The Ties that Bind (Kingdom) (18 page)

Nixon arched his body in an attempt to get away from the pain she was inflicting, but Taryn held on. Drawing back his arm, Nixon delivered a stinging blow to her face that caused her to bite down on her tongue. Tasting the blood in her mouth but ignoring the pain, Taryn gave one last twist of her wrist even as she bucked his body away.

Seizing her opportunity, Taryn jumped to her feet and hurriedly put as much distance between them as she could. Grabbing a glass vase from a table, she upended the flowers and water onto the floor.

“I’m warning you for the last time. Get out of my house, you make my skin crawl.” Taryn watched Nixon’s every move, scared of what he might still do. Breaking eye contact with her, Nixon lowered his head for a moment, and Taryn could see the lids of his eyes move as they shifted from side to side. When he raised his head, his expression was filled with such malice she knew he was up to something. But he didn’t approach her. Rather he began to taunt her.

“You don’t have to worry, I changed my mind about wanting anything from you. You may have the face and the body, but you haven’t got much more going for you. By the way, have you told little Hope that I’m her real daddy?”

“Shut your filthy mouth. That little girl has nothing to do with you, and she never will!”

“Oh, she’s mine alright, and one day when you least expect it you’re going to have to admit it to her. When that happens I hope I’ll be right there, laughing my ass off at your expense.”

“Are you done? I seriously hope so because you are boring the hell outta me!”

“Oh, I’m done. You have a good day now, ya hear?” With a wink, Nixon turned and walked towards the door.

Keeping a firm grip on the vase, Taryn tracked his footsteps to the front door. Taryn only lowered her weapon when she was certain he couldn’t re-enter her home. Just as the feeling of relief began to wash over her, Taryn heard the scream of her little girl rend the air.

Unaware the glass vase slipped through her fingers, and Taryn turned and rushed through the house back towards where she had left the children. Her heart pumped so hard she thought it would burst from her chest.

How could she have forgotten that she had left her babies unsupervised for so long? Nixon’s unexpected arrival had somehow managed to push all thoughts of her children from her mind.

The sound of Hope’s cries were a beacon pulling her forward. As each step drew her closer, Taryn knew only disaster awaited her. Bursting into the pool area, her eyes went first towards a screaming Hope, fearing she had somehow hurt herself. Following the direction of her little girl’s glance, Taryn was confronted by the floating body of her son. Although her brain was having difficulty processing the sight before her, she didn’t break her mad rush to the pool and jumped in, robe and all.

Reaching for her son’s little body it was almost as though the fates were taunting her. As her hand reached for him, his body floated away, and all she came away with was a fistful of water that seeped through her desperate fingers.

Another desperate grab and Taryn at last had a hold on M.J’s foot. Treading water, she pulled him towards her, all the while a lament of,
please God, let my baby be okay, please let him be okay
ran through her mind. Reaching the side of the pool, Taryn held her son close to her body as she somehow managed to maneuver them both out of the water.

Distraught with fear that she was too late, Taryn began to deliver C.P.R. to his still frame. Coming up for air, she pumped his chest and looked over at her daughter. “Hope, you need to help Mommy. You’re a big girl, so you have to help Mommy. Remember I taught you how to call 911. Do it for me now, baby. I need you to help Mommy.”

Taryn was grateful that Hope had stopped screaming, but nothing she said to her daughter got her to move a muscle. Knowing this was a critical time, Taryn made the decision to leave M.J’s limp body long enough to grab the phone. Wedging it between her shoulder and her chin she waited for the emergency services to answer.

“This is 911, what is your emergency?”

**********

As her mother worked on the still form of her little brother, Hope could only stand by and watch. She knew something was very wrong, but her dazed young mind was unable to comprehend exactly what was unfolding before her.

He mother exhibited total calm, even as she pumped M.J’s chest and blew into his mouth, over and over again. Each of her downward compressions was accompanied by a splash of her tears.

Hope was transfixed on the path of her mother’s tears as they escaped her eyes, and travelled down her cheeks. Some stopped at the corner of her mouth before falling against M.J’s face while others hung on her chin before they too found their way to finally rest on her brother’s face. Hope could see that her mother’s mouth was moving, but try as she might she couldn’t hear her words. No matter what her mother did, M.J. didn’t move. Time passed, but Hope had no idea how long she stood there, eyes fixed on the tableau playing out before her.

As she continued to watch, it seemed to her that all of a sudden there were lots of people surrounding her mother and brother. She watched as her father rushed towards the crowd of people who all seemed to be speaking at the same time. She could see that he too was adding his voice to the ever-expanding throng, but she still couldn’t understand what anyone was saying.

Finally, she forced her way through the gathered crowd to watch as her father pulled her now openly sobbing mother away and held her in his arms. Following their eyes she saw someone place two metal instruments against her brother’s chest. Hope watched as his little body raised up off the hard ground, as though controlled by invisible strings. Again and again his body jerked only to flop against the unrelenting hardness of the tiles that surrounded the pool.

One of the men spoke to her parents. Hope watched as her mother’s eyes rolled back into her head and her body went slack. She watched as her father caught her mother up with strong arms, and held her close to his shaking body. The day her brother died was the day her parents stopped seeing her, and the day she began the journey to regain their attention.

Chapter 19

After the accident, Hope’s world changed. Her mother seemed to be always sleeping, and her father’s eyes were so sad each time she looked at him. She also noticed that below the sadness was another expression directed at her. An expression she was unable to decipher, but it made her uneasy.

The first twenty-four hours after M.J’s death the house was constantly filled with official looking people investigating the accident. When it was her time to speak to the police her father accompanied her.

Needing him, Hope wanted him close when the questions began. The police had sent two female detectives to speak to her. One stood silently by while the other did her best to put her at ease. It didn’t work. There was a hardness about the woman that wasn’t lost on Hope even at her young age. Nothing she did or said was unkind, she just carried an air of detachment that Hope didn’t understand.

Having spent the last fifteen years on the police force, Detective Amanda Elms was no stranger to death. The tragedy that had taken place in this home, she could tell at a glance would have dire repercussions for them all.

She had seen it all before. Sometimes the families who were struck by tragedy would band together to weather the bereavement, while others totally fell apart. This family fell into the latter category. It was already happening. By the way, the father was looking at the child, it seemed that he was directing some level of blame towards her for the accident. There was no doubt in detective Elms’s mind that what had happened to the child was an accident, extremely heart breaking, but an accident none the less.

“Hope, that’s a pretty name for a pretty girl.” The detective said starting the conversation.

At first Hope didn’t respond, she didn’t know how to. It wasn’t a question, and the look in the woman’s eyes was so distant she decided to fall back on good manners. “Thank you.”

“Do you know why we’re here, Hope?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Hope answered, darting a quick look in her father’s direction, only to find him watching her with the same look she had encountered for the first time that morning.

“Good, now I want you to tell me anything you saw or heard yesterday while you were by the pool with your brother. Do you think you can do that for me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Hope said, and then fell into silence, a feeling of dread washing over her. Somehow she knew that when she started talking, her story would further change how her family interacted. Another surreptitious look in her father’s direction solidified her feelings of disquiet.

“Okay, well why don’t you tell us what happened.” Hope heard something in the detective’s voice, maybe it was pity, she didn’t know. She was too young to decipher its meaning, and lowered her chin to her chest, reluctant to begin.

“It’s okay, Hope. All you need to do is tell us the truth about what happened yesterday.” Mason spoke for the first time, his soft voice a total contrast to the tension that flowed from him into the atmosphere touching them all with icy cold.

“I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t mean for it to happen.” Were Hope’s first words to the waiting adults. “We were all in the pool, and someone came to the door. Mama got us out and locked the gate.

But she was gone for so long and M.J, started crying for his ball. I told him he had to wait, but he just kept crying. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I opened the gate so that I could get his ball.

I was just about to get into the pool to get M.J.’s ball when I heard Mama. She was shouting at someone. She sounded funny.”

The detective broke into Hope’s recollection to probe deeper into what she had heard, “What do you mean she sounded funny? Did she sound angry, scared? What did you think, Hope?”

“I don’t know, she just sounded funny!”

“For God’s sake, Hope,
funny
tells us nothing! Concentrate, how did your mother sound?”

“Mr. Richards, you’re not helping. Please leave the questions to me.” The detective came back at his outburst without hesitation, her displeasure at his interruption apparent in her tone and expression.

Turning back to Hope detective Elms attempted to mask her detachment in order to put Hope at ease.

Knowing she had to answer the question or risk annoying the adults even more, Hope started speaking in an attempt to tell them what she remembered. This time being careful not to use any words that would further put her on the spot with explanations she couldn’t give.

“I heard Mama, then I heard a crash. So I ran to the window. I saw... I saw...”

“What did you see, Hope?” Detective Elms broke in again.

Swallowing hard, Hope felt an almost overwhelming reluctance to speak the words out loud. Somehow she knew, that by doing so, it would further solidify the change that had already begun growing within her once happy family.

“Mama was laying on the couch with Uncle Nixon. Mama had her hand on the front of his pants. Then he kinda jerked and then he got up. Then she got up. They were saying stuff to each other, but I couldn’t hear what. I wanted to know, so I climbed over the hedge, but I still couldn’t hear.”

Hope didn’t know why she told the lie. She had heard every single word that had passed between her mother and uncle, and she hated them because she now knew the truth of her birth.

“When I realized that I couldn’t hear and that Mama was okay, I went back to the pool. That’s when I saw, M.J. floating in the water. I guess that’s when I started screaming. The next thing I remember was when the yard was full of people standing over M.J.”

“Are you sure, Hope? Think real hard, do you remember anything else?” Detective Elms prompted.

“I told you, that’s it. That’s all I remember!”

“I know you did, but try real hard. It doesn’t matter how small you think it was, we want to hear about it.”

“That’s it. Daddy, I don’t remember anything else. I don’t!” Hope said, jumping from her seat and running to her father. She hated Uncle Nixon, and she secretly hoped he would get into enough trouble to get him out of their lives, and leave her family alone. She didn’t want him to be her father. She just couldn’t bear the thought of that man being her father, so she clung to the man she had known as
Daddy
throughout her short life.

Hope felt a firm finger beneath her chin, raising it up until her gaze met his. Her father was giving her a look that she didn’t quite understand. She trusted him, he wouldn’t lead her astray. So she tried to understand what he wanted her to do, to say.

“Baby, can you think of anything else? I know it’s difficult for you. It’s hard for all of us, but you need to think real hard. If you can remember anything else, you need to tell the detective.”

“I don’t remember anything else, Daddy, I don’t. Honestly, I don’t.” Unable to look into her father’s eyes for a moment longer, Hope buried her head into his abdomen. Needing to sever the connection their eye contact even though she didn’t truly understand the way she was feeling. It was as though he was looking into the deepest recesses of her soul and finding her wanting.

M.J. was dead, and she didn’t want to be gone as well. She was Daddy’s beautiful little girl. That’s what he always said. That’s what she needed to be. Her truth as she spoke it would allow her to keep the father she wanted and discard the one she didn’t.

Hope was unsure how it happened. But the detectives were gone. All the strangers were gone. Her grandparents who had arrived earlier were asleep, and she was in bed, but sleep eluded her. Although tired, she fought the slumber that tried to pull her into restfulness. It was at this time, when the house was quiet, and all that could be heard was the creaking of the old house as it moved against the elements that buffeted it; it was in the night’s stillness that she learned what adults tried to keep from her.

Creeping out of her room, Hope moved on noiseless feet towards her parents’ bedroom.

“I’m going to ask you again, Taryn, what was he doing here?”