A Year of Her Life

Chapter 7

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Dad was fine with Chris staying over.  In fact, Dad took Chris home on Saturday and packed some of his things to bring over.  I saw his bags when they got back and noted to myself that he really didn’t have much.  I hadn’t been told why Chris was staying with us, but I figured it had something to do with his bruised face.

“Savannah, Show Chris where he can put his things,” Dad said while pointing his finger down the hall.

“Okay.”  I had helped clean in dad’s office so that a bed could be put up for Chris.

Chris followed me down the hallway to what was my dad’s office.  Now, the desk had been pushed to one corner with the floor lamp against it.  The filing cabinet was in another corner.  All the other office furniture had been moved to the garage.  Georgia helped with the moving.  A twin bed and chest of drawers had been arranged in the room so it looked nice.  The bed was made with blankets that matched the shade of blue in the curtains that covered the long, slender windows that covered the front wall.

“Man, this is nice.  You guys did this for me?”

“No, Chris, we did it because Dad told us to.”  I was perturbed with Chris because he was being treated so well.  Georgia and I were never treated as good.  “Put your things anywhere you want-in this room.”  I turned and left him to the task.

I went to the kitchen to get a snack.  Usually I would be looking forward to spending the afternoon with Georgia, but she had gotten a job last week.  Now, she would be spending some nights and every weekend serving food to hungry families. 

I opened the refrigerator and grabbed a pudding.  I took a spoon from the drawer and sat at the table to enjoy my tasty treat.  I loved pudding.  It was like the perfect food.  It stuck to the spoon so that it wasn’t messy.  You could eat it and still be lazy because you didn’t have to chew it.  It always cheered me up because it felt like clouds on my tongue and tasted like rainbows.  You get the picture…I really liked pudding.  As I was savoring my last spoonful of goodness Chris came into the kitchen.

“What are you doing today?  Your dad went to work for a while and your mom went to see her sister.  That leaves you and me.”  Great.  How long has he been here and he already knows more about where my family is than I do?

“Well, I was enjoying my pudding, until you came in.”  I enjoyed giving sarcasm as much as the next person.  Besides, I thought it would make Georgia happy if I made Chris miserable.

“Oh, well you enjoy your pudding, I’m just going to go explore the woods behind the house.  Maybe I’ll make a fort.”  He looked unaffected and turned to walk away.  I jumped up from the table, threw away my empty pudding cup and tossed my spoon in the sink.

“Hey, I’ll come.  I wouldn’t want you to get lost,” I said as I caught up with him.

We went into the woods and walked around for a while.  Chris had brought one of my dad’s big knives to cut away the brush.  There wasn’t a lot of undergrowth because the trees were so thick.  It was mostly roots, dead leaves, and pine needles.  We climbed down a steep hill and rested near the stream that I never knew was back there.  Choosing not to sit on the ground, I found a tree that had fallen over and sat down.  Chris turned and looked over at me.