Playing Him Like a Piano – part 71

Jeremiah sat in Court watching everyone leave.  If asked his name,  might not be able to answer.

What had happened?

He tried to recall the past, tried to understand how he went from a happily married man to this discarded figure of contempt.

He hadn’t abused Kat, he was almost sure of it.  Yet…

Everyone he knew,  every friend he owned had turned  against him.  He had no one.

He  sat so long, the Court police told him to leave.  He rose  and he wandered out of the Court house, and didn’t know where to go.

His life was a confused splatter where yesterday he had spoken to these men,  confided in them, yet, today, they joined with his wife to make him seem the worst man in the city.

Jeremiah would call his grandmother, but she was dead.  He hadn’t spoken to his mother for years, almost as long as he ignore his father.   The only one remaining was his Aunt.  He had to tell her what happened. She didn’t sound  very concerned.

He virtually  begged her.  He had never begged anyone anything, ever.  But now, he begged his Aunt to let him and his daughter stay with her, as an emergency.  If not both, than just little Alice.

His Aunt, who didn’t want him there,  would sooner have taken him alone, for the child was disturbed and needed some form of therapy.   Aware she had no choice, she told him that it could only be for a week or so.

His Aunt didn’t seem to  care that he’d lost the house his grandmother bought, or his wife had divorced him.

He sat and felt abandoned.

Jeremiah did not realise, probably never would, that it was his behaviour which turned people against him. His attitude his suspicion, the darkness inside of him.