Page 10 of Madison

“Mom told me that he has a disability. I don’t know what the might be, but he’s mostly laying on the couch so that mom can go to work.” Kyle looked around again before speaking. “He don’t have no trouble getting up when he thinks I’m doing something wrong.”

“Tell me what he does when he’s getting up off the couch. I promise you, Kyle, I’ll protect you with all that I am.” He nodded, and she wiped away the tears that were falling over his cheeks, his bruised mouth making him look as if he’d been painted up for a horror show. “Do you have any sisters or brothers?”

“No, just me. He calls me a mistake and tells me all the time that he should have had mom get rid of me before I was too big to do that, too. I didn’t know what that meant until I looked it up in the school library.” Layla asked him if he’d tell the police about how he was being treated. “Doc, I know that you mean well and all but I got to have myself around until I’m eighteen. I only have six years left, and I plan on getting myself a good job someplace and finding me a wife. I want to have lots of babies around so that I can love them. Mom said that it was a pipe dream, that no one would want me on account of her not wanting me.”

She waited on him while he cried harder than she’d ever seen a kid be upset. Letting him have a moment, she pulled out her cell phone and held it in her hands. When he looked at her, his face battered and bruised, tears staining his cheeks, she had a thought to find his parents and kill them both. She’d gladly go to prison for their deaths.

“I want you to help me, Doc. Can you do that? I don’t want to go home no more.” She nodded and dialed the non-emergency number, and asked to speak to Officer Petrey. He had been in the hospital a few times, and she knew that he had children of his own and would understand what needed to be done. “It’s good that you didn’t call the emergency number. My dad has one of those scanner things and he listens for calls all day.”

Glad now that she’d done that, she waited for him to answer the call. After telling him what was going on, without mentioning any names, he said that he’d be by in a bit. While she didn’t have any idea what a bit was, she was happy to know that he was coming in. While waiting, she had Kyle lie down so that she could examine him better and to make notes on where she’d need to put in stitches. She also thought that his ankle was badly bruised and that he’d have to stay off of it for a while. Layla decided that she was going to run a battery of tests on him just to get to the heart of things before someone told her no.

Within half an hour, Layla knew a great deal more about Kyle then she thought his parents did. Even though they had caused the bulk of it, he had some older wounds that hadn’t healed right, and she was going to have to make a decision on what to do for them. One of them that concerned her the most was a burn mark. She thought it was from a car lighter that looked to be infected even though it had healed on the surface.

The boil like wound needed to be opened up and see if there was festering under the skin. She was more concerned about it than even the cuts on Kyle’s head and the two broken ribs. Sending in someone to do an ultra sound on the back wound, she was glad that Officer Petrey came in with another officer, this one having a camera with him.

Nodding at him when he tipped his hat, she left the room to get some results for the officer. Almost as soon as she was looking over the x-ray that she’d ordered, Mr. Wayne Anderson came into the ER to ask how much longer his boy was going to be. She had to ask him what his kid’s name was before she’d answer him.

“Kelly or something like that. I don’t keep track of that shit. I need him to come home. Only person I know that can locate the remote like he does. Even if he can’t find it, at least he can turn the channels when I need them to be done. Where is he?” She asked him again for the child’s name. “Jesus H. Christ. I already told you that I don’t remember. How many kids can you have here that are whining about their boo-boos. He told you that he fell, didn’t he? I’ll wallop him good and hard if he didn’t.”

“He told me he fell. Which is what you told him to say, didn’t you?” Mr. Anderson nodded and then told her that he did fall. “I see. Why don’t you tell me the truth for once? Did he fall, or did you wallop him again?”

“He fell. Why do all you people have to be making mole hills out of every little thing? I didn’t let him come in here for you to be questioning my ability to keep him in line. Just patch him up and bring him out here. And don’t be telling me that he’s going to be staying the night, either. I won’t allow that.” She didn’t move when she saw the police officer with the camera come out of the room that Kyle was in. “Listen here, girly, I need him to get his skinny ass home to be my remote. If that don’t work for you, then tough shit. And if I do want to knock him around, it’s no business of yours. He’s my kid, and I’ll treat him the way I want to and make sure that he’s minding his ‘k’s’ and ‘p’s’ while he’s at it.”

“And what will you do, Mr. Anderson, if I tell you that he has some wounds on his tiny body that look like he’s been abused. By you, if I’m not mistaken.”

The blow to her face had her falling back. Her last thought before the world just ceased to be alive was that she was going to have to learn to keep her mouth shut.

David was in the room with her when she woke up. Not moving because she honestly didn’t know if she could or not, she asked him if Kyle was all right. The man burst into tears, coming to her bed to lay his head on her shoulder and to tell her that he loved her so much. That she was his only daughter that he loved. Putting her hand on his head to give him at least a little comfort, she was astonished to see that she had a cast on her wrist to her elbow.

After several minutes she was glad when he seemed to get some control over his emotions. When he sat back down, telling her several times that he was sorry. She asked him what had happened. Other than Anderson had hit her.

“Oh, he did at that. Before we could get to him to get his hands off you, he’d kicked you a couple of times, too. The monster.” She asked if they’d notified anyone. “No, not at all. Your little man, Marlon Brando, cute little man if you ask me, he said that you were hiding out from your mate. Why? If I can ask you? You might well heal a good deal faster and be safer if you were to bond with him.”

“He hates me and the fact that I’m human.” David told her that she wasn’t, human, he meant. “I believe he might know that too. But he doesn’t want me around him. Not at all. Not that I’m all that thrilled about him either, but who cares. I’m not to contact him either for anything. Thankfully, Marlon Brando has made it so that none of the family can find me at all.”

“You’re playing with a dangerous thing, I hope you know that.” She just rolled her head to the other side and looked at the blank wall. “Your young man, Kyle, has been admitted. You were right to be concerned with the boil on his back. I was in the operating room when it was cut open. We have it draining now, and hopefully, in a couple of days, we’ll be able to stitch it up, and he’ll be better. He’s also dehydrated as well and malnourished. Which I’m assuming you found that out when you examined him. Also, he has three broken ribs as well as a plethora of other wounds consistent with someone beating him. A prefect shape of one of the marks on his back shows a boot print. While it could be from anyone, it is a match to the shoes that his father had on today or yesterday, I guess, when he came into the ER department to collect his son. Am I to assume that you’ll press charges against him for hitting you? The hospital has. Simply because it’s protocol when something like this happens. I want to shift and tear his throat out, but I’m like that. How are you feeling now? “

“Wow, that was a great deal of information all at once.” He told her that he didn’t want her to find out things before he could tell her. “I thank you for that. So where am I in going home? I know that I just woke up, but I have to work, as you well know.”

“Speaking of which.” He handed over her paycheck. “I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted to make sure that you didn’t have any issues getting your check on top of everything else. I think that it’s ridiculous that they don’t allow you to have direct deposit like they do the rest of us. They said that it was the way your accounting is. What is that supposed to mean?”

“You know that my dad is still in a nursing home, right?” David said that he did. He’d helped her get him in there. “Well, in order to pay for that, and it’s about half of every check that I get, I need to divide my money up in four parts. The office said that it would be easier for them if I just got the checks so that I could divide the money the way I needed to. I hate it, too. I don’t know why it would be so complicated for them to just divide my check up the way that I want them to into the four accounts. After they get it set up, that’s the only time they have to work at it. The hard part is finished once they get it all set up, wouldn’t you think? That way, I don’t have to go to four different places to pay my accounts. I guess it’s still all right. At least he’s in a good place.”

“Do you still visit him every day?” She said that she hadn’t in a few weeks because of her being hurt. “Yes, I would imagine that even if he didn’t recognize you, he would notice that you’re hurt.”

“I saw him two weeks ago. As a matter of fact, I had planned on going to see him today. Then I got hurt. What does it look like?” He told her that she had a couple of stitches in her lip and her nose was bruised. “Not nearly as bad as I thought that it would be. Why do people keep hitting me in the head? Anyway, I’m headed over to see my dad. If I need you or you need me, just call me.”

Making her way out to her car, she noticed the trees were beginning to turn. Not so much today, but she’d bet by the end of the week that they’d be more beautiful than they were now. Getting in, she noticed too that there were people out blowing their leaves off their lawns into the street. It wouldn’t be long until there was a report of a motorcycle accident. Shaking her head, she was nearly to her home when she saw Storm and another woman walking along the sidewalk.

While she knew who the elder Walsh was, she had an idea that the other woman was her famed daughter-in-law. Layla thought her name was Amy and that she was the soon to be queen of the earth, as Storm was now. Layla didn’t care for Storm. She was pushy to the point of pissing her off and didn’t wait for answers before assuming things. She thought that perhaps they were all like that but didn’t know them all that well to make the assumptions. Driving home, figuring that she needed to get going on it to get the last of her things moved out, she was surprised to see the realtor, Ms. Jackson, pulling into the driveway ahead of her.

“The house has sold.” She was so excited that Layla didn’t have the heart to tell her that she didn’t really want to sell it but needed the money. Asking how much they’d gotten for it, she was shocked when she answered. “Six hundred and fifty thousand. It was a nice bidding war for a little while, but I had one client just giving me a number to work with, and I had to keep going back to the other couple.”

“That’s a fair amount, don’t you think? I mean, I was only asking for about a third of that much.” Leaning against her car, she asked her if it was someone local. “Yes. You might well know the Walsh family. Mr. Madison Walsh wanted it and offered one million on it.”

Layla didn’t hear anything else as she had started laughing. The idiot had inadvertently bought her family home, and she couldn’t have been more happy about it. And again, depressed about the sale. Not to mention, he paid well over what she’d been asking.

Going into the large mansion, she thought of all the times they’d had in this place. The holidays that she had been with her family. When her mother was still alive. Even her dad hadn’t gotten ill by then, and they’d celebrated in style. Wondering what she was going to do with the things that she’d asked to have, she decided that she could barely afford all the money going out of her checks. Having to have a storage container would cripple her resources. Christ, she hated to be broke.

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