by Amy DeMeritt
“You should have come alone. I don’t want ‘it’ in my house.” Madison recoils some and steps backwards into me, searching for my hand. I take her hand and she takes a deep breath. “Don’t call her, ‘it’. Her name is Kayla. I’m not coming in there without all of them.”
Her mom’s eyes open slightly in shock and her mouth hangs open some as she looks between us again. I can tell that something is clicking in her brain, but her eyes narrow and she shakes her head once as if trying to prevent the thought from making the connection.
She opens the door and allows us to walk in. We hover in the space between the entry and the living room, uncertain what to do.
“Susan, bring them in here.”
I recognize the voice as Madison’s dad’s, but I can’t see him. We follow her through the living room and into the dining room, where Mr. Carter is sitting at the head of the table drinking a bottle of beer. Great, now alcohol is in the mix. This will either make him slightly less on edge and easier to talk to, or make him a bigger monster than he already was yesterday. Madison grips my hand tighter and her eyes go straight to the bottle. Well, her reaction tells me that his drinking is not a good thing. Fantastic.
Her dad points to the chair to the left of himself with a fast, hard jab.
“Madison, sit. Now.” She starts to move, but I hold her back. “She’s not a dog. Don’t talk to her like that.” He glares at me hard. “I am the head of this house, not you.”
“My father is the head of our house and he would never speak to one of us like that. Try your request again or we remain standing.” He takes a big swig from his bottle of beer, emptying its contents, and glances at my father once. He holds the bottle out towards his wife. “Another.” She quickly takes the bottle and leaves the room. “Madison, come sit down so we can talk.”
I still don’t like his tone, but I allow her to move, but I don’t allow her to take the seat next to him. I take the seat next to him and have her sit to my right, out of his reach. He glares at me again and tenses his jaw. Madison’s mom sets a fresh bottle of beer down in front of Mr. Carter and then sits down next to him. Sam and Shannon have moved chairs over to sit close to Madison, but my dad remains standing.
“How did you meet?” He asks the question into his bottle of beer. Madison is trembling and is taking too long to answer, so I answer for her. “I fell in her lap after jumping in front of a hockey puck to block it from hitting her.”
“Why did you need to block a hockey puck? That seems pretty random. Did you set that up?” I actually release a small laugh. “No. My friend Josh and a bunch of other people were playing hockey in the parking lot. Someone hit a wild shot and it was headed straight for Madison, who was sitting on a bench reading.”
“Did you pursue her after that?”
“What you’re really asking is if I turned your daughter gay. No, she was already gay, but had to hide it out of fear of exactly what is happening right now.” He glares at me a moment and leans forward some. He points a hard finger at Sam, and asks, “So, if you are her ‘girlfriend’, why did I find my daughter kissing her?” He says girlfriend like it’s the most bitter thing he’s ever tasted. Madison finally finds her voice and answers. “She is also my girlfriend. They all are.”
Her mom gasps and gets up, leaving the room. Her dad scoots his chair back quickly and stands up. Just as he takes a step around the table, towards Madison, I stand and push my chest against his.
“Stand down.”
He looks down at me with eyes that seem darker than they should be and his veins in his forehead and neck are popping out and pulsing hard. His face is red and his fists are clenched.
“Move.”
“No. Madison has always loved and respected you for never raising a hand to her as a child. I won’t allow you to transform into something that scares her. I won’t allow you to hurt her.”
“You turned my daughter into something disgusting. How many partners have you whored my daughter out to? How many have you had in your bed? You call me a monster? You are the monster – turning my good girl into a tramp.” I push against him, getting him off balance. “You better fucking watch what you call her.”
“Dad, stop. It wasn’t Kayla. I ask…”
“No. Madison, don’t. He deserves no answers on how any of this happened. All he needs to know is that we are all in love with each other.” He laughs in my face, spitting on me in the process. “Love? What does a whore like you know about love?”
“More than you.” His smirk disappears and he sort of growls at me. “I have been married for twenty-one years and have raised three children. How dare you compare yourself to me?”
“Do you love Madison?”
“She is my daughter, of course I love her.”
“Then why am I having to protect her from you?”
“That, is not my daughter. Not the daughter I knew. You changed her.”
“If you love your daughter, then you need to get over it. This is who she is. This is how she is the happiest. If you love your daughter, you’ll unclench those fists and sit your ass down and accept her.”
He quickly grabs my throat, shoves me against the wall, and lifts me off the floor by my neck. My feet search for the floor, but I can’t find it. I can’t breathe at all.
“Dad, stop. Let her go!”
Madison breaks down crying hard. She tries to reach for him, but my dad comes over, pulling her back. Sam and Shannon grab onto her. My dad takes a step closer as if to rip Mr. Carter off of me, but I’m not done handling this. I grab his wrist and forearm and pull my legs up, kicking him in the stomach. He bends over and stumbles backwards enough that I slide down the wall with his hand firmly held in mine. I quickly sidestep behind him and bend his arm back behind him like my dad has shown me how to do many times. He goes down on his knees and groans.
“You need to take the fucking hint that your assaults aren’t going to land. I will die for those girls, but not before making sure they are safe. You’re not going to scare me off with you verbal or physical attacks. You want a fight, then I’ll give you a fucking fight. But for Madison’s sake, I wish you would calm the fuck down and act like the man that raised her and not this crazy asshole.”
He breaks down crying and slumps forward with his face in his hand. I slowly releases the lock I have on his arm and help him off the floor and back into his chair. He reaches for his beer, but I take it away and set it further down the table out of his reach.
“You’ve had enough.” He looks at me and nods once. “Maddi, please get your dad some water.”
She’s trembling and doesn’t move for a moment. Sam takes her hand and pulls her out of the room. When they come back, Sam sets the glass down in front of him, keeping Madison out of reach of him and then they walk back over to my dad and Shannon.
He takes several big gulps of water and takes a deep breath before looking up at me with sadness deeply etched in his face, creasing the skin around his eyes and his forehead.
“Perhaps you are right. I don’t understand love as well as I should. You must really love my daughter to keep jumping in front of her to protect her.”
“I do. We all do.”
His eyes crease more and he looks around the room. Sam and Shannon are holding onto Madison and rubbing her back soothingly. Madison is watching her dad with panic and fear in her red emotion tinted eyes. Her body is still visibly shaking.
“I just don’t understand it, and I don’t think I want to.”
The front door opens and a guy and girl come in talking and laughing. They walk into the kitchen, and as one of them is opening the fridge, they notice us in the dining room and walk in. The boy looks a lot like Madison, but the girl looks more like their father. She is taller with dirty blonde hair and plain features. Madison’s brother is a year older than her and her sister is two years younger than her. Jacob, her brother, looks around the room with confusion and then sees the beer on the table.
“Whose beer is that?
Why is there beer in the house?” Mr. Carter looks down at the table and answers, “Its mine.”
“Fucking asshole. You promised!”
Jacob grabs the beer and goes to the kitchen to pour it out. He roughly opens the fridge and curses again. I watch him from the doorway as he pours every single bottle down the drain.
Madison’s sister, Ashley, slowly walks to our side of the table and approaches Madison. She places her hands on Madison’s shoulders and looks back at their dad for just a moment.
“Madison, why are you shaking? What’s happening?”
Madison just shakes her head and her sister slips her arms around her, between Sam and Shannon, giving her a small hug.
“Why the fuck are you drinking?” Jacob is back and standing next to his dad with his hands on his hips and looks like he’s about to hit him. “Madison is gay and has three girlfriends.”
“Madison is gorgeous and has never had a boyfriend, of course she’s gay. So, what? Wait, three?” He looks around the room and laughs a little. “Well, damn.” He looks at his dad again and his anger returns. “It doesn’t matter. That’s no excuse to drink.”
I’m a little confused, because Madison has never mentioned her dad having a drinking problem. Her reaction of gripping my hand tighter when we first got here makes a lot more sense now though.
“Leave me alone, Jacob. You don’t know what it feels like to fail your child.”
“Shut up. You’ve always been a fucking prick about homosexuals and its fucking annoying as shit. You need to grow up. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
“Jacob, watch your mouth. Don’t talk to your father that way.”
Madison’s mom is back and she has a large piece of paper in her hand at her side, but I can’t tell what it is. She takes a deep shaky breath and steps forward, looking at Madison.
“What you are doing is sick and wrong. You have a choice. Break this off with these girls and be normal, or lose your family. I will not have a homosexual in my family.”
Madison’s eyes get big and she grips onto Sam and Shannon more tightly. Ashley quickly wraps an arm around her as well.
“Mom, no. What are you doing? We’re not kicking Madison out of the family just because she’s in love with girls.”
“Ashley, let go of her and come over here.”
“No.”
Jacob shoves passed his mom and comes around to our side of the table and also wraps his arm around the huddle around Madison.
“You two have lost your fucking minds. You do this, and you won’t just lose Madison.”
“Really? Who pays for your college tuition, clothes, food, cellphone, and your car?”
“Take it. Take all of it. I’d rather be homeless and still have my sisters than support this evil shit. You know you’re not right. This is disgusting.”
“Fine. Wish granted – you can have your filthy sister and you can figure out how you’re going to pay for everything.” She lifts the mystery item in her hand and it’s a large family portrait. She tears the side with Madison off and sets it on the table. “There, take her.”
She storms out of the room before anyone can say anything. Madison breaks down sobbing loudly and everyone wraps around her. I move to join the group, but Mr. Carter grabs my hand.
“Wait, you come with me. We’ll go talk to Susan.”
He stands up and takes another gulp of water. He grabs the piece of torn photo off of the table and leads me out of the room. I glance back at Madison and her eyes meet mine for a moment before I turn back and follow Mr. Carter.
We find his wife sitting in a straight back arm chair in the family room with her hand over her mouth and slightly rocking in the chair, trying to keep her emotions buried inside. When she sees us, she quickly straightens up and wipes at her eyes. She glares at me and then looks at her husband confused.
Mr. Carter kneels on one knee in front of his wife and places the torn photo on her lap.
“Susan, we can’t do this to our child.” She glares at me and hisses, “You got to him too.” He grabs her face and makes her look at him. “Yes, she did. She made me see that we still have a lot to learn about love. I don’t understand it, and I don’t know if I ever will, but I love our little girl. I don’t want to disown my child.”
“That is not our little girl.”
“Madison is still the same person you’ve always known. She has one of the most beautiful hearts I’ve ever known. She is kind, compassionate, forgiving, and makes people feel special and important.”
“Don’t tell me what my child is like. I know what my child is like. I raised her. You have only known her for a few months. I have known her for eighteen years. I have watched her grow into the woman that she is. Or was. You turned her into this ‘thing’ that I don’t even recognize.”
“Then you are blinded by hatred because your daughter hasn’t changed at all. She is exactly who she always has been. You just refused to see parts of who she has been all this time out of your fear and misunderstanding of homosexuals. We are no different from you.”
“You most certainly are different! A woman should be with a man! Period! That is how love is supposed to work.”
“Could you help who you fell in love with? Did you choose to love your husband?” Her eyes narrow at me and she crosses her arms over her chest. She doesn’t answer, so I answer for her. “No, you didn’t. You can’t pick who you are attracted to and who you love. It just happens.”
“You’re not in love. You’re just having nasty sex with my daughter.”
“Susan, they are in love. I don’t understand it, but I can see it.”
She slaps him hard across the face and pushes his shoulders, knocking him backwards. She stands up and gets in my face.
“You’ve slept with her, haven’t you, all of you, at once?”
“Yes.” She slaps me hard across the face, but I don’t move. “You’ve made her do things to you?” I shake my head. “I don’t make them do anything.” She smacks me again, causing tears to well up in my eyes. “You’ve been naked with my daughter and you have touched her.”
“Yes.” And again, she slaps me hard. “You can hit me all you want. It won’t change anything. I love your daughter and I’ll stand here and let you beat me black and blue if it will help you to understand us better.” She slaps me again and as soon as I raise my head again, she strikes me again. “How many times do I have to hit you to get you to break up with my daughter?”
“Never going to happen. You could try to kill me and I’d never break up with her.”
She glares at me as if she is actually considering it. She suddenly lets out a banshee like scream and starts slapping me with both hands. I raise my arms to block her slaps from my face, but she grips my throat with both hands and digs her nails into my neck, shaking me. Mr. Carter quickly comes over and wraps his arms around her and rips her off of me. As she’s being pulled backwards, she kicks her legs out, landing a hard kick to my shin and into my bad ribs. The pain is blinding and I go down hard.
I bend over holding my ribs, gasping for air. Within seconds, everyone comes running into the room and I have all of my girls and my dad kneeling around me. My dad lifts my face to look at me and anger flares in his eyes.
“What happened?”
“I’m ok.” He looks behind himself a moment, where Mr. Carter is restraining his wife. “You are not ok. You have a black eye and the entire left side of your face is bruised and is bleeding. You’re also bleeding from your neck and your holding your ribs. What happened to your ribs?”
“She kicked me. But I’ll be ok.”
“This is enough. You two are acting like crazy animals. You don’t want me in your family, then fine. I don’t want to be in a family with monsters. You need help. I can’t believe you did this.”
Madison is suddenly more composed than she’s been all day, standing firmly facing her parents and yelling at them. She bends down and offers me her hands to pull me up. I take her hands and care
fully stand up, but as I straighten up, my ribs painfully pinch, making me gasp and drop to my knees.
“Somethings not right.”
Shannon quickly bends down next to me and feels my side. As her hand presses into a spot, I scream and black out.
Chapter Eight
I wake up strapped down to a bed with my dad sitting next to me and a woman in a blue EMT uniform taking notes on a clipboard. We’re in a very small space. I start to panic and try to sit up, but the woman places a hand on my arm.
“Don’t move. We’ll be at the hospital soon.”
“Am I in an ambulance?”
“Yes. Can you tell me how you were injured?”
“My girlfriend’s mom turned into a banshee. Can you unstrap me?”
“Not till we get you to the hospital. On a scale of one to ten, what’s your pain level right now?”
“I don’t know, eight or nine I guess. Where’s my girls?”
“I gave Sam my keys. They’re going to meet us at the hospital.”
We stop moving and the woman sitting next to me gets up and starts unlatching stuff around my bed. The backdoor opens and a man helps my dad step out and then they are lifting me with my bed out of the ambulance. They wheel me into the hospital and then carefully lift me by the sheet I’m on and lay me on a hospital bed. A tall black man in scrubs comes over and the paramedic hands him some papers.
“She needs x-rays on her ribs and throat. She has several lacerations on her face and neck. It was physical assault by a non-family member, however she is over eighteen so no police report is required.” The woman EMT turns to me and pats my arm. “Ok, this is where we part. I hope you recover quickly.”
“Thank you.” She nods and they leave. My dad bends down and kisses my forehead, looking very concerned. “I’ll wait out here for the girls. Have them page me if you need me. I’m going to call your mother and let her know what’s going on. I sent her a text on the way here, but I need to call her.”
