The Past I part 6

The Past I
part 6

When Dan let himself into Archie’s apartment, he ran face first into Shirley, one of the nurses who had cared for his mother. Archie had once again moved his recliner between the door and Dan’s room. Shirley was sitting on Archie’s lap, her large chest squeezed into a tiny blue t-shirt.

“Where you been, boy?” Archie sneered. “Making out with your little girlfriend?” Shirley giggled and turned cow eyes on Dan, looking him up and down.

“I was doing my homework.” Dan spoke quietly, not wanting to set Archie off again. “I have a math test tomorrow.”

“You think I care?” Archie laughed. “Go get me and the lady a beer, then get outta my sight.”

Sullenly, Dan did as he was told, but in his mind he was snidely wondering by what stretch of the imagination Shirley qualified as a lady. He handed a beer to each of the adults and disappeared into his room, locking the door behind him. He could hear them slobbering over each other, and when he went out to go to the bathroom they were going at it on the floor in front the entryway.

Stunned, Dan couldn’t keep himself from looking. It should have been disgusting. Actually, it was disgusting, but it was also...stimulating. He wasn’t a complete innocent. His mother had made sure he knew the facts of life, and, as a nurse, had instructed him in ways to stay safe. She’d hoped for the best, but had had no delusions about chastity and the normal teenage boy. Running with Luke and the guys, he’d seen lots of porn in magazines. This, however, was different. He couldn’t turn away. Then Shirley looked up and saw him watching. He froze, waiting for her to alert Archie. Instead she just stared at him and smiled a small, sly smile. That look was so knowing, so terrifyingly smug, that it shook Dan out of his stupor and got him moving away from the action.

Shirley spent more and more time with Archie. She started joining them for dinner. The nights always ended with Shirley and Archie getting drunk and having sex--sometimes in the living room, sometimes in the bedroom. Once it happened in the kitchenette. That was the night Shirley had shown up at the door with “pharmaceuticals”.

After the first time, Dan avoided the antics of the uninhibited couple. In fact, for the next two weeks, he spent as much time as possible studying with Tessa, as way to stay out of the apartment. Archie became even meaner when he was drunk or stoned, and his temper became shorter. If Dan looked at him in a way he thought “funny,” Archie was liable to strike out at the boy. Sometimes it was with an open hand. Sometimes with his fist. Most often it was with whatever item was close at hand; a belt, a book, a shoe, and once with a metal barbeque skewer that left marks that lasted over a week. After the first time, Archie never completely lost control, and he never left a mark in a place that was too obvious. Dan’s ears and fingers had been twisted and pulled, and twice more he’d been burned with a cigarette--on the inside of his left elbow, and again on his neck. His teachers noticed that he was more withdrawn and distracted, and the nurse now knew him by name, but they chalked it up to normal depression after the loss of his mother. Only Tessa knew the truth, and Dan didn’t even tell her all of it.

They had the beginnings of an escape plan. Each of them had packed a medium-sized duffle bag with a couple of changes of clothes, some toiletries and storable snack foods. Tessa kept hers in her closet. Dan kept his in the closet of his old room downstairs. They were adding some packaged crackers to his stash one night when they heard footsteps on the stairs. Quickly, Dan pulled Tessa inside the closet and pulled the door nearly closed. Hearts thumping, they listened as Shirley and Archie entered the apartment.

“What are we looking for?” Archie whined.

“Bank statements, stock portfolio receipts, anything that tells us where the money is,” Shirley answered in a loud whisper. “I know she set money aside for the care and feeding of the kid, but there’s got to be more. It was a huge settlement.”

“You said it would be easy.” There was accusation in Archie’s voice. “You said I just had to do what you said and we’d be rolling in the dough. Well I did it. And what do I get? A teeny little monthly stipend, a pain in the ass brat, and a lot of questions from the court. What if the kid’s damned uncle shows up? What if they find out about...” His voice trailed off, although Dan and Tess strained to make out what he said, they couldn’t.

“Just wait, Archie,” Shirley said. “The uncle’s either dead or he just doesn’t give a rip. That woman looked for him for the last two years. She spent a God-awful amount of money with zero results. He’s not coming. You just keep the boy until he’s eighteen, then he disappears. As his stepfather, you’d inherit everything.”

“What am I supposed to do with him until then?”

“Find ways to keep him under control. You’re doing a really good job, you know. He’s already so much quieter and more...compliant.” Shirley’s voice took on a silky, cloying tone that terrified both Tessa and Dan as they huddled in the closet. “He needs a strong hand to show him right and wrong. Boys like him need to be respectful and obedient. I think you’re the right person for the job.”

“Damn straight.” There was an edge of bravado in Archie’s voice now. “I know how to keep him in line. I plan to keep letting him know I’m in charge, and I’m not taking nothing from him.” Dan looked bleakly into Tessa’s eyes. She squeezed his hand in silent sympathy as the two outside rummaged around the apartment.

“There’s nothing here.” Eyes wide with fear, Dan and Tessa held their breath as Archie’s voice sounded directly outside the closet. “Should I check the closet?”

“I wouldn’t bother,” Shirley said. “That’s the kid’s closet. She wouldn’t have left important papers in there, just smelly gym socks.” She laughed nastily. “It looks like everything has already been moved to storage. You’ll have to find out where, and we’ll search there.”

“Can we go upstairs now?” Archie’s whine was back. “I just want to chill and relax a little.”

“Of course, lover boy.” Shirley turned on the sugar. “Mama brought some good stuff with her tonight. Do you want to party?” His answer was muffled as the two left the apartment and headed upstairs.

Inside the closet, Dan expelled the breath he had been holding. Slowly opening the door, he checked to see if Archie and Shirley had truly left. They had. Beckoning to Tessa, he pulled her out of the closet, and they collapsed together in a heap on the floor.

“What was that all about?” Tessa looked at Dan, bewildered. “What were they looking for, and why?”

“I’m not really sure,” Dan said. “But it must have something to do with the settlement Mom got after the incident.”

“What incident?”

Dan ran his hand through his hair. “I forgot that you weren’t here then.” He smiled shyly. “Sometimes it feels like you’ve always been here.” He continued, “After Dad died and we moved down near the docks, Mom went to work at the hospital. One of the doctors went batty one afternoon and took the entire lab hostage. Mom was on duty that day and had just taken a tray of samples down. She was trapped there.”

“You must have been terrified,” Tessa interrupted.

Dan shook his head, ruefully. “I didn’t even know she wasn’t home until I got up for school and she wasn’t there to make breakfast. I’d been out past my curfew and I snuck in. It wasn’t until the police showed up at the door that I even knew anything was wrong. God knows I was an awful son.”

Tessa squeezed his hand. “No, you weren’t. Now, tell me the rest.”

“At first, I was afraid they were there for me. It was after I got arrested. I hadn’t stolen anything, but we’d been doing other things the night before so...” he paused. “But they were there to tell me that my mom had been hurt at the hospital. Her life had been in jeopardy all night, and I didn’t have a clue.”

“There wasn’t anything you could have done,” Tessa jumped in. “Even if you’d been home. Even if you’d known, all you could have done was worry.”

“Maybe. But that would have been something. I slept like a baby that night, gloating because I’d pulled one over on my mom.”

“And you still feel guilty? Danny, let it go. You can’t change it.”

“There’s a lot I can’t change,” Dan said bitterly. “It doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could.”

The silence was deafening.

“So what happened to your mom?” Tessa finally asked.

“The bastard shot her up with someone else’s blood. It was infected with hepatitis. A really nasty strain, I guess, because her liver started failing within six months.” Dan’s eyes were stormy as he looked into Tessa’s. “That’s what killed her. Eleven months. That’s all the time she had left, and I didn’t even notice that she wasn’t home.”

“And the settlement?” Tessa was afraid to let go of the topic, for fear Dan would drown in his regret.

“The hospital got sued by all five hostages. They knew the doctor was losing it, and they didn’t do anything about it. A couple of people went through with the lawsuits, but my mom settled out of court. She knew she wouldn’t live long enough to see the end of the fight, and she wasn’t a greedy person, so she took what they offered.”

“Which was?”

“I’m not really sure,” Dan admitted. “I wasn’t concerned with that, just with the fact that Mom was sick. I know that there was a cash settlement that allowed us to move here, and that the hospital agreed to pay for Mom’s medical care, including the home nurses. There was enough to hire a private investigator to look for Liam--my uncle--and to pay for her funeral. I don’t know what else, but I’m guessing that Shirley does, and she wants it.”

“And she’s using Archie-the-creep to get it.” Tess finished. “Didn’t it seem like she was encouraging him to be mean?”

Dan nodded. “Yeah. Plus she’s giving him drugs and booze. That can’t be good.” He chewed on his lower lip. “You know what freaks me out the most?”

“The fact that she wants you to disappear when you turn eighteen?” Dan nodded, and Tessa dropped her voice to a bare whisper. “Because that made my blood run cold.”

“Me, too,” Dan admitted.

“Well, you won’t be eighteen for five years.” Tess tried to be positive.

“Four years and five days,” Dan corrected. “I’ll be fourteen on Monday.”

“You were born the day after Valentine’s Day? Cool.”

“Twelve minutes past midnight,” Dan told her. “Thankfully. Otherwise my parents might have named me Valentine. That was their anniversary, and they were a little sappy about it.”

“Maybe that’s a sign,” Tessa mused. “Maybe that’s our lucky day.”

“Valentine’s Day?” Dan asked, starting to catch her line of thought. “You want to run away on Valentine’s Day?”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Tessa confirmed. “Look, I know where Mrs. K keeps her emergency stash of cash. There’s probably at least a couple hundred dollars in there. I hate to steal from her, but Danny, he’s going to kill you if we stay.”

Dan was silent, thinking. Finally, he agreed. “I know. I know that every time he hits me, I lose a little of myself. I know that the longer we stay here, the more likely it gets that we won’t ever get away. I just don’t know where we’re going to go. I don’t have anyone but you I really trust.”

“I have family,” Tessa told him. “If I could just get home. We’d be fine on Maui, but the airfare is too high, and the bus—obviously--doesn’t go there. My dad has family in Florida, here in New York, and in Connecticut. My mom has a half brother in upstate New York, and two in one of the I states,” She thought hard for a minute. “Indiana, Illinois, Idaho, Iowa. Idaho.” She looked excitedly at Dan. “Idaho. Uncle Andy was buying a farm in Idaho. Danny, I’m pretty sure! It’s Idaho. We can go to Idaho! I know that he’ll take us both if we show up on his doorstep.”

Dan had his doubts, but something in her eyes gave him courage. “Okay,” he said. “On Sunday we leave this hole and head for Idaho. Together.” He leaned toward her, and the deal was sealed with a tender kiss.

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