The Nothings

Tabitha (Chapter Five)

  Weekends were hard for Tabitha since Jamie wanted constant entertainment, and Mike was home all day Sunday too. She loved her brother, but she was worried about waking him up all morning as he slept in. 

Saturday was cold and rainy as she and Jamie stayed in all day and watched cartoons, but on Sunday it snowed so she and Jamie spent most of the day sledding at the park. Tabitha sat and watched as Jamie sled with a few of his friends from his class, and she drank an extra large coffee. It wasn't a a bad day at all.

 Until they arrived home. 

They came home to the news that Tabitha's Mom April had gotten into an accident up town. She swerved to miss a pedestrian, and her car hit a pole. When the cops arrived; they realized she was clearly drunk, and she had a small amount of pot on the dashboard. Mike either had to go down and bail her out of jail, or he could leave her there. They didn't have the money. He would have to go into his savings. 

 "Leave her," Tabitha said without flinching. "Don't waste your money on her bullshit."

 "She'll make our lives hell when she comes back," Mike said with worry in his eyes.

  "She does that when she's here!" Tabitha reminded him.

  The siblings looked at each other.

   April's boyfriend Andy bailed her out so they ended up not having to worry about it. She came back to the house screeching for them to get out of her house, and they weren't her kids any longer. She screamed at Mike for daring lecture her on the phone when she called from jail. Lecture her? She was his mother! How could he do that? She let him stay at her house rent free, and this was how he repaid her?

  "Rent free?" Mike scoffed as she stood in the door way with her hands on her hips while Andy lingered outside on the porch. "I pay all the bills around here if you hadn't noticed, and you haven't paid for shit for two years!"

  "It's still my house, and it's in my name," April hissed. "I want you out of here."

 "You would kick your grandson out?" Mike demanded as Tabitha cowered in the hall, watching the scene with her hands over Jamie's ears as he cried into her shoulder. "You would really do that?"

  "You would leave your own fucking mother in jail?" April countered; her wild, bottle blond hair flying, and her eyes blood shot. 

  "When she drives drunk, almost kills someone and herself I think that's a pretty fair punishment," Mike said. "You do know we'll be out on the street if you kick us out?"

  "I don't give two shits about any of you," April said; no tears in her eyes. Just clear, honest truth. Tabitha saw it.

  "First honest thing you've said in five years," Mike said, and he laughed in her face although Tabitha saw his hands were shaking.

  "At least give them time to find a new place," Andy said suddenly; his hands in the pockets of his blue jeans, and he had the same strung out look as their Mom. 

  "Okay. You have a month," said April after a moment, "but then I want you all out, and I don't want you to ever talk to me again. We are done."

Mike turned to Tabitha. "I guess we got some house hunting to do."

 Change didn't suit Tabitha. She'd lived at her Grandma's house most of her life. Mike had to borrow a large sum of money from friends, and from their Uncle. Tabitha knew how hard it was for her brother as he always swore he'd never get into debt again, but they finally found an old house all the way across town in a neighborhood Tabitha always liked. It was closer to Mike's work and Tabitha's therapist too although Jamie had to change schools which upset him, but he would be going to a better one now. Mike told his son he'd like it. Jamie cried, but he easily settled into his new class. 

  Mike was also happy to have a shorter commute, and Tabitha could easily walk to her therapy appointments now. Plus they were free of their mother. She stole the big TV that Mike bought last year, but so what? Jamie was the only one who watched it anyway, and he could read some books instead, Mike said. 

  "Let someone else pay her bills," Mike said as they drove away in his truck with the final load of stuff. "Good riddance."

  Tabitha didn't miss her Mom, but she did miss their house. This one was okay though, she thought as she sat in the large bedroom that was now hers. It was an old Victorian that had seen better days, and it used to be really beautiful, the real estate agent said, but it was now run down and in major need of repair. Mike was enjoying working on it during his off time as he was a fix it man at heart, and he loved a project. 

  The house was spacious and more airy than the small cottage like house they left, and almost every room had a fire place. There was a reason it was cheap though. The yard was a jungle of weeds and trash, and the house was infested with bugs and mice. The wood floor were littered with holes and scratches. The walls were decorated with graffiti from kids who broke in over the years, and the wallpaper was torn and dirty. 

  Tabitha liked the house despite all of it's problems though. She thought it was kind of romantic looking with it's large porch, wood pillars, and the round torrent with stained glass windows that Mike let Tabitha turn into a reading room. The room was so small that it couldn't be used for anything else but storage, and they barely had anything to store after they left their house with their clothes and small selection of belongings.

  The only furniture they owned now were their mattresses. Jamie had his own room now, but he was too scared to sleep in it alone so he usually slept in Tabitha's room where she had a mattress, a small white nightstand Mike picked up at Goodwill, a lamp and her personal belongings which were still in plastic containers as there was nowhere to put them. 

  She put a few of her Grandmother's knickknacks she stole from her old house up on the windowsill of her giant windows. Her room had old-fashioned wall paper, and she loved it, but the kids had ruined it with their graffiti. She spent an entire weekend getting the wallpaper off the wall. Mike bought some cheap paint, and they painted her room white. She didn't normally like such a boring color, but it went well with the dark, wood floors, and the tiny fireplace. It was blocked, but she loved it anyway.

  Russell the cat like the big house too. He enjoyed running up and down the stairs, and the fenced in back yard that was still a mess because Mike needed to borrow his friend's lawn mower, but he hadn't had the time. Russell didn't care though and kept catching mice and other small animals and bringing them to the back door for Tabitha to find when she let him in. She hated him doing it, but Mike said he kept the house from being infested again. 

   Good boy, Mike said every time Russell brought home a mouse. Jamie thought it was hilarious, and even more so when Mike told him that cats often brought home dead animals because they thought they needed to teach their owners to hunt, and that their owners were too stupid to catch their own food.

 "Thank you!" Jamie started saying when he found a dead mouse.

 "Yeah, thanks," Tabitha said with a sigh as she yet again scooped it up to give it a proper burial in the back yard. "I wish you would eat these things, Russ."

  "No way," Mike said as he picked up the cat to give him a petting for a job well done. "He likes canned cat food and milk too much."

   Mike gave Russ's quite large belly a pat. "See?"

  Jamie laughed, and even Tabitha had to smile. The house might be a mess, and their future might be uncertain, but she already felt lighter.