Chapter 27: Brothers; Part 3.

As the taxicab parks in front of the house, Grandma leads the children into the house. Further down the block was a police car in front of the Township residence. Both Cathy and Kathy were on the sofa holding each other, crying softly as the police explains to their parents that both of them has to go down to the police station for the actions one of them did at the Pouncefield Mall against Rachel. Mr. Township was rather adamant about his daughters’ actions and was not willing to send them to ‘jail’. Thus he waits for his lawyer, Joseph Rabinowitz to arrive from New York City.

He would arrive over an hour later.

After a brief and private explanation from Mr. Township,  Mr. Rabinowitz introduces himself to the police.

“Good afternoon officers. I am Joseph Rabinowitz, lawyer for the Township family. What seems to be the problem?”, Mr. Rabinowitz introduces himself, careful not to shake hands with them but rather hands them his business card.

“As you see by my name plate, I’m Officer Smith. My partner is Officer Jameson. We are here because one of those to girls was involved in a near deadly accident at the Pouncefield Mall, and the other with flight and abating a hostile individual. Mall Security Cameras have the whole incident recorded from several angles.”, Officer Smith explains.

“What are the details of the incident? Who was involved and what happened exactly?”, Mr. Rabinowitz asks.

“I cant mention names, but it involved an altercation younger, smaller girl. The end result was one of those twins pushing the girl through a safety barrier. If she would not have caught the floor in time when she did, we would be talking about reckless endangerment and homicide charges right now.”, Officer Smith answers. “Since the other twin took the first out of the scene, they are considered as flight risks.”

“Since they went home, they should not be considered as flight risks. This family just moved a couple of weeks ago, where would they go?”, Mr. Rabinowitz says and asks.

“That is for a judge to determine.”, Officer Smith answers.

“Before these girls are released to the authorities, I would like to see the scene of the incident and the video tape of the incident.”, Mr. Rabinowitz says.

Officer Smith looks at Officer Jameson, who nods at him. “We can do that.”, Officer Smith replies. “The girls will be riding with us, to make sure there is no funny business. Just follow us to the Pouncefield Mall. Girls. Come with us please.”

Mr. Township nods at his daughters. They slowly get up and follow Officer Jameson to the patrol car outside. Officer Smith follows the rest of the family and their lawyer to their vehicle. They get into their car, a 2008 Grey Caravan Minivan, and follow the officers to the Pouncefield Mall.

They are escorted to the basement parking area where the vehicles are left. They a private elevator to the fifth floor, where they meet with Mall Security director. The girls are left behind to sit in the waiting area as the video tape is reviewed . Soon Mr. Rabinowitz is escorted with the police and security guards downstairs to examine the scene. He returns to the office after ten minutes. He walks over to the girls’ parents. The girls are left in the dark as to what actually happened, and are not told of the consequences.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence against the girls, discussing it with the officers and Mall Security, they do not want any bad press here. Hopefully if nothing will be heard from the girl’s parent about the incident in the next 48 hours, most of the charges maybe dropped when they appear in court on Monday. But there is the property damage. They would like to know which one of them did what.”, Mr. Rabinowitz explains.

About less than a mile away from the mall, on a house on the hill, a family get together for a meal. Grandma goes upstairs with a tray containing dinner of two she calls her own. She opens the door, seeing the two of them holding each other, she puts the tray of food on the room’s table.

“Food is on the table. I need you two to eat.”, Grandma tells Fernando and Rachel.

Fernando pulls away from Rachel and nods. She nods back though he does not see her. Slowly getting up from the bed, “I’ll take care of it, grandma.”, she says in Spanish. Grandma leaves the room, closing the door behind her. Rachel moves the various items off the plate and onto the table before sliding the table on the floor towards the bed. She takes a plate.

“Reach forward and I will put a plate in your hands.”, Rachel says.

“What did she made?”, Fernando asks.

“Looks like pork chops, rice and mixed vegetables.”,  she says as she handed him the plate.

Fernando feels the edge of the plate and finds the fork to pick up. He starts feeling the content of the plate before he starts eating. Rachel takes her plate to the bed and sits next to him. They take their time eating.

Rachel takes his plate when they are done, assembling the empties on the tray and takes them downstairs. Jorge was going upstairs, passing her by. He waits in the shadow of the hall and listens downstairs.

Grandma gathers the empties from Rachel and puts them in the sink. “Sit down at the dining table so I can ask a few questions.”, Grandma asks.

Rachel sits down on her usual chair and waits for Grandma. As Grandma scrapes the dishes and rinses out the glasses before putting them in the dishwasher,  she asks, “You OK? Nothing hurt?”

“Just my feelings more than anything.”, Rachel answers.

Jorge quietly goes into Fernando’s room, closing the door behind him. Fernando was sitting on the bed,  legs crossed in a Lotus position, his head bowed down with his hands folded. Jorge walks quietly around the room, going between  the table and bed.

“What do you want,  Jorge?”, Fernando asks.

“How do you know it was me?”, Jorge asks.

“First off, you’re bigger than Rachel, and a lot heavier, so I heard your big heavy feet across the floor.”, Fernando begins. “Also, you sat on the table.”

“So?”, Jorge says.

“Rachel never sits on the table. She sits next to me, and takes my arm. I know you would never do that.”, Fernando explains. “So, what do you want, beat me while I cant see you? You know, once I grab a part of you, I’m not letting go until you’re limp and motionless.”

“Once upon a time, I used to be able to beat you up most of the time.”, Jorge begins.

“True. But thank Ricky and Alfonso for waking up my survival instincts and my Fight to Win at all Costs attitude.”, Fernando interrupts him. “Thanks to them putting a gun to my head, I’m not taking shit anymore. Not from them, not from you, not from mom, not from anyone.”

“So you think that you will always beat me? Is that it?”, Jorge asks.

“No. I’m just going to fight to win. You may have a chance to beat me, but at that point if you would succeed, I will take every dirty trick in the book and use it so that I do win.”, Fernando explains.

“Hmmm…”, Jorge says to himself. “You disowned mom from being your mother?”

“This is between you and me, before grandma threw you into the house, mom has already hit me twice. I cant see, Jorge. I cant. Its not your fault, but when you knocked off my glasses, I went blind by the sun. Why else you think I put you into a headlock until you passed out?”, Fernando explains.

“So mom hit you when you couldn’t see her. That’s fucked up. She is a bitch. I wouldn’t do that to you.”, Jorge says, almost to himself.

“Explain this morning. No. Explain why you threatened Rachel that you would rape her. Explain why you would dare hurt somebody who helps me, who is herself unable to defend herself. You so hard up that you have to take pussy from someone who would give it to you if you were nice to her? I don’t know what it is, but you changed and you changed for the worse.”, Fernando explains, almost demands.

“I did not want to move here. I did not want to be away from Francis, Joanne, and Sabrina.”, Jorge starts to say. “But now that Jose and Denis are dead, maybe Grandma was right in bringing us here.”

“Well, Cathy tells me that Francis and Rachel will be over tomarrow. You can spend the day with her all you want.”, Fernando tells her. “What was this about you breaking into cars with Rodriguez?”

“It was something he dared me to make up losing to you.”, Jorge says. “I did not expected Grandma to be at that shopping mall. Now I’m grounded.”

“No, I’m grounded. You’re just punished.”, Fernando says. He shakes his head holding his hands to his temples. “Look. I’ll talk to Grandma so you can take care of Francis and Rachel tomarrow. I’ll stay home and try to recover..”

“What do you mean, you’re grounded?”, Jorge asks.

“I cant see. I was supposed to go to a flying club in the morning with Dr. Leary. But without my eye sight, I cant fly.”, Fernando explains.

“Sorry. I didn’t know.”, Jorge says.

“You should be apologizing to Rachel. You really hurt her feelings and reminded her of the bad experiences from her past rapes.”, Fernando tells him. 

“What happened that Grandma took you somewhere all of the sudden?”, Jorge asks.

“There was an accident at the Mall, and Rachel almost fell from the fourth floor to the first. She says that Cathy has something to do with it. She’s pretty shaken up about it.”, Fernando answers. “About you apologizing…”

“I will, not now though. When she feels better.”, Jorge says.

“I’ll send her to your room when she is better.”, Fernando says.

“Forgive me?”, Jorge asks.

“For what?”, Fernando asks.

“The fight and what I did to her.”, Jorge answers.

“Forgive you for being a brother, no matter how dumb or stupid you do things? For fighting me? No, that’s what brothers do. We argue and fight, but we always remain brothers. You will always be forgiven.”, Fernando explains. “But Rachel needs to forgive you for what you did to her. Not me. You did some awful things that might not be forgivable to her.”

Rachel walks into the room, seeing Jorge on the table.

“What are you doing here?”, Rachel asks Jorge.

“Being a brother.”, Fernando answers before he does. “Maybe you can say it while she is here.”

“I’m sorry Rachel, for the things I said and done.”, Jorge says.

“I’ll forgive you, but I’m not happy with you right now. You really upset me.”, Rachel tells him.

“I’m really sorry.”, Jorge adds.

“I said you were forgiven. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to sleep.”, Rachel tells him, hinting for him to leave.

“Jorge, I got a really bad headache and need my sleep.”, Fernando tells him.

“When will you talk to Grandma?”, Jorge asks.

“Tomarrow,  during breakfast.”, Fernando answers.

“Alright. I’ll leave you two alone.”, Jorge says. He gets up off the table and walks over to the door. Rachel walks over to the bed a he stood there. She sits by Fernando and takes his arm. He opens the door and leaves for his room.

“You think he means it?”, Rachel asks.

“Jorge has his problems but he means it. But don’t be surprised if he does it again.”, Fernando explains.

“I see.”, Rachel says.

“You feeling better from what happened at the mall?”, Fernando asks.

“Just shaken up pretty badly. I cant trust Cathy anymore. She’s a bitch.”, Rachel answers.

“I’ve been dealing with her for almost two years.”, Fernando says.

“She did not try to kill you.”, Rachel states angrily.

“I will have a long talk with her.”, Fernando replies, trying to be as diplomatic as possible.

“I don’t want you talking to her or her sister. I don’t want you having sex with them, I don’t want you to hang out with them anymore.”, Rachel almost demanded.

“Alright. I cant make promises because we got things to do, me and her that is, but after that it will end.”, Fernando explains.

“Hurry up and make it over as soon as possible.”, Rachel says.

Fernando leans over to her and kisses her on the forehead, or what he thought it was her forehead. It was actually her nose.

“That don’t work on me.”, Rachel says.

“What don’t work?”, Fernando asks.

“You kissed me on the nose.”, Rachel answers.

“I meant it for your forehead.”, Fernando replies.

“Then maybe we shouldn’t sleep together. You might miss and poke me in the butt instead.”, Rachel says seriously, thought she was joking about it.

Fernando sighs. He gets up and takes off his shirt, t-shirt, shoes, socks and pants; tossing them on the table or where he thought it should be. He climbs into bed and crawls under the blanket. Rachel  picks up the things that he missed and folds them neatly on the table. She then takes off her outer layers, crawls into his blanket and holds him.

Mr. Township worries what would be more costly, the repair to the Mall or his lawyer’s fees, even though he has to pay for both. At least his little girls are almost out of trouble. Then it was a matter of dealing with what had happened, which twin pushed the girl to almost certain death and which twin made the escape for both of them. For now their technological privileges had been revoked. No internet, no MP3s, no computer, no telephone,  no TV or radio. They were send to their room after dinner and a long discussion of father’s unhappiness.

They lay in the bed in their pajamas, backs to each other but not sleeping.

“How are you going to explain to Fernando that you accidentally killed his sister?”, Kathy asks.

“I don’t know.”, Cathy answers.

“We have a weekend before we go to court on Monday. I don’t want to see you go to jail, but I don’t want to go to jail either.”, Kathy states.

“What am I to do?”, Cathy asks.

“Admit the truth. Admit it was an accident, that you got mad after she shoved you and you shoved her back. You did not intended to send her through the barrier or fall to her death.”, Kathy explains.

“If I killed her, why are we not in jail?”, Cathy asks.

“I don’t know. Maybe daddy’s lawyer  got us a deal to stay out of jail for now.”, Kathy tries to explain.

“Maybe…”, Cathy says.

- End of: Brothers; Part 3 -