.Kids are the world right now.”
“Dad says we’re just dollar signs to him.I didn’t know what that meant until a week ago when Mom told me what he meant.She said that was a good way to describe us.”He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.“She said that if she could have, she’d have had one more so that we’d be a family of five and the money would be rolling in.She’d get a bigger house, too.One with four bedrooms.We only have three right now.”
“Did you tell your aunt this?”He said they’re not allowed to talk to their aunt about anything, or they’d get beaten.“So you figured you’d tell me so that I can tell her.Smart move on your part.”
“Yeah, we don’t know if we like you or not, but Aunt Emmie has been nice to us for a long time.She makes sure that we have enough money to pay our fees so that we’re not standing in the corner when they’re past due.Also, she makes sure that we have a coat when it gets cold.Mom told us that she does it, but we’ve seen the packages coming in with her name on them.She buys us all kinds of things, too, that mom lies to us about.”He said he was sorry.“So am I.I hate living in the houses forthe welfare people.The kids on the bus make fun of us when we get on in the morning and off at night.It’s not funny that they call us welfare babies either.”
“No, it’s not.I’m sorry that you’re being treated this way.”Marshall looked at his sister before he told him more.“Your dad makes you steal, too?What does he steal that he makes you help with?”
“Gasoline.It makes me sick to my belly when I have to suck it through the tube.But he said that I’ll be a man someday, and that’s because I can suck gas through a hose.I don’t know that I want to be a man if I have to be sick all the time.”Cullen pulled out his phone and started taking notes on what the kids were telling him.“You gonna tell the police?They’ll put us in jail for sure, and I don’t know about Bethy, but I’d rather be there than in the house that we live in.It’s nasty and dirty.”
By the time Emmie came back with her sister, the car had arrived.He was helping them in it when he realized that the kids were going to have to go back to their home with the smell.He was going to suggest that they come and stay with him, but he was afraid that he’d never get rid of them if he were to do that.But he didn’t know what to do with the kids.
“Why don’t we head to a hotel for the night so that the police can get finished with what they’re doing?”It was only temporary, but it was better than nothing.“I can pay for it so that it doesn’t come out of your cards, Mary Beth.But it’s only until the police are finished.If you stay more than one day, then you’ll be responsible for the rest.”
“You’re as bad as my sister.Dangle a nice thing in front of us, then take it away.No, take us home.We’ll be able to see Bash in the morning when he finds out that I was left alone and got hurt.”She looked at her kids.“You know what he’s going to say when he finds out that I was hurt, don’t you?Don’t expect any treats from now on when the food card comes in.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”When no one explained, he told Emmie what was going to happen to the kids when their father found out that they’d not been home to take the blame for being beaten.“They’re just kids.How the hell were they supposed to protect you when that’s your job of protecting them?”
“He’ll just beat them a little bit.It’s the least they can get for me having to have stitches.”She pointed out that there were only two stitches in her lip.“That’s more than I should have had.The kids should have been there to protect me.I’m their mother.I come first in their lives, and they should have learned that by now.He’ll just knock them around a bit, Emmie.It’s all right.If you had given me the money to bail him out, I wouldn’t have been alone and I’d of not gotten hurt.This is sort of your fault for not doing what I wanted in the first place by giving me the money to bail him out.”
Cullen didn’t say anything, but he could tell that Emmie was pissed off.As she helped the kids in the house, he could almost see the steam rolling off her head.When she walked out of the house, telling the kids that she loved them, she didn’t say a word to her sister.He wondered if Mary Beth was going to say a word to her when she followed her out to the car.
“You’re going to have to give me the money now if you don’t want Bash to beat on you a bit, either.I’ll try and save you some, but it’s all your fault.”She didn’t say a word but got into the rental, and he got into the other side.“Just hand it over, Emmie.You know you’re going to do it to save the kids.But now, instead of a thousand dollars, it’s going to be five thousand.For me having to keep the kids from getting beaten.”
“Get away from me, Mary Beth, before I beat on you.”The car peeled out of the driveway and stopped at the stop sign.“I need you to drive, please.I don’t think I’m in any frame of mind to do that right now.”
He traded her places and drove them to the hospital, where his car was parked.As soon as he put the car in park, she burst into tears and held onto him.He wanted to find Bash right now and show them both what it’s like to be beaten on just a little.But he was afraid that he’d not stop in time.He wanted them dead that much.
~*~
The police station was busy when she made her way to find Joey, the officer who had been at her sister’s home last night.His smile was all the encouragement that she needed to tell him what wasgoing on at the home of the Humphreys.Along with the list of things that the kids had told Cullen, she had her own list of things that she told them as well.The beatings would stop, or she was going to be doing some herself.He looked at her with sad eyes.
“There isn’t much I can do to keep them from walloping on their kids, Ms.Jamestown.I mean, if they get beaten bad enough to go to the hospital, I can step in, but not if they’re just disciplining them like they said they were doing.My hands are tied.”She pointed out that they were just kids.“I know that, and I hate that I can’t arrest their parents for making them steal gas too, but until I can catch them in the act, it’s just your word against the parents.And I think you can guess what will happen when I start asking about that.Those kids might not be able to leave the house at all; they’ll be so beat up.”
“It’s not fair.”He shook his head, and she wanted to cry again.That’s all she’d been doing all night since she’d driven back to the B&B.“How much is his bail?My sister wants me to pay it so that he can get out sooner.I’m not going to, but I was wondering how much it is.”
