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Tesia 04-08-2007 07:18 PM

Short Story
 
It's a bit long, but you can read it if you'd like. For Writer's Craft las semester, it was our final project. Had to be appx. 2000 words. Comments/Critique is welcome. Some parts of it are lame, but for the most part, I like it.


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I love walking around downtown, especially during the holiday season. Everyone is in such a hurry and all the store windows are lit up, displaying their most popular items. The bars are filled with old friends catching up over a Christmas drink and the bad rock-and-roll Christmas carols spill from the open doors.
I glanced up and down the street at all the people rushing home with their shopping bags. Sometimes I wonder how they could possibly have so many friends and relatives to buy gifts for, or for that matter, how they can afford it all. Whenever I ask for a toy or game my Dad says we don’t have enough money, or that I don’t need it.
Most kids my age get so excited for Christmas. On the last day of school before school let out for the holidays they were all extremely energetic, discussing holiday plans and all the gifts they asked for. Christmas isn’t a big deal for me. I don’t make a list because I don’t really get any presents. My Mom usually gets me a book or a movie, but that’s about it. It’s not her fault, and I don’t blame her. She doesn’t have a lot of extra money.
“Hey!” someone shouted, snapping me out of my thoughts. I froze, closed my eyes, and hoped as hard as I could that it wasn’t him, but when I turned around and looked, it was.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” he shouted as he grabbed my arm and shook me. I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t supposed to be out of the house and I knew it.
“Well?” he spat in my face as he spoke.
“I was looking for a Christmas present for you and mom.” I said quickly.
“That’s crap.” He sneered. “I know you don’t have any money.” Some people on the street were staring at him. He’d forgotten he was in the middle of the sidewalk. He looked around and glared back at me.
“Home. Now.”

The walk home was long. I was dreading what would come when we reached the apartment. I’d seen him angry before, but somehow, he seemed more upset than usual. We reached the building’s doors. Inside, he smiled and said hello to a neighbour getting his mail, as if we were a normal family. We took the elevator up to our floor, and walked down the hall. I could smell someone’s cooking. We reached our door and as soon as it was open, I ran for my room. I could hear him slamming the kitchen cupboards. I wondered how long it would be.
A while later I heard the front door open and my mother drop her keys on the table.
“Do you know what he did today?” his voice was already raising. My mother muttered back. “He knows the rules! He’s disobeying us on purpose.”
“He’s disobeying you. Not us.”
Smack. It was starting.
“Don’t do this tonight. Not tonight.” My poor mother.
I closed my eyes and imagined myself strong enough to fight him off. I pictured him crying on the floor instead of me, or her. I took a breath and opened the door. She was too tired to deal with him tonight. Better me than her.

I woke up the next morning under my covers, as if nothing had happened. But I was sore, and I knew it had.
It was 9:30 AM. He was at work. Mom should have been, too, but just then she opened the door and came in.
“I brought you some coffee.” She smiled weakly. He says I’m not allowed to drink coffee, especially not his expensive stuff. But mom knows I like it and lets me have it when he’s not home.
“Are you okay, mom?” She looked exhausted.
“Yeah, sweetie.” She stared at the floor.
For a while, we were silent. I sipped the creamy coffee and tried to forget the aching. I looked at my mother. Her green eyes seemed grey and her skin was dry and sagging around her eyes. And her nose was still crooked... that was his fault, too.

At noon he called to make sure I was at home. I didn’t tell him that mom had stayed home from work. Wait a minute... why had she stayed home? I asked her, and she stared at me for a moment before shifting her gaze to the clock on the kitchen wall.
“Six hours.” She said.
“What?”
“We have six hours to get out of here.” Her eyes were brighter than I’d seen them in a long time. She was excited. “Pack up some clothes and put your favourite books in your backpack.”
“Mom...” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’d never heard her suggest leaving, but she looked like she’d been waiting for this moment. Maybe she had been planning for weeks.
“Mom,” I said again, “Where are we going to go?” Her face showed no worry.
“We’ll drive for a few hours until we find somewhere to stay. And then tomorrow we’ll drive down to Jersey to stay with my sister. Do you remember Auntie Cheryl?” She was speaking quickly, getting antsier as the minutes passed.
“Come on, hurry! We need to leave soon!” she half-shouted.
I ran to my room and began grabbing clothes out of my closet and books off my shelf, shoving them into my backpack. What if we lived with Aunt Cheryl forever? What if we never found another place to live? What if my mom found someone worse than him? Or worst of all, what if he found us? We were both aware of what would happen if he found us.
As I dragged my bag to the front hall, my mother was getting our coats out of the closet. We hurried out the door to the elevator. She was dragging a suitcase behind her.
“Mom, what about all our other stuff?” I asked.
“It’s okay. We’ll buy new things.” She looked back down the hall at our apartment. “But that’s not important now. We just need to get to the car and get going.” The elevator doors closed and down we went.

We pulled out of the parking garage, hopefully for the last time. I knew mom didn’t have much money, and if we went to Jersey, she’d have to get a new job. I knew it wouldn’t be easy for her.
We drove for at least three hours, or maybe longer. I couldn’t sleep because I was scared. I didn’t know what would happen from there. As I stared out the window I noticed that it was getting dark fast.
“Mom, shouldn’t we stop soon?”
“Oh... yes, that’s a good idea. Start looking for hotels, or motels. Anything.” She said, and looked at me in the rear view mirror. “I love you, sweetie.” She smiled a tired smile.
“Love you too, mom.”

A little while later we found a small motel off the side of the highway. We pulled up and mom went inside. She came back with a key in her hand and drove around to the back of the building to our room. We climbed the stairs and opened the door. The room was small but clean.
“Mom, do we have enough money for this?” I wondered.
“I used my credit card, sweetie. Don’t worry.”
I looked at the alarm clock beside the bed. He would be home by now. He knew by now that we were gone. I felt a shiver.
“It’s okay,” she assured me, “he doesn’t know where we are.”
We watched television for an hour or so, and then we got ready for bed. It was early, but we were both tired and there wasn’t much else to do.
“We’ll head out early for Jersey. We’ll be there by tomorrow afternoon. Once we get to Jersey, we’ll be safe.” She was reassuring herself as much as she was me. I tossed and turned for a long time before I drifted off to sleep that night. I don’t remember ever being so restless.

I awoke a few hours later to a knock at the door. My stomach turned. My mother got out of bed and headed sleepily to the door.
“Mom,” I whispered, “what if it’s him?”
“It’s not him, sweetie,” she yawned, “He doesn’t know we’re here.” She undid the latch on the door and turned the knob. As she did, the door slammed open on her, making her cry out.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he screamed, crashing into the room. “You can’t run out on me. You’ll never make it on your own! You can’t afford the kid!”
“Get in the bathroom and lock the door!” mom yelled at me. I ran for it as he lunged, and I closed the door just in time. I stepped back and listened to the shouting move into the center of the room.
“You’ve made a big mistake,” he growled, “and you’ll pay for this. You’re a stupid woman. I don’t know why I ever married trash like you.” I could hear her mumbling in reply, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying.
“What do you have to say to me? Speak up!” he shouted. Unexpectedly, she shouted back.
“It’s over. I’m done with you. You need to get out!” Her voice was different. It was angry.
“You can’t tell me what to do!” A thump as he threw her against the wall. I shuddered.
“Don’t touch me!” she screeched. I heard heavy footsteps and then the sound of her body hitting the ground. I was beginning to worry. He usually hit her, but he didn’t normally throw her around.
“Do you want me to crush that thick little skull of yours?” he laughed. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll come home with me now.”
“No,” she said, “No, I won’t.
“Then you’re not going anywhere!”

Out of nowhere, I heard a gunshot. My mind raced; she was dead. He’d shot her. I couldn’t even hear all the shouting over my own thoughts. I unlocked the door and as I opened it, three or four large men stormed past me in navy suits. The police? How did they find us? Could they help my mom?
I scrambled past them and stopped dead at the scene in front of me. There was my mother, sitting on the floor. She was crying, and battered, but she was alive. He was lying beside her, face down, with a small pool of blood forming around him. I felt myself gag, but ignored it and ran to my mother. She hugged me tightly and whispered to me through her sobs.
“It’s okay now. He’s not going to hurt us any more. Don’t look at him, sweetie.”

He had traced the credit card she had used to pay for the hotel room and came to find us. Someone in the hotel had called the police when they heard all the shouting, and luckily they had arrived just in time. Apparently he had brought a knife with him and the police had shot him as he was about to kill my mother. It was the most frightening night of my life. But it worked out for the best. My mom and I are fine now. We moved to a new apartment in Jersey, and my mom let me have the big bedroom. She got a new job, a better job, and a new boyfriend, too. He’s very nice and gave me a big encyclopaedia for Christmas this year. He and mom are expecting a new baby soon, a little girl to be named Jersey. I’m excited to have a little sister, and I’m glad she won’t have met my real dad. As for my Mom, she’s happy with her new life and her new boyfriend, and I know he won’t hurt her. I won’t let him.


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