Page 15 of Madison

Nodding, he could feel his hands were all sweaty when he reached for their hands. Keeping his head down, his eyes on his new boots, he was to the elevator before anything was said to them. Then his father asked if they’d seen a kid around here.

“I don’t know his name right at the moment. But he’s a scrawny thing. Orange hair, I think, and—

“He’s a blond. I think.” That set his father off when his mother interrupted him. “Don’t you yell at me. I know what he looks like. I did pop him out, didn’t I? Christ, you’re just too stupid to know when—”

Dad slapped Mother, and they were wrestling around in the hallway just as the elevator door opened. Stepping inside, he did look up and saw that they were beating the snot out of each other and not paying a nickel’s worth of notice to the three of them. Kyle let out a long breath before he almost passed out.

“They didn’t notice you because you’re all cleaned up and healthy. That’s so sad. I think that I’d noticed my own child. Wouldn’t you, Madison?” He said that he had hoped he would too. “All right then, they’ve not seen you, so we’ll head out. Gosh, that was a good test on the two of them for not having you.”

Kyle wasn’t sure what that meant but the doors were opening to the bottom floor. As they made their way out on the street to where a car was parked, he felt like he could just skip along he was so happy. And like the other memories that he’d been saving up, this one would be one of the top favorites. He was going to need a lot of them to sustain him he thought.

~*~

The dinner was wonderful. It was Madison knew, the company more than any of the dinners and special desserts. There was talking, laughter as well as a great deal of good food eaten. Even Layla, who usually didn’t eat all that much he knew, ate nearly as much as he did. It was wonderful to see Kyle having a good time, too. The kid was a wonderful balm to their shitty last few days. When Layla got up to use the bathroom, Kyle asked him if he’d thought about what he’d said.

“I have. A great deal. But I have decided on one of the most important things, and that’s to let her pick out her own ring. I think that—why are you shaking your head? What do you think I should do?” He told him. “Well, I was actually thinking that I don’t know all that much about her, and I’d mess it up.”

“You know a lot about her even though you don’t seem to get it.” The kid actually rolled his eyes at him. “You know a lot about her, and it’s the good stuff, too. Did you know that she’s very smart? That she has a big house, or she did. I didn’t know that you’d bought it, but that’s nice, don’t you think. I mean, you can discover the house with her as you grow—do I have to do everything for you?”

When she returned, looking fresh as a daisy, he thought, he told her that. That she was the most beautiful woman that he’d ever seen in all his life. Glancing at Kyle, he laughed when he gave him a thumbs up. Then he left to use the bathroom, too.

“I love you.” The words were out before he could think about what he was going to say. And discovered that now that he’d said them, he was truly in love with her. She looked embarrassed and turned away, but not before he could see the tears filling her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m very sorry.” She turned to look at him with a watery smile. He reached for her hand and was happy that she took it into his.

“You didn’t. Upset me, I mean. No one has ever said that to me before. My parents might have, but it’s been so long that I don’t remember it.” He almost said that he was sorry but didn’t at the last minute. “I don’t know when I fell in love with you, but I love you as well. However, there are times when I don’t like you all that much.”

“Understandable. I don’t care for myself most of the time, either. You’ve done that to me, make me want to be a better person. I think about the way that I treated you when I first met you, and I hate myself. And who I was. To not just you but everyone that I encountered. Especially you and my family.” She looked around, not making eye contact with him, and again, he understood that. It was difficult enough for him to look at himself in the mirror, much less have someone else look at him when he was baring his soul. “I know that we’re married, I’m profoundly sorry about that as well, but will you marry me? I have us a lovely home that you know better than I do. A live-in son, hopefully, someone will be able to tell us what is going to happen with him as well as money out the ass that we can spend stupidly for the rest of our lives.”

She laughed. It was a sputter of laughter that he thought was adorable, and he joined her. As soon as Kyle came back, putting his hand atop of theirs, he told them that he loved the two of them much more than he thought possible. It was the best thing to end up the evening, he thought. Now, they only had to get through tomorrow.

After locking up the house, Layla showed him how to do that. The locks were going to be changed in the morning while they were away. Mrs. Tamber was staying on, having lived in the house at the back of the property for years to keep it nice for whoever lived there. She said that she would wait for them in the morning. Going to bed, falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, he didn’t think that he’d even moved once while sleeping.

They had a hardy breakfast however, they only picked at it. Layla and Kyle were nervous. He was as well, but tried to get them in a better mood before they arrived. His family was there, all of them dressed up, and he was thrilled that Layla had gotten Kyle a nice suit to wear at the hearing. There was a great deal to go over, and he’d be thrilled when it was over.

Wayne was brought out first. He looked just the same. However, he was dressed in a suit. A very nice suit that fit him well. It was something that he’d not expected from the jail system to supply him with a nice outfit to wear. Then Mary came into the room.

Dirty, and her jumper was stained. Her hair was the most drastic difference. There was none. It looked as if, and a poorly job at that, someone had shaved her head for her and left just enough tuft of it to put a little bow on. Madison at first thought that she’d been forced to wear her hair this way. An inmate had done it for her. But she seemed proud of her new look and asked Wayne if he liked it too. The man just sneered at her before standing up to talk to the judge.

“I don’t belong here, your honor.” Judge Whishaw asked him why not. “I’m sure that you’ve been notified that I’m a former decorated police officer. I was undercover for them.”

“Yes, I’ve been notified about your being a police officer. However, there is nothing in the report to say that you’ve been working undercover nor were you ever decorated. Unless you count, your being fired from your job and labeled as a dirty cop. It says here that you have been caught numerous times taking money from people for not arresting them and stealing from the lock-up where you took several items that were earmarked for trial. Also, there is a note here that you’ve been living in subsided housing with Ms. Arts with the knowledge that you weren’t supposed to be living there. Ate food that she was able to collect with a food card that she got, as well as harassing your neighbors when they—let me see if I have this right. You harassed them because they wouldn’t mow your lawn when they did theirs?”

“Well, they had a mower and were out doing their own. I didn’t see where it—that’s water under the bridge, your excellency.” He told him that he was his honor, not excellency. “I thought that I’d give you a boost to your title. Anyway, I want you to know that with me living there with Mary, I was able to keep her from being a street knocker.”

“I’m sorry, what? You kept her from being a “street knocker?” What is that?” He told him how he’d not only kept her off the streets but he’d been able to rent her out at times when they needed some money. “So you prostituted Ms. Arts by keeping her from being a street knocker? You do understand that that’s called prostitution, don’t you? And that you did it on government property?” Wayne waved him off before speaking again.

“It was all about being undercover. However, like I said to my attorney, it was the difference between me and her having enough to eat. Those cards, they don’t go as far as they should. I don’t know why you don’t just make it so we have an unlimited amount of cash on those suckers so we can eat what we want. There’s barely enough money on them for all the steaks we want to eat and not having any leftovers for pop, too. And you can’t buy beer on them either. What’s up with that?” Edgar, his brother, asked to show the courts something that he’d found.

After sitting down, Edgar turned and winked at them. He was the best at being an attorney. Not that he liked it all that much. He liked being outside for the most part. However, he didn’t let anything slide when he had a case to look into. It seemed that he’d done his homework on this case more than he had any of the others that he’d taken on.

“Mr. Anderson, I’ve just been notified by Mr. Walsh here that you tried to bribe your attorney to bring you in a gun and a cell phone. He was also asked to lend you money so that you can get yourself a hot pie. I’m not even going to ask you what you needed the gun for.” Wayne answered him anyway. “I see. You were planning to kidnap me and force me to give you a not-guilty verdict even though all the evidence I have before me says that you should have been in prison from birth. How the hell did you get to become a cop?”

The bailiff cleared his throat, and the judge just glared at him. Telling him that this was the oddest crap he’d had going on in here. While the other man agreed, he said it was still a courtroom. Shaking his head, the judge looked at Wayne.

“What about this child you’ve had with Ms. Arts? It says here that you’ve abused him on more than one occasion that sent him to the hospital. Is that true?” Not only did he agree that it was true, but he explained it, at least tried to explain it away, by saying that he was too smart and lorded it over their heads. “I see. So you didn’t care for someone to lord things over your head. Didn’t you think that he could have been helping you and Ms. Arts all along? With walking the right path?”

“That’s boring, your excellency. Just too boring. We had to spice up our life, and he was just an annoying little fu—sucker, so we had to figure out a way to make some fun for our lives. Knocking him around a little? Well, you’d not believe how much fun that was for us.”

“I don’t understand that, but we’re moving on. Christ, I should have retired a year ago like my wife wanted me to. Mr. Walsh? I’m to understand that you’ve been caring for the young child of Ms. Arts. What can you tell me about his welfare?”

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