Girls, Gifted

by E K Ballard

  * * *

  Rob listened with horror as Rebecca beat Kristin. He ran to his car and started driving home while yelling into the phone, “Rebecca! Rebecca! Stop it!”

  He was helpless to stop the abuse he heard on the other end of the line. The only thing he could do was hope to get home in enough time to save Kristin.

  Rob made it to the house within seven minutes and came screeching to a halt in the driveway. He ran up to the bathroom, where he heard the shower water still running. As he stood at the door, he saw Rebecca breathing heavily, sitting on the edge of the tub, looking down at Kristin, who was slumped over the side of the tub, motionless.

  Kristin’s head was bleeding and her back and backside was covered with angry red welts. He pushed Rebecca out of the way.

  “What the hell did you do to her?” he cried.

  He wrapped a towel around Kristin’s head to try and stop the bleeding and put her bathrobe on her limp body. He scooped her up and carried her down the hallway.

  “Oh, honey, come on, wake up! Stay with me, baby!”

  Kristin moaned.

  “Come on. Daddy’s got you.” Rob carried her downstairs and put her in the backseat of the car. He started driving like a madman back into town.

  Where should he take her? He was pretty sure she needed medical attention, but if he took her to the hospital they would arrest Rebecca and take the kids from him. He didn’t want to lose them, and they didn’t have the money to pay for legal fees and fines. What if they put him in jail, too?

  They had no health insurance. How many thousands of dollars would a trip to the emergency room set them back? He didn’t want to put a price tag on his daughter’s health, but he knew it would take years to pay off an emergency room visit.

  His mind raced. If they went to the store, everyone would see the condition she was in and someone might call the police. Besides, he didn’t want to bring his personal problems to his job. He couldn’t have customers seeing his daughter like this.

  “Honey? You doing okay back there?” Rob asked anxiously.

  Kristin didn’t answer. Rob stopped the car to check on her. She was still breathing, but the towel wrapped around her head was saturated in blood.

  He shook her shoulders and she opened her eyes.

  “Where are we going?” she asked him in a weak voice.

  “We’re going to get you some help,” Rob answered. He almost told her how sorry he was, but now was not the time to unburden himself of his guilt. He needed to stay focused and get her medical attention.

  Rob got back in and continued driving. He was leaning towards going to the emergency room when he saw the sign for Stowe Auto Repair. Hadn’t Angela once said she used to be a nurse? He jerked the steering wheel into the parking lot and came to a skidding stop by the front door. Guys working in the shop stopped what they were doing and walked to the front of the garage.

  John heard the commotion and came out front wiping grease from his hands on to a shop rag.

  “Rob? What’s wrong?”

  “I need your help. Come here.” He pointed to the back seat of his car.

  “What the hell happened? Good Christ, get her to the hospital!”

  John saw Rob was a wreck and got in to the driver’s seat. “Get in!”

  Rob got in to the passenger side. “We can’t go to the hospital. Please. Rebecca will be arrested. Can Angela help us?”

  John drove the short distance to his house and they carried Kristin into the kitchen. Angela heard them come in and shrieked when she saw Kristin’s limp body and bloody head.

  “What happened?” She got down on her knees and started tending to Kristin. “Why don’t we take her to the hospital?”

  “Let’s see if we can take care of her here,” said John. They picked her up and sat her in a chair. Kristin cried out when her back touched the chair.

  “Kristin? Can you hear me?” asked Angela.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. I’m going to try and clean out your cut so I can see it better, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Angela looked at the cut under the light. “I think it’s just one of those head cuts that bleed a lot and look a lot worse than they are. John, get me the liquid skin from the medicine cabinet.”

  John handed her the tube she was looking for. After a moment, she looked up. “All right, we got you glued back together. Now I’m going to clean you up a little bit and put a bandage on you.”

  Rob and John watched as Angela got the bleeding to stop and the color started to return to Kristin’s face.

  “What happened?” asked Angela angrily.

  Rob shook his head. “That’s not all of it.” He stood Kristin up and gently pulled Kristin’s robe back, revealing the swollen strap-mark welts that were turning purple.

  “Holy shit! Tell me again why we aren’t taking her to the hospital?” Angela asked as they carried Kristin into the living room and laid her face down on the sofa.

  Rob sat next to Kristin and put his head in his hands. “I just don’t know what to do anymore. Everything I do turns to shit. If we take her to the hospital, Rebecca gets arrested.”

  “She should be arrested!” said Angela. “Look at this poor girl! This is child abuse!”

  “Then I lose the kids, I may lose my job, and who knows? Maybe they’d arrest me too. It would just be a mess.”

  “We need to take care of those cuts before they get infected. John, get me the antibacterial cream from the bathroom.” Angela leaned in close to Kristin. “Are you hanging in there?”

  “Yes. Where’s Jamie?”

  “She’s at school.”

  “Can I see her?”

  “I know she misses you.” Angela looked at Rob.

  “You can see her if you eat something,” he said. “She hasn’t eaten since Friday.”

  “I am going to make you some lunch.” Angela’s eyes started to tear up at the sight of Kristin’s legs. “John, go to the pharmacy and get more antibacterial cream, this won’t be enough. Then stop in at the school and tell them to dismiss Jamie now. Tell her to come right home.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  The clock in the in-school-suspension room moved interminably slowly. Jamie made herself look away from it. Her work for the next three days was in front of her in folders, but she didn’t care about any of it.

  She didn’t care about anything except seeing Kristin.

  Jamie put her head down on the desk, but lifted it when she felt a tap on her shoulder. The teacher in charge scowled down at her and shook his head, meaning, no sleeping in here.

  Jamie sat up and slouched back in her chair. Only three more hours to go.

  The weekend had been awful. She had tried to text and call Kristin, but her phone must have been turned off. She even tried Lucas’s phone, but his had been turned off, too. Jamie wondered what Kristin was going through and how she was doing. She hoped it wasn’t too bad.

  The phone on the wall rang and the teacher in charge answered it. “Will do,” he said as he hung up.

  “Jamie? That was the office. Take all your things with you and go sign out. You’re going home.”

  Jamie didn’t have to be told twice. She packed her bag and got out of that room before he could change his mind. At the office, she saw her dad at the sign out desk.

  “What’s going on?” she asked him.

  “Just get your things and get home,” was all he would tell her.

  She got out to her Jeep and followed her father back to the house, where she was surprised to see the Olsons’ car in the driveway.

  Jamie pushed past her father and burst through the kitchen door. She found her mom sitting at the kitchen table with Kristin’s dad.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  Angela got up and led Jamie into the living room, where Kristin was lying on the sofa. John and Rob followed.

  Jamie couldn’t believe what she saw. Kristin’s head was bandaged. She was covered loosely in a sheet with ice p
acks on the back of her legs.

  “What happened?” she demanded.

  “Here,” said John, handing the tube of cream to Angela.

  Angela took off the ice bags and pulled up the nightgown, revealing Kristin’s red and raw backside.

  “What the fuck happened!” Jamie yelled in disbelief.

  She sunk to her knees and looked into Kristin’s face. Kristin opened her eyes and managed a wan smile. “Jamie,” she said weakly.

  “Hey you, what happened?” Jamie choked back tears.

  “My mom,” said Kristin.

  “Your mother did this to you?”

  Kristin nodded her head slightly.

  “Do you want to put this on her legs, or…?” Angela held up the medicated cream.

  “I’ll do it,” Jamie said, taking the tube from her mother.

  John put a package of bandages next to Jamie. “Put these on over the cream when you are done.” He and Rob left the room.

  She squeezed some out and tenderly spread it on Kristin’s open wounds.

  “Does this hurt?” she asked. Kristin shook her head.

  “What happened?” Jamie asked Angela when she finished putting on the last bandage. Jamie lightly placed the sheet and ice bags back on Kristin’s legs.

  “Her mother beat her pretty badly, Jamie. She needs to rest for now. Can you stay in here and keep an eye on her while we discuss things in the kitchen?”

  Jamie sat on the sofa next to Kristin and put some pillows on her lap. Kristin pulled herself forward and laid her head on the pillows. Jamie gently stroked Kristin’s head, carefully avoiding the bandage.

  “Does it hurt a lot?” Jamie asked.

  “Not as much. Your mom gave me something for the pain.”

  “I’m so sorry, Kristin. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed for us to do that at school.”

  “No, it’s not. We didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do. She’s crazy.”

  After a few minutes, Rob, John, and Angela came back in to the living room.

  Jamie couldn’t contain herself any longer. “What the fuck?” she said to Rob. “How could you let this happen?”

  “Jamie, that isn’t productive,” said John.

  “Oh, so this is what we consider productive?” Jamie jerked her head towards Kristin’s legs. “I am going to fucking kill her mother.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “The fuck I won’t!” Jamie picked up her phone. “Fine. Then I’ll call 911 and report her to the police!”

  “You’re not going to do that, either. You’re going to calm down and listen,” John said.

  Rob said, “What Rebecca did to Kristin is inexcusable and if we weren’t in the position we’re in right now, I would have taken Kristin to the hospital and let the system run its course. But we just can’t right now. What they would do is remove her, and Lucas, from the house and place them in foster care. The solution we came up with is this: Kristin will not be coming home anytime soon, at least until Rebecca agrees to see a doctor and get some counseling. She is going to stay here, with you, until she graduates.”

  “I’m going to live here with Jamie?” Kristin said.

  “It’s either here or with Mike and Kathy, and I don’t want to get them involved more than I have to. I already asked them to pick Lucas up from school today. He’s staying with them tonight.”

  “So I’ll graduate early, with Jamie?” Kristin asked.

  “Yes. I’m going to sign off on your paperwork to graduate early so you can get off to college next year. You’re ready, academically. You’ll need to take the SATs or the ACT within the next month.”

  Jamie continued to stroke Kristin’s hair. “What about Lucas? Is he going to stay with your family?”

  “He can stay here,” offered Angela. “We have the room.”

  “I don’t think that will be necessary,” said Rob. “I won’t leave him alone with his mother until she gets the help she needs.”

  “So if I keep my mouth shut and don’t rock your world, you’ll let Kristin stay here until graduation?” Jamie asked.

  “Yes.”

  “As long as nothing happens to Lucas, you’ve got a deal,” said Jamie, holding Kristin’s hand.

  The family gave the girls some privacy and time to let Kristin recover from her trauma. Jamie and Kristin didn’t speak; they didn’t have to. They knew what the other was thinking. They had suffered so much to get to this point. Everything from here forward would be on their terms, with their future together their biggest priority. Nothing would separate them again.

  Jamie listened as each breath deepened and Kristin relaxed for what seemed like the first time in a long time. Jamie knew she had finally fallen asleep.

  “I will never let anyone hurt you again.”

  About the Author

  E.K. Ballard is a teacher in Sarasota, Florida, and is an avid fantasy football enthusiast. She and her wife are kept busy raising four dogs while advocating for equality.