If only he had meant the part about his back breaking literally, Moni thought. Recalling that his griping usually preceded a severe beating, she sheltered Mariella behind her.
“With all the money I’ve given you for rent, I’ve repaid my debt to you ten times over,” Moni said.
“By doing what? Pretending to be a cop as an excuse for babysitting? That’s not real work. I work in the auto shop, but they keep me in the back like a damn cockroach. They don’t want anybody recognizing me from my mug shot. I wouldn’t have to deal with that shit if your fucking friend didn’t go squealing on me. She shoulda taken it like a trooper.”
After her father had abused her best friend, she didn’t talk to Moni again. Her friends abandoned her because she lived with a monster. Even when they locked him up, her friend blamed Moni for not warning her and keeping her away from her father. Moni knew her friend had been right.
She wouldn’t let him make Mariella the next casualty. Moni had so many vicious barbs inside her she yearned to launch at her father. They fell flat inside her mouth when he locked eyes with her. “You’re not welcome in my home. Please leave,” was all she mustered. Mariella reached out from behind her and squeezed Moni’s hand.
“You’re asking me to leave? You’re asking me? ” He shouted in her face and pointed his thumb at his rock solid chest. Moni flinched and stumbled backwards. “I should be telling you to leave. If it weren’t for you, my landlord wouldn’t be threatening to put an eviction notice on my door.”
“But I paid your rent for this month.”
“Yeah well, the money ran out before I could pay it. And it’s your fault, ya hear. Three nights a week I used to fish underneath the bridge and catch enough for dinner. Then the murders started and they taped off the walkway. They say the fish in there are poisonous. And I’ll be damned if it isn’t ‘cause of your case. The same guy in the lagoon who wants that girl of yours doesn’t want me to eat. He’s starving me until you give her back.”
“That’s completely ridiculous. Why would he starve you and not me?”
Ignoring her logic, her father threw his hands up. “He’s gonna starve everybody. And then he’ll do worse to you. You get it yet? Just give him what he wants.”
He nodded toward the little girl hiding behind Moni. Some grandfather he made.
“That won’t happen. Mariella is staying here with me.”
“Well, if I can’t eat by the river, then you’re gonna pay me for my troubles, but first you’re gonna feed me. What you got to eat?”
Moni’s heart dropped like a stone inside her chest when she saw that her father wouldn’t take her money and leave. He had set his mind on staying for dinner, and maybe longer. She could never stop him from getting what he wanted. She felt so embarrassed that she looked helpless in front of Mariella. The girl squeezed her hand tightly, as if she thought it would strengthen Moni and transform her into the hero the young one deserved.
Her father shoved his way past her into the kitchen. Along the way he nearly knocked Mariella into the wall.
“Watch where you’re going!” Moni yelled as she knelt down and cradled the trembling girl against her chest. “This is a fragile child.”
“Oh don’t worry,” he said coldly as he towered over the two of them. “I know how to handle fragile children. You remember, don’t you darlin’?”
Unable to bare the trauma of seeing his face, Moni shut her eyes. She felt herself in the darkness of her closet. She could hear his heavy breathing. It made the thin door vibrate. Sometimes she grabbed the handle and tugged with all her might. She could never prevent him from opening it.
The doorbell rang. Moni’s eyes shot open. She had totally forgotten about Aaron. He had stood up to Darren despite having a gun in his face, so he shouldn’t be afraid of her father.
“Now’s not a good time for company,” her father said. “Tell the dipstick to take a hike.”
With a nod, Moni led Mariella on a jittery gait toward the door. When she got away from her father’s reach, she swung it all the way open so Aaron got a clear view of the unwanted guest.
“Whoa. Looks like you ladies have the munchies,” Aaron said as he balanced a couple of pizza boxes in his arms. She noticed a fresh tomato sauce stain on his shirt-evidence that he had stolen a piece on the way over. “Hey, is that your…”
“He’s my father,” Moni cut in. She made sure Aaron saw her shoot her old man a wary glare.
“Hey, man,” Aaron called to him. “I hope you like hot pepperoni. But who doesn’t right?”
Marching toward the young man with a bull rider’s swagger, Bo Williams had lost his appetite for food. He looked ready to sink his teeth into something else.
“She’s not taking company right now, so git.” He pointed a greasy fingernail toward the road.
Aaron didn’t budge. “But, dude, she invited me.”
“I’m not gonna warn you twice, boy.” He made a fist armored with two fat and bumpy gold rings. They could easily cave in a nose.
Aaron looked right past him to Moni. “Hey, I live with my parents and they aren’t this harsh. What gives? Is he sauced up?” He made a drinking motion and gulping sounds. Like so many young men, Aaron didn’t think a man more than twice his age could hurt him. If he had a sense of the violence Bo Williams could unleash, he didn’t show it.
Her father directed his disapproving frown on Moni. “So this is the kind of loser you’re dating. You deserve his dumb ass, I’ll tell you that much.” Then he turned on Aaron with double the fury as his face swelled like a microwaved tomato. “You wanna see some sauce? When I was in the joint, I learned how to cut open a man’s throat by digging a key into his neck. I got a whole keychain full in my pocket.”
“Jail, huh? That’s pretty hardcore.” Aaron said without sounding startled in the least. Her father gnashed his teeth and reached into his pocket.
“Okay, that’s enough getting acquainted for one day.” Moni interjected before Aaron earned a fist through his head. “Now dad, I’ll give you that little loan and then you can be on your way.”
Her father shook his head. “You want me to leave ‘cause that punk’s here? Don’t bet on it.”
“What?” The moment he caught on to the extortion, Aaron set the pizza boxes down and fronted up on Bo Williams with his arms wide and his chest pumped up. It would have looked intimidating if Aaron had more than chicken scratch for muscles. “You’re hitting your daughter up for cash? That’s low, man. You’re gonna leave here as penniless as you came.”
“You got plenty of yap, don’t cha little doggie?” Bo Williams got nose-to-nose with him. Moni tugged at Aaron’s arm, but he didn’t back away. “If you stick your nose in my family, yer gonna get it bit off.” He flashed a grin of yellow-stained teeth with a few gaps in them. No doubt he had knocked out more teeth than he had lost.
Darren had kept her father at bay since his release from prison and her street-tough ex could probably tackle a bull. Aaron fought walls of water and flopping fish-not exactly good practice for an ex-con with a reputation for fighting dirty. He got the family kicked out of Disney World on Moni’s first time there because he got into a fight with another dad in line. He had gouged the man’s eyes bloody. The experience had freaked the victim out so much that he didn’t fly back to Florida for the court appearance, so her father walked free.
Aaron showed no signs of skirting this fight. Moni wondered whether he had fallen head over heels for her in a little less than a week or whether Aaron had a delusional macho complex that wouldn’t let him pass up any challenge. Either way, she held Mariella tight while she shuffled away from her father.