Come Home

The Inspection (ch 17)

Chapter Seventeen


The Inspection


         The day to meet with Dr. Thomas has come. He doesn't arrive in the red Jeep. He was not alone this time. When I walked toward the car, Mom runs out. She hands me a note. I quickly put in into my pocket before anyone could see me with it.


         “Matilda, this is Kevin.” He gestures to the man riding in the back seat. “He will join us in assessing whether or not John is mentally able to care for himself.”          


Dr. Thomas looks at the man. “This young lady is John's oldest child. She has volunteered to guide us to where John is living.” He smiles as though I should feel that I am doing a big benefit for my dad. I shake hands with Kevin, and climbed into the front seat. I could not help to feel that I was doing something that ultimately would be betraying the man that help to give birth to me. The ride was silent. Not one word was spoken by one one in the car.


         When we got to the top of the hill where I had parked, I warned them that the road would be something that was unlike nothing that they had tackled in an automobile. One rut rocked the Jeep so that I almost expected it to turn over on its top. Kevin really griped the wheel tightly so that he would not loose control. I had forgotten to fasten my seat belt until we met a curve with a enormous ditch running crookedly across it. Kevin grabbed my arm in time to stop my body from being thrown out of the rocking vehicle.


         “There!” I point to the roof that is barely visible above the growth.


         “Where?” Dr. Thomas asks.


         “See that bit of gray tin sticking above the brush? That is where Dad lives.”


         Kevin slowed until the car found a place to come to a stop. Dr. Thomas looks at me. “Thank you Matilda,” he says with a look of empathy for me.”You don't have to go in with us.”


         I was already beginning to step into the high grass. “You have to stay close, if you don't want to get lost in this stuff.” I instruct them.


         The two men was not at all ready for the little hike across what was once my front yard. From behind me, I heard the men stumble from the nettles that would catch their dress slacks. I am glad that I came for only one reason. These men would be lost for a life time. They would not know how to live a day here. If the ghosts had allowed them to be there the snake or wild life would take them out before the night turned to morning.


         We finally reach the door. I knock. Dad comes to the door. He was still dressed in the baggy old genes that he had on when I was here before. He had them tied with a little wire from a loaf of bread. “I knew you would come home.” He said. Then he looked beyond me to see that I did not come alone. “I don't want to see anyone else!” He shouts as he tries to slam the door.


         Kevin steps up and places his foot in the door. “Mr. Wright, My name is Kevin Pope, and my friend is Mr. Alan Thomas. We are here to just see how you are doing.”


         “Go away,” Dad says through the crack in the door created by Kevin's shoe in between the door and facing.


         “I am afraid that we can not do that. Some one called for us to check on you.”


         Dr. Thomas steps back as Dad opens the door wider. “Who?” He asks. “Was it Jude? It must have been Jude.” Dad is now excited. He felt that if Mom found out the way he had to live she would want to come home.


         Dr. Thomas, Kevin, and I walk into the living room. The house did not smell any better than it did before. Dad puts out his hand to Kevin. “Have a seat.”


         “We don't have long to stay.” Dr. Thomas proclaims. “We have to report how you are doing.”


         Dad takes the men from room to dusty room. “What is this?” Dr. Thomas asks.


         “It was the kitchen, but Jude was the only person to use it. I though that it would be easier to keep the house warm if I blocked the room off.”


         Something ran across the top of Kevin's feet. “What the....” He screams.


         “I have a few mice.” Dad replies. “They will not harm anyone. I sometimes feed them.”


         “Mice!” Kevin whispers to the doctor. “That was a rat as big as a Dotson.”


He turns on a large flash light so that he can watch out for anything that might be in the room. There were those bottles all around the walls. It was very apparent what the bottles were being used for.


         “John, could you excuse Kevin and me while we talk?” He asks Dad.


         I knew that something was being decided. I kept talking to Dad about the past until the two men come back into the room. “John, could you ride with us to guide us to the top of the hill?”


         “Sure!” Dad says. He was sure that my mother would be waiting for him there. This would give him the chance to coax her back into his life and their home. We all walk out of the house. Dad turns and locks the door. “Matilda, have you seen Blunder when you came in?”


         “No Dad, but I think he will be around.” I told him. I had not seen the dog when Dad had before.


         He was satisfied with me answer, and we climb into the Jeep. I wanted to sit with my father, but Dr. Thomas felt that it was not safe. He sat in the back seat with Dad. I tried to keep a conversation going with him to keep  him distracted from adding up the events. I did not want him to realize that Mom was not waiting for him.


         We reached the crest of the hill around four o'clock in the after noon. Arriving at the top, Dad began to become irate. “Where are you taking me?”


         “You are going to ride with us.” I looked at Dr. Thomas. I was not sure what else to say. I think quick. These gentlemen may not be able to lie to Dad, but I would stretch the truth if it means keeping the piece.


         “We are taking you somewhere you can eat a home cooked meal.” I am  not lying. Dr. Thomas would not leave Dad another day in that house because he was starving, dirty, and covered with bug bites. They would make sure that Dad got a nurturing supper.


         This calms him down. I am sure that the words home-cooked meal came across to him that I was taking him to eat with Mom. We arrive at the after hours clinic that Adult Care workers used in Emergencies.


         Dad begins to look frustrated. I can see his expression change into the one he gave me as he tried to rip me from my front seat. Things were not going to go down without a big bang! Literally.


My words are ways to leave peices of myself behind for my children.

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