Remembering that small detail set me off and I was crying before I knew what I was doing.
My aunt came to her feet at once and came to me, giving me a hug. Next to my mom, my Aunt Bernice’s embraces were magical to me. She had a way of scaring away the demons in my head. And boy did I ever have vile thoughts roamed between my ears.
“It’ll be ok,” she kept telling me in my ear.
Form her chair, my grandmother echoed something similar, but I wasn’t really listening.
I was grateful for their kind words, but my mind was too full with Elijah. My brain wouldn’t allow more intrusion. Without understanding, mostly due to the fact I was so young, I was narrowing my focus. For the first time in my life, something harrowing had hurt my family, those individuals I loved most. I was going to stop at nothing to make certain they were safe. Nevermore would something - or someone - harm my loved ones without me raising a hand to do something about it.
“You have already done this, Jeremiah. Rest now, heal…”
I never knew where that voice came from. I couldn’t even tell you if it was male or female. All I know, is it spoke to me and, though I had no solace regarding my encounter with Lenny, I was calmed. Not merely in the mind and body, but somewhere else as well. It was a hidden well, deep in the corner of me I never knew was there. Whoever or whatever it was, it reached me there as well, and I was better for it.
My tears became those of sorrow, of mourning. I was closing a chapter in my life, putting it under lock and key and would never open it again. Included within were all the ties and bonds and attachments I had for my father. Though I had told myself already he meant nothing to me, this was the act that made it so.
Strangely, I felt nothing. I stared down at Elijah, my aunt still holding me, and attained… balance.
Bernice was right. It was going to be, ok.
Only, it wasn’t in the manner I had envisioned.
*****
It was my other aunt, Tilly, who volunteered to take Myra and I back to the house later that afternoon. We ended up staying until after lunch, my extended family members had been unwilling to let me leave the hospital without having some kind of food in my stomach. The fact it was from a cafeteria and not homemade, hadn’t been lost on them, but they’d insisted all the same.
So, one semi-warm hamburger and a serving of mushy fries later, I arrived at my house. There was a police car parked out front, which I was told was going to be present over the course of the next few days in case anyone from my father’s side of the family had visions of revenge. Personally, I thought it was ridiculous, because a majority of them had already visited us in the hospital.
Law enforcement had no real way of understanding just how much Lenny had been a pain in the ass to so many of us over the years. They still figured blood was thicker than water, and who could blame them after what they saw on any given day, so I stayed quiet. Let them guard our flanks for the time being. It was no skin off my back.
I wasn’t worried about the immediate anyhow. My mind was focused on the day Lenny’s doctors felt he was strong enough to be released. If I was apprehensive about anything, it was over him. Already, I was wondering what he considered was his hearth and home. Just because the police or his lawyer said he couldn’t return to the house on Lincoln Drive, didn’t mean he’d pay attention. Lenny was built that way. He had the most distorted sense of reality of any person I had met up to that point in my life. There was absolutely no telling what he’d do once he had healed, once his bandages came off. I large part of me figured he make a bee-line right for us. He always had in the past. Why would he change now? Because I beat his ass? Fuck that shit! Lenny would just think long and hard over the best way to get me back. I told you before, he was childishly vindictive.
I sighed, figuring for the time being, we still had some weeks before the answer to that question would reveal itself. If I had really bashed up his face as much as Myra and my sister had indicated, then we might have as much as a month’s time before any of us would have to truly worry about him.
Was it wrong I silently prayed for precisely that?
We strode up the walk, hand-in-hand, not unlike we had less than fifteen hours before.
“I gotta call my mom and tell her that latest,” said Myra as we came around the second slight bend of the concrete path.
I grunted as the deck came into view. There was yellow, crime-scene tape cordoning off the area where we kids had brutally fought to save our mother from our father. I looked down at my feet, trying to reconcile with the facts. It had been less than a day ago, and yet it seemed like years. It’s weird how time can sometimes behave like that, so fickle and inconsistent.
“It is good to see you,” came a voice I’d come to welcome over the past year.
I glanced up and saw Bruce walking toward us, his bare feet slapping hard on the walk as he came forth. He wore a pair of old blue-jeans, unbelted, barely hanging onto his waist, and a sky-blue, short-sleeved, button-up shirt.
My mood lightened at once. “It’s good to be home.”
“Yeah, home is always a welcomed sight after a stay in the hospital, even if you’re only there for a few minutes and visiting!” His azure eyes were dazzling in the play of the waning sun. Bruce hated medical centers of all sorts with a passion.
We shook hands, a twin set of calluses rubbing against one another - his from building beehives, me from lifting weights.
“How’s everything here?” I asked with an inadvertent look toward the mustard-colored tape fluttering in the breeze at the side of the house.
His face lost some of it’s’ merriment as he too scanned the area. It was an involuntary action, something people did when they recalled there might be danger lurking and they hadn’t been as vigilant as they should’ve been. “It’s been… quiet.” His gaze found mine. “Especially after the police left earlier in the day.”
“No word from -.”
He cut me off: “None.”
Well, that was good to know. Maybe we would have more than a few days of respite. Maybe Lenny was going to be laid up for some time. Yet, it had been less than a day. Maybe I was being overly optimistic. Naw, man, you broke his nose all to crap. He’s gonna need plastic surgery.
“How’s your mom and Elijah?” I could see it was painful for him to ask, but it was the polite thing to query.
I blinked back the emotion. “My mom’s good. She should be out in the next few days.” I paused to take a breath, to swallow. “Elijah’s another story.”
He grimaced, a hand reaching out swiftly to grab me by the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Jerry. I really am.”
“Thanks.”
“And how about you?” he asked with another squeeze of my deltoid.
I peered down at the cast on my left hand and the bandages covering my right. “I got one broken hand and one that’s bruised all to crud.” I held them both up, waving them at him.
His face turned grim. “You did what was necessary, you know that right?”
I dropped my hands, my jaw almost hitting my chest. “I thought you were a pacifist” I said earnestly.
It was a hard smile. “Gosh, man, I might be a relic of the 60’s, but that don’t mean I believe in sitting aside while innocent women and children get beaten for no reason. I might not like violence, but sometimes…,” he trailed off, his hand coming from my shoulder . He wiped his mouth with the back of it. “Shit, son, sometimes, some people need a good ass-kicking.”
Myra busted out with laughter.
“And from what’ve seen this past year, your father needed one – bad.” His eyebrows were arched, his look imploring.
I chuckled.
So did he.
“You got that right,” said my girlfriend.
I stayed silent.
“Well, you probably have a lot to do still, right?”
I nodded.
“Ok then, I’ll see you two down the road a piece.” He waved smally and left around the side of the house, toward his ap
artment in the back.
I went to Valerie’s room to get some of the things she’d asked me to get for her, while Myra called home. I found my sister’s overnight bag under her bed where she said she’d stashed it and got about gathering her necessities. Myra came in later saying she wasn’t going to leave my side, even after we returned from the hospital when visiting hours ended. I had asked what her mother thought about that. She said succinctly, it wasn’t her decision to make. I left it at that and continued doing what I’d been before.
After I showered and changed clothes, we ate some leftovers from the party and then headed out for Myra’s house, so she could spruce up as well. An hour later we were back at the hospital, supplies in hand to find my mother awake and eager to see Eli.
We wasted no time. We snagged a wheelchair and rolled her down the hall to see the broken, but mending baby of the family.
She cried bitterly for a long, long time when she laid eyes on him.
I stayed, undeterred by her wracking sobs. Myra, Valerie, Jose and I. We stayed with my mom and listened to her vow on her life no one would ever hurt Elijah again.
The following day, from her room in the hospital, lawyer in attendance, she filed for divorce.
~~~~~~~<<< ᴥ >>>~~~~~~~
Chapter Fifteen: A New Life
The second night after Lenny destroyed the family he had helped create, Myra and I made love in my bed for most of the night. It wasn’t to make up for the time we’d lost the night of graduation or because we had the house to ourselves, though it had something to do with getting us started in the first place. What we experienced was about something else entirely.
I will not skirt the truth or water-down anything of that night. It was passionate, vocal and very fulfilling for both of us. We watched the growing light of the dawn from between the sheets of my bed, feeling sated and sore, sweaty and sticky from our nocturnal exploits. We were happy to be alive. We were gladdened my mother and my siblings had survived Lenny as well. It was our intimate way of celebrating life, and, being teenagers and in love, with little money; we did it the best way we could imagine – together.
Even with one broken hand and another smarting like hell, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
There was much change for my family that summer, some of it extenuated from that fateful night, some of it was self-induced as a direct result of the very same event.
A few days after the love-fest with my girlfriend, my mother came home from the hospital. Her face was still puffy from the fractures in her cheekbones and around the left eye-socket, but her spirits were up and she looked pleased to finally be home.
She wasted little time and got to work restructuring our lives without Lenny in the picture. Her filing for divorce was being contested by him and his lawyers. He had the audacity to countersue me for the beating I had given him. I was scared at first, but our lawyer told me the case was ridiculous and would eventually be thrown out. Everyone knew I’d been acting in defense of my mother and my brother. The fact I’d rearranged his face a bit apparently didn’t factor, because of the injuries Eli had sustained. The good Sargent Detective I’d talked to in my room the morning I awoke from the altercation had ascertained my intentions that night were simple. I was making sure Lenny remained on the ground.
He had written in his report: “It was Mr. Jeremiah Favor’s fear for Elijah Favor’s life, a minor, which forced him to continue with the beating of Mr. Leonard G. Favor. If Leonard Favor had been capable, he would’ve killed Elijah Favor on the of night June 25th, 1987. Jeremiah was acting in defense of his helpless younger brother.”
How he was able to garner that from our conversation, we would never know. We never asked either.
Initially, my mom wanted to press assault charges against him, but decided not to. For her, it was easier to get her husband out of her life a quickly as possible. A criminal trial would’ve taken longer than a year and she didn’t want to wait that long.
In the process, though, all of the family’s assets had been frozen. Lenny was ordered to continue paying the family’s expenses. Failure to do so would result in a Contempt of Court charge levied upon him, which would prove detrimental to his side of the case overall, so it behooved him not to miss any sort of payments due.
We all knew it was in his best interest to keep paying the mortgage and the utilities and credit cards, but we really never knew what to expect. Lenny abhorred being told what to do. It was one of his most consistent traits. None of us would’ve been surprised if one day we were told the house was in foreclosure and we had to vacate the premises. So, we waited, walking on eggshells, hoping that wouldn’t happen. We were uneasy and jumped every time the phone rang, praying it wasn’t the bank.
But (this was most likely what kept us going during the summer of 1987) it also meant the house was no longer for sale and couldn’t be until my parents’ divorce was finalized. So, there was some consolation there.
Not everything was easy though. For my mom, it was the nights that were the hardest. When the lights were turned out and our heads were resting upon our pillows was when the memories came back to haunt her. I’m sure there was a good peppering of remorse as well. I know she blamed herself for what happened to Elijah. I know she felt she was partially at fault, because she hadn’t moved my brother out of harm’s way. This was despite the fact she had been planning to leave my dad for some time. Events had outpaced her, though, and she felt ashamed because of it.
It was the calm sanity of Valerie that kept the worst away from my mother. My sister’s no-nonsense approach to life was exactly what my mother needed. This wasn’t a time for self-recrimination. This wasn’t a time to wallow in “what might’ve been”. Valerie knew this and helped my mom get through the low points whenever and wherever they cropped up.
They slept in the same bed, took long walks around the Rose Bowl or down in the LA River. They’d take lawn chairs down below the front porch and sit underneath the giant magnolia, amongst the ivy and talk for hours on end. They were inseparable. They did everything together.
It wasn’t like I felt left out. I didn’t feel alone or pushed aside in any way. I had Myra. She was my hard surface to bounce the tough stuff against. She was my big hug, my languorous kiss, my warm lover. No, I was fine.
Besides, I knew what was transpiring. It just wasn’t my time. It was Valerie’s. It was her turn to take care of my mother. She had tools in her war chest I’d never come to comprehend, let alone use. She had been the right person at the right time. She stepped up to that plate and hit the ball out of the fucking park.
I was so proud to call myself her brother.
Overtime, things did get easier. Routine and time, routine and time – we used to say it like a chant whenever things began to wear on us. After the third or fourth time, we’d be smiling at one another, warmth in our hearts. We were in this until the end. We were a team.
It turned out, the court system in the United States being what it is, there were still aspect of our lives that didn’t fall under the prevue of the judge in our case. There was no provision in the court’s ruling demanding Lenny provide for expenses beyond the bills and Eli’s medical care (which was covered by insurance through his work), so after she had healed, my mother took a part-time job as a receptionist in a doctor’s office. It didn’t pay much, but she didn’t need to make much to feed us either. Her paycheck was more than enough to pay for our food and her gas, which was all she had to worry about.
This helped my mom as well. Getting out of the house and working in the world proved distraction enough and eventually her despondency edged toward confidence. The emotional “hunch” in her back disappeared and she became more like herself, like the woman who had flowered while refurbishing a house.
My grandfather, Lenny’s dad, felt horrible over what had happened. The fact it had been his progeny who had nearly killed Elijah, his grandson, made things all the more worse for the poor old man. He was beside himself with nervous energy and c
ame over as often as he could, doing what he could around the house, which wasn’t much, because there was me and Bruce and Julio to help my mom in that department.
After a couple of weeks of “putzing” it became apparent that his skill as a master-mechanic (self-taught) was what would benefit us the most. Since none of us younger gentlemen knew much about the combustion engine, it fell to him to ensure my mother’s car was in tip-top shape at all times. Because being under the hood of a car was second nature to him, he came over often. Sometimes he dropped by for nothing more than to listen to the car, to make sure everything was in working according to his standards. How he could tell what was wrong with a car just by listening to it, I don’t know. I could sit here and write volumes of how baffling it was to me. The car always sounded the same, how he knew if the engine was receiving too heavy or too thin a mixture was completely beyond me.
We just chalked it up and left it at that. He was genius with cars. There was little else to be said.
So, from then on, she never had to pay for oil changes or new tires or anything of that nature.
To Lenny’s obvious chagrin, my grandpa James – his father - took care of my mom the only way he could. He made sure she was safe on the road.
It was nice to have him around. Though he was a gruff, short-tempered old coot, I enjoyed the time, however brief, I shared with him. Up to that point, I really hadn’t known the man all that well. I saw him at family functions and for the holidays, but he typically stayed to himself, watching TV, beer in hand, ignoring the lot of us. Having alone time, learning whatever little I did about cars, doing so with grandpa James was cool.
It made me wonder why Lenny was such a world-class scumbag. There was an obvious disconnect there. Father and son were nothing alike.
Elijah’s condition didn’t worsen, which was good, but after a month, it hadn’t improved either, which was frustrating. He remained in a coma as his ribs healed, as he recovered from surgery. With my mother’s added workload, this made things hard. Our days were full. It helped it was summer, so Valerie and I did most of the household chores and, believe it or not, the cooking. By the time my mother got home, we typically had an early dinner ready for us, which we’d wolf it down and then head straight away for the hospital. We typically stayed until visiting hours ended and then left for the night. Occasionally, one of us would stay, but that became a less frequent occurrence as the days turned into weeks and still, there was no change.
The Birth of Bane Page 16
