"Is something bothering you, Galen?" my father asked the next day as we had a brief visit with one another. He took me for a drive in his hottie to the little diner in town. I'd wanted to hang out with Eleazar that day, but he was supposedly in bed with the flu. I hadn't wanted to associate with my father. For some bizarre reason or another, I had the sense he thought of me as a burden.
I shook my head, stirring my milkshake with the long, thin spoon.
"Why don't you talk?" he questioned almost angrily. When I looked up from my shake, I saw his hands clench and unclench on the tabletop. My eyes drew upward to his eyes - they were blazing, almost as if someone had lit a fire within them. In the back of my mind, I could hear someone scream.
"I don't feel like it," I whispered.
"Dang it, Galen. I'm your father. You should show me a little more respect than what you have been as of late. Even Annie shows me respect and she's one of the biggest ingrates ever lived!" he whiplashed. His lip curled into a snarl. "I've given you everything. A car, tons of clothes, a huge trust fund, good education, all the books and games you could possibly want, and you shun me like I'm some kind of...creep! What did Kim say about me anyway?" he demanded.
"My mother?" I raised an eyebrow. He nodded sharply. "She doesn't talk about you. She just tries to pretend you don't exist."
"Well, I know she's trying to poison your mind. You just don't realize it becuase you're too...too stupid!"
I jerked as if I'd been slapped. "Maybe if you hadn't had me locked up in an institution, I wouldn't have become so darn stupid. We sat there doing nothing for hours! No books, no television! We just sat and twiddled our thumbs in our dirty little cubicles whilst we waited for those idiot doctors to bring us our food and medication! There wasn't even a window in my cubicle! I marked the passing of time by when the food was presented to me!" I practically shouted this all out, drawing the attention of everyone in the diner to me. "And you wonder why I'm such a braindead, useless, pathetic fool? You did it to me, old man, by locking me up in that asylum! The only person you have to blame is yourself!" I shoved my milkshake at him and rose from the chair so quickly it clattered on the white and red checked tiles.
"Galen!" he called out to me as I stormed out of the diner, frustration burning my cheeks. I was practically running away from that wretched diner, barely acknowledging his blood-red hottie on the curb. Not until I saw...her...in the passenger seat.
Susan Duvall...
I paused, gaping at her transparent figure in the seat. She wore the same mud-stained prom dress she always wore. Tears streaked her once-lovely face. Why was she crying?
Gil?
All of a sudden, I felt my father's powerful hands seize me. Susan disappeared just as he clutched my neck tightly with one hand and opened the door with the other. I didn't have a chance to fight him. He shoved me into the passenger seat of his car and slammed it. My head hit the dashboard. I grunted and brought a hand to my forehead, moaning.
My father slid into the seat beside me. He started up the car and tore away from the curb, tires squealing. I didn't know where he was driving me. Through the foggy haze surrounding my brain, I could see the car shooting forth through what appeared a tunnel of light, people, and buildings. He pulled the car up into a wayside.
"Galen," he started, spitting as he spoke, "you embarrassed me back there and I'm not going to go around town looking like a fool! You'd better apologize to me right now for shouting like that, or else you'll go right back to an asylum, only this time, it will be far, far away where nobody will ever find you, do you get that?" He dug his hand into my upper arm.
I flinched. "Let me go."
"DO YOU GET IT?" he screamed right in my face, shaking me violently.
I tried to tug free of him. He pulled back one large fist and slammed it right against my jaw. My face felt as if it had broken to a mound of dust from the impact. He struck me again, this time in the belly. I fell forward with a gaspy scream.
"If you ever disobey me again," he started, speaking tightly through clenched teeth, "I will ship you off to an asylum in Europe, you got it? We are a respectful family, despite Kim's and my divorce. People still look up to the Couture family in this town. And if you think you can destroy the Couture name, Galen, you are dead wrong," he ended in a deadly whisper.
My teeth ground down on my lower lip as I clutched my midsection. His fist felt like an enormous wrecking ball. I waited for him to hit me again, but instead, he started up the car and drove away.
"I'm gonna dump you off at the house. I don't want to see your sorry self for a few days, you understand? You've shamed me," he murmured.
Even as he said this, somewhere in the back of my subconscious mind, I could hear the sound of tires squealing, the terrified scream, and then the horrendous sound of a metal-busting, glass-shattering crash. Twisting metal. Broken bones. Blood spattering on the grass.
And in my mind, I saw Susan's face...
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