Chapter 38

By the next day, I had gotten myself calmed down to the point where I could act reasonably normal in school. I was surprised with how calm Karen was being. At lunch, I discovered the reason for this. Denise had assured her that she had heard of the Coke treatment for "accidents" from her brother's girlfriend over a year ago. Apparently, hearing it from Denise, had done the trick. I asked her when she was expecting her period. She had to think for a minute before she said it was due at any time.

Two weeks later, Karen's period finally arrived. Two weeks! Wouldn't you think a girl would remember a simple thing like when her last period was. That first week wasn't so bad, because Karen kept saying she felt like it was just about ready to start. By the second week, I was getting resigned to my fate. I just knew that my bad luck was going to make sure that Karen turned up pregnant.

For two Sundays in a row, I spent time working on cleaning up the storage room in my mom's studio. She had collected as much junk in there, as my dad had down in our basement. Old mats, chairs that had broken legs, tons of papers that she had collected from different students, and other people, over the past three years. There was even a box of lost and left toys and sweaters, coats, and books that I found way in the back. It was there from the time when they had first opened up the studio. Now, the lost and found was up front, in my mom's office, and it was cleaned out, and the things donated, after being there for thirty days. On the second Sunday, I scraped, washed and waxed the storage room floor. My mother was impressed with all of my work, but wondered out loud about why I was doing it. I couldn't tell her that I didn't feel like entertaining any visitors before I found out whether I was going to be a daddy or not.

I got a call on a Thursday night from Karen. It was a little after eight, and when my mother handed me the phone, she gave me a funny look. Karen's voice was so excited, that I knew what she was going to say, even before she said it.

"I got my visitor!"

"That's really great! I'm happy. Of course, I wasn't really worried, not after the Cokes and all."

"I was a little bit worried because it was so long in getting here. I think I might have remembered it wrong about when my last one was though, because I'm usually pretty regular."

"Are you going to be done by Sunday?"

"What?"

"Is it going to be over, you know, your visitor. Is it going to be finished so we can meet on Sunday again."

"Is that all you can think about, Larry? You know what could have happened?"

"Yes, I know. Do you mean you aren't going to do it any more?"

"I haven't decided yet. Right now, I still want to be happy that I didn't get pregnant. We'll have to see later about how I feel. I only called to tell you my news."

"Thanks for calling me. I'm happy that things turned out good for you. I won't rush you on that other thing, okay? Whenever you decide. We're still going to be friends, right?"

"You're going to ask someone else to the apartment, aren't you?"

"No. I haven't even done anything, not since that last time with you."

"I know that. You should hear Denise complaining. That was very sweet of you too, Larry. The only good part about our waiting to see. It made me feel like I was important to you, that you waited to see if I was okay or not first."

"I told you that I like you a lot. I'll see you in school tomorrow, we can talk more then."

When I got back to the living room, my mother asked me who that was on the telephone with me. My mother never asked me questions like that. Not since back when I was a little kid, at least.

"A girl from school. She wanted to tell me something that happened to her today."

"It sounded like that girl, the one who came over with her parents before, Karen?"

"It was just a girl from school, mom. You know that Karen and I aren't supposed to even talk to each other anymore."

"So, it wasn't Karen on the phone just now?"

"It was a girl named Denise. Jeez!"

My mother looked at me sharply. This was one of the main reasons I hated to have to lie to her. She would somehow always know that I was lying. She knew she couldn't prove that I was lying, but she knew that I had been. I left her standing there and went into my own bedroom. At least, Karen's period coming, had taken away my main worry, and that made me feel halfway normal again.

Now, my main worry was Kate. Twice this past week, she had talked my mother into letting her go right home after school, instead of going to the studio. Both times, she hadn't been at home when I got there. The second time, I'd stopped off at the studio to ask my mom something, and hadn't gotten home until after four o'clock. Kate got home after four thirty. She didn't say where she had been, and I didn't ask her. Both times, when she did get home, Clara wasn't with her. I hadn't seen much of Clara for the past couple of weeks. She had only come over a couple of times during that period, but had spent all of the time in Kate's bedroom, right up until it was time for her to leave. Once, she had stopped by my room to say hi to me, on her way out the door, but that was it for communication during this two week time. I had been pretty distracted about this thing with Karen, and hadn't really noticed Clara's absence from my life all that much.

On Friday, while we walked to school, Kate informed me that mom had told her she didn't have to come to the studio after school that day. This was another thing that Kate had started doing, letting me know when she was able to take advantage of our mom's trusting her. I didn't like it. There was no doubt in my mind that Kate was going to keep on pushing things, either until something bad happened to her, or until she got caught again. I tried to get her to think about that, but she didn't want to listen to me.

I talked with Karen at lunch time again. She brought up the apartment herself, saying that she didn't want to meet me there on Sunday. She said it was too soon after the big scare. I told her that I wouldn't take anyone else there. She smiled at me, and we talked about our regular school things after that. I got home at four fifteen, and found Kate crying in her room. I tried to get her to talk to me, but she refused, telling me to leave her alone. At five thirty, my mom got a phone call that immediately had her very upset. She went and talked to my father first, then she put her coat on, and left the house. She got home about seven thirty, got my father, and took him into their bedroom. All this time, nobody was cooking anything. I hadn't eaten, and Kate was still in her bedroom. She hadn't come out of it since I got home.

I knew, from my mom's face, that whatever had happened, it was very bad. At eight o'clock, my mom came out and went into Kate's room. I heard some loud yelling, followed by a loud slapping sound. There was more yelling, and I finally heard my mother yelling for my father to come help her. I ran to the bedroom just as my father got there, and my mother had Kate pinned underneath her on the floor, and Kate was screaming at her to let her up.

"Laurant, not now! Get away. This concerns only your sister for right now." My mother had a wild look about her when she said this to me. My father stood there next to her, saying something to her in Hungarian, then he reached down and grabbed both of Kate's hands. "Go, and shut this door, Laurant!" I closed Kate's door, and went into my own room. I was hoping to hear something, to get some idea about what had happened. Whatever it was, I knew it was bad. It had to be for Kate to wind up in a fight with my mother. All I could hear was Kate yelling to be let go, and my mother talking to her. She was trying to whisper, but she was so upset, it sounded like she was hissing her words. Once in awhile, my father said something in Hungarian. It sounded like he was trying to calm my mother down. I couldn't make any sense of anything I was hearing. Then I heard Kate yell something that I could understand.

"FUCK YOU, I WON"T!" After that, I heard a lot of sounds like people fighting, my father screaming, Kate crying, and my mother, sounding out of breath, screaming at Kate as someone was pummeling someone with their hands. I heard Kate's door open, and I looked and saw my father carrying my mother off to their bedroom. I went to look and Kate was lying on her bed, blood coming from her nose and crying as hard as she could. I went in to see her better. I was half in shock. I'd never seen my mother acting like this.

"What did you do, Kate?" She looked at me. Noticing that she was alone except for me, she got up and tried to run right past me. I grabbed her, and held her so that she couldn't leave. "What did you do?" I shouted it at her now. Kate went limp in my grasp, and just started crying even louder. My father came out of his bedroom, and saw me holding Kate.

"Go back to your room, Larry. Shut your door."

"What's happening? I have a right to know what's going on too!"

"Kate's being punished right now. Get out of here!" I left, letting Kate gently down on the floor as I did. I went over to my room and shut the door. As soon as I did, I heard my father hitting Kate with the folded over belt that he had in his hand after he came back out of his bedroom. He must have whacked her at least ten times with that belt. Each time, Kate would scream and yell something at him. The last five or six times, her swearing at him had turned into pleas for mercy. My father kept on hitting her. By the time he stopped, I was crying too. I heard him leave Kate's room, telling her that she better not even think about leaving her bedroom, not if she knew what was good for her.

My father had almost never hit either of us. Never at all, since I was about eight or nine. I had never been beaten like Kate had. It was almost impossible for me to imagine anything that Kate could have done that would cause him to be so angry. I went and opened my bedroom door, and walked over to Kate's. I opened it, and looked in. She was just laying on the floor, all curled up in a ball, crying and whimpering. I shut her door again, quietly, so that I didn't disturb anyone. I was afraid to go ask anyone about dinner. I went out to the kitchen and made two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and got myself a glass of milk.

I was sitting at the dinette eating, when my father came walking out. He was hungry too I guess, because he started rummaging around in the fridge. He found some left over roasted chicken which he brought over to the table. He got himself a glass of water and a knife and fork and a small plate. He sat down and started trimming meat off the carcass of the chicken. He didn't speak a word to me, and I didn't say anything either. He peeled the chicken off of the bones and carefully put the meat on his plate. When he got done, he went and got some mayonnaise out of the fridge. He scooped some of it onto his plate, and then took the mayonnaise back to the fridge. Next, he sprinkled salt and pepper on the meat and started dipping it in the mayonnaise and eating it.

"Your sister is going to make your mama and me crazy. I told your mama not to give in to her before, but she wouldn't listen to me. This is what comes of giving in."

"What?"

"Never mind what! Eat and go to bed! You have no room to talk, you with your harem of girls! Don't think we don't know what you've been up to. I don't want any more of it either. From now on, you come right home from school. No more trips to Agnes's on Sunday. I'll take the belt to you too. My whole family, including your mama, is making me ashamed of them."

I almost said something to him. There wasn't anything for me to say though that wouldn't cause him to just get more angry at Kate and I. I had to assume that my mother had just now told him about what went on over at Agnes's apartment on Sundays. I still didn't know what Kate had got caught doing. I could safely assume it had something to do with Keith, and with her coming home late, whenever my mother let her go straight home after school.

I finished my milk and sandwiches, and went off to my bedroom. I opened up Kate's door, and saw that she had gotten up and was laying in her bed. She still hadn't changed into sleep clothes though. I closed her door, and went into my own bedroom. I got undressed and went to bed. I thought I'd have difficulty with sleeping, but I fell asleep really quick.

Saturday, my father had me load up a bunch of his junk from the basement, and we put it in his car and took it all to the dump. We got back, and he surprised me by going down and having us get another carload to take to the dump. We made a third trip, and then a fourth, carting off all the stuff he had tied up in the side yard from before. In all, it took us about five hours before we had all of his stuff in the basement either gone, or arranged in some kind of good order. It looked almost empty now, compared to how it had looked before. Several times, while we were working, my mother had tried to approach my father, but each time, he had angrily waved her away from him. It was very obvious to all of us that he was really mad still. When we were done with the basement, and with taking stuff to the dump, my father got in his car, by himself, and drove off. He hadn't packed anything, so I never thought he was leaving us for good.

My mother was sitting in the living room, looking out the window, as my father drove away. She was crying. I went over and sat down next to her. She turned and gave me a hug.

"Your papa has never been so angry with me. I don't know what he'll do. He blames me now for everything. He says I am a bad mother. He threatens to divorce me if I don't quit the dance studio, come home to take care of all of this."

Divorce? They had some fights before, but nothing was ever said about any divorce. I couldn't believe that he was so mad that he'd do something as desperate and final as getting a divorce. He had never liked my mother working. She liked it though. She enjoyed making some money, and doing more than keeping house and raising children.

"He'll get over it. You'll see. He's just a little mad right now."

"When I watched him throwing away all of those 'projects' of his, Laurant, I knew he wasn't going to get over it. I even asked him not to throw them away. I knew what they represented to him. He is telling me he really means it by doing that. If he throws those away, he can also throw away sixteen years of marriage. He isn't going to get over anything."

"Then you have to do what he says. Agnes can run the studio. She can just cut back on her advanced classes and do the things that make some money."

"Agnes has no head for business. If it were up to her, no money would ever come in. She isn't practical. I don't know how she would live. Dance is all she knows, all she loves."

"Can't she go back to performing? Get a job here with a big company?"

"She didn't make a living in Hungary, Laurant. There, she knew everyone, they all knew her too, knew what she could and couldn't do. Plus, she is older now, and it has been seven years since she danced with a real dance company. No, she can't do that. There is also the question of the lease on the building. It has another seven years on it. It isn't so simple like your papa thinks."

"What did Kate do? Why are you and papa so mad at her?"

"Laurant, I'm not going to tell you that. Perhaps Katinka will tell you herself. Possibly she never will. You should know that it involves Clara too, Laurant. It wasn't just Katinka." I could see that my mother knew that she was telling me something that was going to affect my emotions. She was trying to prepare me for the shock of finding out. My heart started beating fast, and I sat there, feeling weak and afraid to ask her anything more about it. I didn't want to know right then. I wanted to get off somewhere by myself, and try to calm my worst fears down.

There was really only one thing it could be. Kate and Clara must have gotten caught screwing those two boys. Nothing else would have made my parents go so berserk the night before, in the bedroom with Kate. My mother had returned to looking out of the window again. I got up from the sofa, and went into my room to change out of the clothes I had worn while working with my dad. I decided to take a shower. A long shower. When you are fourteen, and you want to cry in private, a shower is the best place to do it. I didn't know for sure what had happened yet, but, from the little my mom had told me, it was bad and it involved Clara. My Clara. Before, when she had fooled around with those boys, I hadn't gotten too upset with her. I was fooling around too. I still was, kind of. I would have been anyway, except for the worries about Karen.

The difference was that I had asked Clara not to do it anymore, and she had promised me that she wouldn't. I'd already forgiven her and put that other incident behind us. I blamed Kate. She was always able to get Clara to do anything with her. She deserved to get beat with my dad's belt if she had dragged Clara into this mess with her. I wasn't going to feel sorry for her anymore. If my mom and dad really did get a divorce, I'd blame Kate for it for the rest of our lives. I turned off the shower, my sadness replaced by my anger at Kate. I dried off, and went into my room to change. When I came out of my bedroom, Kate was sitting on the sofa with my mom. They were both hugging each other. I wanted to scream at her, to tell her how her actions had cost all of us so much. I didn't though. I went to the closet and grabbed my coat. I didn't trust myself to be around Kate right then. For the first time in a long time, I wanted to hit her. I left my house instead.

I walked over to the park, but no one was there. It was too cold to play anything at the park, anyway. I looked in my wallet to see how much money I had. It was three dollars, I also had another dollar plus in change. I decided to go get something to eat at Frank's.

When I first walked in, there were only a couple kids from the high school there. By the time my burger and fries were ready, a bunch of the younger kids from the matinee at the movies started coming in. One of these kids was Trudie. As soon as she saw me, she left the young boy she had come in with, and hurried over to my booth.

"Is it true? About Kate and Clara?" She was all excited as she asked me the question. I decided to try to get some information out of her.

"Tell me what you heard, and I'll tell you if it's true or not."

"I heard that Kate and Clara got caught screwing four boys at school, in the boiler room, after school let out yesterday. The boys were all taking turns doing it to them. One of the boys, Freddie Traynor told some other kids that they all got suspended for two weeks. Is that true?"