Make it Through

Splitting Paths

Mia and I wander in the woods lost, cold and hungry. The rain has soaked our clothes and there’s no dry wood to make a fire with. The supplies are heavier now that Emily isn’t here, Mia isn’t really helpful either. She complains that she’s tired and her feet hurt, we constantly have to stop and rest, but what about me? I’m tired and hungry and I’m trying my best to be strong for the both of us and I’m not whining. My number one priority right now though is to find Cody; Cody is our only hope for saving Emily and getting away from Uncle Bobby and Daddy.

We need food and we need it fast. My stomach acids are climbing to the top of my throat and are threatening to purge everything left in my stomach out. The sun is setting and we decide to settle down for the night.  We found a camp site that would cover us well. Instead of sleeping out in the open we slept in bushes that lay behind a tree and near a river in case we need water. I never thought about the night watch until it came. It would be tougher without Emily, without anybody being there to take turns. I wouldn’t trust Mia to help; she’d probably fall asleep and we’d wake up captured. Mia falls asleep way too early, so she wouldn’t be any good at it. I had to take a chance and only be on watch half the night.

During my half shift no one came. I felt like there was no danger and decided to quietly jump into the widely spread bushes that I set up for a bed and rested my head on our homemade pillows. For some reason it was difficult to fall asleep, probably because my stomach wouldn’t be quiet. I tossed and turned trying to get any kind of slumber, no luck there. I sat up and looked at the bushes right across from where I was there were some black berries. We were saved! I grabbed a small sack from my bag and ran over to the bush.

Making sure the berries weren’t poisonous; I examined them the way Cody taught me. Once I saw that they were ok I snatched a whole bunch; eating many while packing them.  As I was stashing my prized possessions away I noticed an X carved into a tree next to the bush and below it a picture of something.

 I looked at it; it looked like Cody’s craftsmanship. There was a carved picture of a family. There were a mommy, a daddy and two children; one boy and a little girl. The little girl looked like me. She had long hair put into two pony tails and a dress. It must have been me. He must have gotten bored and started carving things in the tree or he was giving us a way to try and find him. The X was just above it and that’s when I knew how to find Cody. To find Cody we follow the X and all carvings we would come across we‘d followed as well. ‘I’m coming big brother. I hope you’re okay; we need your help.’ I thought to myself.

I waited for Mia to wake up, her eyes opened wide with excitement when I showed her all the berries I collected. She grabbed handful after handful until I closed the bag before she ate it all.

“What did you do that for?” she asked still cranky.

“We need to save this food, who knows when we will get anymore.” I was standing my ground. I could see she didn’t like that, I was just a little bit older than her and she had to listen to me, our lives depended on the decisions we made right now. I knew more than her; I was more experienced. Cody taught me everything I had to know for being out alone in the woods just in case we would be separated when he tried to escape. I bet he didn’t even think I was really paying attention, but thanks to him I know what I must do to keep us alive.

We gathered all of our stuff and continued on for another long day’s journey. I was hoping it wouldn’t be too long.

        Mia gets hungry and tired fast.        We were running out of time to help Emily. He could be doing terrible things to her, horrible things; things that are hard to talk about. She must be so scared.

 I remember the first night Daddy touched me. I had another nightmare and I got up like all the other nights. Daddy’s bedroom door was cracked open so I walked in slowly. I only blame myself now. When I walked into the room he was snoring and there was a smell that attacked my nose. I didn’t really care; I needed my Daddy to comfort me. I climbed into bed and cuddled with him. Everything was fine for a few moments, but when he rolled over and opened his eyes half way he started touching me and kissing me. He called me “Tasha”, but Tasha was my mommy’s name, I then became confused. I tried to pull him off me and I told him to stop, but he wouldn’t. I tried to run for the door but he gripped my arm and pulled me back to the bed. I called for Cody; it only took him a few seconds for him to get to the door. I heard him and Jaime going at it and I thought it would never end. My mind was blurred between Cody and Jamie fighting and Daddy attacking me. Daddy got off me and off the bed. I found myself putting my arms and legs in a fetal position. I was too afraid to look at him and Daddy soon became the monster in my nightmares.

*

Sighting of the carvings became less and less, after a while only an X was carved into the trees that we followed. We walked for probably three hours before we decided to rest. Mia and I ate the berries that I stored away earlier. When we first stopped I hadn’t noticed that we had stopped by a small pond. None of us have bathed since we ran away and we looked and felt really dirty. I searched Emily’s bag, hoping for a cloth of any sort. I took things out of the bag and right when I believed that there was none, I found one tucked away in a side pocket at the very bottom. It was a dark purple wash cloth, when I unfolded it there was a green cloth; this would be perfect.

“What? What did you find?” Mia said curiously as she reached for what I had in my hand, she probably thought it was some more food.

“I found a cloth.” She looked at me like I was losing my mind. I threw the cloth over to her and she caught it unwillingly.

“So what, we can’t eat it.” She said will an attitude. Yeah, we needed food, but we were rank. She threw the cloth back in the bag. She was so unappreciative when it came to what we really needed, which at the moment was a desperate bath.

“No you can’t eat it but did you ever think about what we use cloths for?” I was kind of angry now and was so sick of her snobby attitude. She had a normal child hood and I was stuck here. She’s so used to be waited on hand and foot. Daddy took her only because he said their lives’ were so bad and we were going to help them have a better life, but I don’t care, I want her gone. She looked at me not understanding what I was talking about. She made me mad so I handed her the cloth and walked her over to the water. She just stood there like a dumb kid so I grabbed her by her shirt and pushed her in, it made me laugh inside. She got out of the water slowly and walked over to me.

“Why do you have to be so mean? I didn’t do anything; I’m just hungry and tired.” I hadn’t really realized what I had done until she began crying. I saw what I did and felt bad. I was so angry at the world and her for the way she was acting, but then I realized Cody would have never done that to me. He would’ve showed me slowly what he meant. Mia got up and stomped away. My temper got the best of me.

“Wait!” I yelled as I ran after her. She ran even faster as I followed. She ran and I ran on her heels the whole way.

“No, you’re not my boss, stay away from me!” She was really mad at me and I didn’t blame her.

“Please stop, I’m so sorry. I’m tired too and scared and lonely, I just want to find Cody. I really am trying my best.” I began to cry. I cried for all the sadness I put her through, for the abuse I was put through and Cody. I cried for what Emily was going through right now. I cried for my mommy and last of all I cried because I was scared. Mia watched me as I cried. Half way through she came over and hugged me. I turned away feeling like I didn’t deserve her sympathy. I just wanted the sorrow to disappear.

“Cristal, it’s fine, I know I have been a little hard to take care of and I’ll try harder to help.” We stood there hugging each other.

“Truce?” she said

“Truce.” We pulled away from each other and saw an old log Cabin. It looked abandoned, there were no lights on and we thought we could try and look around. We slowly walked up to the cabin door, being as quite as we could. All of a sudden the door opened. A young man looked and we jumped to the side.

“Who’s there?” said a voice sounding very familiar. My heart began to flutter. I jumped out from where I was and there standing out in the open was my big brother Cody, we finally found him.