Mafia's Woman

24- Bad Memories

Arsenio had been gone all day for work, leaving me suffering in the hands of absolute boredom. He told me he would be back around five, and that was five hours from now. Watching TV wasn't doing anything to cure my boredom, neither was reading.

Hmmm, what to do. What to do.

The white layer that covered the ground outside caught my eye from the window. I stared out at the falling snowflakes. Being out in the snowy and cold weather instantaneously cheered me up. I loved being outside at this time of year.

When my mother was alive and we all lived in our old house, my parents would take me out during the winter and we would build the biggest snowmen ever. My dad would hollow out the inside of a huge snow mound and make a little igloo for us to sit in. We would make snow angels and go sled riding down the hill in front of our house.

I remembered how my dad and I would lay on our stomachs and eat the fresh snow. Then the three of us would go inside and my mom would make her homemade hot chocolate and sugar cookies for us.  She was the best baker I had ever met. Everything she made was delicious. I only wished she was still alive.

The eighth anniversary of her death was approaching, it was just a few weeks away. When I was younger, on the anniversary of her death, I would sneak out walk to the local park. It wasn't the one my mother used to take me to when she was alive because my father made us move houses after her death, but it made me feel comforted nonetheless.

When I wanted to feel close to my mother, instead of visiting her grave, I visited the park. She didn't even have a grave to visit. I had no idea what happened to her body after my father killed her and told those men to dispose of her.

I wished I could visit the park close to our old house that she would take me to. Sometimes she would take me out of school early so we could spend our days together. She used to make me feel so special. She made everything magical.

I wrapped up in some warm clothes and walked outside. I had yet to explore his property, but I did know that he owned a lot of land. In all the time I had been there, I had barely even been outside.

I stayed outside for about an hour before I got too cold and needed to go back inside. While I was out there, I walked around the main part of his property. I didn't go into the woods or the back fields though because I didn't feel like trekking through the snow. I just sat in the gazebo for a while, watching individual snowflakes fall.

After I came back from being outside, I changed into a pair of comfy sweat pants and a T-shirt. Then I went downstairs and made a cup of hot tea to warm up. Sipping my tea, I turned on the TV and switched on the news channel. I wasn't really paying attention to it though until a breaking news headline popped up.

According to the news reporter, a man named Collin Herts was found dead on the side of the road in a town a few hours away from here. The autopsy reported that the man had overdosed on cocaine. He was trying to walk home that night, but collapsed onto the ground and died.

A slight relief washed over me. That man was one of my father's companions. He used to rile my father up to hurt me. He thought it was amusing watching my father take his aggression out on me. Sometimes my father would allow him to join.

He was a pedophile. He used to call me pretty all the time and speak to me in inappropriate ways. When my dad wasn't around, he would tell me to sit on his lap. I always refused and pushed him away, but he didn't like that and would hit me for disobeying him. In one particular instance, when my father was in a different room, Collin tried to touch me but I pushed his hands away. He slapped me as punishment. My father heard the commotion and came back to the room where Collin then lied about trying to touch me.