Family Affairs Chapter 3

Steven wondered how long they had been in the room. The light flickered every now and then, but no one had come in for quite some time. He looked at Carry, “How can you stand this?”

“Stand what?”

“Waiting here. Who knows how long it’s been. And God only knows what those two are devising.”

“Believe me, if you knew my father, you’d be glad we were waiting. Waiting is far better than something bad happening.” Carry’s voice remained hollow and monotonous. “I would consider myself lucky if nothing happened at all. You’ve never seen my father go into a rage.”

“Despite what you seem to think, I do know some things about you Carry. My dad was at the hearing. I know what went on. It was front page news all over the county.”

Carry shut his eyes and tried to keep his temper in check. “You really think I’m so isolated that I don’t know what went on during the hearing?”

“Well you never seem to want to hang out with anybody. You sure as hell didn’t want to talk to me.”

“I don’t talk to people because people don’t want to talk to me.” Carry’s voice filled with rage that had been left unvented for many years. “What you heard at the hearing was only a fraction of what happened to me. Nobody knows what went on in my life, not even my mother. I intend on keeping it that way. I don’t need your so-called friends prying into my business. I don’t need anyone’s pity. They won’t like what they find out, so…”

“So you shut them out totally. You isolate yourself from everyone. You can’t live your life all alone with out at least one close friend.”

“So what if I shut people out. It’s my business. I try everyday to forget about what he did to me and you know what I found out? I can’t. I can’t because everyday I look at people and see the look that I’ve been given since the day my father took me; that look that says, ‘you poor thing. What on earth did he do to you?’ People treat me like I’m a kid and I’m not. People always ask me what happened, like I’m actually going to tell them. People look at me, and they don’t see me. They see some poor abused little kid. I just want to get on with my life.”

“Why are you so angry? You’d think by now that you’d have learned to deal with it.”

“Deal with it? This isn’t something you ‘deal with.’ It’s something I’ve always had to live with, not just deal with. This was my way of life up until the age of ten. I think after what I went through I have a right to be a little upset.”

“Will you both shut the hell up, I can hear you all the way upstairs.” Robert shoved the door open immediately silencing the boys.

The color drained from Carry’s face, and his eyes turned from unending rage, to limitless fear.

“Look mister, what do you want with us. I guarantee you that our parents will give you whatever you ask for.” Steven prayed that the man he knew nothing about would at least want something.

“Boy, what do you propose I ask for? A million dollars? Do you take me for a fool? I don’t want anything right now. What I want, I’ll get in due time.”

The second man, still dressed in black and a ski mask, came to Robert’s side. He looked at both the boys with pity and compassion, but his eyes hardened when they turned to Robert.

“Take that damned thing off. You look ridiculous.”

Robert reached up and yanked off the man’s mask. His sandy hair fell down to just below his eyebrows. He looked at the floor and didn’t dare raise his eyes to Robert again.

“Cut ‘em loose. If either of you two decide you want to be superman, we’ll see how bulletproof you really are.” Robert grasped the handle of the .45 in his holster, and put his finger on the trigger.

The man came over and started to untie Steven.

“Get Carry first. That boy looks like he might want to be a hero. I don’t like heroes too much. Cut Carry loose and he can get the other boy.”

The man lowered his head and turned to Carry. Steven could see the sadness in his eyes as he undid the knots in the ropes.

“Tyler, what are you doing?” Carry whispered to keep Robert from hearing him.

“I’m sorry Carry. I don’t want to do this, but I have to.” Tyler’s reply was almost inaudible.

“Just his hands Tyler. He can undo his feet after we’re out of here.”

Tyler stood up when he was finished with the ropes and walked over to Robert. Robert sneered, “Good job boy. Now let’s go.”

Tyler managed to reciprocate a half-smile, but lowered his head. Tyler mouthed ‘I’m sorry,’ to the boys, and followed Robert out of the room and closed the door behind him.

“Who’s Tyler?” Steven hated to rely on Carry for information, but he couldn’t come up with a plan until he was sure about whom he was dealing with.

Carry started to undo Steven’s hands. “Tyler’s my half brother from my father’s first marriage. They had two kids, Tyler and a girl. When Robert and she divorced; his wife only wanted the girl. She just didn’t want him. He never kept contact with his mother or his sister. He loved his sister dearly, but he didn’t want to jeopardize her safety.”

“How old were they when they divorced?”

“They were both six.”

“Twins?”

“Yeah. He then married my mom.”

“Any idea what happened to his sister?”

“Nope, like I said, he didn’t want to jeopardize her safety.”

“How old is he now?” Steven watched Carry fumble with the knots and thought about suggesting the pocketknife.

“He’s seventeen now.”

“If he’s seventeen and you’re fifteen, then how…”

“Mom doesn’t like to talk about it, but for a while she was his mistress. He didn’t want to divorce his wife at the time. When I turned four, my mom started putting serious pressure on him to divorce so they could be married and he could claim me as his child. He already spent half of his time with me.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah. I know it’s confusing.”

Why’s he so important to you?”

“What makes you think that he’s important to me?”

“I can just tell.”

Carry looked suspiciously at Steven. “He felt he was the only one who should bear our father’s wrath. He took a lot of hits that should have been mine. He taught me how to survive my father’s rages.”

“So if he’s such a hero, why is he doing this?”

“I don’t know.” Carry finished with Steven’s hands and sat back to untie his own feet.

“What happened to him when Robert went to prison?” Steven tried to avoid direct eye contact by undoing the ropes around his ankles. He resisted the urge to pull out his pocketknife and cut the ropes.

“After the trial she said that he was just ‘too much like Robert.’ She said that I should just forget about him, but how do you forget someone who saved your life? He got shuffled from foster home to foster home up and down the Florida coastline. I last heard from him two years ago. He was in Georgia then.”

“So why did he kidnap us?”

“I told you I don’t know. You ask an awful lot of questions though.”

“I don’t know about you, but I want to go home alive. I don’t want to be hauled out of this place in a body bag.”

“Look, I want to go home as much as you do, but unlike you, I know who I’m dealing with. If you want to piss him off then you go right on ahead and you do it. But I prefer to keep my hide intact.”

“Do you honestly think that he’ll let us go?” Steven began to feel that maybe the best thing for him to do was to listen to Carry.

A loud thud overhead stopped the boys’ conversation. A loud commotion followed though they couldn’t make out the words. Steven got up to listen. He strained his ears to make out what they were saying.

“You don’t need to eavesdrop to know what’s going on up there. It’s simple really.” Carry looked over at Stephen straining to put his ear to the ceiling.

“What are they doing?”

“Not they, he. And he is beating Tyler.”

“How do you know that? They could just be arguing over something.”

“You don’t argue with my father. It’s something that was always understood. You did what you were told and you didn’t ask questions. If he said ‘jump,’ you said ‘how high?’”

Their conversation was followed by another loud thud, and then a crash.

“That would be him throwing Tyler to the ground or slamming him into a wall, and then throwing something breakable at him.”

Steven stood stunned. Somehow he knew that what Carry was saying was true, but he didn’t know why he was so sure. “I thought they were partners?”

“Partners? With my father? Not a chance. Why Tyler’s even here at all, I don’t know and haven’t been able to figure out yet, but they are most definitely not partners.”

“But…”

“Why is it that you insist on asking questions that are better left unanswered?”

Steven sat down next to Carry. He had rested his head against the wall. Steven looked at Carry with a newfound respect for what he had been through. “You’re awfully smart for your age.”

“Not smart. I just know how to survive. Just sit tight and let this run its course.”

Steven tried to think of ways to get them out of the house. “Fine, we’ll sit here and do nothing.” Steven didn’t want Carry to think that he was still defiant of the kidnappers. If Carry knew what he had planned than he might ruin it. “Do you suppose they’ll feed us?”

“You got a bottle of water didn’t you? Maybe if we behave we’ll get food. It doesn’t matter. As long as we have water, we can make it.” Carry sensed in the way that Steven had stopped his probing questions that he was up to something. He only prayed that whatever he was plotting wouldn’t get them killed. “Forget about it.”

“Forget about what?”

“Whatever it is that you’re planning. Just forget about it.”

“How do you know I’m planning anything?”

Carry looked at Steven. “You look like you’re planning something… You’re the hero type; just like your father. You always want to ‘help save the innocent kid from the bad guy,’ well newsflash, I don’t need saving. I can take care of myself.”

“I’m not planning anything.” Steven hoped that his face would not reveal that he was lying.

“You’re gonna get me shot.” Carry said flatly.

The door in front of the boys opened and Tyler stepped in with a tray of sandwiches. His left cheekbone was bruised and the eye swelled shut.

“Nice shiner,” Carry stated flatly.

“Yeah, well this shiner is what I paid to get you two some food.” Tyler eyed Steven and flashed his holster to make him aware that he was armed.

“Why’s he doing this?” Steven decided that if Carry wouldn’t ask him then he would.

Tyler acted like he had not heard the question and sat the tray of food down on a table near two cots. “You’re asking the wrong person. I don’t know. I just do what I’m told.”

“Are you aware that kidnapping is a felony offense? Do you know how much time you’ll be facing?”

Tyler chuckled. “You really know how to pick ’em Carry. You stand up to my dad. Nothing is worse than standing up to him. ” Tyler looked through his keys trying to find one.

“Look, if you help us get out of here, we won’t say that you were involved in this. We’ll just pretend that it was him.” Steven hoped that Tyler would be willing to bargain with him.

Tyler chuckled again and looked at Steven. “Look, he says that he just wants his family back. Once he has that… well, I don’t know, but I don’t even think he’s thought that far ahead yet. All he says is that he wants his family back.”

“Is he going after mom?” Carry’s voice revealed his concern.

Tyler found the key and unlocked the door next to him. “I don’t know. He says that he’s found Leah and wants her first. He mentioned your mom, but he hasn’t said anything beyond that. I’m just worried about Leah.” He paused to clear his throat. “This is a bathroom. Don’t try the ventilation shaft in the closet either because it’s barred over.”

“Well if you two are leaving than at least let us know when it’d be safe for us to try and leave.” Steven hoped that maybe he could appeal to Tyler’s sense of reason.

“Safe? To try and leave? This place is a fortress. The windows in here are cemented over. The door out of here has three locks: one key, one chain, and a deadbolt. Once you get up the stairs there’s another door with another deadbolt lock. If you could get past that, there’s Brutus.”

“Who’s Brutus?”

“He’s a pit bull trained to kill. After Brutus, the windows are boarded up from the outside, and barred on the inside. All doors are deadbolt locked from the outside. That means that you’d have to cross the kitchen, living room, and hallway. That’s three more deadbolts. The ventilation shafts are also barred. There is no way out of this house.”

“There’s always a way out.”

“Carry, you got one hell of a hero on your hands. Look, you don’t seem to understand the predicament that you’re in. I know this house inside and out. I helped to install most of this stuff. If there was a way out than I’d tell you, but there isn’t.” Tyler put his head in his hands. It was his way of calming himself down before he blew up.

“Tyler, it’s okay.” Carry tried to keep Tyler pulled together. “We know that he doesn’t plan on hurting us, we’ll be okay. We always came out of his fits alive, we can live through this.”

The boys heard Robert’s voice bellow from upstairs, “What the hell is taking you so damn long? Get your ass up here.”

“Coming dad. I had trouble finding the key.” Tyler headed for the stairs.

“Tyler,” Carry called out to him and waited until Tyler had turned to look at him, “don’t be a hero. We’ll get through this.”

“I’m fine. I’ve never been a hero before, I don’t intend on becoming one now. You just watch superman over there.” Tyler took one last glance at Steven and closed the door behind him.

The boys heard each lock as Tyler secured them. Securing their fate as well.