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I closed the bag and took them both to the laundry room. “We will deal with those later.”
Harley was staring at the sink and holding his penis. “Harley, do you need to go pee-pee?”
He nodded, and I grabbed his hand. “Okay, then let me show you where the bathroom is.” I led him around the corner to the powder room. “Here you go. Can you go potty by yourself?”
He nodded and stepped in, immediately pulling his pants down, and I stepped off to the side so I wasn’t staring at him. After he finished, I told him he needed to wash his hands, and he stared at his hands, wiggling his fingers.
“Why? They aren’t dirty.”
“Hands are always dirty. Invisible germs get on your hands that can make you sick, and after you use the bathroom, you must wash them.”
His eyes were wide as he lifted them to me. “Is that why my mom got sick? Did my germs make her sick because I didn’t wash my hands?”
I squatted down. “Oh, no, honey. Your mom getting sick had nothing to do with you. She had cancer. You don’t get that from germs.”
“Oh, okay.” I brought him to the kitchen and pulled a chair over so he could stand on it to wash them.
“I used to pee in a bucket.”
I glanced at him as I helped him rinse his hands. “A bucket? You didn’t use a toilet?”
He shook his head. “No, we didn’t have a toilet. There was one down the hall, but we weren’t allowed to use it unless we were emptying the bucket.”
My jaw dropped, and then I snapped it shut. “Harley, are you saying you and your mom used a bucket to go potty all the time?”
He nodded.
“Did you go poopy in there too?”
He nodded again.
I wanted to vomit, and just then, there was a knock on the door. I helped him down, gave him a towel to dry his hands, and told him I would be right back. I opened the door, saw it was Mike, and let him in.
“Are you okay? You look pale as a ghost.”
“He’s in the kitchen. I just need a moment.” I spun and raced to my room, closing the door and putting my hands over my face. How can someone live like that? How can anyone raise a child in those circumstances? She had known where his father was. Why hadn’t she come to him for help? Had he told her early on to go away? Maybe he had told her he didn’t want anything to do with a child.
I sank to the edge of the bed as my stomach rolled, and there was a quiet knock on the door before it cracked open. “Candy, what’s wrong?”
He stepped in, and I wiped the tears off my cheek. “Mike, I need to know one thing, and you must be honest with me.”
“Okay, what’s going on?”
“Did you know that she was pregnant? Did you have any idea he existed?”
He stepped forward, taking me by the shoulders. “No! I had no clue that he existed. If I had, do you think I would have allowed him to grow up the way he was?”
“Oh, my God, Mike, we don’t know the half of it. There wasn’t even a kitchen or bathroom where they lived. It sounds like they lived in a single bedroom. Harley told me he used to go to the bathroom in a bucket, and they had to carry it down the hall to empty it.”
“What?” He stared back at me, completely blown away. “Tell me you just made that shit up?”
“No! He just told me after he went to the bathroom, and he was washing his hands.”
He ran a hand down his face. “This kid has been through hell.”
“Yes, he has, and those clothes he came with are not fit for a dog to wear. They are disgusting and smell horrible. I will go out and buy him some things after Carmen leaves.”
“We can go together. I need to figure out how to do this. I can’t rely on you to take care of him.”
