Back into present time. Thinking about the past like that, it was
too much for her, and she began to freak out. She found a nearby
desk to destroy, throwing all of it's contents on the ground. Flower
pots started to fly across the room, smashing up against the walls.
Books where violently thrown everywhere. After a few minutes of her
destructive actions, Roni found an extremely dark corner. She went
over to the corner, and fell down, where she curled up like a kitten,
and cried. Someone was walking in the nearby halls, heard all the
commotion that was going on, and found their way over to Roni. It
was Zoey. She walked over to the dark corner, sat down next to her
sister, put her arm around her, and had Roni rest her head on Zoey's
shoulder. There they sat, for the longest time, in silence.
Finally, Zoey spoke up.
"Roni, what's wrong? What's going on? What happened?"
"Leave me alone. I just, I want to be alone. I just want to be left
alone."
"Roni, it's okay. I can't leave you. That's not how we do things
around here. Whatever it is, you don't have to go through it alone.
You're not alone, you will never be again, not as long as you are
apart of our family. We love you. You know that right? So come on,
tell me what's going on."
"Why can't you leave me alone? I want to be left alone. Just go. Go
away."
"I can't do that, not till you tell me what's going on."
With that, Roni stood up, walked off.
"Roni, wait up," Zoey shouted, but it was too late, Roni was out of
eyesight. Zoey thought it was probably for the best. What Roni
needed right now was time, she made that very clear. So she let Roni
go, besides, she had other things to do.
************************************************
Leo was standing up, talking on the phone, trying his hardest not to
yell into the receiver, when he suddenly slammed the phone down.
Right around then, Margaret came in and shut the door behind her.
"Leo, Roni is here to see you."
"Me? Send her in."
Margaret then exited Leo's office and shuffled Roni into it. Upon
seeing Roni, Leo walked over to Roni and ushered her over to the
couch, and then sat on a chair.
"Hello Roni. What can I do for you?"
"I need to talk to someone, do you have a minute?"
"I'm honored you thought of me. So what's on your mind?"
"I need to talk to someone who understands."
"Understands what?"
"You are an alcoholic, right?"
"Yes."
"And your father was one too, right?"
"Yes."
"So was mine. Keith I mean. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about
my past. Part of my past and all of it's charm, is Keith. He did a
lot of things to me in his day, and every single time, he was drunk."
"I'm sorry. An alcoholic seldom thinks of the effect his actions
will have on other people, least of all his own children. It isn't a
good place to be, and I'm sorry you were there."
"What about you? Where you there? Did your dad do anything to you
when he was drunk?"
"No, I was lucky. My mother, however, she wasn't so lucky. And
before you ask, no, I never hit Mallory or Jenny."
"Why? What makes some alcoholics abuse people, and others only abuse
themselves? I don't get it."
"I don't know. I don't really think it has that much to do with
alcoholism. I think it has to do with the particular person and the
monsters in his head. Alcoholism is just something to blame it on
when they don't want to blame themselves."
"You know, he tried to kill me once."
Leo was speechless, only managing to give an empathetic stare to
Roni.
"He came home from work early that night, cause he was drunk. I was
in the living room, watching TV, and he started fighting me for the
control. He never asked for it, he just started fighting for it. I
almost immediately gave it to him. For some odd reason, this only
seemed to elevate his anger, cause he wanted to fight with someone.
Just my luck that he would choose me to fight with. At any rate, he
ended up pulling a knife on me and tried to stab me."
"I'm so sorry."
"Not as sorry as I was," Roni said as she attempted to laugh to
lighten the situation. "Hey, you think we can keep this conversation
just between the two of us? Mom and dad have no clue that he tried
to kill me. And I really think that's something they need to hear
from me."
************************************************
After finally deciding to let Roni go, Zoey slowly began her way
towards the Oval Office, to slow to know that Roni was right next
door. Seeing that her father was on the phone, she quietly went over
to one of the couches and waited until he hung the phone up.
"Hey Zoey, to what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Well I needed to talk to you about something, but first I have a
question for you."
"With any luck, I may have an answer for you."
"When's the last time you saw Roni?"
"This morning, at breakfast. Why? What's wrong?"
"Well I just ran into her a tiny bit ago. Something's wrong with her
dad, she totally flipped out."
"What do you mean she flipped out?"
"She tore this one desk apart, she threw books, flower pots, anything
she could get her hands on. She completely destroyed the area, then
she curled up like a cat, and cried her eyes out. When I found her
and tried to get her to talk to me, she yelled at me, and told me to
leave her alone. Said she just wanted to be left alone, then she
took off to her room."
"What do you think could be wrong?"
"I don't know dad, that's why I came to you with it. But I'm gonna
go check in on her a little later."
"Keep me informed, would ya?"
"Sure dad."
"So you said you actually had something else that brought you here.
What is it?"
"It's a favor."
"A favor?"
"Yeah, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."
"What kind of favor?"
"I was wondering if you could let Charlie off early tonight, cause
there's a new movie out that I wanted him to take me to see."