Chapter Seven
Weeks went by and mom and I stayed on edge wondering if he would come by and try something. Neither of us could sleep well or eat much. When mom would be at work she would call every hour or so to see how things were. She bought extra locks for the door and windows. Even the babysitters were a little on edge. When the weeks started turning into months we started breathing better. Before we knew it a year and a half went by and life was back to our form of normal.
Mom came home from work one day and had some news that made my gut feel like it had been punched. Even my heart felt like it had stopped beating for a moment. She said that dad had come by to see her at work and she spent her lunch hour talking to him. She said he apologized for the way he treated us.
He didn't know why he did it other than maybe it was the alcohol. He said he had stopped drinking and running around. He asked her to forgive him and begged for another chance. She said he even brought her flowers too to show her how sorry he was and that he still loved her. He promised to be a better man. She said she left the flowers at work because they brightened up her office. She said he had never done anything like that before. Then she excitedly and happily told me that he would be coming to dinner tomorrow. Then she said that this time he actually wanted to live together as a family should do. He didn't want to just stop by for visits anymore.
I had hoped she was just joking, but I knew she wasn't. Didn't she remember what we just went through because of him? Didn't she remember what he did to me? How could she let this happen? Why would she even want this to happen? I didn't understand why she wanted him here. We were doing so good. Life was happy and we had what a normal famies had. I didn't understand why she didn't want it to stay that way.
When dad showed up he was clean shaven and dressed nicely. He used his usual Brute Aftershave, but there wasnt any smell of alcohol on him. He must not of had anything to drink yet. Mom met him at the door so I wouldn't have to. He had brought her more flowers which she immediately gushed over. He said hello to me but I didn't even look up at him. I kept my eyes to the floor. Then he handed me a little box with a bow on it. Mom, again, gushed and told me to accept it and say thank you. I took it and mumbled a thank you to him. Then he told me to go ahead and open it. I didn't want his crummy gift or him. I wanted him to be in jail forever. But I opened it like I was told to do.
Inside was a necklace with a fat, puffy, white thing made of plastic hanging from it. When I turned the white thing over I saw it had a cartoon of a duck on it. Didn't he know how old I was? That was something you would give a small child. I was almost twelve. Mom made me let him put it on me. I didn't want him touching me, but again I did as I was told. I stiffened when he got close to me and then when he touched me I felt cold all over and thought I was going to throw up. I just couldn't understand why mom was agreeing to this. She knew how things were in the past. Did a few flowers really make her forget about that?
Supper seemed to take forever to get through. I didn't even really eat. I had just pushed the food around on my plate. I felt too nauseous to eat. I was also too angry. I had just wanted it all to be a joke. A crazy, sick, unfunny joke. When supper was finally over I asked if I could go to my room. I was bound and determined not to be close to dad. I grabbed a book and tried to disappear into it so I could be anywhere but there. I couldn't get past the first sentence though. Then there was a knocking on my door. Then dad opened the door and came in. He tried to tell me he had changed and that things would be good and we would be a family, a real family. I wished I could believe him, but I couldn't. My gut kept telling me it was all wrong and it was just going to get worse.
After a few days of him coming by for dinner he moved in with us. Then after a few weeks he and mom told me that we would be moving as soon as school was out. They said we would be moving to West Virginia to be closer to both sets of grandparents. I hadn't seen any of them since I was a baby, so I didn't remember them at all. I hoped they were nice people and not like my parents. I did not want to be around any more people like my mom and dad.
So far dad had kept his word and there wasn't any fighting like in the past. It had been three months since he moved it. I still didn't go too close to him and I definitely didn't stay alone with him. Two more weeks of school left and then we would be moving. When we were packing I made sure all my stuffed toys were ready to go. Mom said I would be getting a new bed once we moved so my old one was staying. So every night after they were asleep I would get my hidden treasure out a little at a time and stuff it into the toys I had gotten since then that didn't have any in them yet. Just from my mattress alone I had nine hundred and fifty dollars hidden in cash. I didn't know how much was in all the toys, or how much I had in all the jewelry. But I knew it had to be a lot since the toys held mostly cash in them. Most of the jewelry was in the bed. I couldn't wait to be able to count it all one day and see how much it was.
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