Chapter 11 The Absence of His Voice
He sat on the stairs.
"What are you going to do?"
She jumped.
"Tyson I didn't see you there."
"What are you going to do?" S
he had never heard his voice so flat.
"What do you mean?"
"About Kai."
"Were you listening in?"
She climbed up the stairs towards him.
"Yes." He lied, in truth he hadn't had to listen.
"Listen." She had reached him now and put a comforting hand on his leg. "Your friend Kai is a very messed up kid…"
"Messed up how?"
"He is performing sexual acts with adults for money."
"Who are you going to tell?"
"In the morning I am going to call social services."
"And what will they do?"
"They will put Kai somewhere he can get help."
"They will take him away." It was a statement not a question.
"Yes…but Tyson it is for his own good, what he is doing it's not healthy…he's hurting himself and everyone around him."
"He's not hurting me." Another lie, but a necessary one.
"I'm sorry Tyson."
"No I'm sorry. I really liked you." Tyson apologised standing up.
"What?"
"I'm sorry…but it had to be done. You were going to take him away…"
"Tyson what have you done?" She was starting to sound panicked.
Tyson slowly lifted his shirt revealing his bruised and bloody stomach. "I tried to stop you, I tried to scream for help. When you were getting a knife I called child line and they called social services and the police. I was cut off before I heard more because you started beating me with the phone."
"What?"
"I am so sorry."
"Why?…Tyson I don't understand."
"You should have just let it go. With all those women coming to you…did you think that he didn't know."
"They won't believe you."
"While the neighbour was round I ran out of the house and went across the road for help. They called the social services as well."
"Even with an emergency the police station is thirty minutes away."
"You can't have…why?"
"I love Kai. If it means that I have to do this to keep him out of trouble then I will do it." It was like he was reading from a script, his voice was stripped of all emotion.
"His mother…"
"He told me he would take care of that. You should have just…I don't know…I loved you, you were like my mother."
"Tyson?" She asked her eyes tearing as she looked at the boy she had come to love like a son.
Tyson cried as well, as he smeared his blood on her hands and clothes: he cried because she was just letting him do it, he cried because he wasn't really sure what he had done, he cried because he would probably never see Kai again. He had said he would do anything.
She cried because her heart was broken and she didn't understand why. She had only been trying to do the right thing. And even if they couldn't make these charges stick they would no longer let Tyson stay with her. She had never hated anyone the way she hated Kai in that moment.
Sometimes I watched Kai and I wondered how he slept at nights. He seemed like the type who should have constant nightmares, the echoes of his conscience trying to reach him while he was weak. But he wasn't. when he slept he slept like the dead. (I checked, I even asked Tala.)
After the Tyson incident I thought that he would at least show an ounce of regret, just some small sign that underneath it all he was just a hurt child scared of being caught doing something bad, scared that they would find out and take him away.
Now that we had an understanding it felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted off my shoulders. As much as I hate him it is still nice to know that he is not my enemy. After this whole affair anyone who thought of him as an enemy has backed off, nobody will be challenging him anytime soon. I make him sound like a mafia boss.
I feel bad about what happened with Miss Grainger. I really do. But I could never stick my neck out for her like she was planning to do for me, everyone has a price and mine was met…I can't explain it.
My husband has been cut off from Kai for two days, already he is going mad. Worse still because now he has to make his own meals and do his own washing up. I will make him pay.
I feel better than I have in a long time. Is that bad?
My only real concern now is Tala. Kai may not be the enemy right now but that does not mean that I want him messing around with my son. With all of his clients I don't understand why he even has to go near my son.
I think that Tala may be in love with Kai.
"Tala what's the difference between lust and love?" asked Kai rolling over and dropping the front of his book onto the mattress."
"When you lust after something you have to have it: you take it, possess it, play with it and when you are done you throw it away. When you love something you are never done with it, you never tire of it, when you love something you love it forever."
"So lust doesn't last?"
"No."
"Oh."