“I’ll make sure you’re all right.Uncle Kahana will have a look at you, and he’ll make sure you’re not hurt.”Millie looked at her husband when he asked if they were all right.“Did you hit her?”
“I did, and I’d do it again if she tries to hurt one of mine.”He turned to the police and said he was pressing charges against Yolanda for abuse of his son.And for attempting to kidnap his daughters.“I want her out of this house now and in jail before I call my attorney.You’ll do that for me, won’t you?”
“Yes, sir.When we came here, we didn’t know what to expect.She said that you were abusing your children in a sexual way.Not that we believed her, but we had to come with her to see.We had no idea that she was going to hurt anyone.We even called special services to take the children away if necessary.I can see that it was all in her head.”Charlie said that was right, and her dad vouched for him.“We’ll take her in now.I would imagine that she’s been planning this for some time.She had notes on the things that you were both doing to your children while you were living here.”
“Whatever she said is untrue, officers.She came here to kidnap my children and hurt one of them.I want to press charges against her, and I’ll be downtown as soon as I’m finished having my breakfast.”The officer said he could see that.As soon as she came around, Mom was put in the back of a cruiser and taken away.“Dad, are you really going to divorce her over this?”
“It’s been a long time coming, and I’m glad that she’s shown herself to be a nutball with others around.She’s been driving me crazy for the last twenty years, but with these children, I just don’t know what to think.She had it in her head that she was going to raise them better than you could.I don’t know how that was possible.She never had a thing to do with you when you were a child.And just look at you with your babies right here.I couldn’t have been more proud than I am of Charlie.Damn, but I wish I could have been the one to hit her.You did a good thing in protecting your family, young man, and I am happy to call you son.”
The breakfast was a good time, and they all had their fill.Dad got to hold the babies, and she thought he looked his happiest doing it.As soon as he left, too, telling them that he had his will to change, they all decided to go into town and have a morning of it.There were charges to press, too, and she was looking forward to her mom being in jail for a while.It would certainly be something that she could live with, her not being around much.
Chapter 9
Kahana felt bad for little Charles.His arm was broken from being snapped up from the floor, and he didn’t know who was more upset, his dad or his mom.Charles thought it was cool to have a rainbow cast on his arm, and after the pain medication was given to him, he was all right with that, too.The kid was feeling pretty good when he left the office, and he couldn’t have been happier for the three of them.
“Do you suppose she would have treated them all that way, given the chance?I was just wondering because of the way she hurt that little boy without anything being said to him.”Kahana told Debra that he thought she had been abusive all their lives, and it was just catching up to her.“I’m so glad that we were able to help them out.Did you hear that they’re going to be moving in with her dad?I guess he’s leaving the house to the two of them so that they can bring joy into the house again.I wonder if there was any joy in that house with her there.”
“Doubtful.Wilbur isn’t the least bit surprised that she hit Charles.He said that he wished he’d have warned them sooner of her tendencies to lash out at people.”He told Debra how she’d hit a couple of the staff, too, and they had to be compensated in order not to press charges.“I find it sad that Wilbur waited so long to divorce her.I think he’s been unhappy for years, but just put up with her.I hope he gets the life that he wants from now on.I don’t know that she’ll face much jail time with this, but he’ll have everything set up so that she’s out of his life from now on while she’s in jail.”
“I feel the most sorry for Millie.To have her life turned upside down like it is just because her mother decided that she was going to take her children from her.How sick do you have to be to think that you could do a better job at raising three kids when all you have is the clothing on your back?I heard that he did warn her several times that if she went through with this, he was going to divorce her.I think that he’ll be a happier man from now on.”
“I agree with you.”Debra said that she had to get home as she had things to take care of.Kahana hated to see her go, but he had other patients to see to himself.As soon as she left, he got down to work so that he could get out on time today.He had a wife at home that needed him, and he wasn’t going to shirk on his duties at this point in the game.Kahana was smiling when he saw his next patient.
His day went well.He didn’t have anything go wrong today, so that was a plus.Tomorrow, he had rounds to make at the hospital, and he was looking forward to that.Then back to work at his new place, where he was seeing more and more patients all the time.He’d been told that word had gotten out how good he was, and people liked that he was local.Kahana liked being busy, and with all this coming his way, he was staying busier daily.
“Hey, doc.”He was seeing the Anderson boy, who had broken his leg while playing around the gym equipment at the local gym.He’d been trying to make the treadmill go as fast as he could, and he’d slipped and fell.His parents were having a fit over the fact that no one was watching him.Kahana stayed out of it.“Mom said that I can have a boot soon.Does that mean I’ll be able to gimp around?”
“You won’t be getting a boot anytime soon.You have two broken bones in your leg that have yet to have time to heal.You need to stay off your leg before you hurt yourself more.”He told him that he was bored.“Bored or not, you’re never going to heal right if you keep getting up on your cast while you’re healing.If you don’t behave with it, I’ll have Doctor Martin put you back in the hospital, and we’ll see where that gets you.”
“The hospital is the worst.The three days I was in there, I thought for sure my head was going to pop off.The nurses are mean too.”He just stared at him.“Okay, they’re not mean, but they have a lot of rules to follow, and I don’t think they liked me all that much.”
“Because you weren’t doing as you were told.”He examined the sprain to his wrist and decided that it was finally healing the way that it should have been.“I can put a smaller cast on your wrist, butif you bang it up again, I’m going to have you put in a cast from your fingers to your shoulder, and we’ll see how you like that.I’m not kidding you right now, Todd.You have to settle down before you hurt yourself more.”
“I wish I hadn’t of tried to make the treadmill work faster now.”He was sure that everyone wished that for him.He was much too much of a boy to try to settle down.Then he thought that perhaps a girl might be just as hard to keep from hurting herself, so he didn’t voice that to him either.“Mom is going crazy with me being home all the time.She tries to keep me down, but I have to outsmart her sometimes.It’s boring lying on the couch when there’s nothing to do.Mom said I should do my homework, but that ain’t no fun either.”
Oh, how he wanted to tell the boy that if he’d been doing what he was supposed to be doing, none of this would have happened, but he didn’t.It must have been hard on his mom taking care that he didn’t get up, and around all day, he didn’t want her mad at him, too.As soon as he was fitted for a wrist brace instead of the cast he had on, Kahana knew that he was going to be back in here with it hurting again.There was no settling the boy down so he could heal.
After he left and his notes were taken, he saw his next patient and knew that she could be the sister of the Anderson boy.She was just as much trouble, but in a different way.She was hurt in a scuffle outside the playground where she went to school.No one knew what had happened to her other than her bumps and bruises.Whatever had happened, she wasn’t telling anyone.Instead, she took it out on those around her.Which meant him today.He finally had enough of her talking to him like he wasn’t an adult and stepped back from examining her nose, which had been broken in whatever had happened.
“Listen here.I didn’t hurt you, so you stop talking to me like I’m your worst enemy.All I’m trying to do is to patch you up so that you don’t die of an infection or worse.”She said it was none of his business what had happened.“I didn’t ask you what happened.So keep your teeth behind your lips before someone takes exception to your words and hits you again.”
She stared at him, so shocked that he could only stand there and think about what he’d said.Someone had hit her.And if he didn’t miss his bet, he’d put money on someone of authority over her, like perhaps a teacher or a parent.He quietly asked her who had hit her.
“She said I’d go to prison if I told.”Her voice was just as low as his had been, and when she looked around, he did as well.“I’m not a bad kid.I just have all this energy that makes me seem like one, but I do all my homework and get it all right.She said that I was surly and mean.I don’t even know what surly means.”
“It means you’re bad-tempered and unfriendly.You’re not that at all.”Though ten minutes ago, he might have thought she was.“How long has she been beating on you?”
“Since I got in her class.”Since school wasn’t in session, he had to figure that she was doing this all summer long.Not to mention throughout the previous school year.No wonder she was unfriendly and surly.“You’re not going to tell on me, are you?I don’t want to go to prison where my mom is.That place is terrible.”
“I would have to know who did it to you.You didn’t tell me.Also, you wouldn’t go to prison at all for a teacher to be beating the snot out of you when you’ve no reason to be around her.”He eyed her.“You don’t go seeking her out, do you?I mean, you just stay away from her all the time, I’m guessing.”
“She finds me when I’m not looking.Then she makes me get in her car and takes me to her home.After she beats me up, she makes me dust her house and run the sweeper.It hurts after she beats me up, but I still have to pull my weight.”He might not know for sure who it was, but it was being narrowed down with each part of the story he got.He’d bet anything that it was Mrs.Jacobson.The elderly teacher who taught seventh grade.She was known to hire kids to do her housework, then not pay them.It seemed to him that she had found herself a better way to keep house.Beating the kids that came around.“Are you going to tell on me?She said that she’d make it so that it looked like I was robbing her and she was knocking me around to keep me from taking all her stuff.She doesn’t have anything that I want in her nasty old house.”
“Do you trust me, Shelly?”She told him that she didn’t trust adults.“I know what you mean.If Mrs.Jacobson was doing that to me, I’d not trust them either.”
“How did you know?”He said he was a good guesser.“You’re the first one to have guessed right.Some of the police told me that they knew it was some boy that I didn’t want to go out with.I’m only thirteen years old.I don’t need a boyfriend.All the boys at my school are nerds anyway.”
“You’ll change your mind someday.But if you trust me, I think we can get this all cleared up in no time.I want to call the police.”She backed away from him like he was going to hit her.“Did I say I was going to?No, all I said was I want to call them.They’ll be able to make sure that she doesn’t hurt any more kids, too.I think she might be doing this to a couple more kids that she knows as well.”
