Wherever You Are

Chapter 19

After Jonah hung up the phone with Felicia, he hopped in his car and sped off down the road back to Vermont. His heart thumped in his chest and his vision blurred as he lost focus. His mind raced to her image. Hearing her voice sent his blood rushing through his veins, he couldn't imagine what seeing her in person would do.

Jonah was so engulfed in the thought of Felicia, that he almost flew by a spot that make his heart throb in a different way. He would have flown right by, had it not been for the hairy drunk that stumbled up the driveway with a brown paper bag in his hand.

Instinctively, Jonah's foot slammed on the brakes and his body jolted forward as the car stopped dead in the road. Before his mind could catch up with his body, he was shifting the car into park and had slammed the door behind him as he got out.

He began stomping his way up the driveway, but not even three steps in, his legs began in an all out sprint toward his dad, who still hadn't noticed him yet. 

As Jonah came within feet of his father, he saw red. He inhaled deeply and spread his arms out wide as he tackled his father to the ground. Not even caring that the two of them had just slammed into the pavement, Jonah rolled onto his side and lifted himself up to his knees. The brown paper bag that was once in his father's hands went flying and smashed against the ground, covering the both of them in alcohol.

His father, still stunned, laid on his back and Jonah grabbed the collar of his shirt. Without a word, Jonah raised his fist into the air and slammed it down against his father's cheek, and again against his nose and again against his jaw. He repeatedly threw blows at his father, who seemed to have already had his fair share of alcohol. His breath reeked as he spewed blood with each punch.

 "You asshole," Jonah spat through gritted teeth. "You good for nothing bastard."

As Jonah threw each punch memories of his childhood rushed through his head and clouded his eyes. He remembered his father beating him and his mother day after day and night after night. he remembered the fear his mother had in her eyes each time his dad stepped through the front door. When he stumbled in drunk each night, Jonah knew his mother would have done anything just to keep him safe, even if it meant bringing that awful man up to bed where she was in danger.

Tears streamed down Jonah's face and his knuckles started to ache as the skin frayed and he couldn't tell anymore if the blood on his hands was from himself or his father. As he looked down at his father's face, he saw the faintest flash of fear and in those dead eyes staring up at him, he saw a glimpse of himself.

Jonah loosened his grip on his father's shirt and leaned back onto his heels. I'm just as bad as him, he thought to himself.

Taking Jonah's moment of reflection as weakness, his father pushed him back down against the pavement. The shattered shards of glass cut through Jonah's shirt and pierced his back. His dad lifted him by the collar and slammed him back down against the ground, slamming his head against the pavement. His dad raised his hand high into the air and slammed his elbow down into Jonah's chest, then threw two punches at his son, one to his right cheek and one to his chin.

The slam in the chest made the air rush out of Jonah's lungs and the punches to the face made him choke on the blood pooling in his mouth. Though his back was cut, his face bloodied and brushed and a few ribs surely broken, Jonah didn't fight it. He was done fighting against this man. The fear he saw in his father's eyes reminded him that his anger was only turning him into the man he hated most.

His dead looking like he was on the verge of collapse lifted himself up off his son and stumbled back toward the truck he had come from. He leaned against the door and caught his breath for a moment. Jonah took this moment to raise himself from the ground and be the bigger person. Instead of staying to fight against a man who looked like he had had enough, he turned and walked back toward his truck that still sat in the middle of the road.

"You owe me a bottle of whiskey," he father said from behind him, but Jonah ignored his comment and seated himself in his truck. He put the vehicle into drive and drove off down the road, leaving the image of his bloodied and bruised father in his rear view mirror.