Kill Me Sweetly

Chapter 4

            “What’s the answer to number four,” Sam asked with her mouthful of grapes. Rolling my eyes I looked down at my Trig homework trying to find number four.

            “Five and three quarters,” I replied rolling onto my back so the sun could warm my face; the two of us were in the clearing I found last week working on our homework while Natalie made up a test. Since tomorrow was Saturday we wanted to finish all of our work now so we could go out at night and maybe see a movie.

            We worked on in silence for a few more minutes until Sam got up and started to take pictures with her camera. Popping open one eye I asked, “Why do you take pictures so much?” I saw Sam stiffen up before she sat back down with a sad face. Slightly alarmed I quickly said, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, I was just curious.”

            “Oh no it’s fine; I take pictures because of my mom. This used to be her camera and when my dad ran away from us when I was six she gave it to me because it reminded her too much of him.”

            “I still don’t understand what you mean.”

            “Well since this was her favorite hobby I picked it up so I could feel closer to her since she kind of went downhill after my whole dad incident. She just clammed up, took two more jobs, was never home; I was hoping if she saw how much I was like her when she was my age then she would pay more attention to me. Obviously it didn’t work since she decided to ship me off to here instead of dealing with me at home.”

            She looked so sad sitting there staring at her camera that I had to crawl over to her and give her a shoulder hug. Sam smiled over at me and stated, “Well at least your home life can’t be any worse than mine.” The smile that I had on my face slowly slipped off as a memory popped up in my head.

            “Daddy go away,” I shouted terrified crouching underneath my bed as my dad tried to pull it away from me. His meaty hand grasped for my neck so I scrambled farther back until I couldn’t move.

            “Josey get your ass over here right now,” he hissed at me and I saw the nail he was holding in his hand. Terrified I started screaming for my mom but he laughed hollowly and stated, “She’s too drunk to even know where she is, now come here like a good girl or you’ll end up like your older sister.”

            “Someone help me!”

            “Josey,” Sam screamed and startled I snapped back to reality where she was peering at my face worriedly. When I blinked she looked relieved and asked, “Damn girl what’s the matter?”

            Seeing that I had nothing else to lose I said, “Nothing I was just thinking about my parents.”

            “Okay, what were they like?”

            I looked her up and down and decided that she probably wouldn’t tell anyone no matter what; and if I’m gone soon then what does it matter? “Well,” I said slowly and Sam punched me on the shoulder making me laugh. “Okay sheesh, well let’s see, my mom was okay every once in a while, when she was sober…”

            “Mommy do you want to play dolls with me?”

            “Get the hell out of my face Josey, just go kill yourself like your sister or run away like him! They both deserved death!”

            Clutching the doll to my chest I cried, “She did not kill herself and I don’t know who you’re talking about!”

            “Bah you little bitch, of course she killed herself and she tried to kill me with her!”