Cliff Hanger

Chapter Five

As weeks passed on, mine and Alessandro’s friendship was slowly dying. I don’t think he noticed, but I did. We stopped hanging out as much as we did and when we did, it was a small goodnight at 1 am every night which I would never read because I was always asleep.

I’m happy for him, truly I am. But this job of his has really taken a toll on me. I have many things to tell him every day like my breakfast, drama at school, and the new letter I got from my mom.

Dear Lucille Dubois,
I am pleased to have heard from you in such a short time. If you are up to it, I would like to meet up with you. I was thinking of the cafe near Boulderi Blvd. I would like to discuss our mother and daughter relationship. See if we can fix what we could’ve had.

Contact Information
Telephone: 818-123-1234
Email: Elise.email.gmail.com
Address: 6897 Kane Street

Sincerely,
Elise Dubois   

This letter was much shorter than the last. It said so little yet I felt too much. They were just words she wrote to me but now I feel so much pressure. I understand we can fix our relationship, but do I want to?

She threw away her life and expects me to forgive her when she never raised me. When she left me alone the day I needed her the most…

“Goodbye mom, I love you.”, I gave a quick kiss on mom’s lips to seal the deal.

“I love you too”, mom said with a smile on her face. I noticed her lips quiver but she had said earlier her orange juice was too sour and stung her lips a little.

Later at lunch I went to grab my backpack from the classroom closet when I realized I’d left my sandwich on the kitchen counter. I started worrying because mom always told me how mad she’d be if I didn’t eat at school. Especially if she took the time to make a sandwich instead of sending me off with nothing expecting me to eat the nasty school food.

I had a plan though, I would just go to the office and call up mom using the school’s phone praying mom would answer and bring in my food. I didn’t actually think she’d come to school and drop off my food since she was on her lunch at the same time as me and got even less time. But I went anyway.

My hand was inches away from the door handle when the door swung open too fast for me to react. I flew backwards getting squished between the heavy door and the brick wall.

For an eight year old, I surprised myself by not crying. I guess it was the shock of how hard I just got hit or it was probably because of the blood that was starting to drip into my eyes. I couldn’t gather myself to check if I was bleeding in the back of my head as I was for the front.

Since I was already near the school office, it wasn’t hard to find the nurse’s office, yet he wasn’t much help. As soon as I walked in, I went straight towards him and without even looking up, he said, “Go sign in or I can’t help you.” with a monotone voice. I was shocked, he had the audacity to not even look at me.

After signing in, I went and sat down waiting patiently for my name to be called on. Moment later I heard on the loudspeaker, “Lucille Dubois…Lucille Dubois!”. I was already in front of the nurse by the time he finished screaming my name the first time so I don’t know why he yelled for me again.

“I am Lucille Dubois and my head is bleeding.”, I said to the nurse who went by Klev Darwin. He looked like he was in his mid forties with an uncombed beard and a receding hairline. Not like it surprised me, most older men I knew looked like replicas of each other.

“Okay Lucille, I won’t need you talking during this process.”, Mr.Darwin said to me as he handed me a damp brown napkin to clean myself up and a bandaid fit for a papercut.

“Be a big girl and put it on like you’re supposed to.” he whispered in my face and he nodded with a smile pointing to the chair behind me I sat on before.
I didn’t know what to do as usually nurses are supposed to be helpful and nice but Mr.Darwin is nothing but rude and disrespectful. I didn’t move nor talk hoping he would just patch me up himself, I couldn’t see the back of my head and it would be better to get someone else to do it for me.

“Okay then, I see you want to act like a baby and be useless so I will just fix you myself.” he said in that same annoying voice

He made me feel ashamed to ask for help and because of this, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to ask for him to call home for me or if I would just go back to class.

“Could you call my mom for me please?” I asked nicely.

“Are you a fatherless child?” Mr. Darwin asked with sarcasm.

“Yes I am-”

“And so that’s Lucille Dubois to the list.”, he joked.

He wasn’t even funny, he was so pathetic he laughed at his own joke.  Eventually, my mother was called but I was told she didn’t answer it. I couldn’t believe the nurse because he was so mean to me this could’ve been another way to belittle me. 
He was serious though, I waited the rest of the day with my hair stuck onto the dried-up blood. Nobody came to pick me up.

I don’t want to have a relationship with her anymore. Memories from that day came flooding back and I didn’t want to meet with her and have that in the back of my mind as I try to mend what was never there in the first place.

I made a plan though, I would ignore the letter and not respond at all and hopefully she’ll get the hint. However, if she doesn’t get the hint, I’ll just be forced to send a letter back telling her exactly how I feel and that I don’t want any form of communication with her.