I had just come off night shift at
the hospice and was on my way home. It was a hard shift and emotionally
draining. I was tired and all I wanted to do was go home to my bed and sleep.
However, sleep turned out not to be
an option for me, because no sooner had I got in my front door when my doorbell
rang. I opened the door and there standing on my doorstep were two very serious
looking men in black suits. After the usual greetings of hello etc. they
flashed their badges at me and introduced themselves as Agent Morrison and
Agent Kane from the FBI. Why were they
looking for me? I wondered.
They told me they would like to
speak to me about a matter involving my brother George, who had apparently got
himself tangled in a messy situation. This news did not surprise me as George was notorious
for getting himself into trouble, sleeping with the wrong women, being a
drunken lout, smashing places up and dear knows what else. His temper being the main problem as it
usually got the better of him and nine times out of ten landed him in jail.
I hadn’t seen George in over a
year and to be honest was not really disappointed about this, because our
relationship was ruined the day he pushed me down the stairs in a drunken rage
which left me with broken ribs, a broken arm and a very sore back. I was still recovering from that attack, both
emotionally and physically.
The antics of George are widely
known in my neighbourhood and I didn’t want them gossiping anymore about him,
so instead of having this conversation on the steps for everyone to see, I
invited the Agents in to the house. Once
we were inside and sat in the living room, Agent Morrison started to tell me
the story of George.
Apparently George had recently
been in Colombia, which was news to me, but while he was there he had got
involved with a woman who turned out to be the niece of the Colombian
President. Apparently this was not a
good move for my brother to make as President Santos was a corrupt leader, not
a kind man and didn’t tolerate foreigners very well especially white ones. I got the impression he was not the type of
man you would want to get on the wrong side of. Part of me thought that now George
might have met his match this time!
The President’s niece, Lorena was
pregnant and was claiming that George was the father. When George found this
news out he did a disappearing act. Again this was typical behaviour of George.
He never hung around when people needed him.
President Santos was not happy about this and deemed George a coward for
running away from his responsibilities.
Yes, he’s summed George up very well there, he was exactly like that.
President Santos was very protective of his family and did not take too well to
people hurting his family.
The story didn’t stop there. On
fleeing Colombia and going back to the United States, he tried to smuggle drugs
in his luggage, but he was caught out at the airport by the sniffer dogs who
showed a great interest in my brother’s backpack. He was searched for drugs and
they found around £1.5million worth of Cocaine hidden in the lining of his bag.
None of this surprised me as like
I said he was always getting into trouble.
George was born with the gift of the gab and was usually able to talk
his way out of things, but it looked like this time he wouldn’t be able to, or
would he? He was taken to the airport
holding cells and was questioned thoroughly about where he got the drugs from
and why he was bringing them back to the states etc.
However, George was not very
forthcoming with answers, and just said no comment to everything he was
asked. While George was being questioned
it came to the attention of the authorities that George was being sought after
by President Santos and had put a bounty on George’s head. Santos wanted George
dealt with for his behaviour towards his niece and also for taking their
precious Cocaine out of his country. Smuggling drugs into another country was
illegal and all smugglers who were caught were severely punished. Not only were the American’s wanting George
dealt with, the Colombians did too.
In the middle of Agent Morrison
telling me this, Agent Kane’s phone rang, it was their office with news about
George. Apparently feeling the pressure, he had eventually broken down in the
middle of being questioned, but instead of giving any information voluntary he
asked for a deal to be cut. George never
did anything for nothing, he was always used situations to his advantage.
This deal George wanted to make
was that in exchange for his freedom he would give them interesting on the
President and the Colombian government which he had apparently picked up from
Lorena. The authorities decided to hear
George out in order to decide if his information was useful and if it was then
the charges against George would be dropped and he would be free. Well free to a point. The FBI feared for his
safety and wanted to put him into protective custody until the situation was
sorted.
After listening to the two Agents
speak I said, “Thank you for telling me, but there is nothing I can do to help
George in this situation. It seems he has got all the help and protection he
needs from you lot”
Agent Morrison said, “If Santos
captures George he will certainly kill him.
We will protect him as much as we can, but if he is captured and taken
back to Colombia, there is nothing much we can to do help him as he will be out
of our jurisdiction and Colombia refusals to negotiate with America ever”
“Ok well if he is in your
protective custody, I am sure no one will be able to get to him, right?”
“Yes, that is correct, but if
Santos can’t get to George himself, he might well go after his family in order
to try and lure him out of wherever they think he may be hiding, because they
will have no idea he is being protected by the FBI”
At this news I started to
crumble. My life may be in jeopardy
because of my good for nothing brother. Would I ever be free of him? He always had to drag other people into his
mess. He was in my opinion a selfish person who needed to grow up.
I remember the time George went
to Las Vegas for the stag do of his best friend Nick. Around fifteen of them were on the trip and
it was obvious from the beginning trouble would ensue because they were all a
bad influence on each other.
George got into a lot of debt in
one of the Casinos, and the manager would not let him leave until his dues were
paid, which George was unable to pay because he had gambled all his money away.
And the only thing he knew to do in this situations was call home asking our
parents to bail him out. He owed £20,000 and wanted them to cover him. When my
parents asked what the money was for, he told them he had got himself into a
spot of bother. In my opinion it was
more than a spot of bother, it was more like a huge pile of sinking sand!
George never took his antics and
the predicaments he landed himself in seriously and never took responsibility
for his actions.
My parents were retired and didn’t
have that sort of money but they loved George and desperately wanted to try and
help him because they didn’t want to see him injured or worse, dead. They
didn’t know what to do or where to get the money from. They got themselves into
a huge panic at what might happen to their precious son. George was very selfish for putting his parents,
and me through his mess especially my Dad. Two years previous Dad had suffered
a bad heart attack which led to a quadruple bypass and months of recovery and I
was scared that more stress would lead to more heart problems.
My parents tried to borrow money
from the bank but were refused a loan due to their age. They were in their
seventies, and banks don’t lend money to people over seventy because they are
probably afraid they would die and then the money would never be paid back to
the bank! In desperation they turned to
me for help but even though he was my brother, I was reluctant to help him.
George frustrated the life out of
me with this stupid selfish behaviour and I wanted to make him suffer the way
he made out family suffer. However, I hated seeing the pain on my parent’s
faces and watching my mum cry. I respected my parents request and took out a
loan so that George could pay off his debts and climb back out of the hole he
had dug himself into.
This incident happened six years
ago and my husband and I were still paying off the loan by working all the
hours God send us and depriving ourselves of any foreign holidays which was
hard for us as we liked getting away to the sun and exploring new countries. So
while George travels the world, I get to stay at home and earn money to pay his
debt off. It probably won’t surprise you
to know that George never offered to repay us and I am sure I will never get
the money back. George never take’s people’s feelings or situation into
consideration.
However, back to the matter at
hand, the Colombian President has put a bounty on my brother’s head. I was
unsure of the amount as the Agents were reluctant to tell me for some reason,
not sure why. I was thinking about my parents and what they would say about
this if they were still alive. Although I missed them very much, I was glad
they were not here right now as it would probably have killed them. Again it falls to me and my family to pick up
after George.
“What’s the plan? If I am a
target, what do I do? What do you do to
protect us, I assume the FBI will protect us.
I don’t want any harm coming to my husband, my children and my
grand-children. And we also need to take into consideration, the safety of
George’s kids? He has two boys, Paul aged
fifteen, Sam aged eighteen and Chrissie who is twenty. They all have different
mothers but do keep in regular contact with each other. When it comes to seeing
their father, well they see him as much as I do – hardly ever. He only gets in
touch when he needs something”
“Yes Debbie, we will be
protecting all of you. Santos has men in America and he may very well use them
to come after you all and use you as bargaining tools. We will make sure there are agents placed
outside their work places and home. Do you know where everyone would be right
now?”
“Yes. Bill, my husband will be at his place of
work, Goldman Sachs. Joanie, my oldest will be at home with her two kids while
Max her husband works with Bill in the same office. Elaine, my youngest will be
at work in Bloomingdales and her husband Matthew broke his leg recently so he
will be at home probably catching up on all his TV Shows he is addicted too”
“Thank you that is very useful
information. And George’s kids, where would we find them?”
“I am not sure where they would be right at
his moment, but can tell you the area in which they could be found in. Chrissie attends New York Fashion School so
she is probably there, at home or out shopping!
As for the boys, Sam, lives in Long Beach, California with his mother.
He practically lives at the beach, so you will probably find them there or out
on the water. He is a surfer and trying to go to professional. Paul lives right
here in New York and will probably be at school”
“Thanks, again we will put some
stations on them to protect them.
However now we must go, but we will be in direct contact with you and
here is our number, you can call us anytime you need. We have two agents stationed outside your
house now watching in case anything happens, so someone will never be far away
in case trouble strikes. We need to go to the office, but we will be back in a
few hours. Thank you for being cooperative with us, and sorry to have brought
this upon you”
“It’s not your fault George is
such a screw-up, but thank you for coming to inform me and for protecting us
all”
The Agents left the house about
two hours after they arrived. I was very very tired due to having worked a
twelve hour night shift and not slept for hours.
Even though I was worried about everything I had just told I decided the
best thing for me was to go to bed and try to sleep. The FBI were on the case
so there was nothing I could do except for sit and wait. Bill would be home
soon, which would be a great comfort to me.
I had just managed to get to
sleep when I heard someone banging on my door, because I was half asleep I was
not sure what was going on. Didn’t know if it was reality or a dream. I crawled
further under the covers of the bed hoping that the noises would soon stop.
But, unfortunately that didn’t happen, the banging got louder and then all of a
sudden by door was being kicked in. Who were these people trespassing on my
property?
I heard voices and could make out
they were speaking Spanish. I
immediately sat up bolt right in my bed petrified that these men belonged to
Santos. I grabbed my phone and called Agent Morrison filling him in on what had
just happened. He told me to stay where I was, to remain calm and they would be
back at the house straight away. If it was Santos’s men, Morrison didn’t know
how they had found me or why the Agents posted outside were not trying to
diffuse the situation.
I was so relieved to know they
were coming straight away to help me. But that relief didn’t last long because
as soon I finished the phone call, I heard yelling and banging coming from
downstairs. The men were obviously looking to see if there was anyone in the
news. They were making their presence known.
In the midst of all the noise,
there was one that troubled me and that was the sound of a girl crying. This frightened
me and I was scared in case they had got hold of one of my girls and were using
her as a pawn in this game George created.
I felt so useless and was praying so hard that Agents Morrison and Kane
would turn up soon.
I stayed rigid in my bed, too
scared to move, all the time listening to what was going on downstairs and
thinking it would be a matter of time because they came upstairs and found me
in my room. The two men were still shouting at each other, I could hear them
more clearly now but could not make out what they were saying as I did not know
any Spanish except for Hola and Gracias! I could make out that one of the men
definitely had a Spanish accent but the other one was speaking with a definite
American undertone, which made no sense to me.
I called Agent Morrison again and
demanded to know where they were as it had turned into quite a situation in my
house. I had just put my phone down when the door of my bedroom flew open and
two men entered. One of the men was
pointing a gun at me, while the other one had one hand around the girl’s neck
and then in the other hand he had a gun which he was pointing at the girl’s
head.
It wasn’t just any girl, it was
George’s daughter Chrissie. They had somehow gotten to her and here she was
standing in my bedroom crying her eyes out with a gun being held to her head. How
could George get his own flesh and blood into these situations?
The whole situation made me
fearful, but I was more scared for Chrissie than I was for myself. She was young and had her whole life ahead of
her, whereas I had a few years on her and had lived a good life. George had
royally screwed up this time.
The man who entered the room
first seemed to be the leader of the two. He yelled at me to get up out of my
bed. But not matter how hard I tried to
move, I couldn’t. I was frozen to the spot. I noticed that the main man was
definitely from Colombia whereas the other man was an American. And he wasn’t
just any American, he was a Federal Agent.
What was going on here, why was
this Federal Agent holding a gun to my niece’s head?! And where were Agent Morrison
and Agent Kane? I was wondering if I
could still trust them or were they corrupt as well, like the agent currently
standing in my room seemed to be. He presumably
was one of the agents who were meant to be outside protecting me from the
threat of Santos’ men.
I had decided right there that if
Santos doesn’t get to George first, then I was definitely going to kill him
with my bare hands for what he has put the whole family through. He is such
selfish person.
The Colombian rushed towards me,
grabbing my hand and dragged me out of my bed. He tied my arms behind my back
and threw me to the ground. All the time
he was yelling at me demanding to know where George was. Despite me saying that
I had no idea where he was and that I had not seen my brother for over a year
but he did not seem to believe me. Mr
Corrupt FBI accused me of lying and that I did know where George was. I kept saying over and over again I didn’t
know and even if I did I wouldn’t tell them. In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have said
that last bit because I received a kick in the face. Blood was now pouring down my face and I was convinced
that my nose was broken.
After that the Colombian decided
he had, had enough and headed down the stairs leaving Chrissie and myself alone
with Mr Corrupt FBI who was pointing his gun at both of us now. Chrissie was still crying, she was in such a
state, my heart went out to her. George certainly will never win an award for
being father for the year, but this is the first time that his children have
been involved in the chaos he creates. Looking at Chrissie made me think of Sam and
Paul hoping and praying that they were safe.
Mr Corrupt FBI was yelled at by
the Colombian to come downstairs. I
heard more footsteps on the stairs and then my bedroom door flew open once
again. Thankfully this time it was Agent
Morrison. All I could think was please do not let him be corrupt either. He untied the bindings that were on our
wrists and told us to stay sitting on the ground until either Agent Kane or
himself came back to get us.
I threw my arms around Chrissie
and told her how much I loved her and wanted to protect her from her dad. She
apologised to me for all this, but I had no idea why she was apologising to me,
because none of this was her fault. You can’t choose your family and if you
could I certainly wouldn’t have chosen George as a brother and I am sure she
wishes at this precise moment he wasn’t her father.
We could hear a lot of yelling,
banging and crashing coming from downstairs. We could also hear gun shots. All
I could think was, my poor house, the market value would be low if I ever go to
sell! My thoughts soon came back again to the real world with the sound of Chrissie’s
voice asking me what was going on. It hadn’t occurred to until that moment that
Chrissie probably didn’t know why she was involved in this mess.
“Your Dad has gone and got himself into
trouble yet again and people are after him”
“If they are after him, then why
are we being targeted?”
“Because the men who are after
him can’t find him as he has been put into protective custody by the FBI. And
by targeting us, his family they are trying to lure him out, to see if we know
where he is”
“It’s not fair, this is Dad’s mess not ours”
“I know Chrissie, and I am sorry
that you have been dragged into this mess. How did they find you?”
Chrissie told me the story of how
she ended up sitting beside me in tears. She had just come out of a lecture when two
men grabbed her, forced her out of the university building and into a waiting
van where she was tied up. Despite her
asking what was going on, no one told her anything. She said “one minute I was
in the van, and the next moment I was being dragged into your house with a gun
to my head”
After she had finished I said, “I
am so sorry Chrissie about all this”
“It’s not your fault, I’m sorry”
“Who are we kidding, none of us
are to blame, it’s that idiot brother of mine. I know he’s your Dad and I am
sorry but I can’t have my family being turned upside down because of him, they
are precious to me as you are”
“I agree, at this moment I never
want to see him again”
I felt so sorry for Chrissie. I
just held her close to me, to try and make her feel safe and secure, just like
I did when she was younger and scared of thunder and lightning. We sat together for what seemed like ages with
the tears streaming down our faces, when in arrived Agent Kane. I was glad to see him but I was also angry and
yelled at him demanding to know what was going on and how they managed to let
my niece be captured.
“I thought you were meant to protect me and my
family”
“Debbie, I am so sorry, we did
not know this was going to happen”
“What about the FBI agents who
were meant to be outside watching my house? The one who is in my house now, he’s corrupt
isn’t he? Is he involved in Santos’s crowd? And where is the other Agent from
my supposed protection detail?”
“Yes we had two agents outside
who were meant to be protecting you, Agents Walker and Carter. It seems that Agent
Walker has been turned corrupt, but we did not know about that. As for the
other agent, unfortunately he is dead after being strangled by Agent Walker. The
reason they found you so fast was because Agent Walker passed on all the
information he knew including where you were. The one thing he doesn’t know is
where George is, only four Agents know that information, the two who are with
George and myself and Agent Kane. I am
so sorry about what has happened today, I really am”
“What about Paul and Sam? And my
family?”
“Your family are safe, we have
Agents with them at the moment, taking them all back to their homes. Your
husband will be with you very soon. Sam and Paul are fine and have agents with
them protecting them too”
Agent Kane was so sincere in his
apology that I knew he was trustworthy and not corrupt. This was good news as we needed allies at this
moment.
“Come on, let’s get you both out
of here”
He helped myself and Chrissie get
up from the floor and we were just about to leave the bedroom when all of a
sudden the door flew open again hitting Agent Kane square in the nose, making
blood sputter everywhere. It was Agent
Walker, or as I liked to call him Mr Corrupt FBI. He came in pointing his gun at all three of
us, and then grabbed Chrissie. I shouted
at him to leave her alone. He shot at me but missed because I jumped out of the
way. I think that was his way of telling
me to shut up, so I did, thinking it may be the best thing to do!
Agent Kane was back on his feet
and made a play for Walker in order to try and rescue Chrissie but he was shot
in the kneecap by Walker which made him fall to the floor with a mighty thud. Oh
my, could this day get any worse, I thought.
Walker told me I had to cooperate
with him otherwise he would kill Chrissie. After seeing him fire his gun at me
and at Agent Kane, I knew he was serious, so I told him I would do anything he
asked me to do as long as he didn’t harm my niece.
He pushed Chrissie in front of
him holding the gun to her head and told me to follow him. Agent Kane was still
on the floor with blood pouring from his nose and his gunshot wound. He looked at me and pointed at the floor were
his gun was, mouthing to me to take it. I
hesitated in taking he gun as I was scared because I had never used a gun
before and didn’t think I had it in me to kill anyone. Agent Kane was insisting I took it, so making
sure Walker couldn’t see me, I bent down and took the gun hiding it behind my back.
Walker was yelling at us to get
down the stairs. Chrissie had no choice
but to obey him since he was holding a gun to her head. I duly followed them,
all the time wondering where Agent Morrison was.
As we reached the bottom of the
stairs, Walker threw Chrissie to the ground and told her to stay there and not
move. He then turned to me and told me to keep cooperating with him or else it
wouldn’t be just Chrissie that would suffer, he would harm my whole family.
“Why don’t you just kill me and
leave my family alone?”
“Because I need you to get to
George, I need him so I can get the bounty money”
“Oh so this is what it’s all about,
you are just after the money”
“Yes, what else would it be
about?”
“Well you were working with one
of Santos’s men earlier, where did he disappear too?”
“Unfortunately he had a nasty
incident with a kitchen carving knife”
“And Morrison, where is he?”
As soon as I mentioned his name,
Morrison appeared in the door of the living room, his crisp white shirt now
turning a crimson red. He was clutching his stomach. It was obvious he had got on the wrong side of
a knife as well.
I was so glad to see Morrison
because now Chrissie and I had another ally.
I ran over to him to try and help him up but Walker shoved me out of the
way, warning me to behave otherwise Chrissie would die. I dutifully stepped
back and did as I was told.
Walker made a play for Morrison
and started to kick him in the head. I
decided I wasn’t having any of this, so I took the gun from behind my back and
shot Walker in the back of the head. He fell to his knees and ended up slumped
on the ground. He was dead. I had caught
him unaware and now we were free of that snake Walker. Chrissie looked at me, she was stunned and
still crying. I went over to her and wrapped my arms around her assuring her
that everything would be ok.
While all this was happening,
Agent Morrison had managed to pull himself up onto his feet and was standing
beside us. I turned to him and he was smiling at me and said,
“Well, Debbie that was unexpected. Thank you
though for saving me. Much appreciated”
“No worries, both you and Agent
Kane risked your lives for us and all because of my lousy brother”
“It’s part of the job, our duty”
“We need to get both you and
Agent Kane to the hospital, and we need to get Chrissie looked at as well, she
is in shock”
“What about you, think you need
to be looked at as well with the knocks you have taken as well”
I agreed with Agent Morrison. I
told him to call for an ambulance and then went upstairs to my bedroom to get
Agent Kane. He was in awful shape, but I managed to get him onto his feet and
bring him downstairs and made him lie down on the sofa till the ambulance came
to get us.
After a ten minute wait, an
ambulance pulled up outside the house to take all of us to hospital. The
paramedics had just put Agent Kane into the ambulance and were helping Agent
Morrison in when his phone rang. It was the bureau updating him on the
situation with Santos and wanting to know what was going on at our end.
Agent Morrison told his Chief
about Agent Walker and all the events that had taken place over the past few
hours. In turn he was told that all the charges against George had been
dropped. It turns out that the information he gave to the FBI in regards to
President Santos was very valuable information. George had given them the name
of the top leaders in Fuerzas Armadas Revoluciones de Colombia (FARC), the
terrorist group in Colombia. And it
turns out that one of the top leaders in FARC was Santos. Now that the FBI have
this information they were going to start the process of arresting the leaders
and try and bring down the Colombian government.
With the charges against George
being dropped, he was now a freeman but was still going to be in protective
custody. It had been decided that after
Agent Walker turning out to be corrupt, our families would be better off in a
safe house, so one had been arranged for us to go to.
George had been told that his
family was under threat and were being taken to the safe house. George asked if he could go to the safe house
with us. I was not sure how I felt about
this but thought it maybe would be a good idea for him to come join us and see
what he had put Chrissie and myself through.
We arrived at the hospital and
Agent Morrison and Agent Kane had been taken into surgery while Chrissie and I
were taken to triage to see to our wounds. I had a broken nose and a few bruises
while Chrissie had not been physically hurt, she was in complete shock, and was
being treated for that. It was very understandable given what she had been
going through.
I was sitting in the cubicle
waiting for the nurse to come back and patch me up when in walked Bill. I was
so pleased to see him and even more so when he came over and took me in his
arms. I just cried and cried with him. It had been such an emotional day and
with not having had much sleep the tears came so easily.
Bill had been filled in on the
story about George, but he wanted to know from my side what had happened in the
house, he wanted to know how I was coping with it all. I told him all about
what Chrissie and I had been through and how traumatic it was. I told him about
George and what he had been involved in and how he wanted to come to the safe
house to be with us. Like me, Bill
wasn’t sure this was a good idea and didn’t want to see me being put under more
stress and pressure from my brother.
As I was so tired, Bill told me I
should get some sleep since I was so tired. I agreed and asked him to go and be
with Chrissie. He told me the rest of the family were safe and would be there
when I woke up.
Bill left and I drifted into a
blissful sleep and dreamt about my childhood and growing up with George. I
dreamt about the good times we had as a family. During the dream I realised that even though
he was trouble, I still loved my brother.
When I woke up, I was surprised
to find George standing beside my bed holding my hand. He said he was sorry for
everything that he had out me and our family through over the years. He told me how much he loved me and never
wished to put me in danger. He said after this time he vowed to change his ways
and become a better brother to me and a better father to his kids.
After hearing him out and seeing
the sorrow in his eyes I told him I loved him and I forgave him, maybe not
completely but I was getting there. He asked if we could start again. I said
yes but it would be a slow process and would have a few underlining conditions,
such as replaying me all the money he owed me from the past. He also had to go
to rehab for his drink and drug problem and make sure this kind of behaviour
needs to stop. I told him at forty five it was time he grew up. He agreed and promised me he would make
amends and make sure he kept on the straight and narrow from now on.
After our heartfelt moment
together, George informed me that I had been asleep for two days. I must have
been tired, but it’s no surprise as I was emotional drained from the recent events. I inquired after Agent Morrison and Agent
Kane, and he told me they were doing well. They both had to have surgeries and
were recuperating at the moment. I was
pleased to hear they were doing well.
I enquired after Chrissie. George
said she was doing ok, still a bit jittery and very angry at him. I asked him
was he really surprised at that and he said no. However, despite being angry at
her father, they had been able to have a good talk, or more of an argument
about George and the recent events. George apologised to her for not being a
proper father to her. He asked if he
could start again to which she said yes, but on one condition, he grew up and
stopped getting himself into trouble and involving his family in them. George
had agreed to this.
It seemed that there were a lot
of conditions being piled upon George, and a lot of pressure on him to actually
adhere to what his family were saying to him. Chrissie and I had given him a
second chance, or in my case it was probably a seventh chance. But we told him
if he messed up again, there would be no other chances. He needed to know that he
could not just walk back into our lives with ease. He agreed. I was very surprised at the way
George was behaving and how he genuinely looked as if he wanted to change and
try to be a better person. Time will tell
how long this will last for.
As for the bounty on George’s
head, well it had been dropped because now Santos was under investigation for
his involvement with FARC and was officially suspended from office until the
investigation was over. The search for all
the other leaders had begun as it seems they had all gone into hiding.
While I was in hospital Bill had
been staying with our daughter Elaine while our house was being redecorated and
fixed up ready for us to move back into, this had now been completed and
everything was ready for us to move back in, for which I was glad as I hated
hospitals and couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Bill and I talked about letting
George move in with us. We were both unsure of having him there, but then
thought it might be good for George. We told him he could move in with us to
give him a place to go, but he was under no illusions that if he messed up
again he would be out on his ear. When
they were redecorating the house, Bill had apparently requested that some of
the bullet holes remained so that every time George saw them he could be
reminded of what he had put his sister and daughter through. This made me smile
as it was typical of Bill and a good idea as well.
After four days in the hospital,
I was finally discharged and went back to my house with George and Bill. It was
a weird and difficulty experience walking back into the house after what had
happened there. My brain went into overdrive and started to reply everything
that had happened that day. I started to
panic, but Bill took me into his arms and told me not to worry that I was safe
now and no harm could come to me.
George apologised again to me and
thanked us for giving him the chance to prove himself and get back on
track. It seemed that George had turned
a new leaf and he promised there would be no more trouble with George!
