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"Tommy please, give me my children. Give me my babies. Don't do this, let me take them! Please. I'll go, I promise, just let me get them first. Please!" The woman begging, flailed at her husband dragging her by the arm out the door. But her husband was drunk, and snarling about no good, cheating wives;
There would not be any reasoning with him tonight.
*****
If she could only learn to read Tommy's cues and watch her flippant mouth, fights like this wouldn't happen. "Then again." chuffed Karin, unable to lie to herself. Innately she understood that nothing would change, not until he killed her- or killed himself.
Escape becoming tantamount, before acceptance of the daily, drunken arguments, and subsequent beatings, settled deep in her bones; Or the frequent make up-rapes masquerading as love, drove her into a numb existence.
She needs to slough away the taint of her husband's inebriated touch, and shake his constant belittling from her brain. She didn't want her children raised in this atmosphere, or worse, learning this is 'normal' behavior. She dreams of them growing with love and laughter. That picture of love was what gave her the courage to try changing their lives.
Karin called her mother a few days ago asking if she could come back to New York with the babies. It was the first time they spoke in close to three years. Between many tears, and fits and starts, Karin told her mother everything. She and the children were taking the train to her parent's tomorrow. Her father would be at the station to pick them up.
Except Tommy found her train tickets.
*****
Distressed wails from down the hall gave her the impetus to fight like a wildcat, all tooth and nail; But her husband's iron grip would not come loose. Reaching the doorway, Tommy ruthlessly threw her onto the porch. She landed hard, scraping her hands and knees. Well placed kicks to her ribs and kidneys lifted her, sending intense pain radiating along her side as she tried to crawl away. Another brutal swipe to her temple brought the darkness.
******
"Mrs. Gehl, Mrs. Gehl? Can you you hear me? You're in Plainsfield Hospital. Is there someone we can contact for you? Family, friend? Anyone?" Came a gently insistent voice. "N..no." Whispered Karin, the effort telescoping her world into the black once again.
Climbing back to the surface, the pain receded enough to restore her to the realm of the living. Lucidity returning with each painful breath, it took much of her strength to open her eyes. She tried moving her head to better see her surroundings and the searing pain almost knocked her under once more. "Won't be trying that for a while." She thought wryly.
However,the smell of disinfectant, underlined with the sickly odor of decay, and hearing the pings and pops of machinery, plus other sounds of the sick or injured, informed Karin she was in hospital.
"How long have I been here?" She wondered, floating back under, until an intrusive thought brought her back to awareness with a sob.
"Does Tommy still have the kids? Please God, no."
*****
Three weeks, the doctors told Karin she'd been in a coma. Three weeks for the babies to be alone with their dangerous father. It took her another six months to relearn how to talk and walk. She'd lost eyesight in her left eye, and gained a metal plate where the surgeons repaired her skull from the fracture.
Her parents waited until the week before her discharge to tell her the desperate news of her children. How Tommy was suing her for divorce, and full custody of the babies, granting Karin no visitation. The grounds...adultery.
Tommy's workboots had come within inches of killing her, but they didn't. So he did the one thing that would kill her all the same.
He stole her children.
** This is a fictionalized version of what happened with my parents. My mother supposedly left when I was eighteen mos. and my brother was five months. I mentioned my mother's abandonment of us to my father during our reconciliation (Another story for another day), when I moved back in with him while I was going to dental school.
I remember him gathering his thoughts, and he calmly turned to me and stated. "I never said your mother didn't want you. I hid the two of you from her. Someday I'll tell you the whole sorry story. Believe me, Mouse, Peyton Place had nothing on us."
Unfortunately, my Pop died two weeks after my 21st. birthday. He never did tell me the full story.
Ironically, My mother was 21 when whatever happened went down. I only have her signature on a birth certificate, and a treasured babybook given to me on my 21st birthday to remember her by.
My hubs and I are too poor (We live in NJ, on my hubs $1700.oo monthly disability) and too ill to try to find her now. She would be between 74-76yrs old now. And yes, I still think about her.
There would not be any reasoning with him tonight.
*****
If she could only learn to read Tommy's cues and watch her flippant mouth, fights like this wouldn't happen. "Then again." chuffed Karin, unable to lie to herself. Innately she understood that nothing would change, not until he killed her- or killed himself.
Escape becoming tantamount, before acceptance of the daily, drunken arguments, and subsequent beatings, settled deep in her bones; Or the frequent make up-rapes masquerading as love, drove her into a numb existence.
She needs to slough away the taint of her husband's inebriated touch, and shake his constant belittling from her brain. She didn't want her children raised in this atmosphere, or worse, learning this is 'normal' behavior. She dreams of them growing with love and laughter. That picture of love was what gave her the courage to try changing their lives.
Karin called her mother a few days ago asking if she could come back to New York with the babies. It was the first time they spoke in close to three years. Between many tears, and fits and starts, Karin told her mother everything. She and the children were taking the train to her parent's tomorrow. Her father would be at the station to pick them up.
Except Tommy found her train tickets.
*****
Distressed wails from down the hall gave her the impetus to fight like a wildcat, all tooth and nail; But her husband's iron grip would not come loose. Reaching the doorway, Tommy ruthlessly threw her onto the porch. She landed hard, scraping her hands and knees. Well placed kicks to her ribs and kidneys lifted her, sending intense pain radiating along her side as she tried to crawl away. Another brutal swipe to her temple brought the darkness.
******
"Mrs. Gehl, Mrs. Gehl? Can you you hear me? You're in Plainsfield Hospital. Is there someone we can contact for you? Family, friend? Anyone?" Came a gently insistent voice. "N..no." Whispered Karin, the effort telescoping her world into the black once again.
Climbing back to the surface, the pain receded enough to restore her to the realm of the living. Lucidity returning with each painful breath, it took much of her strength to open her eyes. She tried moving her head to better see her surroundings and the searing pain almost knocked her under once more. "Won't be trying that for a while." She thought wryly.
However,the smell of disinfectant, underlined with the sickly odor of decay, and hearing the pings and pops of machinery, plus other sounds of the sick or injured, informed Karin she was in hospital.
"How long have I been here?" She wondered, floating back under, until an intrusive thought brought her back to awareness with a sob.
"Does Tommy still have the kids? Please God, no."
*****
Three weeks, the doctors told Karin she'd been in a coma. Three weeks for the babies to be alone with their dangerous father. It took her another six months to relearn how to talk and walk. She'd lost eyesight in her left eye, and gained a metal plate where the surgeons repaired her skull from the fracture.
Her parents waited until the week before her discharge to tell her the desperate news of her children. How Tommy was suing her for divorce, and full custody of the babies, granting Karin no visitation. The grounds...adultery.
Tommy's workboots had come within inches of killing her, but they didn't. So he did the one thing that would kill her all the same.
He stole her children.
** This is a fictionalized version of what happened with my parents. My mother supposedly left when I was eighteen mos. and my brother was five months. I mentioned my mother's abandonment of us to my father during our reconciliation (Another story for another day), when I moved back in with him while I was going to dental school.
I remember him gathering his thoughts, and he calmly turned to me and stated. "I never said your mother didn't want you. I hid the two of you from her. Someday I'll tell you the whole sorry story. Believe me, Mouse, Peyton Place had nothing on us."
Unfortunately, my Pop died two weeks after my 21st. birthday. He never did tell me the full story.
Ironically, My mother was 21 when whatever happened went down. I only have her signature on a birth certificate, and a treasured babybook given to me on my 21st birthday to remember her by.
My hubs and I are too poor (We live in NJ, on my hubs $1700.oo monthly disability) and too ill to try to find her now. She would be between 74-76yrs old now. And yes, I still think about her.
