When threatened by a certain person, you try to stay away from them as much as possible, especially if they had a lot of back-up behind them when you had none. When you finally confronted the person, you felt as startled as an alley cat. I know I certainly did whenever Gary entered the room. The hairs on the back of my neck would stand up whenever he was around.
He eventually got a new job as a janitor at McDonald's. Unfortunately, it didn't gain us any approval from the fellow townspeople. It gave them all the more reason to look down upon us - Mother was a waitress and Gary a janitor. They barely made enough to make ends meet. All too soon we'd have little food in the cabinets.
My mother went begging her own parents for money, but being the jerks they were, they turned her down.
"Please! I need money to feed my children! We've barely any food in the house and they're thin enough as it is," she moaned.
Because they wouldn't give her money, she was reduced to bringing home leftovers from plates people no longer wanted at the restaurant, and we were stuck eating fries soggy from snuggling next to fish or wilted, disgusting salads with squishy croutons and tomato seeds. Marrying Gary didn't help.
When I turned seventeen, I applied for a job at an ice cream parlor and, to my surprise, got it. But then they went out of business and I was left jobless.
The day I met Tex, Gary went off on a rampage all because I didn't bring home any job applications, only new clothes. Brand-new clothes - rarely did I get those; always they were hand-me-downs.
"Where are those job applications I asked you to get?" he screamed that night.
I shrugged. "Forgot."
"Useless! I can't believe I have to have someone like you living under my roof!" he roared, sounding very much like an angry bear.
"Sorry," I said softly, staring defiantly into his bloodshot eyes set in his bloated, red face.
Once again, he wrapped his fingers around my throat, squeezing tight. My eyes bulged and I stuck my tongue out as I tried to catch a breath of air. He shoved his face close to mine as he choked me. "Listen, you worthless retard, you are going to get a job! And if I find out you signed up to sing at that talent show, I will kill you, do you understand? I will snap your neck!"
Just as he said this, my mother walked in, sweaty from waitressing. When she saw what Gary was doing to me, she stormed towards him and slapped him firmly across the face. She saw the bruises on my neck and lashed out at him again, screaming obscenities in his face.
"Don't you ever, ever touch my son again, you hear me!" Mother screamed.
"He's my kid, too, McKenzie! He needs to be trained to be a good person, so he doesn't wind up being trash!" Gary protested.
Mother ran her fingers through my hair. "Eliot's not trash, Gary Brooks. He's a good boy who will win that talent show! Come hell or high water, he's entering!" she shouted, her voice loud in contrast to Gary's whining.
Would he agree with her?
I doubted it...
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