Artex
Chapter six-breakdown
EMMA.
Joey and Haley came back downstairs. Haley looked much happier.
"Is everything okay?" I asked, looking from Joey to Haley.
"Yeah," Haley said, brightly as she came over to me and threw her arms around me, hugging me. I hugged her tightly back.
"I can't believe Mike was killed," Jesse said, shaking his head.
"Well, he deserved it," Stephanie said, firmly. "He tried to hurt Aunt Emma."
"He definitely did deserve to be punished," Danny agreed.
"Hey, Haley? Why don't you see if Piper can stay for dinner tomorrow?" I suggested eagerly.
"Sure," Haley said. "I'll ask her."
I looked at Joey meaningfully. He immediately got the gist.
"What do you think she'll like to eat?" Joey asked, cheerfully.
He knew there was a deeper meaning behind asking Piper over for dinner. I wanted to check her over.
"She loves hot dogs," Haley said automatically.
"Wonderful…I'll cook hot dogs, beans and smashed spuds," I said, grinning.
"Beans, beans…the magical fruit…the more you eat, the more you toot," Joey said.
Stephanie burst out laughing and almost choked on her drink.
"That explains why Comet runs out of the house after you eat beans," Jesse teased.
We all laughed again.
"Yeah…he's afraid that if someone lit a match, the house would explode!" I added.
Stephanie, Michelle and D.J. were rolling with laughter.
"And the police would think a comet hit here," Jesse said, shaking his head.
We were rolling with laughter. Joey smiled.
"Right…God forbid there's a shortage of hair mousse," Joey said. "What would you use? Peanut butter?"
Jesse smirked.
"Guys…come on," Becky said, amusedly before Jesse could reply.
Joey was grinning.
HALEY.
LADUN GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
THE NEXT DAY.
I met up with Piper the next day.
"Hey! My mom wants to know if you'd like to come over for dinner tonight?" I asked, swinging my backpack onto my back.
Piper grinned.
"I'd love to. My dad's going to be staying the next few nights with his lady friend," Piper said. "I'll be able to stay."
"Great!" I said, eagerly.
We headed to class.
After that, Piper came home with me. Dad and Michelle were playing a game of cards at the kitchen table.
"Hi Dad! Where's Mom?" I asked, dropping my school bag onto the floor.
"Hey! How was school?" Dad asked, brightly as he put down his cards and pulled me over to give me a hug and kiss.
"Good. I think someone had beans for dinner last night," I said, laughing.
"Uh-oh," Dad laughed.
Then, he looked at Piper.
"Hi Piper. How are you today?" he asked, kindly.
"Good," Piper said, smiling. "Thank you for having me, Mr. Gladstone."
"No problem," Dad grinned. "Why don't you two sit here and I'll see where your mother went?"
Dad got up and winked at me before heading into the living room. Piper and I sat at the kitchen table.
"So. What's your favorite music?" Michelle asked Piper cheerfully.
"Oh…I don't listen to any…I'm not allowed," Piper replied.
"Not allowed?" Michelle asked, shocked.
Piper nodded.
Michelle glanced at me. I just shrugged. She didn't ask anymore questions.
Dad and Mom entered the kitchen shortly after. D.J. and Stephanie came home.
"Oh. Hello Piper! I remember you. How are you?" D.J. asked pleasantly.
"Good," Piper grinned.
"Hey Aunt Emma? I've got a new routine I'd like to show you!" Stephanie said, eagerly dropping her bag onto the floor.
"Okay cool!" Mom said. "Now?"
Stephanie nodded and went over to the small table where the phone and answering machine was. There was a small boombox there. She turned it on and music began. It was Billy Joel's We didn't Start The Fire.
Mom and Dad were standing by the kitchen counter. Deej sat down beside us and watched her.
She began doing some cool moves.
Then, she invited Mom to move with her. Both Mom and Steph were standing side by side. Mom was matching Stephanie's moves perfectly.
When the line "…It was always burning since the world's been turning," Mom and Steph turned in a circle, moving their hips. We began moving with the music too. Michelle and I both grinned and got up, also joining in. The four of us were having a blast.
Once the music was over, Mom, Stephanie, Michelle and I squealed happily.
"Wow! That was great, Steph! Did you make those up?" Mom asked, eagerly.
Stephanie nodded.
"Awesome!" Michelle said.
We all sat back down again. Uncle Danny came home shortly, followed by Uncle Jesse.
"We seemed to have adopted another munchkin," Uncle Jesse grinned at Piper. "Hello. I'm Jesse."
"We've met," Piper said, grinning.
"Oh...right," Uncle Jesse grinned and blushed.
"She's staying for dinner. I'm making hot dogs, mashed potatoes and beans," Mom said, brightly.
Dad went to say something but Mom clamped her hand over his mouth.
"Don't mind Joey," Mom said, grinning. "He need his medication."
Piper looked concerned. I leaned over to her.
"They're just joking," I said, smiling.
"Oh," Piper said, looking relieved.
"We're going to get started on our homework. Just call us when dinner's ready," I said, as Piper and I grabbed our bags and headed upstairs.
While Piper and I were sitting at a table doing our homework, Dad came into the room.
"Hi girls…how's everything coming along?" he asked as he crouched down beside me.
"Good. Piper's having a problem with her division," I said.
Dad moved close to Piper.
"What problem are you having trouble with?" he asked, softly.
Piper seemed shocked that Dad wanted to help. She quickly recovered.
"Oh…problem 12," she said.
Dad studied the problem.
"Okay…what's 5 into 10?"
"Five?" Piper asked.
"No…we're using the time table," Dad said, gently.
Piper cringed as if she thought Dad was going to hit her. Dad and I looked at each other.
"Two." Dad continued, pretending that he didn't see her cringe. "And then how many times does 2 go into 4?"
"Two?" Piper asked, tentatively.
"Right!" Dad said, brightly. "So the answer is twenty two."
Piper nodded and wrote down the answer.
Dad put a hand on Piper's shoulder. I saw her involuntarily flinch. Dad gave me a kiss on the top of the head before heading out of the room.
"Don't worry. Dad's real good at helping," I said, reassuringly.
JOEY.
As I was walking down the hall, heading to go downstairs, Emma was coming up at the same time.
I think she could see something was wrong by my expression.
"What's wrong, Joe?" she asked, concerned.
I gently grabbed her by the arm, just above the elbow and pulled her into our bedroom.
"I just went in to check on the girls. I helped Piper with a problem. When she gave me the wrong answer, she cringed as if she thought I was going to hit her or something," I said, staring into Emma's beautiful honey colored brown eyes, which began filling with anger and sadness.
"God! What did that animal do to her?" Emma asked angrily.
"I don't know…but something definitely is going on," I said, seriously.
We ate dinner shortly after that.
Piper accidentally dropped her glass onto the floor.
"Oh my God! I am so sorry!" she apologized looking terrified.
"It's okay. I've dropped like 4 of them already," Danny said, softly as he and Michelle got the broom and dustpan.
Piper was still looking upset, so I decided to cheer her up.
I began doing impressions of Scotty from Star Trek, Barney Rubble and Popeye. She started to cheer up slightly.
After dinner, she and Haley went outside to play with Comet. About ten minutes later, I heard Haley yelling.
Emma and I, along with Danny, rushed out into the backyard. Haley was crouched down beside Piper, who was cradling her leg.
"What happened?" I demanded, crouching down beside Piper.
"She went to catch the Frisbee, but she hit the fence," Haley replied.
"Let me see," I said.
Piper gently pulled up the pants leg to her jeans. She had a pretty bad cut.
"I'll get the antiseptic," Danny offered, turning and heading into the house.
He came back. I went to put the antiseptic on the cut, but Piper began flipping out.
"It will only sting for a moment," Emma said, soothingly.
"No! Please! Leave me alone! Don't hurt me!" Piper cried.
Emma and I exchanged glances.
Finally, I managed to grab a hold of her. Emma managed to put the antiseptic on even though Piper was thrashing around.
Piper screamed but then broke down in tears. She went limp in my arms.
She kept crying. I gently picked her up in my arms and we all headed into the house.
I sat down on the couch with her sitting beside me. I kept my arms around her.
"What's wrong, Piper?" Emma asked, gently as she crouched down in front of us.
She just kept sobbing.
"It's okay…you can talk to us," Emma continued gently.
Finally, Piper stopped crying long enough to talk to us.
"My dad hit me…he beat me a few times because I got the wrong answer on homework," Piper sobbed.
EMMA.
At that, Joey and I glanced up at each other. That's why Piper reacted the way she did when Joey helped her.
"Plus, he beats me so bad sometimes that I black out. When Emma dropped me off at the house that day, he twisted my arm," Piper continued.
I remembered that scream that sent chills down my spine. I can't forget it.
"Good Lord," Becky breathed shaking her head.
"Listen…you're going to stay with us from now on," Joey said, firmly.
Piper's eyes were brimming with tears.
"What about my dad? What if he finds out that I'm staying here? He'll kill me!"
"Don't you worry about that," I said, softly. "We won't let anything happen to you."
Joey went to hug her, but she began thrashing again. When I went to hug her, she allowed me to. I looked at Joey. He seemed upset.
"She doesn't trust guys right now," I mouthed to Joey.
He nodded.
"Give her some time," I mouthed.
Once again, Joey nodded.
Then, Stephanie came over to Piper.
"Listen, Joey is a sweet, kind and caring guy. He would never hurt a child. He would rather hurt himself than hurt one of us," Stephanie said, softly.
"She's right," Michelle added, also coming over. "He felt guilty when he tried teaching me how to ride a bike and I fell off into the bushes. He felt so bad."
"And he felt even worse when the machine malfunctioned on Mr. Egghead and it punched me, breaking my nose," Stephanie continued.
"You see, Joey isn't the type of person to hurt a kid…neither is Emma. Both of them are kind, caring, loving and gentle people," D.J. said, kindly.
"That's right," Danny said. "I've never seen a young lady with politeness as Haley. They did a wonderful job raising her."
"Hey," Michelle, Stephanie and D.J. said in unison frowning.
"I meant outside of you three," Danny continued grinning.
Piper still looked nervous around Danny, Jesse and Joey.
"It's going to take some time, but you'll see," I said, gently.
Piper nodded.
"Come on inside…it's time for lunch," Danny said.
We all headed into the house.
We ate lunch. I decided to do the laundry. I was carrying the laundry basket under one arm and I went to put my foot down on the first step when it slipped on something and I fell forward. I tumbled down the stairs. My head hit the last step and I went unconscious. The clothes fell out. Blackness swallowed me up.
JOEY.
Haley and I were going to head out the backyard to play Frisbee. We were laughing and talking as we walked through the living room. I pushed open the swinging door that led into the kitchen. We walked in but then, the laughing and talking stopped when I spied Emma lying on her back on the floor at the base of the stairs. Her head was turned away from me and her wrists were lying near her ears.
"EMMA!" I cried as I rushed over to her.
Haley was right beside me.
I crouched down beside Emma's head and gently shook her.
Just then, Piper and Stephanie came into the kitchen from the backyard.
"Aunt Emma!" Stephanie cried, also rushing over.
Emma's eyes were opening.
"Are you okay?" I asked, worriedly as I helped her get to her feet.
"Yeah. I slipped on something on the top step," she said, rubbing the back of her head.
Michelle trotted up to the first step and came back down with a black pen.
"This was lying on the first step," Michelle said.
Piper's face drained of all color.
"That's my pen…it must've fallen out of my bag. I'm so sorry," Piper said.
"It's okay…it wasn't your fault. It was an accident," Emma said, as Michelle began helping her pick up the laundry.
I went over to Piper. Immediately, I saw her flinch.
"You've got a leaf in your hair," I said, gently reaching over and plucking it from her hair. I put it on the table.
We ate dinner that night and went to bed. Piper was sleeping in with Haley.