Mitch looked down at me and stated, “They should know.”
“We need to discuss this elsewhere,” I informed him.
“No you don’t, Auntie Mara,” Billy put in and I looked at him. “Mitch’s right. We should know.”
My eyes moved to Billie and I opened my mouth to speak. Then I saw the tears that were threatening were now trailing down her cheeks so I closed my mouth but Mitch moved. He let me go, plucked Billy off the counter and attached the six year old girl to his hip with one arm like she was a toddler and weighed no more than a large doll.
Then he tucked her hair behind her ear and dipped his face close to hers before he said gently, “I know that makes you sad, gorgeous. It makes you sad because it is sad. But maybe your Daddy will take this time to sort himself out so, if he gets out, he can take better care of you because the bottom line is you deserve someone who’ll take good care of you.”
Billie looked into Mitch’s eyes and the tears kept falling.
At the same time, Billy muttered, “Yeah, like that’ll happen.”
I put my hand on my cousin’s knee to give a warning squeeze and Billie hiccupped as her tears flowed faster.
“Bud, I get you’re ticked and I get why and you’ve got a right to be ticked but you’re not helping,” Mitch said softly and Billy pressed his lips together. Mitch went back to Billie. “But right now, honey, you’re in a good place. You’re where you need to be with people who care about you and you can help Mara, me and your Daddy by telling us about the bad man that scared you last night.”
“What bad man that scared her last night?” Billy asked and I looked at him.
“Billie had a rough night, buddy,” I explained. “She woke up scared and she told Mitch and me she’s worried about a bad man hurting you, your Dad and her.”
“She should be, seein’ as we can’t go to your place because Dad’s a dick,” Billy returned stating, as usual with Billy, that he knew exactly what was going on.
I started to call Billy on his language and again Mitch got there before me.
“Bud, mouth,” he said on a gentle growl and Billy glared at him mutinously for a second before he looked down at the floor. Mitch then turned his attention back to Billie who now had her head resting on his shoulder and her fist pressed against her lips.
“You okay, baby?” I asked Billie.
“No,” she muttered against her fist.
Before I could say more, Billy spoke again. “How can we help you and Auntie Mara?”
Mitch lifted a hand to start stroking Billie’s hair but his eyes went to Billy.
“You know the bad man your sister’s talkin’ about?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Billy answered.
“You see him?” Mitch went on.
“Yeah, all the time,” Billy replied.
“Could you describe him?” Mitch asked.
Uh-oh. I wasn’t sure how I felt about where this was heading.
“Sure,” Billy responded.
“Pick him out in a picture?” Mitch continued.
Uh-oh!
“Yeah, you got one of him,” Billy stated.
“Good, then when I pick you up from school today, you both will come with me to the Station, talk to some of my friends, look at some pictures. You find him then we’ll know who’s scarin’ your sister and we might be able to do somethin’ about it.”
I stood there, my blood pressure accelerating and I didn’t know how to feel about this. Who was guardian to these kids anyway, Mitch or me? I didn’t like the honest way he went about telling them all of this. Though they had to be told, I would have liked to have a discussion about what we intended to do about it. What I didn’t like was Mitch charging in, giving the kids bad news, making Billie cry and then deciding the kids were going to the Station with him without conferring with me.