Avoiding Alpha

Chapter Fourteen

“Ah, Tim, can I get you anything?”

“You’re sad Nancy,” was all her said.

“I am.”

“Ashton hasn’t come home to you?”

“No, he hasn’t.”

“When Tendra isn’t home, I hide under my bed. Until I’m hungry or father shouts for me loudly.”

“Oh Tim,” She cried a little more and went to her knees to hug him but he moved back,

“No Nancy, don’t cry, hiding keeps me safe. I feel safe under my bed. But, there is always a reason I have to leave it. I have to eat or tidy my toys. Or do my spellings or reading for school. I can’t hide forever. You can’t walk in the kitchen forever Nancy. I go looking for Tendra sometimes; I wait at the top of the street when I know she is due back. Why don’t we wait for Ashton, when we know he will come back?”

                How on earth had Tim learnt that? Tendra looked up at her young brother, he had knowledge far beyond his years and she didn’t know whether to cry or not. So that was why he stood at the top of the street for her and to think she had shouted at him. But he hadmbeen trying to get away from where he couldn’t stay forever. He was trying to get on with life and that meant finding out if she was going to come home or not. How he must have hated waiting. Hoping for her return and dreading that she wouldn’t. Wondering at how his life would end up if she did or if she didn’t return that day.

“I don’t know when he will come to me Tim.”

“Then there’s no point going to meet him, just yet, we wait until he’s due back. Let’s cook Nancy, let’s make Alpha something to eat for when he gets back. Then he can tell us when Ashton is due back and then we can go wait for him.”

                Tiny hands took hold of Nancy’s and tugged on them. She sniffled a little but eventually got to her feet and let Tim lead her to the sink where he reached for the kitchen roll, handed her some and then went for the tap.

“Let’s wash our hands; we can’t cook with dirty hands.” He turned the tap and squirted soap on his hands as a wide eyed Tendra looked at him. Cooking; he always made her cook after her father had got to her and she had bathed. At the time he had said he was hungry and she simply went back to the reality that was raising Tim, but now she saw his eyes and they were very, very different from his voice. His voice as childish and innocent were at odds with his eyes – they were older. His eyes were informed. He was bringing Nancy back to a world of necessity, taking her away from hiding, and showing her that life had to go on, no matter what was wrong. In due time she could find out more about Ashton, but she had cried enough now.

Ray came back to his house and smelled the familiar cooking of Nancy, he was surprised and walked in to find a lasagne sitting on the table with garlic bread and salad. There was absolutely tons of it. Dishes were piled high and the few bottles of pop he had in his fridge were all out.