HOME AND AWAY

Chapter 8

Casey wasn't sure why he had ended up at Cheryl Braxton's house, but with yesterday's events fresh in his mind, he needed answers from his mother. After Summer's outburst, the siblings had spent the evening trying to distract themselves with a movie and take away pizza. For a few hours, the siblings were able to push away the memories, anger and fear caused by the return of Danny Braxton.

However, the main question that would not leave Casey's mind, how could a mother stand by and watch her children be abused? Casey knocked on the door loudly, he could hear the TV playing loudly and he wanted to make sure he was heard. If it had been a normal day, Casey would have just walked straight into the house but he wasn't in the mood to be so friendly today. He wanted answers from Cheryl and he was only going to get those by being abrupt with her; he hoped.

"Casey! Don't just stand there, come in!" Cheryl greeted him warmly with that shrill voice that made Bianca and every other woman cringe.

"Hi mum" Casey muttered, giving her a hug and sitting down at the kitchen table as she went to make him a drink. "Mum can you sit down please." Casey said politely but firmly.

"What's wrong?" Cheryl said, stopping suddenly and moving to sit across from Casey.

"Dad's back." Casey said softly, still not entirely sure how he was going to ask his questions. Casey studied Cheryl's face for a moment, it was a mixture of excitement and fear.

"Have you seen him? Where is he?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah, he turned up at ours. Freaked everyone out and now he's staying at the caravan park." Casey replied but was met by no response from Cheryl. In one way she looked happy that Danny was back but in another moment, she looked frightened.

"Mum, I've got a couple of questions?" Casey pushed tentatively, it was now or never.

"Anything sweetheart." Cheryl said absentmindedly and Casey took his chance.

"How much did Dad knock us about?" Casey took in a deep breath and waited for Cheryl to deny it all or something like that.

"No more than you deserved. No more than we'd had as kids." Cheryl said calmly, "It was tough raising you boys, we needed to keep you in check. Then your sister came and spoiled everything."

Casey couldn't quite believe what he was hearing, was she defending their dad's actions? "How did Summer spoil it?" Casey's tone had an element of disgust in it as he asked Cheryl, wasn't it every mother's wish to have a little girl?

"Stupid brat, caused your dad to turn to crime. I don't want to talk about it anymore." Cheryl said and with that she stood up and pointed to the door. "I want you to leave now." Casey didn't need any further prompts, he left the house and headed back to Summer Bay utterly confused by his mother's reaction.

Heath had caught Bianca up with the day's events that night when she had returned from spending time with April. Bianca had listened carefully to Heath as he expressed his guilt over bringing Danny back into their lives, she felt their baby kick gently when Heath began to cry slightly. She placed his hand on her belly and softly reminded him that he was a better man now and that he would move the world for his family; he wouldn't let Danny hurt them again.
"Hey pup" Heath said standing over Summer awkwardly, unsure as to whether to sit down or not.

"Hey, about yesterday..." Summer began, but she wasn't sure how to continue. Heath took that as an invitation to sit beside her and her put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her towards him.

"Don't worry about it , I get it." Heath said, hoping that they could just move on from it.

"But I shouldn't have shouted at you like that." Summer muttered.

"You had every right. Seeing dad was a shock for us all, I swear I didn't know that he was getting out." Heath tried to explain as he hugged his little sister.

There was a long silence between the three of them, all of them gazing out into the ocean and watching the waves crash onto the beach. The weather was warm but not too hot and the sea was calm, not ideal for surfing. Summer sat in jeans and a black vest top, her flip flops placed neatly beside her. Heath studied her and looked to where his arm was draped over her shoulder, he saw a faded scar peeking out from under her top. He looked at the mark, he knew what it was from as he had them himself and it saddened them. Summer saw Heath staring at her back from the corner of her eye, she knew what he was looking back and she sighed.

"It wasn't always so bad, with Richard I mean." Summer said, her voice croaking as she desperately tried to hold back the tears.

"You don't have to..." Heath was about to explain that she didn't have to tell them, but a look from Bianca told him to let her continue. Heath knew Bianca was right, stopping Summer now could prevent her from ever telling them. However, part of him didn't want to know, he was already feeling guilty enough for sending her away in the first place.

It wasn't daily, not even weekly or monthly in the beginning." Summer explained taking long pauses to compose herself. "We used to go on holidays, we went to Fiji when I was 5. It only happened when he got really bad, with his health I mean. Some days it would be easy to get him out of it, just cook him a good meal and put on a happy movie; no issue. It was when I couldn't get it out of it that there were problems. He would be sad and then so angry, uncontrollably angry and would lash out with no warning."

Heath closed his eyes and took in a sharp breath, was his sister making excuses for their uncle beating her? It couldn't be. "pup" Heath said without thinking, wanting nothing more than to take away her pain, memories and scarring.

But Summer continued and Heath wasn't sure if she had heard him or not, maybe she just wanted to continue. "It got worse when Richard lost his job, that happened when we got back from Fiji. He was so out of control and nothing I could do would make things easier for him."

Heath wanted to ask so many questions but words failed him, luckily Bianca knew what he wanted to ask. "What used to happen?" She asked in an even tone, trying not to distract Summer during her revelation.

"At the beginning, he'd just knock me about a bit. Then it got more intense, he'd use his belt a lot and I ended up in hospital a couple of times. He'd lock me up for days on end.at." Summer explained while looking down and now Heath was angry, how could she be so blasé about it, like she'd only shrunk a few items of clothing? "Naturally with him being unemployed, we got behind on the rent and so things go too much for him to deal with."

And that day?" Bianca continued to probe and Heath was starting to wish she would stop. What would happen if they pushed Summer too far? Was she going to regret telling them?
"He had had enough, we were being evicted in a week. He'd tried to call mum but she'd only screamed at him, said some nasty things about him and me. He wanted to find me a new home but didn't have a contact for Darryl, mum wouldn't take me. I wanted to get him help but he was determined to end his life. That's why he tied me up to the radiator; he didn't want me to run off to get help." Summer finished talking and sighed deeply, closing her eyes as she did so.

Heath wanted desperately to hug Summer, his arm was still hooked over her shoulder but he wanted to give her more. He couldn't believe what had gone on, but he was thankful that her entire life hadn't been occupied by abuse. Suddenly Bianca spoke again, "Do you mind if I tell Brax and Casey what you told us?" Heath glared at her, was she deliberately pushing Summer?

But he was surprised when Summer nodded her consent, she still hadn't shed a tear or shown any emotion whilst talking about her life. Heath pulled her closer as Bianca stood up and left them to it, probably returning home to find Brax and Casey. "I'm sorry that all that happened to you." Heath said, words finally finding him again.

Summer looked up at him and lay her head on his shoulder, "You weren't to know Heath, it wasn't all bad. None of you knew if or when dad would go to prison, you didn't want me to go through my entire life being knocked about like you and Darryl were. You did the right thing, because that didn't happen. I have some good memories in there too."

Heath had to give it to the kid, she had a tremendous amount of strength. "Thank you for telling me." Heath smiled at his little sister and kissed her on the top of the head. "Do you want to give it some time before heading home, give Bianca chance to tell Brax what you told us?" Summer simply nodded and continued to lean against Heath, watching the waves.