Poppies- Chapter 37-
By: Deena Thomson
Tags: Fiction Series, Fiction, Writing, Fiction Writing, Novel

Fiction Series

Poppies- Chapter 37-

Photo owned by Author

-Chapter 37-

“Are you going to tell Mom about Joanna?” Pauline asked Alan later that night as they stood outside their home in the dark. The entrance light shone down on them.

Alan rubbed the top of his thinning hair, contemplating his next move.

“If I am to be honest? It’s not going to be easy,” he replied to Pauline.

“No. I’m glad it’s you and not me.” Pauline her smile weak. She leaned over and kissed Alan’s tired face. He with affection he rubbed back.

“You go on to bed. I’ll deal with your mother.”

Pauline obeyed and went straight to her room. She shut the door leaving it open a crack so she could hear her parents in the next room. Sitting down with her legs folded beneath her, she pressed her ear to the door and held her breath.

Alan placed his hat on the rack and walked into the living room. Jobeth sat silent, listening to the radio, and reading a book.

“Hello, darling,” she said as he walked into the room. She placed her book aside as Alan leaned down to kiss her.

“Jobeth,” He looked serious. Jobeth was a stubborn woman, but it had always been one of the many things he loved about her.

“What is it, Alan? You look odd,” she said, starting to stand. Alan placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Is it one of the children? Are they all right?”

“Joanna is back,” he blurted out, finding no other way to say it.

He watched Jobeth’s face for any sign of emotion.

At first, her face seemed to lighten. The faint creases in her forehead slackened, then hardened again.

She sprang up.

“I don’t want that name mentioned in my house,” Jobeth hissed, looking around to see if Alan-Michael was near. He couldn’t hear the name of Joanna without a slew of vile words spewing from his mouth.

“Jobeth!” He expected her to have some negative reaction. Alan thought that deep in Jobeth’s heart she’d be glad to hear Joanna was back.

“Alan,” Jobeth glared, “I mean it.”

“She has two children, Jobeth. Our grandchildren.”

For a brief moment, Jobeth’s face softened, but then chilled. This caused the soft crow’s feet in the corners of her eyes to look harsh. The torment behind her hazel eyes was evident. She wanted to be happy, but the hurt and anger were still too strong to let go of.

Jobeth thought of Mara-Joy and the child she should have had with Chad. The child that had cost Mara-Joy the ability to ever have children of her own. She thought of Mara-Joy’s wanting children of her own and how she had to suffice with other women’s children. Like the stepdaughters, she shared with her new husband.

“Those children should have been Mara-Joy’s children. Not Joanna’s,” Jobeth spat, refusing to look at her husband, the injustices evident in her voice.

“Think about what you are saying, Jobeth,” Alan remarked, shaking his head in disbelief. “As hard as it was for her, Mara-Joy has come through all this. She has married again and has a life of her own. We have to stop all this nonsense, Jobeth. Our family needs to unite once again. We have other children besides Mara-Joy and Alan-Michael. It’s time we put the past behind us and moved forward as a family.”

Jobeth stood open-mouthed and unable to avoid staring at Alan. They had rarely fought in almost twenty-five years of marriage. She had rarely seen Alan so disappointed in her.

“I know I have other children, Alan. I’ve always been quite aware of them,” There was a nastiness to her tone. She regretted the venom in her voice the moment she heard the words out of her mouth. It sounded cold and cruel. She pulled back. The front of her hand covering her mouth as though trying to stop any more nasty words from coming out.

“Really?” Alan exploded. All the feelings he had toward the way Jobeth treated the other girls seemed to be frothing to the surface. Unable to stop the volcano inside of him, he erupted.

“I’m ashamed to admit that I have sat back and watched you play favorites with our children. I didn’t want to believe that the woman I loved could love her children so unequally. You have always preferred Mara-Joy and Alan-Michael to the others. And Joanna,” he said as he ran his fingers roughly through his sparse hair, “my God, you’ve been the roughest on her. You never let up on how she wasn’t like Mara-Joy. You put the rivalry between them Jobeth, and I helped by sitting back and allowing you to do it. If I had been a better father, I would have put a stop to you and the way you were with those children.”

“I have always loved my children!” Jobeth countered, unable to believe her ears. She clenched her fists to her sides, ready for battle. “How dare you say I don’t love them the same! My love for Mara-Joy is the reason you and I are together. She brought us together! She did Alan! If that child hadn’t needed parents, who knows if we would ever have ended up together.”

“We loved each other before there ever was a Mara-Joy, Jobeth. We would have ended up together eventually. It was meant to be,” Alan said, his voice softening.

He couldn’t stand the anguish on Jobeth’s face.

“You don’t know that, Alan. You don’t know that for sure.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “Don’t you remember those times when everything was taken from me? From us? My baby boy and Jonah . . .” Jobeth hadn’t spoken of either in years and saying their names brought their faces fresh to her mind.

Jobeth rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, trying to erase the memories of those long dead.

“Did you forget them, Alan? Because I didn’t.” Her eyes red-rimmed were full of misery. “When I look at our son, I see the baby boy I lost. I see his tiny body gasping in vain for air as he died in my arms. When Alan-Michael was born, it was like I had him back again, but alive and healthy. I see the man who helped me deliver him. I remember how that man, Jonah, helped me to love again. And Mara-Joy, oh, Mara-Joy. Every time I look at her, I see the child who set me free to love you. I didn’t feel I deserved to love, but Mara-Joy’s presence in our lives forced me to make choices I was too afraid to make. Can’t you see?” She implored, begging Alan to see her side.

“Can’t you see our children have brought me to where I am? Alan-Michael is the baby I lost and Mara-Joy is the baby I found that brought me finally to you.”

“Jobeth, I’m so sorry that you’re still haunted by all this pain, but that is still no excuse. Joanna is our child as well and she needs you too. Think about making up with your daughter, Jobeth,” his voice was cold, “before it is too late and you wish that you had.”

He turned and stomped out of the room.

Jobeth fell back onto the couch. She felt like she had the air knocked out of her. She closed her eyes, listening to Alan stomping up the stairs to their bedroom. Her throat tightened and her eyes began to water.

“Joanna,” she whimpered, “Joanna.”

— -

“I can’t believe the nerve!”

Mara-Joy stormed around the kitchen of her parents’ house. She was livid.

Jobeth and Alan-Michael sat at the kitchen table, caught in the cyclone of Mara-Joy’s wrath.

Her hair swung loose in tight curls down her back.

“Settle down, Mara-Joy,” Jobeth said, feeling a bit annoyed. She glanced at Alan-Michael out of the corner of her eye. He was completely frightened by Mara-Joy’s outburst. They had become quite frequent since Joanna and Chad’s return. “You are frightening your brother,” Jobeth said dulled by yet another outburst.

Alan-Michael straightened in his chair.

“No… she’s… not,” he stuttered, his lips flapping. Alan-Michael, now sixteen, was a handsome boy with light brown hair and hazel eyes like his mother. He didn’t have his father’s distinct eyes or his mother’s long, oval face that his other siblings inherited. He had a broad face like his father and his mother’s eyes. This didn’t make him less attractive than the others, only different.

“But, Mama!” Mara-Joy hollered, throwing her hands up into the air. “She stole the only man I ever loved away from me! I hate her! I hate her! I hate her! Don’t you hate her?” Mara-Joy slammed her fist down on the table, making both Jobeth and Alan-Michael jump.

These outbursts were also becoming more and more violent each time.

“That is enough, Mara-Joy!” Jobeth stood up, shaking. Alan-Michael slunk back in his chair, paralyzed. He’d never heard his mother raise her voice to Mara-Joy.

Stunned, Mara-Joy stepped back, speechless. She was as shocked by her mother’s words.

“Of course I don’t hate my own daughter. I have never hated Joanna. She is my daughter like you are my daughter. I could hate her no more than I could hate you, Mara-Joy.” Jobeth’s chest rose up and down in anger.

Something was breaking inside her, letting go like a damn finally released. “The man you love should be the husband you are with now. Not the one you married so many years ago when you were still a child.”

“But, Mama,” Mara-Joy sobbed in a quiet voice, “she hurt us all.”

Dejected, she plunked down into the nearest kitchen chair.

“What Joanna did was wrong, very wrong. But that was so long ago. You two are sisters. It is time the two of you made up. This family has been torn apart long enough,” Jobeth resigned, rested her forehead in the palm of her hand.

In the weeks since Joanna returned, all she thought of was what Alan said. His words were ringing true. Maybe she had favored these two children more. In fact, if she was true to herself, she knew she had. For whatever reasons, she had done it. She now needed to fix the mistakes of the past before it was too late.

“Enough is enough, Mara-Joy.” Jobeth’s eyes shot to her son who sat mesmerized by what was going on. “Look how you’ve turned your own brother against his sister. He barely remembers her and he has a horrible hatred of her.”

“It isn’t Mara-Joy who makes me hate her, Ma,” Alan -Michael said in a calm voice. “I dislike her for my own reasons. I don’t take kindly to tramps stealing respectful women’s husbands. Especially when that respectful woman is my sister. Besides Ma, have you forgotten how she flung Mara-Joy’s adoption into her face? That was downright cruel. She seduces Mara-Joy’s husband. Gets pregnant with his bastard brat and then screams out a mound of filth at Mara-Joy. And we are the ones who should forgive and forget?” Alan-Michael stood up and put a protective arm around Mara-Joy’s quivering shoulders. He was already taller than her and she appeared small and defenseless in his arms.

“It seems Alan-Michael and I are the only ones not blinded,” Mara-Joy said with defense to her mother. She crossed her arms firm against her full chest.

Jobeth stood staring at them. The hostility steaming off of their very essences.

“I realize your sister has made a lot of mistakes in her life, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is still your sister. Whether you like it or not that isn’t going to change.” She turned and left the room, unable to face their anger anymore.

“You are blind, Mother, blind! And I can’t believe you’re turning against me!” Mara-Joy followed after Jobeth. Alan-Michael grabbed her arm, holding her back.

“I want my family whole again,” Jobeth said her voice sounding tired, “And, like it or not, that includes Joanna.”

Jobeth opened the front door, leaving the two behind flabbergasted. The fresh air hit her like a liberating breeze.

“Did you see that?” Mara-Joy swung around to face Alan-Michael.

“I saw it, but I don’t believe it,” Alan-Michael said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! She has even turned our mother against us. Our mother!” She pulled away from Alan-Michael’s stocky sixteen-year-old body.

“What do you say to that little brother? Isn’t that a fine how-do-you-do?”

“She is really an evil little thing,” Alan-Michael placed his arm back around his sister. She snuggled into his thick chest, letting his warmth protect her.

“It is so true, Mikey. So very true. You are the only one who understands the pain and agony Joanna has caused me. The rest have seemed to forget.” She wrapped her arms around his waist.

Alan-Michael felt himself become stronger under Mara-Joy’s grasp.

“I would love to see Joanna’s brains in a puddle on the floor. I would love to see her squirm in pain as I watch her die,” he sneered with passion.

Mara-Joy looked up and smiled into Alan-Michael’s darkened face. He always had a dark side but the older he got, the more it had grown. Twisting and developing into something unnatural. She’d noticed it when he was small. First in his cruelty to animals and then to other children. Mara-Joy had pushed it aside, choosing to ignore it. He was hers. Her Mikey. Always there to defend her at any cost. So what if sometimes he was a little too weird?

“Oh, Mikey, you do love me, don’t you?” her voice thick with sweetness. She pressed her head to his heaving chest.

“You know I love you more than anyone,” he choked full of emotion, hugging her tighter.

“Wouldn’t it be great if Joanna were dead? Wouldn’t it be great if something happened to her, an accident or something?” Mara-Joy sniffed, closing her eyes, feeling safe in Alan-Michael’s love.

Alan-Michael became confused. Was Mara-Joy serious? It was so hard to know when she was serious or not.

“Then Ma and Pa would be ours again and I would have Chad back with me where he belongs.”

“What are you saying, sis?” Alan-Michael asked, looking at his sister with total confusion. “You aren’t saying we should have her killed, are you?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Mara-Joy sounded meek as she shoved her head under Alan-Michael’s chin. “I know her children should be mine and Chad’s children. Not hers!” She sighed and pulled away from Alan-Michael’s warm embrace.

Mara-Joy flopped down on the nearest kitchen chair. “She ruined me, Mikey. Having an affair with my husband and running off with him. Carrying his illegitimate children.” She placed her head down on the table, letting the cool surface calm her skin. “They left me alone and abandoned. The humiliation I suffered from my own sister’s hand.” She raised her head to Alan-Michael’s frustrated face. A red, angry ball had formed on her forehead.

Alan-Michael listened to every word Mara-Joy said, a wicked thought forming in her mind.

“You know, Mikey, she never did pay any attention to you.”

Alan-Michael’s brows furrowed together, trying to remember his childhood with Joanna.

“She hates you as much as she hates me. Why I bet she is cooking up some way to hurt you next.” Mara-Joy jumped up and grabbed Alan-Michael by the shoulders.

“We have to stop her before she gets me! You have to stop her before she gets us!”

“I won’t let her hurt you again!” Alan-Michael protested, his voice full of emotion and rage. Mara-Joy took his large head and cradled it to her chest. Her perfume made his nose tingle. He felt himself harden when Mara-Joy rubbed her thigh against him. He hugged his sister tighter, burying his face deeper into her fragrant breast.

“There, there,” she cooed, rubbing the boy’s back. She sinfully smirked amused at how much anger aroused her brother’s lust. She rubbed her thigh harder on Alan-Michael’s erection. He groaned, embarrassed, between his sobbing.

“She better not try and hurt me, right Mikey?”

Alan-Michael muttered louder as he held Mara-Joy tighter to him. She entranced him. Made him obsessed with her. He always needed more of Mara-Joy.

Always.

She pulled away from the confused, aroused boy. Alan-Michael stood drunken before her, hands reaching out in vain. She placed a silky hand on his trembling shoulder.

“You have to stop her, Mikey before she hurts me again.”

Alan-Michael yearned to be in Mara-Joy’s arms again.

“You love me, Mikey? You do?” she pouted. He nodded like a trained dog. “I’ve always loved you the most in this world, Mikey. The most. Please stop her!” Mara-Joy fell to the ground and clutched Alan-Michael around the waist. She shook with fake tears her breath heaving through his clothing down to his hungry flesh.

“I will,” Alan-Michael said clutching Mara-Joy’s head tight to him. “I will.”

Mara-Joy looked up at her brother. His eyes screwed shut with intoxication. She grinned to herself and gave him one more hug around his waist. Pressing her lips close to his bulging appendage before standing up. She straightened her dress and looked at the helpless blob of a boy in front of her.

“Thank you, Mikey,” she breathed into his ear, her hand pressed against his chest where it lingered for a moment. She then wheeled and left, aware of what she had done to her own brother.

As soon as the door shut behind her, Alan-Michael ran upstairs to his room. Filled with disgust he stripped his soiled underpants off.

He stood in the bathroom scrubbing his tainted underwear. Bellowing tormented with shame “She’s my sister! She’s my sister!”