My Mother's house

13

Pictures of young Nath, with his shirt off, only in little boy underwear and bruises.  His body covered in blues and purples, greens and yellows.  I flipped to the next page and it was the same thing.  Just a different time.  I kept flipping.  Some of them his hair was longer, sometimes he was more tan.  Sometimes he had a cast.  Most of marred spots were on his body, places easily covered with a shirt and jeans.  But as he got older, the bruises lessened.  He looked ten or eleven and there weren't so many.  Not so many bruises, not so many pictures.  The older he got, the less there was, of all of it.  I didn't understand until I got to the very last turn of the page.  Two pictures stared at me.  One of me and him.  My little arms squeezing his waist and his cradling my back.  My eyes were closed, crying, and he was comforting me.  We were wearing all black, him in a suit and tie, me in a pretty black dress.  The last picture was of us, sitting on my front porch.  I'm on his lap sitting sideways and he was kissing my forehead sweetly.  We both looked sad, him more so than me.  My fingers met the page, smearing a tear that had fallen. 
I'm not to sure why I was crying.  If it was from seeing little broken Nath, or from seeing these two photos.  Why didn't Nath have these pictures?  Surely he would want them on his wall if he cared so much about me.  I closed the book and wiped my face. Making both my cheeks wet.  After putting the book in the box and the box back, I started towards the stairs.  Chester's eyes glowed at me and he turned away, scuttling down the stairs.
I went down cautiously, a run in with Chester in such small confinement might kill me.  Making it to my bedroom safely, I shut the attic and closet door and flopped my belly on my bed.  I wanted to think about what I had just seen, go over all of it in my head, but my burns were stinging.  I guess being up in all that dust must have gotten into my wounds.  I glanced to my door then walked to the bathroom.  After I wiped my hands on a hand towel, I pulled my shirt up slowly.  I couldn't shower or rinse off my wounds right now.  Nath had turned the water off to fix the furnace.  I looked in the mirror and couldn't see anything different, but it sure did feel that way.  I pulled down my shorts and my skin there had returned to its natural color mostly, some spots were a little lighter than others, slightly scarred.  I put my shorts back in place as well as my shirt and headed downstairs.  I really needed a shower anyway.  I reached the basement door and didn't hear a bunch of boys, but did see a light. 
I stepped down slowly, still nervous about being down here after what happened last time.  "Nath?"  I called out.  I was at the bottom step now and could see the new shiny furnace in place.  The old rusty one was no where in sight.  It even smelled better down here.  I turned to leave, not seeing the person I wanted to question right now and walked right into his arms, startling the hell out of me.
"Jesus, how did you get down those stairs without a sound.  You scared the piss out of me!"  I pushed his firm chest and felt his muscles clench under my touch.  I stepped back and away from him, those pictures flashing in my mind.
"I was turning the water back on.  Should have hot water in a few minutes."  The furnace started making weird noises and that was all I needed to hear to high tail it out of there.  I didn't run, but I was more than speed walking.  I glanced back and Nath was flipping switches on the new furnace, calming the evil monster down.  I waited for him on the steps.  It only took him a couple of minutes to find me.
"I sent the boys home already, they told me you got them a keg?"
"Yeah.  I needed this done, Chuck said they wouldn't do it without one."
Nath shook his head at me.  "Those boys would have done it for a twelve pack.  Plus I gave them the old furnace so they could take it to the scrap.  Probably get a hundred or two back."
I silently kicked myself.  But the job was done and I still got out of it cheaper than hiring someone.  I knew for next time to talk to Nath first.  "You think I could get them cheaper on the roof?"
He grinned at me.  "Not a chance.  There is nothing to haul off worth money and roofing is hard work.  After how you set them up this time, you will have to get two maybe three kegs and show up as Chuck's date."
"He told you about that?" My face turned slightly pink.  "He is such a little perv.  He must get it from his uncle."  Thin ice.  That was what I was walking on.  For someone who said they didn't want the other touching, I sure was flirting a lot.  Maybe it was the only way I could get close to him to ask him about those pictures I saw?  That was what I told myself at least.
Nath shook his head at me, then held out a hand to help me up.  "Come on, let's check to see if the water works in your bathroom.  It's the farthest pipes in the house."
I took his hand and got up, and let him lace his fingers with mine as we walked side by side up the stairs in silence.  We got to my door and he let me go first, following me to the bathroom.  I bent over and turned on the shower.  Only a small amount of brown red came out then it went clear.
"There will still be a little rust left in the pipes, but they should flush out in a few days."  he put his hand under the water.  "The furnace works.  I set it a little lower so it will save on the electric bill, but it can still get hot enough to burn."
I put my hand under the water, and it was cool, but still felt warm enough to feel good.  "Can you wait on my bed for me?  I need to shower but I also need someone to put cream on my back after."  He smiled at me, a slow sad caring smile.  "Of course."  He held my neck in both his hands and kissed my forehead.  Just like he had done in that picture I found in the attic, and left the room, closing the door behind him.
I shed my clothes and got in, the shower felt amazing.  But my thoughts quickly drifted back to Nath.  To the words he had said.  I had to make sure you wouldn't tell my secrets.  My parents knew.  One of them must have known to have those pictures.  So why would he worry about me telling?  Better yet, why didn't my parents tell the authorities.  Cps, the police, someone?  I thought about my Dad, how he acted around Nath.  He acted normal.  Like a person normally would.  My mom.  I didn't know if it was her or not.  She was a good person, but then again she did turn out crazy.  For all I knew, she could have been the one beating him.  I quickly struck that thought out.  My mom might have been crazy, but she wouldn't hurt anyone other than herself.  There was no way she could have hurt Nath.  But did she know?  This was her house.  If it was Dad that knew, the pictures would be at his house wouldn't they?  Maybe not.  All of those pictures were taken here, or around this house.
I gave up.  The only way to know, was to ask Nath, or ask my Dad.  I didn't want to ask Dad and have him be the one that didn't know.  He seemed like he didn't know, the way he treated Nath.  The way he talked about Nath when we were little.
I got out of the shower and dried down the parts of me that could stand to be touched.  Then held the white fabric to my front.  Clearly I hadn't thought this through.  I didn't have any clothes in here, and couldn't wrap the towel around me.  "Fuck"  I muttered.  I held one arm across my chest and the other down, holding the towel to my hip.  Not like Nath hasn't seen my ass before.  I took a deep big girl breath and walked out of the bathroom.  Nath's eyes met mine as soon as I stepped out.  He stood up and to the side of my bed and I could feel my body heat from embarrassment.  A few steps away, Nath walked passed me to the bathroom and I could hear the sink running as I laid down on my stomach.  I closed my eyes tight and listened to his foot falls on the wood floor growing louder.  He worked from my calf up, his hands running up my leg, sending a chill up my spine. 
This shouldn't feel like this.  It should feel good, just in a different, less sexual way.  He skipped my newly healed bum and went to my back, rubbing in soft slow motions until he was on my arm.  It was over before I could protest, and the snap of the gloves being removed pulled me back from my fantasy. 
"You should get some vitamin E oil for the scars.  It will help lighten them."
I wanted to ask how he lightened his mental scars of abuse, but it wasn't the right time.  I heard him walk to the bathroom, throwing away the gloves and put up the cream. I got up from the bed and held onto my towel a little looser than earlier and met him in front of my dresser.  I pulled on his neck with one hand and kept the other between us.  I was just tall enough on my tip toes to kiss him on the cheek.  It was meant to be a simple kiss, but it lingered and his stubble was rough against my lips in the most antagonizing way.
"Thank you Nathy."  I fell back on the flats of my feet, my hand slid down to his chest where my eyes were kept, watching his chest slowly rise and fall.  His hand captured my arm and he gently pushed me away and walked out, closing my bedroom door behind him.
I didn't know exactly what I had said, or what I had done to upset him.  But somehow I knew he was upset.  Not at me, but about something.