was leave the tube in his den … Rex was mute. He was mute a lot during this period.
“Then it was the gamut of punishments you’d expect. Cutting off his allowance, no playing with Michael, stay in the house all weekend, like that. But Rex kept doing the things he always did to earn his allowance, like cleaning up in the kitchen. He was even extra sprightly about it. Then there were threats to send him away to boarding school, which were absolutely pointless because we all knew there was no money for it. The store in Piedmont was on a knife edge.
“The next stage of this was really bad. It was brutal. My father turned his attention to the house. The tube had to be in the house somewhere. It’s a big house with lots of crawl spaces, a big attic, a big basement. He would come home from the store and change into work clothes and plunge into the business of rummaging around inside the walls upstairs, cursing, loud curses we could hear. He tore up Rex’s room like it was a prison shakedown. Rex was shocked, but I thought he’d asked for it. My mother got very protective of Rex at this point, was on his side again, and to tell you the truth I think my father never forgave her for that. That was one of the aftereffects. There were plenty.
“Next up, a campaign of kindness, fatherly kindness. This was a process of erasure and it fooled nobody. There would be kindness and then there would be an appeal for Rex to please turn the thing over, slipped in. Then the kindness would continue. Rex went along with acting his prior self. I mean, he was still the same nasty, intricate person he’d been, but he was willing to be civil.
“Before it ended there was one return to total terror. My father shook Rex and yelled into his face like a madman. It went on for a long time.
“What triggered this last resort to brute terror was a feint my fathertried that didn’t work out. One evening he announced that he’d found the time capsule. Announced it triumphantly. He called it the crime capsule. He did his best to show that now all his worries were over. I think he also implied he hadn’t read what was in it, whatever that was, and that he was going to destroy the whole thing unread. All this was a crude trick to get Rex to go out and check to see if this was true. Rex did something cruel, being Rex, like slipping out after dark and fooling around near one of the storm drains near the corner, which caused my father to pounce and embarrass himself, fishing around on all fours and finding nothing. Rex had seen through the trick. We all had. It was pitiful.
“So then there was an all-day armageddon of threatening. I think he might have hurt Rex if my mother and I hadn’t been there. It took place all over the house. My mother and I stayed with them, wherever they went, so nothing would happen. I don’t know if Rex was trying to provoke my father into some damaging act or not. Maybe the secret point of the whole exercise was to drive my father into violence, proving that he was a hypocrite or a brute. I don’t know. He kept shaking Rex, hard. My mother intervened. Then it was just verbal for hours. My father had a very nasal voice when he was infuriated, pretty unattractive. And it was all fruitless.
“Then it was dropped. I guess I have to give my father credit for grasping that he had to accept defeat and let this go if we were going to continue as anything remotely resembling a happy family.
“But it was never the same. He took our house off the market. To be fair, I don’t know if this was because of the time capsule. Rex got to continue his friendship with his beloved Michael, until Michael’s parents interfered with that. Michael moved. We were somehow wrecked. I don’t know. The store didn’t work. He was conducting business for a long time from the house. The house filled up with antiques. It was like living in a warehouse and you had to explain to your friends. I think we all wanted to escape, after
“Then it was the gamut of punishments you’d expect. Cutting off his allowance, no playing with Michael, stay in the house all weekend, like that. But Rex kept doing the things he always did to earn his allowance, like cleaning up in the kitchen. He was even extra sprightly about it. Then there were threats to send him away to boarding school, which were absolutely pointless because we all knew there was no money for it. The store in Piedmont was on a knife edge.
“The next stage of this was really bad. It was brutal. My father turned his attention to the house. The tube had to be in the house somewhere. It’s a big house with lots of crawl spaces, a big attic, a big basement. He would come home from the store and change into work clothes and plunge into the business of rummaging around inside the walls upstairs, cursing, loud curses we could hear. He tore up Rex’s room like it was a prison shakedown. Rex was shocked, but I thought he’d asked for it. My mother got very protective of Rex at this point, was on his side again, and to tell you the truth I think my father never forgave her for that. That was one of the aftereffects. There were plenty.
“Next up, a campaign of kindness, fatherly kindness. This was a process of erasure and it fooled nobody. There would be kindness and then there would be an appeal for Rex to please turn the thing over, slipped in. Then the kindness would continue. Rex went along with acting his prior self. I mean, he was still the same nasty, intricate person he’d been, but he was willing to be civil.
“Before it ended there was one return to total terror. My father shook Rex and yelled into his face like a madman. It went on for a long time.
“What triggered this last resort to brute terror was a feint my fathertried that didn’t work out. One evening he announced that he’d found the time capsule. Announced it triumphantly. He called it the crime capsule. He did his best to show that now all his worries were over. I think he also implied he hadn’t read what was in it, whatever that was, and that he was going to destroy the whole thing unread. All this was a crude trick to get Rex to go out and check to see if this was true. Rex did something cruel, being Rex, like slipping out after dark and fooling around near one of the storm drains near the corner, which caused my father to pounce and embarrass himself, fishing around on all fours and finding nothing. Rex had seen through the trick. We all had. It was pitiful.
“So then there was an all-day armageddon of threatening. I think he might have hurt Rex if my mother and I hadn’t been there. It took place all over the house. My mother and I stayed with them, wherever they went, so nothing would happen. I don’t know if Rex was trying to provoke my father into some damaging act or not. Maybe the secret point of the whole exercise was to drive my father into violence, proving that he was a hypocrite or a brute. I don’t know. He kept shaking Rex, hard. My mother intervened. Then it was just verbal for hours. My father had a very nasal voice when he was infuriated, pretty unattractive. And it was all fruitless.
“Then it was dropped. I guess I have to give my father credit for grasping that he had to accept defeat and let this go if we were going to continue as anything remotely resembling a happy family.
“But it was never the same. He took our house off the market. To be fair, I don’t know if this was because of the time capsule. Rex got to continue his friendship with his beloved Michael, until Michael’s parents interfered with that. Michael moved. We were somehow wrecked. I don’t know. The store didn’t work. He was conducting business for a long time from the house. The house filled up with antiques. It was like living in a warehouse and you had to explain to your friends. I think we all wanted to escape, after
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