-Here's chapter 12 everyone. Thanks to thefirstphoenix for all your reviews and suggestions. If you think of the moment between Mullet Fingers and Beatrice is anything more than the love between a brother and sister than shame on you!
Beatrice was greeted unpleasantly by her stepmother when she got home from school.
"Where's Mul- uh him?" She asked, remembering that the use of the words 'mullet' and 'fingers' in the same sentence meant beatings for her stepbrother.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing. Been helping him find a place to hide out, hm?" Lonna asked.
"What are you talking about? I've been on the bus." Said Beatrice.
"Yeah right, I know you helped him get away." Lonna said horribly.
Sitting on the table an axe. Lonna lifted it up. There was blood on the tip of it.
"I don't know what he did to himself but whatever it is, I hope it's really hurting him." Said Lonna with a twisted smile.
Beatrice suddenly felt sick seeing the bloody axe. She tried to keep her cool and went over to the fridge. Suddenly, Lonna leapt up from the table, grabbed Beatrice and pinned her up against the wall.
"WHERE IS HE?" She screamed in Beatrice's face.
"Leave her alone." Said a voice.
Lonna turned around to see Mullet Fingers standing in the kitchen. She dropped Beatrice and advanced on her son.
"Boy you've got some nerve showing up here." Said Lonna.
And then it happened again, Lonna leapt forward, grabbed her son and pinned him up against the wall. She then grabbed a huge knife off the counter and held it up to his heart.
"THAT'S IT! I'M SICK OF YOU! I'M ENDING IT RIGHT HERE AND NOW!" She screeched in his face.
"NO!" Yelled Beatrice, grabbing a glass pitcher off the counter and smashing it over her stepmother's head.
Lonna fell unconscious to the ground. "Come on." She said to her stepbrother, helping him up and running out of the house. They ran about a block and then started walking.
"You shouldn't have come, I could've taken her." Said Beatrice.
"I'm so sure." Said Mullet Fingers, walking ahead of her.
Beatrice suddenly noticed that her stepbrother was limping. "What happened? Lonna showed me the axe and- oh no, Mullet what happened?" She exclaimed as Mullet Fingers stopped and showed her his ankle.
There was a long cut down it. Blood was still oozing out. "When I was trying to get those zapper things off I hit too hard on the last one." Said Mullet Fingers.
"How deep is it?" Beatrice asked.
"I dunno, I think I hit the bone." He said.
"You need to get that bandaged up." Said Beatrice at once.
"Not now, it's just a little cut. Come on, we need to find some place to hide." Said Mullet Fingers.
They hurried to the golf course and went in to his camp there.
"You can't stay here, Lonna knows this is where you were living before, it'll be the first place she'll start looking." Said Beatrice.
"We can worry about that when she actually starts looking." Said Mullet Fingers, sitting down on a log and examining his inured ankle.
"I can bandage that up, I always keep some in my backpack now, after the dog bites." Said Beatrice, taking her knapsack off.
"It won't be that easy." Said Mullet Fingers, looking at his cut closely "It looks like there's a piece of metal in there, probably from the bracelet."
"Well then...I'll just have to get it out." Said Beatrice, pulling a pair of tweezers out of her bag.
She took a close look at his injury. She'd need to go feeling around in there for the metal. She put on some latex gloves, told her stepbrother to brace himself and then pulled his ankle open. She stuck her finger in a pushed around, feeling for metal. She did this for about a minute, Mullet Fingers groaning loudly in pain. Suddenly, Beatrice saw her stepbrother's bone, pearly white. She felt sick. She noticed a piece of metal, lodged in the bone. Shaking, she took the tweezers and pulled the metal out. Mullet Fingers screamed in agony. Beatrice tied a bandage around his ankle as quick as she could, then lay down and closed her eyes. She felt queasy. And who wouldn't?
Mullet Fingers looked at his stepsister. It was at that moment that he realized just how much he owed Beatrice. How many other stepsisters in the world would stick their fingers into their stepbrother's ankle? Or smash a jug over their stepmother's head? Beatrice got up again and took her bloody gloves off.
"You're gonna need stitches, and I can't do those." She said.
Mullet Fingers shook his head. "No way I'm goin back to the hospital. To risky, it'll heal on it's own eventually." He said.
"Where are you going to stay?" Beatrice asked.
"I dunno. I can't go back to Roy's, his parents'll be there. I'll stay here for a while, I guess." Said Mullet Fingers.
Beatrice eyed her stepbrother closely, then went and sat down on the log beside him.
"What's up with you lately? You're all, I don't know, out of character." She said.
"I...I dunno. I guess that, you know, all that's happened lately has kinda shaken me, ya know? Opened my eyes a bit. When I was lying in that ditch...I really thought I was going to die. I was...I was...scared, Bea. I was scared." Mullet Fingers said with difficulty.
Beatrice put her hand on his. "You don't need to be scared. I'm here for you, and I always will be." She said, kissing him on the cheek.
He looked at her for a minute. Then they started talking. They spoke for hours, exchanging stories of their lives before Lonna and Leon had married. They'd never really gotten a chance to talk like that, what with Mullet Fingers always on the run. Once it was late, Mullet Fingers drifted slowly off to sleep on his stepsister's shoulder.
Carefully and quietly, Beatrice got up and lay Mullet Fingers down by the log. She shivered. It was incredibly cold out. She was about to leave, when she took one last look at her stepbrother. Sleeveless shirt, shorts and bare feet. She took off her sweatshirt and put it over him. He needed it more then she did. Beatrice kissed his stepbrother softly on the cheek one last time before running off.
She was headed for Roy's house, she knew she could stay there whenever her parents were fighting. On her way however, she recognized her father's car slow down beside her.
"Darling?" Leon Leep asked from the window.
"I'm not coming home, dad. Not with that witch there." Said Beatrice who was still walking.
"Your stepmother isn't home tonight, she's in the hospital. Needed some stitches in the back of her head after you hit her with the jug." Said Leon.
"Why's she spending the night?" Beatrice asked.
"They just want to observe her to see if she's got a concussion. Please come home, sweet hart. Tomorrow we're all going to sit down as a family and talk." Said Leon.
"We won't be a family without Mullet." She said.
"That's what we're going to talk about. Just get in the car, sweety." Said Leon.
Reluctantly, Beatrice got in the car and went home with her father.
It was early the next morning that President John Kresc was greeted on his way out of the White House. It was Donald Viseige.
"Mr President, I was just wondering if you'd thought anymore about what we discussed last night?" He asked.
"What was there to think about, Donald, I thought I made myself quite clear." Said Kresc.
"Well- er- I just thought maybe after sleeping on it you may have changed your mind." Said Viseige.
"When I make a decision, Donald, that decision stands and if it changes I assure you you'll be the first to know." Said Kresc, who was walking towards the helicopter pad.
"Are you...going somewhere sir?" Viseige asked.
"I am, Donald. I've got some business to take care of in Florida." Said the President.
"May I ask what, sir?" Viseige asked.
"No, you may not. I should be back later tonight or early tomorrow. Good day, Mr Viseige." Said Kresc, walking onto the helicopter pad and getting in the chopper.
Mullet Fingers awoke the next morning with Beatrice's sweater draped around him. His ankle was felt as though it was burning. He got up and found it was very cold. He tried to start a fire. Mullet Fingers sat on a log at his campsite, and began trying to get his fire going. He heard the sound of leaves crushing under someone's feet and whirled around. Standing behind him was a tall black man dressed in a navy blue suit. He didn't look like someone you'd often see wandering in the woods.
"Who're you?" Mullet Fingers demanded.
"No one in particular." Said the man, putting his hands in his pockets and strolling into Mullet Finger's campsite "A drifter, like you."
This man hardly looked like a drifter. "Yeah? Well go find somewhere else to camp out, this is my spot." Said Mullet Fingers darkly.
"My apologies, I didn't mean to bother you. I thought perhaps you'd like some company, I've seen you around before." Said the man.
Mullet Fingers eyed him for a moment, then sat down on the log again. The man came and sat down beside him.
"You look familiar, have I met you before?" Mullet Fingers asked.
"I doubt it. I've been on the news a few times though, maybe you saw me there." Said the man.
"Nah, I haven't watched TV in ages. Can't really plug one in out here, ya know? You got a name?" He asked.
"John. You?" The man asked.
"I don't use my name anymore. My sis calls me Mullet Fingers." He said.
"Interesting. I take it, then, that you're talented at capturing mullets?" John asked.
"Yup, it took a lot of practice but hey, there ain't much else to do out here. So why's a suit like you wanderin' around the woods?" Said Mullet Fingers.
"No reason. I used to be a runaway myself, until I got into politics." Said John.
"Politics? You mean like the suits up at the White House? Hey, have you ever met the president?" Mullet Fingers asked.
John shrugged. "We're acquaintances."
"Too bad a big shot like him doesn't care about kids like me." Said Mullet Fingers glumly.
"Well who knows? I'm pretty sure he does." Said John "But anyways, I suppose I should get going. I'm a busy man."
"Hey, the next time you see the president tell him to think about watchin out for guys like me, kay?" Mullet Fingers asked.
John nodded. "I'll be sure to mention that to him." He said.
"See ya Johnny." Said Mullet Fingers.
John waved as he walked away. It felt strange to be called Johnny again. It felt strange to be addressed by his first name for that matter. After all, he was the President of the United States of America.