Redemption: Part IV (Last)

IV.
    Not really ever thinking I was even going to get into the house, you’ve probably guessed I didn’t really have any plan on how I was going to get out, but I really wasn’t thinking about it then, I guess I kind of thought getting out would be a lot easier than getting in, and anyway I was still weirded out by what I’d seen, and before I even got over that, Joyce came back to the bedroom and fell face down on the bed and started to cry, and I mean cry hard. Her body was kind of shaking under the robe, and I know she must have made quite a wet spot under her face. She stayed like that for a long time, I don’t know exactly how long, but it was a long time, and then I heard the front door, and then Frank came in the bedroom. Joyce sort of straightened herself out on the bed when he came in, but she never turned her face to him even though he was saying crap like how’s your headache, and asking if anyone called. Joyce didn’t answer, and I guess Frank was used to that because he just kept on talking about stupid stuff until he was undressed down to his boxers and tee shirt and climbed into the empty side of the bed. He

didn’t say anything like good night or I love you or any of that crap, he just flicked off the wall switch and lay with his back to hers and soon began a low grunting-like snore. 

I don’t know if you smoke, but if you do, you can imagine the nic’n that I was going through with all this crap I was watching, and even though I knew I was asking to get caught, I lit up. I tried to blow the smoke into some heavy coat that was hanging there beside me, and it did mostly keep the smell down, at least down enough not to wake up anybody. The nicotine helped me think and calmed me down a bit. I figured after another cigarette, I could most likely kind of tip-toe out of the house without waking them. I thought even if they did wake up, I could bolt out of there before they recognized me and they’d probably think they were being robbed or something. By the time the police would show up, I’d be fast asleep. I really think it would’ve worked but right before I was ready to spring into action, the phone rang. It was Janice calling Joyce and waking her up and causing a big stink about not knowing where I was and how my mother had twisted her knee or something while coming out of the bathroom and how Janice wasn’t able to help her off the floor. I knew Janice well enough to know that staying in that closet was the best option I had for the next few weeks when I heard all that mess, but then I heard Frank ask what was going on and tell Joyce to tell Janice that he’d be right over. Well, I guess by that time I was on my third cigarette, I mean with Mom’s knee, and Janice being all hopped up and all. I suppose my filtering system was starting to get overloaded because when Frank got up to get dressed, he asked Joyce who’d been smoking in the bedroom, and then he kind of like just went

off. He started calling her a whore and all that kind of crap and accusing her of messing around with some guy named Stan. Joyce just lay there at first, but when Frank demanded to know who the SOB was that had been smoking in the bedroom, Joyce sarcastically said that maybe it was my mother and started firing accusatory remarks about Frank’s extramarital affairs. By then it started to hit me that these two were playing games on a level that I never even considered existed. I mean Joyce seemed to know what Frank was doing with my mother, and Frank seemed to know what Joyce was doing with that guy. I don’t know how that kind of knowledge goes unspoken, I mean I can never keep stuff secret, but it seemed that they just turned a blind-eye to it and only brought it up in times like these. Anyway, I really was getting more than I bargained for. I mean this fight was the last thing I wanted to watch, especially when it progressed to hollering and name calling which it quickly did. Then Joyce threw an empty water glass at Frank. The glass broke against the wall, and Frank got really mad. His face got dark red and his hair stood straight up. I know I was stupid to do it, I mean it got me into all this deep shit I'm telling you about now, but right before I figured Frank was about to really hit Joyce, I opened the closet door and, like an idiot, stood there holding my cigarette.