Page 90 of Darling Beasts

“What happened nine months later?” Ozzie said. “When I came homeliterallybroken? You said nothing. You didn’t even ask where I’d gone.”This is it, Ozzie realized. This was the rock in a shoe that’d niggled him for weeks. Gabby knew about the lawsuit, which meant she knew everything else, and she never said,Hey, what happened?Or even,That sucks.

“I was gone for nine months,” Ozzie continued, “and you expected us to pick up where we left off. As though we were the same old Oz and Bags. Since you didn’t ask then, I’m going to tell you everything now, because you need to hear it.”

Nine months. Nine grueling months of physical and mental abuse at a “therapeutic boarding school” that had jack shit in terms of therapy or school. The so-called students spent most days digging pointless ditches (usually in bare feet), and theonly “therapy” involved daily group sessions during which kids sat in a circle and verbally ripped one another to shreds. Every few weeks Ozzie met with a “counselor,” who was some dipshit from the nearby town paid eight dollars an hour to list all the things he didn’t like about him.

And then there were the punishments. One ill-timed eye roll could result in carrying a rock-filled backpack for days. Failure to complete an arbitrary number of pull-ups meant a week spent wearing a shirt that read “LOSER.”

Ozzie was often deprived of food—not a punishment, more like the status quo—and thrown against walls and down the stairs. One of the “teachers” loved to knuckle him in the forehead as though knocking on a door. Weirdly, he found the physical abuse easiest to take, probably because it was unquestionably wrong, and definitely illegal, and it was nice to realize you weren’t the problem here.

In the one call allowed per week, Ozzie told Dad what was going on, but, presumably, parents were coached not to listen to a word their manipulative little demons said. But Dad was no idiot and the accumulating bruises and cuts made him suspicious, likewise the multiple foot infections and wounds that refused to heal. When explanations about a fractured collarbone didn’t add up, Dad hopped on the PJ and brought Ozzie home.

Once he comprehended the full scope of Ozzie’s injuries—two to three concussions in addition to the broken bones—Dad unleashed the lawyers. Ozzie got his settlement, and Canyonside was shut down. Mostly Ozzie forgave their father because he likely thought he was doing the right thing. But trusting him was another matter. Having your kid abducted and shipped off without notice was some depraved shit. Ozzie didn’t know if he’d ever get over it, but he’d been trying to for almost nine years.

“God. Ozzie,” Gabby said, when he finished. All blood haddrained from her face. “I had no idea. Well, I had some idea but not the extent of it. I can’t believe you still speak to Dad. Or me...”

“Come on, now...”

“I should’ve asked.”

Ozzie nodded. “Asked, yes. Also, it would’ve been nice if you’d acknowledged I was home?”

Ozzie remembered it so clearly. Standing beside Dad in the elevator, a green duffel bag at his feet, expecting to see Gabby any minute. But when the elevator door slid open, the gray marble foyer was empty. As he shuffled down the hall, Gabby poked her head out of her bedroom and gave him a quick, hurried hug before slamming the door shut again.

“You didn’t even bring your whole body out of your room,” he said.

“Oh, God,” Gabby groaned. “Ididdo that. There was a reason. I’m not making excuses. I was an asshole. But the day before you came home...” She cleared her throat, and a funny look wiggled across her face.

“Jesus. Was there an animal?”

“An emu?” she said, her voice cracking at a very high register. “I found him in my bathroom, guzzling water from my toilet for five minutes straight. They tend to fill up, an adaptation to Australia’s harsh climate.”

“Fascinating,” Ozzie said flatly.

“Anyway. I didn’t tell anyone. Long story short—and this is going to sound stupid—but I decided to keep him? Dad is so uptight about indoor animals, and I’d always wanted a pet.”

“And you figured an emu would be chill?”

“I wasn’t thinking, okay? But he was so cute, and I liked having him around. He sat there quietly, staring at me with his beady orange eyes, a dopey look on his face.” She sighed. “I didn’t know he was breaking into other people’s apartments while I was at school.”

“Hold on,” Ozzie said, a new memory popping into his brain. “Was this why a cop came to our door the day after I got home?”

Gabby nodded. “To ask about our pet ‘ostrich.’ Which, like,rude. It’s an emu.”

“You little jerk!” Ozzie said, giving her a light shove. He was surprised to find himself smiling, and about forty percent less mad. “That scared the shit out of me.”

“But I fessed up! Right away!”

“Wow. Thanks for not letting me take the fall for anostrich,” Ozzie said playfully. “So, what happened next?”

“The officer accused me of training it to break into our neighbors’ apartments,” Gabby said, “but I explained I wasn’t interested in Mrs. Bianco’s tacky-ass jewelry—no offense—and it was an innocent mistake. Emus eat household stuff. He was just being himself!” Because the cop couldn’t prove she’d broken any laws, he let it drop. So when Ozzie sensed she was hiding out in her bedroom, he was correct.

“That’s me,” Gabby said, “causing more fray. And for the record, Iwasworried about you, especially when I saw your arm in the sling. I wanted to know what happened.” Biting the inside of her cheek, she seemed to consider this. “Or maybe I didn’t?” she said, and hallelujah, some actual learning could be done. “I convinced myself Dad wouldn’t have sent you anywhere too awful, and now you were home, so why rehash the past.” Her expression soured. “Good Lord, I sound like Dad.Onward and upward. Focus on the positive. Blech.”

Ozzie chuckled. “And I got that sweet, sweet payout.”

“Right,” she said, her face darkening. “Youdiddeserve all that money, but not the suffering that preceded it.”

“I deserved it a little,” Ozzie said. “I was being kind of a shit.”

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