Lies on the Border Line

Broken but Not Beaten

When Aaron's mom's then ex-boyfriend, Ken, finally returned to them, he told them all about how he'd hitchhiked across the country. Aaron didn't really know Ken much at the time, but Ken made all sorts of promises about how he wouldn't leave them again and how he wanted to build a family with them. Of course, Aaron's mother fell right in and took him back as though he never even left at all. Aaron didn't blame Ken for leaving. After all, his Uncle did kick Ken out and it's not like he was expected to stick around and wait. Although, Aaron did sort of blame him a little since if Ken had stuck around, then when Aaron's uncle kicked them out they would have at least had some place to go. They could have made a family then.

Despite that, Aaron and his mother accept Ken back. They moved to Springfield together and got a hotel room to live in. Life wasn't great; three people living together in a small motel room with only one bed. Aaron was willing to sleep on the floor for a time if it meant that eventually they would get a nicer place and they could work on being a family together.

At this point, Aaron didn't know Ken well enough to think there was any reason that they couldn't be happy together. The days went by unremarkably. Ken eventually found a job so they were able to support themselves. Aaron hated his new school, at first, but eventually he learned to love school with the help of his teacher, Mr. Tracey. Aaron would later recall Mr. Tracey as his favorite teacher, ever, and would recall how cool it was at the time to have a teacher who was also in a band (The Traceys).

Aaron's mother and Ken fought sometimes. Aaron was no stranger to couples fighting at this point. His mother and father often fought, violently even. His aunt and uncle also fought a lot. As far as Aaron was concerned, if couples didn't fight it meant they didn't love each other. Mom and Ken's fights never really got that bad; at least not on Aaron's scale of bad. They weren't physically violent short of maybe having a few things thrown about and maybe something getting broken. But Aaron was always a little concerned when they fought because Ken had a mean side. Ken was an ex-con after all, which meant that he knew all sorts of ways to hurt someone. He knew hand-to-hand combat and actually knew how to use a pair of nun-chucks (which Aaron thought was so cool!) Suffice it to say, Ken was a dangerous man.

When they fought, Ken would sometimes point out how easily he could kill Aaron's mother. This always really concerned Aaron because Aaron knew that Ken really could easily kill her. Aaron could see the anger inside of Ken's eyes sometimes and it scared him. Ken even said that if he were to ever lose them (Aaron and his mother) that he would kill them and himself. None of the threats Ken ever made were acted upon, but Aaron knew that Ken meant them. Aaron sometimes wondered if Ken had killed anyone in prison, but could never get up the courage to ask him.

One night, on a particularly dismal and rainy day, Ken and Mom started fighting. This wasn't anything new. Aaron didn't even know what they were fighting about, as was often the case. They were still in the one-bed, no-bedroom motel room which meant there wasn't exactly a lot of room to be 'out of the way' when they fought. So, usually Aaron would leave to go play outside when 'they' started fighting. However, since it was getting dark outside and it had been raining heavily all day, Aaron couldn't go outside to get away from them. So, Aaron did his best to make himself small, and tried to tuned them out. 

There was nothing particularly remarkable about this fight in comparison to any of the others. However, what happened next would change Aaron's life for years to come. Ken lost his temper, and pushed Aaron's mother. Now, this doesn't really sound like a big deal. A push can't really hurt someone, right? Aaron's mother stumbled backwards, fell over the bed, and landed with all of the momentum and her own body weight on her arm.

Immediately, she began screaming. "Aaaahhh, my arm!" Aaron could tell immediately that something was wrong. He rushed to his mother's side to see what was wrong. Ken was clutching his head, staring in disbelief, trying to come to terms with what he had just done. Realizing all too quickly that if he had seriously hurt her, Ken would be going back to prison he panicked. He grabbed his car keys and fled, slamming the door behind him. Meanwhile, Aaron was trying to get his mother up off the ground.

She was still screaming about her arm being hurt. Aaron thought that maybe she just landed on it wrong and would have some nasty bumps and bruises. Arms and legs are sort of interesting curiosities. They bend, so when you see them bend it's not really anything out of the ordinary. You don't think much of it. However, when Aaron finally got his mother upright so that he could see what was wrong, his mother's arm bent in more places that usual.

What happened next is sort of a blur to Aaron. His mother's arm was broken. She was in a lot of pain, screaming and crying and failing miserably to gain any sort of composure. She too came to the conclusion that her arm was broken and that they needed to get to a hospital. However, Ken took the car so there was no way they could drive there. It was also so late that none of the buses were running. They didn't have a phone, so they couldn't call an ambulance, and even if they did they wouldn't be able to pay for the ambulance ride anyways since they were uninsured.

So they walked. Aaron, being probably only 10 at the time, couldn't exactly carry her, or even support much of her weight. But he did his best to help her walk and keep her steady while she tried to hold her arm in the place that it would normally be if it weren't broken, crying and wincing at every step and occasionally letting out a not-nearly-muffled scream. It was only a few miles to the nearest hospital, but when you're walking with a broken arm that's basically just hanging on by the skin you tend to walk pretty slowly. It took them hours to get there.

It took them years to recover.