Undermind: Nine Stories (3 page)

He finally drifted off thinking, “All I want is
a simple life. It shouldn’t be so hard.”

***

The next morning, Nikki was gone somewhere when
Dave awoke. His first job wasn’t until eleven so he had plenty of
time to think and worry about making the dreaded call. After
breakfast, he decided to drive by the Mackey house. He didn’t have
a clear reason for doing so. It wasn’t as if he’d drive by and see
Theodore miraculously healed and the family having a nice picnic on
the front lawn, thus making this whole issue disappear for him.

He drove past the house slowly, wishing he could
draw something from it. Something he could take away and make him
feel better about what he needed to do. Maybe if he saw Ron
actually striking the child, that would cement it for him. After
all, what did he really know? They’d said that Theodore fell down
and hit his head, and then he fell down again and hurt his fingers.
What if he did? How would Dave and Nikki feel if Jake hurt himself
in a fall and someone accused them of abuse? He didn’t actually
know
anything, did he? Suspicion was all he had. That and a
weird telepathic certainty.

As he drove back home, he passed a Homeland
Security billboard that read, “If you see something, say
something.” Okay, what if he just called and said that he’d seen
something and didn’t know for sure what it meant. That would put
the problem into the hands of the proper people to determine if
there was anything to be concerned about.

And if he was ever confronted by Ron he could
tell him that he was just concerned and wanted to be sure. Was that
a bad thing? What kind of person would he be if he wasn’t concerned
for the well-being of a child?

With that decided, Dave looked up the number
online and called Child & Family Services. He punched in the
number, put his cell phone on speaker, then set the phone down on
the counter and mindlessly looked in the kitchen cabinets as he
waited for his call to be answered. He was repeatedly informed that
his call was important and to please stand by as all staff were
currently busy with other callers.

Finally Dave peeled open a banana, more from
boredom than actual hunger and just when he’d taken a large bite,
the jazz music stopped and a woman spoke.

“Thank you for calling Child & Family
Services. My name is Yvonne. How may I assist you?”

Dave waved his hand back in forth in the air in
front of his phone while trying to quickly chew the mouthful of
banana.

“Hello? Is there anyone on the line?”

Dave mumbled, “Just a second” with his
mouthful.

“Is this an emergency? Make a sound if you need
me to call the police.”

Dave finally swallowed and said, “I’m sorry. I
was eating while I was on hold. I’m here.”

“Oh, well that’s good. I apologize for the
delay. How may I assist you?”

Dave found himself not mentally prepared for
what to say so he just blurted out the first thing that came to
him.

“This may be nothing, but I was at a house where
there was a child with a black eye and a fat lip. And the, uh,
parents said he’d fallen. The next day, I went back and this time
the child’s hands were hurt and they said he’d fallen again, so,
you know, I was just wondering if there was possibly something more
to it than what they were saying.”

Yvonne told Dave that it was good of him to call
and that you could never be too careful, especially where a child
was concerned. She got all of the pertinent information from him to
make a full report and assured him that it would be looked into,
and that his identity would not be revealed. And that was it. He’d
done it. It was much easier than he had anticipated.

He almost felt foolish for worrying about it so
much. It was like calling the DMV and updating his registration or
something that could actually be done over the phone and was no big
deal.

Dave felt so much better afterwards that he
barely even gave it any thought. Nikki was pleased with him for
having done his part to help a poor little battered child and told
him how great he was. She was extra attentive that night when they
went to bed.

Then the next day she was being very flirtatious
with him via text while he was on a job. Afterwards, as he was
walking to his truck, she called him.

“Dave, where are you?” Nikki sounded desperate
and like she was crying.

“I’m just leaving the Davenports. Are you
okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay and Jake’s okay, but our front
window is not. Someone threw a boulder through it with a note on
it.”

“Oh my God. Are you sure you and Jake are
okay?”

“We’re fine. Just a bit rattled. And we’re
scared. Dave, the note said, ‘Snitches get stiches’. Do you think
it was… those people?”

“Make sure the doors are locked and—“

Dave hadn’t noticed the truck pulling up as he
stood outside the door of his car. He felt a hand wrap around his
throat and pull him backwards against the truck door. His head was
pulled partly into the cab and yanked downward causing his back to
arch and forcing him up onto his toes. He found himself looking
upside down at Ron’s angry red face.

“You need to learn to mind your own goddamned
business!”

Dave couldn’t breathe with his head pulled so
far backwards, and to make it worse one big meaty hand was still
squeezing his throat. His heart pounded and his mind panicked. His
only hope in this vulnerable position was if someone came to his
aid, but he was between two vehicles, so anyone passing wouldn’t
even be likely to see what was happening. He couldn’t count on a
passerby intervening.

He did the only thing he could do. He reached
back with both hands to pry Ron’s hands off his neck. Ron took the
phone out of Dave’s right hand and slammed it down on his forehead
repeatedly until the phone broke and blood ran from Dave’s head.
Then he threw it out the passenger window and shoved Dave away from
his truck.

“Next time it’ll be your woman and your child.
Ya hear me?” He stepped on the gas and burned rubber as he pulled
away.

Dave stood there choking and holding onto his
throat. Blood dripped into his eyes, mixed with tears and ran down
his face. He lifted his shirt and blotted his eyes as he coughed
and tried to keep from gagging.

Now that he could see again, he could start to
think also. His first thought was of his phone. Ron had thrown it.
He looked down the street and saw it thirty or so feet away. He
walked toward it on trembling legs, feeling completely disoriented.
He couldn’t believe what had just happened to him in the middle of
a suburban street on a sunny day.

Everything around him looked normal as ever.
Apparently no one had seen the attack. At least not that he could
tell. No one was coming out to ask if he was okay or if he needed
help. He reached his phone and bent to pick it up. When he bent, he
lost his balance and fell to the street. He sat there staring at
his phone for a minute, still in some degree of shock.

He saw that the screen was cracked and smeared
with blood, but the display was still lit. He saw Nikki’s face on
the lock screen. Nikki! Suddenly he felt the urgent need to get
home and make sure his wife and son were safe. He grabbed the phone
and got up.

He dragged his finger across the bloody glass to
reveal the functional screen beneath the photo of Nikki and tapped
the handset icon. He touched the number nine and then one as he
walked toward his car and then held his finger above the one and
stopped himself from pressing it a second time. He looked up to
make sure it was safe to cross the street, then did so and got
inside his car.

He put the phone down on the center console and
used his shirt again to wipe more blood from his face and forehead.
Being inside his car caused a feeling of normality to wash over
him. A familiar place. A bit of security. It was like an extension
of “home.” The small measure of relief made him feel suddenly
exhausted, but he needed to think and act.

He looked at his phone. He had dialed 9-1. He
didn’t know if he should complete the call and send police to his
house or if he should just race there himself. When Ron said, “Next
time…” surely he didn’t just mean the next time Dave called CFS. He
had to have meant the next time Dave called anyone about Ron –
including the police.

Not wanting to chance it or take any more time
to think about it at the moment, he reached into his pocket for his
keys, started his car and drove faster than every posted speed
limit all the way home.

The front window of his house was shattered with
a large jagged section missing. What if Jake had been playing in
front of it when the boulder came through? What if Nikki had been
cleaning it or dusting the bookshelf? Chills went through Dave’s
body. The thought of anything happening to either of them was more
than he could handle. He parked and rushed inside.

He locked the door behind him and turned around.
The front room was empty. Glass was scattered over the polished
wood floor.

“Nikki!” he called out, his heart already
thumping in fear that he was too late. That beast had come after
his family.

“We’re in Jake’s room,” she replied.

Dave sighed in relief.
Thank God.
He went
down the hall to Jake’s room and was so happy to see them both
sitting on the floor as though nothing bad had happened at all that
day.

Nikki screamed. Jake cried out and back-pedaled
away from his father.

“Honey, what’s the matter? You’re okay.
Everything’s okay.”

“Oh my God, Dave! What happened to you?”

He wondered for a second how she knew, then he
remembered. The blood. He looked down at his shirt. It was covered
in blood.

“We need to get you to a hospital. I’ll call
Joy—or 911. I’ll call 911.”

Dave turned around to spare them further
exposure to the bloody mess that he was. “Just call Joy so she can
watch Jake. Then you can help me. I don’t need an ambulance.
Okay?”

Nikki wasn’t sure about that, but whether he
needed medical attention or not, they’d need Dave’s younger sister
to watch Jake for a while. In fact, she thought, he should stay at
her house tonight.

Dave went into the bathroom and almost felt like
screaming himself when he saw his reflection. He understood now why
his wife and son freaked out. He looked like he’d been in a fatal
car wreck and he was the fatality. But since he was standing in his
bathroom, he would be a zombie if he’d been killed earlier. In his
case, it had been a human wreck he’d been in. Two humans had
collided in the street.

“Dave! Are you okay?” Nikki broke the trance
he’d fallen into with his strange train of thought.

“I think it’s worse than it looks.”

“Joy says she’ll be over right away.”

“Good. That’s good.” He was still staring at his
macabre reflection. It was hard for him to believe he was looking
at himself. Had it been a photograph he was looking at, he wouldn’t
have recognized himself.

“Dave, look at me. I think you’re in shock.”

He turned and looked at his wife. She was so
beautiful. He wanted to marry her. They could have a little
boy.

“I love you,” he said.

“You know I love you too, but I’m worried about
you. You look like a… you look terrible. We need to get you to the
hospital.”

“I think I’m okay. I just need to change out of
this bloody shirt.” He repeated in an English accent, “This bloody
shirt. Won’t you ‘ave a look at it? It’s all bloody, innit?” He
started laughing.

Nikki didn’t know what to do. Dave was injured
and bleeding and acting strange. Jake was alone in his room. The
front window was broken, which meant whoever had hurt Dave could
easily get inside their house. Dave clearly needed her right now,
but so did Jake and she didn’t want them in the same room since
Jake was still traumatized by the sight of his father.

Okay, Nikki. Get it together. You can handle
this.

“Dave, honey. Can you go to our bathroom and
wait for me?”

“Sure thing, love. I could go on walkabout,” he
said, now using an Australian accent. “Fair dinkum.”

Nikki hoped he was just screwing around and
demonstrating that he was in good shape by being goofy like usual.
But he wasn’t laughing or smiling, so she didn’t know if something
was wrong with his brain. That was a definite possibility as far
she could tell with the big knot on his forehead and the blood
everywhere.

Dave dutifully walked out of the main bathroom
and toward the master bedroom, presumably to the bathroom there.
Nikki sat with Jake and assured him that everything was okay. Daddy
just bumped his head and it looked a lot worse than it really
was.

“Aunt Joy is going to take you out for ice cream
while I clean up Daddy’s face and put a Band-Aid on his cut.”

Jake wasn’t interested in ice cream. He clung to
his mother and tried not to cry, afraid that his dad was hurt as
badly as he appeared to be.

***

In the hospital waiting room, Nikki ended her
second call with Joy, having been assured once again that she and
Jake were okay. Of course they were. They were at Joy’s house and
there was no reason to suspect that Ron knew where they lived or
that he’d even do anything if he did. Which he didn’t.

Nikki could not calm her racing mind. The doctor
had assured her that Dave was going to be okay, but that didn’t
make her feel any better about the fact that he’d been assaulted to
begin with. Things like this just didn’t happen in her life. Dave
had done nothing wrong. He was a good person, concerned about a
child. She had to talk to the police. No. Dave had to talk to the
police. It wouldn’t do any good for her to report the assault. But
she could report the broken window and the rock with the note on
it. For that, she’d have to wait until they got back home.