Elementary

by Jason Zandri

“Yeah?” he answered, turning around and bumping Melissa slightly with his arm.

  “Come up,” Tim said, waving. “Manager wants to see you.”

  He turned and pitched his head to Melissa. “Come on.”

  The two went up into the lobby.

  Five servings of popcorn and soda sat on the counter. Tim stood there grinning. “Mr. Sanford,” the manager said. “I wanted to extend to you and your friends, the ones who helped out at least, a serving of popcorn and soda for helping clean up the theater. I appreciate it.”

  Matthew thought back to what his father had said. “You’re welcome, sir. We were glad to help. Thank you for this.”

  Matthew handed Melissa her popcorn and soda and took the four-soda tray while Tim managed the four popcorn bags and they all headed into the theater.

  Once down along the row they’d be sitting in, Tim handed Michael a

  popcorn, nudged him left into the row, and stepped in too. Matthew let Melissa in then headed in as well. Liz sat on the opposite end of everyone, on Matthew’s right.

  Matthew reached over and passed sodas down to Tim and Michael, and then one to the right to Liz. Tim passed out the popcorn bags. When Matthew got his, he reached over to Melissa’s and took hers away then set it aside on the ground. She looked confused for a second until he set his bag between them on the split between the seats to share his with her. A huge grin came over her face, and she took some popcorn from it.

  Liz watched Melissa smiling at Matthew. She then turned around to see her older sister make out in the back of the theater with her boyfriend.

  She fussed with her popcorn bag and looked over at Matthew, who paid full attention to Melissa.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Mark tore the “May” month off the desk blotter calendar, threw it into the trash, and put things back on his desk.

  Matthew walked into the office, and Diane followed, holding a sandwich for him. Matthew took a bite out of his and took a seat on the sofa.

  “Now that’s how to end a Monday in June, a nice, hot, pastrami sandwich,” Mark said, smiling. “Thank you, Diane.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said with a grin. “The store is all closed up, and I’m just waiting on John to finish up in the garage with your car, and then I’ll close the remaining lights. What is it that he’s doing to it, anyhow?”

  “Oh, I just needed the fluids and filters changed.” Mark took a large bite out of the sandwich. “John’s working out real well. I hope he’s willing to stay on. I have to chat with him some more soon because I’d like to discuss his full skills and then take on added jobs for him. Provided he’d be willing to stay on.” Mark wiped the corner of his mouth with his hand. Diane sighed playfully and handed him a napkin. “Thank you.” Mark took it from her. “I have to figure out what he needs as far as benefits and see if I can make it all work.”

  “This sandwich is great, Diane.” Matthew took another bite and talked with the food in his mouth. “The bread is toasted nicely, but it almost seems like it’s moist. How’d you do that?”

  “Trade secrets,” she said and chuckled. “I can’t tell you.”

  John walked into the office and stopped in the doorway. “Almost all set, Mark.” He wiped the excess grease from his hands with a rag. “I finished all the fluids and pulled the tires. I figured I’d rotate them since I had the car up on the lift. Had to stop to use the men’s room, so I wanted to let you know that was it.”

  “Great,” Mark said and stood up. “Can you hang a few minutes after you’re done? I wanted to chat with you about a few things. All good stuff.”

  “Sure,” John said, reaching around his back pocket to check the wrench he had in the coveralls, and just then the phone rang.

  Mark went to grab it, but Diane reached over and beat him to it.

  “Eat,” she said, picking it up. “Colony Convenience, Diane speaking, can I help you?”

  Matthew stood up, set his empty plate on the desk, and looked over at Diane as the expression on her face degraded rapidly. “Melissa? I can’t hear you. What’s going on? Missy? Missy!”

  Matthew backed up half a step, and his stomach sank. Diane throttled the receiver. “The phone’s dead,” she said, hanging the phone up then dialing back the house number. “Busy!” she exclaimed and slammed the phone down.

  Matthew bolted for the doorway and pushed past John.

  “Matt!” John called out.

  “Where’s he going?” Mark asked, coming around.

  “He bolted out through the door,” John said, turning and going down the hallway.

  The three of them reached the store area and watched through the windows while Matthew cleared Route 5 as fast as he could run and disappeared from view down Ward Street.

  “Where the hell is he going?” John asked.

  Diane exited the store with a worried look on her face. “Mark, we have to get over the house. If he goes in and Joe is upset …” she moved toward the sidewalk.

  “Lock the door,” John said. “We’re going to have to go over on foot. I walked here, and your car is still on the lift, Mark.”

  Diane ran for the house with John just behind. Mark locked the door and hustled to catch up.

  ***

  Matthew bounded up the three porch stairs in a single motion, nearly tripping on the top one. A commotion came from the front part of the house, and he tried the front door and it opened, so he went right in.

  Karen cowered in the corner on the floor, with Melissa behind her.

  Tears covered Melissa’s face, and a small amount of blood marked the corner of her mouth. Karen’s face looked swollen—her left eye almost totally closed, and she had a gash on her forehead.

  “Get out of here, boy!” Joe bellowed, waving his arm. “Or you’re

  next.”

  Melissa peeked out from behind her mother, white with fear. Matthew glanced about the room at the broken glass, the tipped over tray table, and a broom with a snapped handle.

  “You deaf or stupid?” Joe yelled and turned towards him, blocking his view of Melissa and her mother.

  Fear gripped Matthew hard. He froze in place and couldn’t move.

  John entered the house and yelled, “Back off, Canton; you’re done.”

  “Says you, Cafferty?” Joe scoffed. “You’re not going to do a damn thing to me in my own house.”

  “Don’t be so sure, you arrogant prick,” he said, as Mark came in through the door with Diane close behind. “Care to step outside, coward?” he asked.

  Joe smiled and showed the broken broom handle to him in his other hand. “After you, if you dare.”

  Diane moved in and attempted to go around Joe to Karen and Melissa.

  “You,” he said with his alcohol breath spilling, “this is your doing.

  Your fault!” With his open hand, he swung his arm and connected with Diane’s face. She reeled back and grabbed at her stinging cheek.

  Mark dashed forward, but John stopped him. “No,” he said and moved Mark towards Diane. He went over and looked at her face.

  “First, you come here and take up space and drive our bills up. Then you become little Miss Independent woman with your job and all, leaving us high and dry. You and your whole family are nothing. If it weren’t for me, you’d all be living in a shelter.”

  Mark tried to inch forward, but Joe raised his arm with the broom handle. “Try it,” he said. “This is probably as much your fault, too. I figured you for a man’s man, but you just enabled her.” He pointed to Diane, who winced and grabbed tightly onto Mark’s arm and took a step behind him.

  “You couldn’t just bed her. You had to fill her head with crazy ideas that she wasn’t the worthless hag all these women are.” He waved his hand. “If you didn’t pay her a workman’s salary and discount her rent, she’d have to stay in line. But I suppose it’s worth it if she was putting the overtime in on her

  knees in the bedroom.”

  Mark lunged forward but remained partly in Diane’s
grip. The initial jerking motion slowed him, but when he got free and moved, Joe used that to his advantage and stood ready. He connected the broom handle violently against the side of Mark’s head, and the shot knocked Mark down to the ground.

  Matthew moved quickly around Joe, who tried to grab him, but he slipped past. Joe turned around to move toward him, and that was the only advantage John needed. He socked Joe hard and took the heavy-set, six-foot man off balance and moved him partly out of the living room. Lumbering, he went to swing the broom handle, but John was ready. He blocked the swing with both hands. He grabbed and twisted the handle in the opposite direction, which forced Joe to let it go.

  Diane moved over to Mark, who still lay dazed on the floor.

  Matthew pulled Melissa out from behind her mother and moved away from the struggling men toward the front door. He looked back at his father from the doorway. Mark waved his hand once, and Matthew understood and kept going with Melissa down the front porch steps.

  Karen looked up out of her one clear eye, and then crawled out of the way into the kitchen.

  “You’re going back to jail, John. Attacking a man in his own house,”

  Joe threatened, as the two held on to one another.

  John used all his strength, but at five foot eight, Joe had height and weight advantage over him. John continued to struggle, but he became overpowered. He turned the broom handle and hit Joe rapidly in the stomach multiple times. Without being able to get a full swing, due to the close proximity and the fact that Joe had a large stomach to lessen the impact, it meant that the swings didn’t have the effect he’d hoped for.

  Joe curled up his fist hard and landed two solid punches to John’s face. He grabbed his shirt collar to steady him and swung and connected again.

  Mark tried to get up. John was in trouble. Joe held him in place by the shirt and kept on hitting him.

  A loud CLANG rang out, and Joe’s grip released then he crumpled to

  the floor. Karen dropped the iron skillet she’d swung and cowered backward into the corner, where she’d cowered earlier, and sank to the floor, crying.

  John stumbled and wiped at the blood on his face, at his nose and mouth.

  Mark’s wits came back, and he steadied himself on his knees. He touched Diane’s arm lightly, “Your mother,” he said. Diane let go of him then moved to help her mother, cautiously looking at Joe on the floor as she moved to her.

  John helped Mark up, and then turned around and looked at Joe, who was still out cold. “What are we going to do about him?”

  Mark looked over at Diane, who turned around at the sound of John’s voice. Karen cried with her mouth open and no sound coming out.

  “John,” Mark said, taking the keys out of his pocket. “Go back to the store. See if you can find Matthew and Melissa on the way. Chances are that he went all the way back there with her.” He put his hand on John’s shoulder.

  “Either way, and even if they aren’t there, just finish up with my car like you never left.”

  “I don’t understand,” John said.

  “Matthew will be fine if he’s not there,” he said with a slight smile, which vanished when he looked at Karen, who was clearly in shock. “We’re going to have to call the police over this.” He looked at Diane, who nodded in agreement. “From Joe’s comments, it sounds like it might be better and smoother if you’re not here.”

  John nodded. “What if he says something to the cops?”

  “He was drinking and he got hit hard in the head.” Mark looked over at Joe, who flinched. “I think we’re okay given that, but go. He’s starting to come to, and we need to get the police here.”

  John turned without another word and left.

  Mark went to the phone in the kitchen and found it ripped out of the wall. “Diane, do you have another phone in the house?”

  “Just the one in my mother’s bedroom,” Diane called out and pointed in the direction of the room.

  Mark kicked Joe’s foot, and he didn’t stir, so he backed carefully

  down the hallway to call the police.

  “Mom,” Diane said, crying. “I’m not sure you can hear me entirely.”

  She wiped her mother’s face. “Once this is all settled, you’re going to come and stay with me in the apartment. I know I just got there, and the place is small, but small and cramped is better than this. Anything is better than this.

  For you and Missy. We’ll figure the rest out as time goes.”

  ***

  Matthew sat on the front stoop of Boylan’s at the corner of Ward and South Cherry Street and watched John hurry past. He nearly called over to him but decided against it, assuming he was on the way to the store.

  Melissa sat across his lap with her legs and feet off to one side, and he held her head tightly with one arm wrapped around her back to support it and the other mostly around her opposite arm so that his hand rested against her hair.

  A few moments later, a police cruiser zipped down Ward Street with its lights on to clear the traffic light. The sirens were off.

  Matthew didn’t move or say a word. He continued to listen to Melissa breathe shakily and sob.

  He moved a little to get more comfortable, and Melissa tightened her arms around him as if to keep him there.

  He nuzzled her head a little tighter under his chin and into his shoulder and just held her.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Matthew made his way down the stairs from his bedroom, turned the corner into the dining room, and walked into the kitchen where his father stood talking on the phone.

  “… okay, that’s good. Matthew is here now. I’ll meet you at the store in about an hour; I just want to get him ready for school.”

  “Was that Diane?” Matthew asked, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

  “Yes,” Mark said and hung up the phone then took a seat at the kitchen table. “When John and I left there last night, I hung a sign up saying we’d be opening late today. I needed to be able to get you squared away, and Diane couldn’t go in early to open the store, obviously.”

  Matthew just nodded then left his seat to fetch a bowl of cereal. He felt especially hungry this morning after the events of the night before and being up early for his newspaper route.

  “Melissa won’t be in school today,” Mark said in a soft voice. “Given everything that happened.”

  “I figured. I drove my bike over to Diane’s when I finished the route.

  I just sat in the road looking at the windows. So, what ended up happening?”

  Matthew asked. “When we finally got back to the house last night, no one said much to us. Diane had grabbed some of Missy’s clothes, and we walked them over to Diane’s once we left, but there wasn’t a whole lot of talking.”

  Mark looked at his son, debating what to tell him and what to remain silent about.

  “Well …” Mark got up to add more coffee to his cup. “Karen and Joe both went to the hospital.”

  “The police were there,” Matthew said. “Did anyone get arrested?”

  Mark sat back down. “The laws for violence in the home just got expanded this year, but it’s relatively new territory for the police.”

  “I don’t understand,” Matthew said, taking his bowl of cereal over to the table.

  “I know, son; it’s a little difficult to explain.”

  “You promised you’d try to talk to me more like an adult regarding things. I’m twelve now and—”

  “Yes, I know,” Mark said. “But like we discussed, I’m not just going to volunteer everything. There are still some things that I won’t discuss with you in a lot of detail, and this is one of those things.”

  The two sat quietly for a few moments while Matthew ate his cereal.

  Then Mark continued, “Still, I guess with Melissa being your friend and all, you have questions.” He got up and rinsed his coffee cup out in the sink.

  Matthew looked up and nodded.

  “She’s going to say with Diane. I’ll meet
Diane at the store to talk to her about a couple of things, and then she’ll go back to her apartment until her mother comes to get her. As of right now, Karen is still intent on staying with Joe, but Diane said she’s softening to the idea of taking the other apartment when Mrs. Kensington leaves in a couple of months. I think when she does leave, I’ll keep it open through the end of the year if necessary.”

  “I don’t understand, Dad,” Matthew said and got up from the table with the empty cereal bowl. “Mr. Canton is mean. Why would Mrs. Canton want to stay there?”

  Mark paused a moment to search for the right words. “Things are not always easy when it comes to the way we feel.” He walked over and put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “In a certain way, I’m sure you’re confused about how you feel for Melissa. She’s your friend. Things were happening last night, and you wanted to help her. You blew out of the store like a shot without thinking. Do you remember that?”

  Matthew nodded and set the cereal bowl into the sink.

  “What were you thinking? What were you going to do?” Mark asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I just wanted to do something.”

  “Right.” Mark let Matthew’s shoulder go and turned to grab his keys and wallet off the counter near the door. “You responded emotionally and not logically. You didn’t think, you just reacted. But your instinct was to do something. So along those lines, to a degree, Karen is smart enough to know she should leave, but something emotional inside keeps her from doing the logical thing.”

  Mark studied his son’s face for a moment and waited for a response.

  “What can we do? How can we help?” Matthew asked finally.

  Mark put his wallet and keys into his pockets. “We’re going to get ready for work and school. We need to get ready for our respective days ahead of us. One thing to learn about helping other people is to tend to your minimal and basic needs first. You can’t help others when you’re not at your best.” He offered his son a smile. “Beyond that, we’re doing what we have the capability to do. Karen has a place she can stay temporarily, in Diane’s apartment, if she wants to. We’ll try to keep one of the units open for her and Melissa if they decide to leave Joe. Diane is family, so we’ll support her efforts to tend to her mother and sister. You, I’m sure, will keep an eye on Melissa and help her if she needs it. That’s what we can do; offer. We can’t make anyone do anything. Have you ever heard anyone say ‘you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink?’”