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A Vigilante (2018)
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I'm looking out the window, and the trucks won't stop coming. My name is Andrea Schaund. I live at 176 Hillside Terrace, Kingston. My husband's out of the house on weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., so it's safe to meet then. But I have two children who come home at 4:00, and I don't want them to get hurt. He'll hurt them, if I leave. We're gonna kick off this liquid latex series with a crow's-feet tutorial. Making crow's-feet is a great introduction to wrinkle stippling, which is one of my favorite aging techniques. You don't need to spend a ton of money to do this. The latex I'll be using goes for about six dollars at Halloween stores, and you can get about... The wife failed to inform me... the insurance medical was booked for today. Make it quick. Hello, Mr. Schaund. Today you will do the following three things. You will sign this house over to your wife. You will transfer 75% of your funds to a bank account in her name. And you will leave, for good. Who the hell are you? Do you understand and agree to these things, Mr. Schaund? Are you a lawyer? I know what you do to her, Mr. Schaund, and what you'll do to the kids if she leaves. Two hundred and thirty-seven thousand... four hundred and sixty-five dollars. Thanks for calling CSO Security, how may I help you? Margaret Turner, Human Resources, please. - Hello? - Margaret. This is Michael Schaund, from Finance. Sorry, who? Michael... Schaund. Okay, I can't talk right now. You'll have to call back. No, no, this can't wait. I'm resigning. If you bother her, or the kids, or anyone they know, in any way, I will kill you. I want to kill you. Get your stuff. So, I just... I just tell people he left me? Mm-hm. For another woman. No one will question it. Keep going to Group, it'll help. You can be honest about everything except me. Can I pass on your details? If someone really needs it. I can't promise to come in time, not yet at least. Thank you. And do you have my note? Oh. Uh... If my number changes, I'll let you know. Thank you. Take care of yourself. I am. [Celtic music plays In Paddy Pallin's name for his book, Never Truly Lost, just geographically, temporarily dislocated. Well, I met him at 16 years old. I had a daughter at the age of 17. I moved in with him, at his mother's house. Everything was fine until like a year later, I started getting punched. I left it alone, never walked away, never called the cops. It started getting... He started getting used to abusing of me, because he saw I wasn't calling no one for help or anything. I left it alone because I was young and in love, until not too long ago. My son was three... I was at home working, it was a Sunday. I got home, and my son ran to me crying, telling me his father beat him. When I checked the baby, he had marks all over his body, from a USB plug that he abused of him. I went to confront him about it, he didn't say anything about it. I called 911. That was the first time I ever called the cops on him. I never called them when he abused of me, but once it got to my kids, I wasn't gonna let it happen. Which they sent me into a domestic violence shelter... Even though I went into the shelter, I was still planning on going back to him. Because I was 16 when I first met him, so it was like, that's all I knew, was him. So, I started meeting new people in the shelter, going into counseling groups, just let me hearing other people's stories, and I felt like I had support by other people once I got in there. And to this day, I choose not to go. I'm still with my two kids, on my own... The sea bed is dark, and the sharks there may be, but what scares the women most, is Tomokazuki, a mirror image of themselves they see in the ocean deep. The mirage will beckon you, saying, "Come with me, come further. I'll give you more abalone." But if you follow her, you will never come back. It can be so very hard to accept that someone so close to you, someone who's supposed to love you, can brutalize and control you. That brutality, that control starts to breed worthlessness, and that feeling that you can't do any better. And sometimes, we do. We get that feeling that... We can go. We gotta get up outta there. If we wanna go, we can go! And then we get scared. Start to feel like there's no escape. You're confused and not know what's real and what's not real. And there's something, there's something inside of us, something that we know is down there, and we recognize it, we all do. That's how we got here. We recognize that we have value. And we reached up and we reached out and we got some help. And we grabbed that freedom and got outta there. That's what's real. That's real. I'm looking out the window and the trucks won't stop coming. My name is Charlene Jackson. I live at 98 Scomen Road, Gloversville. He let me come to the store with him, this is a stranger's phone. I gotta go. ...everybody, and I will see you next time. Take care. Bye-bye. Hey, guys, last night, I watched Valley of the Doll, and I was, like, I have to do something like that tomorrow. I love all their makeup, so I did a more... Um... One of the more dramatic looks from it. So, if you like what you see, stay tuned. Fuck you! Where are you gonna go? Somewhere warm. I don't know. Miami, maybe. It's like all his hate makes his love worth it. Because we really had to fight for it. This is one fight it's okay to give up on. Well, wherever you go, you better find a new support group. Yeah. Let me give you some more cash. I hate that I have to take it at all. What can I get for you? Well, whiskey on the rocks. Four bucks. You're alone? Yep. Where can I get 40%? Just here for a drink. Hey, come back inside, let me buy you a drink. No, thanks. Don't do that again. I'm looking out the window, and the trucks won't stop coming. This is Joyce Richards. You helped me in March. I'm not calling for me. I'm calling because of my friend's neighbor, I think the kid there really needs help. If you're in town, can you check on him? The address is 87740 Maiden Lane... What do you want? Do you need some help? Do you have an appointment? No, I... I saw you at the store and I... I thought you might need some help. My mom won't let my brother out of his room. He's in there. Does that bathroom door have a lock on the inside? Good, I want you to go inside and lock the door. Are you going to hurt her? Do you want me to get you and your brother away from her? Okay. What the fuck are you... Get the fuck off me! Where's the key? - You don't want this... - Where's the key? Get the fuck off me! What's your name? Sadie. What's yours? Zach. And your brother? He's Leon. Zach. The police are gonna come now, with someone from Child Services. And they're gonna take you and Leon away from your mom. It might be a little scary. A lot of strangers asking questions, but this is your chance for you guys to be safe. Can't we just come with you? I have to go. You wouldn't be safe with me. If anyone ever hurts you, or Leon, you tell someone. You tell as many people as you can. If no one helps you... You call this number here, and I will help you. Okay. And don't... Don't tell anyone my real name. I know it's his weakness but he really loves me, like nobody, like, no one will. Hey, it's ground zero. It's hard starting from scratch, but it's good. I have control over me and my kids now. It's my will. Not his. My will can't change anything. What makes you say that, Sadie? 'Cause it's true. Can you share your leaving story with us? We went on camping trips a lot. Who's "We"? Me, my husband and our son, Cody. What were the trips like? Survivalist camping. It's... We'd trek into the woods, build our own shelter, hunt and forage for food, do our own first aid. He would... set my bones. After he broke them. When I broke the rules. He never did it in front of Cody, though. He never hurt me in front of him. And I always used makeup to cover anything. And we protected him. Did you tell anyone? Your friends, family, about the abuse? No, I... When we got married, we moved away from my parents, across the country. And I was glad. I... I don't have any friends. If I wanted to socialize, the money came out of Cody's food budget, so I just didn't go out. And I wasn't allowed to work. Because that's a husband's role. I was a very good wife. How long were you with him? About ten years. What made you leave? He came home early. Right after Cody got home from school. He was excited. There was a new truck in the driveway, hooked up to our camping trailer, and he was... saying we were leaving. We were gonna go live off the grid, like we always wanted. He was more than excited, he was... manic. Told me to go start packing. Just the essentials. "Now." What did you do? I panicked. I went into Cody's room and I said that I needed to sneak out to go get Dad a special present. And would he come with me? He thought it was a special mission. We snuck out through the kitchen, through the laundry room. And then out the back. And we were almost at the freeway. And he... cut us off, and knocked me down, and... He had a knife on him. And he just started slashing me with it. Slashing me with it. And then Cody started screaming. And he got up off me... And then my boy stopped screaming. Can't change that. You could hear the trucks there, too. Thank you, Sadie. If it's okay with you, I would like to end this session by... by taking a moment of silence for Janet. All the women that died, wanting out? Men who died, wanting out? Girls... Boys... Every graveyard is full... of people that didn't make it. And you sit here, alive, and wasting. It's disrespectful to them. To the ones that are gonna die today, and gonna die tomorrow. It's a massacre. And all you can do is sit here and read kids' books. You have to fight back. Even if... Even if it kills you. Is the bank still foreclosing? Sale's in two weeks. You need to go in and get out any possessions you want before then. Good news is, credit card companies are reviewing your debt. I'm fairly confident it'll all get written off as fraud. Do you know what he was buying? Mainly supplementing mortgage payments. Until they cut him off. And the life insurance policy? Because your husband's missing, not confirmed dead... they won't pay out. Hmm. What's my best option? From the state, I can get you an immediate payment of two-and-a-half grand. That's the cost of your son's funeral. Dear Miss Beverly, please destroy this letter after you read it. I know what I wanna do with my life. I wanna use it to help people who can't escape. I won't kill. But I'll get them free from the abuse quickly. And for good. Let me fight, so they don't have to. I'll ask for cash or food in return, whatever they can afford. One day I hope not to ask for anything. I'll be out of contact most of the time, but it won't be forever, either. Instructions are at the bottom of the page. I know it's a risk to pass them on and I... I don't expect you to take it. I used to be afraid that the trucks won't stop coming. But now, I welcome every one. Thank you for helping me. Sadie. In Scarlet Town Where I was born There was a fair maid dwelling Made many a-poor Cry a wild day Her name was Barbara Allen I saw you in the woods, I thought you were a hunter. I followed you for... for miles. I don't even really know why, I just... Even when I saw you hid the car the way we did... I wasn't sure. Until I saw your face. Saw my girl. But I don't know, Sades. You still my girl? Why'd you do that to your hair? Hey. You need to drink some water. That's a lot of forest you covered, Sades. You've marked it off perfectly. You been looking for me? We gotta figure out your head, Sades. You messed it all up. So, there is still a heart in you. You've been a bad person. But it's okay. Because I got you back now. I got you back, Sadie. I'm gonna go get us something to eat. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Put your arm on the wood, Sades. Sadie... Put your arm on the wood. Sadie! Still can't believe you're alive. You gotta come home, Sades. I love you. I can't help it. Even after all this... I still love you. I thought it was love you had. But it's not. It's need. Desperate... perverted... - need. - Sadie. No. I tried to hide from it. And then I tried to run from it. And now... Now I'm gonna end it. You're coming home. You killed our boy. You made me! You made me do it! You knew it'd be bad, leaving me. And you did it anyway. You knew it'd be bad! You made me... You killed our boy... because he saw the truth of you. You killed our boy. And now, I'm gonna kill you. Glad the shelter was able to find you. Why did the police wanna see me? The police may have found your husband's body. And they want you to go in and identify it. And what happened to him? Well, the man did not die of natural causes. But there doesn't seem to be any evidence. And considering his felon status, I doubt they'll wanna put more effort into solving the case. If it is him, you'll need to account for your whereabouts and schedule during the second week of February. I can do that. The good news is that with a body, his life insurance pays out. Is there some way I can keep in contact with you? Email, telephone number? Yeah, I made you an email address. I'm looking out the window, and the trucks won't stop coming. My name is Eva Greenberg. I live at 402... |
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