Shake Me Up

Chapter 7

C hapter S even

Arden had no idea what he was going to do. All he kept thinking was that his uncle was out again and free to harass both him and his aunt.

“Why don’t you sit down, and I’ll get you something to drink.” Ronny guided Arden to a seat on one of the chairs and returned behind the bar to get him a glass of water. “Let’s call Vinny and see what he has to say.”

Arden was as pale as a sheet, but he took a drink and nodded.

“How did you find out about the bail?”

“Uncle Charlie called Aunt Louise. She’s scared half to death.”

“Where is she now?” Ronny asked.

“At work in a help desk data center in Camp Hill,” Arden answered. “She’s secure there. They have security. I told her to make sure she let them know that she and Uncle Charlie had separated and that they weren’t to let him in if he shows up.” He took another sip of water. “She should be okay. But what about when she goes home?” All he could imagine was Uncle Charlie waiting for her—or him—in the dark.

Ronny made a call, and Arden continued sipping the water, trying to get himself to calm down. It was hard. He thought things were going to be very different only a few hours ago. “Yeah… okay….” Ronny continued to listen. “He’s right here.” Ronny handed him the phone.

“Vinny?” Arden said.

“Yes. The judge approved the order this morning, and your uncle has been given a copy of it so he can’t try to argue ignorance. That’s the good news.”

“I know he’s out on bail.”

“Yes, he is. But the restraining order only covers your aunt. I tried to get you included as well, but there wasn’t enough evidence for me to do that, at least not at this time. However, he must stay at least one hundred and fifty feet away from where she works and lives, so your residence is covered.”

“Okay.” At least his aunt was safe. That was the most important thing.

“If you see him near the house, get a picture of him. If he violates the order and we can prove it, then he goes back to jail. He’s also being monitored with an ankle bracelet and is only supposed to be at home or at work.”

“I see,” Arden said. “So that means that if he comes by the house, they should know about it.”

“Yes. They can track him through GPS. Now, it isn’t like someone is watching him the entire time, but yeah, they will know.”

“So he could sneak out and come by the house, and as long as he doesn’t get caught….”

“No, see, that’s the good part. It’s GPS, so the coordinates of where he can be as well as where he isn’t supposed to be are loaded into the system. If he goes to the house, it will set off his ankle monitor and alert the monitoring center. They will check his whereabouts and alert the police. It isn’t foolproof, but the system is pretty good. There have been people who have fooled it, but that’s pretty hard to do.”

“Okay.” Arden felt like he could breathe now. “Thank you for everything.”

“It wasn’t all that much, and I’m glad I could help. I’m mostly an administrator now, but it’s good for me to keep my hand in. Let me know if you need anything more. But as of right now, this is all I think I can do.”

“I appreciate all your help, and I know my aunt does as well.” He hung up and handed Ronny back his phone. “So, I guess that’s it.”

“Well, yes and no. Your uncle is only out on bail. He still has charges pending, and we’ll have to see what the DA does with them.”

“Good. Hopefully that will keep him on his best behavior, but I doubt it is going to do all that much. My uncle is going to make his presence known somehow. Uncle Charlie may be many things, but he isn’t someone who gives up on much, especially on what he thinks is his.” Arden sighed and drank some more water. “And thank you for everything.”

Ronny nodded. “We’ll just need to do what we can to make sure both of you are safe.”

Arden nodded, glad for the first-person plural. “Yeah. But it also means that he could cause trouble here. Especially if he figures out a way to make this part of his route home.” Arden was trying to figure out how his uncle could get around his restrictions, because he sure as hell would. That was the kind of person he was. His uncle wasn’t someone to break the rules, but he was the kind of person who would try to use them to his benefit if he possibly could. And if he could harass any of those he felt were responsible for his situation, he definitely would. No question about it.

“I have cameras outside because of a fire in one of the dumpsters not too long ago. If he shows up here, we will have a record, and I doubt a judge is going to let him use the excuse of stopping somewhere for a drink on his way home.”

“Okay.” It felt like they were battening down the hatches and raising the drawbridge in order to protect themselves from his uncle. That wasn’t fucking fair to anyone. Least of all Ronny, who had nothing to do with any of this. His family drama shouldn’t affect everyone in his life. “But maybe….” He didn’t even want to say it. “I don’t want to bring my troubles to you.”

Ronny rolled his eyes. “Please. I’ve seen trouble before. I own a bar. Kids come in here and start fighting on the pool tables. Last month, I had them using pool cues to have a sword fight that escalated to pool stick assault. Like I said, I’ve seen it all. So don’t worry. I have people here who can intervene if he comes around.”

Arden wasn’t so sure.

“Just stop. I can see the doubt in your eyes, and you need to let it go. You aren’t responsible for your uncle. He is. And you can’t stop living your life because of him. Your aunt can’t either. So watch your back, don’t go places alone, and make sure that someone is watching over her. If you see something, call the police. They will understand if it turns out to be nothing.”

“Thanks,” Arden said softly as a few customers came through the door. He finished the water and slid down off the bar stool. “I’ll see you later.”

He left and sighed as he stepped outside. Arden thought of going home but turned and headed downtown instead. He needed a chance to walk and clear his mind. When his phone rang, he checked the screen and considered whether he should answer the call or not. Part of him wanted to, but still he hesitated. “Mom,” he said coolly. “What is it you want?”

“I understand Louise left her husband. Is that because of you?” she snapped.

Arden refused to rise to the bait. “It’s because he hits her,” he answered. He was beyond trying to soothe her feelings, and it was a fact.

“That can’t be true,” she said. “Louise should stay with him and work things out.” Her old line, reused again and again.

“Is that why you stay with Dad?” he asked. “Because you just figure you need to stay and make things work?”

She sputtered. “If I wanted sass from you….”

“You forget. You and Dad kicked me out. So I will say whatever I want to you. You don’t have the right to tell me how to behave. And I think Aunt Louise is doing the right thing. No one has the right to hit someone else. Would you leave if Dad started smacking you around?” He had asked to make a point, but the silence on the other side of the line spoke volumes. Jesus… did his dad hit his mom? “Mom,” he said more gently, “does Dad do that?”

“You don’t understand.” Her words were so soft.

“I’ll kick his ass,” Arden said firmly. “So help me, I will beat him into next week.” Suddenly, it didn’t matter what his parents had done. If his mother needed help, he was going to be there. “Louise is your sister, and Uncle Charlie has been hurting her. She deserves more than that… better than that… so do you.” Christ on the cross, his family seemed to be coming apart at the seams from everywhere.

He listened and realized his mother was crying.

“Mom, go to Aunt Louise’s. Do it now. She’s at work, but I will be there in a few minutes. Just come over there. You need to be safe. Aunt Louise will be home this afternoon, and the two of you can talk.” There was no need for this shit. What he wanted to do was kick both his uncle and his dad right in the juicy parts.

“I’m not sure. What if your father finds out?”

“You’re just visiting your sister,” he told her.

Well… I’ll think about it.” She seemed to sigh, and he heard her on the line for a few more seconds. Then the call ended, and he realized she was gone.

God, his family was a real mess, and he’d had no idea just how bad it had been. Arden couldn’t help wondering how long his father had been hurting his mom, but one way or another, it had to end. Though if his mom wasn’t willing to do anything about it, there was only so much he could do.

Arden left a message for his aunt to explain about his call with his mother. He got a response almost immediately that she hoped she’d come over. It seemed to her that they really needed to talk.

I hope she shows up, but I don’t know if she will. Louise has been under Charlie’s control for a long time, and she may not feel strong enough to get away from it. He slipped his phone back in his pocket and continued his walk, needing time to digest all the revelations that seemed to happen almost by the minute.

“Are you sure I should be here?” Ronny asked that afternoon. Lilly was watching over things for him. Ronny had gotten busy making arrangements as soon as Arden told him the latest bit of news.

“Yeah. Aunt Louise is nervous and a little shaken up because Uncle Charlie asked to get some of his things. He has a right to do so per the order, but she doesn’t want to be alone with him when he does, and you’re more than a little intimidating, especially when you want to be, so he isn’t likely to cause trouble.” He had no idea if his mother was going to make an appearance or not, but that only added to the complexity of the situation. “But you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” He bit his lower lip, worried that he was pulling Ronny more deeply into his family drama.

“Hey. It’s fine. If you need backup, I’ll be there.” He took Arden’s hand as they walked the two blocks from The Gingerbread to his aunt’s house.

Raised voices drifted across the backyard as soon as they stepped through the gate. Arden picked up his pace, going in through the back door to find his mother staring down his uncle while Aunt Louise huddled on the sofa.

“Get out,” Arden told Uncle Charlie, who glared at him and didn’t move.

“You have five minutes to get your shit and leave.” Ronny pulled out his phone. “Otherwise, I’m calling the police, and we’ll request that your bail be rescinded.”

Uncle Charlie grinned like some carton supervillain. “She gave permission for me to be here.” He pointed at Aunt Louise.

“And now it’s being rescinded,” Arden snapped. “All it takes is a phone call that you’re threatening Aunt Louise, and you’ve violated your bail. Now, like Ronny said, you have five minutes. Get what you need, and if you take anything that isn’t yours, the police will be called.” Arden pointed. “Now, march….” He pointed to the stairs.

“I need a suitcase or something.”

Arden hurried away and returned with a couple black garbage bags. “You can use these for your shit. Now get moving. Four minutes left.” He set a timer on the phone. “You better move your ass.” Arden showed the countdown timer. “Move!”

His uncle went upstairs, and Ronny followed him, presumably to make sure he didn’t take what wasn’t his. Mom sat next to his aunt, the two of them talking quietly.

“Are you both okay?” Arden asked. “He’ll be out of here in a few minutes and then you can call and make sure they know that the house is off-limits once more. And next time he needs to come, make sure you aren’t here. I can handle him.”

“Honey,” Aunt Louise said quietly. “It’s like I’m stuck in a nightmare, and I keep hoping it will come to an end.”

Arden wanted to try to reassure her, but he didn’t know what to say. She was right: both she and his mom were stuck in their own personal nightmares. “It will be over. He’ll be gone, and you don’t have to let him come back. He can send someone else.”

Heavy footsteps on the stairs indicated that they were returning. His uncle carried two of the black bags, one in each hand, muttering as Ronny followed. He went right to the front door, opened it, and ushered his uncle outside. Then Ronny closed it and threw the lock. His aunt called the number she had and explained that he was done and had left the house. Then she finally seemed to relax.

“You could have talked to him,” his mother said.

“Are you back to this?” Arden asked her. “Just stop. She’s leaving him, and it’s a good thing. There isn’t anything to work out. Uncle Charlie is an abuser, and he isn’t going to stop any more than Dad is.”

His mother looked like she had been slapped.

“Adelle,” Louise said softly. “You too?” His aunt took her sister’s hand. “Don’t let him do that. Yes, this may be a nightmare, but it will end, and I’m not going back to Charlie. He’s going to be out of my life, and once this ends, I will build something new and go on. You need to do the same thing.”

“But….” His mom lowered her gaze.

“There are no buts, Adelle. Arden helped show me that I don’t deserve this, and deep down, you know you don’t either. If you need a place to stay, you can come here. I have an extra room upstairs.” And just like that, he watched his aunt find her strength and her voice. It was like magic. “We don’t deserve it.”

“But…,” his mom said again.

“What, Mom? What is it that you think is wrong?” He hated seeing her so beaten down, but he supposed that was what happened. “You have the strength to do this.”

“Your father and I took vows, and….” Her voice drifted off.

“And Dad broke them. He vowed to love, honor, and cherish you, remember? How is hitting you any of those things?” Arden asked her.

She looked at him for a few seconds and then put her hands over her face and began to cry.

“Just let it out,” Louise soothed. “I’ve done plenty of crying over the past few days. You can let it all out.” She wrapped her arms around Louise and held her.

Ronny gently took him by the arm and led him back through the house. “We need to let the two of them talk. They both need to make their decisions for themselves, and I’m thinking that they’ll actually be able to help each other.”

Arden agreed. They stepped out into the backyard with its paver stone path through the yard, and Arden sat in one of the chairs around the table on the patio. His aunt had done the yard in a riot of color. “I hope they’ll be okay.”

“Your mother seems….”

Arden nodded and was pleased that Ronny didn’t continue. “My mom baked me butterscotch cookies when I was a kid. I know that seems like a stupid thing to remember, but I loved them, and my dad hated them. She used to bake them whenever he was out of town. Every… single… time. It was like our secret thing.” He thought back on their life while he had been growing up. “I didn’t understand it at the time, but Mom always deferred to him. I think she thought it was her wifely duty or something. I don’t know. But….” He sniffed. “I think I understand it now.” And it hurt to think that his dad had been mistreating his mom for all that time. “Mom is smart. She always helped me with my homework. Even when I had algebra, and it was so hard to figure out, she understood it and was able to explain it to me. Every time. She always read, and she….”

“You saw that?” his mom said, the back door snapping closed after her. Arden sat up straighter. “No one else ever did.”

“Sure I did. You read a lot, and you always made sure I had my homework done. You checked it until I was in high school. I never got things wrong because you always pointed out the wrong answers, and you could do the problems in your head.”

She nodded but still seemed like she was pulling into herself.

“Did you and Aunt Louise have a good talk?”

“Yes, we did. I understand more about why she’s doing what she’s doing. And Charlie acted terribly.” She seemed to wring her hands, which told Arden how nervous and uncomfortable she was. “I guess, while I don’t know if she’s doing the right thing, she’s still my sister, and these are her decisions to make.”

Arden stood and moved closer. “You have to let others live their own lives, and if you want to be part of them, then you have to accept and support them.”

“Even if they’re wrong?” she asked.

Arden took a deep breath. “You always have to remember that you could be the one who is wrong.”

Her eyes widened like she had never considered that.

“None of us has a monopoly on being right. Aunt Louise is making the best decisions she can for her. And you can disagree, but remember that you could also be wrong, and Aunt Louise could be the one who was right all along.” He didn’t add that the same thing went for him. His mom was smart enough that she could figure that out.

“I should get going,” she said as she hooked her purse on her arm.

“Of course.” He wished his mother could see how much of Aunt Louise was reflected in herself. “But just one more question. Did she show you the bruises?” he asked very softly. His mom shook her head. “Then maybe you don’t have enough information to form an opinion after all.” He guided her to the gate between the row houses toward the street and locked it after she was gone.

“You okay?” Ronny asked.

“Yes and no. I guess I wish my mom could see what’s going on within herself and in her own life. But she doesn’t.”

Ronny pushed the chair back, and Arden sat down. “People will see what’s easiest for them. Maybe your mom doesn’t want to feel like a victim. Or if she left your father, she would look on that as a failure, and no one wants to think of themselves that way. Keep the dialogue open as best you can, be there for her, and then let her come to her own conclusions. What you and Louise said today isn’t going to just go away. It’s going to sink in, and she’s going to think. The next time your father mistreats her, she’s going to remember it. What happened today is like a seed, and it’s going to need a chance to grow.”

“But what if it doesn’t?” he asked with a soft sigh.

“Then you plant another one.” That seemed too simple. “Your mom is going to need more than your aunt and you before she turns her world upside down. I mean, she’s almost come to accept the way things are. It’s been part of her life for a long time.”

Arden didn’t know what to say. He didn’t like the thought of his mother being hurt, but he couldn’t help her if she didn’t want to be helped.

Aunt Louise came out with a tray, setting it on the table. She poured glasses of iced tea and sat down. “It took me a long time before I was ready. This was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’ve been thinking about things between me and Charlie for quite a while. What he did to you was just what finally opened my eyes and help showed me the way out.” She sipped from her glass. “Your mom is going to need time. She has to see the kind of man your father is.”

“I just want to help,”

“I know that. But she isn’t ready for your help. Not yet and knowing my sister and how stubborn she can be, she may never be ready for it.”

Ronny gently patted his hand. “She’s right.”

Arden wished he could do something to make his mom see just what was going on around her. “So, we just wait?”

“Sometimes it’s the hardest thing to do. You can’t help her until she wants it, and right now, she doesn’t.” Aunt Louise handed him a glass of tea. “There is no use in wanting something you just can’t have. I hope that she comes to one of us for help or to say that she’s had enough and needs to know what to do. But until then, all we can do is give her time and be there when she needs us.”