sightless.

24: Unprepared and Unnecessary

"Bed's not big enough, Amelia?  It's mine.  Go elsewhere if you have a problem with it.  The boy stays."  He paused in thought and then continued in typical Joker fashion, "He's never sleeped in a real bed before."  He sneered the last part, and she felt her heart break all over again.  His voice became gentler when he said, "Tell me what's going on."

She didn't know what to say or where to start but instead tried diverting.  "You tell me what's going on.  Why were we taken?  I know it was your fault."  She rolled over on her side to look him in the eyes.  She wanted the truth out of him.  He continued laying on his back but finally looked over at her. 

"It was that deal gone wrong.  They apparently knew about you.  They were doing their own fixing.  I killed most of them. The end."  He looked back up at the ceiling and said, "Now you.  What's with the kid?"

"He was there in the room when I woke up.  He was a kid from my apartment building.  The end."  She couldn't help the shit-eating grin that stole across her face when he rolled his eyes at her. 

"But why the hell is he calling you Mommy?  And why the hell are you answering to that?" he spat.  Out of his mouth, it sounded like a disgusting word.  Out of little Freddy's mouth, it was the sweetest word imaginable.

"Because he doesn't have parents."  I don't even know why I'm explaining myself to him.  He doesn't deserve an explanation after everything he put me through.

"So you just took it upon yourself to be this kid's mom?"  He looked genuinely curious.  He looked like he honestly didn't know why she didn't leave him behind.  She remembered that he wanted to leave poor, little Freddy behind.

"Who else is going to do it?  His parents left him waiting for them in a hallway for God only knows how long.  He doesn't have anyone, and he asked if I would be his mom." 

"And your childhood comes rushing back."  He sounded exhausted just from her simple explanation, but she could tell he finally understood where her reasons came from.  

"Basically.  I can tell you this, though.  He's mine.  I'll never let him have a childhood like mine."  She snuggled further under the covers, wondering why he was even curious about this.  He was going to leave Freddy in that horrible room.  "Why would you leave a child in a dark room?"

"It's easy to leave someone behind when you can't see them.  I didn't know who he was, and we were running on a timer.  It could have been worse if we took anymore time.  Don't question me on why I don't give a shit, Amelia.  You won't like the answers."

"Then don't question me on why I do give a shit, Joker.  You may not like the answers."

"Here's a good one."  He ignored her attitude.  He continued, "Why were you living in that dump?  That place isn't suitable for the rats and roaches that live there.  And there was basically nothing even there."

"I had no choice."

"Explain," he told her in a stern voice.  He was used to getting answers out of people with just a single look.  It was a confidence that he exuded that said, 'Don't fuck with me.'

"I was evicted while I was here because I was late on my rent.  I couldn't afford to hire movers because YOU require a fee from services rendered on that block."  She continued because there was no one else.  There was no one else in her life that ordered her to "Explain."  She didn't know if that counted as caring about her, but she guessed it was just him trying to wrap his head around the tricky situation.  Since he bothered to talk to her about everything, the words just kept falling out of her mouth, "I couldn't move anything, so I had to either walk boxes back and forth a couple miles or beg cab drivers to move things for me.  I had no down payment because of how horrible my paycheck was after having to take unpaid days.  It's all a mess right now, and now I have two more mouths to feed.  I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm just going to make it all work.  I really have no choice.  I--."