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CHAPTER SEVEN
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Dad and I had been hauling all sorts of things out of the house all day.
It all goes either to thrift store donations or the dump.
Since most of it could actually be repurposed, it will be going to thrift stores.
We could finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as the clean-out was concerned.
Memaw wasn’t a hoarder, but she knew how to efficiently pack a box or tub with everything it would possibly hold.
The attic was finally clear. All the bedrooms were clear, the kitchen was clear, and the bathroom was clear.
The only room left is the living room, and we had someone coming to buy some of the remaining furniture the following morning.
The next steps were to start painting and deep cleaning, then to start on the repairs.
I looked around the living room and was beginning to imagine the metamorphosis that could take place, and how Rach and I could blend the lovely place; this had always been with our dreams for the future.
The following day, Dad made Mom take some time off.
He bought her an exclusive spa package at an expensive place downtown.
He spent a pocket full of money, but he said that Mom was worn thin and deserved to be pampered for the day.
He arranged the whole thing, including a facial, mud bath, massage, glamour makeover, and a haircut.
He wanted her to have “the whole nine yards,” as he said so often about so many things.
I agreed totally with Dad’s decision, and I stayed at the house to meet the nice older couple who wanted to buy the furniture.
After they left, I called him, “Dad, I’ve been thinking about what you told me about David and John Robert and the words that passed between them.
What I don’t understand is how, after John Robert just disappeared, no one called the cops.
No one pressed charges? There was no accountability regarding his total disappearance?
Nothing? He was just allowed to beat up Memaw with no consequences? ”
“Well,” Dad started, “there were plenty of consequences. Part of that seemed a lot like karma stepping in. See, at one point, John Robert beat your memaw so badly that she ended up in the hospital. She might have died if her mother hadn’t stopped by to get your mom’s stuffed animal.
Claire was spending a few days with Memaw’s parents, and they discovered around ten pm that night that Memaw forgot to pack your mama’s stuffed frog that she slept with every night.
It was such a means of security and comfort for her that she literally couldn’t go to sleep without it.
So, while your mom had her bedtime ice cream, Grandma Sally drove to your memaw’s to get the frog.
She found her unconscious and bloody on the kitchen floor.
The house was a disaster. Broken dishes and all kinds of shit littered the living room and kitchen.
There was blood on the kitchen floor and the living room walls.
Grandma Sally immediately called the police and the rescue squad.
Once they had loaded Memaw into an ambulance, Grandma Sally called home and told Papa Ed what she had found.
Both of them decided mutually that it was best at that moment to keep your mom from knowing about any of this, although eventually, they obviously had to tell her.
Also, keep in mind, they never saw John Robert through any of this.
“I don’t know the full extent of her injuries, but they were bad enough to keep your memaw in the hospital for thirteen days.
Anyway, once she was strong enough, the police talked to her privately, and I don’t know what was said; your mom never told me.
But charges were never filed, that we know about.
You also have to remember when all of this took place.
Back in the early seventies, there weren’t exactly a lot of women’s support groups, and women in your memaw’s situation often went back to their abusers because they felt they had no choice.
He had already threatened her life and the life of your mom.
Not to mention the fact that Papa Ed and Grandma Sally had given the house to your memaw as a wedding gift.
The deed, however, was only in her name, so the best-case scenario for everyone would have been for him just to leave and never come back.
“Ultimately, she went home to John Robert, and everything went back to normal, or at least as normal as it could be. He paid the hospital bill, and nothing else was said about it. Then, about six months after he’d nearly killed your memaw, John Robert was walking out the back door of The Mug Buster, you know, that old redneck dive bar out on Route 10.
He had been thrown out for being disorderly.
The owner didn’t want any fights inside.
“Well, someone found him around nine AM the following morning, unconscious and bloody behind the dumpster. Evidently, they called the ambulance. He had no wallet and no ID, but one of the nurses recognized him from when your memaw was there. She called her, and she went to the hospital to ID him. Heard he was unconscious for 3 days. Memaw didn’t stay up there the whole time.
She told the nurse to call her if he woke up.
But she went every day, which is a hell of a lot more loyal than I ever would have been, I can tell you that.
“Heard through the grapevine that he was in the hospital for over a week. The police came to see him the day before he was released to ask if he could identify who had attacked him. He said he couldn’t remember anything, except that his last memory was that he was walking his girlfriend, Vivian, out to her car around 9:30 PM.
He’d gone back inside and continued drinking until he was thrown out around midnight.
The times and events were later corroborated, from what we can gather.
He told the cops that he’d been extremely drunk and probably wouldn’t have remembered anything anyway.
“So, with no one to charge, they closed the case and went home. John Robert really didn’t know who beat him.
I don’t think he ever found out definitively who it was before he left town, but I know.
Papa Ed told me a couple of years after your mama and I got married,” he paused in his story for longer than was necessary, which allowed me to interject, “Hey! Don’t leave me hanging here. Who was it! Holy crap, Dad!”
Dad laughed, “Come on, Moose, you know you love suspense! Anyway, I had asked David if he would help me change the oil in your mama’s car while your memaw and mama went shopping.
He said he’d love to and came over with a six-pack of Michelob Light.
We spent the afternoon in our garage talking, laughing, changing the oil, and drinking.
Somehow, this same subject came up, and I told him what I had been told.
Then he looked at me, and his mood shifted.
He said that since John Robert was long gone and likely wouldn’t come back, and it didn’t matter anyway, he would tell me the whole story.
His face got really serious, and he explained that while your memaw was in the hospital, he’d gone to see her every single day.
He was so worried, but she begged him not to try to get revenge on John Robert.
She had told him that it would just make it worse for her and the next time, and that he might do something to Claire.
“As much as David had wanted to, he didn’t do or say anything to John Robert.
Now, understand that David’s very best friend in the whole wide world was a man named Alex Preston.
They had been friends since Third grade, when Alex’s family had moved to town.
Alex’s father was the town doctor. Anyway, Alex was a deputy sheriff and just happened to be married to a young lady named Nicole, who was one of your memaw’s nurses when she was in the hospital.
One day, as David was leaving the hospital, he saw Alex in the parking lot.
He was waiting for Nicole to get through with work.
Of course, David talked to him at length.
Alex said it was a damn shame that Guilia wouldn’t press charges against John Robert, but he understood, and that it was all too common in cases like that.
Pieces of shit like John Robert always made their victims so afraid that they wouldn’t risk that kind of retribution.
David told me that they decided that just maybe, they should just handle it themselves, like they used to when they were just kids.