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

            It was at the end of 1978, and the Caffertys were in the process of adopting the newest member of their family. Eric was excited as he would have a playmate, the parents’ other son. The two things that they knew were that the mother and father couldn’t afford to keep him, and that his parents were crackheads. They knew that the poor child was going to go through withdrawals, but other than his mother being a piece of shit, everything on the ultrasound was coming up aces for the child. Eric was thrilled to have a new sibling; he gave the child his prized toy car collection. Nearing a hundred cars in total, he used a gutted-out portable record player’s case to transport them.

            Before they were to get Denny, they had a sit-down with the three of them. It was directed at Eric, as they saw him as the weakest link in this process. They sat him down to help him understand that Denny was his brother, Put. There wasn’t any partial, half, or adopted; he was to be Denny Cafferty, and he was to be part of the family. The four-and-a-half-year-old understood. They agreed that they were never going to tell Denny that he was adopted. Even if he asked, they, the three of them, had to be in complete agreement on whether to say to him. If one broke the deal, it would be a horrible situation for them. That’s when they all swore never to tell, unless all three agreed.

            Eric took this swearing-in personally. He didn’t like being considered the weakest link between the three of them. The fact was, he could keep his mouth shut just as well as they could. Sure, he was a little chatterbox, never knowing when to shut up. However, this time it was different. There are stakes involved. He wasn’t about to hurt his younger brother. And that was the thing about it. Denny was going to be his younger brother, and he was sure as hell going to make sure that he wasn’t going to suffer the same fate that he did. It was a child’s wishful thinking. But it would be true.

            January 16th came, and he was born. The bedroom was already set up for Denny’s arrival. They didn’t get him right away, as the baby had to go through withdrawal first. Thanks to the mother, who wasn’t supposed to use it but did. Then came the terrible news. Denny was born deaf. Right away, without hesitation, Deanna insisted that she and Eric Sr. take sign language classes. They needed to know how to communicate with him as soon as possible. So they started taking classes at night, and Eric’s paternal grandparents would watch him because they were fifteen minutes away from the house by car.

            She was so crafty, and Deanna had already worked it out. In case anyone asked her. Since she was four, she had been deaf in one ear due to a very high fever. If anyone asked how Denny was, she would say that she was partially deaf. Since that was a “touchy” subject back then, no one asked about it. No one even questioned it. So, she and Eric Sr. took the night classes, and during the day, while working on his preschool lessons, she taught him what she learned the night before. He took to it like a fish to water. She taught him what it meant to be deaf, making him feel vibrations. This would come back to haunt him as an adult.

            Denny finally arrived, and Eric had to wait on his hand and foot. He’d be watching cartoons when the baby would cry, and he would be the one who got up to give the baby the pacifier. He would have to make the formula and give it to Deanna, who would finally get up and get him. She relied heavily on Eric to do things for her. But that would change the moment the father came home. Then she was the active housewife. She didn’t have Eric do anything; he was free to play and watch television with his father. When he watched, the most they would do to bond was lie on the floor together. When Eric Sr. was in his recliner, they never sat in it together; that was too feminine for him.        

            It became very clear that Denny was Deanna’s favorite right away. The boy could do no wrong in her eyes. It was night and day in how the children were treated. Before Eric turned sixteen, his brother turned eleven. For Denny’s birthday, he received a brand-new Game Boy; for Eric’s sixteenth birthday, he got an ice cream cake. They didn’t have money for a present, nor did they make it up to him. This was the status quo with them. The youngest would get spoiled, and the eldest had to be the understanding one. If he wasn’t, he was beaten for being “selfish.” Did Denny share his Game Boy? No. He had received a color television and a brand-new Nintendo system. Eric received an old 70s black-and-white television and a used Nintendo system.

            Then, when Denny hit puberty, he went into a phase of “Why am I deaf?” Those would result in horrid outbursts. There were times that he was so bad that Deanna ordered Geoff to throw him into the shower and turn on the ice-cold water to cool him down. No one took his venomous outrage more than Eric. He would be sitting there one moment and then be attacked the next. Luckily, before they moved to the suburbs with Rasnick, they would wrestle as they did on television. Eric learned how to fight Denny and restrain him. Sadly, whenever they wrestled for the “belt,” the younger brother would cheat every time. He would change the rules to keep himself a champion.

            Then came the Christmas of 1992. They were at Eric Sr and his wife Maria’s house. They had gone out shopping when Denny had one of his rage outbursts. The thing was, Deanna never told the father that the son had gone through this, so it came as a surprise to him. For two hours, they fought, Eric, doing everything he could to calm his brother down. Even Maria’s youngest child, Tim, was afraid of what was going on. During the scuffle, the Christmas tree was moved, causing it to be crooked by two inches. Then, minutes before the parents got home, Denny finally came down.

            The thing about holidays with Eric was that he was constantly attacked and beaten severely during them. Especially when it came to Christmas, the attacks were worse, and he barely slept during the holiday. Even before Denny’s outburst, he was exhausted. Then came his rage fit. They were sitting in the television room, where they also slept when they stayed at Eric and Maria’s, when the father noticed that his tree was off-center. He was livid that it had to be fixed and stormed into the room, wanting to know what had happened. The eldest tried doing his best to explain the outbursts, but the father was too far gone to want “excuses.” He was yelling at Denny, too, who took out Eric Sr’s Christmas present, told him he’d break it, and when he didn’t stop yelling, snapped the golfing mug’s handle off. 

            He then shot his rage at Eric. Tired, he didn’t want to deal with it. He was still trying to recover from the two-hour performance he had just given. Thinking that his son was being belligerent, he threatened, as he did when he was a child, that if he thought he was a man, they could go into the garage and fight like one. Those were the worst words he could have said to the eldest child, as he was not in the mood for anyone’s shit. Eric, still sitting on the sofa, looked up at him dead in the eyes and told him, “You wanna go? Let’s go! But you keep in mind, only one of us is going to be able to walk out of there permanently.”

            He had finally stood up to his childhood abuser. He was tired of being threatened, but more so by Geoff and Deanna. Eric Sr., who hadn’t struck his son for six years, received the brunt of his being sick of parental figures threatening and kicking his ass. The father stormed off, went to his room, and slammed the door. The two didn’t speak about the statement from that point on. Since he didn’t understand the outbursts, he called Deanna and asked them to meet at the halfway point between Chicago and Elgin. Their weekend with the father was cut short. Eric didn’t mean for this to happen, as he was safe when he was with Eric and Maria. Instead, he was at the mercy of his mother and stepfather. Sadly, they would “discipline him” for restraining Denny and not having him destroy their father’s house.

            Deanna would always play games with Eric Sr. He would drive from Chicago to Elgin only to be told the kids couldn’t go. She could have made that choice the night before and had Eric call him, so he wouldn’t have to waste time and gas, but she didn’t care. The eldest son would, at times, pack his bag a week early to get away from her and Geoff. But then the day came for him to be picked up, and he had to tell his father that they couldn’t go. The mother would then gaslight, trying to convince the son that she did it because “HE” wanted it. He couldn’t believe that she would try this tactic, as he wanted to go. Desperately. However, she continued to lie to him and took Eric Sr. away from the kids.

            It was because Deanna didn’t keep in touch with Denny’s father that the worst thing happened to Denny. The only time that she would speak to Eric Sr. was to scream at him about the child support check being delayed in the mail. It wasn’t like she reimbursed him for all the gas he wasted, but she wanted that child’s support, and that’s all she cared about. She would even take the father back to court for past child support, but he had the receipts for everything, and she lost. When it came to talking, it was always Eric’s job to convey stuff to him, but he wasn’t allowed to discuss matters that remained in the family. Denny’s rage outbursts were one of those things.

            Denny had finally had his fill of Deanna after Eric moved out and decided he was going to move in with Eric and Maria. It was then that he posed the central question of his existence to them. Why this was, no one but the boy could say. But he wanted to know from his father if he was adopted. Now, the three of them had agreed that they wouldn’t tell Denny the truth unless all three had decided upon it. They also implied that Eric, the son, would be the weak one who spilled the beans. However, the father decided to reveal the secret to Denny himself, as he felt Denny was an adult and could handle it.   

             He was wrong. Denny moved back with Deanna and just wasn’t the same. They tried getting him the help he needed, but his mental state deteriorated after that. His outbursts became more violent, leading to times when the mother and stepfather would call the police on him, and he would have to be put in jail until he calmed down. Eric was away from the family, and Denny barely came to see him, even on Christmas. The elder brother didn’t go to the parents’ house because he had too many cats for him to handle, and he would have had an allergic reaction to them, since he was the only one who could drive. Janey couldn’t drive on the expressway yet, as she was intimidated by it.

            The last time Eric saw his brother was when he was in the hospital. Deanna brought the whole family in to see the eldest brother. It was during that visit that Denny became angry with their mother and attempted to strike her. Eric was up and between them before the younger brother expected. Jacked up on pain medication, he wasn’t about to let the brother strike the woman in front of him. Denny knew that he should cross Eric, as he’d never beaten him in any wrestling match they ever had. Back down, Deanna finally had to admit that he feared the elder sibling. She’d always built Denny up as the one who would win, thanks to his extra strength, but she was put in her place when she saw this.