by Roxe Anne
• • •
It isn’t long before we see a car slowing down on the road in front of our house. It has to be old Frank. The headlights don’t look like Mama’s.
“Billie, wake up, Frank’s home. We have to be really quiet. If I tell you to run, you run as fast as you can and hide. You too, Missy. Don’t wait for me!”
Frank turns on almost every light downstairs. He even turns the back porch lights on. Sandy barks furiously at old Frank.
“If you kids are here, you better get in here and tell me where that tramp of a mother of yours is. Right now!”
The phone starts ringing. Maybe it’s Mama. I wish we could answer it. It is late so it has to be someone we know. Frank stumbles to answer it. We will never be able to get to it now. If it is Mama, she won’t know we are out in the yard scared!
“Hello, who’s on this damn phone? If it’s you, Dot, you better answer me now! Hello, hello, who is this? Answer me damn it! I know it’s you, Dot! Answer me, now!”
Frank screams at the phone like it understands him. No one must have said anything on the other end of the line. If it is Mama, I hope she knows Frank is drunk and looking for her.
We watch as Frank takes out his long shiny knife and cuts the cord to our telephone. He picks our phone up and throws it across the living room. Now we will never know if Mama tried calling us and heard Frank’s deranged voice!
“Why did Frank cut that cord off of our phone, Katie?” Billie asks.
“Shh…Billie, I don’t know, but we don’t want him to know we are out in the back yard, honey. We have to be real quiet.”
“If you kids are here and I find you, I’m going to kill you! Answer me! Where the hell are you brats?” Frank screams, as he goes into the maid’s quarters where Mama made her a closet.
He brings all of Mama’s clothes out of the room and throws them on her bed. We can see him through Mama’s bedroom window. He looks crazier than a rabid raccoon.
He just keeps screaming, “You aren’t going to ever wear a damn thing I bought you, Dot. I’m going to see to it. You’re not keeping anything I bought for you or belongs to me. I’m tired of women keeping all of my stuff!”
Frank takes Mama’s new yellow dress he gave her and starts tearing it up with his bare hands. He just keeps tearing the dress into pieces until there is nothing left.
“If I get a hold of you, Dot, I’m going to cut you into pieces just like this dress. You ought not to have left me!” He screams, as he grabs another dress and starts tearing it, too.
Frank grabs Mama’s fur coat that Uncle Riley bought for her. He takes his long knife out of his pocket and starts cutting the fur to pieces like it is paper.
“You’re not going to get by with leaving me! Where are you, you rotten bitch? Where are you, you good for nothing kids? You see this coat, you snot nosed brats, that is how I killed those kittens of yours! That is how I’m going to kill all of you and your mangy dog when I find you! That dog of yours won’t be the first mutt I’ve killed!” Frank screams louder and louder with every cut on the coat he makes. It looks like a scene out of one of those movies we saw at the theater. It has to be a dream. Things like this don’t happen to real people. This can’t be happening at our house to Mama’s things and with her missing.
Billie cries. “Katie, I’m scared! I’ve never seen anyone cut stuff up with a knife before! Is Frank really going to kill us with his shiny knife?”
Katie pulls Billie close. “You have to stop crying. Frank might hear you. Then he will find us for sure. We don’t know if he’s bluffing or has really killed someone before.”
“I’ll try, but I’m scared!”
Sandy keeps barking and growling at Frank. She tries stretching her rope as far as it will reach. She doesn’t like the fact old Frank killed Calico’s kittens. Calico was Sandy’s best friend. And Mama took Calico for a ride for nothing thinking she ate her kittens’ bodies. “Oh, Calico, I’m so sorry for thinking you could do such a thing to your babies. I didn’t know Frank killed them, and to think you tried telling us.”
Frank keeps tearing up dress after dress, blouse after blouse. Mama isn’t even going to have any clothes left to wear when she does return home, if she ever does and isn’t already dead!
Could Mama have run off frightened of old Frank? Maybe old Frank killed her and doesn’t remember. He does seem to be crazy in the head. Oh, Mama, you have to come home soon. Please, God, keep our Mama safe and Katie, Billie, and Sandy, too.
Frank takes all Mama’s shoes out of her closet. He keeps throwing them across the bedroom. Then he goes to pick one up and pulls off the heel of that very shoe. When he finishes with the heel, he takes his knife out and cuts the shoe apart. He just keeps cutting up those shoes and removing the heels until there are no shoes left to destroy. How he doesn’t get tired from cutting up everything is beyond me. No one in their right mind takes the time to slash every shoe a person owns, especially Mama’s. She owns over 30 pairs!
“If you kids are here, when I’m through with Dot’s stuff, I’m going to kill you next; especially you, Missy; you know-it-all little brat. You’re always causing trouble between your Mama and me. I think I will kill you first. Katie, you will be the last to die, so you can watch your sister and brother suffer. It will be a pleasure to kill you. I should have let Sam have his way with you. Maybe, I’ll have enough fun with you for the both of us before I kill you. You little tramp! You’re just like your Mama, kissing on men. She just couldn’t stay away from Roger. It’s her fault he’s dead! It was easier than I anticipated forcing his car off the road and into the river.” Frank screams at the top of his lungs. “And your poor daddy; all this time you thought he had an accident. Even Riley couldn’t put two and two together. I wanted your Mama and she wasn’t going to leave your daddy. I forced his car head on into that telephone pole. I always get what I want! And now if she’s with Riley—”
Katie pulls Billie and me closer to her. She puts her arms around us. I think to comfort herself as much as Billie and me. “I’m not going to let that crazed man touch either of you, do you hear me? Just sit here quietly and don’t say a word. Maybe he’ll pass out drunk or from sheer exhaustion.”
“Katie, do you think Frank killed Roger and Daddy?”
“Oh…I’m pretty sure he did it all right! He’s not smart enough to make all this up. There’s nothing we can do, but wait. Maybe you both better say a little prayer for all of us. That’s the only thing that might save us now!”
“Too bad Mama didn’t kill old Frank with her rolling pin. He would be buried in our backyard by now instead of him killing all of us!” I whisper.
Frank takes the picture of the nude lady off Mama’s bedroom wall he bought her and runs his fingers across the shiny blade. He begins slashing the ladies eyes out, then he takes his knife and jabs it into the ladies neck in the picture, pulling the knife all the way down to the frame.
“Sure wish this was you, Dot. I’d have gotten rid of my pain in my neck for good!” he screams. His screams stop as quickly as they began. He starts laughing hysterically. It is as if we are at the outdoor theater watching some horror movie. This isn’t real. This can’t be happening at our house, in our back yard!
Frank grabs Mama’s chenille bedspread next. He tears it into a thousand pieces all by hand. I never knew a bedspread could tear so easily. It takes Grandma Irene forever to tear material into strips for her quilts and rugs. Old Frank makes it look easy.
After Frank tears up Mama’s bedspread, he stomps over to her jewelry box. He takes her jewelry out of that box and stuffs it into his pants pockets. Mama isn’t even going to have any jewelry left either.
He takes the teddy bear with the beautiful crimson red ribbon around its neck and cuts the bear’s head off with his long knife. Then he takes his knife and stabs it where a real heart would be. “When I find you, Dot, I’m going to do the same thing to you I did to this bear!”
We see Frank leave Mama’s bedroom. Maybe he
is going to leave. Maybe we will be safe after all.
Frank doesn’t leave. He walks out to the porch and looks the yard over. We are lucky he doesn’t spot us. When he finishes his search, he walks back into the living room straight to the red velvet overstuffed chair he used to kiss Mama in. He just sits in the chair for a few minutes doing nothing but thinking and rubbing the velvet with his fingers. He then wipes his face with a handkerchief and stands back up.
“Dot, how dare you look at another man? Where are you, you tramp? You’re never going to sit in this chair with another man again. I’ll make sure of it!” He screams at the chair as if Mama is in it.
He takes his knife back out. He stabs the red chair over and over again. After it is full of holes, he takes his long knife and slices it, pulling out stuffing every time the knife connects with the fabric. When he finishes stabbing and cutting the chair, he picks it up and throws it across the room like it is nothing; breaking the legs off. That chair had been our daddy’s. Now we have lost one more memory of him.
When he is done with the chair, he starts on our couch. He didn’t even help purchase the couch or anything. For that matter, he didn’t even buy most of Mama’s jewelry. The last straw is when he goes out onto the porch and starts cutting up the braided rug Mama’s grandma made so lovingly for us using our old clothes. It took her forever to make that rug, not to say we can’t replace all of those old clothes which had special memories. What did Mama’s grandma ever do to Frank to deserve this?
We can tell Frank went into our new study. All the lights are on in that room. It is on the other side of our house so we can’t see through any windows. I sure hope he isn’t cutting up all my new books. Frank begins screaming and cussing in our study. We can’t make out what he is saying, but he sure sounds mad. Maybe it is better we can’t hear him!
Frank comes out of the room with a few of his bags packed. Maybe he is going to move out after all. If I’m lucky, maybe he didn’t destroy my books!
Frank comes back out onto the porch. We are so close to him I think for sure he hears our hearts pounding.
“If you kids are out in this yard, you can watch me kill your mangy dog before I kill you!” Frank screams, and then his screams turn into laughter.
Frank takes Mama’s crazy quilt her grandma made for her; burying his face in it. Then a sound comes out of his mouth that I have never heard before from any human being. It is the scariest sound I have ever heard, including in the movies. It sounds like he’s growling while he’s screaming. Frank takes that quilt and starts ripping it apart until there is nothing left. Then he just sits down in Mama’s white wicker rocker, looking out the porch window, rocking back and forth, not saying a word.
“What do you think old Frank’s doing, Katie?” I ask, afraid he spotted us.
“I don’t know, but don’t you two say another word or move!”
I can feel Katie trembling and her hands are cold as ice.
“Do you think he’s going to pass out right there on our front porch in Mama’s rocker?”
“Sshh…Missy, don’t talk, be real quiet!”
Sandy isn’t happy with old Frank sitting on her porch. She just keeps growling at Frank; showing him her pretty teeth.
“If you kids are out there, you better tell that damn dog of yours to shut up before I shut her up for good! It will give me pleasure to get rid of her for good. I can almost feel her warm blood on my hands right now!” Frank screams out the porch window. It’s as if he’s looking straight at us.
Billie begins crying. “I don’t want Frank to kill Sandy. You have to stop him!”
Katie pulls Billie close trying to comfort him. She whispers softly. “Shh…Billie. You have to keep real still or Frank will find us and we will be his next targets. There is nothing I can do right now but try and keep you two safe!”
We hear Frank throwing stuff in the kitchen and slamming the refrigerator door. Frank raises his voice an octave higher. He wants us to know he believes we are still on the property.
“Damn, I’m sure thirsty. Sure could use a good cold beer. Tearing up all this damn stuff sure does make a man work up a thirst. You kids know where your Mama put my beer? It seems as if someone else has drank it all. Your Mama had some other man over here drinking my beer?”
“I’ll be back, and when I do, I’ll finish what I started. Your Mama’s not going to have a damn thing left she ever cared about. I’m not finished with you yet. Don’t get too comfortable if you’re out there in that yard!”
We see Frank’s headlights dim as he drives down the street to the nearest bar. We cross our fingers hoping old Frank doesn’t find Mama in the bar.
“Can we go in the house now? I have to go pee!” Billie says.
Katie tries to keep her head turned so we can’t see the tears flowing down her cheeks.
“No, Billie, Frank said he’s coming back. I think he means every word he is yelling. You can go over to the edge of the bushes and go pee. No one’s going to see you. It’s dark!”
“What is Mama going to do with all her stuff torn up?”
“I don’t know, Missy. Let’s just hope Mama is safe and is able to come home again. I’m worried Frank might have found her already. He doesn’t seem to be stable. He is crazy and very capable of killing us all!”
“Billie, why don’t you try to rest your eyes for a while? We’ll wake you up if Frank or Mama return.”
Yawning, Billie lays his head on Katie’s lap. She rubs his forehead until he falls asleep.
Morning can’t come quick enough for me!
Chapter Twenty-Two
Billie falls asleep in Katie’s arms. At least he will have a few minutes of peace before old Frank returns. If we are lucky, a policeman might stop him for drunk driving. But there usually aren’t too many police around our town. Maybe he will get into a fight at the bar. Then they might call the police to come and lock him up for the night.
“Katie, do you think old Frank is really coming back?”
“I’m sure of it! He said he wasn’t finished with us yet, and look what he’s already done. I bet he’ll only be gone long enough to purchase a six pack of beer at the bar. He doesn’t look like he’s in any mood for conversation!”
“I guess you’re right. He doesn’t look like he wants to talk to anyone tonight. What’s Mama going to wear without any clothes now?”
“That’s the least of her worries right now, Missy!”
I stand up. “I’m going to let Sandy loose so she has a fighting chance against old Frank. It’s not fair that she’s tied up so he can easily grab her!”
“Missy, stop! Come back! If Frank sees her loose, he’ll know we are here!” Katie yells.
“Is Frank home, Katie?” Billie asks.
“No, Billie. He isn’t home yet.”
“Missy, get back here now!”
• • •
I run and give Sandy a great big hug. “I’m not going to let old Frank kill you so easily, girl. You’re at least going to have a fighting chance, not like Calico’s kittens. Poor Calico, she tried telling us, didn’t she, girl. You knew all along old Frank was dangerous. That’s why you never liked him. We should have listened to you. Oh, Sandy, I love you!”
“Missy, don’t let Sandy loose! Listen to me, please?”
Sandy stretches the rope so far the snap sticks. I finally get Sandy’s rope loose.”There you go, girl. Now go to where Katie and Billie are!”
Sandy runs straight for the house. She goes inside the open porch door.
“Sandy, come back! Don’t go into the house. Frank will find you. Come on, girl. Here, Sandy. I have a biscuit for you,” I yell. Sandy isn’t falling for my lying about the biscuit. I have used that trick once too often.
Sandy doesn’t listen to a word I say. Growling, she keeps her eyes focused on the porch.
I run to Sandy, hoping old Frank doesn’t return before I catch her. “Sandy…come here, girl. Let’s go outside. Come, Sandy!”
Sa
ndy runs farther into the house. She only has one thing on her mind, and it is finding old Frank.
“Missy, Frank’s coming back. I see his headlights. Run! Get out of the house! Don’t worry about Sandy!” Katie yells frantically.
It’s too late. I can’t go back outside without Frank seeing me and knowing Katie and Billie’s hiding place. Sandy is already in the house. Frank suspects we are somewhere on this property. I hope Mama returns before Frank finds us. Maybe he will think Sandy pulled her rope so tight the snap broke.
I hear Frank’s car door slam. It won’t be long before he is in the house with us.
Sandy begins growling at the kitchen door. I whisper, “Sandy, come here, girl. Come to me!” She just ignores me.
Sandy won’t listen to me. I will just have to hope old Frank doesn’t suspect someone is in the house with her.
Where am I going to hide? Frank has turned all the lights on in the house except the upstairs. I hate going up those stairs in the dark. A vampire might get me, and there are bats out by the tops of the trees already. It’s either the bats or old Frank. At least with the bats, I get to come back to life for a while, well sort of.
I quietly climb the dark stairs that lead up to our bedrooms. The dark usually frightens me, but Frank scares me more than these dark stairs do. If the light is on, he will surely find me.
Knowing a couple of the stairs at the top squeak no matter how hard you try to be quiet, I climb them carefully. I used to try and come down those stairs in the morning to go pee without waking Mama, but they always gave me away. Especially since her bedroom is just below the stairway. I hope Sandy’s barking covers up the noise from these squeaky stairs this time.
I’m not going to cry. This dark staircase is a blessing. Maybe old Frank won’t be able to find me up here. But, he can turn the light switch on downstairs. He will find me for sure then. I won’t even have a chance to escape. There is no place to hide. And it is too far down to jump out my bedroom window.
The light bulb is at the top of the stairs. Maybe I can reach it and take the bulb out. I saw someone do it in the movies once. I try reaching for the light bulb. It is too high up. Every second seems like a minute, and every minute seems like a lifetime. Knowing I don’t have much time left, I try reaching for the bulb again; on my tip toes this time using my fingertips. It is taking too long to unscrew this light bulb. I finally manage to get the bulb out. Not having a good grip on the bulb it drops; shattering into a million pieces. I’m sure old Frank has to have heard the bulb break. If I’m lucky, he is busy with Sandy, and her barking is louder than that bulb breaking.