New Salem. Its a small island off the coast of California. It rains 3 out of the 7 days of the week and the temperature can range any where from 60 to 110 degrees in fall. Barley any of the people who've lived on the island have ever seen snow.
My new home.
My alcoholic foster mother forced me and my 5 foster "siblings" to move to California a year ago. In California, she gets paid more to take care of us and its more socially acceptable to get drunk in public. She was always drunk. Except of course when Child services came to check up on us. Then she forced us to sit in our shared rooms for a few hours while she would flirt with whomever decided to come.
Cindy Campbell. I don't know why they ever let her have kids. Its not just endangering a bunch of kids lives; its also reckless endangerment to the public. She's a health hazard! She once almost fed one of the kids a bloody mary in a bottle because she " doesn't know what they like". That meant that I had to take care of the little shits ALL DAY EVERY DAY! I didn't mind it all that much. Which is probably why I stayed with the old broad so long.
It wasn't like I was new to the whole foster care thing. My mother Stephanie Jennings, was a single mother who got pregnant at age 15 due to rape. She kept me because she was too broke to afford an abortion. And after she had me she started taking anti depressants just so she could get up in the morning. With a mother like that you quickly learn to take care of yourself. Its not that she was a bad mother or anything. No, she was amazing. My mother worked 3 shifts as a waitress at a resteraunt for 5 years; just so I could get a single $50 birthday and Christmas present every year. I grew up with her not ever having much, but I learned to treasure what little stuff we did have.
Life with my mom was great. For a while, I thought that life was always going to be just me and her. But on the night of October 28th, everything changed. My mom had sent me to be with my Aunt Sharon for the day. We were supposed to go pick out a cake for my birthday, on October 31st. But when we came back, my mother, was gone. Her body physically was just laying down on our shared mattress. But from the icy cold touch of her skin, I could tell that my mother was no where to be found in this world.
The police dubbed it suicide and insisted that my aunt not waste their time trying to get an autopsy. So we didn't. She didn't. And just like that, I ended up living with my aunt. She was constantly blaming me for my mothers death. Always saying that of it hadn't been for me, my mother would still alive. Because of all her hate, I ended up running away at age 6. A police officer picked me up the next day after I spent the night in the tunnel attached to the playscape at my local park. My aunt came to the station, she took one look at me and told the cop to give me to someone who actually wants me. She told him, that she felt bad for who ever that poor bastard was.
That's how I ended up with Cindy.
With Cindy, I played the role of both obeying, loving daughter AND the mother of the household. I took care of the children. I cooked, cleaned, and helped all the kids with their homework. But even though I had responsibilities and I loved the other children there, I ran away several times before my 15th birthday. But it wasn't until a little baby girl was delivered to us that I finally decided a plan.
We had already moved to Cali and soon afterwords a little baby girl was brought to us. Cindy already had 3 other children so child services didn't see why they couldn't allow her to have just one more.
I hadn't planned on taking the brat with me. But I knew I couldn't just leave her there. I knew from the moment I picked her up. From the moment she said my name : "Lizzie". I knew that if I got the chance to escape so would she. I didn't know what was so different about her; but whatever it was she was coming with me. And she did. We did. Now that we got over that hill, our new mission, was SURVIVING NEW SALEM.
