Decisions

DECISIONS



“I hate him! I really hate him, Shaynne. I used to feel sorry for him, but I really, really hate him now. Mark’s right. He’s going to kill somebody one of these days. He could easily have killed Mark with that bottle, and he could’ve killed Mikey today. I don’t want to come home and find someone dead, Shaynne! I’ve found too many smashed up people already, and I hate it!”

“I know. I’m not sure he even knows what he’s doing anymore. He’s never touched any of us when we were already hurt before.”

“I just want to live somewhere I don’t have to be scared every time I open the door. I realized the other day that Mikey has no idea about what it’s like not to be beaten senseless every other week. Even Mark remembers what it was like before Mom died and Dad was halfway normal. We’ve got to get out of there.”

“Where are we going to go, Chris?”

“I don’t know. I just know we have to get out of that house.”

“The right thing to do would be to get him arrested. He’s been getting away with assault and battery for years now. But I’m too scared to do it.”

“Scared? Why?”

“I don’t want us to be split up. We belong together.”

“They wouldn’t do that would they?”

“What else could they do?”

“They could let us all stay with you. I mean, Shaynne, you’ve been looking after us for years. Even before Bobby left.”

“I’m nineteen, Chris. I pack boxes in a fucking warehouse for nine dollars an hour. There’s no way in hell any social worker is going to make me responsible for four minors. There’s no way I could support us. You’d all end up being farmed out to different foster families, or put into some god-awful state run group home. I’m sorry, Chris. It may be selfish, but I don’t want that for you.”

“You don’t know that. I mean, not for…”

“Yeah, I do. I do know. I called Social Services.”

“Really? When?”

“Two years ago. After Mark.”

“You mean… With the bottle?”

“Yeah. That’s the worst thing he’s ever done to any of us. I didn’t think we could stay after that.”

“So what did they say?”

“They try to keep siblings together wherever possible…”

“But?”

“Apparently there are a lot of kids like us who need help. And there aren’t a lot of families who will take more than one or two kids. There are five of us, Chris.”

“So what do we do?”

“We just have to hold on. You’ll be out of school in just over two years. Once there are three of us working, even on minimum wage, we’ll be able to afford a decent place to live and we can get the hell out of that damned house.”

“I love you. You know that, don’t you?”

“I know. And Chris. Just let me know if you think I’m wrong. If you think I’m making the wrong decisions. I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.”

“You could’ve fooled me. Let’s go home, huh? It’s cold out here.”