Redemption Falls

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Myhands316
Myhands316
1,180 Followers

"When did that happen...? I haven't talked to Trace in over a year." No one had answered her mom's phone, when she tried to call, and she only got Mary's answering machine and couldn't leave a number. Amber figured it was because they were at the hospital. She wondered why it was Susan Johnson who called her.

"Oh, that was over six months ago. She caught him at a hotel with some floozy, spending their anniversary money on cheap hotel rooms. Some people say he's hooked up in them drugs too. He was so handsome in school. He could have had anyone... He's gained a lot of weight and his hair is greasy. Mary is still living in the house and refuses to even talk to him until he cleans up and get his head on straight. The baby is due any time now." Sherry filled in the details.

"Sherry, um I hate to be rude, but I'm exhausted... Um... how far is your car. I've been on a bus for the last three days."

"Oh, I'm so sorry... you know me... I'd babble the day away. You wait here, I'll be right back." Amber watched her old friend walk away, thinking that she looked a bit rounder, but basically like what she was, a happy mother with her child. She had always been envious of Sherry's curves and rounded ass.

She'd never thought Sherry, of all people, would fall for the town's resident troublemaker, Allen Martin. Most people expected him to be in prison by now. Amber wondered if he still had the supped-up motorcycle that he tried to out run the local police on, to no avail. It wasn't like they didn't know where he lived.

Sherry pulled up in her battered mom bomb and opened the big sliding door. "It isn't much, but it's paid for. I can get from point A to point B most days without breaking down. It helps that Allen runs the town wrecker service." Sherry said with a strange look on her face.

Amber would have noticed more, but she had no energy. She listened as the bubbly Sherry prattled on about all their old friends in common and the town gossip. These were the things Amber had run from. She hated thinking that everyone in the county knew everything about everyone else.

She was shocked as they pulled up in front of her childhood home and the front door was wide open. A rusted out old Chevy was in the drive. "That's the car Trace drives... I'd better get going.... I hope everything works out alright." Sherry said with a hint of fear in her voice.

"Thanks for the lift... Maybe we can catch up some time." Amber said as Sherry waved and pulled back out of the drive and left quickly. Amber was thankful for the lift, but surprised on how fast Sherry left, once she knew her brother was at home. She remembered when Sherry would moon for hours over her brother. Shaking her head, she hefted her bags up and walked into the house. When she dropped her bags, she startled her brother, who was taking their mom's silver service out of the hutch.

"Trace, what are you doing...? How's mom. I'd thought...." She tried to take in the changes, looking at the stranger who was once her brother.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in. If it isn't little Miss Prissy, from the big fucking city. You come back to gloat over us simple folks?" The once tall straight boy now stood stooped over his prize with long greasy hair falling in his face.

"What are you doing with Mamma's silver?" Amber ignored the drunken slur from her brother.

"Mom won't miss it... she don't even remember her own name anymore. Support's a bitch and I need the money. Not that it's any of your fucking business. What the fuck are you doing here Amber?" He tried to stand up to his sister, but couldn't look her in the eye.

"Mrs. Johnson called me... I had to take the bus or I'd been here quicker. You put that back, you are not pawning great-gram's silver to get a bottle of booze. Get yourself cleaned up and I'll fix some food." She watched as her brother thought over his options.

"Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.... It's mine I'll fucking take it if I want too. What the fuck you gonna do about it bitch?" Trace stalked up to his sister with his hand raised to strike and walk past her.

Amber knew it was the booze talking, as she did what she had to do. Just as he stepped, she lifted her foot and connected with his nuts. She grabbed the box of silver as he fell so it wouldn't break.

"You're a mess. Go sober up and come back when you are able to act like a man. What the hell happened to you?" Amber looked with revulsion at the once favored child.

"Fuck you... and that bitch I married... I'm a man, and I'll do what the fuck I want." He groaned, trying to fill his lungs with air.

Amber never thought she'd have to toss her brother out of the house, but that's exactly what she did. She grabbed his long slimy hair and added another foot to the gut, as she pulled him out the front door and tossed him down the front steps.

"Sober and clean up before you come back. I could always kick your ass. Don't think for a second, that's changed. I can guarantee the locks will be changed before you're sober. God, what a disgusting pig, what the hell happened to you?" Trace tried to grab her leg as she turned, but Amber just pushed him back down into the dirt of the walkway.

She ignored the yelling as she slammed the door and set the deadbolt. She listened to the car start and rattle down the street with a belch of black smoke and miss of a bad cylinder. "From town hero, to zero, in less than a year." She said, as she took stock of the mess of her mother's house. She smelled the urine and noticed the spreading patch where her brother laid on the expensive hand loomed rug. Amber jumped when the phone rang.

***

Amber looked down at her mother, looking lifeless in the hospital bed. She had tubes in her to collect her urine and feces, along with those that kept fluid and medicine in her arms. She looked like a shell of her former robust self. She was always a tall woman, who carried herself with pride.

She ran the women's committees with an iron fist. She had the Mayor's number memorized and never hesitated to call if one of her flock were in trouble. She ran the county kitchen and kept the donations coming in all year around. Her father might have been the moral conscious of the community, but her mother was the power behind the throne. To see her mother so reduced pierced Amber's heart. She listened as Mrs. Johnson informed her of what happened after she had left.

"Your mother was never the same after your father died. Oh, she tired, but anyway, after the new Pastor came and his wife took over.... She perked up after Trace was accepted on the fire department, but when he was suspended for showing up at work drunk, it was more than she could bear. The doctor said if she doesn't find a reason to fight, she'll be dead in less than a month."

"What happened to my brother?" Amber asked, stroking her mother's face.

"From what I understand, Trace is on a non-paid leave of absence. If he can pull it back together before the year is up, he can have his job back. If she finds out he's been stealing, drunk and on drugs... well it would be the end of her." The dumpy woman who had been friends with her mother ever since she could remember, told her sadly.

Amber stood up when she saw her mom's eyes flutter. "Hi mom... I'm here." Her mom tried to speak, but only half of her mouth worked.

"Don't try and talk mom. The doctor said it might be awhile before you can talk again. I'll take care of you as soon as you can come home." She promised, not knowing how she was going to achieve that. She had less than a month before she was supposed to be back at work or she'd be fired for job abandonment.

"The good thing is Mildred, that it only affects your left side." Susan told her friend. "So, once you get a bit stronger, we can give you a pad or blackboard to write on. I'll be helping Amber with the daily chores. You just need to get better. You still owe me ten dollars in Canasta." She smiled warmly at her best friend.

The tears started falling when Mildred Mouser grabbed her daughter's hand and refused to let go. Amber stayed as long as they'd let her, but was worried about if Trace would show back up at the house. When she told Mrs. Johnson this, she was reassured.

"Mark will watch the house. Now that we have your permission, Trace will not get back in unless you or Mildred says so. I hope that young man finds his way soon or I don't know what will happen."

"Has anyone suggested rehab? He was drunk as a skunk, when I saw him earlier." Amber asked more out of politeness than any feeling she had for her brother. That had been killed a long time ago. He was always the golden son, while Amber was the second child born with the wrong parts. Her father wanted boys to carry on his legacy and didn't know how to deal with his strongly opinionated daughter. So, more often than not, she was left out, unless they needed a spare hand in the nursery, or on the food line.

"You might want to talk to his wife about that. I know the department has a program... but Trace refuses to admit he's got a problem. He's convinced himself that he has everything under control." The older woman shrugged at the obvious error in his thinking.

"Mom... mom, I have to go. I'll be back tomorrow, but I have to clean the house." Amber tried to pull away from her mother who didn't want her to go.

"Mildred, I'll drive her back tomorrow." Mrs. Johnson reassured her helpless friend. "While you are in therapy, we can go get your car out of the garage." The older woman told her mother as they walked out of her room.

"What a fucking mess!" Amber said, not thinking. Ever since she gained her freedom, she refused to alter her language.

"Do you eat out of that mouth, young lady?" Mrs. Johnson asked peeved. "I know you've been long in the city, but I also know for a fact your mother raised you better that that. Yes it is a mess, but no need for such profanities!" She huffed as they walked.

"Sorry, I'm tired, I had to kick my brother out of mom's house and clean up where he pissed all over her best rug. I've had a day! I need some food and sleep." Amber stated, without a trace of remorse.

***

Over the next week, Amber cleaned her mother's house and started taking an inventory of the things that were missing. She was in the middle of her mom's jewelry box, when there was a knock at the door. Answering it, she saw her sister-in-law Mary standing there very pregnant.

"Hi, um... come in. What's up?" Amber asked as she let Mary enter.

"I was going to wait until you contacted me, but I've heard through the grapevine, you're so busy taking care of the house and your mom..." The very pregnant woman sat down at the table, noticing the list. "Most of that's at Hal's pawn. He promised me he'd hold it as long as he could." She added perturbed.

"What the hell happened? Why didn't anyone let me know what's going on?" Amber asked irritated. She knew the pills she had to still take made her short tempered, but that was another set of problems.

"I don't know all of it. The guys only tell me what they think they have to.... The wives club isn't much better now that Trace has been suspended. Brotherhood of fire, and all that crap." Mary sighed. "Sometime before our wedding, Trace supposedly ended up with this chick. No one will tell me what exactly happened, but about six months ago she shows up here and insists on meeting Trace. We were planning a trip for our anniversary, but I ended up pregnant. So, anyway, I started using the money we saved, to fix up a nursery for the baby. I found some of the money missing.... I followed him one day and caught him going into a room where that chick was."

"He cheated on you? I don't believe it. I mean Trace and I have our problems. But he worshiped the air you breathed." Amber said shocked.

"They were talking... clothes on and everything, when I barged in. So I don't know if he's cheated... I was so mad I gave him an ultimatum. Her or me... and kicked him out until he figured what was important to him. He's gone downhill from there. Less than a month later, the captain had to suspend him for driving the rig drunk. The damage wasn't that bad, but he came up hot of the mandatory drug and alcohol test. I've been on the out list since then."

"I know he was three sheets when I had to kick him out. He was taking Mamma's silver." Amber told Mary.

"Yeah, I had to pay to get my ring and some other things back. I don't know what he's doing with the money. He can't drink that much and Billy is letting him stay at his place for free for saving his folk when their house caught fire. If I ask, all I get is that it's his business, and I need to stay out of it. I'm about ready to divorce him, but I still love him and there is the baby to think of." She said with tears falling. "If he gets fired, I'll lose the insurance and I can't afford... I have to stop working in a week or so and... I know there is some good left in him. At least I hope there is." Mary cried.

***

Amber knew she was in it deep. She had finished her pills and knew she had to go and take tests to see if she was finally clean. She had a reputation in this town, and so far it had worked to her advantage. If they ever found out the truth. She also had to call her work and tell them that she'd be longer than she thought, and hope they didn't fire her. There was no helping it, her mom had started improving, but still needed around the clock care.

She had changed the locks, and every conversation she tried to have with her brother ended up in a fight. The only concession she made for him, was to let him use the washer and shower. She didn't want to smell him or the booze, while they fought. He was sticking to his 'I'm the man and will handle this on my own', line of bullshit.

They brought her mother home and settled her in. Between Mrs. Johnson and Amber, they set up a schedule so Amber could do the shopping and other errands during the day and keep watch over the nights. Mark even offered to take a few watches, so Amber could have some personal time.

Amber was coming out of the grocery store, when she saw her brother drive behind the store. When she looked, she saw him talking to some ragged looking woman. She realized they weren't paying attention as she set her bags down and walked to the corner so she could listen in. Maybe now she could get some answers.

"This isn't enough money asshole." The woman spit, flinging her stringy black hair over her shoulder.

"It's all I got; my sister took over the house. I can't get anymore until later."Trace told her with defiance.

"I don't fucking care. Remember I have you by the balls. How do you think that innocent cunt you're married to, would like it when I accuse the town hero of rape. I've got the evidence locked up in a safe place. You'll pay me or I'll ruin you." She spat while she spoke.

"I never touched you, and you know it!" He hissed, trying to stand up for himself.

"I got a condom full of your sperm that says different. That and if I decide to release all those pretty pictures, you're toast. I own you mother fucker... and I'm going to make you pay." The look in her eyes could only be described as demented. "Remember it's a thousand for each negative, five hundred for every print and ten G's for the condom... I'm not staying around this one horse town for long. So fucking do what you have to do or I'll just go to the papers and the cops.... How's it going to look? The hero firefighter, accused of raping someone he was supposed to be saving. I've got you by the balls and don't you forget it."

"You have to give me time... I'll come up with the money!" Trace pleaded, making the woman laugh.

"You men are pathetic. You got a week and I'm out of here. I'm not coming back this time! I don't care what you have to steal or who you have to kill... get me my money or your pathetic life is over." She laughed at my brother and walked away.

Trace pulled out a small bottle of booze and emptied it without stopping. Once empty, he threw it full force at the wall shattering it.

"Well that explains a lot." Amber muttered to herself. "Can't that idiot tell she's playing him? She's going to do whatever she wants, no matter how much he pays. What a fucking patsy." Amber shook her head at her brother's stupidly and picked up her bags and headed home before her brother could do something even more stupid.

When she got home, she called the firehouse. "I need some of you guys to come out here and get Trace. I know he's drunk and on his way here to... anyway, if you don't want him to go to jail..."

"Okay, we'll come this last time.... After this, he's on his own. We've covered for him enough!" John, Trace's long time best friend, told her, ending the call.

"Some brotherhood of fire...! My skinny ass!" She slammed down the phone. She hoped they made it soon, she could hear the rattle trap of a car her brother drove, coming up the hill to the house. Squaring her shoulders, she got ready to face her idiot brother, for his own good. He parked his junk car on the hill and staggered toward their mom's car, fumbling with his keys.

"What do you think you're doing Trace?" She called out, stopping him for a second.

"I need to use mom's car to go into the next town. Mine won't make it." He slurred.

"You're crazy, if you think for a second, that I'll let you drive mom's car drunk. Go home and sleep it off. We'll talk when you're sober. I'll help you, once your head is on straight."

"Oh well, look at Miss Priss now. Giving me orders. Like you have a right to say what the fuck I do. Fuck off Amber... I'm a man and I'm doing what's necessary. Mind you own fucking business." He swayed, trying to focus on which key he needed.

Amber walked between him and the car. "Don't make me put you on your ass again Trace. I don't want to, but I will. Go sleep it off and we'll talk later. You aint going to pawn mom's car to pay some bitch who's blackmailing you."

"What the fuck do you know? Fuck you. Like you care.... Go back to the city and get the fuck out of my way." He looked shocked for a second, before putting his hands up like he was going to box her.

It might have gotten physical, but men from the fire company got there. Amber waited as they wrestled Trace down before telling them. "Take him to the firehouse and lock him in a room until he sobers up. I'll be down in awhile to talk to you guys. I want the captain there too." She gave them the evil eye as they pushed Trace into the back of John's lifted four wheel drive truck and drove off.

Amber went into the house and had to tell her mother what was going on. She didn't like it, but it had to be done. As she explained what happened, the phone rang. When she answered it, the fire captain was on the other end.

"The guys said you needed to talk to me?" His booming voice echoed through the receiver.

"I need to talk to all of you about what's been going on with my brother. Do you know what's happened?" She asked, trying to figure out what she needed to do.

"I know the guys went to a big fire out of state and things went downhill from there. You know that I can't know everything or I'll have to..."

"Okay, well I'll see you in a few minutes." Amber hung up pissed. "What a bunch of losers." She drove down to the firehouse and as she got out, she could hear her brother screaming.

"Let me the fuck out of here; I'll kick all your asses."

"Shut the fuck up Trace. Don't make me come in there and knock you out." John called back. Amber walked in and told Martin, the dispatcher.

"No calls unless it's a real emergency. I have some butts to barbeque."

"Okay Sugar, I'll do my best." The old man said, as she past. Once she closed the door into the recreation area, she opened up with both barrels.

"What the fuck is your problem? Why is my brother being blackmailed by some skanky bitch? Why are you guys... this 'Brotherhood of Fire' allowing my brother to fuck up his life and marriage? Did he rape some chick? Someone is going to tell me what the fuck is going on...!"

Myhands316
Myhands316
1,180 Followers
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