Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me, TWD¹

𝘃. GOLDEN SILENCE

When Betty Grimes was six years-old, she watched her father leave for his job. She cried and cried and cried that day. She always hated seeing him leave - it often made her sad. Watching him leave with Daryl, Glenn and T-Dog reminded her of the times where she was sad about him leaving. As she grew up, she knew over time that he would eventually come back. And now that he was 'back from the dead', it seemed like that was possible again.

When Rick and the others left, Betty resumed her day. Her mother told her and some others to look after Carl while she cleaned up their tent. Betty had been doing chores and the next thing on her list was to do laundry with Andrea, Amy, Jacqui and Carol — while Carol's husband, Ed, stood idly by.

Betty subtly watched Carl over in the distance with Shane as they caught frogs. Betty saw no problem with it so she allowed Carl to go with him. Betty had been bringing back laundry and washing them in the lake with the others. She was bringing back more when her mother had rushed over to her. "Hey, Betty!" Lori called and Betty stopped in her tracks.

"Where's your brother?" Lori questioned and Betty looked and said: "He's with Shane." Hearing these words come out of Betty's mouth just set her on edge and Betty recognized the look on her face all too well. It was her signature 'what did you do now?' face.

     "With Shane? You were supposed to be watching him, Betty." Lori scolded and Betty's mouth was agape as a teenager's would be when their parent would tell them one thing and say the other. "I'm doing my chores." Betty argued.

      Lori crossed her arms. "You should've let me know." She told. "Why? So, you can tell Carl that he doesn't need a substitute daddy anymore now that Dad's back?" Those words slipped out of Betty's mouth and definitely caught Lori off guard but Betty didn't care. "Excuse me, young lady?" Lori raised her voice. "You heard what I said." Betty told and walked away from her mother but not before turning back.

       "Oh and by the way, he's over there." Betty pointed over to the quarry where Shane and Carl were sitting and peacefully talking. "I was watching him." With that, Betty walked back to the group and no one said anything about their spat they had just witnessed. They all knew Betty well not to say anything.

        It was extremely hot today, the sun was blazing on the pores of those who sat facing the sun in front of the lake in front of them. Betty was lucky enough to have brought her Fort Bragg cap she got when she and her parents had gone on a trip to Fort Bragg for the 4th of July when she was little — the pre-Carl days. She remembered boating on a lake like this and eating salami and mayo sandwiches her mom made, watching the fireworks on their stopped boat. Reminiscing made her sad. She missed the old days. The old days before the world went to shit were already shit. She missed when she was little. She missed the days before she turned fifteen. Life was simpler then.

        On the topic of missing things, it was like the small group read her mind when talking about the things they missed before the world became... you know, what it was now. "I do miss my Maytag." Carol commented first, getting the conversation going.