Shattered

Three weeks later we came home to Mark sitting on our front porch. He and Libby had gotten into a verbal altercation leading to him slapping her. She called the cops and had him arrested for domestic violence. They released him as it was his first offense, but like a dumbass, he went back to get his stuff unaccompanied by a police officer. We had dinner and he was promptly rearrested for breaking the conditions of his release which had included a temporary restraining order between him and Libby. I have no idea how much of the altercation was witnessed by Harold. Mark never said anything about him that night at dinner.

Over a year later Libby confessed to me that Mark and she had been arguing and she called him a limp dick worthless bastard and refused to get out of the doorway which would allow him to leave. After a few hours of this, he finally did slap her one time then walked outside. Her story has progressively gotten more graphic over the years and now is somewhere around the neighborhood of Mark beating her on a daily bases and that night put her in the hospital and almost killing her. While I can't how much of that is true, I do know that while in my house it was Libby who was the primary aggressor. To be fair manipulation was her chosen weapon, both of Mark and Harold, AND the people around them. I strongly believe one of the reasons they moved out was her inability to manipulate me. The next time Mark got out (a week after the initial incident) he went to stay with his father's parents who lived in the next county over.

Over the course of the next year, I did not get to see Harold at all, though Libby continued to use him as a pawn in her divorce with Mark. During the final court appearance, the judge accused my parents of coddling Mark and condoning his awful abuse of Libby. Libby was granted full custody at Mark's insistence with the stipulation that Mark have one day a week of visitation, once he completed his anger management. If he wanted Harold for any overnight visits he would have to get a job, get a place to live, and show that it was suitable for a child to stay in overnight. The judge also advised Libby to allow one of Mark's family to visit Harold as he'd not seen any of us in over a year. As I was the one with the free time and no previous obligations, I was elected to go.

Outside Libby's apartment complex, I was introduced to Mildred a new friend of hers, and Mildred's boyfriend Forest. It would be a couple of years later I found out Forest was a pedophile. On the way up to the apartment she had us stopped by another friend named Betty, who had checked on Harold while Libby was in court. Harold was alone in the apartment otherwise. Betty's brother Steve and Betty's son Justin had been there. It was a very quick introduction before finally going to the apartment. I felt a bit like I was being put on display and that she was either showing me to them to say "hear comes the monster, please protect me." Or perhaps it was supposed to be a "See all my puppets, do not try anything." In either case, the effort was in vain as I was neither bothered nor scared.

Once to the apartment, Harold claimed not to remember me, though we got along fine. He seemed happy, healthy, and normal, for a son of a single mother living in a 150-square-foot studio apartment. There was food in the fridge, and a bed for him to sleep on, and the bathroom was fairly clean though there was some damage. Given that the apartment was a former hotel built in the late 19th century, I expected some age to the place. What I saw was little more than a glorified multistory crack house. Libby didn't seem to care about the conditions so much as what my opinion of it was. She wanted my approval, she wanted to be complimented on what a good job is was doing. She said nothing about Harold's accomplishments, or how he was adjusting. From what I could see he was becoming somewhat introverted. I mentioned then that he should begin to see a therapist. Her response was that he didn't need one because she'd explained everything to him. According to her he was totally fine with their new life and didn't seem to care that Mark was no longer in their life. Then resumed her account of how glorious and perfect their new life was.

While I was there a "neighbor" came to visit her, but she elected to go back to his apartment with him for the hour and a half I was there. Around dinner time I started to leave, and Harold begged me to stay. Libby did not yet want my parents to know where she lived but offered to walk me back down to the courthouse where they could pick me up. We went, with Harold tagging along. He was very excited to see his grandparents and we ended up hangout in the parking lot for an hour before Libby finally took him home to feed him.

Over the next few weeks Libby and I spoke often. She and Brad had split up shortly before the divorce because he "wasn't ready to settle down." During that time Mark completed his anger management, Libby was worried that Mark would go back on his word but agreed to let us host the visits to make her feel more secure. I believe she felt since my mother's children had been kidnapped, she wouldn't do that to another mother.

During those first few weeks, Libby also introduced us to Steve, her new boyfriend. I attempted to give him a chance, but his condescending disrespect was not something I could overlook. He seemed to have the misguided notion that women should bow to him because he was a man. When my father politely said that Libby needed help, he was referring to the fact single mothers needed a good man to help them out. To which Steve replied, "Oh I keep her in line." He was drunk and thought this was very funny, I found it exceedingly disrespectful. He spoke about her as if she were sleeping around with every guy in town and was going to every party with free booze and drugs and it was only his firmness that kept her from being the biggest slut in the county. I was raised that I didn't NEED to rely on a man, but I could have one if I wanted. Needless to say I was a violent culture shock for him, as I will not submit to him and would regularly "talk back". I am not scared of him, and I'm not impressed by him or his attitude. At first, I kept my opinions to myself, but when Libby asked, I did tell her. She was not happy about it but as I told her it was her choice, not mine. I vowed to be nice to him as much as I could be. As long as he was good to her and my nephew by the slimmest definition of the words. I believe I held up my end of that agreement.