Always You Will Have My Hand To Hold (Watty Awards 2012)

Chapter 3

“Miss Sallie, my stepfather never came here, right?”

“No, I don’t even think he knows I watch Attie.”

“Okay, I would like to keep it that way, please.”

“Sure” Miss Sallie said with concerned written all over her face. She wanted to help, but she wouldn’t push it. If Lia needed her she would come to her. Miss Sallie loved these girls, which was another reason she didn’t charge them much when it came to watching Attie.

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Lia walked for about 20 minutes from Miss Sallie’s house to the street where her dad’s business once thrived. She stood in the middle of the narrow street and looked both ways. The place looked deserted. On her right, there were two glass doors, one leading into the tax preparation office and the other to the dry cleaner. On left, there was nothing but dirt and some grass growing up in small patches in random places. There were a few scattered trees and the dirt stretched out to the next street. There, she could see other houses and something that looked like a mom and pop store and some children playing. She turned her back on the dirt and faced the doors to the rundown businesses.

After her dad’s death, her mom had tried to take care of the business, she was doing fine, but when she met her step father, things went downhill. Not only she got pregnant, she got arrested roughly a year after she gave birth to Attie. From whatever money there was, it was used to fund her stepfather’s alcohol addiction, causing the place to close. Lia was surprised that Max didn’t try selling the building, which meant that he didn’t have any rights over the properties.

The signs were peeling off of the glass doors; Lia walked towards the tax door and peeped in. She couldn’t see anything through the dusty window. She tried the dry cleaner, it looked shoddier. Lia stepped back and took another look at the building. The old paint was peeling off the slowly and helplessly moldering walls. The grass on this side was dry and brown, making the place look dejected. There were simple red letters on a black rectangular background that read NO TRESPASSING.

Lia walked to the back of the building and paused, she didn’t have any keys. She surveyed her surroundings before pulling on the doors. They didn’t budge. She tried to think of ways to get in, but the windows were also in the front of the building. Lia took a good look at the employee parking, remembering all the times she’d been to this place. Her eyes landed on a clay pot that used to have a plant. Now all there was in that pot now, were some dried twigs and dirt. ‘Of course’ Lia should have thought of that already. Her mother used to save a key there because she was always losing hers.

Lia started digging in the dry dark dirt, hoping that somehow she’d be lucky. She had been digging for a while before her fingers finally grazed on something metal. She kept digging and was rewarded with a rusty dirt covered key. Lia brought it out, used her fingers to clean it and hurried to the doors. She tried the dry cleaner first and held her breath, nothing happened. Her shoulders slumped a little. She tried the other door. At first, when nothing happened she looked and felt really defeated. Seeing as she had no other choice, she decided to give it another attempt. Lia put a little more force and struggled to open the door one last time. It was a good thing she didn’t give up because the key turned and the door noisily opened.

Lia strode in the dark room and flipped the switch on, but the light didn’t come on. She ambled by the door again and used the clay pot to prop the door open. In the corner to her right was a filing cabinet and a door, which -if she remembered correctly- would lead to the dry cleaner. There was additional door parallel to the one she’d walked into. If she went through that door, it would lead to the bathroom in the waiting room. On the corner to her left, there was a dusty shelf with random books and encyclopedias. In the very center of the room, there was a small wooden desk with a dust covered computer on it and a chair behind it. Facing the desk were two metal chairs with what used to be blue cushions. The rest of the room was bare.  Lia navigated through the dust covered furniture to a small hallway on the left that also led to the waiting room.