Big Brother

Kimberly spent two weeks at the Powers residence trying to get their affairs in order. Loni came over to check on Jay often, sometimes she would ask to take him over to her house for a while. Kimberly would dismiss them with a wave as if saying "If you want to look after him be my guest." Jay had not said one word or even shed one tear at the viewings and the funeral service. It broke Loni's heart to see him now. He looked pale as a ghost and he never smiled and rarely talked. Each time Loni came over Kimberly seemed to be in a worse mood. One time there was a man at the house and Loni overheard Kimberly say to him, "You're a lawyer, is there nothing you can do for me...and Jay...of course?"

Loni wished with all her heart that Jay could remain with her family. The Powers and the Holdens had never been close. Their main link was Loni's being Jay's babysitter. She liked the Powers a lot but she had to admit, she loved Jay. He was such a good-natured boy and it was a pleasure to sit for him. She would have loved to have him as a brother. Over the two days Jay had stayed with them, even at that horrible time, Loni's parents had also fallen in love with Jay. She knew that it could never happen though. Kimberly was Jay's blood relative and family services had made her his legal guardian.

When the two weeks were up Kimberly had everything as settled as they could possible be and her frown looked like it could cut steel. They had packed most of Jay's clothes and the family photo albums and pictures; Loni boxed up the pictures and packed them in Kimberly's van herself. She didn't want those precious memories to be lost and Kimberly didn't seem as if she cared all that much about them. Loni hoped Jay's aunt wouldn't be disregardful with them. Loni held back a few pictures for herself, she wanted to be able to remember the cute boy she babysat for and if something did happen to the pictures, Loni held back a couple that had Regina and Tim in them as well, she knew she could keep them safe.

Kimberly had a huge yard sale and sold just about everything that the repo man didn't take, including most of Jay's things like his books, video games, and toys. Loni was furious with Kimberly for selling some of Jay's most beloved possessions, but Jay didn't even put up a fuss, he acted like he had been acting since he had been told the news of his parents' death; he just didn't care.

At the yard sale Loni bought back Jay's favorite book,Where the Red Fern Grows, between her and his parents they must have read that book to Jay at least a dozen times over the years. She also bought back his favorite toys, hisTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, she bought all four; Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. On the day they left, Loni stuck the book and the toys into Jay's backpack.

When Jay and Kimberly left, Loni and her parents were there to say goodbye. Loni hugged Jay fiercely with tears in her eyes. She told him he could always write to her if he wanted and she would always write back. Jay mumbled an "okay" he still was so withdrawn. He was a different boy than the one she knew just a short time ago.

"Hey, it's going to be okay kiddo," Loni said looking into Jay's desert dry brown eyes. "Remember, I love you."

"I love you too," Jay said and then he returned her hug. Just that simple action made Loni feel better and gave her hope that Jay really was going to be okay.

Kimberly had Jay climb up into the van and then she slid the door closed. Kimberly climbed into the driver's seat and they were off heading down the street. Loni wondered if she would ever see Jay again.

BECCA

Becca saw the beat up old van pull into the gravel driveway. "Mommy's home!!!" she shouted running out the front door. "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" Becca said as she grasped hold of her mother's leg when she opened the van door.

"Hi Becca," Kimberly said passively as she patted her on the back and then pried her daughter off her leg. She climbed out of the van and headed towards the house. Becca's Uncle Eddie came out the front door next.

"So Kimmy, back from Snobville, bring home anything good?" Eddie said.

"You know I didn't," Kimberly said. "I can't believe my sister had all those things, that great house and I end up risking my job to take two weeks off and I come home with nothing to show for it but another mouth to feed!" Kimberly said in disgust.

"Well, look at it this way, at least with this one you didn't get knocked up while you were drunk," Eddie said with a smirk.

"Shut the fuck up asshole!" Kimberly shot back. "How about helping me unload the van?"

"Oh, you know I would but my back, you know? If someone catches me doing any kind of heavy lifting and it gets back to the company I could lose my worker's comp. Otherwise, you know I'd love to help you." Eddie said.

"Sure you would," Kimberly said sarcastically. "We all know how much you like to help out around here."

"Hey, I just spent two weeks taking care of your brat; I let you borrow my van, that's not helping out?" Eddie said defending himself.

"That's bullshit, Mom did all the work and you know it. Becca practically takes care of herself anyway. Your van runs like crap, half the time I thought it was gonna die out on me. Meanwhile I've been in Hell for the past two weeks thanks to our dear departed sister!"

Becca stood on her tip toes looking inside the van; she saw a bunch of boxes and a mop of brown hair. She started jumping to see if she could get a better look at the person who the hair belonged too.

"Move it Becca, I need to open the door," her mom said with irritation.

Becca moved out of the way as Kimberly slid the van door open. Becca finally got a full glimpse of the boy inside. He was wearing jeans and a polo shirt with a blue windbreaker. His hair definitely was brown and so were his eyes. He looked very sad. Becca brought a strand of her hair around to her mouth and chewed on it for a few moments as she slid the toe of one shoe around in the gravel. Finally she said, "Are you gonna be my new brother?"

The boy looked at her without saying anything; it looked like he didn't know how to answer her question. "No nitwit, that's your cousin. Remember we told you about him?" Eddie said from behind her.

"Oh...yeah," Becca said still staring at the boy. He stared back. Becca wondered if the boy could talk. Finally she decided to introduce herself. "I'm Becca," she said.

"I'm Jay," he responded in a soft quiet voice.

"How old are you?" Becca asked.

"Seven."

"I'm five," Becca said.

"Becca, will you please move?" Kimberly said exasperatedly. Becca stepped aside. "Jay, I want you to take all the bags you can carry and bring them inside the house. Becca will show you where to put them." Kimberly said. "Becca, show Jay where your room is."

"Okay Mommy," Becca said. Then to Jay she said, "Come with me," and she started to skip towards the house.

* * *

Jay grabbed his backpack and one of his suitcases and slid out of the van. He followed the girl to the house. Jay had been momentarily surprised to find out he had a cousin, Aunt Kim never told him, but then he just went back within himself telling his mind not to think about things.

Jay looked over his cousin. Her hair was a wispy bleach blonde, she had sky blue eyes, she was missing one of her bottom front teeth and she was so skinny she almost looked like a stick figure. She was wearing pink pants with flowers on them, a worn yellow sweater, and tennis shoes. She seemed shy at first, but she got over that shyness pretty fast.

Jay took a good look at the house they were walking into. It was all one story, painted white, but the paint was chipping everywhere. In the driveway next to the van was a little red car, Jay didn't know what make it was, and it had rust spots on it. The house had a front porch but it was littered with rakes, shovels, and other yard implements along with a couple potted plants that looked like they were ready to shrivel up and die. Becca opened the screen door and they were in the living room. There was a couch, some chairs, a coffee table, and a TV towards the back. There was a woman lying on the couch. Jay assumed it was his grandmother.

"This way," Becca said. Jay followed his cousin down a hallway. They passed a bathroom, a room that was probably a bedroom, and at the end of the hall were two doors on a ninety degree angle. Becca opened the door that was facing them and led him inside. There were two beds in the room, one a regular twin bed, the other a foldaway cot. There was a small dresser with a mirror, on the dresser there were various items like brushes and combs and hair bands. There were a few books in the room, a couple dolls and a ragged old plush Snoopy laid on the twin bed. Snoopy had seen better days; his white fur had become dingy and threads were hanging off his nose.

"This is my room," Becca said, "but Mommy says I have to share it with you so I guess I hafta. But this is still my room."

"Whatever," Jay said apathetically. Becca looked at him strangely.

"That's your bed," Becca pointed to the cot. "It used to be Uncle Eddie's but now he's gonna have to sleep on the couch." Becca giggled, "Grandma said serves him right; at his age he should be living on his own anyhow." Jay put his bags on the cot.

Becca opened a door in the room and Jay saw it was a closet. There were dresses and blouses hanging in there but the closet was less than half full. "You can put some of your stuff in here," Becca said, "and there are a couple empty drawers in the dresser."

"Jay!" It was Aunt Kim's voice. "Jay get back out here and finish helping me unload the van!" Jay silently made his was back to the front door but before he got there he was intercepted by the old lady that had been on the couch. She had dark brown hair but the roots were grey. Her brown eyes looked hard and her wrinkled weathered skin made her look even more severe. She was wearing a nightgown and a robe even though it was the middle of the afternoon.

"Is this my grandson?" She asked.

Jay remained quiet, Becca answered for him. "Yup!" She said bouncing on her heals.

"We've never met before but I am your grandmother," His grandmother said. Jay just stood there keeping his mind as free of thoughts as he could, whenever he started thinking he started to feel pain, pain that made him want to throw up. So he just stood there looking at her but not really focusing on her, just letting everything stay out of focus. This lady was his grandmother, Eddie was his uncle, Kimberly was his aunt, and Becca was his cousin. He now knew all the players, fine, he just didn't want to be involved.

"I'm sorry I didn't come up for your parents' funeral," his grandmother said but she didn't sound that sorry, "you see I've got rheumatoid arthritis and for me to take a road trip all the way from here to Ohio would kill me...Besides, your mother probably wouldn't have wanted me to be there anyway."

Jay remained still.Don't think just stare. Don't think just stare, he kept repeating to himself.

"I guess I'll let you finish up bringing in your things," his grandmother finally said.

Jay went outside not giving his grandmother or Becca a second look.

* * *

Becca didn't know what to make of Jay. He wasn't like most boys. Not that she knew that many. There were the Wicker brothers from across the street. She hated them! The Wicked Wickers! They were bullies. Then there were the boys in kindergarten but all they ever did was run around and play games and didn't like girls playing with them.

Jay was quiet. He hardly ever said a word. The most he talked was the first night he was at their house. Her mommy said it was bath time and she was gonna give Jay and Becca a bath together. Jay actually spoke up and said he would rather just take a shower by himself, that's what he had done at home. Mommy said this was his home now and he would do what she said. Jay stared at her in that strange way he had and said "I would really like to shower by myself. Please."

Mommy looked at Jay and finally said "Fine, if that's what you want to do I don't care, as long as you get clean." Becca was actually relieved. She didn't want to take a bath with a boy, especially one she had only just met. So every night since then Kimberly would give Becca a bath then Jay would take a shower by himself.

Aside from that one incident, Jay never balked at anything he was told to do. He wouldn't say anything but he would just do what you told him. You even had to tell him to eat; otherwise he'd just stare straight ahead and not touch his food. He still wasn't eating enough; you could tell he was losing weight. His clothes were getting looser and his face was becoming drawn.

One night Becca overheard her mother talking to her grandmother about Jay. "We need to do something about him, that boy needs some kind of help," her grandmother said.

"I've petitioned the board of trustees and told them Jay's situation," Becca's mother said, "but until I hear back from them I can't afford to take him to any special doctors."

Becca's grandmother tsked, "That poor boy. I would have thought Reggie would have made better plans for him in case something like this ever happened. You should be able to do something though; he's your responsibility now."

"Yeah he's my responsibility and Reggie didn't leave me with anything to help!" Becca's mother said harshly. "After all these years of you saying how disappointed you were because I had a child out of wedlock, after all the grief you've given me, we find out that Reggie wasn't perfect after all."

"This is nothing like your situation," Becca's grandmother said.

"No, it's not. I had a child that I took care of and I also stayed behind and took care of my mother, and I even open my house up to my brother and all I ever hear from you is shit!" Becca's mother said with venom. "Reggie's the one that left us all behind, she's the one that married some man eight years older than her, and she's the one that didn't want to have anything to do with us. She probably thought she was better than us! Well in the end we find out that she was no better she just had a man who knew how to juggle money well enough that they could afford nice things and pretend to better than us! And I'm the one who gets stuck raising her kid and I get nothing out of it!"

"I don't think we should talk about this anymore..." Becca's grandmother said.

"Where's my reward?" Becca's mother kept on going, "Don't I even get a little praise? Haven't I done enough for you? Or are you upset I could never find a nice man that would buy me a nice house we all could live in and a Mercedes to go with it! We never talk about Reggie but when you talk to me all you do is make me feel like dirt! I'm sorry that all the scraping and scrounging I've done to give you a roof over your head wasn't enough! I'm sorry I'm not Reggie and walked out of your life ten years ago!"

Becca ducked back into her room as she saw her grandmother get up and walk to her own bedroom. About five minutes later Becca came out again and saw her mother sitting on the couch with her head in her hands crying. Becca felt so bad for her mother, she wanted to go and hug her but she knew she'd just end up getting a whipping for being up.

Becca went back to bed, she was angry. Jay was the cause of all this. She stared across the room at her cousin. It was all his fault her mother and grandmother had that fight. She wished he would leave! It wasn't until then that Becca noticed Jay wasn't asleep either. His eyes were open and he was staring across the room right at her.

"Jerk!" Becca said softly but with vitriol then turned her back on Jay and went to sleep.

CHAPTER 4: BREAKTHROUGH

The board of trustees had approved Kimberly's request for funds so Jay could see doctors and counselors to help him through this time. The problem was none of it was helping. Jay's physical and mental health were still declining. Each day he looked a little thinner and he was a little more withdrawn. Becca's mom was getting angry with Jay's attitude, but she couldn't do much as he still did everything she asked of him. Eddie started calling Jay "Psycho", and Becca's grandmother just tsked most of the time she was around him.

Jay had been living with them for a month now. Eddie had moved out to live with some of his friends claiming the house had become too crowded. Becca's grandmother said it was about time, a twenty-four year old man shouldn't be living with his mother. Becca didn't think Eddie would be gone for long, he had moved out before and he always came back looking for a place to "crash".

Kimberly had enrolled Jay into the second grade at Becca's grade school. Apparently Jay was much the same at school as he was at home. He was obedient, did the class work and homework he was asked to do, but he only talked if you asked him a direct question. Jay's teacher was concerned about him and called in Kimberly to discuss his situation. Kimberly explained about the doctors and counselors she was taking him to and his teacher seemed to be satisfied that something was being done, even though Jay wasn't getting any better.

Jay hadn't made any friends at school. Becca didn't see much of Jay, the kindergartners were kept separate from the rest of the school, they had a separate recess and they didn't go to lunch, they only had a snack time since they only went for half a day. But they did ride the bus to school together in the morning and on the bus she would hear kids calling him names like "Spaz" and "Geekoid" and no one wanted to sit next to him. Jay didn't seem to care about any of this. Becca couldn't blame them; she didn't even sit next to him.

Things settled into a routine at home. Those first few days he was there Becca had tried to bring Jay out by asking him to play games, read with her, or do something but Jay always declined. Finally she gave up and began to ignore Jay as well as she could and Jay ignored everyone and everything else.

One day after school Becca was in the street in front of their house skipping rope. Their house was in a cul-de-sac and cars rarely drove all the way up the street so it was pretty safe to play in. There was only their house and the Wicker house across the street, the end of the street led into the woods. Becca was bored with playing jump rope. She looked over at the front porch and saw Jay just sitting there staring out into space as usual, Becca sighed and sat on the curb.

Then she saw it; something orange sitting in the tall grass in front of the woods. Becca went over to investigate and found it was a basketball. It must belong to the Wickers she thought. They had a basketball hoop over their garage door. Becca was just going to go over and drop the ball in their front yard, but first she decided to bounce it. She dropped the ball to the street and it bounced right back up to her. She did it again and a third time. Then she tried dribbling the ball, it got away from her a couple times but she soon got the hang of it. Then she tried dribbling the ball while she was walking and then running. Most of the time the ball got away from her when she tried to dribble and run, but she would run after it and retrieve it. She was having fun.

"Who told you you could play with our ball?"Oh no! Becca thought, it was Andy Wicker, he was the younger Wicker brother but he was still two years older than Becca.

"I found it by the woods and was just playing with it for a minute," Becca said pleading her case, "I was going to give it back." She held up the ball offering it to Andy.

Andy came over and swatted the ball out of her hands, "That doesn't give you the right to touch our property!" Andy said.

"What's going on?" It was Chris Wicker; he was a year older than Andy and twice as mean. Becca was scared.