by Toni DeMaio
The crying was coming from the guest room at the top of the stairs and since the door was open, I could easily stand back in the shadows and assess the situation before I made my move. Three of the kids were tied to the iron footboard of the bed. It looked like he’d used zip ties like the ones you can get at Pocono Hardware. The kids were all struggling to break free and I was surprised the old bed could take that much of a beating. I wondered where Tori could be and I hoped she’d managed to escape and go for help.
I wasn’t surprised to see the animal in question was Mario and lucky for me, his back faced the door. At least now our Boogeyman had a face and since it’s always better to face the devil you know…I figured my only problem now would be getting close enough to him to whack him on the head with the wrench before one of the kids saw me and called out, alerting him of my presence because if that happened we were all goners.
I knew Angel could hear my thoughts and so this time I spoke to her in my head. “Sweetheart, if you can distract the kids, I can get a good shot at him.”
I was surprised when I heard her voice whisper right next to my ear, “That’s the plan.”
Mario was clearly out of his mind. “We have unfinished business, Gia” he snarled, looming over her like the angel of death, “And I’m going to take care of that right now. You had to ruin everything for us. “You screwed me all up when you brought your bitchy little cousin in on the action. There’s a few extra special things I still need to teach you and it’s too bad your little brother and cousin have to witness this last lesson, but you and Tori can only blame yourselves for that.”
Gia let out a terrible whimper that broke my heart; then said, “Close your eyes, Boys. And don’t open them until I tell you. You’re going to hell for this, Uncle Mario!” she said next in a voice that was surprisingly steady, “And you wait until Grandma gets a hold of you. If you think my uncle is dangerous, then you don’t know Grandma.”
He laughed long and hard. “You Rossi’s crack me up. You think you’re all so high and mighty and so powerful. When I’m done here there won’t be any witnesses left to point the finger at me, and then I’m taking off and none of you will ever see me again.”
“You’re worse than a bully, Uncle Mario,” Sal piped up, “You’re a bad person. You have a lot of nerve going to church with us every Sunday!”
This only made Mario laugh harder. “Shut your bratty mouth,” he bellowed, and slapped Sal hard right across the mouth. His little head snapped back and then he slumped forward against the headboard and whimpered while Anthony wiggled as close to him as he could and tried to comfort him.
“I’ll kill you myself, Uncle Mario!” Gia screamed in his face as he bent over her grabbing at her wrist, “Leave my brother alone!” she yelped as he cut her ties with a pocket knife. Ignoring her threats, he lifted her into the air then slammed her face-down on the bed.
The air was knocked out of her lungs and it took her a moment to catch her breath. Mario took this opportunity to drop his sweatpants, but before he could lunge at her, she flipped onto her back, facing him and lashing out at him, as if she’d finally found her voice after months of abuse. She reared up on her back and gave him a kick in the stomach that sent him reeling back a few steps.
I was dying inside, so ready to rush forward, but just waiting for Angel to distract everyone so I could make my move. Angel’s light flared brighter as she streaked across the room, trailing a rainbow of color behind her as she came to a landing on the other side of the bed.
All eyes were on her as her light grew brighter and brighter, lengthening and growing into the shape of her earthly body…and in an instant, my daughter, Angel materialized. The children whispered to each other in awe.
Breathtakingly beautiful, as always, she glowed now with a majesty and power we’d never experienced on this earth. She was wearing her favorite white dress with the same purple wings she’d worn to my Halloween party, but they shimmered and sparkled with a blinding force. She glared at Mario, and seemed to grow in size as she slowly moved toward him. Paralyzed with fear and shocked beyond belief he backed toward me.
“What the fu…” he muttered, as I heard his breath drain out of his body. And finally I was moving quickly toward him with the wrench held high over my head. I was focused like a laser on one thing only, the back of this bastard’s head. Praying for the strength I would need I pushed forward and in a final lunge brought Bob’s wrench down with all the strength I had left in my body as Mario crashed to the floor, limp and still; this time the blood pooled around his head.
I caught Angel’s eye as she began to fade away and we grinned at each other. “Never underestimate the Donovan women when we’re powered by love,” I said, watching her wink at me in the second just before she disappeared,
“Or the Rossi kids either,” I added, glancing down at their shocked and grateful faces. Then I sprang back into action and hunted through the
desk in the corner of the room until I’d found the scissors I knew would be there so I could cut the children’s zip ties and release them. We needed to get the hell out of there before the monster woke up…if he ever did.
“You kids were amazing!” I said, cutting each tie quickly and then nearly found myself on the floor again as all four of the kids leaped on me. I embraced them all quickly; then said, “We’d better use some of these ties on your Uncle Mario so he can’t go anywhere before we can get the police up here.” I immediately got to work to secure his limp arms and ankles to the bed frame with four of the ties he’d brought with him so there was no way he could come after us.
“I think I hear the police coming,” Anthony said, excitedly as he ran to the window and strained to look down the hill. “Yes! I can see the lights,”
“That’s them,” Tori said from the opened doorway. “I was able to push the App on my phone to call 911 after I got away from him.”
“There you are, Sweetie,” I said, greatly relieved as I finished tying down the worthless excuse for a human being responsible for all this misery and stepped away, “Where were you?”
“Angel made sure I got away from him then told me to run back to the kitchen and hit the App and then run for help.”
“It’s really an App for abused women to get help when they need it, but Tori got it anyway,” Gia added, “and we figured Dr. Phil and Robin won’t get too mad at us under the circumstances.”
“Dr. Phil?” I asked, wondering what he and his wife had to do with any of this and then I noticed Tori was shivering as if she were still outside, and I realized she’d wrapped herself up in one of my old sweaters to go out into this freezing night, poor thing, and she was most likely in shock too.
I herded all the kids quickly out into the hallway and then down the stairs so we could open the door for the police and Tori continued telling us what had happened.
“But then, Frannie and her family weren’t home,” she said, brushing away the tears that stained her cheeks, “and I didn’t know where to go next and then I could hear everybody screaming up here so I came back to call the police…but my phone was gone…”
“That’s probably because Uncle Mario didn’t follow us upstairs right away,” Gia said, “I bet when he finally got up off the floor after Angel blinded him, he went out to the kitchen first to look for you and that’s probably when he snatched your phone.” She pointed across the stairway and we all looked and saw he’d smashed it against the wall.
Tori nodded, “That’s probably what happened and he also cut the phone lines…
“So I discovered when I tried to call for help,” I added, pulling the front door open in time to greet three policemen with drawn guns, followed surprisingly by Kat, Gino, Lisa, and Brian Jr. all running up my porch steps
“Is everything alright in here, Mrs. Donovan?” the first officer asked, now pointing his gun toward the floor of the porch.
“It is now,” I said, “But come in everyone. You’ll find your perpetrator is tied to the bed frame u
pstairs in the first bedroom straight ahead of you.”
“Mom! What happened?” Kat called, nearly falling back against Gino, who caught her firmly.
Then the police charged forward and up the steps and the rest of them came inside and we were all hugging and talking at once as the police dragged Mario down the stairs and out to the ambulance they’d called, putting an end to his rein of terror over a bunch of defenseless kids and one not so defenseless old lady with the help of a beautiful Angel.
All I wanted to do was sit in my comfortable chair over by the fireplace and put my feet up. My head was still pounding to beat the band.
But just as Kat asked me why my head was bleeding, the room began to spin suddenly and the Christmas lights got dimmer and dimmer and that’s the last thing I remember about that night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ANGEL
We were sailing along at top speed on my dad’s yacht. Gram was sunning herself in a cute little beach number straight out of the 1920’s. It was made of a silky fabric that swirled with shades of aqua, lavender and sky blue. She had a matching headband tied around her forehead and she looked ready for the cover of Vogue circa 1927.
She laughed it off when I shared that with her but I could see the thought secretly pleased her. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing my great-grandmother looking younger than I feel. It’s still pretty freaky.
“Your mother is one tough cookie,” Dad remarked, adjusting the wildly billowing sail and then dropping back down on his lounger with a tall, cool drink. “I’m sure that Mario character was no match for her at all. And I’m sure glad I bought that wrench.”
I laughed. “She made us all proud, Dad.”
“I’m just glad you were all successful in taking that scum off the streets and out of the lives of those poor kids,” Uncle John added, taking a big sip of his Heineken, before
raising it for a toast, “Here’s to my big sis and my amazing niece because alive or dead, Donovan women rock!”
“Amen,” I said, taking a sip of my strawberry lemonade; just grateful I’d been able to get through to Mom and Kat and Tori because if they hadn’t been receptive, things could have gone a lot worse and at the very least been a lot harder to pull off.
After another pleasant hour with my family, I reluctantly stood and said my goodbyes, “This has been great but I have to get back down there. Mom is coming home from the hospital today and this is also the day Kat gets the results from the D.N.A. sample telling her Tori is her natural daughter.”
“Hot dog!” Gram said, “This is going to be a great day for our family.”
Uncle John scratched his goatee, “Yes…but we still don’t know how Gino is going to take the news that the woman he loves is also the biological mother of the daughter he adopted ten years ago. This could get tricky for Kat. I hope she plans to tell him soon because if she sits on this too long he’s going to think she was only sucking up to him to get to Tori. “
“Well, I think it’s all going to work out just fine in the end,” Gram said, always one to root for the happy ending. And I was with Gram on this one. I sure hoped Kat and Gino…and Tori would have the fairy tale ending they deserved. They would if I had anything to do about it.
***
I found my little sister was already at the hospital waiting for mom to be released. Brian Sr. was in the room with mom and I gave them their privacy as they looked very much in love, and instead I joined Kat and Lilly as they sat chatting in the waiting room. Little Daisy, her teddy bear clutched to her chest, was watching the cartoon they’d put on the T.V to amuse her and since no one else was in there, they could speak freely. At first everyone involved had remained silent about the details of what actually was going on between Mario and the Rossi kids to save the kids the media attention but Kat needed to vent and Lilly was always the voice of reason for her. I’ve always liked Lilly.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Lilly asked; her eyes wide with disbelief. “I knew that Mario was a squirrelly bastard but this is beyond… All anyone knew was that your mom had suffered a fall when Mario lost his mind and broke into the house to terrorized her and the kids. Thank God he’s in police custody…Wow, she’s a cool one, your mom, I’ve been visiting her every day and she never said word one about how serious this was.”
Kat nodded, “We both wanted to tell you and your mom, but the police asked us not to discuss the case until they’d completed their investigation.”
“What case?” Lilly asked assuring Kat her lips were sealed.
“As you can imagine, Gino and I were stunned when we found the diary. Those poor girls have been through so much…Especially Gia because she took the brunt of it all by herself for so many months.”
Lilly leaned forward and put her hand on Kat’s where it rested on the sofa between them. “Mario didn’t molest Tori too, did he?”
Kat shook her head. “No, thank God! But he tried and he tortured and frightened both girls with constant threats. Actually Tori was in the most danger from him because she was the one who refused to go along with him and she was the one who came up with all the ways to out-maneuver him. Before Tori got involved, poor Gia was too scared by his threats that he would hurt her little brother to try to resist him at all.”
“That piece of crap,” Lilly muttered, staring out the huge window in front of them and down at the tiny cars and little people hurrying about outside on this bright and beautiful winter day. “It sure looks like Gia is finding herself again, though. She was more relaxed than I’ve ever seen her the other night over at our place.”
“Yes,” Kat agreed, “Brian Jr. found a wonderful counselor for her and she’s going everyday, and responding to therapy…I’m relieved because I remember how Angel could never get past it when it happened to her.
“I think Angel’s past it now!” Lilly said, laughing, “Your mom told me how she sailed in on some kind of a rainbow trail like Wonder Woman and then appeared out of this bright white light, staring him down. I bet the twerp crapped in his boxers. I’d have paid money to see that one.”
Kat laughed with her. “Yeah, me too; you know, the kids all could see her, too, and she was whispering instructions in Tori’s ear the whole time. She protected Tori and kept her out of danger by telling her to hide under mom’s desk.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Lilly said, “Angel makes a great aunt and role model. She’s been visiting Tori’s dreams for quite a while now, right?”
Kat nodded. “You know, Lilly, it makes it easier knowing my sister’s soul is alive and that she’s still around even though we can’t always see her. The hardest part is not being about to pick up a phone and talk to her when I need to.”
“I think that’s why God invented prayer,” Lilly said, hugging her, and rubbing her back. “I know that’s tough,” she agreed, “But I bet she’s looking out for you, too, Kat. And I mean with Gino. I bet she worked some kind of magic from the other side to get the two of you together.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me,” Kat said, sighing, “But what is surprising is that we are actually having conversations about all of this as if it’s a normal thing to have your dead sister come back as an angel and save the day.”
“Maybe we’re all getting a little wiser while we’re getting older,” Lilly said, “All of this has been easier for your mom to accept than anyone else and I think it’s because she’s the wisest lady I know.”
Now I was the one agreeing with Lilly.
“I’ve been thinking…do we have time to shoot over and get the D.N.A. results before your mom is released?” Lilly asked suddenly.
Kat checked her watch. “It’s worth a try. Let’s go now.”
***
I popped in on Mom and Brian Sr. again just to see how things were going. Mom had just sent Brian Sr. out to ask the nurses how much longer it would be until her release and I was grateful for the alone time with her. I wanted to see if I could get Mom’s attention and maybe show myself
to her one last time. I felt I owed it to her to let her know the truth about Tori. I knew then she’d be able to help and support Kat with the difficult task of telling Gino.
Mom was just zipping up her purple overnight bag when I popped in. Obviously, she’d had enough of her hospital bed since she’d spent the better part of two weeks here recovering from a severe concussion along with a hair-line skull fracture and I wasn’t surprised to see her choose the chair by the window instead of the bed as a place to sit while waiting for her doctor to release her. I swooped across the room and settled into the chair opposite her.
“Angel,” she said, staring directly at me. “Is that really you? I can see you so clearly, you look solid.”
“Wow,” I said, grinning back at her. “Yup, it’s really me. I didn’t even try to show myself…I wonder if you can see me because of the head injury.”
“I bet that’s it,” Mom said happily. “How wonderful, Angel! Does this mean we can have regular visits from now on?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly, “I’m as surprised as you are. You know, Mom, I think your psychic abilities, and Tori’s too, are developing very impressively. They may just keep getting stronger. But I guess time will tell and I need to hurry and tell you a few things before Brian Sr. gets back. Mom, please don’t be shocked, but…” I stopped and took a deep breath.
“But you want me to know Tori ‘s my granddaughter. I’ve had a feeling she was born right after you passed over because that’s when Kat wasn’t handling things well and she and Lilly spent the summer touring California in that old van. She must have gotten pregnant with that boyfriend I never even got to meet, and I guess she gave birth there in California, probably near San Diego where Gino and Linda Rossi lived. Is that it?”
My mother never ceased to shock me. “That’s exactly right. I think you might have a new career in your future as a full blown psychic.”
Mom laughed, “We’ll see… I’ve always kind of known things I have no business knowing and I sensed I’d failed Kat at a critical point in her life, and in the last months since I’ve been getting to know Tori it’s become clear to me that she is Kat’s mini-me. And I think you should give me some credit. I don’t need psychic ability to recognize my own granddaughter, just as I’m certain Kat has recognized her, too. Am I correct?”