Leaving Sharpstone

by Marion Leavens

  He was flipping through the channels again for the second time when the phone rang. “Perfect timing,” he decided, “More than anything tonight, I want to hear the sound of a human voice.” He reached for the phone that was on the stand beside his chair, "Hello."

  "Hello, Pete. It's Helen."

  "Well, I'm glad to know that you haven't frozen up yet."

  "No, but that sure is a cold wind blowing up here."

  "Here, too. I just took the dog for a walk and the pair of us nearly froze to death."

  "Pete, I hope you’re sitting down because I’ve got something to tell you.” She hesitated for a moment before continuing. “I just got a call from Emily. She asked for your number."

  "Is she all right?"

  "She was pretty shook up when I told her about Angie but other than that I guess she's all right. We only talked for a couple of minutes and I didn't really ask her much."

  "Did you give her my number?"

  "No. I thought I’d leave it to you to contact her. I got her number and told her I'd give it to you."

  Pete couldn’t help the bitterness that crept into his voice as he commented, "She's a little late calling, wouldn't you say? Like maybe more than eight months late."

  "She said that she's written a lot of letters and she couldn’t understand why you didn't know where she was."

  "We never got any letters and we had no idea where she was. I even put an ad in the Winnipeg papers and heard nothing."

  "They've never been in Winnipeg. They've been near Edmonton all this time."

  "Then why did Eric...I don’t understand ...” he hesitated for a moment, his mind racing, trying to make sense of what he was hearing. Then he continued, “You don't suppose he did it on purpose? By God, I’ll bet he did. He must have wanted to keep her away from us. He told us they moved to Winnipeg to throw us off, so we couldn’t find her.”

  "Have you got a pen? I'll give you the number."

  "Just a minute."

  Two minutes later, still holding the phone, Pete sat with his hands shaking so badly that he wasn't sure he could dial the number. If only this could have happened a year earlier, when Angie had still been here, wanting so desperately to see her only daughter. Pete knew that nobody could fault him for not trying hard enough to locate her. He had done everything he could think of. She had simply disappeared, there one day, gone the next without a trace. He would have tried harder to find her and done more if only he had known what more to do, for he had promised his wife that he would find her. He had talked to everyone who had known either Emily or Eric, including the people Eric had worked with. He had put ads in a number of newspapers, both in the Toronto area and in the Winnipeg area. But try as he might, he had failed. He had been forced to sit by his wife's bedside and watch her slip away, unable to do anything to help her, to ease the pain that tore at her body, but worst of all, unable to bring Emily home to her as he had promised.

  Taking a couple of deep breaths to calm himself, he waited until his heart stopped racing and the shaking was under control and then he dialed the number he had written on the notepad. Gary answered the phone on the second ring. “Hello.”

  “Hello. Is Emily Thompson there?”

  In seconds he heard her voice, a voice that he had no trouble recognizing. "Hi, Dad."

  "Curly-top,” Tears began to slide down his weather-beaten face. “I thought I'd never hear from you again."

  Both father and daughter had difficulty talking due to the emotion that choked them and in moments both were sobbing. When they were finally able to speak they couldn't get the questions out fast enough or answer quickly enough. "How are you?"

  "I'm O.K."

  "I missed you so much."

  "Are the children O.K.?"

  "They're fine. Did Mom suffer much?"

  "It was pretty bad near the end."

  "I should have been there...with you. I should have been able...to say good-bye."

  "We missed you so much, Curly-top."

  "Dad, I want to...come home."

  "When?"

  “Now.”

  They attempted to cover all eight years in the next few minutes. Emily told her father of the two grandsons he had not known about and Pete told her more about the illness that had taken her mother and of the loneliness that had become a part of his every waking minute. Finally, Emily spoke about Eric and the hell she had endured at his hands.

  "Dad, we have to get...away from here...and away from Eric. I'm scared that...he'll kill me one of...these times."

  "Of course, child, come home. You know you always have a home here. You should have called me before this."

  "I couldn't. I tried to get...your new number but...it was unlisted."

  "Damn. I wish I had known you were trying to call us. If we had known that you were trying to call we would have put up with all the prank calls. But they were driving your mother around the bend and we hadn’t heard from you in months."

  "What kind of...prank calls?"

  "Heavy breathing. Filthy language. That was bad enough but then he got personal. He knew so much about us it was spooky."

  "You didn't...recognize his voice?"

  "Sure did. The godfather. Marlon Brando himself couldn't have done any better."

  Emily felt as though she had been doused with ice water. She remembered a day, shortly after their marriage, when Eric had amazed her with his imitation of Marlon Brando's 'Godfather'.

  "And he knew...a lot about you?"

  "He even knew that the dog had a pin in his hip from getting hit by a car. He knew what happened to your brother; and that your mother was claustrophobic. I don't blame Angie for being scared. I was pretty nervous, too."

  "Could it have been Eric?" her mind groped, "Did Eric know about Bandit's hip? Probably. He had been there at the time of Mark’s death, and Mom's claustrophobia? Definitely. Was he capable of something like this? For sure he was. But why? Suddenly realization dawned. “To make sure I was cut off completely from my family." she decided, "They got an unlisted number as a result, didn't they? It worked." Out loud she said, "I think it might have been...Eric who did that."

  "I never much liked that arrogant bastard but it's hard to believe that he'd do something this bad."

  "I think he'd do...anything to get...what he wants."

  "What on earth would that get him?"

  "He kept me from phoning you. Just like the letters I wrote. He said he mailed them...but you didn't get them and they...couldn't all have got...lost in the mail. He wanted to cut...the boys and I off from you. I'd say he did...a pretty good job of it."

  "Emily, I'm flying out there tomorrow. We'll rent a truck and bring your things home. Maybe Sam would like to keep me company on the drive back. I wouldn’t mind spending some time with that grandson of mine. I'll call when I know what time my plane gets in. Can somebody meet me?" She relayed the question to her friends and was assured that Gary would be more than happy to meet the plane and that they could find room for Pete, if he wanted to stay there for a few days, as long as he didn't mind over-crowding. He thanked them for the offer but said that he thought the sooner Emily and the boys got away from there the better. “As soon as we can get a truck loaded, I think we’ll be on our way.”

  The children were excited by the news that their Grandpa was coming to get them next day and when he called to tell them that there was an early morning flight and he would be there at 11:30, the whole house took on an air of celebration. The children were all but bouncing off the walls and nobody gave any thought to sleep. The whole day had become more and more of an adventure. Scott and Kyle were full of questions about this grandfather that they had almost no knowledge of and Sam told them all he could remember as the evening progressed. In time, foam mattresses, sleeping bags and pillows were arranged on the living room floor for Scott and Kyle, while the couch was made up for Sam. When the children realized that they wouldn’t have to go to school tomorrow, there was even more excitement added to the day a
nd although the children went to bed, they found it impossible to settle down. Without a doubt, sleep was the farthest thing from their minds. Jeanie chuckled as she watched them wiggling in the sleeping bags.

  "All right, you characters, you can watch T.V. as long as you stay in bed. But you have to be quiet. Your mother has got to get some sleep. Is that a deal?"

  They were only too happy to agree. Going to sleep in front of the T.V. was a rare treat and they would have agreed to almost anything to be allowed to do that.

  Emily appreciated the chance to lie down and rest, but like her sons, found that sleep just wasn’t going to come easily. Nevertheless, she was grateful for the quiet of the bedroom to put her thoughts in some kind of order. So much had happened in the last few days that she could hardly believe it all. The pain in her ribs still made any movement a nightmare, her eyes were black and swollen, which meant that they also burned (and her drops were at home in her bedside stand), her face and head ached from the work done on her nose that morning, she had just learned of her mother's death, she had figured out the extent of her husband's manipulation of her and her parents, she had finally left Eric, and she had actually spoken to her father who was going to be here sometime tomorrow. It was almost more than she could comprehend. A little time to go over all of this bit-by-bit would make it seem more real to her. Best of all, alone in the bedroom, she could lay down and close her eyes and that, combined with the Tylenol she had taken, provided some relief. Her headache hadn't disappeared but the edge had been taken off and she hoped that it would soon be completely gone. Night after night at home in her own bed, she had tossed and turned, trying to relax and get some sleep while she had listened for Eric's footsteps on the stairs. Even knowing that they were safe here, away from Eric, and that he didn’t know where they were, she couldn’t relax and was afraid to leave the boys to go to bed until Gary had locked the house up securely and assured her that Eric could not possibly get in and that in the event he did show up looking for them, Gary would deal with him and she and the boys didn't even need to see him.

  Chapter 11

  The clock on the radio by the bed showed the time to be 6:12. "Morning at last," thought Emily. "It's too early to get anyone up yet, but soon."

  She had not slept well, but despite that she felt ready to face whatever the day had to bring her way. She felt as though for the past ten years or more, she had been going through life with blinders on, certain that there was no way to escape from the hellish existence in which she had been living. And yet the impossible had happened and here she was, standing on the brink of freedom. They had been away from Eric and his control for close to 24 hours now and rather than feeling as though she couldn’t cope, as she had always feared, she felt very confident that they would be all right. A large part of the reason she felt good was because her father’s plane should be leaving Toronto about now and in just a matter of hours she would see him. She smiled to herself, "If I knew who came up with the line 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life', I'd see to it that he got a medal. Today is the day my Dad is coming." Her joy at the thought of seeing him would have been complete if it had not been tempered by grief at the loss of her mother. Despite the fact that she and her parents hadn’t been in touch with one another in many years, she had always felt in her heart that she would someday be reunited with them. Not for one moment had she considered the possibility that one of her parents could die.

  She lay there in the spare bed in her friend’s home knowing that she would soon have to get up despite the pain that she knew would accompany any attempt to move. “Why did you do it, Eric?” she asked herself, “Were you jealous of the love I had for my parents? Don’t you know that in the beginning I loved you enough to put you first? There was plenty of love for you and the boys, and for my parents, too. There was no need for you to do this. I loved you for a long time until you succeeded in beating that love out of me. Blow by blow, you beat it out of me until now there is none left.”

  She thought back to the night she had just spent. Sound sleep had claimed her for a couple of hours and then she had spent the remainder of the night alternately dozing and thinking. The thinking had been the interesting part. She had looked at her marriage and her husband carefully and objectively and was able to see many things clearly. Eric was very capable of terrorizing her parents, because he wanted to isolate her from her family so she could be totally controlled by him. Whatever had to be done to facilitate this, had to be done. If someone was inconvenienced, frightened, hurt, or whatever, so be it. The only thing of any importance was that Eric gets what he wanted. Nothing else mattered at all.

  Why did he want so badly to control her? She suspected that he needed someone to take responsibility for his shortcomings, a whipping post, who could take the blame for everything that upset him or for any of his failings. Had she been in contact with her family, there was a good chance they would have helped her to leave before things had reached this point, just as her father was doing now.

  Had he ever loved her? That was a hard one to answer. Perhaps, but if it was love, it was not a healthy one. She suspected that he wasn’t capable of feeling love but was motivated by the need for control, plain and simple control. If by some chance there had ever been love, it was in the past. She had seen the hatred in his eyes too many times to fool herself about how her husband felt about her. “I’ll probably never know what your real feelings are but at this point it really doesn’t matter for I’ve finally managed to get away from you and you can bet your boots there will be frost in hell before I’d ever go back," she thought, wishing that Eric could hear those thoughts. "Fourteen long years I've spent being pushed and thumped around by you and I guarantee you will never have the opportunity to hit me again. It’s time for me to forget about trying to please you and time for me to build a life that's good for me and for the boys. And you, you rotten s.o.b., can stay right here and rot.”

  Again her eyes shifted to the clock, 6:14. Danny usually woke up between 7:00 and 7:30. That meant she had about another hour to try and get a bit of sleep. Then she would have to figure out some way to get into the house to pack those things that she had decided to take with her when she left. "Oh, dear husband, do I ever have a surprise in store for you. This is going to prove to be quite a day,” she decided, “I’m certain of that."

  Danny was right on cue. The digital clock read 7:09 when his happy chatter began and Emily started the struggle to get out of bed. Even though she knew that getting up would cause a great deal of pain, she was determined that nothing was going to slow her down today. She gritted her teeth and slowly eased her legs over the edge of the bed. By the time she was standing, she was sweating profusely. "Well, kiddo," she said to Danny, who was sitting up in the large dresser drawer in the corner of the room, "It wasn't any worse than I thought it would be. I think I’m beginning to heal a little. But, sore or not, this is going to be a great day; Grandpa's coming."

  She thought of how her mother would have enjoyed spending time with this happy little chatterbox and felt a lump in her throat. "I can't think about Mom today," she decided, "I've got far too much to do."

  She couldn't pick Danny up, and fortunately didn't need to. Once he saw her up, he simply climbed out of his strange bed and tottered across the room to her. She smiled and rumpled his hair, "I'm sure glad you can walk young fella."

  Ten minutes later, it seemed as though the little kitchen would burst at it’s seams as all seven of those in the house were in the kitchen, dividing up the morning chores with Gary making coffee, Jeanie frying eggs, Emily making the toast, Sam pouring juice, Scott and Kyle setting the table, and Danny doing a good job of getting in everyone’s way. While they ate their breakfast they worked out a bathroom schedule and by 9:30 everyone was showered, dressed and ready for whatever the day would bring. Gary called everyone together to discuss the plans for the day and all seven gathered around the table, including Danny. Emily tried her best to explain to the children what
was happening and what lay in store for them, not just today but for the next few days. She was worried that they might be upset at the thought of leaving their home and father but she discovered quite soon that she had nothing to be worried about. Sam was greatly relieved and the others were simply excited. Of the children, only Sam could remember his grandfather at all and he didn’t remember very much. The other three boys, even though this man was a stranger to them, were excited at the thought that they had a grandfather as did so many of their friends, and also that he was coming to get them and would take them to live with him for a while. The knowledge that they were going to move without having a chance to say good-bye to their friends was upsetting, but the excitement in the house was enough to cheer them up and keep their minds on the future that awaited them with their grandfather.

  "I have to ask you to promise me one thing." Emily said, "If your father comes here I want you to go straight to the bedroom and stay there. I don’t want you to even talk to him. I know he's your Dad but there is always the possibility that he might want to take you back home and I want you here when we are ready to leave for Toronto. It is very important that you be ready to go when the time comes. Will you promise me that you stay away from him and that you’ll hide if he comes?"

  The children agreed although they weren’t happy at the thought of being in the bedroom and missing anything. “It’s really important,” she stressed, “I’m sure that your father isn’t going to want us to go and he knows that he can make us stay if he takes one of you home, for I could never go to Toronto with Grandpa and leave one of you behind. Someday," she added, "When we are settled, you might be able to see your father, if you want to, just not today."

  Scott was the first to promise, for he wanted very much to go home with this Grandpa whom he didn’t remember and hadn’t seen since he was an infant. Emily smiled, “Thank you son. I really appreciate your co-operation. Today of all days, it’s pretty important. Now, since you don’t have to go to school, you can just enjoy the day. All I ask is that you don’t make a mess.”