by Susan Stoker
Not only that, but it was really hard to be grumpy around Fatty, Jango, and Boba. The cats were hilarious. They said bad words all the time, words he knew if Alabama could hear she’d be upset about. They talked nonstop about Assjacket, West Virginia, where they were from, and told the funniest and most fantastical stories about what went on in their little town.
He’d asked where it was on a map, but the cats refused to say…telling him that if word got out about what a great town Assjacket was, everyone would want to move there and it would stop being such a wonderful place.
The honey badgers sounded scary, but Tommy wished he could visit anyway. Between Roger the rabbit and Simon the skunk and the chipmunks, it sounded like a lot of craziness and fun.
“I wish you could go to school with me,” Tommy told the cats. “You’d make it so much more cool.”
“School? No way,” Fatty snarled.
“But you could look through all the lunch boxes in the morning. Maybe even sweet-talk the lunch ladies into sneaking you snacks,” Tommy teased with a smile.
“Hmmmm, the lunch boxes have some appeal, but we know what goes on in school,” Boba said knowingly. “Sitting still. No talking. Math. Reading. Noooooo thank you. We like staying here, hanging out until you get home,” Jango purred.
“I have a question,” Tommy said, sitting cross-legged on his bed, his elbows on his knees, his chin propped up in his hand.
“Shoot.” Fatty waved his paw indicating for him to continue.
“How come me, Brinique, and Davisa are the only ones who can hear you talk? I mean, it would be really cool if the other kids, or even Abe and Alabama could hear you too.”
The three cats looked at each other, as if talking silently amongst themselves. Finally, Jango nodded and said, “Here’s the thing. We usually don’t interfere in the human world. It’s kind of a rule. But we got special permission to zing our way here and stay with you for a while.”
“Why?”
Why indeed. Knowing they couldn’t say, Boba deflected. “Why not? Look, you’re a special little boy and we wanted to make sure you knew what great people Abe and Alabama were.”
“And the weather’s better here in southern California than in Assjacket, West Virginia,” Fatty threw in.
Tommy looked confused. “Why me though?”
“Because you’re destined to be a very special and important person in the human world, Tommy,” Jango told him seriously.
“Me?” He shook his head. “I’m not important at all. You know what happened to me. I’m…dirty.”
Jango didn’t break eye contact with Tommy. “No. You’re not. The men who hurt you are. We can’t say what it is that you’ll do in your life that will change the direction for all the humans in this country, but you have to believe us when we say you will. We’re here to make sure that you get that chance. To help you understand how special you really are.”
“I don’t understand,” Tommy whispered, confused.
“It’s like the movie Holes,” Boba told him. “Everything you do has a consequence. You have no idea what you might be able to do for someone until perhaps years later.”
“Yeah, like physics. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction,” Fatty said with a nod.
“Huh?” Tommy replied, his forehead scrunched up in confusion.
“Newton’s third law, you know,” Fatty said impatiently.
“Uh, nope. No clue.”
Jango smacked Fatty on the side of the head. “He’s only ten, you idiot. That’s not going to come around for another few years.”
“Oh, sorry,” Fatty apologized. “Anyway, all I mean is that the things that happen today will have an impact on what happens years in the future.”
Tommy nodded slowly. “You mean, like if I’m really mean and act like a jerk and Alabama and Abe decide not to keep me. That could mean something that might’ve happened to me in the future that’s good, might not happen anymore?”
“Exactly.” Fatty beamed a weird kitty smile at Tommy.
“So you guys are here talking to me because you want me to be good?”
Boba sighed. “Not exactly. Look, it doesn’t matter. But you should know that we won’t be here forever. In fact, we’ll soon be going back to Assjacket. Zelda is getting anxious that we’ve been gone so long.”
“You’re leaving? But…I don’t want you to go…I like talking to you,” Tommy pouted.
“We like it here too. Alabama is such a softie…we love the salmon cakes she’s made us,” Fatty licked his lips in agreement. “But, our place is in Assjacket, just like your place is here in Riverton with Alabama and Abe and your sisters.”
Tommy stared at Fatty. “My sisters?”
“Yeah, Brinique and Davisa.”
“I hadn’t thought of them like that,” Tommy said in wonder.
“I have it on good authority that they think of you like that,” Boba told him. “Just today Brinique was bragging about you. She said that she had a new older brother.”
“She was?”
“Yup,” Boba agreed. “She told a boy in her class that if he didn’t stop pulling her hair, her big brother was gonna beat him up.”
Tommy looked at the white cat in amazement before he realized something. “I’m their older brother.”
“Yeah…” The word was drawn out as if Fatty had said “duh…”
“And I’m bigger than them. I can protect them if they need it. They haven’t ever had an older brother before. Especially Brinique. She always had to protect Davisa, but no one was there to stand between her and her mom and the mean people.”
“Nope,” all three cats agreed.
“And I have Abe to protect me.”
“I think he’s finally getting it, boys,” Jango said, stretching out a leg and licking.
Tommy lay back on his bed and looked up at the ceiling, his mind whirling with everything the cats had said. But the main thing was that he was an older brother. He was needed.
He recalled what Dude had said. That it was his job to look after his wife and child because he was bigger and stronger than they were. He could do that for Brinique and Davisa. He could be their protector.
For the first time in his life, something clicked inside him. Since his mom died, he’d felt lost. Thrown away. As if he was on his own. But suddenly he wasn’t anymore.
Tommy turned his head and looked at the cats who were staring back at him. “I’m gonna miss you guys.”
“We’ll miss you too,” Boba told him. “But you’re gonna be busy growing up to be the important man you’re destined to be. Maybe we’ll see each other again one day.”
Tommy nodded. “Someday I’m gonna get to Assjacket. I wanna meet Jeeves and Roger and Wanda and Bo…and your Zelda and Mac.”
“We’ll look forward to it, young Tommy,” Jango told him solemnly. “It will be an honor to have you there.”
10
Wednesday had been a good day. Thursday, not so much. Tommy didn’t like talking to the psychologist. Alabama had told him that there was nothing wrong with discussing what had happened to him, but every time he talked about it, the ball of black goo in his stomach grew and threatened to come up his throat and strangle him.
So he’d been grumpy at school before the meeting. He’d flunked a test because he didn’t feel like taking it and had left it blank. He ignored his teacher when she told him to stop talking. He smacked a boy on the arm at recess when he wouldn’t give him a ball. And he’d refused to talk to Alabama in the car on the way to the doctor’s office.
The meeting itself was okay after all, though. The woman he was supposed to talk to was nice and didn’t force him to talk about anything he didn’t want to, but Tommy was still on edge. Thinking about what the bad men had done to him and what his dad had let them do was scary.
“I know it’s hard talking about what happened to you, Tommy,” the doctor had said in a soft voice. “And it might not ever get easier. But I promise that whatever y
ou tell me in here will stay in here. This is a safe place for you.”
“You won’t tell Abe or Alabama?” Tommy asked. It was one of his biggest fears. He didn’t want them to know exactly what had happened. He knew they’d probably understand, but it was too embarrassing and he wanted them to see him when they looked at him, not what the men had done to him.
“No,” the doctor reassured him. “What you want them to know will be up to you to tell them. But you can ask me anything you want about it. I’ll always be honest with you. Even if it’s hard to hear.”
Tommy nodded, having new respect for the woman sitting in the chair in front of him. He hated being treated like a baby. “Maybe I’ll have something to talk about next time,” he conceded.
“Maybe you will,” the doctor agreed with a smile.
He wasn’t exactly in a good mood when they’d left the doctor’s office, but the black ball in his stomach had shrunk to a manageable size.
“You want to stop and get ice cream?” Alabama asked when they were on their way home.
Tommy shook his head. “No. It’s okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. It wouldn’t be fair if I got some and Brinique and Davisa didn’t.”
Alabama looked surprised at his answer, but she smiled hugely at him. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Tommy. I’m sure they would be sad if they didn’t get any, even though they didn’t have to do the tough thing you did today. How about we all go out after dinner? You don’t know this yet, but ice cream is one of Christopher’s favorite desserts ever.”
He smiled at Alabama. “Sounds good.”
“I’m glad you’re here, Tommy,” Alabama told him.
“Me too.” And he wasn’t lying. Tommy didn’t know how he’d lucked into getting Alabama and Abe Powers as foster parents, and maybe more—he wasn’t ready to admit to that possibility yet, even after Abe had flat-out told him that they wanted to adopt him—but he wasn’t going to complain about it. He knew a good thing when he saw it.
They pulled into the driveway of their house and Alabama told him, “Brinique and Davisa will be home soon. Caroline picked them up from school and will bring them home in about thirty minutes. Tommy,” she paused, then took a deep breath and continued, “I’m proud of you. And I hope you don’t feel bad about talking to someone. I still find it really useful sometimes. It’s kinda nice to be able to talk to someone about how I’m feeling without having to worry that they’ll feel bad about what I’m saying. I love Christopher with all that I am, but if I told him some of the stuff that’s rolling around in my head, he’d want to fix it for me…and he’d treat me differently. And I don’t want that. I want my husband to see me as strong and capable, even though I don’t always feel that way…you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” Tommy told her. And he did. He wanted to be normal, to be thought of as normal, but deep inside he didn’t really feel that way. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Alabama was right. It might be nice to be able to talk to someone who didn’t really know him. Who he wasn’t living with all the time.
“Good. Let’s go inside and get a snack. You can play with the cats and then when Brinique and Davisa get home, you can all go outside and get some fresh air for a while before it’s homework time.”
“Sounds good.” Tommy climbed out of the car and headed inside with Alabama. For the first time in a long time, he felt okay about his life.
Forty minutes later, Tommy was sitting on the steps leading up to the front door and watching his sisters play with Fatty, Boba, and Jango. They were playing a sort of keep-away game. Keeping themselves away from the little girls’ grasping fingers. Tommy had no idea how they were doing it, as they were the fattest cats he’d ever seen, but somehow neither Brinique nor Davisa could manage to pick any of them up.
“No fair!”
“You’re cheating!”
“Catch us if you can!”
The happy voices rang out over the yard and Tommy actually laughed at their antics. It had been a long time since he’d laughed at anything, at least it seemed like it. He stood up to help his sisters and to join in the fun when a navy-blue car stopped in front of the house.
As if time switched to slow-motion, Tommy watched as his father climbed out of the driver’s seat, leaving the door wide open, and stalked toward him. He didn’t understand how he could be there…he was supposed to be in jail.
Tommy backed away as fast as he could, stumbling over his feet and falling on his butt.
His father stood over him, hands on his hips, and glared. “Get up. Time to go home where you belong.”
The big black ball in Tommy’s stomach swelled up, cutting off his air and making it hard to breathe and impossible to speak. He shook his head. No, he didn’t want to go with this man.
The father he once knew was gone. The man standing in front of him was skinny, much skinnier than even the last time he’d seen him. His hair hung limp and greasy around his ears and neck and he even had a weird black tattoo on his arm where there hadn’t been one before. He reached down with a hand that Tommy noticed was streaked with dirt and had black stuff caked under his nails.
“I said get up,” his father repeated.
“Leave him alone!” Brinique demanded. She’d come up beside him and she was glaring at the man hovering over Tommy.
“Yeah! He’s ours. You can’t have him!”
Davisa’s words felt good, but Tommy didn’t have time to enjoy them. He scooted farther away from the man, knowing he was probably getting grass stains on his pants, but deciding Alabama would most likely forgive him once she heard how they got there.
Instead of continuing to reach for him, his father did something Tommy didn’t expect.
He turned to Davisa and grabbed her by the upper arm, wrenching it upward until the little girl was standing on her tiptoes. She whimpered in pain even as she wiggled to try to escape his firm grasp.
“Fine. I’ll take her. I know some men who’ll love to get some black pussy.”
Tommy didn’t know what cats had to do with his sister, but whatever it was couldn’t be good. “Leave her alone! I’ll come with you.” He stood up quickly, trying to swallow the big black ball of goo, which had inched up his throat.
The man looked around and reached for Brinique. She tried to run, but wasn’t fast enough. “Forget it, I think I’d rather have these pretty young things instead. They’re worth more money than you’d ever be,” he said as he drug the struggling and crying girls toward his car, Tommy ran after them, pulling on Davisa’s free hand with all his strength. It didn’t even slow his father down. He shoved Brinique into the driver’s side of the car and snarled, “Crawl over, bitch, or I’ll hurt your sister.”
She immediately did as she was ordered. Tommy saw how scared she was and something twisted inside of him.
She was his sister. It was his job to protect her. The man who used to be his father might be bigger and stronger than he was, but Tommy knew firsthand what might happen to his sisters if they were taken away.
As Davisa was stuffed into the front seat alongside her sister, Tommy opened the back door of the car as fast as he could and jumped in. If his dad thought he’d take Brinique and Davisa and not him, he was crazy.
“Wait for us!”
Tommy turned right before he shut the door to see Fatty, Boba, and Jango running toward the car faster than he’d ever seen them move. He held the door open even as the car was moving away from the curb. The three cats leaped into the open door and it slammed on its own as his father peeled away. He saw Alabama fly out of the front door screaming their names as the car sped off.
The man driving laughed maniacally. “I got me three little cash cows instead of just one. Fucking perfect.”
“That’s a bad w-word,” Davisa whispered from the front seat. She was huddled next to her sister. They both had their arms around each other and were shivering in fright.
Tommy thought fast. Over the last
few days, Abe had told him a few stories about some of the situations he and his team had been in over the years. The ones where they knew they were outnumbered and wouldn’t win by using force. They had to use their heads and fast-talk their way out of danger. Tommy didn’t have any weapons and the man who used to be his father was bigger and stronger than he was. He’d have to outsmart him. He had no idea if he could, but if he didn’t do something to try to help his sisters, he’d never be able to forgive himself. They were there because of his birth father. He was their protector, so he had to do what he could to make sure they were safe and his father didn’t hurt them.
As if Fatty could read his mind, the cat said, “Be smart, Tommy. Go easy. They’re safe for now.”
Nodding, but not looking down at the cat, Tommy leaned forward and lied. “It’s about time you came and got me, Dad. I was waiting for you.”
The man looked in the rearview window in surprise at his son and narrowed his eyes. “That’s not what I heard. And you certainly looked comfortable enough lounging around the front yard as if you didn’t have anything better to do.”
“I couldn’t very well tell them I didn’t want to be there,” Tommy protested. “That didn’t work very well in the other homes I was in. Besides, you were in jail. But I did know that you’d be coming for me as soon as you could. We’re partners…right?”
Tommy inwardly winced at the phrase. His father had started saying that to him when he let the mean men into his room at night. He’d open the door and Tommy knew what was going to happen. His dad would always be holding a bunch of money and he’d look at him and say, “We’re partners, Tommy. You do your part and I’ll do mine.” Then he’d shut the door and leave him alone with the men who hurt him.
A wide smile formed on his father’s face, showcasing the teeth that had once been white and pretty, and were now brown and broken. “That’s right, son. Partners.”
“Do we really need them?” Tommy ventured to ask. “They’re whiny little girls who can’t keep their mouths shut. Let’s just let them out on the next block. They’re tattletales, and I thought it was just you and me…two peas in a pod.”