My Funny Farm - Chapter 5 – Let’s All Go To Jail And Party

 

My Funny Farm

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 5 – Let’s All Go To Jail And Party

 

“Can they really arrest us?” Jennifer asked.

“Yeah,” James confirmed.  “I think so.  Because of the way we did it, I think they could.  I hope they don’t.  I’m praying they don’t.  But yes, we could be in trouble.”

“Let’s hope not,” his wife replied.

“Or at least, let’s hope it won’t be too bad.”

“Yeah,” his wife agreed.  “Are we almost there?  We’re going to be late.”

“Almost,” James told her.  “It should be right up ahead.  But even if we’re late, something tells me they’ll wait for us.”

“Is that good or bad?” Jennifer asked.

“Who knows.”

A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot.

“It looks like most of the family is here already,” Jennifer noted as she looked at all the cars.

“Yeah,” James agreed.  He parked the car, then reached over and grabbed his wife’s hand.  “Let’s pray it doesn’t go too bad for us.”

His wife nodded, then opened her door and got out.

Inside, they were quick to notice everyone in the family already there.

“The receptionist said we’re meeting in there,” Emily told them as she pointed toward an open doorway.

It wasn’t the open doorway that held James’ attention.  His wife’s attention either.  It was the two uniformed policemen standing near one of the walls in the reception area.  James looked at his wife.  Neither of them had a good feeling about how things were going to go.

They entered the meeting room where a large circle of chairs had been set up.  As everyone sat down, nobody missed the policemen entering and taking up positions at the back of the room.

“Welcome everyone,” Doctor Clive began as she stood behind the chair at the head of the circle.  “I’m Doctor Clive, the psychologist in charge of your…grandfather’s…or your father’s…case.  I’m sorry for calling you all out here like this tonight, but because of the things he told me when we spoke yesterday, I’m extremely concerned.  And now we need to get to the bottom of it, and deal with it…one way or another.  I’m sure you noticed the two policemen that are here with us tonight, but I want to first introduce another member of the police force.  My sister, Detective Kinsley.  “Pat,” she said to a woman who was standing off to the side.

The woman detective walked over and took her place, standing behind the chair where the doctor had stood.  “Yes, I’m a police detective,” Kinsley told them as she moved her jacket aside and displayed the badge attached to the top of her slacks.  “And just so you know, I’m very much against this meeting.  If it wasn’t for my sister pleading with me to hold off, you’d all be under arrest already and the victim in this case would be in a mental facility right now where he could be cared for properly.  I want you all to know right from the start, that’s the direction I think this needs to go, and I even brought a few uniformed men with me to help arrest you all.  So good luck convincing me otherwise.”  She looked at the doctor.  “Sis,” she said before walking away.

Doctor Clive regained her place standing behind the only empty chair.  “When Mr. Bryson…your father or grandfather…was in here yesterday, he listed one abuse after another that’s been done to him, and he made it sound like you’re all to blame.”

“What do you mean abuse?” James asked.

“What do I mean?  Keeping him bound and helpless all the time.  Keeping him in wet and messy diapers until he’s got a painful case of diaper rash, forcing…”

  Ashley stood up quickly and angrily.  “Diaper rash!”  She immediately looked over toward Emily and yelled, “What the hell did you do to him?  He’s only been in your care for a few days!”

James stood up now too.  “What does bound and helpless mean?”

Emily tried to explain.  “Just what we did to him when we first put him in diapers to make him a baby.”

Doctor Clive asked, “Is that what he was talking about when he said the entire family ambushed him?”

“Ambushed?” Ashley replied.  “Yeah, probably.  We were all there and we all basically grabbed him.  Emily and her boyfriend held him down, and…I put a diaper on him myself.”  She finally sat down.

“Jared and Emily put some kind of bondage mitts on him to keep him from removing the diaper,” James explained before sitting down.  “We knew he wouldn’t like it.”

“That’s wrongful imprisonment!” Detective Kinsley pointed out loudly.

James winced, and nodded.  He turned to Emily.  “Did you keep those things on his hands?  All the time?”

“Uncle James,” Emily replied.  “You know he wanted out of everything.  You know that’s the only way we had to make sure he couldn’t get out of those diapers.  We were supposed to treat him like a baby…like he wanted…and that was the only way we had to make sure he used them.”

“But diaper rash?” Ashley exclaimed.

“That was…stupid of me,” Emily admitted.

“You think?” Ashley replied.

Detective Kinsley moved closer.  “You said you kept him bound in some kind of bondage mittens so he couldn’t use his hands.  Where did you get those things?  Did you get them just for taking care of him?”

“No,” Jared said.  “I had them.  Em and I are into some BDSM stuff.  The whole family knows about it now.  They were part of some of the gear Em and I collected.”

“BDSM…” the detective said.

“Hey!” Jared said quickly.  “Lots of people enjoy it.  So do we.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t enjoy it,” Kinsley told him.  “What I’m saying is that there’s a big fat line between what’s good and what’s criminal.  Tell me, was it consensual?  Did you ask him if he would allow you to use those things on him?  Did he give you permission to tie him up and keep him that way?  Did he agree to let you keep him helpless all the time, for days and days with no end in sight?  Because it sure doesn’t sound like it to me.”  She got no answer to her question.  “BDSM is one thing…when it’s consensual, but without that consent it becomes a criminal act!  And you crossed the line!”

Jared stood up.  “Em and I aren’t married!” he declared.  “I’m not part of this family.  I’m leaving.”

“Jared!” Emily exclaimed.

“If you walk out of here now,” Detective Kinsley said, “I can guarantee it’s going to be in handcuffs, and these officers will drive you straight to the police station.  Tonya here told me about how you kept him tied up and in a painful position until he was seriously hurting…and then kept him that way for hours on end until he got a bad case of diaper rash.”

There was a bit of a staring match between her and Jared, but Jared finally sat down.

Ashley turned to Emily.  “How could you do that to him?  To the point of diaper rash?”

“It just…happened Mom.  Jared was being a pain about helping to take care of him and everything was left to me.”

“That’s no excuse!” Ashley told her.

Emily said nothing.

“Let me ask you all something,” Doctor Clive said.  “Since all this started, have any of you shown him any love at all?  Have any of you even said you love him?  Actually told him that?”

Everyone in the room seemed to look at each other.  Ashley finally half raised her hand.  “That first night, I hugged him when we put him to bed and said I loved him,” she told everyone.  “I haven’t had a chance to get back there yet.”

Doctor Clive looked around the room.  “Anyone else?”  Nobody said a word.  “How can you expect him to get better if nobody cares about him?  He desperately wants to kill himself.  Why shouldn’t he?  Nobody loves him.  Or at least, that’s the way it seems.  All you’ve shown him so far is abuse.”

“You can’t blame all of us,” Michael said.  “Nichole and I weren’t even there.”

“Were you there that first day when you all ambushed him?” the doctor asked.

Michael said nothing for a moment, then nodded.  “Yeah.  But we didn’t go back after that.”

“If you were there at the beginning with everyone else, then you were still part of it,” Detective Kinsley pointed out.  “Each and every one of you here is an accessory to the crime, which makes you all guilty!”

The doctor decided to step in and move on.  “Let me ask you about something else,” she said.  “Emily told me all this was supposed to be a form of therapy for him that was based on what appeared to be his interests and fantasies.  But if this is your form of therapy, will someone please explain to me what goals you’re expecting of him?”

“To not want to commit suicide anymore!” James was quick to point out.

The doctor nodded.  “That’s primary, and a good one.  But how are you planning on achieving that?  Do you have any system of goals that he can work on towards that end?  Any plan to monitor how he’s doing?”  She looked around the room and saw nothing but blank faces.  “If this is supposed to be some kind of therapy, warped or not, you still need to keep him moving toward a particular direction.  You need goals and rewards for him when he reaches those goals.  And yes, in some cases you may need some form of punishments too if he tries to backslide.  But he shouldn’t be living with punishments all the time, and certainly nothing like what’s already been done to him.  That’s counterproductive.  He’d want to commit suicide more than ever, and who could blame him.”

“How do we do that?” Ashley asked.

The doctor shook her head.  “It isn’t easy.  I’ll grant you that much.  But one way or another, you should have had some kind of workable system for not just watching over him, but dealing with him and helping him too.  That’s the most important thing here, not destroying his life.  You needed something he could at least work towards.  Some goal he could want to reach.  If it wasn’t for your family all getting together to watch over him, I would have suggested he be put into an institution, but with the entire family seeming to be that invested in it, I allowed him to stay home.  As it is, the way things stand right now, he might need that institution more than ever.”

“We were just trying to help,” James said.

“We all love him,” Ashley agreed.

“Just trying to help,” Doctor Clive replied.  “You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”  She looked around the room.  “According to what Emily told me, she and her boyfriend moved into his house a few months ago.  Is that right?”

“Yes,” Emily confirmed.  “Jared and I haven’t been out of school very long.  It’s a cheap place for us to live.”  She glanced over at Caitlin.  “Caitlin and Bill are moving in this weekend too for pretty much the same reason.”

The doctor started to say something, but her sister came over quickly and cut her off.  Detective Kinsley looked at Emily.  “Do you have a job?”

“Yes.  I’m the new middle school girl’s gym teacher.”

The detective looked to Jared.  “And you?”

“I got a job doing maintenance work for a corporation.”

The detective nodded.  “So you’ve both got decent jobs that pay okay, but not a lot.”

Emily nodded.  “Yes.”

Kinsley continued.  “And you said…who was moving in this weekend?”

“My cousin Caitlin and her husband Bill.”

“Where are they?” Kinsley asked.  She saw them hesitantly raise their hands.  She looked at Caitlin.  “And what kind of job do you have?”

“I’m a nurse,” she told the detective.  She nodded toward her Aunt Ashley.  “Like my aunt.”

Kinsley looked to Bill.  “And you?”

“I do accounting,” Bill told her.

“So you’ve both got good jobs as well,” Kinsley noted.  “I would think that with jobs like that, you’d at least be able to afford your own place.”

“We can,” Caitlin told her.  “It’s just that….”  She stopped.

“Just what?” Kinsley asked.

“We’ve got this plan,” Bill told her.  “If we can keep saving money like we have been, then in a few years we can buy a house and pay cash for it instead of getting a loan.  That will save us a fortune.”

“A house!” Kinsley exclaimed, unable to believe it.

“Yes.”

Kinsley looked around the room.  Her eyes fell on the only two who had been mostly silent through everything.  “I was told there were three sets of grandkids.  I guess you’re the last of them.”  She saw both Nichole and Michael nod.  “Are you wanting to move into your grandfather’s house too?”

“No!” Michael replied.  “To be honest, we were against this whole thing.  If Gramps wants to do himself in, then he should have that right.”

Kinsley was shocked.  “You think he should be allowed to kill himself?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.  Then what?”

“What do you mean?”

“Then what?  What do you hope to accomplish by letting him die needlessly?”

“If he wants to die, then he’ll be happier…and the rest of us can split whatever inheritance we’ve got coming.  We’ll all be happy that way.”

“Oh my God!” Kinsley exclaimed.  “And there we have it.  This half of the room are essentially grifters who want to mooch off him, stealing his money and spend it on themselves, and this half of the room simply want him dead so they can inherit his money.  Some therapy!  You all just want to steal him blind!”

“No!” James declared angrily.  He looked over at Michael.  “How can you say that?”

“Get real Dad,” Michael replied.  “It’s true!  We’d all be happier.”

“Not me!”  He looked to the detective.  “And just for the record, I’m the CFO for my firm and I make plenty of money.  And my wife is a top manager for the company she works for, and she makes almost as much as I do.  We’re not hurting for money at all.”

“And we’re not doing bad either,” Ashley said quickly.  “I’ve been a nurse most of my life, and Chris has his own construction firm.  All our kids simply haven’t put in the time yet to get where we are.  So don’t blame them.”

“Don’t blame them?” Kinsley said.  “How can I not blame them?  They’re the ones you’ve placed primarily in charge of taking care of your father.  They’re the ones I blame the most!”

Kinsley looked around the room at the entire family.  “So far, I’ve got wrongful imprisonment, assault, physical abuse, mental abuse, and I can probably press a pretty good case for grifting which would be financial abuse as well.  It all boils down to blatant abuse!  And you’re all guilty by association whether you actually did anything or not.  Is there anyone who can give me one good reason why I shouldn’t stop this and arrest you all right now?  And don’t tell me because you’ve got to go to work tomorrow.  I don’t give a damn!”

When she didn’t get an answer, Kinsley said, “Now, the victim in all this, your father or grandfather, is he home alone right now?  Is he still tied up and helpless, by himself?”

“No,” Emily told her.  “We’ve got a babysitter for him.”

“A babysitter?” Kinsley asked, surprised.

“There’s a woman we hired,” James explained.  “She needs money so she comes in to watch him whenever one of us can’t be there.  She’s someone Jared and Emily knew.”

“Oh good!” Kinsley said.  “Someone else I can arrest.”

“Please don’t!” James said quickly.  “She’s just trying to help.”

“Help?  By keeping him tied up and helpless?”

“She’s making sure he doesn’t hurt himself.”

Kinsley shook her head then looked to her sister, Doctor Clive.  “I don’t give a damn about whatever kind of therapy they thought they were conducting.  All I see are charges of abuse!  Abuse that has to be stopped.  You can sort this all out between them some other time.  Right now, I want to get to the father and see what condition he’s in…and release him.  Once we know if he’s alright or not we’ll decide if he needs a hospital or a mental facility.”

Doctor Clive nodded her head.  “I agree.”

Detective Kinsley looked around the room.  “As of right now, you can all consider yourselves to be under arrest.  These nice gentlemen from the police force will take all your information and you can either drive yourselves to the police station after that, or they’ll be more than happy to take you there themselves.  But get used to the fact that you’re going.”

James stood up quickly.  “I want to see my father first!  I had no idea of the things that were going on.”

“Me too!” Ashley exclaimed.  “I need to see him for myself.”

“Which means that maybe me and Jared should be there as well,” Emily told her.  “We’ve been primarily taking care of him.  If anyone has any questions, maybe we can explain what happened.”

“Explain?” Kinsley said.  “That should be interesting.  “Okay!” she announced to the entire room.  “If you want to go to the house before we book you, that’s fine.  But after that, we’re all going to the police station.  Like it or not!”