Enchanting (on hold)

Chapter 1: New Beginnings and Family's Love

Everything changed the day my mother left.

Before she left, things were good, or so my brother use to tell me. I myself was too young to even remember her. Though I remember her voice. It was soft and caring, and she had a beautiful singing voice. I don't actually know if I remember her voice or I just watched too many of our old family videos. We use to live in a small red brick home, and my mother use to make a garden out back. The first two years of my life had to have been the best, and the worst thing is I can't remember any of them.

Then one day, she was gone. My brother says she left because she met someone new, but I couldn't believe that. In our videos she seemed like the most amazing person ever, why would she leave her kids? Her six year old son and two year old daughter, left to live without a mother.

From there it went downhill. Dad tried his best I think, until he lost his job and we had to move. Looking back on it, I feel bad for the guy. In a matter of months, he lost everything. His wife, his job, and his house. And for some reason, he couldn't find another job.

I think the gambling started when I was around six. I remember my father would put me to bed, and then just as I would fall asleep, I would hear the front door open. I would peak out the door to see a bunch of disgusting men in our kitchen, playing a game that I didn't know what it was. I would just go back to my bed, and hope to fall asleep before they left.

But soon my father would come addicted. He managed to get a job at a grocery store which paid for our expenses, and his trips. He would often go on 'vacations' as he called them, which I soon realized, meant he was going to casinos to gamble. If he won, he would treat us nicely; maybe even get us ice cream. But if he lost, he would beat us.

I quickly learned to take care of myself. I could cook most things by the age of twelve, and would eat before he came home from work, and then stayed in my room for the rest of the night, doing homework and then drawing until I fell asleep. Because I knew about an hour after work his friends were coming over. My brother soon learned the basics of poker and would play along with them. This was a little while after he started smoking.

By the time I was fifteen, I had a job, hoping to save up to go to college, or to go anywhere away from my family. I focused all my spare time on studying, because I realised I would need a scholarship in order to get anywhere in life.

Now, at 17, I was taken from my family. My father was sent to jail because he tried selling a stolen car in order to pay for his addiction. My brother took over the house, and will probably continue to use drugs until he gets caught, and me? I was taken by social services, one year before freedom.

I was driven halfway across the country to live with my aunt. My mother's sister. I don't even know how they found her. My mother has been gone for fifteen years of my life, and I am being sent to live with the person closest to I will ever get to my actual mother.

The car pulled up to the house and I got out of the car. The house was in a subdivision, with identical brown and red brick homes. My social worker led me to the front door and rang the doorbell. I stood there fidgeting with my suitcases on either side of me. She looked at me and smiled.

"This will be better" she told me, smiling. I didn't understand how she could smile at me. Did she even consider what i was dealing with? Or how I felt?

I could hear footsteps running to the door, and then the door unlocked and swung open. A woman stood there, with black curly hair stepped out. She had a similar resemblance to me. Our face shape, hair colour, eyes. She could pass for my mother.

"Chloe?" she said smiling "oh my goodness! Look at you!"

I stood their awkwardly smiling. This woman obviously recognised me as her sister's daughter, but I didn't recognise her as my mother's sister. She pulled me in and gave me a tight hug, though I didn't hug her back. It had been years since someone hugged me. No one had shown affection to me since I was little.