Once Upon A Karma (Karmic Krystal Book 1) (10 page)

Chapter
Nine

Mornings are so different now.  We each take turns in getting out of bed early to feed Mindy, take her for a walk downstairs on the harness so that she can go to the toilet, and then return her to the four hungry puppies upstairs.  Dad wakes up every couple of hours during the night to check on the dogs.  After two weeks, the puppies are already walking.  For an hour each day, all four of us carefully supervise them outside of the pen as they inspect their surroundings.  Their tiny yelps when they lose sight of their mum are too cute for words.

Before I know it, four weeks have already passed.  We continue to let the puppies out of their enclosure so they can run around the house and get some exercise.  I feel Mindy’s sense of relief at being let outside, giving her sore nipples a break.  As the puppies grow, so do their appetites. 
Poor Mindy!
  Their fondness for food is only matched by their energy as they gambol happily through the house.  I watch and laugh as they chase and tackle each other, just as I had done with my sisters when we were little.

During the seven weeks that they are with us, many items in the house fall victim to their growing teeth.  Dad’s slippers, the bottom of the chair legs in the kitchen, one of our books …and even Leena’s big toe.  My sisters and I’d had no idea that puppies liked to chew on everything they can sink their teeth into. 
Live and learn.
  I wonder to myself if kittens are the same, but know better than to ask my dad.  A heavy sigh escapes my lungs.

Before we know it, all nine weeks have passed and it is time for the puppies to return to the RSPCA for adoption.  The RSPCA van comes to our house with the paperwork required for our father to sign, including that which is needed to adopt Mindy as our own.  Dad signs the papers, guaranteeing that he will take Mindy in to the RSPCA hospital for free neutering and microchipping at their next available time for him to do so.  The people from the RSPCA also take away the enclosure, blankets and pet transport container so they can clean them and have them ready for the next foster family.  We wave goodbye to the puppies as the van pulls out of the driveway. 

Almost as soon as the van leaves, my sisters and I take Mindy for a walk outside in the yard.  She seems to want to sniff everything before peeing on it, including the Frangipani tree which looks amazing.  Even with all of its leaves gone due to the cooler weather, the shape of the branches is truly a sight to see.  I often think about coming downstairs to try and draw it.  We look at Rusty’s grave which is now covered in grass.  A dirt ring remains in the centre of the grave for his drinking bowl.

“No dog will ever replace you, Rusty.  Mindy is your sister and we will tell her about you and all the happiness you gave us during our time together, I promise,” I say.  Mindy lets out a small bark in agreement.  As I scratch behind her ears, Mindy smiles at me and wags her tail before leaning over and drinking from the water bowl.

With just one week to go before school starts, we all get busy trying to figure out how to keep Mindy entertained during the day when we are all away from the house.  The most important thing is to keep her safe.  Dad puts his building skills to work and turns the underneath of our house into a giant enclosure in the shade.  The enclosure is almost as big as the entire house!  Two and a half of the walls are solid, while the extra one and a half are steel mesh. 
This will be the biggest dog house ever made!
  Concrete is laid down deep into the dirt under the walls so that Mindy cannot dig her way out and put herself in harm’s way during times when she is at home on her own.  My sisters and I have the task of shaking Mindy’s blankets out each day and they will be washed weekly.  We also leave a large dirt area inside the enclosure where Mindy can do her business.  It is our job to clean up her poo when we get home from school, but none of us complain.  Mindy brings a joy to our home which has been missing since Rusty died.

The day before school begins, a phone call arrives.  Mum has had her baby.  She is at the hospital and would like us to come and visit so we can meet our new brother. 

“Will Eddie be there?” I ask, scowling.

“Eddie is our brother’s daddy, Krystal.  Of course he will be there,” Leena says.

“I don’t care.  I don’t like him,” I say, matter-of-factly.  “I don’t know why, but something just isn’t right about him.”

“Isn’t right?  Like, how?” Leena asks.

I know that there is no way to explain it to her.  His soul feels wrong somehow, but I know if I say it out loud, my sisters won’t understand.

Dad lectures me, telling me that Mum will be very hurt if I don’t go to see her.  When I tell him that I do not want to be alone with Eddie, Dad thinks it is because of what my grandfather had done to me but he is wrong.  Eventually, just to stop the arguing, I agree to go to the hospital on the condition that my sisters will be with me, no matter what.  “Not only will they be with you, but I will be sitting downstairs in the foyer, waiting for you so I can take you home,” Dad says.

As our dad pulls the car into the drop off area in the maternity wing of the hospital, Eddie meets us at the door.  Dad then goes to find a car park after reminding us that he will be sitting in the waiting room in the lobby.  He has no interest in seeing our mother or her new baby, and his interest in interacting with Eddie is less than zero.  Upstairs, we go to a private room.  Eddie knocks on the door.

“You awake, Love?” he calls out to my mum. 

Without waiting for her response, Eddie pushes the door open a little bit and peeks inside.  He finds Mum on the bed, leaning back against her pillows while holding our new baby brother.  Eddie opens the door wider so that my sisters and I can enter the room, before closing the door behind us.  Many conflicting emotions come from Eddie so I stand right next to my mum’s bed.  I
seriously
don’t like being in the same room with him.

“You need to be very quiet,” our mum whispers to us.  “Your brother just finished feeding and now he is finally asleep.”  She turns the little bundle around so we can see his face.  He looks all red and pruned, like he has been in a hot bath tub for too long.  When I look closer at him, my new baby brother burps at me before dribble starts running down his chin.

“Eww, it smells like milk!” I say, giggling.  Eddie grabs my arm roughly, hurting me.

“Your mother told you to shut your mouth around the baby, so please just shut up, okay?” Eddie snaps.  I look at his hand before glaring daggers at him.  As the anger boils inside me from the pain he had just caused, Eddie quickly releases my arm when his fingers start smouldering against my burning skin.

“Never ever touch me again,” I say to him evenly, staring him straight in the eyes.  His eyes widen and his face goes red from anger and embarrassment.  Eddie’s soul almost seems toxic when I am standing in such close proximity to him. 
I dare you to do it again.
  Eddie and I lock eyes. 
You must feel like a big tough man, hurting a five year old girl, huh?
  I suddenly feel sorry for my mum and brother.  They are the ones who have to live with this unmannered filth.

As my sisters coo and ogle at our baby brother, I quietly leave the room.  Looking around for a staff member, I finally find a couple of nurses sitting behind a big desk.

“My daddy is in the waiting room in the lobby.  Can you please show me where that is?” I ask.  One of the nurses tells the other that she will be right back.  We both go into the elevator and exit at the lobby.  I breathe a sigh of relief when I see Dad sitting on a chair, reading a motorcycle magazine.  He is such a welcome sight and I run towards him.  I sit next to him, giving his arm a tight squeeze.  “Thank you,” I say to the nurse.  She smiles, nods her head and gets back in the elevator.

Almost one hour passes and I fall asleep from the boredom of sitting on the waiting room chair.  With my head on Dad’s lap, I am startled awake when Eddie starts screaming at me in the waiting room, wondering where I have been.  He bellows at the top of his lungs that he has been looking for me everywhere, before calling me a stupid little brat.

“
You liar!
” Leena instantly screams at Eddie.  She turns to our dad and says, “He only just realised she was gone.” 

Dad sits me up on the waiting room chair and stands up.  He stands nose to nose with Eddie and quietly growls in an even tone, “Never speak to my daughter that way again.  Do you understand me?”  Leena reaches up and holds our father’s left hand, while Tania reaches up and grabs his right.

“
Fuck
this bullshit!” Eddie screams at my father, before storming off back to the elevator.  As the doors close, he yells out, “You’re all fucking pathetic!”

“Can we go home now, Daddy?” I ask.  He can see the sadness in my eyes.  Finally our father understands why we don’t like being around Eddie.

“Sounds like a good idea.  Let’s go,” he says, keeping a close watch on us as we walk to the car.  “You girls don’t have to come back to visit if you don’t want to, okay?” Dad says to us.  Relief washes over me and my sisters.  The fury buried in our dad’s voice as he speaks makes it clear that nothing would make Dad happier than to drag Eddie into a back alley somewhere and teach him some manners.

At home, Mindy wags her tail back and forth so hard that her entire butt wags along with it.  She is smiling and puts her front paws on the side of the enclosure, excited to see us.  I take the leash which is hanging near the doorway and click it onto her harness immediately after opening the door for her.  She is so excited that she runs around the yard as fast as she can.  It is hard to keep up with her, especially when I am laughing so hard.  The world shines brightly with Mindy being so happy all of the time.  She is a tiny little grown up dog which is full of energy and so many smiles. 

“You deserve only good things, Mindy,” I say to her.  She’d been a wonderful mother to her puppies and she is a wonderful family member and friend to us all.  “I wish everything and everybody in this world’s light would shine as brightly as yours.” 

With Mindy’s energy finally spent, we go upstairs and close the front door.  I unclick the leash and hang it up at the front door with her harness.  When I turn around, I see Dad sitting at the table quietly, pondering his thoughts deeply.

“Krystal, would you come here for a minute, please?” he says.  When I sit down, he asks, “Has Eddie always been like that to you?”

“He has, ever since day one!” Leena shouts angrily, coming out of her room.  “He swears a lot at all three of us and doesn’t like it when we are around.  He just wants ‘sex time’ with Mummy.”  I look at my big sister, confused by her words. 

“Daddy, what does ‘sex time’ mean?”  As I wait for an answer, our dad closes his eyes and puts his face in his hands.  He looks tired.  “It’s okay if you don’t know, Daddy.”  When he doesn’t take his hands away from his face, I continue. “Yes, Eddie is a meanie butt who swears at us all the time,” I say, trying to count how many new words I had learned since he came into our lives.  “You should go and get some sleep, Daddy.  We will be quiet and read our books, okay?”  Finally taking his hands away from his face, Dad looks at me with reddened eyes and nods.  He leans over and kisses Leena and me on our foreheads before standing up and going to his room for a nap.  He keeps his bedroom door ajar so he can hear us if we need him for any reason.

The next morning, craziness hits the house once more as it is our first day of school. Inside my purple backpack, I have some new books which Dad had bought over the past week.  He’d also bought us each a new pencil case, pencils, and a small coin purse.  Part of me wondered if he’d had a sudden onset of oniomania, which our mother suffered from every time she was near children’s books in a store.  We are also each given a big brown paper bag which has our name and lunch order on it, enclosing the right amount of money for the food.  It is our teacher’s job to write our class and grade on the first day, since we currently do not know that information.  This bag is for something called “tuckshop,” which is like a small food store inside the school.  I’d ordered an orange popper and a banana for little lunch, as well as a small carton of milk and a sausage roll for big lunch. 
So different from kindergarten!

“Please don’t lose any of your things at school,” Dad says, before kissing each of us on the forehead as the school bus approaches.  We give him a kiss and hug before getting on the bus.  Mindy stands beside my dad, wagging her tail and barking loudly at the engine of the bus as it idles.  Leena helps me up onto the step of the bus as it is a long way up.  When I find a seat next to a window, I notice how tightly our dad is holding Mindy’s leash.  Even from inside the school bus, I can feel his sadness and worry as I wave to him.  He looks up, forces a smile and waves back.

As the bus pulls away from our house, my sisters ask me if I had been practicing writing my name like they’d shown me.  I nod my head as I look out of the bus window, wondering if I will make any new friends at school this year.  I miss Sharyn dearly and hope that my school teacher will be as nice as Mrs Tucker had been last year at kindergarten.

When the bus pulls up at the front of Cribb Island State School, my sisters take me straight to the administration office so they can find out which classroom I will be in. 
This place is massive compared to kindergarten! 
I start worrying that I might get lost when I am by myself, but Leena and Tania escort me to my classroom and introduce me to the teacher, Mrs Richmond.  On the way to class, they also show where they will meet me when the lunch bell rings.  I hug my sisters before they leave, unsure of why I feel so nervous.