Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Belinda
1984
It started with a phone call in the middle of the night. Joetta was almost impossible to understand. She cried, she slurred, and she yelled into the phone.
Belinda tried to calm her sister. How could she help if she didn’t understand a word Joetta was saying.
Car crash. Arrested.
Bail.
Only later would Belinda know the true severity of what happened. During the midnight phone call, Belinda got this.
All three of Joetta’s little girls had been in the car when Joetta crashed it. Belinda nearly threw up at the shock of the news. Baby Blair wasn’t even one yet!
“Are they okay? Are the girls okay? Are they hurt?”
It was the only question and the worst question.
“I think they’re okay. They won’t let me out. They won’t let me see.”
Her sister clearly needed a lawyer. And bail money. Belinda didn’t have a clue how to do any of that.
“Honey, I must tell Mom and Dad. I have no clue how to get you that money or a lawyer.”
Cornwell Bennett knew lawyers, dozens of them. Belinda didn’t mince words with her parents. She told them it was life or death. That Joetta was in jail and that she needed help. Belinda didn’t flinch or equivocate. She demanded her parents take action to help. For the first time in her life, she stood up and told them how it was going to be.
And it worked. Her father did as she asked despite not having seen his daughter for almost a decade. When it was laid in front of him that he had to help, he helped. Belinda’s heart will always remember that moment with her father.
And her mother. Well, their mother held her nose throughout. She watched and grimaced as her husband made phone calls.
From what Belinda gathered, even with their money and connections, Joetta would have to spend three nights in lock-up.
It was a weekend. They were doing everything they could from across the country, but it wasn’t going to get Joetta out until Monday.
Over those same three days, Belinda booked a flight. She would be there for Joetta when she was arraigned. By 7 a.m. Monday morning, Cornwell Bennett’s Tampa attorney had roused a Toledo, Ohio, attorney he knew. They conveniently had docks next to each other at the Tampa Yacht and Country Club.
The attorney was there, and so was Belinda, as Joetta faced a municipal court judge. Belinda had never been in a courthouse. It was scary, foreign, and overwhelming. Her poor sister had to be so afraid!
When the deputies brought Joetta out into the courtroom, Belinda gasped.
Her sister looked to be under one hundred pounds, and her skin was the color of paste. She had a gash on her forehead.
Belinda thought her sister should have had stitches, but instead, there was just a mess of gauze and medical tape.
Her pretty little sister looked like a waif. Or a ghost.
Joetta’s lip quivered when she locked eyes with Belinda. She saw her eyes scan the room and lock to the back of the gallery.
Belinda turned to follow Joetta’s gaze. There he was. Bruce Kelly’s arms were crossed over his chest. His lips were in a thin line. There was no relief on his face at the sight of his wife, only disdain.
The judge spoke, and Joetta nodded. The attorney whispered to her what to say and where to sign. And then it was over. Joetta was released on bond and given a court date. As soon as Joetta was allowed, she flew into Belinda’s arms. The sisters hugged, and the attorney explained the next steps. There was no waiting embrace from her husband. Bruce Kelly hung back, away, disconnected from the crisis that embroiled the family. Joetta tried to go to him. She reached out and put a hand on his.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. The girls.”
Bruce picked Joetta’s hands off him like they were contaminated. Their relationship had obviously been cold when Belinda had visited before, but since then, it had turned into something ugly. And Belinda knew she couldn’t put that all on her brother-in-law.
Joetta had made a terrible mistake. And it was way worse than her headaches and a broken wine glass in the middle of the night.
“The girls are with my parents. You won’t be seeing them right now. Maybe ever.”
“What are you saying? Are they okay? Honey, it was an accident. It was a deer; it came out in the middle of the road and?—”
He put a hand up to stop her explanation. “Do not come back to the house. You’re a danger to my family. It is a shame you didn’t die in that crash. At least then you’d be unable to do more damage.”
Belinda stepped in. That was awful to say, to hear. Joetta was clearly sick and needed help! She would help. She would get her on her feet, and Bruce would see reason.
“Come on,” Belinda said to Joetta. “Let’s get you cleaned up. You two can talk about this when everyone’s calmer.” Though, to be honest, the man looked calm, scarily calm. Belinda had never been so frightened in her life of someone so calm.
“I just need to hug the girls; can’t I just do that? They’ll want to see me too. I’m sure they were so afraid?”
“They were. They won’t be again.”
That sounded more final than anything Belinda had ever heard. They won’t be again…
Bruce Kelly turned and began to walk away. Joetta’s demeanor became more and more like a panicked wild animal.
Who is this woman? Is this what she’s become?
“You can’t!” Joetta yelled. “They need me. I need to see them. I need to be sure they’re okay. I need?—”
“You need to shut up and maybe let your sister clean up your mess this time. We are no longer doing that.”
Bruce walked away, shoulders square. He was a brick wall. He was impenetrable.
Belinda didn’t know how to fix this. Her sister’s life was a disaster, careening toward tragedy. Thank God the girls are okay. Thank God. Belinda clung to that one ray of hope. And then Joetta collapsed onto the sidewalk. Her waling turned into whimpering.
“Here, come on, I’ve got a car. Let’s get into the car. I’m at the Sheraton, on Secor. We’ll go there, get you a shower, and figure out what to do next. I’m sure after the dust settles, we’ll get you over to the house. Things will be okay.”
“No, they won’t. He won’t. He’s like that. He said this was my last chance the last time and then this.”
“What last time?” Belinda wondered what other calamities her sister had caused. While Bruce was cold and frightening, Belinda feared that Joetta had earned at least a portion of what was happening right now. How far down had she slid since Belinda had visited and witnessed her niece be the adult and her sister be the child?
“I don’t have anywhere to go. I don’t have clothes or my jewelry or anything.”
“Like I said, let’s go over to the hotel. Get you a shower. One problem at a time. It will all look better after you have a shower. Have a meal. Maybe we clean up that cut.”
But nothing looked better. Only worse.
Belinda’s only solution was to bring Joetta home without the girls. Belinda cleared it with the attorney, and he said as long as she was back for her court date, she could travel in the contiguous U.S.
Maybe with a little time and distance, her husband would see reason. He'd forgive his wife.
They stopped at a store called Jacobson’s, and Belinda bought her sister underwear, a bra, and something to wear on the plane.
It was the only thing Belinda could think of to help.
Her heart was breaking for her sister. But worse, it was breaking for her three little nieces who had last seen their mother bleeding behind the steering wheel.
Get Joetta home, get her head looked at, get her maybe to Alcoholics Anonymous? This was rock bottom. Belinda hoped it was, anyway. Wasn’t that the turning point for people? When they had no further to fall, they finally stopped drinking?
Belinda took charge, but inside, she was filled with doubt. But if she was going to get Joetta better, she needed to get her out of Toledo. In a few weeks, she’d be sober, healthier, a few good meals in her, rest. All these things would help Bruce see that he needed her and the girls needed her.
Joetta was a zombie. She didn’t fight Belinda’s plan and she didn’t rage against her husband’s edict not to see the girls.
She showered when Belinda told her to shower, she wore what Belinda laid out, she sipped coffee when it was in front of her, and she got on the plane.
Belinda didn’t know this person. This person was so far away from the vibrant baby sister she grew up with that it terrified her.
She didn’t say any of that to Joetta. Joetta was used to being dictated to these days. She was used to not taking charge of anything, it appeared.
Joetta slept the entire flight from Toledo to Tampa.
Belinda did not. Belinda silently rehearsed what she was going to tell their parents.
She had stuck up for Joetta to get the lawyer, and that was just the beginning. The era of Joetta being abroad was over. Joetta was coming home. And their parents were going to help. Even if it only meant opening a checkbook, not their hearts.