Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner Page B

last time, the last time.”
    I was sure the teenage boy had been very bad and fought with his father, and Roy was going to have to straighten him out. Fighting with your father in this beastly way, right before Christmas, was going to ruin the holiday for everyone, and I looked at Roy to let into him. However, Roy put his hand on the boy’s arm and said, “He got drinkin’, inside too long, hadn’t renewed his medication, then he started up. You did what you had to do.” The teenager with the ducktail and slit eyes never looked up. Roy continued in a soothing voice. “There’s no phone so I’ll have to take your father into Forest Lawn. He’s lost some stuffing. They can probably sew him up there and knock him out for a week or two.”
    I blinked. Forest Lawn was the
loony
bin. No one went there unless they talked to themselves, or were like my friend Gretchen’s aunt who thought one of the Marx Brothers was swearing at her.
    â€œCathy, I’m going to stay here between the Bears and I want you to get four pills for Mad Bear and take them to him in the kitchen.” Elder Mad Bear provided no resistance when I plunked down the plastic jelly glass with Pluto on the side and told him totake his pills and drink up. Then Roy said very softly to me, “Mad Bear is dangerous, so I’m going to leave you here and come back for you after I drop him.” Leave me
here
? I was shocked. But I remembered that Roy said I had to be a big girl and it was time to forget the Davy Crockett games and do what I was told. I could tell he was counting on me. I nodded and he leaned down and I felt his Brillo-pad hair brush against my face as he whispered in my ear and squeezed my shoulder. “This is a time when a woman needs another woman.”
    I was bewildered by his remark on a number of levels. I had no idea I was a “woman,” and I had absolutely no idea what a woman did for another woman, or that females were somehow paired in the universe at certain mysterious times. Finally, I didn’t see any woman there other than myself, the new-found woman. Roy led Mad Bear out the door, and as it closed behind him, I looked into the bottomless eyes of the teenager holding the knife, who frankly looked far more dangerous to me than the elder. I then sat on the only kitchen chair, which was still warm from Mad Bear. We said nothing to each other and it seemed as though hours passed. The young Mad Bear never moved from the bedroom doorway, as though he was resigned to always standing guard. I began to hear muffled cries from the bedroom and searched the younger Mad Bear’s face for signs of recognition, but he remained impervious. The muffled cries turned into whimpers and then sobs. As I sat on the vinyl I began to itch from prickly heat. It was no wonder as I was still wearing my red plaid boiled wool coat with the velvet collar and my red beret. I wanted to punch some of the rags out of the windows to let in some cool air, but I was afraid to make any move at all for fear of setting him off.
    Finally I couldn’t stand it any more and decided to answer the smothered cries of pain that pulled at my heart. Besides I couldn’t sit any longer. However, to reach the bedroom I’d have to walk right under the arm of the young Mad Bear, who still held the knife. As I scurried beneath his arm in a scary game of London Bridge, I held my breath and closed my eyes and walked as fast as I could without looking alarmed. I kept repeating to myself what Roy had said about being a big girl.
    When I opened my eyes I saw rivulets of red blood that had coagulated while running along the cracks in the linoleum. The walls were smeared with dried brown blood and the bedsheet was saturated with purple blood which still splashed down on the floor. The room smelled of urine and terror. Crouched up on the bed was Mad Bear’s fat wife, lying on her back, and a boy about my age was