Conflict (a blog story) 13

     When Derrick wen to see Jonah, it was really to check on his whereabouts. As soon as the two parted Derrick went to Jonah’s house. Hailey didn’t get the door open enough to see who it was before Derrick kicked it in. She was panicked and crying. Derrick was smiling as he pummeled her. He attacked her savagely. Somehow he blamed her for everything. His incarceration, his terrible life, his rage, were all her fault and he needed to rectify the situation. He would torture her as he felt tortured, but he was not angry.
     The baby screamed uncontrollably as Derrick first attacked her mother then destroyed the house in which she lived. He broke anything that had any value. He put holes in the walls.
     When he grabbed the baby, Hailey begged him to leave her alone. She could not stand. Only her outstretched hand was able to plead with Derrick. Sociopaths have a convoluted sense of right and wrong. He saw himself as completely justified. The idea of consequences never crossed his mind.
      He laughed as he held the child. “It’s my baby now. You had yours. Now I get mine. Tell my brother if I see him he gets double.”
     Jonah did not suspect anything as he walked home from work. He was in a good mood. He didn’t know what to tell Hailey about seeing Derrick or how she would react, but for once he could think about his family and not be filled with dread.
     As soon as he walked through the front door he knew what had happened. He found Hailey in the dark, crawling on the floor. He held her in his arms and tried to wipe the blood from her face. His heart broke looking at her. She kept calling for her baby.
     Jonah placed a pillow under her head and ran next door to ask them to call the police. Then he took off to find Derrick. He knew where he would be.
     Jonah was a large man. He stood over six feet tall and weighed about 220 and would be intimidating if he wasn’t so docile. As he ran through the streets towards his childhood home a fury coursed through his veins. Derrick was much shorter and skinnier, but was able to take advantage of his slower brother and had tormented him. Jonah never fought back. All Jonah wanted was the child, but he was prepared to kill Derrick if he needed to.
     When he walked in the unlocked door he saw Judy holding her sobbing grandchild and Derrick doing lines of drugs off the table.
     Judy looked at him, red faced and trembling as he stood before her, and sneered, “What do you want?”
     He could barely speak the word, “Baby.”
     “It’s my baby now.” She squeezed the child, which caused her to cry even louder. “Derrick’s the father and not you. This is my grandbaby.”
     “You can’t do this.”
     “I did it.” She tapped Derrick on the shoulder. He had not even looked up from the drugs before him. “We did it.”
     “Why?”
     “You don’t get to have it all. You think you’re better than us.” Judy’s eyes stared right through Jonah. “You are us. You always kept to yourself. You never wanted to have anything to do with your mother and your brother. We loved you. The first chance you got you ran away. You abandoned us.”
     Judy could not grasp the irony of her statements. She wholeheartedly believed every word she said. Jonah's arms were outstretched to the child who was reaching back to him. Derrick snapped out of his stupor and jumped up.
     “You should have stayed away, Bro.” He said has he stepped towards his brother with his fist pulled back and ready to strike.
     Jonah dropped him with a single punch to the jaw and Derrick crumpled in pile on the floor.