Dad opens his mouth to protest, but then catches that look in my eyes. He knows that these are not the words of his five year old daughter, but rather the words of Karma. Slowly, he starts to nod his head.
“I understand, but I don’t want you being near Eddie,” he says, matter-of-factly. “I have met his type before. You can’t change people who are mean for fun, Krystal. He is dangerous. Promise me you will be careful.”
“Daddy, he lives there. I won’t have a choice in being near him, but I do want to help Mummy and the baby for a few weeks. If that means Eddie needs to learn some manners, then that is what will happen.” I tell him. “Regardless, know that I will be back home with you before school starts next year, okay?”
After a moment’s pause, he finally nods his head before climbing out of bed to help pack my suitcase. I make sure that Ralph accompanies me on my “holiday,” having seen first-hand how valuable he can be when serious problems arise. As my sisters wake up, they are surprised to find a packed suitcase, yet again, at the front door. Leena immediately flashes me a worried look.
“I’m not going back!” she screams, bursting into tears.
“Of course you are not going back, silly,” I blurt out. Dad pulls Leena in for a gentle hug as I explain, “I am going to stay with Mummy and Eddie for a little while, but I will be back before you know it. Will you please look after Daddy, Tania and Mindy while I am away?” I ask Leena. She is momentarily speechless, but eventually walks over and hugs me tight.
“Be careful of him. He is not just a pig, he is also evil. Pure evil. He likes Jake, sure, but he hates me, Tania and you. I am not even sure he likes Mummy. He swears at her and fights with her….” says Leena, starting to hyperventilate with panic. “Be safe, Krystal.”
Dad rings Mum to make sure they are home and awake. He tells them that I will be coming for a week or two to help around the house. He also warns her that if Eddie puts a single step out of place when I am there, he will personally kick his. Without argument, she agrees to my dad’s terms. With my suitcase in tow, we go downstairs and climb into the car. Tania sits in the middle of the back seat so that Mindy can put her little nose up at the window, which had been cracked at the top by a centimetre or so. For a little dog, you sure love your car rides! I contemplate asking Dad if he will build her a little high-chair for the car so that Mindy can see out of the window properly, but quickly decide that can wait for another day. I am about to meet my baby brother for the second time in my life and, oddly enough, I feel nervous since I am a stranger to him. With luck, he won’t vomit milk all over himself like he had done at the hospital that first time.
When we pull into the driveway, Mum is waiting for me at the door. Looking weary, she smiles when she sees the car pull up. Although she is still dressed in her pyjamas, our mother is genuinely happy to see me again after so long.
“Oh my goodness, Krystal! You have grown so much!” she says, hugging me. As I hug her back, Eddie mumbles some obscenities from inside the house. The rude pig doesn’t even come to the front door. Dad hands my suitcase to Mum and reminds her of their conditions regarding my visit. Mum nods in silence before waving to my sisters in the car. Leena sits in the front seat, staring miserably at her feet. Tania gives Mindy cuddles and pays no mind to what is going on at the front door.
Leaning down, Dad gives me a kiss and hug. “Be a good girl. I know that you will be good but I have to say it anyway because that’s what dads do. I love you, Krystal.” I hug him back and remind him that I will be home soon.
“I love you too, Daddy. You can ring me if you miss me too much, okay?” I say, trying to assure him that everything will work out. “Don’t forget to put fresh water in Rusty’s bowl every day and also water the Frangipani tree as well. It needs water.” He laughs and thanks me for giving him permission to call. He also assures me that he won’t forget to water the bowl or the tree. I stand at the front door and wave as the car drives away.
“Shut the fucking door, will you?” Eddie yells from the kitchen.
And here we go.
Chapter Twelve
As soon as Mum slams the door closed behind us, thoroughly annoyed by Eddie’s swearing and rudeness towards the rest of her family, the baby starts crying.
“Dammit!” she curses, as she carries my suitcase to my room. Hearing my mother swearing is something that shocks me. Don’t let Eddie’s bad behaviour rub off on your, Mummy! Interrupting my thoughts, Mum stops at the room near the end of the hall and says, “Krystal, here is where you will be sleeping, okay?” As I nod, she asks “Since you were not properly introduced the last time, would you like to meet your baby brother?” Regardless of Eddie’s behaviour, I can’t help but smile at such an offer.
“Yeah,” I say, taking her hand. Together, we walk into the nursery.
When I look at the crib, I am astonished at how big he is. The last time I saw my brother, he was so tiny that he could just about fit into a can of pineapple juice, all wrapped up in a small blanket at the hospital. This time, he is standing on his two tiny feet, holding the side of the crib and crying his lungs out. Mum leans over the side of the crib and lifts him out.
“Krystal, please meet Jake – your baby brother, who seems to have a very wet diaper!” Although my heart is happy, my nose is not. I never thought it possible for a baby to smell so gross. I watch as Mum carries Jake over to the change table and points to where the clean diapers are. “Could you bring me one of those, please, sweetheart?”
I walk over and grab a clean, folded white cloth which looks like half of a white bath towel, and take it to my mum. As for the sight that greets me when I get to the table... well, there is no level high enough on the yuck-scale to accurately describe what I had come face to face with. Covering my nose and mouth, I suddenly wish I had a third hand so that I could my eyes as well. Never had I seen so much poop in my life – not even in Mindy’s outdoor enclosure! When I first look up at Mum’s face, I think she is crying. It is not long before I realise that her eyes are simply watering from the stench of Jake’s diaper. She wipes his butt, cleans him up and expertly puts a fresh clean diaper on him. With all crying now silenced, Mum picks up Jake and asks if I would like to hold him.
“Ummm… not just yet, thanks. That was pretty gross. I need to put my stomach back in first,” I point out, feeling a little green around the gills. Giggling, my mother agrees that diaper time is anything but fun. As we both sit there smiling at each other, I am reminded in those first ten minutes at her house of how much I miss my mum.
“Come out and say hello to Eddie,” she says, both excited and cautious at the same time. My moment of happiness crumbles in an instant as I am brought back to the reality of the present, sharing a house with a man who lies, constantly stinks of beer and swears around children.
Mum carries Jake carefully, while holding my hand. Together, we go to the kitchen and find Eddie sitting at one of the empty chairs at the round kitchen table. Eddie puts his hands out so he can take Jake from my mum. Instead, Jake ends up being placed into the high-chair, sitting between my mother and me. He starts playing with some toys on the table in front of his chair, smiling as he looks at his father who, unsurprisingly, already stinks of beer even though most people are still asleep in their beds.
“Hello Eddie,” I say cordially. Eddie continues to look at Jake, doing his best to ignore the fact that I am at his house. I sniff the air deliberately in his direction. “Something smells bad,” I say to nobody in particular.
“Krystal spoke to you, Eddie,” Mum says, frowning at him for acting less mature than her five year old daughter. “Perhaps you could start acting like a father when the girls are around?” Eddie stares daggers at my mum before turning to look at me. With not a single bit of kindness on his face, Eddie’s behaviour reminds me of the spoiled little boy who had been kicked out of kindergarten for biting the teacher last year.
“Yeah. So how long are you here for, then?” he asks, feigning at least a little bit of
interest. As I am about to answer his question, he mutters under his breath, “Not too fucking long, I hope.”
Possibly longer than you, stinky. “I am here as long as Mummy and Jake need me to be,” I reply with a smile, ignoring his arrogance. Eddie rolls his eyes and resumes watching Jake, who continues to play happily with his toys. I pray that Jake is oblivious to the bad language and tension in the room. The last thing I want is for my brother to grow up as rude and potty-mouthed as his father.
The phone rings. Eddie quickly answers before handing the phone to my mum. Not wanting to eavesdrop on her conversation, I turn my chair towards Jake and start to make quiet car noises as I push one of his toy cars along the table-top in front of him. Jake giggles at the noise. I push the car back the other way, continuing to make the cars go *VROOOM*.
“Shut that fat mouth of yours while your mother is on the fucking phone! Jesus Christ! Are you a fucking retard or what?” I turn my head, shocked by Eddie’s words in front of the baby, and stare, looking as deeply into his twisted soul as I possibly can. Once again, the signals are mixed. Nothing seems to make sense. His thoughts are scrambled. Even without the trash talking and cussing, I know that something is very wrong with this man. I just can’t put my finger on it. “What am I saying?” Eddie mutters under his breath. “Of course you are stupid.” As insulting as Eddie’s babbling is, I sweetly smile and continue to stare at him until he finally stands up and storms off into the back yard, slamming the door on the way.
The sudden loud noise of the slamming door makes Jake jump. He starts shaking and crying. It had taken less than an hour to see what sort of an upbringing Jake will have with Eddie as a father. When Mum hangs up the phone, she walks over to Jake, puts his pacifier in his mouth and picks him up from his high chair. Kissing him on the side of the head, she soothes him until he stops crying.
“I’m sorry, Mummy,” I say, as I put my hand on Jake’s foot in an effort to help sooth him.
“None of that was your fault, Krystal,” Mum says. “You have nothing to be sorry about, sweetheart.” She leans over and gives me a kiss on the forehead, making me smile. Yes, I still miss her and wish she was back at home with us. But I know that the chances of that happening are now are essentially zero. “Would you like to play in the living room with Jake for a while? I want to go and have a word with your step-father.” I smile, nodding as my eyes light up. Even though he can’t talk yet, Jake is fun to be with. If playing with him means I don’t have to be near the pig in the back yard, then I am definitely happy.
Mum puts Jake in his playpen and I climb in too, showing him how to use building blocks and explaining that they must balance perfectly so they do not fall down. My baby brother doesn’t take his eyes off the blocks and seems to be transfixed on every word I say. I guess nobody really talks to you in this house, do they Jakey? As soon as I stop talking, I can hear my mother screaming at Eddie in the back yard.
Her words, “…and stop being such a giant fucking DOUCHE when people come to visit!” stop Jake and me in our tracks. Her anger towards Eddie is approaching breaking point. I can hear it clearly in her voice, which Jake and I can hear just as if she were standing right next to us. Walking back into the living room, her face is burning red as anger and frustration seem to be searing her skin from within, but as soon as she sees Jake and me in the playpen, her face transforms into one of love and appreciation.
“Mummy, Jake is teaching me how to make a building!” I squeal, causing Mum to burst into fits of laughter. She walks over to us and sits on the floor next to the playpen, watching us carefully as we get to know each other as brother and sister.
Putting her hand on my head, she says “You are so precious to me, Krystal. Thank you for being here.” My heart swells with pride at these words. It makes me wonder how she ended up married to a dick like Eddie. My mother deserves so much better. When Eddie finally comes back inside, he storms into the kitchen and grabs his keys from the key holder on the wall above the sink.
“I am off to the pub. You can deal with Jake and the retard on your own,” Eddie growls as he walks out the door. Off to the pub? Wow, there’s a shocker. Good riddance! I can sense all kinds of anger and hurt whirlpooling around inside my mother as soon as Eddie spews out his parting insult. I pity my mum and everything she has to go through right now.
“Krystal, do you want to help Mummy do some housework?” my mother asks, trying hard to sound cheerful. “Your cousin is coming to visit later today. He will be here for just a couple of days and he is looking forward to seeing you and his newest baby cousin!” With so many cousins I have never met, I decide not to ask any questions right now. The thought of doing some cleaning and being helpful in some way brings another smile to my face.
“Let’s do some cleaning!” I say, ever so excited. For as long as I can remember, helping to clean had always been one of my favourite things to do.
Mum gets the feather duster out of the cleaning closet in the bathroom, along with a small purple apron which loops over my head and has ties that go behind my back. As she ties my apron in a bow, I realise that it is the perfect size for me! “I made this just for you, young lady. It even has a little pocket at the front, just in case you need to carry more things that can fit into your little hands,” my mother says, absolutely glowing when she sees the excited expression on my face. She then pulls out a second apron from of the closet, much bigger than mine. After looping the top of the apron over her head, she then reaches behind her own back, tying it into a bow effortlessly. I hope I can do that too some day! My mother is a cleaning superhero. Maybe I should make her a cape with ‘Super Mummy’ written on the back. Well, maybe I will do that after I learn how to sew.
I start dusting everything I can see, including the top of Jake’s head. He giggles madly so I touch the feather duster to his nose. “BOOP!” I say as it touches. Jake closes his eyes and his mouth opens. When the feathers are gone from his face, he blinks a couple of times before giggling again. This game continues for a good five minutes. When I look up, I see my mother busily mopping the floor in the kitchen, with all chairs now upside down on top of the table. She wears the strangest looking socks on her feet, which resemble thick towels. As soon as she catches me staring at her socks, my mother explains that they are special socks that she made herself from old bath towels. Her reason for wearing them is so she can dry the floor as she mops. She also leaves no footprints behind anywhere. I cheer and applaud how smart her invention is and, before I realise it, Jake has started clapping too!
With the house now sparkling from top to bottom, Mum pulls a couple of children’s books from the book shelf. She offers them to me so I can read while she feeds Jake. On top of the pile is a new book called “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” which I’d never seen before. On the front cover is a giant green caterpillar with a red head. Although reading is not my strongest point, I decide to give it a try.
“You can read it out loud, if you like,” Mum says to me. “Jake loves the sound of your voice so it might help him to fall asleep faster if you read to him.” I nod my head and smile, before opening the first page. Jake starts to make a fuss because he is tired, but the moment I start to read, his fussing stops. Silently, he listens as I tell him about a caterpillar that eats and eats and eats. Mum also listens intently, smiling as I glance up at her and Jake. Looking into her eyes, I can see that she is truly content. This fills me with happiness. I wish there were more moments like this for my mother. She deserves to be happy.
Once Jake is sound asleep, Mum puts him to bed and closes the door. She then fills the sink with water so she can wash the breakfast dishes. When the sink is full, she goes to the phone and dials a number before handing the phone to me as she starts washing the dishes. I put my ear to the phone, wondering who I am ringing.
“Hunter residence!” I hear my sister, Leena, say loudly.
“Leena? Hi!” I say, excited to hear her voice. It surprises me that Leena had been the one to answer the
phone. Usually we are not allowed to answer it when it rings. After a few moments of silence, I hear another voice on the other end of the phone.
“Hello?” he says.
“Daddy! Hi! Can you guess who this is?” I ask.
“Hmm… are you Mindy?” he says playfully, clearly amused by his own joke.
“No, Daddy! Mindy is a dog!” I laugh. He joins in the laughter before asking me how the visit with my mother and Jake is going. “Everything is good. Mummy is doing the dishes right now and I did some dusting. I even have my own apron!”
“No kidding! What colour is it?” he asks.
“It’s purple!” I squeal, excitedly. I am then quickly reminded by Mum that Jake is asleep in the next room. “Oops, sorry Mummy,” I whisper, trying to remember to keep the noise level down.
“Wow, fancy that! I bet that put a big smile on your face,” Dad says. I love how he knows me so well. “Who is there with you right now?” he asks.
“It is just me and Mummy at home while Jake is sleeping,” I reply. “Eddie went to the pub because he is a pig.” After feeling a rush of disappointment coming from my mother’s direction at the sink, I cover the handset and again whisper, “Sorry, Mummy.” I tell Dad that I love him and that I will see him soon, before hanging up the phone. Not two minutes later, the front door opens, and in walks Eddie and …some other guy.
“Is that her?” the stranger says to Eddie, pointing at me.
“Yeah, that’s the berk,” Eddie replies, contempt written all over his scowling face.
The strange man walks over, kneels down so he is the same height as me and puts his hand out for me to shake. “Krystal, I am your cousin, Andrew,” he says. “It is nice to finally meet you. Oh, and for the record, you are not a berk.” Although I have no clue what a berk is, I am grateful to have a cousin who openly disagrees with Eddie about something.
“Hello, cousin Andrew,” I say with a smile. Deciding to be a little bit daring, I added, “It is great to finally have a man in this house!” Glancing at Eddie, I am pleased when I see that my comment had struck a nerve.
Once Upon A Karma (Karmic Krystal Book 1) Page 14
