The drive to see Layden Chu made Flower very happy. Her niece Tabby seemed to be making progress from those sessions and Layden Chu was Flower’s personal guru and therapist. Tabby didn’t have the heart to tell her aunt that Layden was really a guy whose last name was Epstein. He just used the Chu moniker to make himself come off as someone who was very mystic. It didn’t matter, her aunt was happy and that was all that mattered to Tabby. Flower sang along to the golden oldies station on the radio while she drove,
“Well, I came upon a child of God, she was walking along the road and I asked her tell me where are you going? This she told me,” Flower leaned over and kissed her niece on the cheek. “I’m singing about you Tabby! Can you tell? I changed the lyrics from ‘he’ to ‘she’,”
“That’s cool Aunty,” Tabby nodded her head and smiled.
“Got to get back to the land and set my soul free,” Flower continued singing. “We are stardust, we are golden, we are ten billion year old carbon, and we got to get ourselves back to the garden,”
…..........
The session:
Tabby was lost in her journal entry for the past hour while Epstein sat at the opposite side of the room on his laptop. Only half of his attention was focused on his Facebook profile while the other half zeroed in on the way in which Tabby held her pen,
“Spencerian penmanship, interesting. I’d think that it was the last thing an 11-year-old would be interested in?”
“My Dad taught me; he made me practice for an hour every day,” Tabby kept her head in her journal without looking up.
“I remember having to do that in the third grade, I hated it. Made my hand cramp up,” Epstein mused.
“Do you mind?” Tabby asked. “I’m on a roll and I’d like to get through this uninterrupted,”
“I wonder where you go when you’re in there?” Epstein asked.
“Go where?” Tabby was already irritated by his probing questions.
“In that journal of yours or in your head. Just wondering what keeps you there?” He was curious.
Looking at the wall clock he said, “Well, the hour is up; next week same time I suppose?”
“Sure,” Tabby said as she tucked her journal into her backpack. “Anything to make my aunt happy,” she said as she walked past him.
“About that,” Epstein began. “Making your aunt Flower happy, and all that,”
Tabby had herself positioned at the office door and had it halfway open.
“It’s obvious that you’re sleeping with my Aunt; I mean the way her face lights up when she talks about you? Doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. I haven’t told her that you’re not really Layden Chu; maybe she knows but doesn’t want to face it, I dunno. We’ve been doing this therapy thing for six months and you still don’t know anything about me and if you’re smart, you’ll keep it that way. Besides, you don’t think that people in this building aren’t wondering why you’re doing an hour of closed therapy sessions with an 11-year-old girl?” Tabby eyed Epstein closer now. “You really aren’t that smart, are you?”
“Maybe I’m not,” Epstein replied. “Maybe you aren’t either?”
He had her journal, he must have grabbed it from her backpack when she walked past him. He dangled it in front of her like he was a bully in the schoolyard, keeping the ball away from the younger, weaker kid.
If Tabby was the least bit upset, it wasn’t showing on her face, “Let’s do this, I’ll count to three and then you blink. If I can’t take my journal back from you by the time you’re done blinking, then I’ll do anything you want,”
Epstein nearly fainted as a fevered lust came over him, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing,
“Your journal means that much to you?”
“Yea, it does.” Tabby said.
“Alright,” Epstein smirked, not believing that Tabby would actually be able to take her journal back in the blink of an eye. “Go ahead,”
Tabby took in a deep breath and exhaled very slowly, “Here we go,”
Epstein readied himself and kept as tight a grip as he could on Tabby’s journal. He felt that he should give her as many chances as possible; after all, he wasn’t a sore winner. He wanted to leave her with a sense of dignity before he took her virginity; 11 years old or not. Tabby stood in front of him, concentrating as hard as she could.
“One,” she emoted. Epstein waited for the next count but it never came; Tabby cocked her right foot back and kicked him in the balls so hard that it lifted him off the floor and caused him to let out a mournful grunt. In one fell swoop, she grabbed her journal and walked out of the office and left Epstein in a heap.
…
Boy was finishing up his meeting with George Oshiro from the state department of transportation. Uncle Ivan and Uncle Tiny were in attendance while Aunty Rita took notation.
“Without your parent's help, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my job,” George said.
“They talked about you all the time George,” Boy replied. “They loved it when you would bring ‘opihi from Lanai,”
“Oh, I didn’t mind doing it for them, they were such good people,” George was a humble man and always cried whenever Kahi and Victoria were mentioned.
The meeting adjourned and as everyone made their way out of the office, the phone rang at the front desk. Aunty Rita took the call; her face lit up and then went dark in the next second. She held the phone up and looked at Boy,
“You should take this in your office,” Rita gave Boy a raised eyebrow in order to stress the importance of the call.
….
Boy left his office door partially open as he took a seat at this desk and picked up the phone,
“Aloha, this is Boy,”
“Aloha Boy, this is Lopaka. I apologize for bothering you, I know you’re busy,”
“Not a bother my friend; my Aunty Rita had a look of concern on her face when she told to me to take the call in my office. So, this must be something important?” Boy asked.
“Tabby’s in jail,” Lopaka said.
“In jail?” Boy was concerned. “For what?”
“Assault; she claims it was self-defense,” Lopaka relayed the news plain and simple. “She had me listed as her next of kin, not her aunt. She said she doesn’t ever want Flower to get THAT phone call one day,”
“Understandable,” Boy agreed. “Let me guess, she’ll only talk to you and me?”
“Correct,” Lopaka said.
“By the way, who was she defending herself against?” Boy was curious.
“Her therapist,” Lopaka chuckled. “I’d bail her out myself but I’m in between paychecks.”
“No need to explain,” Boy replied. “I’ll be right there,”
…..........
LATER
Boy sat at Aunty Rita’s table feasting on the boneless Kal-bi which melted in his mouth without effort. The Korean fried rice only served to compliment the sauce which soaked the meat for most of the day. Lopaka busied himself with the impromptu meal but took a moment to pass Tabby a napkin. Rita sat at the end of the table eyeing everyone closely.
“Lopaka, I’ll make a plate for you to take home to your wife. Don’t forget to tell her that I put my recipe in the bag,” Rita offered.
“Thank you, Aunty, I know she’ll appreciate it,” Lopaka smiled.
“You bring Tanya and the kids by anytime. That’s not an invitation, it’s an order,” Rita said.
“Yes Aunty, I’ll do that,” what else could Lopaka say? No one ever said ‘no’ to Aunty Rita.
Rita looked over at Tabby while simultaneously drumming her fingers on the table, “Well? I know that the three of you didn’t just show up for a free meal, so does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Boy put his hand up and said, “We had a situation,”
“Situation my foot! ” Rita scoffed.
“It’s okay Uncle Boy,” Tabby assured him. “Aunty, I was arrested tonight because I assaulted my therapist. He wanted to have sex with me, but I was able to defend myself and get away.”
“Oh my god, oh my god,” Rita began to tear up. She got up from her chair and walked over to Tabby and took the girl in her arms and held her tight. “I am so sorry honey, I am so, so sorry,”
“It’s okay Aunty, I’m fine,” Tabby suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.
“I’m sorry that your therapist didn’t get to open you up like the little whore that you are!”
Rita screamed but it wasn’t her voice. It was a deafening cacophony of voices that caused Boy and Lopaka to cover their ears. Rita threw Tabby to the floor and had her by the throat. Boy and Lopaka tried to pry Rita away from Tabby but the old woman knocked them down like rag dolls. The light was slowly fading away from Tabby's eyes; she'd be dead soon.
To be continued...
What? What happens to Tabby? Nice one.
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