Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 19: Burdened

"So, Dad how was the drive here?" Sharon asks, placing the steaming mugs of warm cider in front of everyone. The six-year-old of the group eagerly grabs the blue cup, which was his favourite and downs the liquid at lightning speed. Before either of his grandparents even have the drinks in their hands, he's emptied it.

"More please," he says with a smile.

Sharon shakes her head. Her son and too much sugar were bound to be a disaster. "Not until after dinner young man."

"But Mommy."

"No buts."

"Oh come on Sharry, let the kid have a little bit more. Maybe just half a cup," Zeke says, with a cheerful grin.

"Easy for you to say, you don't have to deal with the post-sugar high and mother-son marathon to get to bed."

"I dealt with plenty of those back then," Mary says with a knowing smile. "Both you and Caroline could not handle sweets very well."

"Wonder where he got it from?" the old man says with a wink.

"Yes, please Mommy please," he begs, giving her his best puppy dog eyes. "I'll go to bed I promise."

The mother rolls her eyes, resenting the "right" grandparents had to spoil the kids whenever they came to town. Letting them get away with more and treating them with too much sugar; the death of a parent's efforts to establish rules and respect. However, since it was a special occasion with their visit and her parents weren't going to be here very long, she obliges the request giving him half a cup, no more and no less. The rambunctious six-year-old drinks it lightning-fast and then gets up, ready for action.

"Grandma, Grandpa, I want to show you the new trucks I got for my birthday!"

"Well Georgie boy, didn't we send you a few of those trucks for your birthday?" his grandfather asks. "We've already seen them."

"You did, but I got more..." He reaches over and tries to pull on his grandpa's sweater with such force that Zeke Walters nearly spills his hot drink. "At least ten more."

"Georgie honey, how about you get all your trucks ready and when Grandma and Grandpa have finished their cider, they'll come and look okay?"

"Okay Mommy," he says, jumping up and racing upstairs.

Sharon is about to call Bill and Mia down to get their drinks while they're warm but decides to wait a few more minutes, allowing her to talk to her parents about the serious situation surrounding their visit.

"So did Joel see you leave?" she asks in a low voice.

"As far as we know, he did not," Marion responds, the smiles of seeing her grandchildren have vanished like the changing seasons.

"We left while the bars in town were still open," Zeke says solemnly. "There's a very slim chance that he knows we've left by now if the hangovers are anything to go by with him."

"Do you... do you think he'll figure out where she is?"

Both Marion and Zeke look at one another with grim expressions. With their former son-in-law, almost everything is uncertain. The only thing consistent about him was his drinking habits.

"Hard to say..." is the response. "We do have other relatives around the country so he might try them first."

"We're just hoping that he doesn't suspect that she's living with you," Mary says.

Sharon takes a long sip of her cider, thinking about everything that she was doing... it was a big risk, like housing a fugitive who was wanted by a psychotic police force; she hated having to endanger her husband and children like this, but Mia had nowhere else to go and most of her life had been running and hiding... that is no life for anyone. It was a rock and a hard place with no end in sight. She owed it to Caroline; they may not have been sisters by blood, but in the spirit of familial bonds they were, plus her parents had taken in the helpless little "Carrie" when she was lost and alone. It was like trying to pay her sister back.

Secretly, Mrs. Denbrough wished that Carrie had been more careful. She was only eighteen when she'd met Joel, who was eleven years her senior and she stupidly had to go and get knocked up with his kid. This obviously linked the two and forced them into a loveless and abusive marriage in which everyone involved suffered greatly. It's not that Sharon resented Mia for existing; she was a good kid, but the girl didn't deserve what she was given, and neither did Carrie. It broke the older sister's heart to see how a few bad choices dictated the last seventeen years of Carrie and now Mia's life. She just wished Joel Rogers would vanish from the face of the Earth and the world would be a little bit brighter and safer.

"And if he did, he would probably go to Derry first," Zeke adds.

"Well let's hope that's the case," the mother mutters. "And how is she handling everything?"

"She keeps to herself a lot..." Mary answers, blowing a few graying bangs out of her face. "Understandable but when she was living with us, she didn't have many chances to make friends or be a normal teenager."

"She honestly just wants to turn eighteen and get out despite Caroline's chagrin."

"You can't really blame her for wanting out," Sharon nods.

"We all do..." Zeke says.

...

Meanwhile, Bill sits at the top of the stairs listening to the adults' conversation. At first, he'd tried to go back to drawing, but curiosity got the better of him and he wanted to hear more. Despite only being thirteen, he could understand the serious issues surrounding their family and he felt awful for his mom. The thought of his Uncle Joel somehow managing to find them made him sick to his stomach. He couldn't imagine exposing Georgie or his parents to the cruelty that seemed to flow through the man's veins.

They were sticking their necks out for someone they did not know and who was being pursued by an angry drunken monster. It didn't seem fair. At that moment, he wishes that Mia had found some other place to live. Her presence here put them all at risk, something that seemed unnecessary; what had they ever done to deserve the wrath of this awful man? The girl was a danger to anyone she stayed with... she was better off living in the streets than...

His stomach turns abruptly at his way of thinking... here he was blaming Mia for something she had no control over and no doubted hated more than he did. She did not ask to be born into this situation and Bill feels immense guilt for thinking such awful things about her and her life. He didn't mean to think like that, but one could understand his point of view when putting into perspective. His family was Switzerland in World War II, caught in the crossfire of two warring worlds and staying neutral could not help. Joel Rogers was a destructive man and he would bomb and destroy his way to the apparent prize of his daughter.

Why couldn't the man just move on with his life? Forget that he ever had a wife and daughter. It would not be hard and he'd read and heard plenty of stories of similar situations and those kids never having to see that parent again... a blessing in disguise.

"Should Zack consider buying a gun?" Sharon's voice asks.

There is another long pause that drifted up to where Bill was listening. The teen knew his mother hated guns and thought that they were dangerous causing nothing but more problems in people's lives. Especially with Georgie being so young, the risk of something bad happening was there.

"Only for emergencies," Zeke finally answers. "If he ever tries to come onto your property, you have a legal right to shoot him."

Sharon groans and does little to hide her hatred of this fact.

"Keep it locked and under your bed Sharry," Bill's grandfather says. "Only use it if there's no other choice."

The silence stretches for what seems like an eternity and Bill would kill to know what they were thinking down there.

Eventually, the conversation turned to guardianship and paperwork. Both his mom and dad had to sign a bunch of papers to transfer temporary guardianship from his grandparents to them... then Mia truly became their problem...

Bill loses interest and turns to go into his room to notice that Mia had been standing behind him for who knows how long... listening too.

Her green eyes lock with his matching ones... an almost family trait, even though they weren't technically related. Her face is unreadable, but Bill can see her attempting to mask the sadness and pain on her face. She forces herself to smile at her cousin for a brief moment before silently mouthing the words...

"I'm sorry..."