New to the Family

Family and Punishment

 Lindsay was drying off dishes, and putting them away. She hummed, and didn't notice me as my timid steps brought me into the kitchen. The kitchen was fairly large, and I could see how the wall on one side dipped in to another room. On the other side of the kitchen, a plastic shower curtain was wrapped around part of the protruding wall. It was surrounded my cracked and broken white tiles. It looked like some home renovation that never got finished. It was like they had tried to transform part of the large kitchen into a bathroom.

Lindsay put the last plate away, and turned to see me. Her lips spread into a smile, and she turned to grab a bowl off of the counter.

"Good morning, Leah," she said. "I saved you some breakfast."

"I'm not hungry," I said.

My stomach had not untangled itself from its tight knot since I woke up in Jared's bed. Lindsay's smile dropped for a second, and she shook her head.

"No, you have to eat," she said. "Jared will not be too happy to hear that you aren't eating."

"I'm going to be sick if I eat," I said.

"Nonsense." She waved her hand at me before forcing the bowl into my hands. "Go have a seat in the dining room."

Lindsay put her hand on the small of my back, and she guided me into the room attached to the kitchen. There was a long wooden table that surrounded my chairs. An old woman was sitting in one of the chairs. Her long white hair was twisted up in a clip, and pinned to the top of her head. Her skin sagged with winkles. Her bony fingers were running along the scratches in the table. She knocked her fingers on the table every once in awhile.

Lindsay sat in the chair next to the woman. She placed her hand over the woman's. The woman looked up at Lindsay. A deep crease had formed between her eyebrows as she scowled. Lindsay was not worried by this look and place a kiss on the woman's temple.

"This is Jenny," Lindsay said. "She is Jared's grandmother. Mom this Leah. She is Jared's girl."

The woman did not look at me. Her gaze with fixed on Lindsay.

"You'll have to excuse Jenny," Lindsay said. "She's not always quite there. I think it is Alzheimer's. I used to work in a nursing home after I dropped out of nursing school. I saw a lot of it, and I think our poor Jenny has it. We don't love her any less though."

This was Jared's grandmother? That poor woman must have been kidnapped too when she was young. She had to spend her whole life cooped out in this house, and now she was going to die here.

I looked down at the bowl in front of me to see that it was oatmeal. I stirred it, and watched the oats clump to the spoon.

"Where are you from, Leah?" Lindsay asked.

I kept my gaze down on the bowl. "Alaska."

"Alaska? That is so interesting. My birth mother always wanted to go there."

"Your birth mother?"

"Yeah, the family I was born into. This is my family now though, and this is your family too."

Jenny pulled her hands out from under Lindsay's and started to trace her fingers along the table. I watched as Jenny stayed fixated on the table.

"Eat your oatmeal," Lindsay told me.

"I'm really not hungry," I said.

"Jared is coming in early," she said. "I don't want him to see that you're not eating. I don't want you two having a rocky start."