Wrecked

TWENTY

Twenty
The following morning after another Sunday of absenting himself from church but this time around to avoid his parents, Steve walked blindly into the bathroom to sprinkle water on his face to get the sleep out of his eyes.
He glanced at the wall clock.
Prayer time with Tory. He thought.
Vincent had been here for almost two weeks and they had not included him yet. Maybe they would this morning.
Picking up his Bible, he walked out of the room into Tory's. He wasn't surprised to see her sitting up as soon as he walked in.
"Morning Daddy."
"Morning baby. How did Daddy's princess sleep?" He leaned in and kissed her forehead.
"Like a real princess?"
He chuckled softly. "That's how it should be."
"Do you think Vincey could join us this morning?"
"Let's ask him?"
"Okay."
Steve knocked on Vincent's door.
"You know you can come in, mom."
"It's...daddy, Vincent."
"Come in."
Steve walked in and saw Vincent sitting up on his bed. "Morning."
"Morning Vincent." Father and daughter chorused.
"Is there a problem?"
"No. I thought you might want to join me and Daddy to pray."
Vincent shrugged.
Steve brought the seat at the table close by and sat on it asking Tory to sit beside her brother on the bed.
"I thought we would read the story of Joshua." He informed them. "After Moses died, God called Joshua, the son of Nun to lead them to the promise land...."
Steve read a few more chapters and came to a close.
"Um... Daddy, you said Josh was courageous. What's that mean?"
"Means to be brave."
"Do you think he got to the promise land?" Vincent asked.
"He did."
"Do you think God would have picked someone else if Josh had failed like Moses?"
Steve nodded. "Yes. God would have done anything for the Israelites to arrive at the promise land."
"Does that mean that if God sends someone to love us, and the person doesn't, he'd pick someone else?"
Steve paused. "Yes. No one is indispensable to God."
"Then I think you should divorce my mommy so that someone else can give her all the love she deserves."
Speechless, he swallowed. "Um...thing is marriage is a life time commitment. It's unscriptural for mommy to marry someone else after me."
"Is that why you hate her because you feel you have to keep her?"
"Is it true that you hate my mommy, Daddy?" Tory whispered.
"No. I do not and will never hate your mommy. Can I tell you a secret?"
Vincent frowned and Tory leaned forward, curious.
"Daddy and mommy are going to try to make things...work again."
"Really?" Tory gasped.
"Why?"
"Because... I think that we...deserve to be happy."
Vincent stood. "No. It's just a way to keep me here. You don't love my mom, you never did." He opened the door.
"Vincent, hold on."
"What? So you can lie to my face again?"
"I've never lied to you, Son."
"I'm not your son. I'm just your way to pay mom back for hurting you all those years back."
His hands clenched. "Did your mom tell you that?"
"No. But I wish she'd open her eyes and see the truth."
Steve ran his fingers through his hair. "That's not true and your mom knows that."
"Yeah. Because she only knows what you want her to know. I'll tell her soon and we'll be leaving for good."
His heart plummeted. "Don't tell her that because it's not true, I promise. I just want to make things better."
"But I don't want to stay here! It's bad luck. My mom is never sick, then we get here and she's suddenly sick. I bet you're...happy now." Vincent's voice broke and tears clouded his eyes. He turned and left the room.
Tory stood. "Are you really happy that mommy is sick?"
"No! Of course not."
"Why don't I believe you?"
"You don't?"
"I don't. Because I know you've never liked my mommy. I'm sorry if she hurt you but please don't hurt her back." With that Tory ran out of the room.
The Bible fell out of his hand and Steve stared at the empty doorway in shock and anguish.
Was he really losing his children?

Vincent was surprised to see his mother still asleep. He ran to the bed and felt her forehead.
"Oh no. She's burning up." He gasped and ran to the bathroom to grab a wet towel like he had seen his Grandma do for him on different occasions. He knelt beside her and placed the towel on her forehead.
Her eyes squeezed shut and then blinked open. She smiled at him and he smiled back through his tears.
"Vince, who hurt you? Why are you crying?" She frowned
"You are burning up, mom. Who is going to help us?"
"I'm fine, honey. I slept late last night, that's all."
"You don't get fever from sleeping late." He swiped his tears away.
"Mommy?" Tory's shaky voice whispered.
Jody smiled at her daughter. "Princess, come here."
Tory ran to her with a smile.
"Be careful." Vincent warned.
Tory nodded and climbed on the other side and took her hand. "You feel very warm. Why is she like this, Vincent?"
"She has a fever."
"Isn't that bad? Should I call 911?"
"No!" Jody chuckled. "Stop worrying and get ready for school, okay?"
"Let's take care of you." They chorused.
Jody grinned taking their hands into hers. "Two angels offering to take care of me? How can I say no? You can skip school today to take care of mommy. But tomorrow, you have to be up bright and early to go to school. Now give mommy a big hug to make her feel better."
Jody pulled them close as they hugged.
Just then a knock came on the door and Jody noticed how her kids stiffened as they leaned back from their hug.
"Jody, can I come in?"
"Sure, come in."
The door opened and Steve stepped in leaving the door open.
"Come on, you two have to get ready for school."
"We are taking care of mommy." Tory informed.
"Mommy said we can stay."
Steve frowned but said nothing. Then: "Jody, is that a towel on your forehead? You don't look good to me."
"Don't pretend that you care." Vincent snapped, tightening his grip on her hand.
"Leave us to take care of mommy." Tory said.
What on earth was going on? She and Steve had made a deal to get along to help Tory and make the kids happy, and they turn against their father.
"And what on earth is going on?" Jody scolded and felt her head ache at the force she added on her words to create effect. "When did you two become so rude, that you now talk to you father like that?"
They both kept quiet.
"It's okay, Jody. They're just sad that you are ill."
"As far as I know, being rude is not an attribute of sadness. So I'm going to ask again? Tory, Vince, what makes you think you can talk to your father like that? Huh?"
"He is going to hurt you!"
"Am I a baby, Vincent? No, because a baby can't give birth to another one. So I can take care of myself, don't you think?"
They bobbed their heads identically.
"Good. Now apologize to your father for being rude. And mean it, that goes especially for you, Vincent Luke."
"I'm sorry, Steve."
Steve nodded. "It's okay. I know you don't trust me, but give me a chance, will you? Please. Let me just...i don't know...make things better."
"Fine. For mommy's sake."
"And you, Victoria Lori?" Jody admonished in her stern voice.
"Fine." She pouted for a second. "I'm sorry for being rude, Daddy."
"I'm sorry too, that you no longer trust me. I don't know how things got this bad but I'm going to make it better."
"Okay."
Jody sighed inwardly with a smile. "Now, go and give your Daddy a hug or you are not allowed to take care of me anymore." She knew that was low but she couldn't help it.
As cold as Steve was, she knew how much their children's approval meant to him.
They both scrambled off the bed.
"Race you to Daddy!" Tory yelled.
Jody watched with a laugh as Vincent arrived in front of Steve before Tory who had given him a head start.
"It's not fair. I'm older."
"You're a girl. That makes it different."
Jody cleared her throat. "And the big hug?"
Tory quickly wrapped his arms around Steve's waist. Although Vincent was slower to react, her copied Tory and did the same thing.
She watched as Steve wrapped his arms around them and sent her a grateful glance.
"Why don't you brush your teeth and go down for breakfast?"
They agreed and went out of the room.
Steve cleared him throat, only succeeding in making the silence more awkward.
"Saying thank you would be a good way to start."
His head jerked up and he nodded. "Thanks."
She nodded but winced at the headache.
"Why didn't you say you had fever?"
"I didn't even realize."
He took out his cell phone. "I'm calling John Paul. He might have an idea what to do. I'm guessing you don't want to go back to the hospital, right?"
"Right."
Jody tried not to fall asleep again as Steve turned his back on her to talk to John Paul.
  She was dozing off again when a hand touched her shoulder. She jerked up.
"Calm down, Jody. John Paul said some painkillers would do the trick. So I got you two tablets and water. Sit up and take it."
"Thanks." She sat up and took the pills from him as well as the glass of water. She swallowed it and half the glass of water and placed it on the night stand.
"I saw you go out the back door last night. What time did you get back in?"
She refused to meet his eyes as she laid back down.
"Did you take the sedatives last night?"
"What now? You're my new nanny?"
He shrugged. "Do you want one?" Steve's hand rested on his hips. "Because I don't get. It's either you want to kill yourself or you're just being nonchalant about your health. You were out till God knows what time and you refuse you take your sedatives. What do you want me to do now? Soon the kids will say I had something to do with this."
"I took my sedatives! It's just not as effective and I didn't want to take an overdose. Now you can quit talking to me like I'm another one of  your children and leave me alone." Jody tried not to get angry at his tone.
Ugh! And she thought they could do this!
"I don't want you dying on me, Jody. You had better not do this to us after everything you already did!" He growled and walked out.
     Jody sighed.
She didn't know if this was going to work between them but she had to try.
As to Steve worrying if she was going to die, next time she'd be sure to tell him that she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.