Page 10 of Melbourne
Disappearing like she had, had caused her grandma to worry.All she’d been doing was going out for formula and diapers for Danny when he’d been a baby and never returned.It had hurt her like she’d never been hurt to leave the two most important people in her life, but it was that or be killed.She was nearly caught unawares, like she had been that day.
Daniel had never cared for Danny, so that wasn’t an issue for her grandma.She knew that he was in good hands, and the man that she was staying with, Mr.Gross, had been pretending to take his picture so that he could show it to his dead wife when he went to the cemetery.When all along he’d been bringing the pictures to her so that she could see her son grow up.It had been five years since she saw him close up enough to touch him, and even longer than that since she’d been able to get a hug from him.
“I was just coming to tell your grandma that Daniel’s court hearing is in the morning.I should have told her sooner, but I kept getting waylaid.My mate found me.”She hugged him and told him congratulations on his happiness.“Yes, we’re only just now getting to know one another, so we have things to work out.But I also want to be there for you and your little family.Daniel is facing prison time for knocking over that mail box and then urinating on the mail that had fallen out of it.This was no accident that happened, but malicious tampering with the mail.”
“Mr.Gross has been keeping me updated on things going on around town.I’m so glad that I was able to stay with him when Daniel found me that last time.If not for him, I don’t even want to think about what might have happened to me.”Melbourne said he was happy that he was able to help, too.“Grandma is singing your praises about how you found me when I was hiding across the street from her.It afforded me to be able to see Danny once in a while when he was waiting for the bus or playing in her yard.”
“I’m happy that this will soon be over.”She was as well and said as much to the big man.All the Walsh men were big men, and she was glad for it.“I can pick you and your grandma up in the morning.My mom said she’d watch over Danny.There isn’t any reason for him to be in the courtroom to hear what he’s going to say.”
“None of it will be nice, I’m sure.”Rachel thanked him for the ride, and the two of them went into her grandma’s home.It was one of the nicest homes on the street, and she was ever so proud of her grandma for doing all that she had done to keep Danny safe and going to school.“Are you staying for dinner, Mr.Melbourne?”
“No, I have a date tonight.”He told Grandma about finding his mate, and she told him how happy she was for him as well.“We’re just getting to know one another right now.She and I have only been around each other for the last few days, and I’m already in love with her.”
“Of course you are.And she couldn’t be getting a better mate than you.”His cheeks pinked up when Grandma said that to him, and she had to hide her smile.For such a large man, he was embarrassed easily.
After giving them all the information on Daniel’s trial, he went home.The man was very nice for keeping them informed about the trial and such, and she couldn’t believe that it was nearly over with Daniel.Once he was in prison, she’d be free to move back into her grandma’s home and take over the care of her son.Her grandma was very sick, and the doctors hadn’t given her much longerto live, which was another reason she’d gone to Melbourne to find her.He had an uncanny ability to touch something or someone, and that would lead him right to them.It was how he’d found her when Grandma had asked.
After Melbourne left them, they settled into making dinner.Danny would be home from preschool soon, and she couldn’t wait to see him.She knew that Daniel’s mother lived next door to her grandma and was telling Daniel all kinds of things about her.Rachel found that she didn’t care about the old bitty and hoped that she would go to jail with her son.There had to be some kind of law that would have her put away for spying on people.She knew that there wasn’t, but she thought that there should be.It would be worth it to tell on her for a change.
Just as they were sitting down to dinner, the three of them, Mr.Gross came over to let them know that the trial was tomorrow too.She told him that Melbourne had already told them, and he was invited to have dinner with them.Rachel owed that man her life and that of her grandma, too, for all the things that he’d been doing for her.
“Do you know what you’re going to be doing once Daniel is in prison?I mean, you can still work from home as you’ve been doing, so that won’t be a problem.”She told her grandma that she was going to get to know her son a bit more for sure.“You’ve missed a lot of years.I just wish I’d have gone to that young man earlier to find you.Maybe things would have been different for the three of us.”
“I didn’t miss a lot of years of just Danny growing up, Grandma, but you being there for me too.You understand why I didn’t come home, don’t you?I mean, especially with Ms.Crow living right next door to you.There is no telling what might have happened if he had found me at the Gross house.He would have killed you, too.”
“Yes, he’s always been a bad person.Even as a child, he was never one that anyone could trust with any of their toys when the kids were out in the yard playing.Why I remember one time he took your dolly and ran over her with the lawn mower.His parents didn’t do anything but say that he was a boy.That’s why he’s so mean nowadays, they never blistered his ass when he needed it.”
“That’s for sure.He didn’t mess with my boys when they got old enough to shift.I think he was afraid of Opal, too.Here she was just a little bitty thing, and he was terrified of her.Should have been beaten more as a kid.You’re right about that.”Mr.Gross had four children, and Opal was his only girl.They were all shifter wolves like she and Danny were.“Yes, sir, he was terrified of my little girl, and I was never so happy to see him get his comeuppance as I was the day he thought that he could mess with her.I still laugh about how she tore into him and ripped his pants nearly off of him that day.”
Daniel had caught Opal alone in the yard while she was playing with her dolls.He’d come up behind her, startling the little girl enough that she shifted long before she was supposed to.Once she had done that, she’d chased him all the way to his house and around the yard a few times until he could get inside.His momma never said a word to Mr.Gross, either, even though Daniel had had to have several stitches to heal up.Daniel never set foot in their yard after that.
She helped her son with his alphabet before he was given his bath and readied for bed.It was calming for her to be able to do that, and she thought that it helped her grandma, too.She was sick, and it was beginning to show on her daily.It broke her heart that her grandma had been told she had cancer.Nasty disease that was, and she’d not wish it on anyone.Not even Daniel, for as much as she hated him.
Cleaning up the kitchen after Mr.Gross left, she sat down at the table and thought about her life so far.She was only twenty-six years old and felt on some days that she was older than her grandma.Feeling sorry for herself had never been anything that she did, but tonight was getting her down because of something that Danny had asked her.He asked her if she was going to leave him again.
“Not for all the money in the world will I leave you again.”He hugged her tightly after that, and she felt her eyes fill with tears.As soon as he was in bed, he asked for a pinky promise that she’d stay, and she gave it to him.“I love you, little man, and I will no matter what happens.”
Going to bed when her grandma did, she lay awake trying to decide if she should go tomorrow or not.She was afraid if she was honest with herself.Not just of Daniel getting off from his deeds, butthat he’d get away from the police and somehow hurt her badly.That nightmare had been haunting her since she’d woken up one morning five years ago in a hospital room far from her home and her son.
Getting up the next morning, she was ready to go when her grandma was.True to his word, a car was sent for her and her grandma, and they were at the courthouse in plenty of time to get a seat.They sat with all the Walsh family, and it made her feel better about everything with them there.They were dragons she knew and wished that one of them could gobble Daniel up, and they’d be done with him.But that wasn’t to be, she knew that and watched as the proceedings began in the trial.
“All rise.”She knew that she had to pay attention now so she’d not mess things up, but she missed the name of the judge who was presiding over things today.When Daniel was brought out, she almost didn’t recognize him.He’d gotten fat, and his hair was nearly all gone.If not for the judge saying his name, she was sure that she would have thought that there was someone else in the room with them.Grandma held her hand as they listened to the charges against Daniel.
He was being tried by a federal judge because he’d destroyed a few mailboxes.She’d thought it was just the one, but there were five of them.Melbourne had told her that each one of them was a two-hundred and fifty thousand dollar fine or up to three years in prison if found guilty, or both.Then there was the crime of urinating on the mail that had been in the mailboxes.She might well be away from him while he was in prison for a lot longer if things went the way that she hoped they did.
There were video cameras from homes that showed him destroying the mailboxes.Even video of him urinating on some of the mail, too.Once it was established that he’d committed the crime, there was the sentencing phase of today.He was asked if he had any questions or concerns before his sentencing.
“I didn’t know that that was a crime, your honor.”He told him that it was written right there on the mailboxes.“Well, I didn’t see it.Perhaps they should make it in bigger print so that everybody can see it.The next time I have myself a fit, I’ll be sure not to touch the mailboxes.Just fine me and that’s all you need to do.I’ve learned my lesson for that.”
“You think that you’ll be able to afford over a million dollars in fines, Mr.Crow?That’s the rate that it’s going to cost you.”He said he didn’t have that kind of money on him at the moment.“Are you being an ass in my courtroom, sir?I surely hope not.You either pay the fine or I’m going to put you in prison for the maximum number of years I can give you.Twenty years is a long time to think about what you did.”
“I’ve already been in jail for six months.”The attorney for the government said it had only been two and a half months.“Seems like a lot longer to me.Just give me something for good behavior, and we can call it a day.I don’t have that kind of money, and I doubt anyone does.”
“You should have thought of that before you messed with the mailboxes and the mail within them.”He said that he’d think on that real hard, but he’d already lost his job and needed to find his wife.“Your ex-wife, you mean.She divorced you nearly three years ago.”
“I’ve been looking for her since before that.She’s got my son, and while I don’t care about him, I do want to get her back to the house and take care of me.It’s not fair that she could divorce me when I couldn’t find hide nor hair of her.You find her and tell her she needs to pay those fines; it’s the least she can do for leaving me like she did.”He looked around the room and right over her.“She should be here since she is the one who caused me to have my temper flare up like it did.If she’d just have been home when I got there, then none of this would have happened to me.”
“It says here that you beat her daily, sometimes causing her to go to the hospital.Is that right?”He said a man had to keep his wife in line.“That’s against the law too, were you aware of that?”He waved him off like it wasn’t anything that he wanted to be concerned with.“I don’t know what that means.You’ll have to use your words when in my courtroom, young man.”
