-Bond of Brothers 4
His father was unapproachable at any given time. Tundra spent most of his time in his room. He would go to school, and after he got back, went straight to his room. He wasn’t allowed to visit with any friends, use the phone, or go online.
He had resorted to paper mail to stay in contact with the outside world by throwing letters out his bedroom window at a friend that would sneak by in the middle of the night.
The home life was hell. When he was called to meals, it was eaten in silence and upon returning to his room, screaming and yelling could be heard from down the hall. His bedroom door was locked at night and he had to whimper for an hour if he had to use the restroom for someone to unlock his door.
He actually looked forward to going back to school everyday. Just to have some social interactions as the silence at home was maddening. Over a weekend at home and he would forget what his name was.
“Hey Tundra!” someone called from behind him in the hallway. He turned around and saw one of his football teammates jog up to him. “What’s been going on with you? Why didn’t you even try out for the team this year or not? We really could’ve used ya so we could make playoffs again this year man!”
It was a leopard, a teammate and friend. Tundra stayed quiet, unsure of what to say. “I just really wanted to focus on my studies this year Matrick….”
The leopard looked him over concernedly. “Dude. You haven’t been yourself for two years. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Tundra lied clutching his physics book in his paws tightly just wanting to either change the subject or just go to class.
“There’s something man… and I’m worried about you. Listen, if you ever need to talk- don’t hesitate to call alright?”
Tundra nodded. “Yea. Will do.”
He about broke down into tears, but he held himself together barely and with a heavily faked smile, ran off to class.
His tears caught up with him on the slow, plodding walk home. Sadness lead to anger, as his head stayed dipped, his walk blind and hateful, his tears splashing on the sidewalk beneath him.
As he neared the house, he sighed, wiping the wetness from his eyes as he approached the house. The front door was locked as it always was now, and he knocked timidly on the door.
It popped open and he stepped inside, his father on the other side.
“What in the hell took you so long?” he asked slamming the door shut once Tundra was inside and slapping him. “You’re supposed to come straight home after school!”
“I did!” Tundra yelped from the smack rubbing the side of his head.
His father just glared at him and stomped off across the house and back into the living room to return to his bass fishing show and open beer.
Tundra sighed and headed into the kitchen to get something to drink, his mother was in there, sorting through the mail on the counter.
She looked silently up at him and said nothing. The purple dog sighed and tried making conversation with her as he did every day he came home from school.
“Did I get anything in the mail?”
His mother just shook her head aimlessly looking through the bills and junk mail muttering a very soft, “No.”
He stood there for a moment in silence before asking, “How was your day?”
She held back tears and a wave of emotion. “What do you want?” she asked softly.
Tundra’s ears lowered a little. “Something to drink.”
“There’s a cup and a sink in your bathroom. So go to your room.”
“Can’t I have a soda?”
His mother looked up at him with forlorn eyes, a touch of anger gracing them. “I said go to your room.”
Tundra sighed when she looked down again, looking away sadly, before noticing the garbage can. The lid was open and sticking partially out of the top of the pile inside was a bright yellow envelope. That was unimportant except for the fact that he saw who it was addressed to: Tundra.
They were throwing out his mail now? He asked every day just to try and make small talk with his mother, which never seemed to ever work. He occasionally got letters from family members, but why would this letter in particular be thrown out?
A little unsure and confused, he turned, heading out of the kitchen and down the hall to his room. He paused for a moment before entering his room, turning to look back at what was Typhoon’s room. The door had been taken off, everything of his brother’s was cleaned out by his father and they had set it up to be their mother’s office.
He opened his door and tossed his book bag onto his bed and went back out to the bathroom. He grabbed up the cup from the sink and filled it with water, drinking it and filling it again, heading back into his room and closing the door.
His room was also stripped; his computer, stereo, television and video games had all been removed, leaving him with a bed, dresser, desk and clothes for the most part.
He unzipped his bag and pulled out his books and laid them out on his desk and opened them to do his last week’s worth of homework.
As he stared over the physics homework, his brain drifted back to the yellow envelope. What was it? A friend dropped off a letter to him perhaps?
He jumped a little when his door flew open. “What are you doing in here?” his father asked.
Wasn’t it obvious? “Homework.” Tundra said turning around to look at his dad. This was something he didn’t do. What was he looking for?
Whatever it was it certainly didn’t seem to matter what Tundra was doing as he proceeded to pick up his back pack and rummage through the contents, which was he took everything that was neatly packed inside and roughly dump it out onto the floor, kicking through the odds and ends.
When he didn’t find anything in his random bag search, he tossed the bag to the corner and left, closing and locking the door behind him.
Tundra sighed, turning back to his homework. He had to find out what his parents had thrown out. He didn’t know how as they watched him like a hawk when he was out of his room.
By dinner time, he had finished his homework, but had no idea how he was going to get the letter apart from rummaging through the cans out by the garage when he left for school.
They all ate in silence. Which was probably for the best. His father had had one too many and even the slightest comment would more than spark rage from him. He finished first, knocking into the table as he staggered to his feet, grabbing another beer from the fridge (as if he needed one) and swaggering dangerously into the living room to his chair.
His mother sighed heavily at his drunken spectacle and continued silently eating. His mother finished before he did and waited for Tundra to finish to make sure that he went back in his room.
However, her work line rang and she got up from the table, wiping off her muzzle with a napkin. “Clean this up.” she said heading into the kitchen to pick up.
She had just handed Tundra the Golden Ticket. He inhaled the remaining food on his plate, and quickly cleared the whole table into a pile and hefted it all into the kitchen. He set the dishes on the countertop next to the garbage can, grabbed a fork and a plate and started scraping food off into the trash can.
The yellow envelope was still there. But he dared not look at it or even look as if he was doing anything other than scraping off plates. He grabbed a second plate, dipping it low into the trash and scraping, snagging the envelope against the bottom of the plate. He stacked this on top of the other and continued about his cleaning.
He moved the plates towards the dishwasher. He started loading them in, sliding out the envelope and sliding it into the small space between it and the countertop. No one would find it there or even think to look. He finished loading the dishwasher and as was the new custom, was sent to his room and locked in.
It was the middle of the second week after finding the mysterious yellow envelope. What was inside it was driving him crazy. He got home early after finishing his last high school final, glad to finally be done with high school.
He entered the house where his mom was busy on a phone call with her cosmetics clients. His father was not yet home, so he had a good sporting chance to get at that envelope. He wandered into the kitchen where his mother was busy on her phone call.
Tundra walked around the counter and stopped in front of the dishwasher waiting for his mom to get off the phone. He knew with him home, she wouldn’t be long in sending him to his room. His time was short. He wedged his claws under the counter and slid the envelope towards him, leaning over slightly and when his mom turned to hang up the phone, he pulled it out and shoved it down his pants, smoothing his shirt quickly out again.
“Any mail?” Tundra asked.
“Just go to your room.” She said coldly pointing down the hall.
Tundra didn’t put up too much of a fight, he had to force himself to walk slowly as always to his room. Upon arrival, he entered, closed the door behind him and tossed his bag on the bed. He listened to hear his mother still on her phone call and quickly pulled out the envelope.
He flipped it to the front and saw that it was in fact mailed to the house with his name on it. There was no return address however. He opened the top of the envelope and inside was a single piece of paper.
He unfolded it and looked it over. There was a typed letter, not saying all to much. He looked it over confused. There was very little on it other than a ‘Dear Tundra’ and a series of complex math equations.
He scratched his head. The math equations were easy enough for him. So, unsure of what it meant, he quickly figured out the problems. There were three all together, and when they were finished, he was left with three answers. The first being three digits, the second another three and the third had four.
A phone number perhaps? But who was it from? He hadn’t had access to a phone in awhile. He thought about it, pocketed the envelope, and scraped together some change.
He grabbed his backpack and left his room heading towards the front door. His mother poked her head out from the kitchen. “And where do you think you’re going?”
“I have one more test that I have to do.” Tundra lied.
“Then why did you come back?”
“I forgot a book I have to take back.”
She eyed him up suspiciously, her phone held on her shoulder. “Fine. But then you come straight back afterwards.”
Tundra nodded and left. He walked slowly while still in sight of the house, but as soon as he rounded the corner, he took off in a sprint. There was a payphone a block from the school and he quickly ran up to it.
He pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket, shoved some change into the payphone and dialed the number.
It rang a few times and then picked up.
“Hello?”
“Uhhh… hi? I got your letter and I got this…”
“Tundra?” the voice said surprisedly.
“Yea… is… Typhoon?” he asked curiously.
“Little brother! Oh how I’ve wished that you’d call or send me a letter or a message or something. I knew that you’d find a way. Where are you? I’ll come by.”
Tundra bit his lip. If he wasn’t home in about an hour there would be hell to pay. But he DID have about an hour. “I’m at the school.” He said his voice a little unsteady.
“Is everything okay?”
Tundra had to stifle tears. His life was hell ever since the fateful day they were caught. “Uh… yea… everything is okay.” His voice was trembling now. He looked up the street and saw their father’s truck rounding the corner. “Oh shit it’s dad… I gotta go.”
“Go to the school. Stay there. I’m comin lil bro.”
Tundra quickly hung up the phone and walked away from it before his dad spotted him on it. He continued heading towards the school as quickly as he could.
His ears flattened when he heard. “Tundra! Where in fuck’s name are you going?”
Only their father would make a scene in public like this. He stopped and turned. The truck was parked on the side of the street and his dad was looking out the passenger side window.
“I’m heading to my last final…”
“And you’re out of the school why?”
“They let us go if we don’t have a class. I ran home to pick up a book that I need to give back.”
His dad looked around. “What book did you forget?”
“My chemistry book.”
Then what Tundra feared came true. He got out of the truck and walked over to him. “Fine. And who were you on the phone with?”
Tundra’s heart sank. “What? I wasn’t on the phone with anyone.”
His father smacked him. “Little fucking liar! I saw you on the phone! Who were you talking to?”
Tundra clutched his cheek. “No one I told you!”
“Get in the truck you worthless shit!” he yelled pointing to the truck.
Tundra’s heart was beating at a million miles an hour. What should he do? He hadn’t seen Typhoon in almost two years… would he still feel the same about him? Would he even show up? Tundra’s brain was screaming at him to get into the truck… but something stronger was telling him something else.
It was something that he had not heard speak up in a long while. It was his heart.
“Did you hear me? Get in the truck!” his dad was still yelling. Tundra looked over to the school… just a half block away.
His dad grabbed his bag and pulled it off him, noticing that it was light. He opened it to see that there was no book inside. “More lies I see.” He said throwing the bag in the bed of the truck. “I’ll bet that you fucking lied about this test you have too!”
Tundra’s legs were tingling and quivering, he felt like he was about to explode.
“Are you even fucking listening to me? Get your ass in the truck THIS INSTANT!” his father yelled back handing Tundra. The husky went down to the side walk hard, but it was all the incentive he needed. He pushed himself up with his arms, his legs kicked into over drive and he took off down the sidewalk in a full sprint.
“Get back here!” his father yelled from behind. Tundra tuned it out completely. He just ran.
He made the school in no time at all. Stopping outside the front doors and hiding behind a group of kids hanging around out front. He looked around and could see his dad’s truck starting to whip a u-turn. He moved further down the school’s private drive and looked around, rubbing his stinging face, and noticing that his muzzle was bleeding.
The truck turned in and pulled up and stopped sharply. His dad got out, slamming the door behind him. He stomped up to Tundra, snarling at him.
He leaned in close and growled. “Get in. NOW. That’s an order.”
Tundra took a deep breath. He wasn’t going to take this any more. “No.”
“What?”
“I said no.”
“You little son of a bitch…” his paw clamped down on Tundra’s arm and started dragging him toward the Dodge Ram.
“Let him go.” another voice said. Tundra looked up and saw his older brother standing there with his paws on his hips.
“You…” his father said glaring at Typhoon. “What the hell you want?”
“For you to let go of Tundra.”
“Why? So you can have your perverted sex parties with him?”
Typhoon just glared back. “I’ve come to terms with the fact that we share something special. Have you come to terms with the fact that you’re an abusive parent?”
“Fuck you.” His dad said glaring at him. “Tundra! Get in the truck!” he pulled him hard, pulling the purple husky’s arm out of his socket.
Tundra yelped with pain, Typhoon stepped forward and punched his father with a powerful right hook across the muzzle. His grip released off the younger husky and Typhoon, gently pushed him behind him.
“You piece of faggot shit.” His father glared rubbing where Typhoon hit him.
“Get the fuck out of here asshole.” Typhoon glared pointing off to their house.
“You don’t tell me what to do!” he growled pushing Typhoon back and stomping off to the truck. Typhoon quickly regained his balance and tackled him.
He knew that his father kept a loaded .22 in the glove box of the truck. He knocked him to the ground and started pummeling him across the face with his fist. Jumping up and kicking him repeatedly on the ground.
“This is for shooting at me, for beating Tundra, and not knowing when to stop you alcoholic fuck!”
Their father curled up, trying to block the barrage of blows Typhoon dealt him. Bruised and bloody, he cried out, “Stop! Stop! I’m sorry!”
Typhoon stopped and backed off some, keeping his fighting stance ready. His father slowly got off the ground, spitting out a muzzleful of blood and leaning on the fender of the truck for support. When he looked up at Typhoon he was glared back at.
“If you ever come near me or Tundra with intent to hurt either of us you homicidal dickhead; I’ll fucking kill you.”
He turned and left him standing there. The seniors that were standing around outside that witnessed the spectacle slowly started applauding Typhoon. The older husky scooped Tundra up in his arms and carried him to his ’70 Fury parked in the lot.
He opened the door and sat him on the seat. Then, using care and a solid push, popped Tundra’s shoulder back in.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently rubbing Tundra’s arm.
He nodded a response, a smile crossing his muzzle slowly. “I’m doing much better now.”
“Look what he did to you…” Typhoon frowned examining the cuts and bruises that Tundra had covering him from previous beatings.
“Typhoon…” Tundra started softly.
“I should go beat the shit out of his ass some more…”
“Ty…”
“I should’ve come got you sooner. I’m sorry little brother.”
“Ty…”
“Yea lil bro?”
“I’m gonna be alright.” He leaned up wincing from a little pain in his shoulder and hugged Typhoon. “You’re here with me again and that’s more important than anything.”
“I made you a promise and I have every intention of keeping it.”
“What promise Typhoon?”
“Long ago I told you, ‘I want to be with you no matter what. And I’ll do whatever it takes to keep it that way.’ And it’s still as true as the day I said it.”
“And I’ve never forgotten that.” Tundra said with a smile. He leaned up and their lips met, a warm embrace of a kiss that both of them had missed so very much.
