Free The Birth of Bane by Richard Heredia Page A

mumbled, “for
now.”
    “ I hope he stays
away forever,” growled my sister.
    My
m om chuckled thoughtfully. It
was one of those prayer-like musings of not-quite-mirth.
    Eli had scooted
onto her lap, snuggling.
    I knew she had
been wishing for the very same thing.
    Later, when
everyone was asleep, Elijah next to me in my bed, the answer to my
question came…
    … The
House.
     
    *****
     
    The resounding
thud rattled the house to such a degree, I was awake in less than a
second. Instinctively, I reached out for Elijah, but his hand found
mine before I’d had neither hide nor hair of where he was in the
dark.
    The screams
brought me from the bed and out the door in a flash, with only
cursory glance back at my little brother, looking tiny upon my
queen-sized bed.
    “ Eli, stay put!”
was all I said, and I was gone.
    By the time I
had reached the kitchen, my mother and Valerie were already there,
frowning hard at the person sprawled about the floor, who was
pointing, with wide-eyed abandon, at the microwave.
    “ It beeped at
me! All on its’ own it fucking beeped at me!” screeched my
dad.
    I don’t think
I’d ever seen him that frightened before.
    “ Did you hear
me? They motherfucken microwave beeped at me. Right when I walked
passed, the light came on and it beeped, over and over!” I could
tell he thought what he’d experienced was real, but who was to say
it was based in reality.
    “ Go to bed.
You’re drunk out of your mind,” explained my mother and made to
return to her bedroom, then stopped. “I made up one of the guest
bedrooms upstairs, so you can sleep it off up there.”
    I saw my
father’s face harden. “The fuck I will.”
    My Mom snorted.
“Fine, then I will.”
    Before any of us
could move, she walked through us and up the stairs.
    My
d ad watched her with rabid
fascination. I could tell he was asking the same questions we’d
been asking hours earlier.
    I wheezed air
through my lips, sharing an “oh well” look with my
sister.
    She shrugged and
followed my mom.
    I left him there
on the ground to find sleep, all by his lonesome, on the first
floor of the house.
    We didn’t even
want to sleep near him anymore.
     
    ~~~~~~~<<< ᴥ >>>~~~~~~~
     

Chapter Six:
Getting Settled
     
    Time passed with
everyone ignoring what had happened days before. It was a thing we
all did back then. Not particularly healthy, but quite possibly
necessary. I think we used silence as a way to keep my father at
arm’s length. The less we said around him the better. The only
downside was we often applied the same attitude toward each other
as if there was some hidden blame game between us, though the only
person at fault was Leonard Favor. It had nothing to do with us and
yet, the very fact that Eli got hit for no reason or my mother got
yelled at and pushed around, was somehow all of our faults, because
we never did anything about it.
    At least, this
was the case until my mom had finally stood up to my dad during
their first bad argument at the new house.
    My father
continued his routine – go to work early, get home late, lipstick
in weird places, Roxanna calling on the phone, mostly drunk
whenever he was around us. I can’t really say the situation was
worse with him. He’d always been this way. I believe it had
something to do with our address that made it grate on us more than
it had when he’d lived off Figueroa Street. Or maybe, the
excitement of living somewhere new had jarred us from that mold of
old, made my father’s antics less central to the goings-on of the
family and gave us something else to consider.
    My
m om, as our time at Lincoln
Drive matured, seemed less inclined to care about the
obvious.
    We all knew good
ole’ Lenny was having an affair. The signs were so blatant, I think
even Elijah knew there was another “lady” kissing dad all the
time.
    But to me, it
didn’t seem to factor much in her life. My mother was content to
care for the house as she began to entertain contractors