Once Upon A Karma (Karmic Krystal Book 1)

by Malezer, Rosie

  “This looks nasty, but let’s get you to the hospital and can get you all fixed up. How’s that sound, mate?” the ambulance driver says to Eddie, doing his best to sound optimistic.

  “I-ad-dot-your-ducking-bate, bate!” Eddie snarls, flinching in pain with every attempted syllable.

  Regardless of Eddie’s dour mood, the ambulance officer stands up and escorts Eddie downstairs to the ambulance. Mum and I walk behind them. While it is possible that my mother wants to make sure her husband is okay, I just want to make sure he leaves. After Eddie is strapped into his seat in the back, the ambulance driver asks my mum if she would like the police to come to her home so she can file a complaint against Eddie. Mum and I glance quickly at each other before she advises that no crime had been committed. I close my eyes in frustration, knowing that the only reason he had not beaten the crap out of her is that Karma had intervened… this time.

  “Just get my husband to the hospital, please. It will give me time to clean up the mess in the kitchen before my baby wakes up,” she insists. As if on cue, Jake starts crying loudly, almost as if to notify the entire street of his soiled diaper. We quickly excuse ourselves before going back inside the house.

  “I’ll stay out here while you clean his bum, if that is okay, Mummy,” I say, not ready to smell Jake’s 10 kilogram overnight deposit. Getting smacked in the face with a stink-bat from Jake’s butt was definitely not my idea of fun. Mum nods in agreement before I make my way to the balcony doors, opening them up fully to let some fresh air into the house.

  Once Jake has a new diaper and is in his playpen, I climb in with him and play for a little while so that my mother can get some cleaning done. With the floor now sparkling, we all sit up at the table and eat breakfast together. In an attempt to be helpful in some way, I ask if I can feed Jake.

  “You need to just put a little bit onto the spoon. Not too much or he will spit it out while he is chewing,” she guides me. After putting just a small amount of food onto the spoon, I look up as Jake’s mouth shoots open, just like the laughing clowns at the yearly show. By the time he finishes eating his breakfast, Jake has more food on his bib than in his stomach. Ewww. Mum is clearly amused when she looks at us. “It’s okay, sweetie. For Jake, that’s normal,” she says with a grin. At that precise moment, Jake lets out a burp that almost sends my hair blowing backwards. I close my eyes and frown, causing my mother to break out into fits of laughter. When she comes over to the high chair to clean Jake up, I head to the bathroom to make sure I am not wearing any part of his breakfast-burp on my nose.

  After washing my face, brushing my hair and changing out of my pyjamas, I watch Jake crawl around on the floor, making sure he doesn’t end up on the balcony alone. Leaning down, I help Jake to stand up and we both slowly walk – although Jake’s walk is more like an awkward type of jiggle-wobble, with legs shooting out all over the place. It is almost as if each of Jake’s feet have minds of their own. When Jake is all walked out, he starts to yawn and fuss. I tell my mum that I think Jake is tired and ready for his nap. Mum smiles and picks up her baby boy. She fills his baby bottle with water and takes him to the nursery. Once he is sleeping, I get my fancy purple apron from the cupboard and smile as my mother ties it behind my back.

  “Let’s clean!” I whisper quietly, making sure not to wake my brother. Mum hands me the feather duster and I dust everything that I can reach. When I am finished, my mother starts dusting the higher shelves as I take off my apron and sit, tired from such an unusually long day. I know that my lack of sleep last night has contributed largely to my daytime fatigue and I go and lay down for an afternoon nap.

  * * *

  “Get out of bed, you!” an angry voice yells, grabbing my arm and violently pulling me out of my slumber. I look up to see Eddie – his nose plastered up and two black eyes – as he drags me in to the kitchen. “Sit down!” he bellows at me, also waking Jake up from his afternoon nap. “What’s this shit you have been telling people about your cousin, then?” Eddie stares at me like I had insulted his best friend in front of the pope.

  “I haven’t told people anything. I told my father what Andrew did last night before he left.” I say calmly.

  “So what did he do? Where did he go? Are you telling lies to people, you little freak?” Eddie accuses me. I refuse to answer any of Eddie’s insults or allegations until my mother has arrived in the room with Jake. “You will speak to me when I tell you or I will knock your fucking retard teeth down your neck, do you hear me?” he growls.

  “Like you tried to do this morning to Mummy, you mean? That worked out well for you, didn’t it?” I replied.

  Just as he raises his fist, my mother grabs his arm from behind. “Don’t-You-Even- THINK-about-it, Eddie!” she warns him, speaking each word slowly and firmly. Jake now bellows loudly, wishing he was anywhere but here. It is the first time that I had seen my baby brother so truly unhappy. “If you so much as consider touching a single hair on my daughter’s head, I swear I will have the police here before you can blink. Got it?” The look on my mother’s face sends chills down my spine.

  Eddie stares at my mother, shocked that she would ever dare to humiliate him in such a way in front of a child, especially when that child is me. “Fine,” he mumbles. Looking back at me, he says in a laconic tone, “Talk!”

  Mum sits down, untucks one of her boobs and starts feeding Jake. I tell them both quietly, so as not to set Jake off again, about what had happened last night. “After you both went to bed, a show came on the television with boobs,” I begin, unintentionally pointing at my mother’s breast as I say the word. Mum looks down at Jake before looking at Eddie with a frown on her face. “I told Andrew I didn’t want to watch but he said I am a big girl now and that he wanted me to watch with him. Then he put his hand in the same place that Grandpa had put his. I got angry and told him to stop. When I stood up to get away from him, Andrew got angry and went to the balcony to smoke his funny-smelling cigarettes. When I woke up in my bed, he was on top of me.” I pause, just in case Mum or Eddie have something to say. When they say nothing, I continue. “I told him that I will be telling you both what he did. That is when he ran out of the house fast. I haven’t seen him since,” I say, feeling an ache in my heart when I see my mother’s cheeks wet with tears.

  “You are a tiny little slut who was probably begging for it. Am I right? You are nothing but a filthy little liar. Seriously, how can anybody believe the shit that comes out of your mouth?” Eddie finally says, his voice filled with disdain and loathing. “I may not know him well, but Andrew is a good kid. He even mowed the yard, so stop with the bullshit stories!” Completely dismissing everything I had just said, Eddie then turns to my mother and says, “Tomorrow we are going to see my sister and her kids. We’ll have lunch at her place, okay?” He glances back at me and rolls his eyes before getting up from the table and walking away.

  “That man is a joke. You deserve so much better than Eddie,” I say to my mother, not caring whether he hears my comment or not. I walk into the bathroom to run a bath for myself. While the water is filling the tub, I walk back into my bedroom. It is only then that I remember the small pile of dust underneath one of my shirts. I brush it onto a piece of paper and tip it out the bedroom window.

  Having never met Eddie’s relatives before, I wonder to myself if they are anything like he is. Having one Eddie in the world is bad enough. But I know that it will not be long before I find out for myself.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I wake up fully refreshed the next morning after a great night’s sleep. With Andrew gone and Eddie hopefully having learned his lesson about raising his fists to a woman, I feel confident that the new day ahead will bring better things than the previous day had. Lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, I smile at the dream that I’d had last night about Mindy. Music had been playing in that dream. Mindy and Rusty had danced the waltz in our back yard while my father and sisters watched and cheered. When the dance had finished, Mindy a
nd Rusty drank from their water bowl together. It was like watching a realistic version of Lady and the Tramp. Although I know that it had been a dream, it makes me wish I was back at home with them, but something deep inside me tells me that my job here with my mother is not yet complete.

  Mum opens the bedroom door and pokes her head in to see if I am awake. She smiles at me – such a rare thing to see when Eddie is at home – and she seems to be in much brighter spirits today. Having woken up so early, she’d had an opportunity to feed Jake, as well as cook up scrambled eggs on toast for each of us, with grilled tomato and bacon on the side. The smell of such a fancy breakfast makes my stomach rumble. I hungrily jump out of bed and do my best attempt at a miniature sprint to the kitchen, making sure I don’t bowl over Mum or Jake during my brief energetic moment. Eddie finally drags himself out of bed and into the kitchen table while I am eating. He is unusually (yet blissfully) non-vocal as he thanklessly shovels food into his mouth. I am unable to determine whether his lack of insults comes from humility or if his nose hurts too much for him to speak. Either way, Mum and I bathe in the peace his silence brings.

  Eddie slowly eats his cold breakfast as I clear the dishes away from the table to the sink. Mum grabs the clean dish cloth and wipes down the table, leaving Eddie all alone to finish his food. I climb into the playpen with Jake and we play together with his building blocks and his toy trucks, keeping out of the way as Mum pulls out the vacuum cleaner. After she gets to my bedroom, she comes into the living room with a concerned look on her face.

  “Krystal, I just vacuumed up what looks like ashes from the carpet near your bedroom doorway. Has somebody been smoking in your bedroom?” she asks, her brows pulling into a frown.

  “Yeah, that is leftover from Andrew,” I state simply, before resuming a contest with Jake on who can make the tallest tower with his building blocks. This starts my mother on a rampant lecture about how smoking cigarettes is really bad for you, especially the strange-smelling type of cigarettes that Andrew seemed to have been smoking the night that he’d briefly visited. By the time she finishes what she needs to say, her eyes are filled with tears from anger. I feel the guilt radiating off her as she blames herself for what Andrew had done, just as she still blames herself for what our grandfather had done to my sisters and me when he was alive.

  “He won’t be staying in this house ever again, Krystal. I can promise you that,” she says gently. Leaning over the playpen, she gently kisses my forehead. Jake yells out in protest until she also kisses his forehead, which makes him giggle and coo.

  “I know, Mummy,” I reply, nodding my head. You have yet to find out exactly how permanent his absence will be. As I look up at the table, I see Eddie rolling his eyes as he slowly stands and takes his plate to the sink. “What time are we going to see Eddie’s sister and her children?” I ask.

  “As soon as you all stop yabbering with your bullshit and get dressed, I would think,” snaps Eddie rudely. Neither my mother nor I are surprised by his acidic response, since it is just another day in the Finn household. I consider asking Mum if we can stop somewhere and get a ring inserted into Eddie’s nose, just in case he gets the urge to dig up the grass with his snout (like all pigs do), but I refrain.

  Mum lifts Jake out of the playpen so that she can change his diaper and pack a day bag for him – formula, bottles, baby food, clean diapers, bib, extra shirt – while I go and look through my suitcase for something nice to wear. I pull out a pair of tracksuit pants and my favourite Barbie t-shirt. Although the shirt is white, the word “BARBIE” is written across the top in big glittery purple letters, which more than makes up for the colour of the shirt. Mum quickly brushes my hair and puts it up in a fluffy ponytail, which looks like I have a white rabbit’s bottom at the back of my head. As she ties my shoe laces, Eddie wanders out of the bedroom, grabs his car keys and slams the front door on the way out. I think this is Eddie’s own special way of telling us to hurry up.

  “Have you met her, Mummy? Is his sister nice? Are her kids nice?” I ask.

  “I have met her a couple of times, but I have never met her children,” she replies. I guess this leaves us all in for a day full of firsts. Hopefully, once the sun has set, I will have made a couple of new friends and the day will have ended on a high note, but there is only one way to find out, and that is to get this show on the road.

  Jake is fully alert and happiness seems to be singing from his very core. He knows that a car ride is in store for him today and his anticipatory grin is at maximum level. As soon as Mum lifts Jake into his seat, she decides to give me an impromptu lesson on how to do up the seatbelt of Jake’s baby seat. With five straps in all to click together, Eddie starts tapping his fingers impatiently on the back of the front seat, making his annoyance quite clear. Finally, we hear a loud click as it all locks into place. Mum gives the buckle a gentle tug to make sure it will not come undone in case of an accident while I sit myself in next to the window, clicking my seatbelt into place. Having seen Eddie’s driving skills in action in the past, I don’t want to take any chances with my own life. “Don’t forget to make sure your seatbelt is clicked into place too, Mummy!” I call over her shoulder from the back seat. Eddie, don’t worry about yours. You drive like a dick so you deserve what you get. I smile as I hear my mother’s seatbelt click shut.

  The drive to Eddie’s sister’s house is a quiet one. Obviously there is no such thing as pleasantries whatsoever from Eddie’s side of the family. I silently hope this is only the case with Eddie and not his sister as well. As we pass the intersection which had claimed Andrew’s life, I can still clearly see blood spatter up and down the large tree. Two police officers stand at the cordoned off site, still trying to make some sort of sense at what had happened. But Andrew was no longer any of my business so I wound down the window by one centimetre and smiled as the breeze touched my face. My father had taught me that police are usually nice people and they have a tough job to do. Since Dad had been a police officer in the military, I am confident that he knows what he is talking about. Over time, they may possibly figure out who the crushed pieces of meat from the grill of the truck belong to. He will never hurt another little girl as long as he lives…. Oh. Umm… I guess we won’t have to worry about that now, will we?

  As soon as we arrive at our destination, Eddie puts the car in park, gets out of the car, slams the door behind him and walks straight up the front stairs and into his sister’s house, not bothering at all to wait for us. Still no manners, Eddie? Mum climbs out and unbuckles Jake’s car seat since I am not strong enough to push the little red childproof button to open it. By the time we are upstairs, Eddie already has a beer in his hand and is chatting with his sister on the couch. He looks up at my mum as we stand at the front door.

  “Sheila, you remember the missus?” he says to his sister while pointing at Mum. “Also my boy, Jake. Smart kid, that one. The other kid beside her, not so much. Dumb as a fucking box of rocks.” Eddie then resumes ignoring us as he goes back to drinking his beer.

  “Lovely to see you again, Sheila,” Mum says. Sheila stands up and shakes my mother’s hand. “This is my youngest daughter, Krystal, who has ten times the smarts your brother has,” she continues, not giving a damn about Eddie’s furious look when she says it. Sheila leans down and shakes my hand.

  “Lovely to meet you, Krystal,” she says with a smile. This seems to piss Eddie off all the more. Although I can feel anger fuming off him, carrying the aroma of a drunken skunk’s fart, I don’t bother sparing a single glance in his direction. “I think this is the first time you have actually all been here at my house! Let me introduce you to my son. The girls are at their friend’s places for the weekend, so he is here on his own,” Shiela says quietly. Hopefully Sheila’s son is as nice as his mother seems to be. “He is about your age, Krystal. Would you like to meet him?” she asks.

  “Yes please,” I answer. It will be nice not to have to sit in the room with the grown-ups, especially when one of t
hem is prone to more temper tantrums than a teething two year old. I take what little joy I can from the silence that surrounds me, until…

  “GAVIN, GET OUT HERE PLEASE!” Shiela screams out, unexpectedly. Jake immediately starts screaming and crying, having received the same fright that I did at such an unexpected outburst. Oh dear – I guess first appearances really can be deceiving. Before meeting Eddie’s nephew, I can already sense that some type of trouble is heading this way.

  One minute passes before a boy who looks to be around ten years of age instead of the five years that I am, comes out of the hallway. He frowns at being disturbed from whatever it is that ten year old boys do in their bedrooms during the day.

  “What now?” he growls at his mother, making it obvious that he is pissed off.

  “We have visitors,” Sheila says patiently.

  “Yeah? So?” Gavin shrugs and yawns. Is being a pig a hereditary thing in this family? I frown at Gavin for being so rude to his mother and to my family.

  “Sorry about this, Joanne. Gavin usually has great manners!” Sheila smiles sweetly, lying through her teeth. “Gavin, this is your Aunty Jo and your cousins, Jake and Krystal,” she continues. “Would you mind showing Krystal around the house and downstairs as well? The grown-ups want to talk for a while.”

  Gavin glares at me, trying to show that he is, without any doubt, the boss of the house. His efforts in scaring me fall short. I smile sweetly at him before walking over, taking his hand and leading him to the back stairs.

  “You don’t have to show me around if you don’t want to,” I whisper. “It is obviously a very big effort for you to be nice when guests come.” Gavin sneers at me before rolling his eyes and letting out a guffaw that matches his personality to a tee.