Once Upon A Karma (Karmic Krystal Book 1) (15 page)

“Is that her?” the stranger says to Eddie, pointing at me.

“Yeah, that’s the berk,” Eddie replies, contempt written all over his scowling face.

The strange man walks over, kneels down so he is the same height as me and puts his hand out for me to shake.  “Krystal, I am your cousin, Andrew,” he says.  “It is nice to finally meet you.  Oh, and for the record, you are not a berk.”  Although I have no clue what a berk is, I am grateful to have a cousin who openly disagrees with Eddie about something.

“Hello, cousin Andrew,” I say with a smile.  Deciding to be a little bit daring, I added, “It is great to finally have a man in this house!”  Glancing at Eddie, I am pleased when I see that my comment had struck a nerve.

“Fuck off, cheeky little bitch!” Eddie snarls.  He raises a hand to slap me, but Andrew catches Eddie’s hand, warning Eddie not to even think about raising a hand to any member of his family.  Staring Andrew down, Eddie growls, “You can fuck off and sleep in the car if you start any
shit
, mate.  This is
my
house and I will do whatever I please!” 
Spoken like an immature little baby, Eddie.  Good to see. 
Eddie then storms back out of the house, leaving a vile stench of beer in his wake.  His car tyres screech as he speeds off, presumably back to the pub.

Silence quickly fills the house.  Mum gently smiles at Andrew, welcoming him to her home.  “You can sleep on the couch if you want.  Krystal’s stuff is already set up in her room,” she says.  “Hopefully it’s not too uncomfortable for you to sleep on.  The couch is fairly new, so...”

“No worries, Aunty Jo,” he cuts her off, pleased that he, at least, has somewhere to sleep.  “Are there any jobs that need to be done while I am here?  I noticed the grass looks a bit tall out there.  If you want, I can mow the yard.”

“Really?  That would be great!” Mum says, appreciatively.  “Come with me.  I will show you where everything is kept, under the house.”

As soon as Mum and Andrew walk out the front door, I tiptoe into Jake’s room and stare at him as he sleeps.  Jake is a true picture of innocence, smiling as his mind travels through dream-land.  Tears begin to sting my eyes as I feel the tug of regret, having waited so long to become part of his life. 
You take after Mummy, Jakey. 
His soul is so unblemished and pure.  I pray that it stays that way, with nothing to taint it in his growing years.

Andrew easily starts the lawnmower with one pull of the cord and quickly works up a sweat, cutting the grass at the front and back of the house, as well as on the sidewalk.  He then gets out the rake and starts to clean up the grass clippings, putting them around the flower bed in the back yard.  Oddly enough, it isn’t until the lawnmower stops that Jake finally wakes up from his nap.  In an almost repeat performance of I had first arrived this morning, Jake’s diaper fills the whole house with butt-stink.  Putting on a brave face, Mum takes charge and changes his very soiled diaper, turning me 20 shades of green from the stench. 

With both Andrew and me to watch over Jake, Mum decides to take advantage of having two babysitters and goes to take a shower.  When she comes out in her bath robe smelling clean and fresh, Andrew then disappears into the bathroom.  He starts singing loudly in the in the shower as he washes all the sweat and grass off his skin, causing a few giggles in the kitchen.  Once he is grass-free and dressed, Mum runs a bubble bath for me.  The temperature is just right and I lie back, enjoying the warmth of the water underneath all of the bubbles.  As I lie there, my cousin walks in without knocking.  Embarrassed, I demand that he leaves the room immediately.  Bath time is private time.  He apologises, backing up with his hands in the air, making a quick retreat.  While drying myself, I hear Eddie come home from the pub.  Even with the bathroom door closed, I can hear him prattling on with his foul-mouthed nonsense as Mum sets the table for dinner.

Bringing an extra chair from the nursery, we all sit at the table and enjoy very mild Chili Con Carne.  The food is absolutely delicious and it is my first time tasting Chili.  I thought it was supposed to be so hot that it burns the tongue, which is what it had done to Leena, but this particular meal is perfect.  With my mother having been the chef tonight, no intentional burning from maliciousness occurs and my stomach is suitably full by the end of the meal.  I help clear the table, taking the dishes to the sink and putting the condiments and drinks into the fridge.  At my mother’s request, and then at her insistence, Eddie finally goes to take a shower while Mum gives Jake a bath in a small tub on the kitchen table.  I swear, Jake’s gurgles are the cutest thing I have ever heard.  Once Jake is washed clean, he is fed a bottle before being put to bed.

Andrew and I go to the living room to watch some weird game show with a giant wheel.  Mum and Eddie join us in watching television when the news comes on.  As the weather is announced at the end of the news, Mum gets up to wash the dishes from dinner.  Eddie mumbles something under his breath before going to bed. 
Finally, the drunk sleeps. 
With dishes done, Mum tells me not to stay up too late and to keep the noise down so that Jake stays asleep.  She then calls it a night.

Andrew and I watch a black and white show called ‘
I love Lucy
.’  It’s funny and we both laugh at the silly expressions on Lucy’s face.  Andrew looks at me with a smile and I look up at him laughing.  He puts his hand on my knee as we continue to watch comedy on television and laugh.

“Thank you for stopping Eddie today when he wanted to hit me,” I say to Andrew, trying to remember my manners before I forget to thank him. 

“That’s what cousins are for, Krystal,” he smiles. 

When ‘
I Love Lucy
’ ends, a show called ‘
Number 96
’ comes on the screen.  I had never heard of this show, usually because it is on so late at night.  Yawning, I tell Andrew that it is time for me to go to bed.

“You can sit up a little while longer.  You won’t get into trouble while I’m here, I promise,” Andrew assures me.  “Besides, this is a really funny show too.  I want you to watch it with me.  It is your reward for being such a good girl today for your mum!”  This comment makes me smile.  I decided to sit and watch so I can get to know Andrew a little bit better before he goes home. 

Shortly after the opening credits, I frown as I see a woman take off her shirt and her bra.  Besides feeding time for Jake, I have never seen such big boobs on a woman before.  Andrew’s hand starts to slide up further on my leg and he brushes his finger over my underpants.  Instantly, I jump up off the couch and stare at him.  It had been almost four years since anybody had dared to touch me there.  My skin sizzles from the fright and the anger.  I stare daggers at my cousin.  He’d seemed to be such a good person today!  He had fooled us all!

“Why did you just do that?!” I demand to know.

“Shhhhh!  You heard what your Mum said.  No noise!  You don’t want to get into trouble after such a nice day, do you?” he says quietly.

“Answer my question, Andrew,” I say, my voice now much quieter.

“You are grown up and this is a grown up show,” Andrew states, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.  “Let me show you how nice it feels to be a grown up.”

“I am going to bed.  Goodnight!” I snap, staring at my cousin.  Disgust fills me from head to toe.  Shrugging, Andrew turns off the television and walks out onto the front balcony while rolling a cigarette.  It smells weird, like no other cigarette I’d ever smelled before.  Leaving him to his stinky tobacco, I go to bed.  It takes a while for me to fall asleep, I am so angry, but finally I drift off and the nightmares begin. 

At my grandfather’s house, I see both my grandfather and my cousin, both with evil grins on their faces.  They portray shells which are mendaciously painted with innocence, but behind their facade is nothing but darkness, maliciousness, chaos.
Looking around, I see my sisters and my mother tied to mattresses, their clothes and dignity completely gone.  They scream as my grandfather and cousin assault my family’s private areas repeatedly as I watch, trapped in a bubble, helpless to save them from such heinous crimes.

I wake up with a jolt, trying hard to scream.  Andrew’s hand firmly covers my mouth as he lies on top of me.  My arms are trapped between our bodies as I feel his fingers squirm around inside my pyjama pants – inside
me
.  Within seconds, he screams in pain and jumps off the bed.  Blisters cover his fingers, his chest, and any other part of him that had been touching me.  Tears run down my face at his utter betrayal. 

“You sick, disgusting pervert! Guilty!” I snarl as I point my finger at him.  With my eyes almost flaming, filled with rage, I stare at my cousin as his lips are instantaneously sewn tightly shut by an invisible hand.  No sound can escape him as his soul is ripped from his body, but I can feel his agonised screams.  Andrew’s pants fall to his ankles, fully exposing his so-called ‘manhood’ as an invisible vice clamps onto his penis and testicles. 
Karma will ensure that you join our grandfather for your crimes.
  Effortlessly, the vice closes more and more, squeezing its contents flatter and flatter.  As Andrew reaches down, desperately trying to release the vice’s hold on his groin, he is thrown backwards and held against the wall with a fury which I am unable to contain.  His arms are locked hard in place against the wall above his head.  The crotch of his pants tear in half at the groin as his knees are spread two feet apart.  The clamp continues to close, squeezing his genitals until they are completely flat.  My cousin continues to scream in forced silence.  His struggles are useless.  Pulsating veins push out of his neck and forehead from the terror and pain which are overwhelming his senses.  With Andrew’s junk now flatter than a pancake, it is forcibly torn away from his body with the sound of two thick fabrics ripping apart.  Instantly, the same thread that had sewn his lips together immediately sews closed the incision made between his legs.  Nothing remains.  Andrew’s manhood lands on the floor with the same thump of a slab of meat which lands on a butcher’s table, right before it is put through a mincing machine.  Before my eyes, the remains of his genitals rot and crumble to dust.  I pull a shirt from my suitcase and cover the dust pile. 
The vacuum cleaner can sort that out tomorrow.
  Once his arms are freed from their invisible restraints, he reaches down and pulls up his pants, staring at me in horror.  He pukes into his closed mouth, forcing vomit and blood to come from his nose. 
Don’t wake the baby. 
Turning and fleeing for his life, my cousin painfully runs out of the house.  His legs sound like two wet fish slapping together as he runs, leaving his manhood behind.

I sit up on my bed, wondering why
two
men on my mother’s side of the family had felt compelled to hurt me.  Less than ten minutes after Karma’s judgement initiates, I find myself able to see through Andrew’s eyes in real time.  He is still running, feeling the agony which is searing his groin (or, rather, lack thereof) with each step he takes.  Some of the stitches between his legs have broken.  Not only is blood leaking into his sweatpants, but blood and vomit have now pooled in the back of his throat, no longer able to be expelled from his nostrils which have solidified with blood and mucus.  Finally, his lips rip free from their constraints as he runs across the main street.  A scream rips through the air as a truck strikes him from behind, crushing him into a mangled mess between its grill and a large tree trunk.  With his soul damned and his body now expired, I know that justice has been served and I thank Karma for catching up with Andrew in such spectacular style.

After Andrew’s death, I am unable to go back to sleep.  As the sun starts to shine through the bedroom window, I am reminded of the conversation with my father after what my grandpa had done.  I promised that no more secrets will be kept between us.  Shortly after Mum’s bedroom door opens, she comes into my room after she sees me sitting up in bed, staring at the window.

“Krystal, honey?  Is everything okay?” she asks as she sits down on the side of the bed, a look of concern on her face.

“I need to ring Daddy,” I reply.

“It’s very early.  Has something happened?  Can you ring a little bit later?” she asks.

“I want to ring him now, please.  I promised Daddy that I would,” I say, frowning at the memories of last night.  As a tear rolls down my cheek, Mum agrees to let me call.  When I look up, I then see Eddie standing in the doorway, grumbling and complaining about being woken up.

“What’s wrong now?  Did the retard piss the bed?” he sneers, looking at me with utter contempt. 
Give me a reason, Eddie. 
As I listen to Eddie prattle on with his usual nonsense, I can’t help but wish that he would simply vanish from our lives.
I close my eyes and my mother leans over to hug me.

“Ignore him,” my mother whispers in my ear.  “Let’s go and make a phone call, okay?” she says, offering me some gentle reassurance.  We both climb off my bed and walk past Eddie, doing our best to pretend he isn’t even there.  She dials the number, waits for my dad to answer and then gives the handset to me.

“Daddy?” I say, anxious to hear his voice.

“Hey, Krystal.  Is everything okay?” he says.  Each word he speaks sounds like an effort in a tell-tale sign that the phone woke him up.  A fugacious sense of security wraps around me at the sound of his voice, but is gone again in a flash, knowing that what I am about to tell him will cause major upset.

“You remember when you told me no secrets?” I ask.  Silence momentarily fills the air as I wait for him to respond.  The buzzing of a fly in the kitchen seems to enhance the silence between me and my dad as I wait for him to reply.

The pause finally ends and, as if somebody had just slapped him awake, he says urgently, “What happened?  Tell me.”

“I met my cousin, Andrew, yesterday…”

“Speaking of Andrew, where the fuck is he?” Eddie loudly interrupts from the living room.  He starts picking up the pillows and blanket that our overnight guest had rudely left in a mess on the sofa before leaving in the middle of the night, and throws them into an even bigger mess in the middle of the floor with an exaggerated dramatic sigh.  Turning my attention away from Eddie’s one-man soap opera in the next room, I resume my conversation with my father on the phone.

“Daddy, he did to me what Grandpa did when I was little,” I say.  A loud smash on the floor of the kitchen causes me to jump with fright.  I turn around to see the horrified look on my mother’s face at what I had just said.  Eddie runs into the kitchen and frowns as soon as he sees the mess that Mum had made.  His face contorts with an irrational rage when he realises that it was one of his collectible beer steins that she had dropped.

“That filthy…. GRRRR!  I’m sorry, honey, I can’t help but want to throttle the sick mongrel pervert right now.  Do you want me to come and get you?  I can bring you home right away!” Dad says urgently, obviously wanting to take me as far as he can from harm’s way.

“You
clumsy
bitch!” Eddie screams at my mother.  As he raises his right fist into the air, I realise his intentions immediately.  Almost in slow motion, Eddie’s fist swings down towards Mum.  At the same time, Eddie’s feet slide towards me.  Thrown off balance, Eddie slips, landing face first in the fragmented, jagged pieces of the broken stein.  When he finally connects with the floor, he inadvertently punches himself in the face with his own fist – the same fist which he’d raised at my mother.  Shards of the stein slice through his skin, leaving tiny trails of blood gravitating towards the floor.  His nose, however, oozes like a red river rampaging towards a waterfall.  Not only does he have pieces of glass stuck to his face, but he has broken his nose with his own fist. 
Well done, dickhead. 
Doing everything possible to stifle the giggles that are trying to escape me due to Eddie’s own little improv-theatre going on, I once again direct my attention back to the phone call.

With a forced calm, I respond with a smile on my face, “No, Daddy.  I am okay here.  I had better hang up, though.  It looks like Eddie might need a Band-Aid.”  I can’t help but giggle.

“Krystal, tell me… is Andrew…” my father begins to say.

“Don’t worry,” I quickly say.  “It won’t happen again.  I love you, Daddy.  I will be home before my birthday, okay?”

“I love you too, sweetheart, and I promise you will have a great birthday,” he replies before I hang up the phone.  Glancing down briefly at Eddie before looking up at my mum, I see that she is in shock.  Wide eyes and a dropped jaw are all she seems to be able to manage while looking at her cactus-impersonating, bleeding husband on the floor with a self-inflicted broken nose.  Unfazed by Eddie’s idiocy, I decide to offer my assistance.

“Gee, can I get you a doctor, Eddie?  Perhaps a few brain cells as well?” I say, trying hard to keep the underlying raucous laughter out of my voice. In a flash, my mother steps over her husband and rings an ambulance.  It is obvious that she is struggling with a tug-o-war of emotions herself… humour, sadness, pity, fear.  On the one hand, her husband was about to punch her in the face.  On the other, he just broke his own nose in the process and, with all of the shattered fragments sticking out of his skin, definitely does looks like a new breed of cactus.  This would be a stressful moment for all of us, if… well…
if it wasn’t so darned funny
.

While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, Mum gets a clean cloth and tries to stem the flow of blood coming from Eddie’s nose.  As he holds it in place, she pulls a set of tweezers out of the first aid kit, which she keeps in the kitchen, as well as an empty bowl.  Slowly and painfully, she starts plucking Eddie like a chicken.  He jumps as each piece of his shattered beer stein is removed and placed into the bowl.  With each of Eddie’s jumps and tiny little yelps of pain, I decide that the safest place for me and my bottled up giggles right now is out on the stairs to wait for the ambulance.  Sheepishly, I ask for the key to the front door so I can close it behind me when I walk out.  As soon as Mum passes the front door key over to me, I pocket it and run as fast as I can to the stairs at the side of the house, shutting the door behind me.  Finally, I can laugh loudly without Eddie staring daggers at me in return.  If only all bullies broke their own noses pre-bullying.

I take a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the fresh air outside.  I watch as butterflies flap their gentle wings and listen as birds sing their special songs.  I can’t help but smile at the innocence of the animals which are oblivious to all of the evil lurking in the world.  I then notice a bee land on one of the flowers in our garden.  It rummages around in the pollen, collecting what it can before flying away.  A gentle breeze kisses my face and I close my eyes, wishing that I could take all of this beauty and peace with me, everywhere I went.

An ambulance turns into our driveway, immediately pulling me out of my trance-like bliss.  Thundering back to reality, I use the key to open the door and let the ambulance driver into the house.  Eddie is now sitting on one of the kitchen chairs with some type of bloodied shmatte covering his face while my mother cleans up the mess on the floor.  With a whole lot of the stein’s fragments still embedded in his skin, Eddie uncovers his face and shows the ambulance driver the damage to his nose. 

“This looks nasty, but let’s get you to the hospital and can get you all fixed up.  How’s that sound, mate?” the ambulance driver says to Eddie, doing his best to sound optimistic.

“I-ad-dot-your-ducking-bate,
bate!
” Eddie snarls, flinching in pain with every attempted syllable. 

Regardless of Eddie’s dour mood, the ambulance officer stands up and escorts Eddie downstairs to the ambulance.  Mum and I walk behind them.  While it is possible that my mother wants to make sure her husband is okay, I just want to make sure he leaves.  After Eddie is strapped into his seat in the back, the ambulance driver asks my mum if she would like the police to come to her home so she can file a complaint against Eddie.  Mum and I glance quickly at each other before she advises that no crime had been committed.  I close my eyes in frustration, knowing that the only reason he had not beaten the crap out of her is that Karma had intervened… this time.

“Just get my husband to the hospital, please.  It will give me time to clean up the mess in the kitchen before my baby wakes up,” she insists.  As if on cue, Jake starts crying loudly, almost as if to notify the entire street of his soiled diaper.  We quickly excuse ourselves before going back inside the house.

“I’ll stay out here while you clean his bum, if that is okay, Mummy,” I say, not ready to smell Jake’s 10 kilogram overnight deposit.  Getting smacked in the face with a stink-bat from Jake’s butt was definitely not my idea of fun.  Mum nods in agreement before I make my way to the balcony doors, opening them up fully to let some fresh air into the house.

Once Jake has a new diaper and is in his playpen, I climb in with him and play for a little while so that my mother can get some cleaning done.  With the floor now sparkling, we all sit up at the table and eat breakfast together.  In an attempt to be helpful in some way, I ask if I can feed Jake. 

“You need to just put a little bit onto the spoon.  Not too much or he will spit it out while he is chewing,” she guides me.  After putting just a small amount of food onto the spoon, I look up as Jake’s mouth shoots open, just like the laughing clowns at the yearly show.  By the time he finishes eating his breakfast, Jake has more food on his bib than in his stomach. 
Ewww. 
Mum is clearly amused when she looks at us.  “It’s okay, sweetie.  For Jake, that’s normal,” she says with a grin.  At that precise moment, Jake lets out a burp that almost sends my hair blowing backwards.  I close my eyes and frown, causing my mother to break out into fits of laughter.  When she comes over to the high chair to clean Jake up, I head to the bathroom to make sure I am not wearing any part of his breakfast-burp on my nose.

After washing my face, brushing my hair and changing out of my pyjamas, I watch Jake crawl around on the floor, making sure he doesn’t end up on the balcony alone.  Leaning down, I help Jake to stand up and we both slowly walk – although Jake’s walk is more like an awkward type of jiggle-wobble, with legs shooting out all over the place.  It is almost as if each of Jake’s feet have minds of their own.  When Jake is all walked out, he starts to yawn and fuss.  I tell my mum that I think Jake is tired and ready for his nap.  Mum smiles and picks up her baby boy.  She fills his baby bottle with water and takes him to the nursery.  Once he is sleeping, I get my fancy purple apron from the cupboard and smile as my mother ties it behind my back.

“Let’s clean!” I whisper quietly, making sure not to wake my brother.  Mum hands me the feather duster and I dust everything that I can reach.  When I am finished, my mother starts dusting the higher shelves as I take off my apron and sit, tired from such an unusually long day.  I know that my lack of sleep last night has contributed largely to my daytime fatigue and I go and lay down for an afternoon nap.

*   *   *

“Get out of bed, you!” an angry voice yells, grabbing my arm and violently pulling me out of my slumber.  I look up to see Eddie – his nose plastered up and two black eyes – as he drags me in to the kitchen.  “Sit down!” he bellows at me, also waking Jake up from his afternoon nap.  “What’s this shit you have been telling people about your cousin, then?”  Eddie stares at me like I had insulted his best friend in front of the pope.

“I haven’t told
people
anything.  I told my father what Andrew did last night before he left.” I say calmly.

“So what did he do? Where did he go?  Are you telling lies to people, you little freak?” Eddie accuses me.  I refuse to answer any of Eddie’s insults or allegations until my mother has arrived in the room with Jake. “You will speak to me when I tell you or I will knock your fucking retard teeth down your neck, do you hear me?” he growls.

“Like you tried to do this morning to Mummy, you mean?  That worked out well for you, didn’t it?” I replied.

Just as he raises his fist, my mother grabs his arm from behind.  “Don’t-You-Even- THINK-about-it, Eddie!” she warns him, speaking each word slowly and firmly.  Jake now bellows loudly, wishing he was anywhere but here.  It is the first time that I had seen my baby brother so truly unhappy.  “If you so much as consider touching a single hair on my daughter’s head, I swear I will have the police here before you can blink.  Got it?”  The look on my mother’s face sends chills down my spine. 

Eddie stares at my mother, shocked that she would ever dare to humiliate him in such a way in front of a child, especially when that child is me.  “Fine,” he mumbles.  Looking back at me, he says in a laconic tone, “Talk!”

Mum sits down, untucks one of her boobs and starts feeding Jake.  I tell them both quietly, so as not to set Jake off again, about what had happened last night.  “After you both went to bed, a show came on the television with
boobs
,” I begin, unintentionally pointing at my mother’s breast as I say the word.  Mum looks down at Jake before looking at Eddie with a frown on her face.  “I told Andrew I didn’t want to watch but he said I am a big girl now and that he wanted me to watch with him.  Then he put his hand in the same place that Grandpa had put his.  I got angry and told him to stop.  When I stood up to get away from him, Andrew got angry and went to the balcony to smoke his funny-smelling cigarettes.  When I woke up in my bed, he was on top of me.”  I pause, just in case Mum or Eddie have something to say.  When they say nothing, I continue.  “I told him that I will be telling you both what he did.  That is when he ran out of the house fast.  I haven’t seen him since,” I say, feeling an ache in my heart when I see my mother’s cheeks wet with tears.