“And you could have given her a heart attack. She’s a really old lady, you know.” Cheerfully, Dan chattered away. It was the punishment he’d devised. He would talk and talk and talk and talk, hoping the boys would absorb something of what he was saying. So far, his plan was working well.
“I know, I know!” Isaac groaned. “We shouldn’t have tried to tire her up! We could have hurt her! She’s an elderly person and deserves respect!” He sighed. “This is making me feel really guilty.”
“It’s working!” Dan grinned.
“Make me go sit in the corner,” Taylor begged.
“Chop me up into little pieces,” Zac added.
“Well,” Dan took a deep breath, “the whole point of discipline is that you learn something about why you weren’t supposed to do what you did. Otherwise, what’s the point?” He smiled. “Another thing is, you could have cut off her circulation. Blood couldn’t have flowed through her body. . .”
Zac bit his lip. “Can’t we just not talk about it anymore?”
“. . .And her muscles would have atrophied and died. . .” Dan went on.
Taylor put his fingers in his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.
“Dan, I think this is sadistic,” Nora interjected, from the doorway. “I mean, I can’t think of anything better, but this is just. . .”
“I am trying to turn you into compassionate, considerate human beings,” Dan told Isaac, Taylor and Zac.
“I already am that!” Zac piped, not because he knew what it meant, but because he wanted Dan to stop talking. “And you can’t be my best friend anymore.” He stood up and moved across the room, wrapping his arms around Nora’s waist.
“Zac, I thought I was your best friend!” Taylor piped, sadly.
Dan resolve wavered, but only for a moment. “That’s all right,” he said. “Don’t learn from your actions.”
“But we already learned from them!” Isaac exclaimed.
“We’ll never do it again,” Taylor promised. “Because it could hurt somebody.”
“Me neither,” Zac agreed.
“Okay,” Dan agreed. “Well, sit here and think about it for awhile, I guess.”
“Me, too?” Zac asked.
“You, too,” Dan agreed.
Zac narrowed his eyes. “You’re mean.”
“Do you want me to talk some more?” Dan threatened.
Shaking his head, Zac scurried to the couch.
“Nora, if you think of anything better, tell me,” Dan whispered to her.
“You just. . .” the corners of Nora’s mouth twitched. “You just made them feel bad, Dan. They really feel guilty now, because they could have hurt her.”
Dan sighed. “I know. Now I feel guilty. But. . . I mean, I’d feel guiltier if I let them grow up to be brats, or if I made them go to their room, or something. I mean, the punishment should fit the crime.”
“I guess they learned from it,” Nora agreed. She peered around the kitchen door, able to see into the living room without being seen herself. She grinned, sympathetically. The boys were stretched out on the couch, in various positions of remorse.
“We shouldn’t have done that,” Taylor whispered.
“I know.” Isaac was resting his chin in his hand, staring at the ground. “I didn’t realize she could have gotten hurt.”
“It was bad,” Zac agreed. “Dan was mean. But I guess we was mean, too. Only, I don‘t think we knew it.”
There was a long pause. “Ike,” Taylor asked, “which hurts worse, do you think. . . the ‘lectric cord or a belt?”
Isaac paused, considering this. “Maybe. . . well, a belt, if it has a buckle on it.”
“That’s what I think,” Taylor agreed, mildly.
“But what hurted the most was the stove, I think,” Zac put in.
“Yeah, not right away. . . after,” Isaac agreed.
“Once she told me she was going to push me out the window and kill me,” Taylor interjected, “but she didn’t do it.”
Nora and Dan exchanged a glance. The conversation was horrible. . . even worse because it was a cheerful little boy conversation, the exact same tone as “which G.I. Joe could beat up all the rest of the G.I. Joes,” or “which Ninja Turtle would you be, if you could be a Ninja Turtle.”
“Oh, God,” Dan whispered. Nora squeezed her eyes shut.
“Do you think that could ever happen here?” Zac asked Isaac.
Isaac shook his head. “I don’t think so, but don’t make Dan and Nora too mad, because you don’t want to drive them crazy and have them do something like that.”
“Do you think if we were bad enough, we could make them be like Mommy?” Taylor asked.
Isaac shrugged. “We already made her be like that.”
“Ike, you didn’t make your mother do anything.” Nora came into the room, taking a deep breath. “None of you did. She was the person who did that, honey. Not you. Not any of you guys.” She sat down on the arm of the couch, sighing. “I wish you could believe that.”
“And Nora and I would never do anything that your mother did,” Dan agreed. “You don’t ever have to worry about that.” He paused. “Do you believe us?”
The boys exchanged a dubious glance.
“It’s true!” Dan threw his hands up into the air. “It’s true.”
“I guess so,” Taylor whispered.
“Maybe,” Isaac agreed.
Dan sighed.
Chapter Fifty Seven?