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

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The transition worked out better than Lia had expected. Since she got more sleep than usual, she was able to wake up early enough to get Attie to Miss Sallie without raising any suspicions. Lia hadn’t heard anything from her stepfather, which she considered a good thing. Since her money was limited, there were some things that Lia still needed to get. After a lot of thinking, she came to a conclusion that she wasn’t very happy with. She thought that the best way to get the items she needed would be from her house, her stepfather’s house that was.

On Wednesday, one of Lia’s days off, she went to Miss Sallie as soon as school was out. She arranged to pick up Attie in a little bit, because Lia wanted to get some things done. Lia walked the five minutes to Max’s house and used her key to get in.  She knew that Max wasn’t in the house, because the car was not in the driveway. Lia went straight to her room and gathered more of her and Attie’s clothes, her pillows. She grabbed Attie’s toys and books; some shoes, extra sheets and a comforter for cold nights. She went down in the kitchen, grabbed a couple of plates, some bowls, 4 sets of silverwares, some cups. Lia hurriedly crammed in everything that could fit in her backpack. The remaining, she carried in a separate huge plastic bag. She looked around for anything she might have needed and forgot to get. Once she was satisfied, Lia made sure she left nothing out of place as she crept out of the house with everything else. She locked the doors and turned to leave when she suddenly was face to face with Max.

Lia’s heart dropped. She stopped dead in her track, fear paralyzing her. She didn’t hear the car because she stopped paying attention. She was so sure she would be done and out by the time he got in. Lia realized they were both staring, and not saying anything, so she decided to break the silence.

“Hi Max” she said cautiously.

“Lia, what are you doing here?” he said spitefully

“Um… I… um…” what was she doing here. She blenched, Lia needed to think of something that wouldn’t give her away. She was sure that if the huge bag on her back didn’t give her away, the pillows in her hands would.

“WELL?” his voice boomed

“I live here, I was just getting some things for a sleepover” she said hoping he would buy that.

“Riiiight, like I’m going to believe that. I’ve know you for how long, you have no friends, or do you think I’ve forgotten?”

“I have friends, you just don’t know them” she said more to herself than to Max

“Look I don’t care what your reason is, what I want to know is where is Attie?”

Lia didn’t answer, if he thought she was going to tell him where Attie was, he was going to have to think again. He raised his hand to strike Lia; she flinched, waiting for the impact of the blow. It never came, instead she watched him drop his hand from the corner of her eyes.

“Fine, don’t tell me, but know this” he said, his pointer finger hovering closely to Lia’s face “I’ll find you both and when I do, you won’t be awake fast enough to do anything” with that he turned and walked into the house, leaving a stunned looking Lia on the doorsteps.

Lia recovered from her shocked state and decided to leave, she needed to rethink things. A new wave of strength washed over her. Lia swore that she would never let this man come near her or her little sister. She picked up Attie from Miss Sallie and they left for THEIR home. It was still an early day, so Lia thought it would be good to take Attie to the local library. Someone usually read to the children on certain days and Lia was sure that there was someone there. And if there wasn’t she could always check out some books for Attie.