Chapter 1

Thinking back, I don’t know how we got to where we are now. It was a long journey, with so much to bring us down, so many people fighting against us. Especially ourselves, for we were the biggest enemy for both of us to overcome. Since we were young we have struggled with family life, outside life, and what is inside of ourselves. Yet, through it all. we are here, still with each other, and on the happiest days of my life, and I hope his, too. I stand there at the doors waiting for them to open, I can hear people settling as the music starts. I take a deep breath looking at my dad at my side, my sisters and brothers, my family lined in front of me. My mom makes the last adjustments on my dress and hair. She stands back to look at me, and smiles brightly. I can see her tearing up and I can feel my own tears threatening to fall because of it. I had dreamed of her being happy and proud of me, for as long as I could remember. She gave me a hug and it felt like neither of us wanted to let go.

 

The doors open and I look around at the people who have gathered to celebrate with me. My friends, my family, my closest of the close. I couldn't be happier than I am right now. I take one last deep breath and smile. Waiting at the end of the isle is the man of my dreams. I have been with since him my Junior year of high school and I have not wanted another since I met him.

 

“You look beautiful and I am so happy for you sweetheart. I love you so much.” she whispers through the tears. I am glad, for once, they are tears of happiness instead of anger and despair. I thought about it f\at that moment, it made me think back. Until now, tears, for me, have meant nothing but despair and anger.

 

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“You aren’t my kids! You are that drug-addict’s satan children! Why don’t you go live with him huh?! I bet you would like that, since you hate me so much! You both make me sick, Get the f**k out of my house you spoiled little s***s!” I stood there in fear, crying my eyes out. I looked at my brother and he was crying, too. We weren’t that old, and we didn’t know what to do. But from that moment on I swore that I would never let my brother get hurt. I would do everything in my power to keep him safe from this monster standing in front of us.

 

“Why are you still standing here!” He grabbed me and my brother by the arm and dragged us out of the house and pushed us off the porch steps. We hit the dirt and looked up at this man who we were supposed to call father. I hated him so much, I wished right then, that God would kill him. That anything would happen to him to get him out of our lives.

 

“I don’t want you here! Go the f**k away! Go find someone else to bother, and make them give a damn about you because I don’t and I never will.” Then he stormed back inside the house. We sat in the dirt crying, and neither of us had a clue what to do.

 

“When will mom be back?” Justin asked me as he attempted to dry his eyes.

 

“I don’t know.” I was scared and wanted to just sit down and cry, but I had to try to be strong for my brother.

 

“We will tell her when she gets back though, right?” He stands up looking timidly at the house, then back at me. My mom had gone to the store earlier, and was supposed to be back soon.

 

“Of course. Right now we should go to the playhouse and wait for her.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him along. There was a shed that had been turned into like a sort of bedroom out in back on the hill behind our cabin. I figured he wouldn’t come looking for us, so we would be ok. We lived at the base of a mountain right where it met the lake. So everything behind the house was uphill.

 

I pulled the door open on the little shed, it had been our playroom since we moved in. It kept all of our toys out of the house, and my mom didn’t care what it looked like out here. We turned on the light and pulled the door shut behind us. I didn’t really feel like playing at that moment, but I wanted to cheer up my little brother. I had this unexplained feeling of always needing to protect him.

 

“What do you want to do? I think if we stay quiet we will be safe” I sat next to the toy box and opened the lid. I began shuffling through it looking for his toys, or anything he would want to play with.

 

“I want to go back to sleep.” He curled up in the little tent we had made in the corner. I grabbed some of our extra blankets and crawled in next to him. He was almost two years younger than me, but I wasn’t that much bigger than him. “Why did mom marry him?”

 

“I don’t think she knew he was a bad guy.” I thought back to how much I had liked him before they married. “We liked him before, too remember?”

 

“Yeah. I know we did, but why is he mean now? I thought he was happy we would be his kids. Now he says he hates us all the time” He looked upset and disappointed. I didn’t really have an explanation for it. “Do you think it’s our fault?”

 

“No, we didn’t do anything wrong this morning. I don’t know why he is mad at us right now” I was whispering because I was afraid he would come in and yell at us more.

 

“Will mommy be mad at us because we made him upset at us?”

 

“No. I don’t think so”

 

“What about when we tell her what happened? Like how he yelled at us, and pushed us, and stuff? Will she be mad at us then?”

 

“She should be mad at him then. It wasn’t our fault he got mad.”

 

“I am scared of him, he makes us get into trouble for no reason at all. I wanted a daddy and he is mean.” I was just as upset about it as he was. I had looked forward to having him become our dad. My mom had dated him for a long time, though I don’t remember exactly, since I was only five years old. We had learned to love him because my mom had loved him. I knew that Nana and Papa didn’t like, but I didn’t know why. We were told to go play whenever they all started arguing.

 

“Me too...” I yawned “but I don’t know if mama can change it. They already got married. Mama said that, once people are married they stay together forever because they love each other.”

 

“But was she married to our…” he paused looking around like someone was listening, which he could’ve been “real dad?” We weren’t EVER supposed to talk about our real dad, even though Justin was named after him. Daniel didn’t like it and my mom told us to always listen to him, though it was easier before they got married.

 

“I don’t know. If they were then they would still be together wouldn’t they? So I guess not. they weren’t married.” He seemed to accept the answer. In all honesty, it was something I had never thought of. I didn’t think about our real dad, partially because I was too young to understand or care, and partially because of Daniel.

 

“I hope we will be safe. I’m glad we have me and you. I hope the new baby is like us, too. then we can all play together.” My mom was pregnant, had been for a little while. I was excited, but scared. Even at my young age of five, I knew that if Daniel was being mean to us, that he might be mean to the new little girl or boy. On top of all of this, I had heard my mom talking about moving. I didn’t know what to think about that. I liked being around my Nana and Papa all the time. And my aunts, they used to take us out all the time, they helped raise us. I was worried we might move too far away to see them anymore.

 

“I am happy too, and I can’t wait to see the new baby.” I mumbled sleepily.

 

“I love you Autumn.”

 

“I love you too” Then we fell asleep waiting in fear for my mom to get home so we could talk to her.

Chapter 2

“Wake up!” I jumped, completely startled out of a deep sleep “Get your a**es our here!”

 

I didn't’ know what was going on, my eyes were full of sleep and puffy from crying. I sat up rubbing them, and saw that the door was open and someone was standing in it.

 

“Lets!Go!” It was Daniel “You’ve got about five seconds. One.” I shook Justin awake

 

“Two” Pulled him to his feet

 

“What…?” He mumbled sleepily. I panicked that we wouldn't get out in time.

 

“Three!!” He was getting more impatient which was all the worse for us.

 

“C’mon” I pulled Justin to the door “Excuse me.” I looked up at my tormentor I already knew he wouldn’t move. That’s how he kept us in trouble, tell us to do something, then go out of his way to prevent it. He just glared at me.

 

“Excuse me!” I said louder, but he didn’t move.

 

“Four!” He just clenched his jaw and kept glaring at us. Justin was awake now and gripping me tightly.

 

“Please can we go?” I said

 

“Five” He said the last one quietly and it was worse than if he yelled. I knew what it meant, we were in trouble. “Out of time…” Those three words made my blood run cold. We were in some serious trouble and I had no way of knowing if my mom was home.

 

“Get the f**k out of here now!” He stepped aside and pushed us out of the play house.

 

Me and my brother clung to each other for safety, I looked to see if my mother’s vehicle was back, but I didn’t see. This meant that he could do what he wanted and she would not be there to stop him.

 

“Start running.” Just a simple command from him made all the difference.

 

“Where to?” I whimpered.

 

“Did I say you could talk?” He growled at us. I began to cry in fear.

 

“N-n-nooo” I cried to him. I prayed that he would feel sympathy for two little children whom he was supposed to care for, but it was useless. He fed off the power that he felt from making us cry.

 

“Then. Run.” Me and Justin started running towards the other end of the yard, still crying. “No. Up the Hill” He pointed. It wasn’t a hill, we lived on a mountain and above us was his mother’s house, but in between the edge of our two yards was brush and weeds taller than us. I looked at him, pleading that he wouldn’t make us do that. I should have known it would be in vain. He was relentless when it came to punishments for us, it was his way of releasing all of his anger that he actually received from the rest of his daily life. Apparently his mother never told him to pick on people his own size.

 

My brother started half-heartedly running up the mountainous range, he would rather die from overwork then to face this cruel man. I followed him up, but dared not run in front of him. If he fell I needed to pick him up before Daniel got ahold of him, I couldn’t let him get hurt.

 

“Faster!” I glanced back and he was standing at the bottom where the lawn met the tall weeds we were being forced to run through. I knew I could go faster, but I also knew that I couldn’t leave Justin behind. Daniel would get him for sure, if he so much as slipped up. I ran up next to him and grabbed his hand to help him along. We were nearing the top by this point and I was breathing heavy. Finally we pushed through the last of the scratchy tall brambled mess. We both stopped and tried to catch our breath. I looked at my knees and saw the lines of blood dripping down them, it was all over the both of us.

 

“What do you think you are doing?” We looked down the incline to where the devil himself stood with his arms crossed. “Keep going.”

 

My body was ready to collapse and I felt weak and near tears. “Up?” It was the only word I could muster out at that point.

 

“Are you f**king stupid?!” I winced at the words “Back down you idiots” He turned away from us mumbling under his breath. I felt slightly relieved at the thought that we would be heading down the hill, but at the same time, we would still have to fight the brush.

 

“Try and stick to the same area so it’s easy because it’ll be pushed down.” Justin nodded to me and took a deep breath, we both started down the hill. After a few grueling minutes of fighting the branches, we reached the bottom. Only to be sent back up again, where the whole process repeated. This continued for half an hour at least, all the while our bodies were nearing the point of keeling over. Finally I saw my mom’s vehicle coming through the trees on the road above where we were running. Daniel must have seen it too because he finally told us to stop.

 

“Go into the playhouse and play for a little bit. I’ll make lunch and bring it out.” My brother and I looked at each other quizzically, the sudden change of attitude was astounding.

 

“Ok” we said in unison and ran off towards the playhouse. We sat down and caught our breath before pulling out some toys.

 

“Why does he do that to us?” Justin asked, momentarily putting his legos aside.

 

“I don’t know. He is mean to us, but when mommy comes back he is nice again.” I continued to dress my dolls, my barbies were my pride and joy at that age.

 

“Maybe he is scared of mommy. She would not do that to us, so he can’t have her find out.” It made sense honestly, but at that age, I didn’t have the logic to put everything together.

 

“I guess so, but was he like that before?” I put one doll down and picked up another, brushing her hair and changing the clothes. For me it was a daily routine just as I brushed my own hair and changed clothes.

 

“I think she would make him stop if we told her. It happens too much.” He simply looked at me. It made sense even then, mom wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her kids, so if we told her then she would make it stop.

 

“I think so too. We should go tell her now.” We got up and headed to the house. Unfortunately, what we hadn’t thought of, was that; if Daniel didn’t do it when she was around then he didn’t want her to know, therefore he would lie.

Chapter 3

We walked in the door prepared to tell her all that had been happening whenever she left. Instead we were faced with something worse than we could have imagined. Daniel had been coming to open the door at the same time we walked in and since I was in front, I ran straight into him. By this point I had learned to back away from him whenever something like this happened. I looked for my mom, but I could not find her anywhere in my eyesight, so I assumed she was in one of the bedrooms or the bathroom.

 

“Go to your room.” Daniel said to us before we got a word out. Justin scampered off immediately, but I hesitated. I regretted it immediately because he grabbed me hard and shoved me forward to the room I shared with my brother. I fell and began crying, and to follow I heard my mom’s voice from behind the closed door of her room.

 

“What happened?” she asked to no one in particular, she simply wanted to assure I was ok.

 

“Dad push…” that’s all I got out before his hand covered my mouth and he picked me up while I was still crying and kicking.

 

“Nothing, your daughter just tripped and fell.” He spit the words ‘your daughter’ out like they were poison. As if I was poison and he wanted nothing to do with me. He would not say ‘out daughter’ because he didn’t consider me his.

 

“You ok?” she asked me. I recieved a look from Daniel that warned me to keep my mouth shut, but I ignored it. She needed to know he was lying.

 

‘No. I didn’t…” again he cut me off with his hand over my mouth. I tried to bite, but he pushed harder until it felt as though my teeth would be pushed out of my jaw.

 

“Dear? Is she ok?” my mother was becoming concerned, I wondered why she didn’t leave the room or open the door, then she could have witnessed what he was doing. I assumed she was laying down. Being pregnant can really take it out of you I guess.

 

“She is fine.” He glared at me “I am going to have the kids lay down for a nap, too honey.” He put me down, “Keep your mouth shut.” Then pushed me into my room and shut the door.

 

At that moment I knew two things; One, that he  would never consider me or my brother his children because in his eyes we weren’t; and two, that it would be much harder than I expected to get my mom to believe me, if he was going to keep lying to her. I decided to wait until he wasn’t around, next time he went to work.

 

My brother was already asleep, so I crawled into my bunk above his, and pulled the blankets over me. I could hear my mom talking to Daniel in the next room. I hoped he wasn’t filling her head with lies like he had just finished doing. Then I fell asleep only to wake up a few hours later, it was getting dark and I could hear the television on, the living rooms was on the other side of my wall. The news was on, so it must be my mom, Daniel could not watch the news it was too boring for him.

 

I climbed out of bed, to find my brother still fast asleep. I hoped Daniel was too because I wanted to talk to my mom. I crept out of the room and peeked around the corner. My mom was sitting on the couch with her legs up along it. Trying to get comfortable with her ever-growing stomach. I walked up to her and tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

 

“What’s wrong?” she looked at me and then patted the couch next to her legs. I climbed up, always being careful, I had this idea that if I touched her stomach without her making sure it was ok first, that I would hurt the baby.

 

“Dad was being mean to us today” I whispered looking back to make sure that he wasn’t around. I called him dad simply because it seemed to make my mom happy.

 

“What do you mean?” I still didn’t have her full attention and that worried me. It felt as though she didn’t believe me.

 

“He was making us run up and down the hill in back while you were gone. We had to run and my legs really hurt. He pushed Junior down too. And me too.” I called him Junior because that was what we had called him for as long as I could remember. He was the fifth in line and thus named so as a Junior. However, Daniel didn’t like that so we were supposed to try and stop, but old habits die hard, and I called him by the name I had known him as for years. I figured that I knew him first and thus had the right to call him what I wished.

 

“Did you do something wrong?” I shook my head, already fearing the worst. “Are you sure? Because that isn’t what daddy says.” I began tearing up, I tried not to cry, but it was no use.

 

“He is lying.” I sobbed burying my face into my mom’s shoulder, I hoped she would believe me. I didn’t want to wake him up because then I would get into more trouble, but she didn’t understand how much that hurt.

 

“Ok calm down.” she pushed my hair out of my face. “It’ll be ok, I’ll talk to him.” I didn’t know if that made me  feel better. That just meant next time we were along with him, he would take that out on us too. But what could I do. So I nodded my head, and leaned against her only to fall asleep again.

Chapter 4

There were not a lot of issues over the next few weeks, but that mostly due to the fact that my mom was home all the time. Daniel was at work at a lumber company about a half an hour away. We would go visit him for lunch every now and again, but most of the time they would take us to the park so we didn’t have to sit in the car with him. Having to be in that small of a space with him for too long was destined for trouble.

 

 

Then one day, my mom unleashed a total surprise on us. We would be moving soon, to Wyoming. I didn’t know if I should be happy or scared. I was somewhat excited, but at the same time, I would not be around my Nana and Papa, or my aunts. I had lived with them for about three years and they were who I considered my real family, I didn’t want to lose that.

 

 

When they had heard of this arrangement, they were not happy with my mom. The thing is, they already hated Daniel. He was originally supposed to go out with my Tia Linda, since my mom had already been married once before. Her younger sisters Linda and Brenda had a harder time finding dates, mostly because they didn’t really want to. Thus my Nana tried to set her up with Daniel.

 

 

The only reason she knew of Daniel was because he was the son of one of my Nana’s church-going friends.  He had been in the military at the time and was going to be coming home on leave. They decided it would be a great time to introduce him to Linda. However, my mom was the one who caught his attention and eventually they were married. Which, obviously, is how we got to the point we were at.

 

 

Nonetheless, my Nana and Papa were infuriated that my mother would let this man take away their grandbabies.  This started a massive fight between them all. We went over to their house to talk about it, and Daniel jumped down my Papa’s throat about how it wasn’t their place to say anything. They had no right spoiling my brother and I and certainly no right to tell my mom would she could or couldn’t do. My Nana took us kids into our old room on the lower level (split level house) that was right across the hall from theirs. She gave us some toys and asked if we could wait down here and stay safe while they all talked upstairs. It was the only fight I really remember from that time period. The rest happened before I had memory of them.

 

 

Since they were unable to change my mom’s mind, they decided to spend as much time as they could with us before we would move. So one day, they came out while Daniel was at work, to take me and Justin out for fun. They had done it a thousand times before, so my mom had no problem with it. They brought over some new outfits they had picked out, and got us ready. Then we took off to Spokane, Washington for a day at the mall and any other place they thought we would enjoy.

 

 

I remember little of that trip except that it was one of the best days I had ever had with them. We went to the mall, the roller rink, clothing stores, toy stores, and anywhere else that struck our fancy. However, that day would also be the day that stuck in Daniel’s mind forever. The day he would use against my mom’s family, so that we would cease contact with them.

 

 

When we got back that evening, Daniel was home. To make it worse he was furious, at my mother, my aunts, and of course me and my brother. I came running in the house with my brother trailing behind me, both of us excited. We were stopped short when we ran into Daniel who was standing just inside the door, waiting for us.

 

 

“Go to your rooms.” All light and happiness drained from us and I looked around for my mom, but she was no where to be found. “Excuse me?”

 

 

“Yes dad.” we said in unison. Then I sulked to my room feeling sick to my stomach. I closed the door just as my aunts fame walking in the door of the house. They had been getting the rest of our things out of the car.

 

 

“I need you to leave.” Daniel’s voice was harsh “Now”

 

 

“I don’t understand…” Linda started to say.

 

 

“I need to talk to my kids. Alone.” He emphasised ‘my’ not because he cared, simply because he was attempting to show his authority over them in this particular situation.  This was they would not have a choice, even if my mom decided to step in. I wondered where she was at.

 

 

“They aren’t in trouble are they?” Brenda asked. I could hear emotion in her voice but could not quite place it.

 

 

“That is none of your damn concern.” He was getting more irritated and I was becoming more scared. I sat with my ear pressed to the door so I could listen. I was trying to figure out why we were in trouble. I knew if he became irate with them, then his anger would be taken out on me and Justin.

 

 

“We were just asking” I could hear them trying to push the door open. Obviously they were not getting anywhere.

 

 

“Go! Now!” I heard steps then the door slammed. I jumped at the suddenness of it then realizing he would be heading this way, I hurried to get to my bed. I just got sitting down when our door opened. I was scared of what he would do now that he was mad.

 

 

“Me and your mom agreed you will not be spending anymore time with them. They are not a good influence on you and they have spoiled you for way too damn long. I will not tolerate their habits in my house.” My face fell, they were actually my family and he wasn’t, so why did he get to say this. I wanted to yell this at him, I wanted to call for my mom and ask why she would agree to this since they were her family also. However, I knew that nothing I could say would change his mind. My brother didn’t have the same idea though, he was upset and wasn’t going to hide it.

 

 

“Why?” He whined “They are my nana and papa. Why are you taking them away?” I could hear that he was nearing tears. I was afraid what that would bring.

 

 

“Shut up! I will have none of that whining bulls**t in my house! You are too damn old to be crying about stupid petty things!” I couldn’t see Justin on the bunk below me, but I could hear him struggling to stop crying. I also knew it would be no use; he was heartbroken.

 

 

“But they are for me. Not for you!” He said defiantly. He was stubborn, that much I knew, but I didn’t know if his stubbornness could take him through what I knew would be coming next.

 

 

“I said that’s enough!!” Daniel lunged towards my brother and I screamed. I covered my eyes so I would see what happened and I waited for the sound of his hand on Justin’s body, but it never came. He was cruel like that, just wanting to scare us, to put fear into our small minds so that we would follow his every word.

 

 

“I have talked to your mom.” Ironically she walked in at that moment, she had heard the screams. “We will be moving in a week and you won’t get to see them anyway. This was you will get used to it a little sooner. I don’t want to hear any more about it, understand?”

 

 

“Yes.” We both whispered. I was too scared to actually say anything louder than that. I had been just as hurt by it as Justin, but I wouldn't dare say that to him, I was a little older and understood the consequences. Justin on the other hand, spoke out of emotions and did not really give thought to what might happen.

 

 

We moved a week later as promised, down to Wyoming, though I didn’t want to. I had no choice and neither did my mom. I realized this on the trip down there.

Chapter 5

They had argued the whole way, my mom was completely unhappy with moving away from her family. She hated having to leave them behind, but yet she was willing to do whatever this man wanted just to make him happy. Her parents did not like Daniel, but then they had never liked my dad either. Yet my mom was happy to leave her life behind all because she had found someone willing to accept her even though she was divorced and had two children already.

 

 

I know that she was trying to do what was best for us, that was all she ever tried to do, but she put herself through hell because of it. They thought I was asleep in the back of the car on our second day of the trip, but I had woken up. I didn’t want them to know I was awake because I knew he was mad and that meant more of a chance that it would be taken out on me. So i kept my eyes closed and listened. They had started out whispering about something and I couldn't tell what it was, but then it became heated. They started raising their voices at each other and all I remember is my mom saying she hated him. She said that she hated him for lying to her kids, for taking her away from her family, for being so awful all the time.

 

 

They should have had the newlyweds love, that is what anyone else expected, but it seemed as though they were already fed up with each other. My mom was angry, she easily could have hurt him, but I was hoping she wouldn’t because I was afraid that he would do to her what he did to us. I also knew that it wasn’t good for the baby to be angry like that and I didn’t want the baby getting hurt.

 

That was only one of many time that I heard my mom fight with Daniel in which he wasn’t aware, every other time he knew for sure that we could hear him. I never knew if my mom was aware that I was listening; she had always seemed to know when we were awake. Yet, on this occasion she may have been too upset, or maybe she did know and didn’t care. Whatever the reason, I felt like I had hear a little bit of a much larger secret. One that, maybe I shouldn’t know, and perhaps still haven’t figured out.

 

We had arrived at Sheridan and were on our way to the new house, which was actually more of a townhouse, when they began fighting. I had been asleep but woke up when we had stopped at a red light. I made it appear that I was still asleep, especially when my parents  began talking. I could tell right away that my mom was upset, it was obvious, but I couldn’t figure out why. I opened my eyes just the smallest bit to look at my mom but she was facing her window and I couldn’t see her face. I was behind Daniel who was in the driver’s seat, for one of the rare occasions in which he did drive. My mom moved a bit, readjusting herself, and I immediately shut my eyes tight and turned my face so that it was buried in my sweater, I couldn’t risk her finding out I was up, or they would stop talking.

 

Thus, this lead to the beginning of my eavesdropping, it became habit when Daniel was around so that we could figure out why he was pissy, when it was really for no reason, so that we could hear what my mom was saying, and all the lies he told her. We could do it all without getting in trouble. However, being in such close range to him, I was afraid he would figure it out.

 

“I don’t understand why you are so set on this. I didn’t want to leave my family, you are taking the kids away from the only family they have ever known.” My mom was frustrated

 

“Well I am their family. They have a dad which is more than they ever had before so stop your bitching. You are lucky that anyone was even considering you since you had two kids from a prior marriage. You didn’t hear me bitching about that and now you want to bitch because I want to give you a better life?” He was pissy again but that didn’t surprise me.

 

“Who says this is a better life?” She sounded like she was crying, I really hoped not. “Being torn from my parents, the kids from their grandparents, all because you don’t like them? Why?”

 

“Because.” He wanted to stop talking about it.

 

“That isn’t an answer, you are just avoiding the question.” She didn’t sound like she was crying anymore, she sounded pissed. “I’m fed up with you always having it your way, that is so childish. What next? You gonna throw a tantrum too?” She shook her head and turned to look out her window.

 

“You know what?! I am done with you! I took you in out of the kindness-”

 

“No!” I jumped, I’d never heard my mom yell so loud. “Stop saying that! You aren’t a saviour, no saint, no angel. So quit acting like it. We aren’t a charity case that you decided to let into your home. You didn’t have your own house to begin with. You lived with your mother and relied on the military. You don’t know how to make it on your own, so you didn’t “take us in” or save us from a worse situation. We had a place, yeah I was with my family too, but at some point I had been on my own, I had a husband, and I have kids. What do you have?” She cut him off repeatedly, she was tired of him trying to make things his way. She was shaking because she was so mad.

 

“F**k you!” That was his only come back. I knew there was nothing else he could say that wouldn't send her over the edge.

 

“Yeah, whatever.” My mom sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. I eventually fell back to sleep wondering about what would happen with all of us, only to wake up at our location.

 

We began moving our things into this new house. I was excited and to top it all off, we would be going to school this year, it did not start for a few weeks, but when it did that meant time away from Daniel. The house was small with a small yard, but I didn’t care, it was ours. It took a few days to get everything settled. Me and my brother shared a room as we did before. We didn’t set up the bunk bed though, upon arriving, we realized that it wasn’t going to fit. So we laid our mattresses on the floor.  

 

We had been there about two weeks, I noticed that my parents never seemed to fight while we were around. I didn’t pay much attention to it. However, I was shocked when I came into my parents room one morning to see everything packed up again. At first I thought that maybe they just had not unpacked some of it. Then I realized there was way too many things in boxes for this to be true. I had helped my mom unpack most of their things. My mom was in the bathroom, so I tapped on the door. 

 

"Mom?" I waited outside, Daniel would always get pissed if we walked in before knocking and recieving the answer. 

 

"Yeah?" her voice was thick, she had been crying. So I stayed outside the door. I never liked to see my mom cry. 

 

"Why is all your things back in boxes?" I glanced around again. "Are we going to have to leave again?" 

 

She blew her nose and I waited for the answer. I was rather dissapointed that we might be leaving. I had just gotten used to the ides of not living with my Nana and Papa. 

 

"Yeah Autumn." she paused "We... ummm." another pause. "We have to move to another place taht is closer to the school and where dad will be working." 

 

I accepted the answer without any more questions at that point. I still had a lot of questions, but she didn't seem to be in teh mood to talk about any of this. So I went to find my brother and tell him. He was outside playing with his action figures. I looked around the side where the driveway was, no car, Daniel was gone. 

 

"Guess what?" I said as I sat next to him in the long grass. I loved this spot, beneath the huge bushy tree, the grass was long and it was cool and calm. 

 

"What?" He said without looking at me

 

"We are moving again" I blurted it out, not because I was excited, but I didn't know how else to say it. He stopped playing with his toys, sat down, and just stared at the ground. Then all of a sudden his face lit up, 

 

"Are we going back to Nana and Papa's?" I hadn't thought of that. 

Impressum

Texte: Me
Bildmaterialien: i don't know
Lektorat: Me
Übersetzung: me
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 23.04.2014

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Widmung:
To my family and my fiance, they all helped me through the dark times. To my new dad who was the star in our family.