Chapter 6
Okay… My father had left us two years before (when I was four) and my mother couldn’t keep a job. It was hard for her to care for two children when the father left. She had trouble getting enough money to pay for us. But, after we settled in here; having a fresh start, my mother could take care of us better. It was still hard with no man in the house, but it wasn’t as hard as it would have been. I don’t like to think about what would happen if my mother still couldn’t afford the things we needed.
I blame my father for leaving us and I blame him for leaving mom with a broken heart. She hardly ever talked about him. She would only say that we were perfectly happy without him. I remember sitting on her lap asking why he wasn’t here. She was right. We didn’t need him to be happy. We only needed the love between us.
But, I could see in mom’s eyes everyday that she missed him and wanted him to come home. I could see that she dreamed that one day she would wake up to find him smiling at her in bed. Or that when she opens the front door he’d be standing there. But, he never did come back. No one knew where he was. After a while of giving up our hopes, no one cared.
Living without him for twelve years took its toll. I just wished mom would have known better than to believe that he would come back. It would just make things worse. That is what she didn’t understand. He left for a reason. No one knows that reason, but mom always thought it was because of her. That it was her fault. Sometimes, I could hear her crying in her room, blubbering about how she was sorry.
But, it wasn’t her. It was dad. He was ignorant. I’m glad he’s not here. Mother never trusted guys again. Never dated. She was so heartbroken, she didn’t want anyone else, but dad. The first time she met Samuel, she despised him. Never gave him or his parents a chance. That changed after what I did. Flashback time!
A week or two after school started, my mom picked us up. At the time, I was talking to Sam. I didn’t notice her until she came up to me and said, very angrily to a six-year-old, “C’mon. Let’s go before this boy starts being mean.” She took my wrist and started dragging me, but I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay and talk to Samuel. “No, mom? He’s nice. I want to stay a little bit,” I would scream. Soon everyone turned their heads toward us. Before my mom or I knew it, one of the teachers pulled me back out of my mother’s grasp. She turned around with a look on her face that scared the hell out of me that day. I never did hear the conversation between the two. I was too busy crying about Samuel, too busy crying about my mom. The next thing I know was; Samuel was there trying to cheer me up as his parents tried to convince my mother to give their son a chance. “Ma’am, I’ve seen our son with your daughter,” she started, “and she’s a very nice girl. So is our Sam. We raised him well. He would not hurt anyone.” Before Lucy, Samuel’s mom, could go on, my mother interrupted. She blurted, “No daughter of mine will ever acquaint with a boy. They will just grow up to be jerks and hurt her.” I didn’t hear much after that either, as I was talking to Samuel. But, after a while, my mom agreed to let me have a ‘play date’ with Samuel and his parents. But, my mother had to be there also. If she didn’t, I think the teacher would have filed her as child abuse. My mother loved me very much, she gave Samuel a chance.
That turned out well, didn’t it? Now, Samuel and I are a couple, so in love, that we would die without one another. Well, it seemed that way until now, anyway. I wonder what’s going on through his head with all this. Its getting weird and he’s starting to scare me the more I think about it. Alright, its time to put it away. I’ll think about something else instead. But, what?