Page 15 of Booth

“You could call your brother and ask him to deal with her.He seemed to think that he could.That way, we as a family don’t have to deal with her.She’s not going to like it any way we do it, I don’t think.”She asked him what that would mean if the family dealt with her.“It means we’ll press charges and she’ll end up in jail for some time.She’s threatened to kill us several times now, and she’s not getting what she wants.”

“I’ll call Shawn.I’ll see what he thinks we should do about her.I just wish I understood why she believes that I owe her money.And so much of it.I don’t think I ever borrowed money from her at any time in my life.”She looked up at Booth.“And so much of it, too.I mean, she wanted a million dollars, then half that.Where would she get off thinking that I’ve borrowed that much from her?”

“I don’t know.I honestly don’t.But you said they all did it at one time or another.Perhaps she’s got it in her head that you really do owe her something, and that amount seemed like giving her the most bang for her buck.Or our bucks.We have the money to give it to her.It wouldn’t hurt us, but I have a feeling that she’d just keep coming back and back until it did hurt.”They made their way to the living room to await dinner.“Just see what your brother has to say, and we’ll take it from there.Maybe he can think of something we can do to get her off our backs, and that will be the end of it all.I’d liketo do this without much in the way of effort or violence.”

“Do you think it’ll come to that?Violence?”He said that she was already pushing the violence button now, and they’d not really done anything other than just get threats from her.“I suppose so.I just don’t want to have to deal with her anymore.I mean, we’ve gone so long without having any kind of contact.Why now?And why so much money?”

“She might be in trouble with something.”The two of them speculated until they were called to dinner.Then, during dinner, they talked about what Shawn might have to say.For all they knew, she might well be in on it with her parents, as they too had asked for money.It was hard to tell right now, and they were going to get to the bottom of it soon.

Calling Shawn, she was told that there wasn’t anything wrong with Lynn other than she had been off her meds for a while.There seemed to be a great deal of that going around.But Lynn, being off her meds, was dangerous to others around her.She had something wrong with her mind that Shawn couldn’t remember what it was.It was some kind of chemical imbalance that he knew was dangerous for her being off her medications, but he for the life of him couldn’t remember what it was.

“She doesn’t need the money, not that much anyway, but she has it stuck in her head that she needs it for her rent and other utilities.I pay all of them, so she doesn’t have to worry about them.Lynn lives in a group home with four other women and a caretaker who have basically the same issues.They can’t hold down a job because they’re suspicious of every little thing that happens.Lynn reads books, but I have to be careful what type of book she reads, or she’ll think that she’s done whatever it is in the storyline herself.And to the point where she will have other people convinced that she’s lived that life.”Dee asked him if she had left the home without permission.“That’s the issue.I can’t get a doctor to say that she has to have limited to no outside contact with the world so that she doesn’t do what she’s doing now.And before I forget to tell you, two people are coming to get her to bring her back to the home.I should have called them sooner, but I was hoping that she’d come back on her own.She does that sometimes.Goes away for a few days, then returns.This is the longest she’s been gone for a while.I’m sorry, Dee.I should have taken better care of her, and this wouldn’t have been an issue.”

“She said she has a gun.”He said that he’d bet that she doesn’t, but he’d make sure to warn those coming after her.“What if she hurts someone?She can you know.If we don’t give her any money, she’s going to kill us.I don’t know how that works in her mind, but that’s what she’s saying.”

“I’ll take care that she doesn’t get away again.”Dee asked him where she was supposed to be living.“She’s in Ohio and has been for some time.Near to Dayton and the institute there.”

When Booth’s cell phone rang, he went into the other room to answer it.She’d have to make a list of people who would need the numbers when they changed them, but it might be easier to just make sure that Lynn was in her home setting rather than have to go through all that to change their numbers.But she’d do whatever had to be done.

When Booth came back, he winked at her and told her that Lynn had been picked up by the police.How he knew she didn’t have any idea, but he was happy about it, and so was she.Telling Shawn, she could hear the relief in his voice as soon as he said ‘thank goodness,’ and then he told her that he’d come and get her tomorrow.They made a time for them to meet up so that she could get to know him a little better since it had been so long.

The two of them sat on the couch, knowing that they didn’t have to get up early in the morning for anything.They talked about the things they were planning for the weekend and what was being delivered for the house.The hot tub that they wanted had been on back order, and now that it was in, it was going to be delivered tomorrow and set up.She was happy about that.The cold weather was making her joints from the accident hurt a little, and she was told by the doctor last time she went in that the hot tub would be the perfect thing to soothe her muscles and aches.

“Also, with Halloween coming up in the next couple of weeks, I want to get the blow-ups out and set up.We should have done it sooner, but with everything else going on, it was just a matter of time before we could get to them.”Booth said he was looking forward to handing out candy this year more than any other year before.So were his parents.“I think they’ve gotten cases of candy to hand out.Iknow that we have a lot too.I’m even going to dress up somewhat, too.”

“You’ll be the highlight of some of the kids’ nights if you do that.”After getting things put on a list, they were set up for the weekend.She was glad that the snow had already melted off, and it was going to be warmer this weekend, so they could get a few things done.“I’m going to see about getting myself a costume to wear, too.We’ll have to do this for our kids when we have them.Dress up with them.I’ve seen how parents do that.Oh, now I’m excited for the holidays to come around.It’s special how they have one a month for the rest of the year.Don’t you think?”

It was nearly two in the morning when they made their way up to bed.Booth had heard from the police twice more since they told him that Lynn had been picked up, and they told him that she was settled in for a good night.Her doctors had come by to see her, and that was good.As soon as she was asleep, they called to tell them that they’d be working with Shawn tomorrow in getting her back home to her facility.

They didn’t make love, but they did snuggle up under the covers.They continued to talk about different things as they laid there, and once she started to doze off, Booth pulled her closer to his body.It was the best way to sleep, close to one another, and she loved him all the more for it.

She woke up once to go to the bathroom, and when she returned, Booth did the same.Back in bed, they held one another like they had before, and she dozed off much quicker this time.She thought it had a lot to do with the fact that her sister was no longer roaming the streets looking for her, and also the fact that she was going to see her brother tomorrow.She couldn’t remember the last time that she saw him, and was excited that they were going to have lunch tomorrow too.

At a quarter to eight, she woke and knew she was up for the day.Booth was already gone, having left her a note that he was going to get the Halloween stuff out of the big barn.She was going to help him, so after her shower, she got dressed in something that she could work in and met him in the barn.

The big boxes were already off the shelf and ready to be blown up by the time her brother showed up with not just the two doctors who were for her sister, but Lynn as well.To say she was different than she’d been before when she spoke to her would have been a gross understatement.She was calm and didn’t seem to know that she had been a terror to her and her family when she’d been off her medications.

Chapter 8

Shawn liked his brother-in-law, Booth, and his family a great deal.When things were going well with his sister Lynn, Shawn had a better outlook on life.Like today, having lunch then dinner with his other sister was nice, and he enjoyed every bit of it.Even when Booth’s brothers just happened by—the blow-ups were a huge hit with his family—they wanted to see what else he had in store for the other holidays, and were making them very jealous when they saw the big boxes that had been left behind from the previous owners of the house.

He also enjoyed hanging out with his sister, Dee.It had been at least a decade since he’d seen her, and he was enjoying getting to know her once again.It was great too to share the memories they had as children, there were a few of them that were good, and talk about their parents when they were in a better position than they were now.

“They’re both suffering from dementia.But just the early stages.The doctor said that had they taken better care of themselves when they were younger, they might well have been in better health than they are now.Dad has some worrisome aches and pains from when he had a car accident, and Mom is just suffering from whatever she reads about in the newspaper.She has her good days and bad, but it’s Dad who takes the most time.He likes to have things just so when he’s having a visit from the health aides.They both live in an assisted living home for now and are getting good care.”Shawn turned down the offer of help with the bills.“I have it.I have some money now that I’m working at a good place, and they do what they can with their social security when it comes in.The one that I have the most trouble meeting is Lynn’s care.If I can get the doctor to say that she needs full-time care, then things will be easier for her.But until then, I’m going to have to pay what I can.If you’d help with that, I wouldn’t turn it down.”

“I’ll pay for Lynn, and you let me know when you need help with our parents.”He promised that he would.“We have money now and have invested well.You let me help out, too, all right?”

“I will.I promise that I will.”She didn’t say anything more about it, and he was all right with that.If she helped, that would be great, but if she didn’t, he’d make it work somehow.He didn’t know her well enough to know if she’d help when she said she would or not, and that was something that he wanted to take care of.“My partner and I are doing really well now.Doug has been very helpful in keeping my head on straight, too.I don’t have anything mentally wrong with me, but I do get overwhelmed sometimes when everything with them hits at one time, especially with our parents.They can be quite the duo when things start to go wrong with them.They play off one another.”

“I can see that.They used to do that when we were children, too.You’d ask one of them for something, and they’d make you go back and forth between them when all you wanted was permission to go someplace that had to do with school.I remember being so annoyed when they would do that.”He said he’d forgotten about that but did remember it now.“I remember that I didn’t get to go to some of the field trips that were for school because they’d never give me the answer that I needed.”

“I did as well.I’d really forgotten about that.And remember how they used to say ‘whatever the other one said,’ like you had to go back and forth with that, too.That was the most annoying thing they did to me.Whateverbecame my most hated word, they would say.When they start that nowadays I simply walk away from them.I don’t need any more stress in my life with that word.”He laughed.Thinking that it was funny now that he knew how to get out of it with them.“Yes, those were the days when I’d just want to hate them, but I never could.I’m glad that I’m able to deal with it better than I could as a child.”

He was, too.It was much nicer to be an adult and know how to discipline them when they started on their whininess.And they whined a great deal when they wanted something that was beyond theirmeans.Like they wanted out of the assisted living place with a passion, but they also liked living there because it was a roof over their heads and food in their bellies.

“I remember once when I was about six, they decided that I didn’t need to go to school anymore,” Shawn said he remembered that.“Yes, they had me home for a week and couldn’t stand having me there all the time.Wanting lunch and bathroom time.I think that the worst time was when I wanted to go with them when they went places.It’s hard to take a kid to the bar, and they knew that they couldn’t leave me at home.You know, Shawn, they weren’t the best parents, were they?”

“No, I’m beginning to see that a lot of their behavior towards us as children wasn’t all that healthy or legal.They used to take us to the bar when we were kids, do you remember that?”She said she didn’t, but believed him.“Maybe it was just Lynn and me.But I remember the bartender being none too happy about us being there.They would set us up at the bar, too, and we’d eat the snacks that were provided for the patrons.I remember being so thirsty, too, and they’d have to keep buying us drinks.Maybe that’s why you don’t remember it.They didn’t take you when we had cost them so much in drinks.You know, to this day, I can’t eat a peanut.Now I know why.”

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