Chapter 31

It was the last day of June, three days after Camelia's seventh birthday. It started out like any normal day, or at least as normal as any day had been of late.

Bryan was pulling weeds in a garden bed and watching out of the corner of his eye as the boys moved the portable cages which held the rabbits and chickens. This was a three time a day routine which needed done on a rigid schedule. Placed on the bare ground the chickens shredded the turf, picked through any stray manure left over from the passing of grazing cattle or sheep, and turned any insect unlucky or stupid enough to happen to be nearby into a lightning quick snack.

Bryan noted with satisfaction that the David and Jake had worked out a system and that the process was going much quicker than it had in the past. Alex was in the corner of the little plot, pulling a rabbit cage alone.

The rabbits were typically employed in areas that could be shaded to keep from overheating. As such they typically grazed a path on the north side of walls and hedges. Alex was big enough that he by himself was more than enough to move the cages while the younger boys found they needed cooperation to get the task at hand completed. Alex was also very systematic in checking on the well being of the bunnies themselves. He quickly counted them, inspected each one as best he could, and slowly slid the cage forward, so as to not pinch any paws or otherwise injure any of them.

The center of each eight foot by four foot cage had no bottom. The bunnies would congregate in the center and munch on anything green that they found edible. If they were moved on a regular schedule, they would go on about their business and no further care was needed. If they were left to their own devices too long, the boys would be out collecting them before some stray hawk decided they looked too appetizing.

Bryan turned his eyes back to the task at hand and was nearly finished when the radio squawked on his hip. "Bryan?" The voice was Jack's.

"Go ahead," Bryan said.

"There's a woman at the front gate that says she knows you," he replied. "And Silver," he added.

"What's her name?" Bryan asked, wondering who had come looking for him.

"Meredith," came the reply.

"Damn," Bryan groaned.

David looked up from what he was doing at Bryan's expletive, his brow wrinkled. "What's wrong Dad?" he asked, his face clouded with concern.

"Nothing Buddy," Bryan answered, hoping he was wrong. He stepped out of earshot of the boys before continuing the conversation. There were two women named Meredith that he knew. One of them was the mother of his children.

Bryan had met her on a blind date. Even then she had been obnoxious. Yet somehow, despite Bryan's attempts to shake her, the woman had somehow weaseled herself into Bryan's life in such a manner that he had found himself standing at the altar putting a ring on her left hand.

From that point forward, obnoxious would have been a nice reprieve. Though she had never been diagnosed, Bryan believed that she suffered from some sort of mental or psychological issue. She tended to try and drag people down below her, a common trait associated with inferiority complex. She always seemed to want to be the center of attention and when she didn't get it, she would create some dramatic scenario to draw the attention back. She was also abusive in the emotional sense, her treatment eventually driving him to depression and even thoughts of suicide.

She herself was deeply depressed all throughout their seven year marriage together. The two fought savagely, though because of her oppressive demeanor she always tended to have the upper hand. And even if Bryan somehow managed to win the upper hand in an argument she would do what most bullies did: she would play the victim.

After three children and years of having himself beaten down, Silver reappeared into his life and he finally found something that made him happy enough to escape the torment. But she hadn't let go so easily.

Bryan clearly loved his children. So Meredith did the first instinctive thing that she could think of. She ran to her parents taking the kids with her, and filed a restraining order on Bryan.

Bryan was unable to communicate with his children for seven weeks. Amy, who was only five months old at the start of the order, didn't even recognize Bryan by the time he was finally able to get the order lifted and see his children.

And so began the heavy hearted weekends when he would drive for hours to pick the kids up and then turn around at the end of it and drive for hours to take them back. All the while the kids would look at him warily and whisper to each other about Silver, who Meredith saw as a home-wrecker. This pattern continued for several months until their divorce was final, after which she finally agreed to meet halfway.

Bryan watched as the kids appeared more ratty and ill kempt for nearly a year. Suddenly she seemed to have turned into supermom. The kids looked well fed. The van she drove was clean in and out. The kids came with their hair combed and faces washed. It almost seemed as if she were a whole new woman.

The reason came a few weeks later when Camelia accidentally dropped that her mom's boyfriend was named Larry.

Bryan scoffed as he walked, thinking back. Larry had never seen her coming. She had acted and put on a public face that she was the perfect little housewife and that Bryan had been an abusive jerk that Silver had stolen away and saved her from further abuse. She had kept that line up until there was a ring on her finger again, and then reverted to her old slovenly self. Laundry and dishes piled up. The kids began looking ratty and unfed. That was the story that Larry had told Bryan when he had come to him for divorce advice.

So when Meredith realized that her number was up, she had tried to fake committing suicide. As obvious of a cry for help as it had been, it had landed her in the state mental hospital for a ninety-six hour hold. By the time she got out Bryan had the kids and had a restraining order for her to stay away from them due to abuse and neglect.

With Larry and Bryan hitting her simultaneously with a legal battle, she was unable to keep up her legal fees and eventually just folded, unable to fight any further. She had lived with her parents for the last year and a half while Bryan had deprogrammed the children from all of the abuses that had been handed down by their mother. She was allowed supervised visits of the kids, but simply didn't seem all that interested most of the time. Bryan in a way felt sorry for her, but knew that her parents didn't "believe" in mental illness and that there was likely no salvation in sight for her any time soon.

However, if she appeared on Bryan's doorstep, he had a major dilemma.

His humanity said take her in. His anger and experience told him that to do so would be bad, possibly life threatening.