by Nancy Adams
“The T7?” June inquired in confusion.
“Come on, ma. Don’t say you don’t know what a T7 is.”
“Well, I don’t know what a T7 is,” she put back to him.
Paul and Claire had gone a little silent here. They knew full well what a T7 was.
“You must be wrong,” Claire said to her brother. “What makes you think it’s a T7?”
“Because everyone who pays attention to what’s happening in the world knows that Techsoft are throwing a big T7 tomorrow night here in New York at Madison Square Garden and they’re gonna be talking about medical care. Techsoft sponsors nearly every major hospital in America and I’m sure that Faith is on that list. You’re gonna be one of only a thousand people to see it.”
“Wow!” June let out at this news. “That’s so amazing, honey.”
“Sure is,” Claire muttered despondently, her crab cakes suddenly becoming very unappealing.
“That’s really cool, Claire,” Paul said blankly from across the table.
Claire looked over at him and noted his sad expression.
“I didn’t know,” she softly mouthed to him.
“It’s cool,” he mouthed back.
For the rest of the meal, Claire did her best to avoid talk of the T7 and just concentrate on the food. Kyle, however, appeared eager to rejoin the topic, and Paul did his best to sway him away with talk of sports and popular culture. June also sensed a sadness in her daughter and wondered what it could have been.
She could never have guessed it though.
That night, when they’d all returned to the apartment, Kyle and June were in the bedroom asleep while Claire and Paul were curled up on the futon in the lounge. Earlier Claire had texted Annabel and asked her what the exhibition was called. She’d replied immediately that it was a T7. It was confirmation for her and Paul’s dread.
In five years, the couple had avoided talk or mention of Sam Burgess, and regardless of how well Techsoft computers had done elsewhere in the world, none of them happened to share a space with Paul and Claire. Sam meant too many negative things for both of them. For Claire it was obvious: he was her first love, her former lover and the father of her secret child. He represented a very dark period in her life. For Paul it was different. To Paul, Sam Burgess represented the only black spot in his relationship with Claire. Claire had been his first love, but he was not hers. That hurt him. When he had first made love to her, Paul had been a virgin. Claire, of course, had not. Again this lit a fire of dejection in his soul.
Sam Burgess was the only cloud upon their lives as a couple.
“So we gonna talk?” Claire said as they lay all alone, the moonlight shining through the window.
“I guess we have to,” Paul replied.
“We kinda do.”
“Well, then, the first thing I’ve got to ask is: are you gonna go?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to disappoint Annabel, but I also feel weird about being there in a room with him, surrounded by his worshipers.”
“His worshipers!?”
“Yeah—all those tech kids that think he’s the new Christ or something. He’s like Merlin to them.”
Paul began giggling.
“Like Merlin,” he repeated to himself.
“He is.”
“Well, I was gonna say,” Paul began once he’d stopped sniggering, “that I think you should go.”
“That’s only because you’re too nice to say I shouldn’t.”
“No—I’ll admit I don’t like it, but it’s not like you’re in a room with just him on your own; you’ll be in a crowd of a thousand or so people. It’ll be good for your career if you get involved in stuff like this early on.”
“Yeah, I guess. But it’ll still be weird.”
“It’ll be an hour max and then you’ll be out of there. I wouldn’t sweat it.”
Claire smiled at him from across the pillow, before taking him in her arms and kissing him warmly on the lips.
After that, they held each other as they slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.
CHAPTER SIX
Jules was awoken by Juliette shaking his arm. He slowly roused and found his love sitting up in bed next to him, wearing a worried expression upon her brow.
“What’s up?” he asked, turning his head on the pillow to face her.
“He’s going at her again,” Juliette uttered as she gazed blankly ahead of her into the darkness.
It was then that Jules noticed the shouting and screaming coming from the trailer next door.
“Just put the earplugs in and go back to bed,” Jules suggested, turning back over.
“How can I go back to sleep knowing that he could be killing her?”
“He’s not gonna kill her, Juliette. He hasn’t all the other times.”
“What about the time he broke her jaw when he went to jail?”
“Yeah, and she should’ve never taken him back, but she did and now all he does is resent her for putting him inside. She should think a little more about her kids the next time she lets that maniac into the house.”
“But what choice does she have?”
“She has the choice not to open the door.”
“He’d only knock it down, and anyway—”
A sudden scream erupted from next door and stopped Juliette dead, her eyes widening in terror. The screaming continued as they sat listening, incoherent words being cried out in horror just a few meters away on the other side of the wall. Even Jules began sitting up as the violence escalated.
“Jules, you have to go around there.”
“Oh no! Last time I decided to have a word with him, he almost took my head off. I don’t wanna get involved, someone’s sure to call the cops pretty soon.”
“But what happens if he kills her in that time?”
“I’m sorry, Juliette, she’s made her choices. I know that sounds cruel but if he’s gonna kill someone tonight, I’d rather not knock on his door and offer myself up to his knife!”
“You’re a coward.”
Jules was stunned by this last remark. It stung him to the heart that his love could accuse him of such things.
“Okay then,” he snapped as he jumped out of bed and began getting dressed in the moonlight, “I’ll go around there and be the hero. However, this isn’t the movies, so if the hero ends up in a box you’ll understand.”
“I’m not asking you to go around there and fight him. I only want you to see if she’s okay.”
“Momma,” came David’s voice at the door.
“David,” Juliette exclaimed gently. “Did they wake you up?”
“Yes. Is he killing her?”
“No,” Juliette said with a soft smile. “Come into bed with Momma.”
The boy, dressed in his Ben10 pajamas, came trotting across the floor and jumped into bed with Juliette.
“Don’t worry,” Juliette cooed as she took the boy in her arms and wrapped him in the covers.
Jules was dressed now and he went to leave, but David called him back.
“Where’re you going, Pa?” he asked when Jules turned back to him.
“I’m gonna just check on the neighbors, Davey.”
“No,” the boy suddenly exclaimed, his face creasing with worry. “You shouldn’t go out there.”
“It’s okay, David,” Juliette whispered softly to him.
“But the man hurts people. He might hurt Papa.”
Jules came back into the room, knelt down in front of the bed and, looking David in the eyes, said, “I’m just gonna check it out, Davey. I’ll be back in five minutes, okay?”
“Okay,” the boy replied softly from within Juliette’s arms.
Jules left the room once more and made his way out of the trailer in his slippers, feeling a trepidation as he did. The last time he’d knocked on the door, the guy, Charlie Mathieson, had threatened to cave Jules’s head in if he ever so much as stepped foot on his driveway again.
When he was outside on the stre
et, Jules saw that several neighbors had left their trailers and were watching. Of course, none of them dared to venture across and tell Charlie to stop beating his wife at three AM, but they didn’t mind spying on it.
As he walked around his own trailer toward his neighbor’s, the night’s air echoed with the screams and shouts of the Mathiesons. When he stepped foot on Charlie’s drive, Jules shuddered as he recalled Mathieson’s threat the last time.
“Please, Charlie,” Gwen Mathieson screamed out from within the trailer, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You fucking do—where’s that fifty I won at the horses, huh? You found it didn’t ya? I give you everything else but that was mine. MINE!”
“Please, Charlie you’re breaking my arm. PLEASSSE!”
As Jules reached the door, someone wolf-whistled him from the sidewalk at the end of the drive. He turned and saw the face of Jackson, a friend and neighbor of his in the park.
“Hey, Jules,” Jackson said in hushed tones from the end of the driveway, “I called the cops ten minutes ago.”
“Juliette wants me to check on Gwen,” Jules cried back in hushed tones of his own.
“They’ll be here in a moment.”
“Last time they took an hour, he could’ve hurt her before then.”
“Yeah, but he might hurt you too.”
“I’m good. I’m an old man, he won’t go for me, I’m no threat.”
“So was Tommy Baker, but Charlie didn’t mind bustin’ old Tommy up.”
Just then the noise coming from inside the trailer stopped suddenly and Jules heard heavy footsteps coming to the front door. Charlie had clearly heard Jules and Jackson talking outside his home. Realizing what was up, Jackson quickly crept off back to his own trailer and Jules was left to face the wrath of Charlie Mathieson alone.
Charlie swung the door open, almost knocking Jules backwards from the porch, and thrust his huge head out, his bloodshot eyes bulging out of his skull and boring into Jules'.
“WHAT THE FUCK!?” Charlie cried straight into Jules’s face.
Charlie Mathieson had originally been a boxer, the only thing he was ever any good at. He was a big guy, about six-two, and could take a punch as well as administer a few. He had thick, wiry black hair, big shoulders, and a barrel chest, and he wore the markings of a lifetime of blows. The left corner of his lip was heavily scarred, not from boxing, but from barroom fighting; a broken bottle, as it happened. His right eye was partially closed over, that one a result of boxing. And there were many other little nicks upon his battered face.
His career in boxing had been like most other things in his life; it showed early promise, but eventually turned to ash. He had the stature for the sport, but he wasn’t quick enough in either his body or in his head to go all the way, and in the end he’d had to settle for a career as a semi-pro, until he eventually became a semi-nothing. His fading fortunes pushed him toward heavy drinking in an attempt to numb his swollen pride, and now the only fight he fought was a never-ending one with his own relentless demons, one that would only end when the last bell was rung and he could finally rest in death.
As Charlie pushed his hulking frame down the porch at Jules, the latter stepped back and said in a slightly shaky voice, “Hey, Charlie. I was just wondering—”
“What the fuck was you just wondering?” Charlie snapped back, the booze fumes pouring out of his mouth and stinging Jules’s eyes.
“I was wondering if you could keep it all down, Charlie. You woke my boy up.”
“Fuck your boy,” Charlie said poking his finger viciously into Jules’s chest.
Charlie continued moving forward down the porch, forcing Jules to walk backward away from the trailer.
“Didn’t I tell you the last time,” Charlie snarled, “that if you ever stepped foot on my drive again I’d cave your head in?”
“Look, Charlie, if you’re not gonna be civil,” Jules said as he backed his way out of there while the huge frame of the man bore down on him, bulging eyes fixed on him like a bear’s on a goat.
“Leave him alone, you big bully,” came the voice of Mrs. Jefferson from No. 23.
Taking his eyes off of Jules, Charlie shot them across the road at the little old lady holding her Jack Russell dog Alf. She was eighty-seven and a sweet old thing.
“Why don’t you shut the fuck up, you old skank,” Charlie screamed back at her.
“It’s okay, Mrs. Jefferson,” Jules called across to her. “You can take Alf inside, we’re all good.”
Mrs. Jefferson stood with a worried frown on her face.
“And that goes for the rest of you fucks,” Charlie called out into the street. “Ain’t ya seen enough?”
People began creeping back into their trailers. However, once they were inside, the curtains immediately opened and they remained seated by the window.
“Look, Charlie,” Jules began, “I’m not telling you how to live in your own home, but I just want some peace and quiet.”
“And so do I. It was you who came to my door while I was having a discussion with my wife.”
“People don’t usually scream during discussions,” Jules couldn’t help saying.
“What the fuck you mean by that?” Charlie growled, his dreaded eyes fixing into Jules, his teeth gritted together in a tight scowl. “Were you just telling me how to behave in my own home?”
Feeling a wave of indignant anger rush through him, Jules answered, “Behave!? You wouldn’t know shit about behavior. What the fuck would an animal like you know the first thing about behavior? You got a family in there and—”
But he got no further. Jules saw stars the moment Charlie’s big fist collided with the side of his face, making a terrible wet slapping sound that rang out in his ears as he went down.
“CHARLIE!” Jules heard a female’s voice scream out as he lay dazed on the floor. Looking up from where he was, Jules saw Gwen holding her husband’s big shoulders, blood caked around her swollen mouth where he’d hit her earlier. Charlie was attempting to kneel down over Jules and give him a smashing, but Gwen was attempting to hold him back.
“Fuck off,” Charlie let out as he shrugged his wife off, sending her sprawling down beside Jules, who attempted to lift himself back up off the ground with his weak arms, his head spinning.
All of a sudden, just as Charlie came down over Jules, the night air was filled with red and blue flashing light, and Jules let out a sigh of relief as he realized that Jackson’s cops had shown up. Charlie immediately looked over in the direction of the lights, before turning his furious eyes back to Jules.
“This better not be because of you,” he snarled down at him.
Charlie then turned to his wife and barked, “Gwen, get back inside.”
She did as she was told, gingerly getting up from the ground and going back into the trailer. Charlie got up off of Jules and followed his wife inside, leaving the old man to get up off of the deck as the cars were pulling up.
Once he was on his feet, the first police officer came out of the car and approached the drive as Jules was dusting himself down, feeling his swollen cheek and making sure that nothing was busted.
“You okay there?” the cop asked as he came up to Jules.
“Yeah, I’m good. I just tripped is all and landed heavy on my face.”
“You’re not the neighbor who called then?”
“No, I’m not. I was just checking things out and I fell over, that’s all. The guy you want is inside that trailer.”
“I got some stuff in the car if you want me to take a look at your face,” the cop said as his partner came over.
“Whoa!” the partner exclaimed when he’d reached them. “That cheek of yours sure as hell is swollen.”
“Yeah, I fell,” Jules repeated in a drawl, his voice affected by the punch.
“You want me to see to it?” the cop asked again.
“Nah, I got an icepack inside my trailer, I’ll see to it myself. You go see to them.”<
br />
“Well, okay.”
Jules smiled at them both, before limping off, his leg hurting from where he’d landed on it. As he did, the cops marched up to the Mathieson family door and began banging on it. More than anything else, Jules’s pride was hurt. Charlie had floored him in one go and, as he’d laid there on the drive, Jules had felt helpless to what was coming from the wife-beater. It made him angry that he was so weak in the face of the savage.
When he stepped inside his trailer, Juliette and David were there to meet him in the kitchen. The moment he walked in, Juliette grabbed him in an embrace, making him smart a little from the pain to his bruised body.
“What a brute,” Juliette cried into his ear. “Terrible, terrible brute.”
“Did he hurt ya, Papa?” little David inquired.
“No, David. He just caught me by surprise is all. It looks worse than it is.”
At that moment they heard a commotion outside as Charlie was dragged out of his home in cuffs. The cops must have seen the state of Gwen’s face and decided it was best to get him down to jail for the night so that his family could get some rest. But for how long, no one knew.
“They should take him somewhere,” Juliette whispered into Jules’s ear so that David wouldn’t overhear, “and simply shoot him like a rabid dog. A man like that serves no purpose other than harm. He’s poisoning the lives of his two boys so that they end up damaged like him. He’s injecting them with his hate. I wish that one day she just ran him through with a—”
She stopped as she felt Jules pinch her in the side.
“Let’s just go back to bed,” he said. “We were gonna go out for a picnic tomorrow.”
Juliette smiled and let him go. She then took David by the hand and led him into the bedroom.
“You can sleep in our bed tonight,” she said sweetly to the boy as they entered.
Jules got undressed into his pajamas and slipped into bed beside Juliette and David.
As he drifted off, Juliette took his hand in hers from under the covers and whispered to him, “You’re my hero, Jules. My brave hero.”
This made him smile and he drifted to sleep feeling a comfort from his love’s declaration, even if one side of his head throbbed awfully.
