Slim To None 24 WARNING EXPLICIT MATERIAL-CONTINUING SAGA OF AN ABUSED WOMAN
Oh no, he has found me and the kids. Who would have thought he would care enough to look. We had entered the house with some groceries and my mom took them into the kitchen while I tended to Kenny. I went into the small bedroom and laid the baby on the bed. He was getting to be such a handful and my mother was not happy that me and the kids had moved in. She had taken Patty to school and now they knew where we all lived. I had no idea where Patty was, perhaps in the woods or the attic. She prayed that he hadn't found her, but in her heart she knew he had already found her before they had gotten home.
The deafening sound of him stomping down the stairs shook her to her core. He was bellowing like a bull in heat. She turned toward the door just as his fist pounded her jaw. The lower portion hung limply as she gasped for air through the blood, spit and mucous that the punch had released. She couldn't speak, she couldn't close her mouth.
“So bitch you thought you'd get away? Nobody leaves me and lives."
She shook her head just as her mother came charging into the room with a broom raised up as high as she could. She smacked the pig that had ruined her daughter. He turned and stared at the old woman and laughed as she screamed when she saw what he had done to her daughter. He roared with laughter that rang through the house.He lifted her off the ground and threw her at the wall. Grandma crumpled upon herself as her body twitched as he kicked her in the ribs.
Someone must have heard the violence. The police arrived and took Grandma and her daughter to the hospital. Father was left to care for Baby Ken. No one even looked for Patty. He must have known that there would be trouble coming his way once the two broads became conscious and aware of each others condition.
“Shit I never mean to hurt my family but can never forget the way I grew up. I turned out okay so they will too.”
Anyway he left for parts unknown leaving Patty to take care of Kenny. At least there was some food in the house.
SLIM TO NONE 25 EXPLICIT MATERIAL SAGA OF AN ABUSED WOMAN
The house was dark, cold and quiet as death when Patty woke. Kenny was nuzzled to her and sleepily opened his eyes. She washed and changed him knowing what to do after watching the women from the stairs during this past month. Kenny was hungry and heavy. His pink cheeks lifted as he smiled at his sister.
Kenny was crawling on the kitchen floor picking at crumbs and watching his sister. She climbed up the counter to reach the cereal her mom had brought home last night. She grabbed the box and tumbled backward to the floor. Kenny crawled over and shook the box while Patty lay there hoping to get her breathe back.
There was a banging at the door. No- he must have come back to hurt them some more. She grabbed Kenny and held him really close and ssshed him in his ear. Sensing fear they both held their breath as the knocking changed from the front door to the back. Both kids curled up as small as they could and squeezed under the sink. Now there was pounding at both doors. Had her father brought someone else to help him now that there were two kids? Where was her mom and gran?
The glass over the handle of the back door smashed in, and the door was unlocked. All Patty could see from under the sink were heavy black shoes. They were coming closer to their hiding spot. Kenny squirmed out of her arms and crawled out from underneath. Two large hands reached down and swung her brother away from the floor. Kenny giggled and began to say da. Patty's heart dropped to the bottom of her feet and she pushed even further to the wall behind the sink pipes.
Shivering in her underwear she held her breath. The man began walking around the house calling out "Hello- anybody here?" He headed up the stairs to the second floor and Patty snuck out the back door cutting her hands and feet on the broken glass. She ran to her hiding spot in the woods and peered out from the lilac bushes that ended their blooming season before Patty had been brought here.
Watching she saw a tall man enter the back door. So there were two of them in the house now. Then she saw the first man with Kenny come out and the two took him around to the front of the house. She didn't know what to do so she just hid there until the sun was warm on her back.
SLIM TO NONE 24 EXPLICIT MATERIAL SAGA OF AN ABUSED WOMAN
Patty risked going into the house. The sun was high in the sky and her tummy rumbled. She was tired, thirsty and hungry. Her bloody hands and feet had caked with mud and dirt. She remembered the broken glass on the floor and this time she pushed the slivers of glass away with an evergreen branch from the woods.
She hungrily gobbled some cookies with crumbs falling on her as she went to the sink to drink some water. She knew she would be in trouble for eating Grans cookies. Maybe she could claim that Kenny had eaten them, or the men had taken them. Her feet started to bleed again as she went up to wash. She was supposed to go to school but without Gran she didn't know the way.
She went to the bathroom and plugged the tub. The water was warm and soothing after the first shock of the cuts getting wet. Patty laid back and let the water flow over her. She washed her hair with the soap Mrs. Berly had given her even though Gram had taken it from her. Too bad, Gram and mom had left her so what else could she do? She grabbed the towel her mom used on Kenny and dried herself. She could smell her mom and Kenny in that towel as she dried her tears.
The knocking began slowly almost quietly. It grew in stature as no one answered it. Finally a voice called out, Patty? It wasn't her mom or gran but she had heard that voice before. "Patty?"
It was Mrs. Berly. Patty pulled on yesterdays clothes and jammed her damp feet into the shoes and went downstairs to the door. She wondered if she should open it or just run away. Too late to make decision, Mrs. Berly was looking in the window and saw Patty. She went back to the front door and twisted the knob. It turned and she opened the door. Patty just stared at her. The clean scent of her wafted into the room as she came closer. She knelt down and looked at Patty and shook her head. Patty watched a tear run down her check.
She smiled and asked if Patty had eaten anything today.
They went into the kitchen and Mrs.Berly looked for food. She found the fallen cereal box, saw a bowl on the counter and poured out the food. She went to the refrigerator and got out some milk. In the sink were dirty glasses, her teacher began cleaning them. She gave Patty the first clean glass!
and poured out the milk.Patty ate with abandon. Someone actually cared enough to give her food.