Strings

Will It Get Better?

This chapter contains abuse and maybe upsetting to some.

For the past six months Callie and Mariana had remained in the Springs home miraculously getting by from day to day. Callie continued to take her young foster sister with her to school every morning to have a music lesson with Mrs. Carol where the young teacher would provide them with breakfast and other goodies. The young music teacher couldn't believe how talented Callie truly was for she was now playing and singing songs most ten year olds had never heard before. Seeming to gravitate toward music form another era she made sure to bring in all the sheet music she had from when she was growing up and from her parents time. Callie adored Cher and the Beatles as she would play and sing their songs until she knew all the chords by heart. It was during these morning the two girls felt like they could be free, that they could be the kids they always wanted to be as Mariana enjoyed hearing Callie sing more than anything. However, things started to take a turn for the worst for the two girls literally almost overnight.

What started out tame became much more than that as the occasional beatings from Mrs. Spring turned daily for the smallest acts. Often Callie tried to shield her foster sister from it by using her own body to defend her but no matter how hard she tried Mariana could not escape it. Mrs. Spring had a raging temper and when she drank it only escalated it especially since her husband was no longer around or the other six children she use to foster. Blaming the two girls for everything down to the color of the sky, to if she had a headache and the increased heat bill they had become the center and target of her rage and anger.  Locking them in separate closets all night seemed to be her punishment of choice, along with cutting up their favorite books and throwing out the only toys they had. Using the foster care checks for herself it never seemed to be enough so she chopped the two girls long hair off selling it for money as they now walked around looking like little boys leaving them both devastated. 

"You shut up! You shut up!" Mrs. Spring screamed butchering the young Latin girls hair as she pulled and cut chunks at a time. Mariana could only cry her hardest harder than ever and the woman smacked her across the face causing it to sting.

"Don't hit her!" Callie yelled as Mrs. Spring looked to her in surprise.

"What did you say to me?"

"Leave her alone! Cut my hair off! Not hers!"

"No Callie!" Mariana yelled as the woman pushed her to the ground.

"You shut up!"

"Don't push her!" Callie screamed once again as the woman grabbed her by hair dragging her into the bathroom.

"I knew you were a problem! I knew it you can't keep that big mouth of yours shut! No wonder your whore of a mother left you!" Continuing to pull the girls hair and rip pieces from her scalp she thew her on top of the closed toilet as Callie could feel her head pounding, the woman taking scissors and beginning to chop her long hair. Hair that Callie wanted to grow just as long as she remembered her mothers being.

"My mama isn't a whore! You are!"

"You little ungrateful brat!" she yelled pushing the girl onto the ground as Callie's head hit the hard subway tile. Blood soon rushed out of the wound as Mrs. Spring yanked her by the hair once again continuing to cut it and tears falling from the girls face.

"You will learn! You will learn! And you are lucky I am cutting this dirty, matted ugly mess! Was your mother's hair a mess like this?! I bet it was! I bet she was a mess too that's why you are such an ugly mess of a child!"

"No she wasn't!"

"Shut up before I ripe your arm out of the socket!" she yelled once again chopping more and more hair off .