The Birth of Bane (23 page)

I merely shook
my head, although the thought of freshening up properly sounded
wonderful. I told my sister I would get things situated at home and
then drive back in our mother’s car. The hospital wasn’t all that
far away, so it wouldn’t take too long. Since I was eighteen, I was
old enough to take her home as well. We didn’t need help from
anyone else once we got my mom’s vehicle.

We figured when
I returned we’d hammer out the schedule long term. We both knew
Eli’s stay at Glendale Adventist would be a long one.

Myra and I said
our good-byes and made our way to Eli’s room.

I will never
forget what she told me just before I closed the door.

“
Be brave,”
she’d said, then turned to Jose and began to cry into his
neck.

I watched her
for a second or two, then left before tears threatened to overwhelm
me.

We found my aunt
Bernice, my uncle Frank and my grandmother Candice – my mother’s
mother – in the room, sitting about my little brother talking
quietly. They all looked up the moment the door creaked open. I
could read the uneasiness in the looks they gave me.

It didn’t matter
if the cause was good or not, if the action was righteous or rooted
in evil, looking upon the face of someone who nearly killed another
human being was always a disconcerting act.

I could tell
they weren’t offended or disappointed in me in any way. It was
merely the cast of their expressions. They were anxious, possibly a
bit curious as well. The same question was in the corner of each of
their eyes.
What did it feel
like to be that furious? Did being as enraged as you were change
you forever? Are you still the same little boy we have grown to
love so much over the years?

I acknowledged
each of them, but I wasn’t there to see them, or even talk. I was
there to see my little brother.

Though Valerie
had told me told steel my heart, to gird my loins when my eyes fell
onto Elijah, I couldn’t find any degree of intestinal fortitude. I
rushed to the foot of his bed, made all the more huge by the fact
he was so small laying I the middle of it. He was in bad shape. He
looked like he was the brink of death. If I hadn’t already been
told otherwise, I would’ve truly feared for his life.

He was wearing
nothing garment-like upon his person at all. He was so covered in
bandages and pads and what not, the doctors and nurses had decided
the best way to attend him was to have direct access to his body
without an encumbering gown.

Surprisingly,
most of his face was in plain sight. He was intubated; tape covered
his jaw and the lower portions of his cheeks, but I could see his
nose around a feeding tube, the delicate set of his brow and his
narrow forehead below his formless, bowl-shaped haircut. They had
him in a combination neck brace/chest immobilizer that covered the
upper regions of his torso. I imagined they had him in this to
protect his broken ribs, keep in him still so he could heal
properly. Underneath, he was wrapped in a myriad of ace bandages,
though his left side bulged slightly more than his right. I
realized that was where they’d operated, right below his pectoral
muscle, in order to remove his spleen.

Remembering that
small detail set me off and I was crying before I knew what I was
doing.

My aunt came to
her feet at once and came to me, giving me a hug. Next to my mom,
my Aunt Bernice’s embraces were magical to me. She had a way of
scaring away the demons in my head. And boy did I ever have vile
thoughts roamed between my ears.

“
It’ll be ok,”
she kept telling me in my ear.

Form her chair,
my grandmother echoed something similar, but I wasn’t really
listening.

I was grateful
for their kind words, but my mind was too full with Elijah. My
brain wouldn’t allow more intrusion. Without understanding, mostly
due to the fact I was so young, I was narrowing my focus. For the
first time in my life, something harrowing had hurt my family,
those individuals I loved most. I was going to stop at nothing to
make certain they were safe. Nevermore would something - or someone
- harm my loved ones without me raising a hand to do something
about it.

“
You have
already done this, Jeremiah. Rest now, heal…”

I never knew
where that voice came from. I couldn’t even tell you if it was male
or female. All I know, is it spoke to me and, though I had no
solace regarding my encounter with Lenny, I was calmed. Not merely
in the mind and body, but somewhere else as well. It was a hidden
well, deep in the corner of me I never knew was there. Whoever or
whatever it was, it reached me there as well, and I was better for
it.

My tears became
those of sorrow, of mourning. I was closing a chapter in my life,
putting it under lock and key and would never open it again.
Included within were all the ties and bonds and attachments I had
for my father. Though I had told myself already he meant nothing to
me, this was the act that made it so.

Strangely, I
felt nothing. I stared down at Elijah, my aunt still holding me,
and attained… balance.

Bernice was
right. It was going to be, ok.

Only, it wasn’t
in the manner I had envisioned.

*****

It was my other
aunt, Tilly, who volunteered to take Myra and I back to the house
later that afternoon. We ended up staying until after lunch, my
extended family members had been unwilling to let me leave the
hospital without having some kind of food in my stomach. The fact
it was from a cafeteria and not homemade, hadn’t been lost on them,
but they’d insisted all the same.

So, one
semi-warm hamburger and a serving of mushy fries later, I arrived
at my house. There was a police car parked out front, which I was
told was going to be present over the course of the next few days
in case anyone from my father’s side of the family had visions of
revenge. Personally, I thought it was ridiculous, because a
majority of them had already visited us in the hospital.

Law enforcement
had no real way of understanding just how much Lenny had been a
pain in the ass to so many of us over the years. They still figured
blood was thicker than water, and who could blame them after what
they saw on any given day, so I stayed quiet. Let them guard our
flanks for the time being. It was no skin off my back.

I wasn’t worried
about the immediate anyhow. My mind was focused on the day Lenny’s
doctors felt he was strong enough to be released. If I was
apprehensive about anything, it was over him. Already, I was
wondering what
he
considered was his hearth and home.
Just because the police or his lawyer said he couldn’t return to
the house on Lincoln Drive, didn’t mean he’d pay attention. Lenny
was built that way. He had the most distorted sense of reality of
any person I had met up to that point in my life. There was
absolutely no telling what he’d do once he had healed, once his
bandages came off. I large part of me figured he make a bee-line
right for us. He always had in the past. Why would he change now?
Because I beat his ass? Fuck that shit! Lenny would just think long
and hard over the best way to get me back. I told you before, he
was childishly vindictive.

I sighed,
figuring for the time being, we still had some weeks before the
answer to that question would reveal itself. If I had really bashed
up his face as much as Myra and my sister had indicated, then we
might have as much as a month’s time before any of us would have to
truly worry about him.

Was it wrong I
silently prayed for precisely that?

We strode up the
walk, hand-in-hand, not unlike we had less than fifteen hours
before.

“
I gotta call my
mom and tell her that latest,” said Myra as we came around the
second slight bend of the concrete path.

I grunted as the
deck came into view. There was yellow, crime-scene tape cordoning
off the area where we kids had brutally fought to save our mother
from our father. I looked down at my feet, trying to reconcile with
the facts. It had been less than a day ago, and yet it seemed like
years. It’s weird how time can sometimes behave like that, so
fickle and inconsistent.

“
It is good to
see you,” came a voice I’d come to welcome over the past
year.

I glanced up and
saw Bruce walking toward us, his bare feet slapping hard on the
walk as he came forth. He wore a pair of old blue-jeans, unbelted,
barely hanging onto his waist, and a sky-blue, short-sleeved,
button-up shirt.

My mood
lightened at once. “It’s good to be home.”

“
Yeah, home is
always a welcomed sight after a stay in the hospital, even if
you’re only there for a few minutes and visiting!” His azure eyes
were dazzling in the play of the waning sun. Bruce hated medical
centers of all sorts with a passion.

We shook hands,
a twin set of calluses rubbing against one another - his from
building beehives, me from lifting weights.

“
How’s
everything here?” I asked with an inadvertent look toward the
mustard-colored tape fluttering in the breeze at the side of the
house.

His face lost
some of it’s’ merriment as he too scanned the area. It was an
involuntary action, something people did when they recalled there
might be danger lurking and they hadn’t been as vigilant as they
should’ve been. “It’s been… quiet.” His gaze found mine.
“Especially after the police left earlier in the day.”

“
No word from
-.”

He cut me off:
“None.”

Well, that was
good to know. Maybe we would have more than a few days of respite.
Maybe Lenny
was
going to be laid up for some time. Yet,
it had been less than a day. Maybe I was being overly
optimistic.
Naw, man, you broke
his nose all to crap. He’s gonna need plastic surgery.

“
How’s your mom
and Elijah?” I could see it was painful for him to ask, but it was
the polite thing to query.

I blinked back
the emotion. “My mom’s good. She should be out in the next few
days.” I paused to take a breath, to swallow. “Elijah’s another
story.”

He grimaced, a
hand reaching out swiftly to grab me by the shoulder. “I’m sorry,
Jerry. I really am.”

“
Thanks.”

“
And how about
you?” he asked with another squeeze of my deltoid.

I peered down at
the cast on my left hand and the bandages covering my right. “I got
one broken hand and one that’s bruised all to crud.” I held them
both up, waving them at him.

His face turned
grim. “You did what was necessary, you know that right?”

I dropped my
hands, my jaw almost hitting my chest. “I thought you were a
pacifist” I said earnestly.

It was a hard
smile. “Gosh, man, I might be a relic of the 60’s, but that don’t
mean I believe in sitting aside while innocent women and children
get beaten for no reason. I might not like violence, but
sometimes…,” he trailed off, his hand coming from my shoulder . He
wiped his mouth with the back of it. “Shit, son, sometimes, some
people need a good ass-kicking.”

Myra busted out
with laughter.

“
And from what’ve seen this past year, your father needed one
–
bad.
” His eyebrows were arched, his look
imploring.

I
chuckled.

So did
he.

“
You got that
right,” said my girlfriend.

I stayed
silent.

“
Well, you
probably have a lot to do still, right?”

I
nodded.

“
Ok then, I’ll
see you two down the road a piece.” He waved smally and left around
the side of the house, toward his apartment in the back.

I went to
Valerie’s room to get some of the things she’d asked me to get for
her, while Myra called home. I found my sister’s overnight bag
under her bed where she said she’d stashed it and got about
gathering her necessities. Myra came in later saying she wasn’t
going to leave my side, even after we returned from the hospital
when visiting hours ended. I had asked what her mother thought
about that. She said succinctly, it wasn’t her decision to make. I
left it at that and continued doing what I’d been
before.

After I showered
and changed clothes, we ate some leftovers from the party and then
headed out for Myra’s house, so she could spruce up as well. An
hour later we were back at the hospital, supplies in hand to find
my mother awake and eager to see Eli.

We wasted no
time. We snagged a wheelchair and rolled her down the hall to see
the broken, but mending baby of the family.

She cried
bitterly for a long, long time when she laid eyes on
him.

I stayed,
undeterred by her wracking sobs. Myra, Valerie, Jose and I. We
stayed with my mom and listened to her vow on her life no one would
ever hurt Elijah again.

The following
day, from her room in the hospital, lawyer in attendance, she filed
for divorce.