Elementary

by Jason Zandri

  Diane came back into the room with the open beer and handed it to him. She glanced up the stairs wondering how the conversation was going with Melissa and her mother.

  “This is all over that Sanford boy,” Joe snapped, before Diane got the chance to back out of the room. “This is why I don’t want her talking to boys yet. She can’t handle it, clearly. And you,” he said, adjusting himself in his seat. “Well, I don’t know what your issues are that you can’t seem to keep a man.”

  “I hadn’t realized she liked him this much,” Diane replied, ignoring the slight. “However, I remember my first crush. It was like this. That’s why they call it a crush.” Diane turned and made her way back to the kitchen. She wanted to go somewhere else, but it was either the dining room or the kitchen unless she wanted to sit with Joe. Melissa needed some privacy in the room with her mother, and since they shared it, Diane would need to stay away for now.

  “Well, she needs to smarten up, or she’s going to be alone all the time like you,” Joe said, loud enough to make sure Diane heard him. She flinched at the words, but it was better not to respond to it. Still, the words hurt. They were hurtful in general, and she didn’t like being alone. The way Joe said them, with the intention to degrade, made his words all the worse.

  After a moment without a response, Joe continued, “Nothing to say, I see.” He took another drink of beer. “I guess you’re not even going to disagree. Well, I don’t care if you’re putting into the pot and helping to tend to things around here. I meant what I said at the end of the year; come June thirtieth you’re gone. I’m not going to have you sponging off me indefinitely.

  If you can’t find another man to move in with, then you go off and get your own place. Six months to get back on your feet is six months more than I got.

  Out on my ass at eighteen, on my own, with no option to look back.” Joe shifted again to look directly at Diane. “Are you listening to me?”

  “Yes, Joe,” Diane said with downcast eyes and stepped back into the room. “I’m trying to set money aside for a security deposit for a place, but you’ve needed money here, so it’s been cutting into what I could put away.”

  “See that’s the whole problem with you kids today.” He took another big slug of beer. “You want everything handed to you like a free ride. You think I got a free ride? You live here for next to nothing, do a little to help out, and think you’re pulling your full weight.”

  Tears streamed down Diane’s face, but she knew better than to try to walk away before he’d done talking to her. On the end table, sat the belt, which he’d already taken off. If that’s going to be for Missy for crying, I’d rather have him get it out of his system on me now, she thought.

  “You’re complaining about the security deposit and us needing a few dollars from you, when you eat a quarter of the food and use up a quarter of the utilities!” Joe raised his voice higher with each word until he finished up at a full yell.

  That got Karen’s attention, and she came down to them. Diane looked up when she entered, and then stepped around to the side to see if Melissa was at the top of the stairs.

  “Joe, what’s wrong? Please calm down,” she said softly. “It does you no good to get upset.” Karen came around to tend to Joe as he pushed up and out of the chair.

  “I’ll tell you what’s wrong,” Joe exclaimed, then finished his beer and tugged at his pants, which hung below his sagging belly. “Your daughters are what’s wrong. Both of them always crying, and they’re nothing but a drag on this household. I signed up for the one and figured that would be work enough, but now I have two.”

  “Now dear, it’s just for a short time,” Karen said in calm tones.

  “Diane does everything she can to help out. That allows me to take the full-time hours they offered at the office. If you remember, I couldn’t do that before.” She moved to stand next to him. “Diane makes sure that when I have to work late, someone is here for Melissa. She gets your dinner started when I’m not home. She’s putting a little into the household under room and board

  —”

  “She’s taking more than she’s giving,” he said while he walked into the kitchen. “If she wasn’t here and we lost that little bit, we’d be better off.”

  Melissa came storming down the stairs with her coat on, still upset from her earlier conversation. “I’m sorry we’re such a burden! That we had nowhere to live. Maybe out on the street, I’ll just die and it’ll solve your problems.” Before Diane could grab her, she darted out of the front door.

  Karen moved forward, but Joe stood up and grabbed her arm to stop her.

  “Leave her. You let that little brat go,” he bellowed. “The ungrateful little wench will come back when she’s cold and hungry. I let her back in then … if I feel like it.”

  “But Joe …” Karen pleaded for half a heartbeat, then Joe’s hand came around and slapped her on the mouth.

  “I’m done with the backtalk from the three of you. You’re all ungrateful.” He walked past her and Diane to close and lock the door. “She crashed out of here and let all the heat out, leaving the door open like that.”

  Diane said nothing but glanced at her mother in sympathy, and then turned to get her jacket once her mother nodded.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Joe bellowed, stepping into her path.

  Diane skirted him and grabbed her jacket. “Joe,” she murmured.

  “She’s upset. The boy she likes kissed another girl. I know it’s all stupid to you, but to her it’s the biggest thing going on in the whole world. I can’t tell her there are more important things, because to her there aren’t.”

  Joe blocked her path. “I told you to leave her. You’re wasting time chasing her. You don’t even know where she’ll go. She’ll come home when she gets cold.”

  “She’s my sister—”

  “Half-sister. Your mother’s pretty good about that, getting knocked up by the men she’s with. Glad I took care of that for myself. The last thing I needed was another ungrateful mouth to feed.”

  “Joe, I’m glad too,” she said, serious, and hoping Joe wasn’t swift enough to understand the insult, which would only get her hit. “To me she’s not a half-sister; she’s my sister, and I’m going to go out to look for her.”

  Joe pushed her backward, hard. “I said, you’re not. Now do what you’re told.” Diane stumbled backwards a couple of steps. “You women, none of you know your place.”

  Diane stepped forward and kicked Joe in the groin. He dropped to his knees with a thud, holding his crotch. She walked past him. “My place is out looking for my sister.” Diane headed out of the door, and her heart pounded so hard that she thought it would leap out of her chest. She’d never stood up to Joe before, and it hit her that there would be ramifications for her actions.

  Karen dashed to the door. “Are you crazy?” she whispered. “When he gets up, he’s going to beat us all.”

  Diane looked at her mother, and then turned around and stepped into the kitchen. She came back from it with the iron skillet. “Use this, and I don’t mean to make him something to eat.” Diane said with a gumption in her voice that she’d never had before. “He can’t beat us if we’re not here. Right now, two of us aren’t, because I’m going out to look for Missy. We need to think of some other arrangements; this has never worked, and there’s no way it’s going to anymore.”

  Diane stepped to go out the door then turned to Joe, who still knelt in agony. With all the bravery she could muster in her voice, hiding the fear that threated to swamp her, she said, “Joe, if you ever lay a hand on me or my family again, I won’t stop until the police arrive. I’m done with this, and so are they.”

  Diane left the house and crossed Ward Street without even looking for cars. She burst into tears, and the fear and anxiety took over at last. God, I hope he buys that threat. There’s no way I can stay there anymore. He’s going to keep hitting us, and belittling us. He could kill us in our sleep. …

&nb
sp; Stop it. Stop it; focus. She made her way over to Clifton Street, and called out

  “MISSY?”

  ***

  Mark sat nodding off in front of the television but roused when he heard a creaking noise from the front porch, just outside the living room windows. He pulled the blind away to see outside. Someone walked up onto the porch, then dropped back down to the top stair. They repeated the action twice, and then went back down to the sidewalk.

  “What’s going on, Dad?” Matthew asked without looking up from his Captain Delta comic book.

  “Someone came up the walkway,” Mark said, then walked around the sectional couch and toward the front door. He turned on the front porch light and swung the door open to look out. Startled, Melissa turned and ran.

  “Melissa?” Mark called out, which prompted Matthew to put his comic down and come over to the door.

  Melissa stopped where she was and turned partly back towards him.

  “Yes,” she said quietly, but with raw emotion in her voice.

  Matthew squeezed through the doorway under his father’s arm. “Hey, it’s late,” he said. “What are you doing here? It’s cold out tonight. Did you want to come in?” He looked up at his father. Mark nodded in agreement.

  Melissa turned all the way into the light cast from the front porch, and the glow reflected on her tear-streaked face. “Do you like me, Matthew?”

  “Of course.” He didn’t know exactly where she was going with the question, and he felt too embarrassed to answer with his father there.

  “So if I weren’t here, you’d miss me?” She took a step closer to the porch steps.

  Matthew wasn’t sure how to answer the question, and so looked up at his father.

  “Melissa, honey,” Mark said, “why don’t you come inside and we can give your mother a call?”

  “NO!” she yelled and set off at a run again.

  Matthew darted forward, cleared all the stairs with one jump, and got in front of her. “Yes,” he said. “I don’t like the days of the week when you’re not around.” He smiled. “There should be a rule; we should get to see each other and do stuff together on any day that ends in a ‘Y.’”

  A small smile grew on Melissa’s face. Then she lunged forward and hugged him. He looked over at his father, who stood smiling. Mark made a wrapping motion with his arms to Matthew, who then wrapped his arms around Melissa.

  “I was right,” Melissa said, crying into his ear. “You’re the nicest boy I’ve ever met.”

  Mark waved “come here” with his hands to his son, but Matthew knew Melissa wasn’t going to let go. “Missy,” he said softly into her ear,

  “I’m cold. I don’t have a jacket or shoes on; can you come inside?”

  Melissa loosened her grip and looked down at his feet. “You were going to come after me in your socks?”

  “At least half a dozen blocks, and all the way to Boylan’s if I needed to,” he said with a small amount of pride in his tone. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

  Melissa didn’t resist his light pull. She climbed the stairs to the front porch and looked up self-consciously at Matthew’s father. “Mr. Sanford, I’ll need permission to use your phone. I’ll need to call my mother; she doesn’t know where I am.”

  “I think she does.” Mark pointed over their heads. Joe Canton’s car, with Karen driving, and Diane in the front seat, rolled into the driveway.

  ***

  A short while later, Matthew and Melissa had settled into the basement rec room, listening to the stereo, while Karen, Diane, and Mark occupied the kitchen.

  “… so after Diane went out the door, I got the keys to Joe’s car, got in, picked her up on Clifton Street, and figured we’d try here first,” Karen said from her seat at the kitchen table. “I could help you with that coffee, Mark.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, smiling. “I make four-hundred cups a day for fifty cents a cup. I’m pretty sure I can handle making a small pot for two guests.” He smiled and looked over at Diane, who appeared to be in fair spirits despite everything, and said, “Worst case scenario, my right-hand woman will zip up and help, like she does over at the store.”

  Diane smiled widely and blushed at the comment.

  “So, forgive me for being out of line here on something that’s not my business.” Mark turned to the two of them and leant backward onto the counter. “Are you going to keep doing this?”

  “I’m not sure I understand,” Karen said.

  “Okay, I’m shooting from the hip, so here goes. From the looks of the bruise near your elbow and the redness near your mouth, this just happened and has been happening for a while. Forgetting for a moment that it’s not a good situation for you to be in, and that when push comes to shove, Diane could get out on her own, what about Melissa? This has to be impacting her hard, and it can’t be easy growing up like this and seeing your mother degraded verbally, and physically hit.”

  Karen stood up from the table and adjusted her top, then walked over to the coffee pot that had just finished brewing. “Joe was just upset about things. When he gets upset, he raises his voice and gets carried away.” She pulled cups from the shelf. “If I could just make things easier for him, I’m sure he wouldn’t be like this.” A cup slipped out of her hand and broke on the ground. She turned to Mark, who jumped up and grabbed the dustpan from under the sink. He dropped the metal dustpan a little harder than he’d intended when he let go to reach back for the small brush. At the sudden noise, Karen sobbed uncontrollably.

  Diane got up and tended to her mother, seating her back into her chair.

  “I’m going to be a jerk here now,” Mark said, taking the sweepings over to the garbage pail. “You’re spun up and upset because a cup shattered, and I dropped the dustpan ungracefully. This goes way beyond ‘If you could just make things easier for him.’ Look, stay here tonight—the three of you. I have my sister’s old room done up as a guestroom; you can stay up there, the girls can share my bed down here, and I can sleep on the couch or bunk downstairs on the rec-room sofa.”

  “We can’t …” Karen shook her head.

  “Yes, you can. What’s he going to do? Call the police? Missing persons won’t look at anything for twenty-four hours, and likely they wouldn’t look at it at all as you left under your own power. What could he

  say to them anyhow? ‘After I yelled at them and hit everyone … they all took off?’ Trust me, I’ll tell you that once you do this, and then return tomorrow, it’ll be better for a short while, but then it’ll get back to where it is now. It’ll allow you the time to put more money aside to be prepared to leave.”

  “But that’s just it,” Karen said. “There is no extra money.”

  “I know. I did some math when Diane told me she was trying to set money aside, but that things were tight. From a couple of casual conversations, I have an understanding that you and Diane, your salaries combined, are around 85% of his. Quite frankly, you should be rolling in it.

  Your household earns 75% above the median household here in town.

  Something is happening with the money. If neither of you is spending it then he is, but not in the right manner.”

  Karen stared blankly, and then spoke, “I have no idea where the money goes.”

  Mark realized that she wasn’t going to listen tonight. He couldn’t help her if she didn’t want help.

  Mark turned to Diane. “Do you want to go back to the house tonight?”

  “No. And I don’t think Melissa should either.”

  “Diane!” Karen exclaimed. “She can’t stay here all night. I’ve nothing to dress her with for school tomorrow.”

  “We can go in the morning, Mom. Once he’s had a chance to calm down and sleep it off, we stand a better chance of things being settled, and we can get her ready for school.” Diane looked over to Mark. “Oh, wait, I was supposed to be in earlier tomorrow.”

  “I’ll manage until you get there; can you make it for nine?”

  “Yes, thank you.�
�� Diane rose to her feet.

  “Where are you going?” Karen asked.

  “I’m going downstairs to let Melissa know.”

  “You’ll do no such thing.” Anger laced Karen’s words. “Mr. Sanford, I sure do appreciate your help, thank you, but I’ll take my daughters home.”

  “Of course, I didn’t mean to overstep,” Mark said in a resigned tone.

  “Mother! You can’t be serious.” Diane moved to block her from the basement door. “Have you looked in the mirror since you left the house?

  “Since when do you take that tone with me?” Karen flushed. “Your stepfather takes enough liberties; I won’t have the disrespect coming from my daughters as well. I know exactly what he does. I’m not proud of it, but no one’s perfect. He was good to me when no one else was. He took me in when no one else would. I owe him—”

  “Maybe for some things, Mother, and others to a certain degree, but not a pound of flesh …” Diane stopped mid-sentence when her mother’s hand connected with the side of her face. There was an initial reaction of horror on Karen’s face, and then it dissipated.

  Mark stepped forward to get in between them, happy the children were downstairs. “Diane, it might be best to let your mother take Melissa home.”

  Karen turned and opened the door to the basement. Music spilled into the hallway and kitchen, then quieted once Karen headed down the stairs.

  “You have no idea what it’s like,” Diane said, in tears.

  “You’re right, I have no idea. What I do know is that you’re stronger than your mother. I can see that. You can help her see this more clearly, even if it takes some time. It certainly makes sense for you to be there to help Melissa.” Mark turned to look at her.

  She stepped forward into his personal space. “I’ve been trying so hard to do the right things. I went home because I needed to. I do what I’m told. I help out around the house. I went and got a job. A good one that allows me flexibility when I need it, to tend to things at home. I’ve been turning over most of my check to help out while trying to put money aside for my own place.” Diane cried heavily. “The other day, at the store, I saw this lovely outfit. It was a nice, everyday skirt and top. All I wanted was to splurge a little bit to get it. But I couldn’t justify the expense. I needed to set the cash aside to help with the rent and groceries.”