AncilAs soon as Kate noticed her father, she scrambled off in the opposite direction but she didn’t get too far before one of Vince’s buddies pushed her to the cold hard concrete floor of the hospital parking lot. She remained on the floor helpless, coughing from the force of the blow.
Vince didn’t give her any real time to recuperate. He grabbed her by her hair and pulled her, dragging her along the ground as she screamed in pain. “Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you?”
Kate didn’t answer but her screams got louder as her father dragged her by her hair to the car.
I, on the other hand, was having another one of those Ronald Baker moments where I just stood dumbfounded looking on as everything happened around me. I could have easily just run away but I couldn’t. Kate was in trouble. I couldn’t just run away and leave her. “Think! Think! What would Rick Grimes do?” I thought to myself.
“Hey!” I shouted.
Vince stopped and so did his buddy.
“Leave her alone.” I tried to sound tough. Maybe it could have scared them off or something.
Vince instantly stopped and turned to me. It seemed like he hadn’t even noticed me before. “Well, aren’t you a stubborn one? I clearly remember telling you-“
“I said leave her alone!” I interrupted, my voice hoarse. “Don’t let me have to say it again.” I tried to remain tough but I was shaking in my boots. I don’t know what came over me to act so ballsy.
Vince released Kate from his grip and slowly walked up to me. His buddy roughly pulled Kate up by her arms and held on tightly.
Vince got closer to me and looked me directly in my eyes. He was so close that I could feel the warm air from his nostrils and I could see all the wrinkles on his face and the experience in his eyes.
“I’ll give you five seconds to back off. If you’re smart you’ll run as far away as possible,” Vince warned, his face stern. He wasn’t making jokes.
“Just listen to him, Ron. You don’t want to do this!” Kate shouted.
“I’m not leaving you with this monster.”
“I’ll be fine,” Kate said.
“Shut her up please!” Vince shouted turning a half-eye to his buddy who then went on to slap Kate across the face. Vince then turned back to me and said, “You have two seconds.”
“I know you’re not a monster. I saw it in your eyes.” I stared him dead in the eyes. “I saw how you stared down the street outside of your house hoping that the very next person to show up under the street light was your daughter; your little girl. I saw how much you missed her.”
Vince stared back into my eyes and his face reddened and cringed with anger every time I spoke.
“I know you’re not a monster. You’re just a confused man who feels that the only way to attribute retribution to your daddy is to treat your own the same way he treated his,” I said.
“Ron that’s enough!” Kate shouted.
“Kate, I got this,” I said to Kate while staring her father right in the eye. His face shook with sheer anger and he remained quiet as I spoke. “You’re nothing but a coward. You feel that abusing your own will mend the pain of your own childhood traumas but in real and in fact it only makes — the — wound — deeper.”
“You think you know me,” Vince started, his face grim. “You don’t know SHIT!!!!!” His spit sprayed all over my face but I didn’t budge.
“Ron, you don’t want this,” Kate warned me.
“I got this Kate. Your father is just a big — fat — coward,” I said but I wasn’t given enough time to regret it as Vince swung a punch at my face sending me to the ground. Without a moment’s notice, he struck me in the gut with his legs.
My lungs felt like they were ready to explode as I heaved violently and coughed repeatedly.
“You don’t know what I have seen?” Vince said before kicking me in the gut again. “You don’t know how much death I’ve witnessed.” He picked me up by my collar, jammed me against his car then punched me across the face. “You don’t know how much love I’ve lost. You don’t know how much pain I’ve felt.” He punched me across the face again and amidst my blood shut eyes I could have seen the tears in his eyes and the genuineness in his face. My face was swollen and bloody but that didn’t stop his abuse. He threw me to the ground, went to his car, grabbed his bat, and came at me with it. I was too weak to escape as he hammered me with the bat over and over till I blacked out. The last thing I heard was Vince saying, “You don’t know me.”
It’s no mystery that the universe is a mystery. Even though it is all around us, insignificant and minute beings such as ourselves are unable to fathom let alone affect the infinity of the universe in any way. The infinity of the universe remains infinite even after our accomplishments, our failures, and our deaths. Our shouts aren’t even whispers in the hollow void of oblivion.
- Katherine Warren, Stuck As Kate
