“Do you like animals?” he asks suddenly. I look at him to see where this unexpected question is leading, but for the first time since I arrived at the house, I find myself truly smiling.
“I love all of them. Why? Do you have a dog or a cat or some other type of pet?” I ask, excitement written all over my face.
“No, but we have some really cool animals in our garden. Let me show you.” He says with a wicked grin. I make my way down the back stairs slowly, while Gavin jumps down the stairs, two steps at a time. When we have both reached the bottom of the stairs, he turns around and says, “Wait here for a second,” before disappearing under the house for a minute or two. When he comes back, he has a large smile on his face - one which I find very unsettling. Trying to read his intentions, I am shocked to find that his signals are scrambled, just as Eddie’s seem to be. Something isn’t right about Gavin. I look down to see that he has returned with a set of long-handled pruning snips. “Doesn’t hurt to trim the bushes while we are over there, right?” he says, giggling. He then drops the pruning snips to the ground, which seems to make no sense if he wants to trim the bushes.
We walk slowly over to the garden which borders the back fence. Roses and flowery shrubs in every colour imaginable provide shade and nutrients to the surrounding wildlife. A ladybug walks across one of the leaves in the garden and basks in the small ray of sunlight which peeks through the neighbour’s tree-tops. The butterflies and bees flying around the flowers show how fragile, yet hard working, Mother Nature’s creations can be.
“GOTCHA!” Gavin screams, making me jump. When I look up, I notice that he is holding a bearded dragon in his hands. While not a baby, it is also not yet fully grown. I smile, having never seen one up close before. The design of its body and scales are absolutely magnificent. When the bearded dragon looks up, its mouth opens, as if to smile.
“Whoa! You are beautiful!” I say to the bearded dragon, leaning over towards it for a better look. I then say to Gavin, “Did you know that they are great at keeping all the bad insects out of your garden?” As I reach over to pat it, my smile turns to a look of horror when I see Gavin reach down and grab the set of pruning snips from the ground at the bottom of the stairs. With his hands clasped firmly around the lizard’s body and legs so it cannot escape, he puts its neck in between the blades. He holds one handle at his stomach and the other with his right hand.
“Watch this!” he yells, laughing like a maniac.
I stand back and scream, “You murderer!” Pointing at Gavin, I use all my strength to will the baby bearded dragon away from the razor sharp blades before Gavin can commit such a monstrous act. Just before Gavin presses down hard on the handle of the pruning snips, the lizard finds itself in my hands and out of danger. In place of the bearded dragon’s neck is now Gavin’s left wrist. Before he even realises the lizard is gone, he uses every bit of force he can to slam the blades closed, fully expecting to see the headless body of an innocent lizard in his wake. What he finds instead is the stump of his left wrist. Blood sprays from Gavin’s wrist like an erupting volcano and we both scream, bringing all of the adults stampeding to the door at the top of the back steps to see what all the noise is about.
One look at the geyser of the blood shooting into the air forces Eddie to puke up the entire contents of his stomach – beer and all – onto his feet, as his sister runs down the stairs to her son.
“What did you do, Krystal?!” Sheila screams at me, accusingly. She pulls Gavin’s shirt over his head and quickly wraps his left hand, trying to contain the bleeding. “Call a fucking ambulance, dammit!” she screams at my mother. Jake is now also screaming, startled by the ruckus and carnage going on around him, but my mother cradles him gently and protectively as she rings an ambulance for Gavin.
Once Eddie stops vomiting, he looks at me and screams out to his sister, “I told you the little cunt was nothing but trouble, didn’t I?”
“Shut up, Eddie! I didn’t do anything and you know it!” I yell at him, knowing that my hands had not been the ones that pulled closed the blades that would have otherwise ended an innocent animal’s life. With my shirt and face covered in Gavin’s blood, I wait for the smallest of distraction away from me before walking to the front garden. I lean over and release the frightened, yet thankful bearded dragon into an area which is dense with shrubbery before going to sit in the shade under Shiela’s house.
Eddie makes his way down the stairs, takes one quick close-up look at his nephew’s severed hand on the ground before walking over to me, lifting me to my feet and backhanding me across the face as hard as he can. The moment the back of his fist connects with the side of my face, I see stars as a sharp pain rockets through my skull. My own blood starts running down through the dry crusted blood which had come from Gavin’s stump. In silence, I sit alone under the house, hoping the pain in my head from Eddie’s assault will soon stop.
The ambulance arrives, shortly followed by the police. After the ambulance officer checks me over, I am treated for a gash on my left cheek, a swollen eye and a split lip. Gavin is quickly loaded into the ambulance, which transports him, his hand and Sheila to the Emergency Room. After the ambulance pulls out from the driveway, a police officer then interviews me in the living room upstairs while Eddie and Mum are in the room. Jake is finally asleep in Gavin’s room after Mum fills his belly with milk and changes his diaper.
“Don’t believe anything the little bitch says,” growls Eddie. “Pretty fucking weird that they send some nigger out to the house dressed like a pig, hey?” It is the first time I have ever heard that word come out of Eddie’s filthy mouth. Suddenly it dawns on me why my stepfather hates me so much. Eddie hates Blackfellas! The officer stares daggers at Eddie and notes that he has blood on his hand.
“Would you prefer to talk to me alone, Krystal?” the police officer asks. After a brief glance at my mum, I decide that perhaps it would actually be better if all were present for what I am about to say.
“No, Sarge. I am not scared of him. He likes to hit women and little girls but I am not afraid of him,” I reply, my head held high. I continue, “Only cowards like to do such things.” Eddie’s eyes become mere slits as rage sears from his pores, but he uses up every bit of strength to bite his tongue, saying nothing as the officer looks over at him.
Reaching into his pocket, the police officer pulls out a notepad and pencil. He also unclips his police badge from his belt and hands it to me. It is the very first time I have ever held a real police badge. I touch it, feeling the coldness and the ridges. It feels real.
“Krystal, my name is Sergeant Joel Whiting and this is my police shield,” he says. “The reason I carry a shield is because it is my job to protect people who are in danger of being hurt. I shield them from danger so they will be safe. Do you understand?” he asks. I nod my head as I continue to feel how strong the shield is. “Krystal, can you tell me what happened here today?”
I focus my mind carefully, ensuring that I block out all distractions around me, including Eddie’s glaring eyes. The first thing I am able to remember is the uncharacteristic matutinal silence coming from my stepfather when I’d stared at the ceiling in my bedroom, but as it has no relevance to the shocking outcome of today, I decide to move along to where today’s drama had truly begun.
“Today I met Eddie’s sister, Sheila, and her son, Gavin.”
“That is AUNTY Sheila to you, Krystal!” Eddie yells. Sergeant Whiting warns Eddie not to interrupt my statement again or risk being placed in the police car, handcuffed, until the interview has finished. Rolling his eyes, Eddie folds his arms like a sulking two year old. Far from being a milquetoast, I half-smile at his berating as I hold my head up high, showing him I have more of a spine than he ever will.
“Eddie is married to my mother but he is not my father, nor is his sister my aunt. I live with my daddy and I am only on holidays,” I say before continuing. Nodding, the policeman starts making notes. “Eddie was drinking his morning beer. Ga
vin took me down to the garden to show me some animals. First he went under the house to get those pruning snippers and then came back. He found a baby lizard, grabbed it and showed it to me. Then he put the garden shears around its neck. The lizard was terrified and was able to get away and Gavin cut off his hand instead. I don’t think he did that on purpose. There was lots of blood spurting out everywhere and we both started screaming,” I tell the policeman.
Silence fills the room. Even Eddie looks shocked by what I had just said. “Fuck!” Eddie finally says with a shocked look on his face. After facing a second warning look from the police officer, Eddie closes his mouth and I continue my statement to Sergeant Whiting…
“Sheila ran down the stairs after Eddie called me a cunt. She pulled Gavin’s shirt over his head to try and make the bleeding stop spraying everywhere. Eddie puked his beer onto the floor. Mummy rang the ambulance and Jakey was crying a lot, while Eddie and Sheila told me how terrible I am. I sat under the house to wait for the ambulance and Eddie pulled me up and hit me across the face with the back of his fist. It still hurts a lot.” I touch my face and show the officer where Eddie’s hand had connected, splitting my face in two places. Both my mother and Sergeant Whiting turn to look at Eddie, who is now glowing red with embarrassment.
“She is a fucking liar. Seriously, I never touched her!” he yells. The police officer had a closer look at my mouth and, again, looks at Eddie’s bloodied hand, noting that his hand is the only part of his body with blood on it.
“So if we test the blood on your hand with Krystal’s blood, it won’t be a match?” The policeman stares Eddie down, waiting for a response. When none comes, he gets straight to business. “Please stand up and put your hands behind your back. Eddie Finn, I am placing you under arrest for the assault of a minor,” Sergeant Whiting says, removing his handcuffs from his belt. “You have the right to remain sil…”
“SHE’S FUCKING LYING, DAMMIT!” Eddie screams with rage, making my mother cringe. Jake starts crying from the bedroom and my mother quietly excuses herself so that she can quickly see to the baby. While Eddie is read his rights, I sit on the couch and watch as the Sergeant Whiting cuffs Eddie and leads him down to the police car. One night in jail will cool you off, you asshole. When Mum returns with a tearful Jake, we pack up Jake’s things, lock the back and front door of Sheila’s house and go down to the car. Stricken with grief at the injuries on my face, she carefully checks that Jake’s and my seatbelt are both clicked into place before driving us home.
It blows my mind when I realise it is only lunch time. A full morning of insanity has tricked me into thinking it was almost time for bed. Regardless of the earliness in the day, however, I am exhausted and don’t really feel much like cleaning or playing. “I am tired,” I say to Mum, not really feeling hungry at all. She insists I eat at least one Vegemite sandwich before I lay down for an afternoon nap. After I eat, I stand up and push my chair in at the table.
As I walk down the hall to the bedroom, my mother says, “Krystal? I just wanted you to know… I believe you.” I stare at her with one eye swollen shut, the other eye half closed, unsure of what she is talking about. My cousin Andrew hurting me? Or maybe she means the incident at Sheila’s house with Gavin… or that Eddie had hit me? Then again, my bruised and swollen face is living proof that the knuckles on the back of his hand had come into full contact with my five year old head.
“Believe me with what?” I ask impatiently, wanting to hear her say it out loud.
“I believe that Eddie hit you. He almost hit me a few days ago,” she reminded me, although I certainly didn’t need to be reminded of that. “I believe that your cousin, Gavin, tried to kill that liz….”
“He is NOT my cousin! He is Eddie’s nephew. We are not related!” I snap angrily.
After a moment of silence, she takes a deep breath before she continues. “I believe that Gavin tried to kill that lizard and I am sorry you had to see all of that blood. I am also sorry that Andrew hurt you. I would give anything to have been able to protect you from what he did last night. If he was here right now, I’d kill the bastard myself.”
As shocked as I am at hearing my mother cuss, her words make my heart swell with relief. Tears fill my eyes, knowing that my mother believes me. The hateful words that too often spew from Eddie’s mouth are Eddie’s views only. I suddenly feel sorry for my mum. If this is how Eddie and his family behave when strangers are in their house for the very first time, I can only imagine the horrors that my mother endures when she is alone with him.
Walking back to the kitchen, I wrap my arms around her waist and start sobbing into her apron. She picks me up and hugs me back. I feel her tears dampen my shoulder.
“Thank you,” I whisper to her. As soon as my feet are back on the floor, I make my way down the hallway to my bedroom for a much-needed nap.
Chapter Fifteen
On waking up, I peek out of the window and notice that the sun is slowly vanishing over the horizon. Mum and Jake are still fast asleep. I feel quite certain that silence in the house is something neither one of them are used to. With my face still quite sore, I tiptoe into my mother’s room, climb up onto her bed and lie quietly, staring at the ceiling as I listen to her snore. It is a sound which I have not heard in a long while. Oddly enough, it soothes me and I find myself start drifting off to sleep again.
The phone breaks the silence. The sound travels down the hallway to the bedroom like a tsunami and I just about crap my pants from the fright caused by the sudden disturbance. As quickly as I can, I jump off the bed and run to the kitchen to answer it before it wakes anybody else in the house but by the time I pick up the handset, Jake is already awake and crying.
“Hunter residence,” I whisper into the handset. Nobody responds. I wait for a few moments, wondering if the caller had actually hung up.
“Hello? Is anybody there?” I ask a little bit louder.
“It is not the fucking Hunter residence, you turd. Put your mother on the damn ph…” As soon as I hear Eddie’s obscenities, I hang up the phone. I had seen enough television shows in my lifetime to know that he only has one phone call. When I look up, I see Mum standing on the other side of the kitchen table. She looks completely enervated and asks who had been on the phone. Jake continues to cry and fuss as Mum jiggles him gently on her hip.
“I think it was the wrong number. They were talking dirty on the phone so I hung up.” I say to her as we walk to the nursery to change Jake’s wet diaper. As soon as she removes the pair of pilchers from over the top of his diaper, I almost fall over backwards from the stink. The only positive that comes from the sick stench of pee is that it seems to turbo-charge my mother’s ability to wake up properly. Its potency is almost that of smelling salts which can wake the dead.
After the smell slowly vacates my tainted nostrils, I start feeling hungry. Heading out to the kitchen, Mum puts Jake into his high-chair and I offer to feed Jake his baby food while Mum relaxes. Sensing my mother’s lack of energy, I make a suggestion. “Mummy, can we please have pizza tonight? It will be just you and me eating and it will mean you don’t have to stand at the hot stove and cook.” When I look up at her, my mother is staring at my face. At first, I sense worry as she stares at my cuts and bruises, but that worry quickly turns to gratitude as she agrees to the idea. Picking up the phone, Mum dials the local pizza store. Since the owner is a friend, he agrees to have the pizza delivered to our home at no extra charge.
While waiting for the pizza, Jake hungrily finishes his baby food consisting of strained peaches. No wonder your poo smells so gross, Jakey! I try to use his bib to wipe the food off his face and chin – food which slipped out of his mouth as he chewed – but my efforts resulted in twice as much food on his face and even some food on the floor. Mum lets out a hearty laugh at the foody dilemma before her and quickly comes to the rescue, removing Jake’s bib, wiping his face clean with a cloth and giving him a bottle of water to drink while he sits in his playpen. She retur
ns to clean up all traces of baby food which had fallen to the floor under his high chair.
A knock at the door makes us all jump. Cautiously, Mum opens the door in protective mode, only to find a hot ham and pineapple pizza, some garlic bread and a bottle of Passito waiting for us on the other side. After she pays the delivery driver, tipping him an extra five dollars for his efforts, we go to the table and start to nibble. With my eye still swollen shut and my lip trying to heal its large split closed, my whole face aches as I try to bite into the pizza. I hadn’t realised how much my jaw hurt until I try to take a bite, so instead, I break off a couple of little pieces of pineapple and ham, putting them aside to cool for Jake, but Mum asks me to eat them instead.
“Jake might choke on something so little, sweetie,” she says, smiling.
For some reason, it brings back memories of when the seagulls crapped on my dad’s head. I remember how correct her advice had been that day too, so I quickly put the pineapple and ham back onto my slices of pizza. Using a knife and fork, I roughly cut the pizza slices into tiny, manageable pieces so that I can eat them slowly. It is not too long before I decide to cut my losses. Whether my stomach is full or not, I have eaten enough tonight. Tomorrow will be better. With my face hot with pain, I opt for a quick and easy solution.
“Is it okay if I sit on the stairs and get some fresh air for a while, Mummy?” I ask. The kiss of the cool breeze from Mother Nature always relaxes me. My hopes are that tonight it will also bring about a soothing relief within my soul. Besides, sitting outside also allows me to fart without stinking out the entire house. For some reason, pizza has that effect on me.
“Of course, but keep the outside door open okay?” Mum replies.
I excuse myself from the table and go to sit on the three stairs at the front door. With a chill in the air, the sky is completely clear and I smile as I look up, watching the stars twinkling down on the world. Although the moon is only half full, the street lighting keeps everything well lit. Thankfully there are a few tree branches between the street light and myself, preventing me from being blinded by the glare.
Once Upon A Karma (Karmic Krystal Book 1) Page 17