Kill Me Sweetly

Chapter 4

            Blinking my eyes I said, “Yeah scratch that she was a terrible mom. Every day she would get drunk and would be passed out by the time I would get off the bus. I had to teach myself how to take care of the house or she would throw fits. I had to make dinner every night just so she would be able to eat because if I didn’t do any of this then I would get punished and she would have withered away to nothing.”

            Looking a little shocked Sam quickly asked, “What about your dad?”

            “You little asshole why didn’t you clean up this mess,” he screeched at me and I slowly looked around him to find a few crumbs from dinner still on the table. Clutching my favorite and only teddy bear to my chest I tried to come up with something to say but he smacked me across the face as hard as he could.

            “You’re pathetic! What good are you to me? I should just kill you and be done with it!” As he advanced towards me I ran away screaming although I knew it was a hopeless cause.

            “Oh my dad, he, um…” I trailed off wondering if I should tell her. When I saw her looking at me sadly I quickly said, “He was horrible, if I didn’t do anything correctly he would beat me up until I would pass out and then expect me to do everything perfect when I woke up.”

            “What about a sibling?”

            My mind went thankfully blank as I tried to say something but couldn’t get anything past the lump in my throat. “I don’t want to talk about it,” I managed to whisper and it looked like Sam understood what I meant right away.

            The last thing I expected was Sam to launch herself over to me and start sobbing in my shoulders. Patting her awkwardly on the back I asked, “Sam are you alright?”

            Sniffing she pulled back rubbing her eyes saying, “That is the saddest thing I have ever heard; you’ve been living with those damned people your entire life?”

            That’s when my favorite memory flashed in my eyes.

            Packing a few clothes in my backpack along with all my money and teddy bear I snuck out to the hallway listening for my parents’. Their snores were echoing slowly through the house so I tiptoed to the front door. I just had turned the lock out of place when an alarm went off over my head.

            “Mary wake up, she’s trying to get away!”

            With a scream I flung the door open and started running through the storm that was brewing outside my house. I heard my dad start to give chase but since I was smaller I managed to duck through a small opening in a fence and down an alley leading to the city.

            An hour later I spun around looking for any sign that he followed me. All was quiet so for the first time in my life I smiled and started to laugh.

            Smiling over at Sam I said, “No actually when I was ten I ran away from home and managed to run all the way to a city near my house. Once there I,” I paused here and then said, “I found an orphanage that I saw on a few flyers and have been living there since. The woman that owned the place decided to send me here so I can figure out what I want to do with my life since once I graduate I can do whatever I want.”

            “Wow,” Sam stated before adding, “And I thought my life was bad. You had it about ten times worse.” I just shrugged my shoulders lightly and we both got quiet thinking, well I was thinking, Sam was probably pondering about my life still. I have a feeling she isn’t going to let me live that down.