Cry, my beloved people

Disaster Part 55

"Are we going to spend our Christmas with grandpa and grandma on the farm?" Gregory asked at the dinner table.

"Your mom can phone and see if she can arrange it," Clint said with half a smile.

"Yee Yee Geggie, we visit gandma and gandpa and eat cookies!" Jessica yelled, over herself with joy.

"One of these days you will be able to help grandma baking the cookies." Louise laughed and hugged Jessica.

It was a special Christmas with the cousins, enjoying to play with Jessica. Louise and Joe, teasing each other and the whole family, catching up on the family news at dinner.  Louise took a lot of photos.

Grandpa and grandma bought Gregory a new PlayStation and for Jessica a singing bear. She could listen for hours to the song: "You are my sunshine, my little sunshine, you make me happy when days are grey.......Please don't take my sunshine away!" After a few days, she knew the last part by heart and it was really cute when she sang it out louder than the bear.

One night Louise was busy in the kitchen, Gregory and Jessica were in the living room, he was playing on his PlayStation and Jessica also wanted to push the buttons. "Go and get your singing bear, then you can sing for us," he said a bit agitated.

She skipped forward and her foot caught the carpet.  As she felt, her head hit the table and she yelled out in pain.  Gregory rushed towards her and picked her up to comfort her.  Clint entered the room in fury and planted a fist on Gregory's cheekbone before he tore her away from him.

"Don't you dare to hurt my daughter again," he scolded the fourteen-year-old boy, while Jessica called "Geggie, Geggie," with outstretched arms pointing to a dumbstruck Gregory.

Then Gregory grabbed his PlayStation and disappeared to his room.  Louise entered and asked Clint what happened and he answered; "He pushed Jessica into the table, look at that bruise on her forehead."

Louise took Jessica to comfort her and after a while, Jessica picked up her bear and hugged it, while singing with it. "Listen Geggie," she laughed.

Later that evening Louise entered Gregory's room to have a motherly talk, but his room was empty.  His sports bag and most of his clothes were gone.  A cold hand gripped her heart.  She stood there for a while, tears welled up in the back of her eyes.  Was she too busy with Jessica and Clint to see that her teenage boy was unhappy?

Louise called David's mother, who confirmed that he was at their home: "He didn't want me to tell you and he is too upset to tell us what happened, but we'll take care of him."

Weeks went by without a word from Gregory himself, David's parents visited her once and offered to be his godparents.  She knew that he was safe with them and agreed to it, but it hurt so bad, she couldn't keep her tears at bay and waved them goodbye with tears rolling down her cheeks.  Every time she tried to call Gregory, someone else would answer the phone and told her he did not want to speak to her.

On his birthday she delivered him a new cell phone and the latest family photos, for his birthday present, but he answered not her calls neither her messages.  Her heart was breaking for her child and she did not know how to fix the problem.

Clint was getting more and more upset with her tears and Jessica cried herself to sleep at night saying: "I want Geggie."

One Friday night she found Clint at the dining room table with a near to empty bottle of whiskey next to him.  "I lost my job okay," he slurred, trying to focus through his bloodshot eyes.

She turned around, with Jessica still in her arms.  After she buckled her up into her safety seat, she drove to Clint's mother. "Do you mind looking after Jessica tonight, Clint wants to talk to me and I don't want her to hear us sorting it out.  I know she will be save with you, thank you."  She said with a faked smile as his mom nodded.

When she entered the flat again, Clint was still sitting at the same place, looking at her and slurring the same phrase: "I lost my job okay,"

"O God, please help me! I'm such a bad mother, one child dead, one walked out and I just shoved the youngest onto his mom and I don't even know how to help my husband the way he helped me."  Her body tumbled to a heap on the floor as everything went black around her.