One day, I
hear Maeve yelling and screaming then I hear the door slam shut and her locking
it along with the dead bolt. She is a very large imposing woman who terrifies
my sister and me. I feel like everyone who meets her is afraid of her, except
others are lucky because they can leave while Roxanne, Jack, and I are trapped
here. On this occasion, there is a man at the door and he is definitely not
afraid of her. I can hear him yelling to “make sure you tell Jack, I run the
upstairs and he can stay down here to collect the rent”. Turns out Maeve is not
as brave as she seems, but as a kid, I did not know this. I interpreted her
fear as annoyance.
Mack Daddy
had just been down to our apartment door to inform “us” that he is now running the
upstairs; women, drugs, prison rules; “we” were to mind our business and
collect the rent from Mack Daddy. Mack Daddy would collect the rent from all
the other roomers and give Jack the amount he deemed appropriate. Jack was in
the bush, of course because he loves his freedom. Jack goes walking for
several kilometers a day; or sometimes fishing; or he plays cards with his
friends. He leaves Maeve home alone with the children she hates.
When Jack
returns home from his walkabout, he goes upstairs to speak to Mack Daddy. Just
as quickly as he went up, he came back down saying, “get the kids out of here.”
Big M called my aunt to come and collect us to take us to a safer environment.
In the meantime, Big M was on the phone with 911 and my father was debating
using his service revolver or the 303. The 303 won in the end and dad went upstairs
while Anna whisked us away in her car.
We spent a
lovely evening with our grandparents and even got to spend all day Saturday
with them before dad came to collect us. As it happens, Mack Daddy had been released
from prison after serving time on murder charges. Mack Daddy was very large, I
remember him filling the space of a door frame; Jack in comparison is about 5’9”
or 5’10 and weighs maybe 175 lbs. Jack has never been afraid of anything, he is
strong, brave, and prepared to fight to the death – unless he sees a snake (the
only thing that frightens him!) Jack has always been my hero.
After Roxanne
and I were whisked to Anna’s, the rooming house was surrounded by all of the city’s police cars – all five of them! The officers surrounding the property
held guns in shaking hands and let Jack take the lead. Jack led the officers upstairs to confront
Mack Daddy. When dad recounts the story, he said that the police where all
afraid of this giant man because he had nothing to lose and also because he had
already killed someone. Jack was ready and committed to defending his home and
he was itching to shoot his gun. After a stand-off which lasted several hours,
Mack Daddy was apprehended, removed from the property and we never heard from
him again.
Roxanne and I
returned home and were none the wiser.
Shortly after
this incident, Jack received a call from “Toronto” that rattled him. We had 3
hours to vacate the apartment and scrub any visible evidence that children
lived with Jack and Maeve. Roxanne, Jack, Maeve and I performed the flight of
the bumblebee and turned our bedrooms to a guest room and the other storage. We
hid all our toys and clothes in the basement. Family pictures, school pictures,
and any other pictures of children were removed from the refrigerator and
living room walls. We packed enough clothes for a week’s stay with our
grandparents and said goodbye to Jack and Maeve.
We returned
the following day and unpacked our clothes and replaced our belongings in our
bedrooms. From what I overheard, the former President of The Party had decided
to come for a spontaneous visit. It is a 700 km trip from The South to The
North and Jack had been retired from The Force for 5 or 6 years when his former
comrades decided to ‘surprise’ him by inviting themselves over. Clearly, Jack
had not told them he had children. Looking back, I wonder if getting married
and having children was a cover. What if having a family was his retirement
plan – something to do after he had lived his life of excitement and seed
sowing?
I heard about
his retirement plans ad nauseam as a
kid. Jack had purchased a plot of land with several acres, making sure to get the
mineral rights to the land prior to the purchase. He took us there often to ‘see’
it and walk around; there was a stream running through it and I remember it was lightly
forested. An architect in The South had designed the home he would build on the
land; it was a lovely log home designed to blend in its environment. Monique
had begged him to take an early retirement so they could move to The North and
begin their “happily ever after” sooner. Monique very much wanted to be near
family and raise her children with her husband, not alone. Jack insisted he had
to complete 25 years of service. Monique was not able to hold out that long and
left him in 1979.
Interestingly,
dad would take us to visit his land often when he would take us for long truck rides
on the weekends without Maeve. When I recall this memory, I am surprised to realize
that there are no elementary or high schools near the land. As a child, if he had
moved us to the land, we would have either traveled 90 – 120 minutes each way
to school or we would have to be home schooled. I’m glad they got divorced, spending
that much time on a bus does not sound fun. We would visit this plot of land
because there was a truck stop along the highway that served fantastic raisin
pie. Jack has a weakness for pie and weekends served to find new pie spots.
Maeve
would often stay home and pretend she had a bladder infection to avoid coming.
Sometimes when we returned if we were out for most of the day she would be
irritated that she had been left home alone. I discovered that I was good at
ass kissing and I became skilled at being resourceful, cunning, strategic and
manipulative. I noticed that Big M loved being showered with gifts. In the
beginning of their relationship daddy used to buy her flowers and chocolates often,
but as the family learned to blend, her screaming tantrums became more and more
frequent – a routine really, and he brought gifts home less and less. There was
a local plaza up the street and Maeve soon had an entire collection of “I love you” cheap porcelain kick-knacks. Another trick I learned
is that she loved compliments and she liked it when I asked if I could sleep in
her bed. At night, I would often fall asleep in their bed (because I wanted to
watch TV) and around 11 or midnight they would wake me up and I would head to my
own bed. Falling asleep in their bed served two purposes, first it made her
feel special and liked, but really, it allowed me to sleep without hearing her
slam the lid of the washing machine open against the wall (where my headboard
was) and then talk to herself loudly while watching clothes spin around inside the drum.
LOUDLY TALK TO HERSELF OVER THE WASHING. She did this so often that nearly
every single night I would fall asleep in their bed first then head to my own
room.
One night as
I was in my bedroom changing, a man I had never seen before walked in on me
while I was standing there naked. I did not panic; I simply threw my entire
weight behind my bedroom door slamming it shut then locked it. I finished
putting my pajamas on and walked to the kitchen to tell my parents what had
happened and asked if I could sleep in their bed. I remember Maeve being impressed
that I had the presence of mind to shut the door and lock it before getting
dressed and calmly walking in the kitchen to tell them. I guess when you live
with crazy, anyone who isn’t in your face yelling at you constantly is normal.
Later that
night dad woke me up as he entered his bedroom to look for something under the
bed. He was taking out a shotgun. I became alert in no time when I noticed him
reach for the bullets. Maeve was next in the room carrying artwork, dishes, and
then more paintings from the living room. Dad asked me to follow him to the living
room. Everything happened so quickly, Jack was aiming the gun at a corner in
the living room; Maeve was on the phone calling the police saying, “he will
shoot him if you don’t get over here.” I could not see in the darkness of the
living room and our house had been repainted so the living room furniture had
also been changed around after the fire and I wasn’t quite certain what dad was
aiming at… looked like the couch to me.
Suddenly, the
police were next to me (the police station was literally across the street from
our house), dad moved to the other side of the living room, gun aimed at the
corner as the cops walked to the back of the room. Lo and behold, the guy who
broke into my bedroom earlier is napping between the wall and couch. The only
reason dad claims he did not shoot the man in the living room is because he was
concerned about the mess splattered blood would make on freshly painted walls, the couch,
and carpet because the living room had just been re-done after the water damage
from the house fire. Before putting the man in the back of the police car, I
was asked to confirm that this was the man who broke into my bedroom. I nodded
in affirmation then went to my own bed to get some sleep before it was time for
school the next day.
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