Chapter 11
-The Cure
- On both accounts
Anger is a big thing here, especially to my father, and to him I am the cure. I am what keeps him from destroying everything in sight, I guess it could be seen as a noble thought. Don't destroy everything if you can find one form of relief. That's the problem though, he's like a hammer with pent up frustration looking for relief, and sometimes when you're desperate all things begin to look like nails.
That's why she left.
She became nail number four, after me and mom.
***
Jamie was upstairs writing when she heard the noises. The familiar comfort of muffled yells.
“Don't argue with me Tammy,” Richard said.
“What's wrong with you Richy?” Tammy yelled back, “It seems all you ever want to do is fuck? Is that all I am to you?”
“Well I can't find anything better about you!” It was a blow to the heart for any female, slut or not.
“You bastard!” Tammy yelled back. Jamie left the safety of her room, and crouched behind the banister like a child watching for Santa Clause. Only this Santa would be bringing presents in the form of pain.
They were in the living room, Tammy standing in nothing but a bra and underwear, Richard was fully dressed, sitting on the couch.
“What do you expect? You used to be okay with this! You said you could live a life like this,” Richard threw his arms up in the air.
“I thought you meant a life with you!” Tammy exclaimed, frantically gathering her scattered clothes.
“What made you think I meant that?”
“You proposed afterwards,” Tammy slipped a pair of tight designer jeans on.
“It was a good fuck,” Richard said, as if to explain himself.
Tammy stopped dead in her tracks, her shirt halfway on. A look came over her face, Jamie knew that look well, devious almost. Tammy put on a sly seductive smile, the kind that would melt any man, putting him under full power the woman. Immediately Jamie liked her.
“What?” Richard caught the look, without understanding the meaning.
“Nothing,” Tammy said, putting her shirt on all the way.
“I'll be back for the rest of my stuff later Richard,” she said, risking one glance toward Jamie and winking before sashaying out the door.
Richard grunted and got up stiffly, smoothing down his pants as he did so.
Jamie got up and quickly scurried to her room, locking away her notebook.
Footsteps getting closer. They were at the door, a pause and he walked away toward his room.
Jamie left her room, took the stairs two at a time and jogged until she found herself outside, facing Tammy.
She was leaning up against the car, her hair mussed up from the previous activities. A cigarette was in one hand, she was leaning on Jamie's car.
“Get in kid,” she said.
“I don't have my keys,” Jamie said, it was such a strange situation that she never bothered to ask why.
“Don't worry, I have them,” Tammy tossed them toward Jamie who caught them in one hand, reflexes doing all the work her brain was unable to process.
Jamie climbed into the front seat, glad that she hid her writing, Tammy slid into the seat next to her.
“Where to?” Jamie asked.
“Somewhere we can talk.”
This one was different.
Jamie drove them in silence to the lake, she parked on the sand by the dock. Tammy got out and squinted her eyes toward the setting sun.
“I'm not here to make out with you kid,” she said.
“Good,” Jamie replied, “and please don't call me kid.”
“What do you want me to call you?”
“Jamie's just fine.”
“Kind-of a guys name,” Tammy said.
“Eh, you win some you lose some.”
“I'm not here to joke,” Tammy said frowning.
“You're not here to make out with me either, why are you here?”
“To be serious, but I need your cooperation for this.”
Jamie had an instinctively bad feeling about where this could go. A dozen different ways, and not all of them were good.
“Okay,” she said cautiously.
Tammy led them toward the dock, Jamie's arms shook nervously and her legs were threatening to drop her.
“Jamie,” Tammy began softly, “I have some questions about your father.”
“No,” Jamie said firmly, finally becoming herself again.
“Why not?” Tammy asked.
“Because, I don't want you to leave him.”
“Would what you have to say make me want to leave him?” Tammy asked seriously.
“Well, seeing as I have nothing to say, no.”
***
I almost told her, a person that I hate. She told me that she's leaving in a week. I told her good luck.
This one's different, she's not leaving for money like all the others, she's leaving because she realized what a fucked up person Richard is behind the mask. Kudos to her.
I'm afraid of what will happen when she does leave.
What will that mean for me?
