Hope Is a Waking Dream

Chapter 19

Daryl lay in bed, awake, but quiet. He didn’t hear anything so that meant that either his dad was sleeping it off or never came home last night. He was hoping for the latter. He had learned to be stealthy in the woods, but Will Dixon could hear a breeze blowing from a thousand yards away, even when he was drunk. He laid in bed for a few more minutes, turning over to see what his alarm clock would say. Seven twenty-six in the morning, and it was Saturday. Not that the day of the week mattered. He hadn’t been to school in a while, didn’t want to have to explain the black eyes and bruises. So he spent his days in the woods alone, hunting for his breakfast, lunch and dinner. He stayed in bed another half hour until he got up as quietly as he could and put on his shirt and pants from yesterday, and the day before that. He slowly opened the door and listened, hearing nothing, not even snoring. He crept into the bathroom and brushed his teeth, then went into the kitchen. He was lacing up his boots when he heard a knock on the front door. He figured it was some Jehovah Witness, they were the only people ever stupid enough to knock on Will Dixon’s door. He looked through the peephole and saw two police uniforms. He figured they were there for one of two reasons. Either Merle was dead or in jail, or Will was dead or in jail. He opened the door slowly and immediately recognized Officers Carey and Charles. They had arrested his father and brother more times than he could count.

“Hello Daryl,” Officer Charles said and held his hand out for the young man to shake.

“Morning Officers. Merle and my daddy ain’t here. Ain’t seen Merle in a couple of weeks and Will was gone when I got home yesterday.”

“Yeah, son we know. Can we come in? There’s something we gotta talk about.”

“Sure,” Daryl said and opened the door wide enough for both officers to walk inside. They didn’t bother sitting, just got right to the point.

“Daryl, your daddy was arrested last night. He was driving drunk again . . . .” Daryl cut him off at that point.

“I can’t bail him out this time. I think he found the place I been stashing some money. Every penny was gone last night. I assume he bought liquor with it since he was driving drunk.”

“He very well may have son, but there’s more. Maybe you should sit down.” Both dread and hopeful relief surrounded Daryl. Will was dead, he just knew it. That meant so many different things to him. He really didn’t know what he was feeling at that moment.

“Naw sir, just tell me what happened,” he said trying to remain calm.

Officer Carey took over the conversation at this point and moved standing closer to Daryl. “He passed out behind the wheel, went straight through a red light. Ran right into a vehicle containing three passengers. Two were dead at the scene, the third was unconscious and taken by ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Will is in lock up. We booked him for DUI and vehicular manslaughter. If that little girl lives and can give us a statement your dad could do some significant time for this.”

Daryl was stunned. He always thought that if Will would have killed anyone in a drunken stupor, it would have been him. “A little girl? She’s still alive? Is she gonna be okay?”

“Don’t know yet son. Spoke to the doc before we came over here. She’s in a coma, got head trauma, internal bleeding and minor cuts and bruises. She’s going into surgery as soon as she’s stable enough.”

“The two people who died, they were her parents or something?”

“Yes,” Officer Charles answered. “We’re not gonna ask ya to come down to the station right now, but we’ll need a statement from you saying that your money was gone. Since you’re just sixteen, you’re supposed to go into Child Protective Services, but we don’t want that to happen, son. We’re gonna try to find Merle, once he proves he’s your next of kin, he can take you. I know you gotta be all kinds of confused son, so I’m gonna give ya a few hours. Go out to the woods for a while, collect yourself, then come to the station this afternoon. We’ll get your statement and try to find Merle in the meantime. Ya got any ides where he could be?”

“No sir. I saw him a couple weeks ago, said he’d made some new friends and was staying with a woman out in Stallings. Don’t know who she is, but he’s gonna run if he sees y’all coming.”

“Well, we’ll do our best.” Officer Carey reached in his pocket and took out a twenty dollar bill. “Go get ya something to eat boy, go down to the diner and get ya a good home cooked meal.” Daryl was suddenly ashamed and couldn’t look the officers in the eye. “I’m sorry Daryl, for how things turned out for you. Losing your mamma, getting stuck with Will, and Merle turning out the way he has. We all knew what was going on in this house from day one, but by law couldn’t do anything about it unless someone pressed charges or we caught him in the act. This is a terrible thing that’s happened, a little girl lost her entire family, but I think this could be a turning point for you. He will go to prison for this, I promise. You have to promise me that you’ll take advantage of this situation and turn things around. You can have a better life now Daryl.” He placed the twenty on the table and they walked out the door. Daryl stared at the money the officer had left him. He stared at it for quite a while and thought about what they had said.

He hadn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Yes, he had squirrel and rabbit when he could catch it, but there were no guarantees he could catch it. He hadn’t had fresh fruit or vegetables in months. His body was severely deficient of vitamins and minerals and he knew he could get more than a decent meal with that much money, maybe two meals. He finally picked up the twenty and shoved it in his pocket. This was the first of many good things Daryl hoped would come from this situation.

He sat in the corner booth at the diner on Main Street eating breakfast, a real honest to god breakfast. He ordered fried eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy along with a tall glass of orange juice and a black coffee. He had been able to get all that for six bucks, plus tax and tip of course. He tried to feel guilty for what was happening with his dad. Will deserved to be in prison for what he had done, for all the things he had done, and he felt relief that his own personal hell was on pause for now. The officers sounded confident that his dad would go away for a long time, but what if he didn’t? Will had friends, nasty, low-life friends. He had always avoided being arrested or punished for beating his ma, Merle and himself. This wouldn’t be any different, he would be home in a few weeks after all this blew over and things would go back to normal for him.

Then he thought about the little girl in a coma. She probably had a great life, loving parents who supported her and didn’t beat her every time they saw her. Now she had lost that because Will just couldn’t stop fucking up other people’s lives. He had ruined Merle’s life, though his brother would never give that man credit for it. Drugs, alcohol and pussy were his coping mechanisms, Daryl never questioned why. His own ability to cope was somewhat shaky and didn’t always work. He practically lived in the woods. When his dad was home, he was either there or in school, which he hated, but his dad wasn’t there, so he felt safe.

He gave Office Charles his statement, which didn’t take long, and the cop asked him a few more questions that he couldn’t answer. Before he left the station he asked if he would have to appear in court or be required to see his father for any reason. He was told no, since he had given his statement and was not involved in the incident, he would not be required to appear in court, and he didn’t have to see his father unless he wanted to, which he didn’t. He tentatively shook the officer’s hands when presented with them and asked if they would keep him updated on the case, especially the little girl and they said they would. Within the week, the girl had woken up and the case against Will Dixon was heading to court. Merle showed up at his door the second week after the accident. “Pack yo shit baby brother, we’re getting the fuck up outta this joint, ain’t never coming back.”

“Where are we going Merle? What about school? I only got a year left, can’t we wait just a little?” Daryl asked him, eager to follow his brother like a puppy, but also wishing he could do the one thing that no other Dixon ever had, graduate high school.

“No baby brother. Ya see, I got my ass into a bit of trouble and I got to get the fuck outta Dodge and I ain’t leaving without ya. I ain’t never gonna leave ya behind ever again. It’s my job to turn ya into a man, and I aim to do it. You gonna be my right hand, my lieutenant, my muscle when, and if, something goes wrong. Trust me baby brother, that’s always a possibility in my line of work.”

“What’s your line of work?” Daryl asked. He didn’t know if he wanted an answer to that question or not.

“Don’t have time to go into details. You don’t need to worry your pretty little head about it Darlina. You just need to worry about keeping your eyes and ears open and covering my ass. Now stop your yippy yappin’ and grab your damn shit. Bring whatever the hell you want, just pack it up and put it the old man’s truck. What kinda shape is it in?”

Daryl shrugged. “It’ll still run. The guys down at the shop said they did the best they could with it considering how old and shitty it was to begin with.”

“Alright little brother, you drive the pick-up. We’ll do what we can to keep it running.” Daryl ran to his room and pulled his gym bag from under his bed. He always kept a change of clothes in it in case the opportunity to escape from this hell ever presented itself. Now that the truck was his, he could take more stuff with him. He didn’t have a lot, but he grabbed a few more shirts, pants and underwear. He threw in a few books he had hidden from Will, things would have been even worse if Will thought his son felt he was better than him. He grabbed his toothbrush, deodorant, razors and all of his father’s guns and knives. He took one last look at his bedroom, a place that had held so many terrors for him. He was not sad to say goodbye to it, he had a feeling that the accident may have taken two lives, but it gave him a chance to finally live his own life. He grabbed his crossbow and walked out of the house. He followed Merle out of the driveway and never looked back.

Melissa suddenly stopped what she was doing. She didn’t turn around, she didn’t do anything. She had to have misheard him. That man’s father took her parent’s lives? How could he know that for sure? How long had he known before he decided to tell her? She wasn’t sure if she believed him, but he didn’t lie, right? After what they shared last night, why would he do this to her now, when she was naked in a creek? “Say something Melissa, please.” She turned around slowly, suddenly feeling the need to hide herself from him again. She rushed out of the water and grabbed one of the towels he brought. His voice was strained and his face was full of sorrow. This was hurting him deeply. After she wrapped the towel around herself, she knelt in front of him.

“Why would you say that? What in the hell would make would make you say that Daryl? That can’t be true.” There were a few tears running down his cheeks. His nerves were starting to fray and he started talking a mile a minute. “I remember that day, well the day after when the cops came to the door. They told me two people were dead and a little girl was in a coma. All I could think about was that bastard ain’t coming home today. Cops told me he’d go to prison for a long time and I wanted that to happened, not just for the accident, but for everything else that he’d done, to mama, to Merle, and to me. I felt sorry for ya, figured you’d lost a pretty good set of parents. I bet they loved ya and treated ya good. I felt sorry for a cause he took ‘em away from ya. He always destroyed anything that was good, or could be good. I thought about going to the hospital to see ya, but I didn’t think you’d want to see me. I thought you’d hate me, and when Merle come to get me, I didn’t look back. We left town that day. I wasn’t even there for the trial. Didn’t give a fuck what happened to him. I got away from him and that stupid town as fast as I could. Went somewhere nobody knew what being a Dixon meant. That was my opportunity to get out and live a normal life and I was glad that it happened. I stopped thinking about that little girl, stopped caring about what happened to her. I never knew who you were and I didn’t care. My old man destroyed your life and I didn’t care.” Daryl covered his face in his hands and sobbed, his body started to shake with the impact of the tears.

Melissa sat in front of him cross-legged, but didn’t touch him. She didn’t offer him any kind of comfort, just sat watching him cry. She remembered the pain she had felt when she woke from the coma, physical and emotional. She remembered the two policemen who told her that her parents were dead and had already been buried. She remembered what they told her about the man who had killed them. “Daryl, do you want to know what the police told me about him? Do you want me to tell you what I know about that man?” He took his hands away from him face, but didn’t look at her, he just stared at the ground. “They told me he was a drunk, and addict, a wife beater . . . . and a child abuser. They said his wife had killed herself to get away from him. The police report called it an accidental fire, but that everyone knew better. Said he had two boys, one already had a record a mile long, and the other one . . . they said the other one had been sent to the hospital more times than they could count. They told me that the man who killed my parents was going to prison for a long time, that his son was finally free and had a chance at a good life and that he deserved it. What they wanted me to understand was that my parent’s deaths saved a life. Mom and dad were good people, they did love me and take care of me. They would give the shirt off their backs if someone needed it. If they would have known that their deaths saved your life, they would have been happy to do it. Children meant everything to them. Momma told me once that before I was born they’d take in foster kids, kids who were abused, abandoned and neglected. They would have taken you Daryl, they would have wanted to give you a better life. I don’t hate you, I’m not mad at you and I certainly am not going to begrudge you freedom from abuse. I was happy to hear that you had been given a chance, even if I didn’t know you. Yes, I was angry that I was alone and I hated the man who took them away from me. I hate him still today, but now I have more to hate him for. You need to forgive yourself Daryl, you did nothing wrong.”

He still couldn’t look at her, but he had stopped crying. “I can’t lose you. I can’t do this by myself anymore. Please don’t leave me. I love you.” He said the last part so quietly that she barely heard him, but she did hear him. Melissa hadn’t heard those words since her parents had last said them to her. She brought his face up to hers and wiped tears from his face and hair from his eyes. “I will never leave you Daryl. Now that I know you, I can’t live without you. I will always be with you, until you don’t want me anymore.” She kissed his lips. There was no passion or lust behind it, just the security that they were together.