So You're Leaving?

Wendy remembers

It was around 10:00 when Johnny heard the knock at his door. He sat bolt up-right, his heart in his throat. For a moment, he was home- the knocks were more like pounding, and the person behind the door was his father. After a second or two, he realized the knocks were actually very soft. He also realized he was not at home, which made him feel safe and terrified and lonely all at the same time. I must've fallen asleep, he thought. "Come in," he said softly Wendy peeked around the door. "Hi!" She came in and stood beside his bed. She was holding a cornbread muffin that she handed to him. "I brought you something! You were asleep when Matthew came to get you for dinner and we didn't want to bother you." "I'm sorry," Johnny said, taking the muffin and avoiding her gaze. "Oh! No, don't be sorry!" Wendy sat down beside him and touched his shoulder. She noticed that whenever she got too close to him he seemed to shrink back or flinch a bit. She had to keep reminding herself to be more careful with him. He'd been through so much and she kept forgetting that she couldn't just run up and show him affection like she could with her son. But Wendy truly cared for her nephew. Even though he barely knew her, she remembered him. She'd wanted to kidnap him so many years ago when she and her husband Tom went to Tulsa for a summer to meet Johnny. They had gone hoping to repair the rift in the family. Before Johnny was born there had been a terrible falling out between her brother Will and her half brother, Robert who was Johnny's father. She didn't know what it was about- she'd never known what it was about and Will wouldn't talk about it. The two boys had never gotten along. Wendy wondered if it had to do with the huge gap in their ages, but then Robert had always been such a bully it probably wouldn't have mattered how old Will had been. Whatever the problem was, it was bad enough that Robert had taken his wife Maria and left Virginia. It was nearly three years before anyone heard from them again. When they did, it was Maria who had called Wendy. She told Wendy that they were living in Tulsa and that she and Robert had a son. His name was Johnny. Wendy was thrilled about the child and delighted to finally know where Robert and Maria had gone. She had always gotten along with Maria, though she didn't really trust her. And she didn't know what the woman saw in Robert. Wendy knew he treated her horribly. Wendy asked if she, Tom and Matthew could come for a visit, but Maria adamantly turned her down. "He doesn't know you called, does he?" Wendy asked referring to Robert. There was a long pause. "No." Wendy's heart sank. She had sensed a kind of fear in Maria's voice and now she knew why. It was with great disappointment that Wendy finally hung up the phone at the end of their conversation. She had hoped when she first heard the news about Johnny that the bad times would be put behind them and everything would be all right. It didn't take her long to realize the naivety of that idea. Over the next few years, Maria called sporadically. She even sent a photo of Johnny. When Wendy finally got an address and phone number out of her, she called Maria more often. Wendy always asked how Johnny was, how everyone was, and Maria would always tell her things were fine. Still, Wendy always picked up the fear in the woman's voice. Over the years, the fear turned to anger and then to resentment, and finally to apathy. None of the feelings were directed at Wendy, she could just pick them up in the general tone of Maria's voice. Wendy grew more and more concerned about Johnny and more insistent about visiting. Robert was no longer ignorant of the fact that the two women were in contact with eachother, so Maria couldn't use that as an excuse any more. And finally, one day, to Wendys relief and surprise, Maria agreed to the visit. Johnny had been almost two the first time Maria had called. Now he was nearly five. When they arrived at the Cade residence in Tulsa, Wendy was horrified to see the contitions the poor child was living in and Maria seemed embarrassed. Robert was hardly ever around and didn't seem to care. But Johnny was a sweet child and though he was very shy and didn't say much, he seemed to enjoy playing with Matthew. Wendy knew when she looked in Johnny's eyes that he was being mistreated, though at the time, she couldn't fathom to what extent. She drove into town every day from the place they had rented so that she could help Maria out around the house. It seemed all too soon when they had to return to Virginia to get Matthew ready for school. They tried to visit every summer, and every summer things got worse. The visits were miserable for her and Tom, but they stuck it out for Johnny, determining each time that they would somehow get Johnny out of there. The last time they came for a visit, Johnny was 9 going on 10 and evidence of child abuse was blatant. He didn't make much eye contact with anyone, except for Matthew. He didn't like anyone to see the bruises on his face. Maria made up ridiculous excuses about how clumsy Johnny was and how often he would fall and hurt himself, even though Wendy didn't see him fall once the entire time they were there. Aside from trying to justify the bruises that covered her son's body, Maria seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she even had a child. Often, she would forget to feed him. She rarely ate regular meals herself. She just snacked throughout the day and smoked the rest of the time. Wendy could see that the woman was being abused and neglected herself by Robert. She might have actually been a decent mother if it had not been for her husband. But that was too far out of Wendy's control at that point. Now the only one she might be able to help was Johnny. She tried her best to help with meals and keep Johnny fed. She noticed he spent a lot of time at the Curtis house. They seemed like nice people, so she was very grateful for them. She was a little concerned about some of the other boys he hung around, but when she finally met some of them, she decided maybe they were ok. She was, however, very upset about the fact that Johnny had taken up smoking. That summer, as in most of their more recent visits, Robert would stumble in after work, get something to eat and head off to the bar. He was never friendly to Wendy or Tom and he would yell at Johnny if he was around. He never hit him in front of Wendy, but she knew he did. She remembered stopping by Johnny's house one evening and seeing Johnny bruised and beaten in the front yard, a small tow-headed boy standing over him and screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs at Johnny's father as he drove off in his truck. The boy had helped Johnny up and they'd run off to the Curtis' before Wendy could stop them. Tom later confronted Robert about the incident and Robert flew into a rage at him, screaming and ranting about how Johnny belonged to him and it wasn't anyone's business how he chose to discipline his own son. Robert had forbidden them to set foot in the house after that. But that had not been the worst of it. Robert had left them with one final threat before he slammed the door... "If anybody from social services comes poking their noses around here, I'll kill that kid. You got it? He ain't worth that kind of trouble. And don't think I won't do it." Wendy had sobbed all night. But she truly felt that Robert might actually carry out his threat. It was when she called her mother that she was sure of it. "Mom," she had choked into the phone. "He- he actually said he would kill his own child! How could he?" "Wendy, listen to me, " her mother's voice had been eerily serious. "You and Tom get Matthew out of there and come home. There's nothing you can do. It's going to do that poor boy more harm than good if you stay now." But she never forgot Johnny. None of them had. Not Tom, not Matthew, not even Wendy's mother, even though she had never actually met Johnny. She'd seen the photo that Maria had sent and since that day she had always encouraged Wendy to go on the visits to Tulsa. She couldn't go herself, as Robert no longer wished to see her. Wendy didn't understand that anymore than she understood the bad blood between Robert and Will, but no one seemed to want to explain anything. Wendy knew that Matthew had been writing to Johnny for a long time. She hoped beyond all hope that one day, Robert and Maria would let Johnny come to Virginia. And now here he was, sitting beside her, safe and sound, but still a very frightened boy. Oh, sure... he came right off the city streets and could probably hold his own. Someone, who didn't know him might see a dangerous hoodlum, but not Wendy. She saw the frightened boy. She hated to think about the damage that had already been done, but she knew she would try her best to repair as much of it as she could. She didn't know how she would start, or even why she felt so strongly about it, but one look in those huge frightened black eyes, and she was committed to making sure that Johnny would never live in fear or poverty again.