Chapter 11:
And Now The Shoe Is On The Other Foot
Dawn Gordon came from a family of four. There was her mother and father and her sister Elise. Of the two sisters, Elise was the oldest and the first to marry. Dawn had always considered her sister to be the lucky one. She married a tall muscular man named Benjamin Harris and had two boys who both took after their father in size and weight.
Her boys, Stan and George, in Dawns eyes were perfect examples of what a growing boy should look like. (Never mind that both they and there father were as ugly as sin.)
Dawn's sister Elise, her husband, and her two sons all lived out near the city, where they owned a beautiful spacious house which looked over the ocean. Dawn could sometimes taste the bitter jealousy she felt for her elder sister.
Dawn herself had chosen a man that had been only a bit shorter then her on their wedding day, and seamed, to her, to be getting shorter and shorter every year. (This, she expected was due to his ever increasing habit of slouching.) Two years after they married, he began to go bald. After seven years, he moved her and their six year old son Justin to a wretched little town that no one has heard of, full of residents that clearly did not want them there, and dwelled in a house that, although may have been quite nice in its days, took so much work it would almost be of better result if they would just let it fall to the ground and slept on it's shattered remains. Five years to the day, she put up with this…and she wasn't sure how much more she could take. This became especially hard when it became painfully obvious that things were not getting better, but worse.
The worst thing, however, was Jeff. She believed she once had loved him, but those days, like his hair, were going fast. These days her mood towards him varied from loathing him with immense passion, or becoming increasingly uneasy and frightened of him. He was aging quicker then any man she had ever known, and his mind seamed to be going a little more with every year. Just lately, she was seriously considering the option of divorce, Justin or no Justin. (Preferably no Justin, seeing as her own son was beginning to frighten her too.)
Then she got a call from her sister. Now, despite her heavy feelings of jealousy for Elise and her perfect life, she was always glad to see her. Having Elise over gave her someone sane to talk to for a couple days and the fact that they were coming to Kingston made the visit all the more valuable. If her sister told her to get out of the relationship, based on what she saw, Dawn would do it, no questions asked.
That's how to came to be, that there visit was moved up by four weeks.
Both Dawn, and her son, who, thankfully, was acting normal on the morning of October 20th were sitting at the window, impatiently awaiting the arrival of the Harris'.
"When did they say they would get here?" Justin asked his mother impatiently.
"Eleven O' Clock, Justin. Where's that idiot father of yours?" There was a coldness in her voice which would concern any normal boy who valued their parents relationship. Justin either missed it, or could care less.
"He's been up in his study all morning. I don't know what he's been doing." Justin answered with little interest. Dawn rolled her eyes.
Jeff spent a lot of time these days in a cold dark room that he liked to pass off as a study. It was small and full of file cabinets and an ugly little desk with thousands of papers scattered all over its surface. Neither Dawn or Justin were allowed in this room, so neither of them were sure what he used it for or what he kept buried in the confines of the many drawers and file cabinets that bordered it's walls. This was another thing that was making Dawn increasingly nervous.
These things would have run through her thoughts like an angry and doubtful storm again this morning if it were not for Justin's sudden outburst of elation.
"Their here!" He said loudly. Dawn shook her head to clear her thoughts and watched as Ben's Cadillac pulled in the driveway.
Justin stood up and hurried out the front door with his mother close behind him.
Ben and Elise were the first one's to get out of the car. Elise smiled, showing a full set of rather dingy looking teeth and gave her younger sister a big hug.
"Dawn! What have you been eating, sis, your wasting away to nothing!" She said jovially. Dawn smiled and returned her hug, not bothering to contradict by noticing that Elise had indeed taken on a few pounds.
Next, Stan and George Exited the car, looking as though it were getting a bit too small for them and that exiting too quickly may cause one of them to break it by accident. Justin stopped in front of them and grinned broadly. Stan returned his smile willingly enough, while his brother continued to grimace as though he had just swallowed something nasty.
"Hey, Justin so what's up with you? The other day on the phone you sounding desperate to quicken our arrival." Stan said, choosing his words carefully and sounding intelligent and polite despite his less then impressive and rather boorish appearance.
"Yeah, you said there was some kids that was bothering you." His brother said awkwardly in a deep voice that completely threw off any signs of intelligence he might have been able to purvey.
Justin looked at him sharply then cast a nervous glance to his mother who was leading Elise and Benjamin inside. He nodded, deciding that they could talk about his plans without being over heard and turned back to his cousins with a severely dark look on his face.
"I hate them and I want them taken care of." He said in a voice that was full of pure venom.
"You want us to shake them up a little?" Stan asked quietly. Justin shook his head.
"I want you to show them what a true beating is suppose to feel like. I want them hurting so bad that they cant see straight. I want them to be beaten so badly that their eyes are watering and that their begging for mercy. That's what I want." Stan and George looked at each other uncomfortably.
"These kids, are they your age?" He asked, his voice mounting with unease. Justin nodded.
"Violet's a little older, but Edwards my age, why?" George shook his head.
"I aint getting put back in juvenile hall for beating up little kids." George said. Stan nodded.
"Yeah, we'd really like to help you but…" Justin interrupted them.
"You won't get caught. I promise, and I doubt anyone will care if they see them all mangled, either. No one in town likes them. Plus, you'll be leaving in a couple days, and no one needs to know you were here. We don't have friends in this town, so my parents wont tell anyone. No one knows about you." Justin said pleadingly. Stan and George shared another look with each other.
"Alright, because your are cousin, but if we get caught you had better come up with a good excuse as to why we were beating on two little kids." Stan said. George nodded.
"Don't worry." Justin said, a grin beginning to form on his lips. "You won't get caught."
Violet was busy looking through a box of old photographs in her and Edwards tree house while she waited for Edward to get back from one of his behavioral classes with one of the law officials from that area. (Which was obviously having no effect on him whatsoever.)
She pulled out a particularly old looking picture, glanced at it casually and put it aside in a pile of photos she thought she might like to keep. The others, which consisted of her and Edward in their younger and not so aggressive days, and their mother, she would either toss behind her back, or rip apart. She got to one of their mother and father and ripped it down the middle, the side with her father was neatly put in the pile by her side, while the other soon became two halves and then fours pieces, until it was ripped into tiny shreds. She did this to several of the pictures that followed.
One picture, that she seamed to have a particularly loathsome attitude towards was taking her attention so much in it's mangling process that she barely noticed as her brother entered the door and threw his monthly report to the ground in a fury. She looked up and surveyed him and the papers on the ground over her shredding and her eyes narrowed.
"What did you do?" She asked dully. He threw his arms up in frustration.
"I called him a pansy and said his family was a bunch of dirt shoveling freeloaders with no lives, and called his daughters ugly as sin and he freaked out. Talk about needing anger management. Although, I think that water balloon in his desk was a large part of his rage."
"Water balloon?"
"Yeah, with that paint burning stuff in it. It ruined a bunch of papers in his drawer and he said something about it being his last chance at having a happy marriage or something, anyway, the moron assigned me to another session of therapy for tomorrow morning." Violet was shaking his head.
"Edward if you just get through ONE of those…" He interrupted her.
"Ah, who cares, therapy doesn't help anything, you know that." Violet nodded and went back to sorting through the photographs.
"Still," She said as she did. "If you ever want to stop taking those stupid sessions your going to have to fake your way through a couple." Edward shrugged.
"So," he said, changing the subject. "What are we going to do today?"
"What do you mean?" Violet asked, her voice devoid of interest. Edward raised his brow.
"Well I have to do something to let out all of my rage." He said, while picking up one of the photos Violet had set aside.
"Yeah, that's wise." She said in sarcasm.
"Eh, Who cares. I've been dying to get back at Justin for being in on that stupid little revenge thing since yesterday. Want to go punch him around for a while?" Violet sighed as she reached the last photograph in the box and ripped it in half.
"Yeah, alright, I guess." She said unenthusiastically. Edward gave her a funny look.
"What is up with you lately?" He asked, a little annoyance edging into his voice. Violet looked up in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"You've just been really dull lately. It's like your losing your touch!" He said in frustration. Violet sighed again and stood up, casually brushing a few remnants of bad photographs off of her long sleeved purple shirt.
"Do you ever wonder if any of this troublemaking stuff is doing us any good?" She asked. Edward rose his brow.
"What do you mean?" He asked slowly.
"Like…you know…whether or not we really are trying to get a point across or something…like we overheard Brutus say…or if were not just doing it for entertainment?" She explained, then, upon seeing the blank look on her brothers face she brushed the thought away.
"Never mind. Let's go find Justin and hang him on his storm drain by his underwear." She said dismissively. Edward nodded, still looking a bit confused, and obviously glad that she had changed the subject.
By the next morning Gregory was feeling a little better. Granted, he wasn't in a good mood, but he at least did not feel quite as angry and depressed as he had the night before. His aunt had asked him to run an errand to the Town Municipal Hall to pick up some papers that she had not picked up at the beginning of the week, which he had been happy to do in order to stay away from her and to not attract questions about the night before and his bandaged hands.
He was on his way, focusing bitterly on the ground when a loud raucous sound emitted from his right. He looked up, startled, and his eyes fixed on a deep purple car. At first, he didn't recognize it, then, when the window rolled down and Mrs. Venison's plump face appeared in it, he remembered it from the first day he was in Kingston, when he had ridden in the back seat after being thrown in the lake.
"Hey Gregory." The woman said pleasantly. "Need a ride anywhere?" A faint and unconvincing smile crossed Gregory's lips.
"No thanks." He said quietly.
"You sure? My son could use the company." It was then that Gregory noticed the other person in the car. He leaned slightly to the left to get a better look and saw Marion in the passenger seat, trying his best to avoid Gregory's glance.
"That's ok Mrs. Venison. I'd rather just walk." He said. There was a tired sound in his voice. He found himself feeling quite bitter towards the boy he had met on the first day of school. He was just one more kid who did not seam to want to make friends with him. He was sort of sick of all of them, really. The whole town was seriously beginning to irritate him.
"Are you sure? Last chance."
"I'm sure." He said, his smile widening a little. He supposed this smile was even worst the first one he gave (Especially when Mrs. Venison appeared to look at him a bit uneasily.) but he found that he could really care less. He had had a REALLY lousy week.
"Alright." She started to duck her head back in the car, then, a thought seemed to work its way into her mind and she popped it back out again. "Are those Wayward kids still giving you trouble?" Gregory noticed that as she said this she was looking at his hands with a bit of concern. He looked down at them himself and then back up at her trying to feign embarrassment.
"Oh, these." He raised both hands up. "I just had a little…gardening accident is all." As he said this he felt a sinking sensation in his gut. It sounded so stupid.
Mrs. Venison nodded, an odd look forming on her face.
"Alright then." She said, seeming to dismiss it. "Well, see you later, Greg." Gregory put his hand up in a farewell gesture.
As she rolled up the window he heard Marion say something bitterly. It sounded something like;
"Mom, why'd you have to stop and talk to him, what if someone saw us!" This was followed by a much louder;
"Quiet Marion! That's Rude!" Then the window was up and they were driving away. Gregory glared after them as they disappeared down the street, then continued to walk, kicking as many things as possible along his way.
The Wayward kids were excellent at not being seen…when they desired not to be, anyway. Usually, when they were sabotaging a house, or trying to cut off a kid who was walking home from school they took an array of short cuts that they had learned over the years so that the kid, or owner of the property, did not see them coming. On this day, that talent (If you will.) did nothing for them.
They had taken a short cut to Justin's house, planning on letting the air out of Mr. Kings tires, knocking down the King's mail box, and doing a decent amount of other things to irritate Justin and his family, before waiting for Justin to come out by himself. At that point they would get serious, as they always did when a lesson needed to be learned.
They had let out half of the tires on Mr. King's automobile when two very large shadows fell on them.
"Well," A deep and stupid voice spoke quietly. "You must be Edward and Violet Wayward." Then, another voice joined the first.
"We've been waiting for you."
(Sighs) Well, here's another chapter. Now, by all rights this should be the next chapter for The Law Of Your Anarchic Demise, but this one was fairly easy to write, as is the next one to Pumpkin Town, and The Law Of Your Anarchic Demise, for now at least, has me stuck. I'll try to update that one next, but if it comes easier, I may just update Pumpkin Town and Special Keys For Special Doors another time before getting back on it. Either way, there will be updates on all of my stories as soon as I can get around to them. Thank you for your Reviews.
