Chapter 5
Not only had Marshall been slapped in the face, but he had three ribs broken as well.
He could barely breathe, but it was his sister that he was worried about the most. She had a broken wrist and a sprained ankle.
While he didn’t know what had happened to them, he knew that Mary Beth was going to jail for using them as a shield when the inspector came to inspect the house.
It seemed to be worse now than it had been when he first entered it two days ago.
Cullen was supposed to be trying to find something for Marshall to wear for the next three or four days, but gave up.
He’d rather buy him a whole new wardrobe than to have to sort through the mess that was in the house.
At least the kids’ rooms looked better than the rest of the house did.
He met Emmie in the hallway when she came to the same conclusion as he had about the clothing situation.
“I can’t tell what’s clean or not. It looks like they’ve been trying to do their own laundry.
” He said that’s what he thought as well.
“It all smells, no matter how many times they’ve washed it.
I can’t imagine them trying to go to school smelling like they did.
No wonder the other kids make fun of them. ”
“I’m buying them new clothing. And I found their backpack from school, too. Their grade cards were still in them.” She showed how well the kids were doing despite their parents. “It looks like Beth has good grades as well. How can they treat them like this?”
“I don’t know.” He had something else to tell her, but he wasn’t sure how she was going to take it. It was about them being married in the eyes of the law. “Good. One less thing that we have to worry about. I’m assuming that someone did it so that we could take the kids to our house?”
“Yes. Mom didn’t want anyone coming back on us for raising them without the benefit of marriage.
Though I don’t know why that matters anymore.
Most families in the housing aren’t married anyway.
” She said she’d have to thank his mom. “I thought that you’d be upset.
We’ve only known one another for a few days. ”
“It feels right. Like I’ve known you all my life, and being married to you is the next step.
I love you, Cullen.” He told her that he loved her as well.
“Then we’ll be able to raise the kids with love and understanding.
It’s the best we can do and probably the first time they’ve had love given to them freely since they were born.
I can’t believe my sister did those things to her kids. ”
“Your sister has been arrested for child endangerment. As well as hitting a state employee. He’ll be fine, but he took quite a blow to the head that caused him to have sixteen stitches.
” Emmie asked him what he’d been hit with.
“A ball bat. It’s what she hit the kids with, too.
I guess they’re testing it for blood as we speak.
The police have some unsolved cases of some blunt trauma to the head on a few other people who live in the area. ”
“So they think she or both of them have been using it around town? For some reason, that doesn’t even surprise me at all.
I can see them both using it on their kids as well as anyone that gets in their way.
” She laughed a little, but it didn’t sound humorous at all.
“I’m guessing she’ll want me to bail her out now, too.
The two of them in jail is just where they need to be.
I can’t believe that I only came here to get to know the kids and all of this has happened. ”
“Call it fate. If not for you coming here, I wouldn’t have met you, and we wouldn’t be mates yet.
I have a feeling that we would have met anyway, but this has been so much nicer.
” She agreed with him. “Once things get all settled with your family, then we’ll work on us.
We have plenty of time to get to know one another and to make love.
I can wait on you to get things situated with everything. ”
“I’m so glad to hear that.” The two of them left the house and headed toward the car she’d been renting.
He was going to have to get her something else to drive around.
It was costing a fortune for her to drive it around like she owned it.
“We’ll have to do some guessing on their sizes.
I couldn’t find a thing with their tags on them. ”
“I’ll ask my mom. She’ll be really good at guessing their sizes.
She does it when they have donated clothing at the church.
” Emmie said that they take her with them.
“Yes, I think that’s a wonderful idea. She’ll want to see the kids anyway.
I know that she’s been busy with my brother and his wife when they have kids coming to the house for temporary housing.
She’ll have them calling her grandma in no time. ”
“I can see her doing that.” They both laughed, and he reached out to his mom.
She said that she’d love to go with them and would buy them lunch too.
He’d not realized how late it was until then and was surprised that it was nearly one in the afternoon.
Since leaving the hospital at nine this morning, they’d gotten nothing done.
It took them nearly three hours to get enough clothing for the kids to wear for a week.
He would have forgotten socks and shoes if Mom hadn’t gone with them, and as it was, they guessed the wrong size for Beth’s shoes.
But she didn’t mind. She said she was used to wearing things that didn’t fit her.
As they were leaving the hospital, the kids wanted to know where they were going.
“To my house that I share with Cullen. You’ve never been there before, but we have plenty of room for the two of you.
Or you can share a room.” Marshall was in too much pain to share, he told them, but he’d do it if it meant that he didn’t have to mess up their house.
“You’ll be fine, honey. We’ll take good care of you. ”
Neither one of them wanted any supper, so they helped them up to bed to rest. Beth was hurting too, but she was trying to be brave.
Marshall took a pain pill and was out even before he was put in his pajamas.
His heart broke for the two kids, and he wanted to find their parents and hurt them in the same way.
But he’d bide his time, waiting on what the judge said to them when he came into town next week.
“I just heard from the jail. Mary Beth is wanting me to come down and see about getting her out. I told them to tell her not to call anymore. I wonder what she’d do if she found out that we had the kids with us?
” He said she’d probably want money for us having them.
“I don’t doubt that you’re right. It seems exactly like something that she’d say.
Like I was some kind of babysitter that was paying her for watching over them. ”
“She’s going to lose everything in the house, too.
The inspector was able to call in someone else, and she did the inspection while no one was home.
The place is a total disaster. They found that the refrigerator hadn’t been plugged in for some time, and the things in it had spoiled.
That’s just the one thing that I was told about.
Oh, and the master bedroom is full of unopened snacks that they’d been hoarding.
She wasn’t kidding when she said that Bash needed something to eat between meals.
It looks like he’d been keeping them all for himself, too. ”
At nine, he went up to check on the kids. Beth was still sleeping, but Marshall was awake. He said he was hungry and wanted just a little bit to eat. He said he was afraid of being sick again. He’d been sick in the hospital when they’d tried to give him something there.
He fixed him a sandwich and some milk and took it up to him.
There were cookies, too, that he could eat instead of the sandwich, but he ate it all.
He was glad to see that he had his appetite back after all that had happened to him.
He seemed to be breathing better, too, after having a long nap.
Cullen asked him if he had any questions.
“What’s going to happen to us?” He said he’d stay here until they could figure out what the state wanted to do with them.
“I mean, when the judge comes. Momma said we’d go to jail because she’d been hurt.
Then when the inspector showed up, she said that we was the ones that messed up the house all the time and that if there was any jail time for the mess, it had to be our fault. Then she hit us both and that man.”
“First of all, I think the inspector knows who caused the mess. It was all on your parents. They could have kept the house in a lot better shape than they did, so he’s going to fine them or whatever else he thinks needs to be done to them.
” He asked again if they would go to jail.
“No. Not while I’m alive. You’ll stay here until such time as we know what’s going to happen with the courts.
No one will take you to jail, I promise you that.
You’ve done nothing wrong.” He looked so relieved that he wished that he’d told him that sooner.
“Mom told us that we was going to be living in a cardboard box. Is that true? I can do it so long as my sister is all right. You can take her in if you don’t have the room for the two of us.
” He said that he had a big house and that he could take on more kids if it came to that.
“Thank you. I never lived in a box before, but I would have if necessary.”