He then took off, not yet to return.
It was also after I cleaned the house and did a bunch of laundry.
Tatie started helping while I was vacuuming. She disappeared to the utility room and came back with a load of freshly laundered towels, folding them on the kitchen counter.
After that, she stuck to me like glue.
If I was cleaning a bathroom, she was in it cleaning with me. She helped me strip the beds. Then she helped me make them.
I told her to rest, but she shook her head.
After that, I let her do whatever she wanted to do.
Or probably in this case, needed to do.
Gear made us a dinner of corn dogs and tater tots. As these were baked from frozen, this was not done with his father’s culinary flair, but it was yummy all the same.
We camped out in front of the TV, the kids watching it, or Tatie watching it and Gear and I mostly watching Tatie.
She had dark moments, I could tell. I knew Gear could see it too. I just didn’t know what to do about them. And if the glances he exchanged with me were anything to go by, Gear didn’t either.
So I decided to call Minnie, which was what I did, telling her everything about yesterday and today.
That was, telling her everything except about Nails and Gash. I just told her I saw a brother with a woman, but I told her I didn’t see either face. She seemed to have bought it and she also wasn’t surprised.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’m kind of getting sick of a crazy life.”
“This’ll pass, Clary,” she said softly. “It’ll all smooth out.”
I didn’t think it would.
What I thought was, this was my life, and until Buck was through with me, I had no choice in that matter.
I thought this because Buck had told me straight out this was the case.
I had, that day, given a moment to thinking what he’d do if I just left.
And in that moment, I had another moment.
One of understanding that I didn’t want to find out.
“He scared me last night, Min, and he hurt me,” I whispered.
“You shouldn’t have stood in his way,” she whispered back, and I closed my eyes when she confirmed Buck’s assertion. “Our boys, they get pissed, especially about something like that, you step back and let ’em do what they gotta do.”
I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling.
“Seems to me, the rule is, you have to let them do what they have to do all the time,” I observed.
“Oh no, honey, like I said yesterday, with the Club, out in the world, that’s the way it is. But behind closed doors, it’s just him and you, you let fly. You be you. It’s just out in the world, he’s the man, and that’s it. And, if shit goes down, like with Tatiana, you do what you did. Though, you fucked up and tried to get him to stop and phone the cops, I’m talkin’ in the end. You take care of his girl and you let him take care of business.”
“Well, I hope that never happens again, so I don’t have to take care of Tatie, not that way.”
“Me too,” Minnie agreed, her words heavy. “How’s she doin’?”
I took in a breath and on the exhale, said, “Not good. She hits a dark place and she does it often. This can’t be unusual. She went through hell just last night. I just don’t know what to do with her. I think I should talk to Buck about a psychologist.”
To my surprise, this suggestion was met with hysterical laughter.
“Min?” I called through her laughter.
“Babe, you crack me up,” she replied.
I sat up in the bed, crossing my legs under me. “What’s funny about that?”
“Sister, we do not go to psychologists. We take care a’ shit in the family. Are you not gettin’ that?”
Oh, I was getting that.
I just didn’t agree.
“I’m not certain we have the tools to guide Tatiana out of that dark place, Minnie. Three college boys attacked her last night. They took her underwear. They nearly raped her.”
“Yeah, and you said Buck called Kristy and told her what happened, and that Tatiana wasn’t goin’ home for a week.”
This was true.
Buck had done this.
Though it wasn’t as simple as that.
The phone call lasted a long time and had not been happy.
It had been unhappy, not because Tatiana’s mother had been told the dire news her daughter had been attacked and beaten and she was upset like any mother would be. But from what I could tell (and Gear and Tatiana could tell), it seemed that Kristy was pissed just to be pissed.
I didn’t know how I could tell that, I just could.
What surprised me about this was that Buck didn’t absent himself to shield his children, but instead had this conversation, his side of it low and toxic, while wandering the kitchen being obviously ticked off.