I glanced at Bill and followed Billie.
After the first round I made the kids sit in the truck while I got the rest of their stuff. When I opened the door and walked in, Bill was ranting, flailing and struggling with the police officers. He did this while Mitch glared at him, his phone to his ear, his other hand to his hip. I scurried through the house to go and grab some more bags.
On trip three, the last of the trips, I heard Mitch say in his phone, “Give me a second.” Then he called, “Mara,” and I looked at him. “That it?” he asked, dipping his head to the bags I was carrying.
I nodded.
“Don’t come back,” he ordered. “Stay in the truck with the kids.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“You freakin’ bitch!” Bill shouted at me. I tried not to look at him but I had to look at him so I looked at him to see he was cuffed and sitting on his couch, bouncing clumsily around. His eyes were shooting daggers at me. “You freakin’ bitch!”
“Mara, out to the truck,” Mitch demanded.
“I can’t believe you’d do this to me!” Bill yelled. “My f**kin’ family. Flesh and blood! You bitch!”
“Out to the truck, Mara, now,” Mitch clipped.
“Fuck you, Mara!” Bill screamed at me. “Fuck you! You just bought yourself trouble, you bitch!”
I looked at Bill and explained, “Bill, they haven’t eaten all day.”
“I’ll f**k with you!” he shouted.
“Mara, out to the truck,” Mitch ordered but I ignored him.
“Somewhere inside you, you have to know they deserve better. You know how you’re making them feel. You know you don’t want to make them feel that way,” I said softly to my cousin.
“Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” Bill yelled loudly to me.
“They’ve been gone for hours. They came in, Bill, and you didn’t even look at them. Now you’re not even asking about them,” I pointed out and Bill scowled at me.
Mitch started toward me with a warning, “Mara.”
My head jerked to him then I looked to my cousin who was glaring at me, too far gone to let anything penetrate. Then I nodded and turned to the door.
And as I walked out the door, I heard Bill shriek, “You’ll regret this, you bitch! You’ll regret it! I swear to f**kin’ Christ you’ll f**kin’ regret this!”
I closed my eyes hard and walked swiftly to Mitch’s truck luckily making it there mostly blind.
Mitch came out before the officers led Bill out and we were away.
“Everyone okay?” Mitch asked into the silent cab when we’d made it to Speer Boulevard.
“Oh yeah,” Billy answered with a smile in his voice which made me feel slightly better.
“I’m okay,” Billie answered uncertainly which made that slightly better fade away.
I stared out the side window. I was terrified out of my head for a lot of reasons and wondering what on earth I was going to do next.
“Mara?” Mitch called.
I kept staring out the side window, focused on my terror.
Mitch’s fingers curled around my knee and squeezed. “Sweetheart?”
“I’m okay,” I lied to the window.