16 Chapter Mười Lăm (15)
We Sat in our room, Benny holding me...
We heard dad walked back into the house, there were flashing lights, outside, but mom just kept us in our room, on the wrong side of the house.
Dad walked into our room, I stood and walked to him. I knew something bad had happened, I made him go, and check. He said it was a car backfiring, and that I wouldn't know cause I've never heard one. I knew, something had happened, something bad so I didn't stop bugging him. He had the look of humility every parent has when their child was right, and they were wrong. "No!" I shouted and started to cry.
"Jayden." Dad sighed. Benny leaned forward from the bed, and dragged be back to it. I didn't fight him, somehow I knew, someone was dead, and the sick feeling I couldn't get over was that something bad had happened to John. I linked the two. Deep down there was a feeling of peace, far overshadowed by death.
"Jayden, it looks like your father tried to kill Mr Winters," Tom said with great pain, he may have continued talking, all I could see were tears, all I could hear were my sobs. The fucking drunk ass finally lost it and killed my best friend. I shook with rage, one sob, wanted to die the next I wanted to beat the shit out of my father, and still the next, I had to See John.
"Jayden?" Benny asked putting his arm around me. I pushed him away and stood, I felt too dirty to touch, despite having cleaned up after work. The room spun, I walked out the door to get fresh air, instead I fell into Tom, gasping for air.
"Jay, your hyperventilating." Mom said looking worried at me. "Slow deep breaths." She said. Everything in me was screaming more air, now! I knew she was right, but I didn't want to feel right, with John gone, not yet. My thoughts eventually made less and less sense, and then I passed out.
"Benny?" I asked looking at him, he was sitting in a strange chair, I was in a strange bed, in a strange room.
"Jay-J." He looked relieved to see I was awake.
"Nurse he is awake." Mom shouted gently towards the door.
"He's dead!: I cried out. Remembering the last few minutes of conciousios in terrifying clarity. Realizing after I blacked out, I was probably taken to the hospital. "That ass hole killed John." I sobbed into my hands.
"Who me?" I heard John chuckled. "Nah, I have two grandsons to help out." I looked up at the door, he looked like death, but he was alive.
"John!" I shouted, relieved, I tried to get up.
"Jayden!" Benny objected, putting his arm on my shoulder. "The hooked you up to the goofy juice." He pointed to an IV in my arm.
"That good ol drunk decided he was going to try and kill me." He chuckled. "I got the jump on him. Jayden I am so sorry when he dropped the gun, and it went off, I thought he was shooting at me...."
"Is he dead?" I asked.
"Benny I am so sorry." He nodded.
There was a knock at the door, the same time I actually felt happy at my fathers death.. "Hey, folks, I am detective Smit." The man showed us a badge. "How are you all feeling?" I shrugged.
"Glad to be alive." John said.
"Well, you are lucky, we just looked in his house, and found some pretty disturbing things." The detective looked at us all grimly. "He was a sick, man, with a troubled childhood, his father was very abusive." John shuddered.
"I can only say, it was only a matter of time before he acted on one." He shook his head. "Your lucky your neighbor is one tough old cookie..." Dad shot the detective a glare. "Can I speak to you and your wife alone?" He said looking at Tom.
"How the hell did you get in that wheelchair, and down here by yourself." A nurse walked in and glared at John.
"Forty years, lifting bricks, dirt, and gravel." He chuckled.
"You just had a heart attack, you know a widow maker." She lectured and wheeled him out of the room.
"Sweetheart I am already a widower, but I ain't dying yet, those two boys are my grandkids."
My parents followed John, out and spoke to the detective.
"Jayden, your dad planned this, and had a manifesto." Tom sat on the edge of my bed, after coming back in.
"Masfisto?" I asked.
"Normally how a crazy person thinks the world should be run, and in this case, a plan to get it, killing, john, you, and us, was next." Anger and rage built up, the slow and steady beep of my pulse monitor shot up, faster and faster, until it started to scream. Benny reached across me, and pushed the Goof juice button.
I instantly relaxed and grinned at him. "Petunia!" I chuckled. Benny looked confused then smirked at me. "It's such a great word really. Peh- Tuh- and Nuha" I slowly said phonetically. Then was so happy that Daddy Benny was here. "I love you Daddy!" I smiled at him.
A nurse walked in looked at the beeping pulse machine, muted it check my pulse, I was so happy that daddy Benny was here, she had to know. "He's my daddy!" I pointed proudly at Benny.
"I see that medince is working well." She laughed at me.
I was not joking. "No he is." I pouted.
"Yes, he is!" She smiled at me. "Would you like a snack?"
"Could I get a Pepsi?" I asked.
"Only if you snack on something too, don't want your tummy to get to empty." I nodded wide-eyed at her, in agreement. "Has he ever reacted like this before?" She asked dad.
"No, but we haven't always been his primary caregivers." Dad sighed.
"He's a tough kid then." She smiled at me.
"I am a man!" I pouted.
"Sorry." She laughed. "I'll be back with your people and some cheese and crackers?" I nodded at her.
She came back, with my Pepsi, and a little packet six crackers, and six slices of three variety of cheeses. "Thanks."
A few minutes after I finished my snack. "Tammy, it's good to see you." A doctor walked in and smiled at her. "Just wish it wasn't here." He smiled at me. "Well kiddo, I got good news, and more good news." He smiled. "You are a completely normal person, everyone reacts to bad news, in different ways, now we know you shutdown, which we dont want. So the other good news, is with some therapy, and some medicine you'll never have that problem."
Mom went to a full mother and psychologist mode."No, no antidepressants." She shook her head. "Not quite yet."
"Oh Tammy." The doctor chuckled. "You know, I could prescribe that, but I was thinking something, more..." He pinched his fingers to his lips, and inhaled.
"Ciggeretes?" Benny asked.
Everyone but Benny and Me laughed. "Pot." Tom sighed. "I don't like it."
"Yea, that's why I don't normally suggest it, and I was thinking more of the medically proven stuff, but either would work, if supervised." He pointed out.
"Honey, what do you think?" Dad asked mom, looking for support.
"Antidepressants, in teenagers, is not ideal, and I assume we are talking about some kind of anxiety disorder?" she glanced at the doctor who nodded. "Which really only leaves, other controlled substances, and therapy, which takes time, sometimes years. So you see, on our right is a rock, and to our left is a hard place."
"I see." Dad said. "I was about his age when I smoked the first time..." He looked at us as if he was thinking to finish his thought. "I suppose, we can try it, but if your grades drop, you're done." Mom let the doctor explain he had only meant to hype me up, it wasn't pot but actually CBD. He released me, we saw John, went to the shop the doctor suggested and got what felt like was one of everything, Gummies, cookies, chocolates, and a few vapes.
Of all of it, my favorite was the vape, not because it was a vape or the flavor, that according to dad, was weed. I hated both., but within a few seconds, I felt calmer than I had in what felt like since my mom had died. I had never realized the I felt like a rubber band wound so tight, I felt like I was always going to snap. Unlike the hospital though, where I was told I professed to a nurse, that Benny was my daddy, merely thinking that happened makes me blush still. I remained rather normal, as in not high, I kept one on me all the time. I found out that, now when I was bored, I liked to draw, and now that I wasn't worried I was going to mess up, I was a great cook. Dad and Benny mowed that weekend. There was a knock at the door.... Mom called me to the living room.
