Tribal Journey (3 page)

“You're never going to hurt Mom again, do you hear me?”

I kneeled down beside Mom. A red knot was forming on her cheek where Dad had hit her. Her chin was bleeding. She seemed a little dazed.

“Come on,” I said. “We've got to get out of here.”

I helped her to her feet. Then I slung her arm over my shoulder. We walked toward the living room. I pulled the car keys off the hook where Mom kept them and headed for the front door.

“But what about Zak and Shauna?” she said weakly.

“I'll put you in the car and then go up and get them.”

“Where are we going?” Mom asked.

“First to the hospital emergency room to have you checked out. I'll figure something out after that.”

Mom nodded and allowed me to lead her to the minivan. I put Zak and Shauna in next. They were scared and confused. As I drove to
the West Seattle Hospital a couple of miles away, I explained what was going on.

After helping Mom get into an examination room, I returned to the waiting room to watch my brother and sister. They found some toys and children's books to keep them busy. I texted Ron.

“Call me as soon as possible. Emergency!”

In a few minutes my phone rang.

“What's up?” Ron asked when we got connected.

“There's been a major disaster at my house. Mom and Dad got into it. Mom was hurt. So I drove us to the ER, where we are now. Zak and Shauna are with me.”

“That's radical, dude!”

“Ron, this is serious. We need a place to stay for the night. Away from my dad. Do you think your parents would let us spend the night?”

“I don't see why not. Let me talk to them. I'll call you back.”

I closed my phone and felt very tired. I closed my eyes and felt the emotional impact of what had happened.

What a hard, crazy night. So much for quality family time.

Ron's mother called a short while later. She said they'd be happy for us to spend the night at their house. So after the hospital finished treating Mom, I drove us to Ron's house.

“Irene, I'm sorry to hear of your troubles,” Ron's mom told my mom.

“We're so grateful for your hospitality,” Mom said.

“We've got a spare bedroom upstairs that you and your little ones can share. Jason can bunk with Ron in his room.”

We settled in for the night. As I lay trying to fall asleep, my mind replayed those horrible images. My father standing over my bleeding mother. The anger that boiled over in me. My physical attack on Dad. Us escaping into the night. Only after we had left the house did fear creep into my thoughts.

And that's the last thing I remember before nodding off.

The next morning, right after breakfast, Mom gathered us kids together for a private family meeting.

“There's a place called the Chief Seattle Family Center not too far from here,” she said. “They have rooms for families in situations like ours. I'm going to apply for us to move in there for a while.”

“But what about our toys and clothes?” Shauna asked with a worried look.

“And all our DVDs and video games?” Zak added.

“We'll pick up those things one day while your father is at work.”

That seemed to satisfy them—for now.

“Since we're here, can I help Ron with those chores I asked you about?” I said.

“Tell me again why you want to help him with his chores?” Mom was suspicious.

“Well, we want to use his mom's car to visit friends and go to the beach and do stuff
during spring break. He has to earn points to use her car.”

“I see,” Mom said. “Okay, I guess. As a matter of fact, we can all help Ron's mom and dad with chores to repay them for letting us stay.”

The first thing Ron and I did was clean the garage. We took everything out and put the stuff in the driveway. Bikes, tools, lawn mower, storage boxes—the usual garage stuff. Then we hosed down the floor and brushed it with soapy water. While the floor dried we moved on down the list of chores. We finished the list by lunchtime. Yay!

During lunch Mom reported that she had called the family center. A family had just moved out, so they would have space for us Monday afternoon. Another yay! So the plan was for us to go home late Monday morning after Dad left for work and get whatever we needed.

In the meantime, we enjoyed being with Ron's family for the weekend.

At about eleven o'clock Monday morning, Mom drove Zak, Shauna, and me back to our house. We made sure Dad's car was gone before parking in the driveway.

“Okay, let's do this quickly,” Mom said. “We don't want to be here when your father comes home. Each of you grab a suitcase for clothes and a box for other things. That's all the room we'll have at the center.”

We went inside and gathered the things each of us thought were most important. I took my binoculars, skateboard, swimsuit, and summer clothes.

Zak filled his suitcase and box only with toys, games, and DVDs. So he had to go back upstairs and dump half of that stuff to make room for clothes.

Shauna did exactly what Mom had asked, bringing down a collection of her stuff. It was all neatly folded, stacked, and arranged.

Mom had to pick up extra things like her checkbook, wallet, and some important papers. As we were driving to the center, she
said she'd need those as we started living on our own.

“What do you mean ‘start living on our own?'” I asked. “Aren't we going to move back to our house after you and Dad work things out?” She pulled the car over near a park with a playground and turned off the engine. We all got out.

“Zak and Shauna, why don't you go over and play on the swings or the slide while I talk to your brother,” Mom said.

The pair happily raced to the slide to see who would go on it first. Mom and I sat down at a picnic table.

“Jason, what you did for us the other night was very brave. I am really proud of you.” I blushed a little. “Your father and his drinking and fighting have only gotten worse over the years. I've begged him to get help, but he refuses. So, thanks to you, I've finally gotten up the nerve to get us away from him—for good.”

I was confused.

“You mean we have to stay in the shelter forever?”

“No, just for a while. Until I can make other arrangements for us and end things with your father.”

“Divorce?”

“Yes, I'm afraid so. But you, me, Zak, and Shauna will be together. And the shelter will help us find a home we can afford. Your father will still be your father. When I'm sure he's not going to hurt any of us, then we'll arrange visits. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said. Mom was right. We had to be away from Dad for a while.

So we drove to the shelter and moved our stuff in, what little we had. The people who ran the Chief Seattle Family Center were very nice. They said a school bus picked up and dropped off kids there every day. Though our room was small, there was a nice shaded play area out back. There also was a library with a study area for doing homework.

Mom tried her best to get us three kids to look at the bright side of it all. “Be brave and
hopeful,” she said. I was trying to do that, and so was Shauna.

But Zak was the least convinced. He just knew we were going to end up living out on the street someday soon. In a cardboard box.

As I arranged my little corner of the room, Ron texted me. “How's the new place?”

“Small & depressing, but it will have 2 do for now,” I replied. “When can we get the gang 2gether & go 2 the beach? I need a change of scenery and a swim.”

“2moro at noon,” Ron shot back. “Send me ur address so I can pick u up.”

“All rite. Now ur talking!” I sent him the address and told Mom about the plan. She was fine with it. I was relieved.

Noon the next day took forever to get here. When Ron arrived, I ran out to the car carrying my towel and swimsuit. My mom had given me a little spending money for lunch and snacks, so we were good to go.

Technically, in Washington State, sixteen-year-olds weren't supposed to drive other sixteen-year-olds unless they were related.
Ron's parents were sort of relaxed about those rules. Especially since his mom and dad both worked, and Ron often drove his brother to school.

“We're picking up Ben and Amy,” Ron explained. “Randy's meeting us at Alki.”

“Awesome!” I said. “How long do we have the car?”

“I have to be home by six o'clock sharp for dinner.”

“That gives us six whole hours. Let's make the most of it. We're lucky it's another sunny day.”

Alki Beach was really the only beach in the area. People from all over Seattle showed up there to hike, bike, roller-skate, and just soak up the sun, if there was any. The water was too cold for most people to swim in, but not me. Usually I dived in, swam like crazy for a few minutes, and then rapidly retreated to the warmth of a towel.

We did almost everything there was to do at Alki, including having lunch at the Beachside Cafe. That's where we hatched
our plan to have a bonfire on the beach Sunday night. That would be our last night of freedom on spring break before we had to head back to school.

The rest of the week went by smoothly, though I really didn't get a chance to do enough swimming. But I could hardly wait until Friday. Mom said I was very helpful all week, so she decided I could use her car to go to the bonfire. Yay! That doesn't happen very often. My parents were stricter than Ron's about sixteen-year-olds driving other kids around. But Mom said it couldn't hurt this one time.

Ron would ride with me, since his house was on the way to the beach. Everyone else would meet us there.

At about six o'clock on Friday, I told Mom good-bye and left the family shelter. I had a little money in my pocket and my cell phone on the car's center console. In the back seat were all the fixings for s'mores, thanks to Mom. And in the trunk was some
firewood I had gathered during the week. Everything was set.

I was headed north on California Avenue. The traffic was a little heavy. It was Friday at 6:00 p.m., after all. Rush hour. After a few blocks, the traffic stopped moving completely. What was up?

I put the car in park and stepped out on the pavement for a look ahead. Road construction. Orange signs read “Road Work Ahead” and “Flagman Ahead. Be Prepared to Stop.”

Just great. I sat back down in the car and picked up my phone. “Stuck in traffic,” I texted Ron. “Don't know how long. I'll let u know when I'm moving again.”

“No sweat,” he responded. “See u when u get here.”

After fifteen minutes, traffic began flowing again. It was still thick and slow. When I got up alongside the construction site, I could see they'd finished working for the day. So I pushed on as fast as I could. There was fun to get to!

Soon I was passing through the Junction, the old downtown part of West Seattle. At the intersection of California Avenue and Oregon Street, my phone alerted me to another text. I looked down at the phone in my lap to see who it was from. It was Ron.

That's when it came. Out of nowhere. BAM! In the split second that I was distracted, the light in my lane had changed from green to yellow to red. To my left, a driver in a hurry jumped from the line when his light turned green. I hadn't cleared the intersection.

My car was hit from the left side, the driver's side—my side. The other driver must've been distracted, too.

Crash! Bang! Crunch! My car flipped on its right side. In an instant I was hanging sideways from the seatbelt as the car slid on its side across the pavement. Slam! Directly into a corner light pole. All I could feel was sharp, burning pain up and down the left side of my body. Then I blacked out.

I don't know how long I was out. When I woke up, I found myself in a strange room, in a strange bed. I had trouble opening my eyes. When I finally got them open, I didn't like what I saw.

I was in a hospital room. There were machines beside my bed. They were beeping and making weird noises. I had a headache and a side ache and an arm ache. But I couldn't feel my left leg.