A Poor and Crowded House

Natalie’s 3rd baby was born in the back seat of an old Chevy on the way to the hospital. She named him Glen after the first U.S. astronaut to circle the Earth, which bothered Bradley. He wouldn’t wish anybody born into the mess that was his family to be named after his hero.  But it was  thrilling when his Dad Morris brought them home after a few days in the hospital. Glen had a rough start and the doctor had told them it was because Natalie drank too much. But Mo was strutting around the house like a big king rooster, and making phone calls to spread the news.

“Hey Shu, this is Mo! I got me another boy!” he said into the phone. “And he’s all mine! He’s good-lookin’ too. Dammit that makes me proud.” He took another swig out of his bottle of spirits, got up and stretched his tall frame. Bradley heard the joints in his back pop, which made his face grimace. “Yeah, Friday after work, I’m outta here. See ya then, partner.”

He hung up the phone and walked over to Bradley, who was sitting and building a jet plane out of Legos. Roughing up the boy’s hair, he misjudged due to the booze and knocked him off balance causing him to fall onto his side.  He looked up at his tall, handsome and drunk father, trying to guess what would happen next. “You and those gawd damn Legos, whatcha doin’? You gonna build yourself an aeroplane and fly away? Where’s your mama anyway?”

She was in the back room breasfeeding Glen.  He knew when the father was drinking booze to stay out of the way or go do something outside.  Natalie had ignored her oldest son since she got home, but Bradley was staying inside hoping to see Glen soon.

“Damn gimme some o’ that! That’s some fine stuff.” Mo’s voice boomed from the bedroom.

“There’s one for each of you,” his Mom said. Then she made those oooh and ahhh sounds. Bradley knew then that he wasn’t going to see Glen for awhile, so he quickly gathered up his Legos and went outside.  After a while she was making owww sounds that came through the window, Then he heard her yell at Mo, “the doctor said 6 weeks!”

“You tell that doctor he doesn’t know about a man’s needs, and also tell him I’m gonna put a boot up his ass!” She quieted down after that, and Bradley got back to his Legos and imagined what it would feel like to fly one of those jets that made a sonic BOOM! when it broke the sound barrier over their neighborhood just outside of Los Angeles.

Friday came a few days later and Mo did not come home from work. The next day Natalie tried to explain that he had a job out of town for a while, but Bradley knew that was a lie because she was upset and got drunk and stayed up all night crying. When she finally went to bed she didn’t get up for days, and the bedroom started smelling like old pee. His grandma Mary came over finally, bottle fed Glen, and  made some greasy food for Bradley and 3 year old Jeffrey, mostly pancakes with canned beans or corn mixed into the batter.  Grandma swore a lot and kept drinking from a bottle of booze on the kitchen counter but she didn’t hit them or rough them up. Then she told Bradley something that was a lot worse than just getting hit. She told him that his father was a crook who got caught breaking into a pawn shop and stealing, and he was in jail, and it was all because of that bastard Shu, who planned the whole thing.

Natalie went to the hospital for depression for a few days, got better, and pulled herself together, and Gandma Mary went back to her house across town. But there wasn’t enough money to pay the rent and one day Bradley came home from school to find all their stuff out on the front yard. A police car was nearby watching over everything.  Grandma Mary’s cousin Sam was there with a pickup truck loading up things to take them to Grandma’s house.

His heart pounding in his throat, his fists clenched, Bradley took a strong breath and bit down hard to keep tears back. He walked straight to his Mom and said in a loud voice “Mom! Please! Don’t have any more babies!” She took a long drag on her cigarette, looked down at him with one eye closed, and said “Hmmmmmm.”

She would have four more babies, and things would get worse…