Generation 2, Chapter 8

Gene came inside and changed clothes before speaking to Pearl. He knew what was coming and hoped to put it off for awhile. When Gene came out of his room he slouched against the wall, waiting for Pearl to begin.

Pearl looked at Gene, knowing this was going to be difficult but she had to go through with it. "Gene I want to know why you did it."

Gene shrugged "Because."

"Because, that's not a reason." Pearl said in exasperation. "Don't you get it? I would have been responsible if you had taken the pills and died. How could you do that to me?" Pearl said as she paced the floor coming to a stop in front of Gene.

"I don't know. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking about anyone else other than me."

"That's not good enough," Pearl almost shouted "You lied to me. How can I ever trust you again?"

"What do you want me to say? I already said I was sorry. What more do you want?" Gene said crossing his arms staring defiantly at her.

Pearl threw up her hands in disgust saying "I don't ever want to see you again!"

"Fine," Gene shouted walking away, slamming his bedroom door behind him. He threw himself on his bed burying his head in his pillow. He couldn't believe it took her this long to break up with him. Good riddance he didn't need her. He didn't need anybody. There was a soft knock on the door before his Dad walked in.

"Son are you alright?" William asked in concern.

"I'm fine." Gene said through his pillow.

"I know it hurts when things don't work out ..."

"Dad please, I don't want to talk about it," Gene said sitting up.

"I know you don't but you can't keep it all bottled inside either," William tried to persuade Gene to talk to him, sitting beside him on the bed.

Gene looked sideways at his Dad and growled "Your not going to leave are you are until I talk?"

"No son I'm not. I already know what happens when you refuse to talk about things."

"How many times do I have to tell you I'm fine." Gene stood up and started to walk away. William reached out to stop him but Gene pushed past him. "Son, please talk to me."

"Just leave me alone," Gene shouted, pushing William forcefully backwards into the dresser behind him. Williams head smacked into the sharp corner of the dresser with a sickening thud. William laid there stunned, his vision dimming around the edges and growing dark. He heard Gene moving beside him.

"Dad, Dad? Oh God, please be alright," Gene pleaded above him. Gene dropped to his knees as he realized what he had done. It had happened so fast and yet he felt like he was moving in slow motion. He couldn't believe this was happening, muttering to himself "What have I done? I didn't mean to do it. Please, please be ok."

The door opened and Casey walked in. Stopping in wide-eyed horror Casey asked "What did you do?"

"I didn't. I was upset." Gene stammered uneasy at the accusatory look Casey was giving him. "It was an accident."

Casey stormed out of the room and immediately came back with Robert. Rushing over and dropping to his knees beside his Dad, he asked "Gene what happened?"

Gene watched Robert put his hand under William's head, pulling back in shock. It was covered in blood. Gene felt Casey grab him, demanding to know what happened.

"Casey calm down," Robert demanded "I'm sure whatever happened was an accident." He had to shout to be heard above the ensuing argument between his brothers.

"Yeah right," Casey said eyeing Gene, not willing to give him the benefit of a doubt.

"It was an accident," Gene insisted looking down at Robert he asked "is he alright?"

"There's an awful lot of blood here. He must have hit his head pretty hard." Standing up Robert went over to Casey and shook him to gain his attention. "Go tell Mom. I think we may need an ambulance too."

Snapping out of his anger, Casey went to get their Mom. Meanwhile Robert had Gene help him move their Dad away from the dresser so that he could lay flat on the floor. Gene kneeled there, running his hands through his hair, repeating to himself "I didn't mean to. I didn't think I pushed him so hard." Gene felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into the concerned eyes of his older brother.

"Gene I don't know what happened but I'm sure Dad wouldn't want you to blame yourself."

Gene stared at Robert in disbelief. He didn't understand, this was all his fault. He was the one who pushed their Dad. The most important person in his life, who only wanted to help and he repaid that concern by brutally pushing him. His mind reeled at the implications, he was the worst son that ever existed.

Their Mom ran into the room. At the sight of William on the floor and the blood she paled and swayed on her feet. Robert reached out to steady her as she asked "What happened?"

"I, I pushed him," Gene said as tears streamed down his face. "I only wanted him to leave me alone, to back off. I didn't mean to push him so hard."

"You, you pushed him?" Jessica asked hoping she had misunderstood him. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know," Gene cried unprepared for his Mother's accusation. Hanging his head he mumbled "I'm sorry."

"Get out! Get out of my sight," Jessica shouted uncaring how her words affected him.

"Mmmmmom," Gene faltered on the verge of breaking down.

"There's no excuse for what you've done. Just get out. I can't stand the sight of you," Jessica cried unreasonably.

Robert watched as Gene fled from the room. Worried that in Gene's current state of mind he would do something drastic, Robert ran after him. "Gene stop. She's upset and saying things she doesn't mean."

Slowing Gene turned to Robert crying "She meant every word. There's no excuse for what I've done but I know how to end it." Before Robert realized what he was going to do, Gene grabbed one of knives from the chopping block. Robert swung and tackled him to the floor before he had a chance to slice his wrists. They struggled on the floor until Robert was able to wrestle the knife away from him.

Holding Gene down, Robert screamed for Evelyn. "Call his doctor. Tell him Gene is having a crisis and he needs to get here quick." Gene continued to struggle beneath him. "Quit struggling, you're only going to hurt yourself."

Evelyn came back saying "The doctor is on his way." As Robert struggled with Gene, Casey was showing the EMT's in.

"Ma'am if you could stand aside so we have room to work." Jessica slowly got up and went to stand beside Casey. The EMTs looked up and smiled reassuringly "I'm sure he'll be ok. He needs several stitches and he has a probable concussion. He'll have a bad headache for several days. We'll take him to the hospital where they'll ex-ray his head wound and he'll probably need to spend a day or two in the hospital. But he should be ok."

As they were loading William onto the gurney, the doctor arrived. Evelyn let him in and waved him towards the kitchen, where Robert was still struggling with Gene.

"Why'd you stop me?" Gene was crying. "I'm no good. All I cause is pain and suffering."

The Doctor pressed his lips together as he prepared a sedative. "Robert keep him steady," he said as he administered the sedative. Slowly Gene ceased his futile struggles and became quiet. The doctor went to speak with the EMT's that were bringing William out. They agreed to take Gene to the hospital as well.

 

Generation 2, Chapter 7

Jessica and William were discussing plans for Michaels coming birthday.

"I think we should do something different this time," William said.

"Like what?"

Well it's the weekend. Why not have the party early then go to the festival as a family?" William suggested.

"That sounds like fun. Michael would probably like that a lot. Better in fact than having a ton of people over," Jessica said warming to the idea. "But what about Gene?"

"We'll still invite some friends over, so that Gene doesn't become anxious over the change. We'll put a time limit on the party so that we still have plenty of time at the festival."

The day of the party, everyone gathered around to watch Michael blow out his candles. He was a little nervous being the center of attention and half expected someone to push is face into the cake.

Michael grew up to be a well-mannered, quiet little boy. It had been decided that he would share a room with Robert since he would be going away to college soon. In the meanwhile they replaced Roberts single bed for bunk beds due to the room being so small and Robert had refused to move his easel out of the room.

William and Jessica were looking forward to having their room to themselves again. Jessica was working out where all their bedroom furniture would go once the baby things were moved out and donated to charity.

Once the party wound down William gathered the family together and announced they were going to the festival. This was greeted with enthusiasm and everyone was excited as they piled into the family van. When they arrived at the festival they took a family picture at one of the booths then everyone scattered.

Robert joined in on the hot dog eating contest. He found it embarrassing to lose to a girl but at least he wasn't last.

Beverly took it upon herself to teach Michael how to roller skate. He was doing pretty good until he fell on his face, knocking into Beverly sending her to her knees. They heard laughter behind them as Gene skated past them. They got up and continued to skate and encouraged Evelyn to join them.

Evelyn tried to get Casey to join them on the skating rink but he shook his head and continued scoping the festival grounds for girls. 
 

Casey met several promising young ladies and collected numbers to add to his collection. He wondered which one he would choose to call up for a date.

They stayed at the festival until it closed for the night. When they returned home all the kids changed and jumped into the pool.

As the kids splashed happily in the pool Jessica and William sat in the lounge chairs.

"That's the best sound ever," Jessica said listening to her children laughing and shouting at each other.

"It certainly is," William agreed. They faintly heard the doorbell as they sat enjoying this happy moment.

"I wonder who that could be?" Jessica said getting up to answer the door. She opened the door to find Pearl anxiously waiting on the other side. "I don't think you should be here."

'Please Mrs. Bennett I need to talk to Gene," Pearl said in a high nervous voice.

"Wait here and I'll see," Jessica said closing the door. She went to the sliding glass doors leading to the pool motioning for William to come inside.

"What's wrong?" William asked as soon as he was out of ear shot of the kids.

"Pearl's here," Jessica said motioning towards the door.

"What does she want?" William said in a harsh biting tone.

"I don't know. She just asked to talk to Gene."

"I don't like it."

"Neither do I. Should we let her talk to Gene?"

Thinking it over William said  "Tell Pearl she has five minutes then she has to go"  William hoped he was making the right decision as his stomach clenched as he thought their peaceful happy evening was about to come to an end.
 

Generation 2, Chapter 6

"Alright kid, hand'em over," a gruff voice said above his head.

Gene looked up at a pair of dark clad legs that led up to the stern face of a police officer. "Go away. It's none of your business."

"It is my business if your doing drugs," the officer said holding her hand out. "Now hand them over."

Reluctantly Gene handed the bottle over.

"What were you planning to do with these?"

Gene shrugged and sullenly stared at the officer.

"Son if you're in trouble I can help."

Gene's eyes flickered up towards the officer and smirked thinking to himself 'If you want to help than shoot me and put me out of my misery.'

"Have it your way. I'm taking you home."

Gene got up and followed the officer to the patrol car. When they got to his house he climbed out sighing loudly. The officer gently took his arm and guided him to the door. William opened the door before she was able to knock.

The officer motioned for William to follow her to her car. "Sir I think your son's contemplating suicide. I found him in the park and he had these in his possession." The officer handed William the bottle of pills. William looked at the label, sedatives, Inkbeard. Did Pearl give these to his son he wondered?

"Has your son been depressed lately?"

"We all have been. We ...." William stopped looked past the officer and sighed "We just lost our oldest in a tragic house fire. It's been difficult for all of us."

"I'm sorry for your loss," the officer spoke gently gaging Williams response. "I think your son needs help. This doctor is very successful for treating depression and self-destructive kids. I highly recommend him, he helped my sister a few years ago when she was on the brink. I keep a few of his cards on hand in case I run across someone who needs his kind of help."

William stared at the number on the card as the officer drove away He slowly walked into the house where Gene was nervously waiting for him.

"Dad I can explain."

"I certainly hope so," William exclaimed. "Where did you get the pills, Gene? Pearl?"

"It's not important where I got them," Gene shot back.

"I think it is. I want to know who it is who was helping my son kill himself. Now tell me."

"All right then I got them from Pearl. She didn't know why I wanted them. I told her I couldn't sleep, she thought she was helping me."

"Why Gene if you were having problems, why didn't you come to me?"

"Because you're the problem," Gene shouted at him.

"What problem?" William shouted back as Gene turned to walk away. William reached out and grabbed his shoulders. "Don't walk away. Talk to me." William pleaded.

Whipping around Gene yelled "You won't understand. Nobody can."

"What are you talking about? Just tell me and I promise I'll do everything I can to help."

"I...I," Gene stammered looking straight into his Father's eyes knowing he was about to see all the love drain away, dreading the look of hate he knew would come as he said "I took the batteries."

"Batteries? What are you..." William began than he understood. You don't mean..."

"I took them. I knew they were new. I meant to put them back." Gene said between sobs "I forgot and now she's dead."

William grabbed Gene by the shoulders holding him as his body shook with wracking sobs. "It's not your fault."

"It is. I heard the fire chief. He said if the alarms had gone off they would have gotten there sooner. It is my fault."

William pushed Gene away from him and shook him until he got his attention. "I want you to listen to me. It's not your fault. You made a mistake. You didn't cause the fire."

"No, no I knew you wouldn't understand. I killed her. I killed my sister. I don't deserve to live." William held Gene as he sobbed. William motioned for Jessica to come over and held the card out to her whispering for her to call. Without hesitating Jessica called the number.

Gene mumbled into Williams shoulder "I just wanted the pain to end. To sleep and not wake up. I know what I did and I can't live with it anymore. I just want to die." As if realizing for the first time that his Dad was still holding him he asked "Why don't you hate me?"

"Oh Gene, how could I hate my own son? I love you." William glanced up at Jessica who whispered in his ear "The doctor wants to see him now. I'll pack a bag."

William continued to hold his son while the others came out and watched concerned. "Make them go away, please," Gene begged.

William motioned for them to go back into their rooms. Robert took it upon himself to take charge of his siblings and coaxed them into their rooms. Gene was admitted into the psychiatric ward and stayed there for a month.