Monday June 11th 2018
Roy didn't return until 11:00 Sunday night. But it angered me. They all acted like nothing happened when they returned. Why won't they stick up for themselves? They feel like my family, I hate to see them hurting. The kids start school today and Melanie starts at a new job. I watched as she helped Anna put her hair in pigtails and finish it off with a small butterfly clip. She doesn't need to help the other kids because they are old enough to get themselves ready by now. I watch as they all pull out of the driveway and leave me all alone again. I would have lingered around Roy but he always smelled like a mixture of whiskey and gasoline, I hated the smell plus he went out drinking a few minutes after everyone else left. Usual.
I roam the house while I wait for someone to come home. I had been getting used to people being here since they hadn't left the house much since they moved in and now I am beginning to feel lonely again. As I'm gazing out the window I realize something. I haven't brought myself to go outside since my wife died.
I decided to step outside after all these years. I immediately go out the back and as I step onto the cold dewy grass I look forward at my wifes old apple tree and can't help but smile at the fact it's still alive. She loved that apple tree, so that was where we buried her. I sit out on the lake that the apple tree stretches onto and talk to my wife. I tell her everything. I tell her about the family and how much I miss her and how it hurts seeing this father hit his kids so carelessly, so heartlessly. I tell her how I wish I could've joined her how I tried but nothing worked. She must've heard me talking because as I was saying all this the sun shone brighter than it ever had before and an apple fell onto my wifes grave.
Before I knew it time had flown by and I could hear the bus nearby. I jumped up beaming as I realized the kids were home. However when I got back inside, Anna was crying and she was missing her butterfly clip. Confused, I listen to her tell her older siblings what happened. "The kids at school pushed me down and started to say I was weird and then they took my clip! That was grandma's clip she gave me!" she said through quick breaths as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Ivy was trying to comfort her but nothing was working and then I realized. I have an old box of Dorothy's stuff hidden in the cellar. I immediately hide out in the cellar until everyone goes to sleep and then when they do I start rummaging through Dorothy's old hair clips. Perfect! Dorothy's old butterfly clip. I sneak up the stairs and put it by Anna's bed so she'll see it when she wakes up.
