The House

By Dawn Natelle

This is a shorter chapter, but I hope to post another tomorrow, and then take the weekend off again: Dawn.

Chapter 15 – The accident

Darryl and Grey worked for several hours making their feast. It was to be a two parter: first a lunch, and then a dinner. Daisy supervised, since no one else was in the house and Rabbit insisted on being in the kitchen with the boys.

Grey got the frozen mutton he had bought in the store yesterday, and lined it up on the counter. “That’s a lot of lamb chops,” Daisy noted.

“We will have lot to dinner. I am inviting Dan and his mom, Lois. I’d invite Cindy too, but she is working till 10 today,” Grey said.

“Well I am looking forward to Lamb chops,” Daisy said. “I can’t remember the last time I had those.”

“Yeah. Lately it’s been venison, beef or ham. I thought we were due for a change. Plus it will give Dary a nice first attempt at making dinner.”

“Is it mutton for lunch too?” Daisy asked.

“No, we have some ham left over from the other night. Dary is going to chop it up small while I make some scalloped potatoes. Lunch will be a casserole. We will serve it a little late, so Willow can join in on her lunch break.”

They ate at 12:35, with Dary proudly telling his mother that ‘he’ made lunch. Willow had to rush back to work, but Sun sat and visited with Daisy until it was time for her nap. They boys cleared the table and did the dishes, and then started working on Part 2 of the feast. This required baked potatoes to go with the pork chops, along with carrots that Dary carefully peeled.

“It looks like Grey has two following his every move,” Sun said as she watched Dary constantly looking to Grey for affirmation that he was doing well. Rabbit was the second one constantly watching Grey.

“A little bit of hero worship,” Daisy said.

“He really couldn’t choose a better hero,” Sun said of her brother. Shortly thereafter she took Daisy to her living room, so she could nap on her sofa. Sun went back to the mill, where she had been working on the saws.

At about 5 a car spun into the driveway and Grey went out on the porch to see who it was. A strange man was having trouble getting out of his car: a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner that had seen better days. The car had been painted a garish purple color, apparently with a paintbrush. The paint job probably took $1000 off the value of the vehicle, which even Grey could tell was running poorly.

Grey saw the reason the man was having trouble getting out of the car: he was wasted-drunk, and had to lean on the car to stand up.

«Flint, tell Dan to contact Cindy. There is a man at the house who is way over the limit for driving. If she parks outside of the house on the highway, she can pull him over when he leaves.»

“What can I do for you?” Grey then called down to the man.

“I’m lookin’ fer my wife and kid,” the man called out, and Grey knew this must be the famous Earl. “Send ‘em out. She ain’t been to work for a couple days now and I need the money. Had to sell my good car and buy this piece o’ crap.”

Just then Darryl came out to the porch, wearing one of Daisy’s frilly aprons to keep his clothes clean while cooking. “I turned the stove down,” he told Grey softly as he approached the sound of his ex-father’s voice.

Earl seemed to go ballistic when he saw Darryl in the apron. A man cooking was a sin to him, and wearing female clothing on top of that just made it worse. He broke into a swearing fit that was so bad he fell onto the laneway gravel.

“Whar’s yer mother, boy?” Earl called out. Darryl moved next to Grey, and stood close, and Grey put an arm on his shoulder. “Git away from that dirty Injun,” Earl yelled. “You doan know whar he’d bin.”

“I’ve been in a better place than you,” Grey called out, and Earl took that as a challenge to fight, even though he couldn’t even stand unassisted. Grey knew he could handle the drunk, without the assistance of Flint or Sun.

“His mother is working, and won’t be done for several hours,” Grey said. “You will be long gone by then.” He was about to head down and bundle the man into his car when he saw Sun coming out from the mill. Her eyes were on the old car more than the man.

«Cindy is about a mile away,» Flint said.

“Put him in his car,” Grey told Sun. Then he turned to the man. “Earl, you are drunk. I don’t advise you drive anywhere in that condition.”

“Wha cundish’in?” he slurred. Then Sun approached and picked him up. Physically: holding him a foot off the ground with one arm. The other arm opened the car door and she tossed the man in, so he was sprawled across the front seats. It took him nearly two minutes before he could worm his way into the driver seat, as Sun walked around the car, studying and admiring it.

Earl finally spun out of the lane, sending gravel flying, but not hitting Sun, who was off to the side. She climbed the steps, and told Grey: “I want that car.”

Earl hit the highway at about 50 kph and quickly accelerated to 100. He didn’t even notice the police cruiser on his tail until he had passed Actinolite and was on the way to Madoc, even though all the cruiser’s lights and sirens were wailing.

Cindy was in the cruiser, and was five car lengths behind when Earl decided wrong and started to speed up. He could barely control the car at 100, but when he got to 160 he was all over the road. Cindy let him have room, falling back to a mile behind noting that he was now up to near 180. She was close enough that approaching cars would see the lights and siren and pull off to the side of the road. Even there they were not safe, and Earl swung wildly from side to side on the two-lane road. But at least the lights and siren prevented a terrible head-on collision. Twice drivers in oncoming vehicles had to speed ahead a bit to avoid being hit.

Nearing Madoc Cindy saw with horror that a van had pulled to the side of the road, and Earl was heading directly at it, as though intending to commit murder-suicide on the approaching car. The driver saw him coming, and wisely put his car in reverse, and drove back as fast as he could. Earl hit the shoulder, and his wheel dug in, pulling the car into the ditch and then it flipped twice before wrapping around a big old maple tree on the far side of the ditch.

Cindy pulled across onto the far shoulder, nearest the tree, and a glance told her Earl had not survived the wreck. She scrambled across the ditch, and saw that there was no way for her to extract the body. She went to her cruiser and radioed for backup, a Jaws of Life team, and the nearest EMT ambulance.

She then went to the van. There were a man and woman in the front seat with a baby seat between them. The woman was holding the crying baby in her arms. In the back there were three girls and a boy, all with ashen faces after their ordeal. They were all under 12.

“Thank you officer,” the man said. “If I hadn’t seen your lights I wouldn’t have pulled over, and we would have hit head on. I saw his eyes. He wanted to crash into us.”

“Did he make it?” the woman asked.

“I can’t say officially,” Cindy said, “but I don’t think so. Help is on the way. Is anyone here hurt?”

“The baby was startled by it all,” the man said. “But thank God we are all okay. I keep seeing his eyes looking at me as he came at us.”

Cindy got information and details from the family, which was actually a single father, his kids, and his girlfriend, headed off to Perth, their original destination. Apparently the man had been taking his girlfriend to meet his parents for the first time.

They left as a crew from the Madoc Volunteer Fire Department arrived, carrying their Jaws of Life. They set up, but had to wait for the ambulance, since the EMTs would direct their work. A doctor arrived when they were halfway through cutting the car apart, and he pronounced the victim dead, then left. Cindy stayed to watch the badly mangled body be placed on a stretcher, and then covered. She fought the urge to turn and vomit into the ditch.

Just then the backup cruiser arrived. In rural Ontario there are seldom more than one or two cars patrolling on a weekday afternoon, so this cruiser had to come from a half hour away. The officer took over from Cindy, who had to sit in her car to recover. Eventually she came out. The firefighters were finishing up. They had to cut the car nearly in half to extract the body, and then finished the job later. They had to cut the vehicle into four pieces to release it from the tree. It was lying in pieces, waiting for a wrecker-truck with a crane to come to pick up the scrap and take it to the Madoc auto wreckers.

Cindy left the scene of the accident, and drove to the OPP detachment, just the other side of Madoc. Her sergeant was on duty, and the man recognized that his constable was a bit shaken by the accident.

“Take the rest of the shift off, and the next two days. I suspect the SIU may want to talk to you, but this shouldn’t require a special investigation. The morgue called, and they report the man’s alcohol level was 0.38.”

Cindy whistled. In Ontario the legal limit for driving is 0.08, so the man was more than four times over the legal limit. “Well, he was driving like it,” Cindy said. “He was swerving from lane to lane, and nearly collided with several drivers on the road. Luckily they were all paying attention and slowed or stopped when they saw my lights. Then he seemed to target the last driver, and ran straight for him. Bill, there were five kids in that car. He was going 180. The way he hit the tree, he would have killed all of them if they collided.”

“Take three days,” the sergeant said. “One will have to come from your vacation days, but you seem to need it.”

Cindy sat at a desk in the detachment for another 15 minutes, until she felt calm enough to drive. She phoned Dan’s house and got no answer. She really needed someone to hold her. On a chance, she phoned the house, and found that he was there. They spoke for a few minutes, and then she headed out.

“That was Cindy,” Dan said. “Apparently there was an accident, and Earl is dead.”

“Is the car okay?” Sun immediately asked.

“Sunflower Wolf!” Daisy said. “Show some respect. A man died.”

“Nobody here loved him,” a defiant Darryl said. His mother nodded, although not as stringently. “At least now he will never hit us again.”

“Cindy is coming by,” Dan said. “Can we stay here tonight?”

“Of course, son,” Daisy said. “That is why we have bedrooms set up for your Mom and you.”

“Cindy can have my room, and I’ll use the sofa,” Dan said. “She is pretty shook up, so if you can keep your questions to a minimum,” he looked at Sun, “it would be appreciated.”

“I really didn’t want to go home all that much anyway,” Lois said. “Since the Hitchings sold the other cottage and bought their condo in Belleville, it has been pretty lonely out there. The new people have been in a couple times, but I haven’t met them. They live in Kingston, I hear.”

“I suspect they will be out for the May 24 weekend coming up,” Dan said. “Most cottagers are out for that.”

“Well, I’ll be happier here, with Daisy,” Lois said. “Maybe we can make a dinner to match the one that Grey and Darryl made tonight.”

“I should put together a plate for Cindy,” Grey said. “Do you want to help, Dary?”

“Yes please,” the boy answered.

The plate was never used. Cindy came in soon after, and fell straight into Dan’s arms. He could feel her tremble as he led her to the sofa. They sat, arm in arm, and Cindy found that she drew strength from her new boyfriend. It helped that he had been in combat before, and just held her, without speaking.

After a few minutes, Cindy started to tell the others about the chase and accident. She felt she was drawing strength from Dan, and telling the story helped her wash it out of her mind.

“Why didn’t you smash him off the road, like they do on TV,” Darryl asked as she described the chase.

“That isn’t our way with the OPP,” she said calmly. “Some American forces will attempt to immobilize a fleeing car that way, but our rules are clear. We lay back a ways, and keep the siren and lights on to alert other drivers. Our primary goal is to end the chase without any loss of life.”

“His life doesn’t matter,” Darryl sneered. “I just wish it had happened sooner.”

“But then you wouldn’t have come to the house, where we all love you,” Grey said, pulling the boy onto his lap. “Manidoo has plans for all of us, and the abuse you had to take will be paid back by the love you get here.”

“I s’pose,” the boy said, as Cindy went back to her story.

“So you are a hero, then,” Willow said. “Your action saved that family’s lives.”

“I don’t feel like a hero,” she said. “But I do feel a lot better here with all of you around. It feels like family.”

“But the car was ruined,” Sun asked.

“It is in four different pieces now,” Cindy said.

“It could be used for parts,” she said hopefully.

“You are not making Daisy’s property into a wrecker’s yard,” Grey said firmly. “If you ever get another car like that, and need parts, you can go to the wrecker in Madoc and buy them there.” Sun just pouted.

He turned to Cindy. “Do you want to eat,” Grey asked.

“No, thanks. I just want to lie down for a bit. Is there a place?” she said.

“Yes, let’s go to my room,” Dan said, and led her there.

The rest of the group was up for two more hours, and Dan did not come out of the room.

The next morning Cindy was up and smiling as she helped Lois and Sun make breakfast for the entire family.

“What do you call a grown man who just holds and cuddles with a shaken-up young woman in bed?” Cindy asked Sun.

“A good man, I think,” Sun said.

“Well, he won’t get away with it again,” Cindy said. “And it won’t be long.”

“He is the right one then?” Sun asked.

“Definitely. It is like there is a whole piece of my life that was missing, and now I am complete.”

Lois came over to hug her. “Welcome to the family, dear. Ever since Dan met you I knew you would be a perfect fit for him. Even during those months when he refused to believe that he could be good enough for you.”

“You know, ever since I came by to arrest a house burglar, and found him washing dishes in that old man’s house, and generally cleaning up I was attracted to him. Then I found out how he was going out to help run errands for seniors, and running a club for young people. How can you not fall in love with a guy like that?”

She looked at Sun and chuckled. “Finally you had to slap him upside the head to get him to ask me out. I’ll thank you forever for that.”

Then men came into the kitchen. Hungry men. That ended the girl talk, but Cindy went over to Dan, sitting on his lap and eating off his plate. He didn’t object. It must be love, when you can take a man’s food and he doesn’t care.

(In Canada the metric system is used officially, although Imperial is used in some cases, like the staves. For our American readers, 50 kph is 30 mph; 100 kph is 60 mph, a bit over the legal highway speed limit (and what most people drive), and 180 kph is about 110 mph.)