Tales from the 13th “Accidents” (Where Bruises Go)

            Keeping things in the family wasn’t that hard. While they lived upstairs, he had a nasty habit of falling down the winding stairs. He would take nasty falls, which always left him black and blue. The only reason Deanna ever took him to the doctor was due to school requirements. However, in the first grade, he would be hospitalized twice. Both of which were unique. The first time was just after he had chicken pox. He had just returned to school for the spring term, and the new and returning programs were coming back to television. One show, in particular, was his favorite of all time, Battle of the Planets. The same one that his mother used as a timer to count down to him dying from the watermelon.

            It was coming back on that Monday afternoon, and he couldn’t wait to get back home. It had been off the air for the past two years, and he could barely concentrate in school. Then, at 2:10, classes were dismissed. He filled his backpack with the books he would need for homework and rushed out the door. He ran from school past the rectory and the church. The crossing guard, who was only a sixth grader, gave him the go-ahead, and he ran across the street. At least that was supposed to happen. He had just started crossing the street when a drunk driver plowed through the stop sign and struck him. He was hit and was thrown down the street, into the next lane of oncoming cars.

            The thing that saved him was that Deanna would throw him down on the ground and teach him to ball up and go with the flow immediately. They had practiced this, according to her, just in case his father threw him down. While that had never happened to him, with his father, he was thrown down the street and did what he was taught. He balled himself up and didn’t try to stop himself. He rolled down the street, missing two oncoming cars. Eric came to a stop, stood up, and started running back home as if nothing had happened. He wanted to see Battle of the Planets so much that he didn’t even feel the pain of getting hit.

            Before he even reached his street, a crowd of people had already gathered and grabbed him. Living two doors down from the Church, everyone knew where he lived. They dragged him in front of St. Thomas’ and threw him to the ground. People were gathered around him, yelling and screaming. He didn’t understand what was going on. He was fine; he just wanted to get home as the show was already on. Eric kept trying to stand up, but they shoved him down. Tired of them doing it, he lied and said that he couldn’t breathe, which made the inner circle of people back up slightly, and he attempted to run again. Again, they shoved him down, disregarding that he could have been hurt.

            According to Deanna, when they went to get her, she was told he was dead. It must have been a real disappointment that he was still alive and able to “walk it off.” That’s what he did. She lifted him, and they walked home, the drunk in tow, as he was apologizing to Eric for not stopping. Of course, the police came, filled out the reports, towed his car, and let him go in his drunken way. Thelma let her daughter borrow her car, which she picked up Denny, and took the eldest to the doctor. It wasn’t like she wanted to, but had to. Since it was known that he had been hit, for him to go to school the next day, he would have to be physically cleared.

            Through all that, he missed his show. It wasn’t till later that night, when he had just taken a bath and gotten dressed for bed, that he started throwing up uncontrollably. He had gone into shock hours later. They rushed him to the hospital and had him checked out. He was fine. There was no internal damage, and the patient was sent home. It was the talk of the class for a couple of days, but that was the end of it. You would think that after being miraculously saved from dying, he would have turned closer to God, but he didn’t. He was still himself, and his parents treated him like garbage. But that wasn’t the last time that he would be in the hospital that year.

            It was the weekend before Memorial Day, and he had a few days left until his 8^th birthday. The family loaded up into the grandmother’s car, which was cramped for six people, and headed to St. Casimir’s Cemetery. On the way there, his stomach started hurting badly. It was cramping as he owed it money. Thinking that the kid was just hungry, they got White Castles, and he barely ate. He had to stretch out on the console between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat, but there wasn’t any relief. They went to the two graves that they needed to, and they planted the flowers while he remained crying in the car. He was in that much pain.

            The visit wasn’t cut short by any means; he was stuck there, wallowing in torment. It took them a couple of hours, as they paid their respect to his maternal grandfather, great-grandfather, and uncles. When they got home, they went upstairs, and he was to take a nap, as did Denny, and Deanna felt like taking one as well. He wasn’t even in bed for fifteen minutes when he ran downstairs and tried going to the bathroom. He was hoping that it would relieve the pain, but it didn’t. It was worse. Staggering into the living room, where his father was watching television, he begged him for help. He told him how he was hurting, and he didn’t know what to do. Instead of listening to or helping him, his father told him to shut up and go to bed.

            He didn’t even make it through the dining room, which was the next room to the living room, and he collapsed. The pain was just too much for him. Lying there, crying his eyes out, he was calling out for help, begging for someone to help him. His father waited for a commercial and finally got up. Turning to his son, Eric Sr. told him that if he didn’t get up and go upstairs, he would be kicked. He counted to three, but the kid could barely move. To avoid being a liar, the father kicked him. He did this three times, once in the stomach, before his son finally got up and moved. Somehow, someway, he stood up and dragged himself up the stairs and into the family’s bedroom.

            With the room being half the size of the house, the parents’ bed was in the nook in front of the windows. The bunk beds were separated and placed on both sides of the wall. Two chairs were positioned in front of Eric’s bed, and then there was the television. The hurting child walked over to his mother’s bed and then collapsed again. He couldn’t carry on any further. Telling her that his father had just kicked him, he was still in a lot of pain. He needed help. Shaking her head, she reluctantly called the father and had him carry the child to the car, and took him to the hospital. They finally put him on pain medication and admitted him to the hospital for observation.

            He was there for four days. His mother and father would share spending time with him at night, as Deanna had to watch Denny. His grandmother, Thelma, was there the majority of the time. He watched “Pollyanna” with her, as well as the classic Twilight Zone episodes “Walking Distance” and “Where Is Everybody?” Then there was the chance to stay up, since the parents weren’t there after visiting hours, even though they could have stayed                                                                                . There were Sheri Lewis, Lambchop, and the Amazing Randi. That was one thing that entertained Eric the most: magic. He loved all forms of it. However, his parents weren’t going to waste money on stuff for him to learn. They had even gone to see Bozo once on WGN Channel 9, and the father, Deanna, and Denny all got Marshall Brodien magic cards. Since he wasn’t in their section, did either parent give theirs to Cafferty? Nope, they threw theirs out, and Denny ruined his.

            But they were nice enough to get him an Uncanny X-Men issue, an Avengers issue, a Batman coloring book, and some Penway crayons. That was when he discovered that Penway had made a wonderful-smelling crayon. It didn’t smell like anything, but it smelled like Play-Doh. You recognize it immediately, and it smells wonderful. Whenever he found them, even as an adult, in the store, he would smell them to remember that time.

            The ironic thing was that when Denny had to go into the hospital, Deanna was there all day, and Eric Sr. was there at night, but they wouldn’t do that for Eric when it was he who needed it. They pushed that off on Thelma, and that was one of the reasons they were close. Cafferty was very protective of his grandmother and even threatened his eldest Uncle, John, once when he left her stranded at a restaurant after dropping her off at the wrong one. He made a woman, who had a heart condition and could barely walk, navigate nine city blocks to get to her former son-in-law’s house. Luckily, Eric’s friend Joey was there, checking out his stepsister, and was able to drive her home. Eric called him up and told him that if he ever pulled another stunt like that again, he would kick his ass.