Page 4 of Bastain

“You’re getting her food card, too? You didn’t tell me that.” She said that it had been coming with the check each month and that it was up to about thirty-five hundred dollars now. They just keep adding on the five hundred dollars she gets monthly, like she’s using the money.” Again, her aunt told her to hand it over to her, and she’d make short work of the balance. “Like the checks, it’s not made out to you. I can’t even cash them if that was going to be something I’d do.”

She would never do anything like that. It was why she was here at the offices each month, trying to get them to stop coming. Trin was afraid that someone was going to steal the checks and cash them—her aunt mostly she was afraid of—and have a good time with them. Mom was getting six grand a month in Social Security, and she had eight checks now. That was a great deal of money just lying around waiting for someone to steal it. Her aunt was going on about how she could use the money when the man came back into the offices.

“I have to go. I’m talking to someone about them now.” He sat down and glared. She supposed being on the phone was a no-no, but she’d been polite enough not to be on it when he’d been in the room. Hanging up on her aunt while she was still going on about the amount of money she could use, she smiled at the man. If he’d given her his name, she couldn’t remember it for the life of her.

“You’re not going to get checks anymore.” She asked him what she was to do with the checks she’d already gotten. “I don’t know about that. I wouldn’t say to cash them because we don’t have a way for them to be refunded from you, but that’s against the law.”

“I know that. And I’m not going to cash them. They don’t belong to me.” He said that was quite right. “Can’t you take them? Maybe put them into a shredder or something you have in this office?”

“Those are government forms. You can’t just shred them like they’re nothing. What a thing to say to me.” He looked as offended as she felt about him telling her to cash them. “I don’t want them either. As I said, we have no way of taking them back in this office. You’ll just have to hold onto them until such time as they are needed.”

She decided to put them in the bank safety deposit box and be done with them. And if any more came in, she was just going to put them in the same box and pray that someday they’d get their heads out of their asses and figure this out. She got his name and badge number so that she’d have some kind of record that she’d been to the office. Just like she’d done before and the time before that. She wasn’t going to be caught with these checks ten years from now and have someone tell her that she was stealing them.

On her way home from the bank, deciding to put them into their own box, she felt better. She was making some progress, even if it was only in her head. She told herself while she was at the bank that she was just going to take care that the checks were put in the deposit box and not bother with the office again but she knew that if she were to get any more, she’d be right there in the office again bothering them, because that’s the way they made her feel, with her getting the checks that belonged to her mother. She was just getting home when her aunt pulled into the driveway.

“Do you have those checks still?” She told her that she had shredded them. “Why would you do something like that? I told you to just cash them, then give the money to me. Why are you so stubborn all the time? No one is going to care, especially not the Social Security office, whether or not they’re cashed. I could have used that money.”

“It’s not ours to spend. Mom worked very hard for that money, and it should be going to her. But she’s not alive anymore, and I miss her every day.” Aunt Tilly just huffed at her and went back to her car. “You’re not coming in?”

“No. I don’t like you anymore. I don’t know that I ever did.” She wanted to say that the feeling was mutual, but didn’t. She didn’t like her aunt at all. And hated her on other days. “I’ll not be back here. If you’re stupid enough to just shred that kind of money, I have no use for you. If you get a check next month, I demand that you hold onto it until I get it. I need that money, and I’m not going to be broke simply because you have a burr up your ass about them not belonging to me. I worked hard for money, too, and you don’t see me bitching about it if I get a little extra. How about the food card? I suppose you did away with it as well.”

“I did.” She was suddenly afraid of her aunt. She’d always been bossy, but today she was pissed off enough to harm her. She was glad that she’d put the checks out of her house. It would be a fight if she had them on herself. “I told you that it didn’t belong to us. I don’t want to get into trouble if they suddenly decide that I shouldn’t have them. I don’t want to go to prison for you.”

“You’ll turn them over to me when you get any more, or you’ll regret it.” She backed away from her aunt, suddenly worried about what she might do. “You’d better be afraid, Trinity. I’m not shitting you when I tell you that I need that money.”

“It’s not yours.” She took a step toward her, and Trin lifted her chin. “I’m glad that they’ve been taken care of, and I hope that next month no more come in. I’m not going to hand them over to you like they belong to you.”

“You will or else.” Turning her back on her aunt to unlock her car door, her hands were shaking so badly that she could barely get the key in the slot. Once she got the door unlocked and opened, she turned to look at her aunt. She was nearly atop of her when she saw her again. “You’ll do as you’re told, or so help me, I’m going to hurt you badly. Those checks will belong to me, and I’m going to get them. See that you remember that the next time they come in.”

“I’m going to shred it too.” The punch to her face, not a mere smack, had her head turn at her neck. The pain was so bad that she put her hand to her cheek and felt the blood. “I’m calling the police.” The next punch had her hitting the ground. When she hit her head on the car, things blurred out for a few minutes. Just as she was going to stand up, she was kicked in the ribs several times before she curled herself into a ball and let it happen. Terrified beyond anything she’d ever felt before, Trin took the beating and vowed never to let her aunt get the better of her again.

Waking up in the hospital, she looked around the emergency room and found the police there. She wasn’t cuffed to the bed, which she was grateful for, but the woman in the room looked at her like she’d done something wrong. Asking her what happened, she said that someone had found her in the parking lot and had called an ambulance for her.

“My aunt beat me up.” She asked if she wanted to press charges. “I do. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but if it was enough to get me in here, then she should be in jail. She wants my mom’s Social Security checks.”

“That’s against the law. You should cash them for your mother, and that’s all that should be spending the money.” She explained that her mother was dead and that the office downtown won’t help her. “I’ve tried to work with the Social Security office before. They’re not very brilliant if you ask me.”

The doctor came into the room about then, and she was told they were going to admit her. She had four broken ribs and a concussion. She was surprised about the ribs, but not the concussion. Her aunt was going to pay for this.

When she was put into a room, the officer came with her. After taking her statement and telling her that they’d put out an arrest warrant for her, she told her where she lived and worked, too. She hoped they would arrest her at work but knew that, as late as it was, she would be more than likely be in bed.

After being settled in the bed, she began to take an inventory of her hurts. Christ, she hurt badly, and when asked if she wanted something for the pain, Trin couldn’t say yes fast enough. As soon as she was given the pain medication, she began to feel much better. Her aunt had done a number on her, and she didn’t even know why. Unless it was because she argued with her about the checks. Hoping that she never found out that she’d lied to her about the whereabouts of the checks, Trin closed her eyes and tried to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and she wanted it to be over with. Missing another day of work, she didn’t care. She’d been working at the same place for the last ten years, and she didn’t care if they fired her now. Her mother had left her well off when she’d left her the estate that she’d had, as well as the insurance she’d taken out on herself for her when she’d first found out that she was sick with cancer. She was going to miss her something terrible.

~*~

“Did you at least stick around to make sure that she wasn’t dying?” Bastain asked his brother if he’d been the one who called the ambulance. “I called the ambulance, but no, I didn’t stick around to see if she was dying. She looked like someone had taken a ball bat to her body, and she didn’t look all that good.”

“You should have stayed with her until the ambulance arrived. What if she didn’t know who she was?” He said that he didn’t know her either. “Well, I think you should have stuck around to make sure she was picked up. You never know what’s going to happen to people once the medics arrive. They could have just left her there.”

“They didn’t. I saw them putting her in the ambulance. I wasn’t close enough for anyone to notice me, but I didn’t want to stick around to have to answer questions. It looked like some woman had done it to her when I was coming out of the office.” Bastain asked him if he’d seen her being beaten up. “Yes. I yelled at her to stop, and she ran off. I thought rather than have her come back and finish the job, I’d keep an eye on the other woman and make sure that she was still breathing. By then, there were lots of others standing around, and I got out of there. I wonder what would make it so someone would beat someone like that?”

“I guess we’ll never know.” Bastain was sort of pissed off at his brother for leaving a woman down like that. While he could understand his reasoning, he didn’t want to be involved in a domestic call; he also knew that to leave her there alone was not right. He looked up at his mom when she entered the room. “Mom? What’s happened? You look upset.”

“I am upset. I know the child.” He started to point out that she’d been a grown woman from the description that Zavier had given, but didn’t. She looked upset enough. “You remember when I asked the six of you to go to the funeral home with me? Well, it was her daughter who had gotten beaten up. Doris’ daughter is a kind person. She took care of her mother for all these past years.”

“I remember. She was young for someone who just died, if I remember correctly.” Mom nodded but still looked upset. “Do the police know anything yet? I mean, do they know what happened to the girl?”

“Trinity. That’s her name. And no, the police didn’t know anything when I called there. She has some broken ribs and a concussion, too. Poor thing. She’s been dealing with her estate since her mother passed. I know that she’d been ready for her to go, but there are always things that crop up when you’re dealing with the passing of a loved one.” Zavier told her what he’d done. “You’ll have to go to the police station and file a report. If you saw the woman who was knocking the crap out of the girl, it’s the least you can do.”