Time For A Story

Part three...

Jess peered out the windows as the rental car drove up to her Aunt’s house, and she spotted a lone vehicle sitting there with the silhouettes of two people in the front seats. As Jess’s friend, Amanda, pulled the car over to the side, Jess’s first instinct was to get out. The two people in the front seats were her two aunts. She was certain.

“Wait, let’s just watch for a moment,” Amanda cautioned. Jess sat back into her seat and fixed her gaze on the side mirror. Amanda also looked in the rearview mirror and watched the scene unfolding. One of the silhouettes was jabbing their finger in the face of the other. The person in the passenger seat was slunk low, clearly being berated. Narrowing her eyes, Amanda said, “Let’s go,” and they both swung their doors open and approached the car.

Hesitantly, the passenger door opened and the tiny form of Aunt Leanne stood before them. Jess was so pleased to see her, and they hugged for the first time in decades. Aunt Leanne’s face was beaming, and she was so pleased to see them. Aunt Joan also stepped out, and strode with purpose away from her niece, not bothering to even say hello. Jess called out to her, and she turned back around, glaring.

“Hello Aunt Joan!” Jess said eagerly.

“Come on,” was the only response she gave back, as she turned back around.

“Aunt Joan, this is my friend Amanda,” Jess introduced her friend that Joan had no intention of even acknowledging. Joan grunted in return when Amanda offered her respectful greetings. Jess sighed, this was going to be a long day. Of that, she was certain. Jess followed after Joan as Amanda stayed at Leanne’s side. Amanda was shocked at the body language that she was seeing in Leanne. This was her first time meeting her, but she had heard many stories and also heard her voice over the phone. The woman that was before her was not the woman that she had heard so much about.

Leanne seemed to be closed into herself. Her head was bowed with her chin to her chest, her shoulders slumped down and in, and her hands were clasped before her. She shuffled along, and spoke very softly. Catching up to Jess and Joan on the porch, the time for revelation had arrived. The front door swung open and Jess finally saw what there was to do.

Not Leanne’s house, but rather, an example of what it looked like

She took a breath and looked at Amanda. She smiled back and nodded reassuringly.

“We’ve got this,” she stated with soft confidence. As far as they were concerned, this was their seemingly Sisyphean task. Clean, organize, and clear out the parts of the house where necessary for the repairs to be undertaken. Without a bit of fanfare, Joan began leading them through the house, informing them what still had to be done. During the week that Jess and Amanda were preparing for their trip, Joan had a junk hauler come and throw everything away in different areas of the house. Nothing was sorted, looked at, or considered for its value. It was simply grabbed and tossed into a dump truck.

Joan continued barking information at Jess, as Jess followed her throughout the house trying to best figure out where to start, and Amanda saw an opportunity. It was time to get to the bottom of Leanne’s body language. She sidled up to Aunt Leanne and coaxed her to follow her outside to the front of the house, far away from Joan’s ears.

“Leanne, I know you feel like if you disagree with Joan that she’ll stop helping you and that scares you because you know you can’t do this on your own, but I want you to know, you don’t need her. We are here. We will help you. You don’t have to put up with this. You don’t have to be yelled at, you don’t have to give up everything that you own. What’s happening here isn’t right, and it needs to stop. Don’t worry. We’ve got you. No matter what, you are going to be okay. We are here for you.”

Leanne began to talk about how her sister had been treating her. She had been yelled at constantly. She was told that everything that she owned was junk, and it was all getting thrown away. She didn’t have a choice. All Leanne wanted done was the three rooms that were necessary for the work to be done. She had begged, insisted, and implored Joan to do this with her, not to her.

Joan didn’t care. She took over everything and relegated Leanne to a silent witness to her entire life being hauled away to the dump. As much as she intended for all of these things to go to Jess after she passed on, there was still very much an attachment to these items. Much like others that dealt with the same compulsion to collect things, they still meant something to her. They had comforted her when she felt alone and made her feel safe. Having them ripped out of her home and thrown out like garbage was devastating to her. It was breaking her inside, but she was powerless in Joan’s shadow, but now, the tables had turned in her favor. Something lit inside her, and her whole perspective changed.

Leanne and Amanda returned to the house where they had left Jess and Joan. Joan couldn’t help her need for controlling everything and everyone, and had just done her best to order Jess around. Jess decided that it was best to placate Joan until she could fully understand what tasks she and Amanda could get started on. Despite her best efforts to do so, Joan continued to complain about the state of the house, and all of the “junk” that had to be dealt with.

Amanda separated off for a bit to have another look in the basement, and the hole in the ceiling there that the leak had caused. She also surveyed the items that were stacked in every room. She resigned herself to a week of work before heading back upstairs. The scene that was unfolding there was unpleasant to say the least. Amanda could see Leanne’s back, and Joan directly in front of her with a fierce expression. Jess’s voice could be heard saying, “Let go of her right now! Don’t you dare grab her like that! That is abuse!” As she wrenched Joan’s grip off of Leanne’s wrists.

Joan’s response was sneering and angry.

“You don’t tell me what to do. You’re nothing. I’ve been here, dealing with all this sh*t so you can go to hell!” She turned to Leanne. “Let’s go!” She demanded. Leanne didn’t want to go. She tried refusing by saying that she didn’t want to. She had only wanted the three rooms done, and that was all. Joan wasn’t interested in her plaintive cries. She repeated her demand that they leave, NOW!

Amanda, understanding the gravity of what was happening, immediately drew out her phone and began to record, as Jess followed them out the front door, Joan haranguing Leanne the entire way as she bullied her out the door.

Jess tried to step in between the two, and told Joan to stop. "F*ck you, you get out of my way!” She snarled.

“You don’t pay my rent, you don’t clothe me, you don’t feed me, you have absolutely no power over me! You think you do, but you don’t, and I’m here for Aunt Leanne. You want to be abusive, you continue to be abusive. She’s recording everything, and I already have evidence, so, you go for it,” Jess reached for Leanne asking, “Are you okay? Are you okay?”

“I just wanted those rooms done for the repair, that’s all,” she told Jess with desperation in her voice, and turning her attention to Joan. “Just the rooms for the repair! Nothing else!”

“She just wants to start with the rooms necessary for the repairs,” Jess spoke up for Leanne to make her desires crystal clear. “And then we can see where we go from there,” she was softening her voice to make the situation come back down to a reasonable level.

Joan strode up to Leanne and said in a quiet, furious voice, “You know what? If that’s all you want to do, then I’m going to call the city, and I’m going to say, this woman… this woman is a hoarder…”

Jess broke in, “Adult Protective Services is already aware of what’s going on. They’re going to be sending investigators out…”

Paying her no mind, Joan continued to threaten Leanne, “and you know what…” her voice stopped for an instant as she realized what Jess was telling her. “All right,” she said, walking away. For that second, it seemed she had given up, but that wasn’t the case at all. She was simply recalibrating her tactics.

“Get in the car,” she ordered Leanne. Leanne reluctantly began to follow.

“Why is she getting in the car instead of being here?” Jess asked.

“Cuz I wanna talk to her,” Joan snapped.

“Why can she not talk outside?” Amanda asked, knowing full well that the moment that Joan got her in the car, she would drive away. Not seeing a way to counter this inevitability, she wanted to document the affair.

“Stay out of it!” She growled at Amanda.

“No.” She replied steadily.

Leanne got in the car with Joan, she still believed that it was only to talk. As Leanne was still struggling with the car door.

“Just so you know, she’s probably going to leave right now.” Jess nodded slowly.

“That’s okay,” she consoled herself.

Jess and Amanda watched Joan begin to yell at Leanne, and Leanne violently shook her head at whatever was being spit at her. She tried to get out of the car, only to have Joan drive away with her door still open. The inertia closed the door back hard.

“Okay,” Amanda concluded, “now it’s time to call APS back,” and Jess did just that. She left a message, and while they were waiting for a call back, not certain what the next move was, Jess also called, Jerry, the man that was doing the clean out of the house. His crew was expected there later that day to continue the work.

The conversation with him was polite, but a bit odd. He seemed to be interested in siding with Joan, even though Jess had given him very little detail of what had transpired. He simply knew that there were some issues, and that the work would not be continuing that day, they would need to reschedule. He implied that he needed to speak with Joan, despite his contract being with Leanne, not Joan. Jess wasn’t interested in the conversation, as this was the furthest thing from her concern at the moment. The unusual conversation would come up again later.

Jess was able to end the conversation with Jerry when a call came through from APS.

“Call the police,” The APS investigator told them in earnest after hearing what had just happened. “That’s kidnapping.” They had though the same thing, but knowing that Joan had the POA, they didn’t know if they could. The APS worker, Karen, decided that she was going to head over and help them with what they were dealing with, and possibly liaise with the police.

Just after hanging up with Karen, Joan’s car came racing down the quiet residential street and screeched to a halt in front of the house. She exploded out of the car and went to the back door. She began pulling out anything that belonged to Leanne, including her tiny elderly dog, and dropped them on the sidewalk while Leanne tried to prevent her baby from getting injured. After expelling Leanne from her presence, she slammed her car door and left as quickly as she came.

Jess had rushed to help Leanne with her dog and her belonging, and explained that Karen would be there soon. While doing so Jess watched as Jerry’s junk truck come barreling down the road, and pass the house without even slowing down. Leanne watched perplexed, as she knew that they were supposed to be arriving. Jess shook her head, “I’ll explain that too, Aunt Leanne.”

Knowing that Leanne was no longer missing, and there was nothing for the police to do, they weren’t called. Karen arrived soon after and had a long private discussion with Leanne. Afterward, they toured the house, and Karen made it clear that it would need to be dealt with. Jess and Amanda assured her, that’s what they were there for.

Unfortunately, the house wasn’t habitable at the moment. The black mold made that impossible, but Leanne couldn’t go back to Joan’s. However, Joan had several of Leanne’s possessions, that she absolutely needed to get back, including the title for her house. It was decided that Leanne would come to stay with them at their hotel. But first, they had to retrieve Leanne’s things.

Jess texted Joan to inform her that they would be coming.

Joan, We are on the way to pick up ALL or Aunt Leanne’s stuff, her truck, and my Mom’s jewelry. Adult Protective Services is already aware and if you do not return that property, it is considered theft, and the police will get involved. So, let’s make this simple, please. Do that, and you will never have to see us again.

She flippantly said that she wouldn’t be there for at least four hours, so they had to kill time before heading that direction. After an hour drive they arrived to find a paltry amount of Leanne’s things outside, and the house locked up tight, including the gate to get to the front door that was never lacked before. Leanne was dismayed at how few of her things that were there and tried to contact Joan in any way she could. She even climbed over the gates of both the front door and the backyard, but to no avail.

Jess texted her again;

We are here, and would appreciate being able to be done, and out of your hair. We see you put some of her stuff out. I will be filing a police report in the morning for the remainder, which will include ALL of the jewelry.

She responded:

Whatever (with a smiley face emoji)

No matter how many calls, texts, or doorbell rings, it was pointless. Joan refused to answer, though it was obvious she was home. Dejected, Leanne loaded the few things into the back of her truck that had been left there, and prepared to leave.

That was day one of the week from hell. Stay tuned for the rest of it.