Young Squatters (6 page)

Nick began chatting to the police.  Nora turned toward Ben.  He gave her a crooked smile, a gesture that was supposed to be comforting.

“I’m sorry about all this, Ben,” she apologized, putting her hands up in an act of submission.  “I don’t know what he’s going to do that I haven’t already tried with them.  He’s so stubborn...”

She stopped herself from saying anymore.  She didn’t want Ben, or Belinda, to know about Nick and her problems as husband and wife.  People like them simply didn’t talk about those things.

“It’s okay,” Ben said, understanding.  “I’m glad you called me, Nora.  I hope I’m at least helping in some way.”

Nora nodded, sincerely.  “Yes, Ben, you’ve been a saint.  I don’t know what we would have done without you.”

Ben looked down, clearly embarrassed by the compliments.

***

“What do you think Dad will do?” Clara asked her older brother while they sat in her bedroom.

The police had come, and Clara and Colin waited in Clara’s bedroom as Mom, Uncle Ben, and Dad talked with them.  They had seen the two intruders on their way up the stairs, and Colin had never been more furious in his life.  Clara had never been so afraid in her life.  Who were these people?

“I’m sure he will come in and solve this problem right away.  You don’t need to worry; you know how good Dad is at sorting out any problems, so those two will be gone from here tonight.  You’ll see.”

Clara felt comfort at Colin’s words and was happy her dad was finally home.  It had been a nightmare when they had returned from getting pizza and Mom turned around to tell them of the situation at their house.  She had made them wait in the car until Dad pulled up, and then had begun yelling at him as Uncle Ben tried to calm her down.  From a distance, their house had looked foreign, unattainable.  The solar lights around the flowers had lit up as darkness approached, and almost every light in the house was turned on, casting an eerie glow about the entire place.

Bad people, Mom had said, bad people were in their house.  They weren’t killers, or anything like that, but they wanted to steal the house.  The pizza they had eaten gurgled in their stomachs as their organs flipped flopped at the notion.  Who would do such a crazy thing, especially in this neighborhood?

“Mom, who are these people in our home and why are they sitting in our living room?” Clara had asked as they walked in with the two police officers that had arrived at the scene.

Clara had been scared, and could see from the look on her mom’s face that she too, was scared as they followed the police’s instructions and made their way up to Clara’s room, the highest room in the house.  Colin’s response had confused them both though, as he seemed to know the boy in their home.

“Bradford!” Colin exclaimed, first overjoyed at seeing his friend, then recognizing the horror of the situation and frowning.  “What’s going on?  What are you doing in our home?  Who is that?” he pointed accusingly at Harper.

Harper sat frozen to the spot, she didn’t know how Bradford would respond to Colin who she could see looked completely lost as to what was going on.  She had seen Colin from a distance when they had been scoping out the house, but up close he was a lot taller—and probably stronger—than she was.

“Colin.  What a coincidence it is this being your house! My fiancée here and me managed to get a deposit and have rented this place.  I had no idea you were living here.  I’m sorry, Colin, but there seems to have been some mix-up as we have rented this place and you were to have moved out by now.  Maybe your parents forget to tell you both you were moving and got the dates wrong for when you needed to pack your belongings and move out.”

“You shut your lying mouth!” Nora had interrupted, ushering the kids up the stairs.  “You are a nasty little liar, you know that?”

“Nora, shut up,” Nick had said, running a hand through his hair and glancing nervously at the police.

Harper thought how cleverly Bradford had handled the situation.  He could see Colin was taking in what Bradford had said, and was trying to work out what was happening.  Colin leaned back on the couch, his arm casually slung around the back of Harper.  She, too, tried to look right at home.  It was hard, even with Colin by her side.

“Mom, what’s going on?  You never told us anything about moving?  I don’t want to move.  I like living here, and don’t want to give up my friends at school,” Colin said, stopping at the foot of the staircase, looking from one person to the other.

Clara began to get hysterical and begged her mom to let them stay in the house, as she didn’t want to move.

Nora swore.  Both Colin and Clara froze.  They had never heard their mother swear in such a manner before.  Uncle Ben took her by the arm and steered her up the stairs, along with the children.

Colin wouldn’t budge; he stood saying nothing, but stared intently at Bradford.  He knew his parents would never do something like what Bradford had suggested, especially if his mother had had a reaction like that, and wondered what game he was playing.  Harper tried to make herself smaller, to get out of that intense stare.  Colin seemed to like it; he met Bradford’s eyes and kept his gaze on him.

“No one is going anywhere apart from these two.  Don’t listen to any more of their lies!” Nick said, waving them all away.  “Colin,” he said, specifically targeting his son, who looked like he was going to blow up.  “Go upstairs and wait until we’re done here.”

Colin crossed his arms, giving the death stare to both Bradford and Harper.

“Look, I don’t know what your game is, dude, but we’re going kick you and your—fiancée, is it?” Colin scoffed at Harper’s meek expression, looking like he wanted to throw something at her.  “You’re going to be out of here in no time at all.  You’ve messed with the wrong family, dude!”

Colin didn’t wait for Bradford to respond.  He was up the stairs in next to no time at all, and knew he would need to be the man in the house until his dad got upstairs, and to reassure his sister everything would be okay.

“Look on the bright side; at least we went for pizza for dinner tonight, so things aren’t all that bad, are they?” he asked Clara now, and she nodded, playing with the ends of her long blonde hair.

Colin couldn’t relax.  He was thinking over his friendship with Bradford at school and trying to think as to what on earth was going on.  He had liked Bradford; sure, he had known he was a little strange, but he hadn’t been hesitant on being a good friend to him.  What the hell was he doing?

“You’re right, that was a nice surprise,” Clara agreed.  She got up and listened through her door.  “I can’t hear anything,” she moaned, walking over to flop on her bed, burying her face in the blankets.

They didn’t hear anything for more than a few minutes.  Colin wondered if Bradford and his little girlfriend had killed Mom and Dad.  Just as he was about to open the door to walk downstairs, the door opened.  Uncle Ben, adjusting his glasses in a calm manner, told them both to sit on the bed.

“What’s going on?” Colin asked, complying as Ben sat down next to Clara and he; Clara had sat up.

“We still aren’t sure,” Uncle Ben explained, putting his arm around Clara, who snuggled up to him.

“But I
know
that kid, his name’s Bradford,” Colin said determinedly.  “He’s my age.  What’s he doing here?”

“Honestly, Colin, I don’t know much,” Ben replied.  “Your mom and dad are downstairs still trying to sort things out with the police.  As far as they can tell, Bradford and his girlfriend have paid to live here, and there’s not much your parents or anyone can do about it until the morning, at least.”

“What?” Clara said, looking up at Uncle Ben, who tried to give her his best smile.  “What do you mean, Uncle Ben?  I can’t sleep here with those strangers in the house!”

“Of course not, sweetie. You and Colin are more than welcome to stay with Belinda and me—and Isaac,” Ben said, giving her a squeeze.  Clara didn’t like that answer.  Aunt Belinda smelled like fish all the time and Isaac always tugged on her hair.

Colin didn’t like the idea of leaving either.  He had a lot of valuable stuff in his room, stuff that Bradford could easily be interested in.  Letting a stranger have full access to their home with rooms like his and dad’s office was a little too much to take in.  The fact that Bradford had a girlfriend only made the situation worse.

“Colin, I am confused about something.  If Bradford was your friend, how come he’s moved into our home and saying we need to leave?” Clara asked.  “That’s not the sort of thing any of my friends would do.”

Clara looked at her brother and waited for him to give her some answers.  She didn’t blame her brother for what had happened, but a small part of her thought maybe he knew more than he was letting on.

“Clara, I know this may be hard for you to believe, but there are honestly some seriously bad people out there.  I thought that kid downstairs was my friend, but I now realize he wasn’t, and I am as confused as you about what is going on here.  But try not to worry.  Mom and Dad will get everything resolved and you will forget the whole thing happened by tomorrow.  So just relax, okay?”

“That’s right,” Uncle Ben said.  “Don’t worry about a thing.  Let the adults handle this.”

Colin nodded at his uncle, but knew that he, instead of just the adults, needed to look after his sister and put her mind at rest that everything would be okay.  Even if he wasn’t so sure himself at the moment, he wasn’t going to let his sister know that.

He and Clara settled down to watch a cheesy show on Clara’s bedroom TV, and managed to laugh and joke and forget for a while what was going on downstairs.  Uncle Ben went into the other room to call Aunt Belinda and let her know what was going on.  Although Colin wanted to think that everything was going to be all right, he wasn’t so sure that this was going to become a reality.

“Now listen here, young man.  I don’t know what game you’re playing, but don’t think for one second that you’re going to get away with it.”

“Our house was never for rent!” cried Nora.  Nick gave her a dirty look.  Her hysterics were getting old, especially to him and to Officer Ryan, who stood in the center of them all.

Ben had come downstairs, and grabbed Nora’s arm to pull her away from the cop, who ignored her completely.

“We wouldn’t play a game with this type of thing,” the boy, Bradford, said.  “My fiancée...”

“Girlfriend,” Nick corrected him.  “She’s not old enough to get married, legally.  You would know that if you had one ounce of sense in that brain of yours...”

“Fiancée,” Bradford continued, as if uninterrupted. “She’s pregnant with our first child, officer.  We’re trying to settle down and have a family, you know--”

“That’s really not the issue, here,” Officer Ryan said.  He was a middle-aged man, new to the area.  His potbelly was almost as large as Nick’s, but looked even more ridiculous than his because of his blue state trooper uniform.  He thoughtfully rubbed his moustache--also a comical feature to his appearance.

“Then just what
is
the issue, here?” Nick asked.  His eyes hurt and he had a headache.  He still didn’t understand why the police couldn’t just kick the kids out, or go and find their parents, or something.  Bradford might have been of legal age to live alone, but he knew for a fact that Harper couldn’t have been more than sixteen.  And pregnant? Bah! He’d believe that when he saw it, because right now she looked perfectly normal.

“Sir, as I’ve said multiple times now, this isn’t an issue that’s going to be able to get solved tonight,” Ryan said.

“I’ve kept my driver’s license up to date, damn it,” Nick said, slamming his fist down on the big oak dining room table, where they had congregated.  The young girl jumped a little, looking at Bradford for reassurance.  Nick had noticed that she did that a lot, like Bradford was a father to her, or something.  The whole situation perplexed him.  “I have the title to the house, in my own damn name!”

Bradford had shown the policeman their emails about the house and the agreement that they’d rented it.  Ryan hadn’t seen anything that was obviously missing or that the kids were threatening to harm anyone or hurt anything.  Ryan explained as much to Nick and Nora, again.  Nick looked at him in disbelief.  He turned his gaze to Harper, who trembled a little under his stare.

“
She
knows the truth,” Nick said, pointing at her.  “Just ask her for a confession.  Interview them, or something, for God’s sake! Do I really have to do your job for you?  There’s hundreds of ways this can be solved.”

“Don’t pick on her, Mr. Donnelly,” Bradford said, calmly, crossing his arms over his chest. 

Nick sneered.  “Pick on her?  You little...”

“Enough,” Ryan said, his voice coated with the force of his profession.  “I’ve heard enough from all of you.  Either you kids got scammed or you adults had a brain lapse and somehow ended up with a house on the market.  I will file a report, but we can’t do anything until morning, do you understand that?  Do all parties understand that?”

“If we can’t do anything until morning, you can agree to find other accommodations for these kids, right?” Ben asked.  “Surely the Donnelly family shouldn’t be expected to take them in while they wait for a verdict on this whole manner.”

“Unless there is evidence of a crime being committed, I can’t do anything,” Ryan said.  “There is...”

“There
is
evidence!” Nick roared, ready to overturn the entire table.

Ryan held up his hand.  “No, Mr. Donnelly, there is not.  I know the law.  These folks aren’t doing anything to harm your family, and they aren’t trashing the house.  I have to insist that you live with this situation for the night, at least.  It’s really the only way anything is going to be able to get resolved.  You all will have to stay calm and patient with each other,” he looked pointedly at Nora, who was in tears again.

“What about harassment, officer?” Bradford asked.  Nick wanted to slap that easy little grin right off his smug face.  The kid knew he had won, in the eyes of the law.  “I wouldn’t want Harper having to deal with any unexpected stress, especially since she’s pregnant.”

“She is
not
pregnant!” Nora yelled.  Everyone, including Nick and even Ben, ignored her statement.

Ryan nodded.  “Of course. Any harassment will have to be dealt with under the law.  I don’t think any of you want fines or jail time, right?”

“Of course not,” Nick snapped.  He remembered that in the old days, when people trespassed on someone else’s property, they got shot.  He had a gun in his office.  Maybe that wouldn’t be too bad of an idea.

He seriously considered it, for a moment.  Then reality set in.  This wasn’t the old days, where people worked hard for what they owned and had a right to protect it.  This was an age when laws could be twisted around to accommodate the low-life scum of the earth, like Bradford and Harper.

“I will go and file my report,” Ryan said, “I’ll also need statements from all of you, and your son, Colin.  You mentioned that he knows this young man?”

“Yes,” Nick said, his voice hoarse.  “Nora, go get Colin.  He seemed to know this,” he struggled for the right word, “this
liar
on sight.”

Ryan nodded then turned, talking into the speaker on his shoulder.

Nora let out a sob and walked out of the room, followed by Ben.  Nick stood across from the intruders.

***

“Pack your bags,” Nora told her children as she walked up into Clara’s room, finding them sprawled out on the bed watching television.

Colin flipped off the TV, eyes wide as she and Ben entered the room, closing the door behind them.

“Are you kidding me?” Colin asked.

“No kidding, sport,” Ben said, helping Clara find her suitcase in her cluttered closet.  Clara’s expression matched his own:shock, mixed with fear.  He hoped he at least looked a little braver than she did.

“So Bradford and his girlfriend are just going to get our house?”

Their mom’s voice sounded sharp when she replied.  “No,” she said, determined.  “We’re just not going to live here with those type of people under our roof.  I don’t trust them, and neither should you.”

“I know Bradford,” Colin said, “He and I were in class together.  He seemed okay, I showed him a bunch of stuff.”

Mom flew over to him, grabbing him by the shoulders.  Her nails dug into his skin through his shirt.

“You listen to me, Colin Donnelly,” she said, her hot breath making his hair stand on edge.  She looked like a madwoman.  “What the hell did you tell him about us?  Why is he doing this?”

“Nora,” Ben said, tugging on her arm.  “He’s just a kid, for God’s sake.”

“It’s his fault, if he knew that bastard downstairs!” Nora said, jerking away from Ben’s grasp.  Colin tried to shrink away; she wouldn’t let him.  “For God’s sake, Colin. What did you tell him?”

She was hysterical.  Clara started crying, packing her clothes into her suitcase.  Colin looked his mother straight in the eyes, too scared to say a word.  Was she going to strangle him, or something?  He had seen things like that on TV; when people were under a lot of stress, they would do rash, even violent things.

“Nora!” Ben said, tugging her away from Colin, putting his hands on her shoulders.  “Snap out of it!”

Nora blinked a couple of times.  She looked at Ben, then at Colin.  Tears filled her tired eyes.  “I’m sorry, Colin,” she said, her hands moving to her mouth, touching her lips, as if she couldn’t believe what had just come out of them.  “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mom,” Colin whispered.

“I want you to go downstairs and tell Officer Ryan everything, absolutely everything you know about Bradford, okay?” she asked, though the question was more of a statement than a question.

“Okay,” Colin said, feeling the shock of adrenaline pulsing through his body as he regained feeling in his extremities.  He hadn’t realized how tense he’d been, how ready he had been to fight back.

“You go downstairs and tell the officer everything, absolutely everything,” Mom repeated.

Clara got up and hugged her.  Nora wrapped her arms around her daughter, eyes still wide from what she had just done.

“Mommy, why are those people still in our house, and why hasn’t Dad gotten rid of them yet?”

Nora didn’t want her daughter to see she was worried and was thinking exactly the same thing.

“Don’t worry, Clara.  Your dad will sort everything out.  Go on, Colin,” she said, nodding to her son, who had grown pale.  “I’m sorry.  Go downstairs.”

Colin got up without a word, striding out the door without looking at her.  She felt like a monster, half a human.  She looked past Ben and Clara, staring at Clara’s light pink wall, remembering how she had argued with Clara about it for nearly a month before they settled on a color they both liked.  This house was her masterpiece, her beautiful creation.  She always added to it, took things away, to make it the most perfect creation it could be.  Would she have to give all her hard work up, now?

“Clara,” she said, prying her daughter’s arms loose from her waist.  “Get your things packed with Uncle Ben.  You are going to go stay with Aunt Belinda, at least until we can get things sorted out.”

“I don’t want to stay with them,” Clara whined.  “Isaac is mean and always tugs my hair! It’s not fair!”

Ben stepped in, picking Clara’s suitcase up off the floor and setting it on the bed, opening it so it could be filled.

“It’s just for one night,” he said, though Nora wasn’t sure if he had said that for Clara’s benefit or hers.  “Your daddy will figure things out.”

Nora left them to go into the master bedroom, flipping on the light switch.  Nick and her bed was still unmade, since Sarah had gone home early that day.  She wanted to crawl into it and curl up in a ball, waiting for this crisis to pass.  Nick was still downstairs, perhaps Ben’s prediction would be right.  Maybe Nick could figure everything out, and get those strangers out of her house.  Her stomach turned at the thought of them living in her creation, eating and sleeping in her perfect world.

***

She remembered moving into this house, nearly a decade ago.  Nick had a good start in the business, and the kids were growing up fast.  They had all been excited to move into this beautiful neighborhood, where people were so friendly and the houses so perfect.  They’d be closer to Belinda and her family, and Nora wouldn’t have to be so lonely when Nick was away.  Nick was thinner back then, too.  She smiled faintly at the thought of the four of them approaching the house, the kids seeing it for the first time and reveling in its beauty and enormity.

So many things in the house had needed fixing.  The cabinets in the kitchen had needed to be replaced, and there was a leak in one of the bathroom pipes.  The whole house needed to be repainted, covering up the nasty browns and tans that had been hastily painted on by the previous owners.  She had loved every second of it: the planning, the working, the finished product.  In truth, she had felt empty after the birth of Clara, knowing that she wouldn’t have any more children.  The doctors said she might have suffered from a minor case of postpartum depression, but she didn’t believe in that type of thing, not really.  No, it was the change of it all, the ending of a chapter and the beginning of a new one that had left her in a transitional state, a vulnerable state.  Nick hadn’t been around to witness it, and the kids—well, kids were kids.  They didn’t notice anything.

The house, this house, had created a new life for her.  She had put all her energy into finding the perfect colors, the perfect furniture, and the perfect accessories to each room.  Every single element in the house was because she put it there; here in her own little world, she was in control of every aspect of her and her family’s life.  She had raised her kids in this house, and watched them grow and thrive.  Colin’s soccer practices, Clara’s piano lessons, Nick’s office Christmas parties—this house had seen them through it all, at their best.

Now it would see them at their worst.

Nora lay down on her bed and cried, muffling her sobs into the feathered quilt and pillows.

***

Nick didn’t intend to go down without a fight. 

Ryan had left, and Colin retreated back up the stairs after giving his statement.  Something was going on up there, because they kept hearing things rattling across the floor.  Harper hoped they were packing; maybe they would leave and then the house could truly be Bradford and hers.

Now Nick sat across from them at the dining room table, probably expecting that he’d be able to talk them out of wanting to stay here.

“I know you two are lying, and you know it, too.  I’ll set you up in a real nice hotel for a couple weeks, if a vacation is what you’re looking for,” Nick said, putting his palms flat on the table.  His wedding band reflected the overhead lights.  Harper thought she would like a wedding band like that one someday; a gold representation of Bradford’s love for her and her love for him.  “But you certainly can’t go around wrecking people’s lives and taking things that don’t belong to you.”