Broken Promises

Chapter 1

Chapter One – 6 years later

Buzz Buzz Buzz

In one of the most rundown houses on the Quileute tribal lands, a teenage girl reached out from under her sheets and smacked the alarm clock button turning it off. She hated mornings. Whoever thought 8:00 in the morning was a great time to start school should have their head stuffed in the toilet and be shoved into a locker to suffer. Mornings sucked.

She pushed the covers away and stumbled into the bathroom to stare at the mirror. Looking back at her was a pretty brunette-haired girl of 16. No one would believe she was half Quileute if it was not for the fact her father had taken a parental test to see if he was the father. The only thing she got from him was her brown eyes and her height. Everything else was from her mother. Even her skin was a constant issue. She was too dark to be white but not dark enough to be thought of as Native American. Maya Blackbird had grown into a beautiful woman but to everyone else she resembled her paleface mother too much.

Downstairs she could hear the banging of things being thrown and doors slammed. Curse words were thrown around downstairs by her father. Today was going to be a long day but at least it was Friday.

The girl quickly brushed her hair and teeth before slipping back into the bedroom. She went to her closet and grabbed a change of clothes.

Maya hopped in the shower quickly washing her hair and body. Her boys would be here to pick her up soon. She knew she would be teased if she was late. She dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans and her lost boys t-shirt. Her friends found it funny that she loved a movie about vampires when their tribal stories were all about spirit warriors fighting against vampires. She couldn't help but sing quietly the lyrics from Cry Little Sister by Gerard McMahon. Sometimes she felt like she was lost in the shadows of everyone in the tribe for being half native American.

Maya walked into her room and pulled her hair into a ponytail before grabbing her shoes from beneath her bed. She only had to make it out the door and everything would be fine. As she stood to leave, she saw the wolf necklace sitting on her desk.

Maya walked over and picked it up. She remembered the campfire she had as a child with her friends. She was so naive back then. Wishes were just daydreams for fools. She quickly slipped the necklace over her neck and ran the brush though her hair. It was time to go downstairs.

Maya picked up her backpack and quietly slipped downstairs. Her father had two attitudes, poor pitiful me and volcanic rage. There was no other emotion, and it could flip from one to the other in a heartbeat. Hopefully for her, he would be in the poor pitiful me attitude.

Maya found her father, Thomas Blackbird, sitting on the old recliner in front of the TV in a pair of dirty grey sweatpants and a stained T-shirt that Maya was sure was once white. She observed the man to see which emotion she would need to deal with today and if it was safe to speak.

Thomas Blackbird had once been a powerful man with important ties to the community. He was second to the tribe right under Chief Billy Black. He dressed in nicer clothes, volunteered at the youth center and was a great family man. That all changed when he lost his wife in a car accident. Lily Blackbird had died in the same car crash that killed Sara Black and crippled Billy Black. Thomas was the only one of the four adults who walked away from the accident uninjured. Some called it a miracle, but Maya was not so sure about that.

That accident changed everything. Thomas Blackbird was now the one everyone told their children to never become. He had lost the will to live. He didn't care whether he wore dirty clothes or went to his job drunk or that he had a child who had lost a mother and was slowly losing her father. He had given up. He blamed himself for his wife and him being in the car. He blamed Billy Black for being the driver and surviving when his precious wife died. He blamed his daughter for reminding him what he had lost.

Thomas picked up his beer and took a drink. He was on his way to being drunk. That is how he spent his days. He drank until he had no choice but to get a job just to blow the money on booze. This usually resulted in him losing whatever job he got hired for so he would go on unemployment until that ran out than he would look for another job until fired from that one. This cycle was repeated constantly.

Maya was not stupid. She knew if the booze didn't kill him than something else would. It was only a matter of time.

"What are you looking at, girl?"

Thomas Blackbird never turned to look at his daughter or take his eyes off the TV. He couldn't stand to look at her at all.

Maya lowered her eyes before her father could see the disgust in them. This man was not her father. That man died the day he learned of his wife's death.

"Nothing, father" Maya whispered.

"Good" He growled.

HONK HONK HONK

Maya turned and walked out the door as quickly as possible. She missed the look on her father's face as she walked away from him and their home.

Maya never knew the truth about all that was lost in that accident. The grief from his wife's death and the loss of the unborn child that she carried was too much to bear. He couldn't talk about it. To anyone. That night he and Lily had planned to ask Sarah and Billy to be godparents to their son. Burying his wife and unborn child was the thing that ruined him. His life was going down the drain and every day became a battle to do what was expected of him.

Thomas reached into the side pocket on his chair and pulled out the paperwork for a job in Arizona. It was so tempting to walk away and never return. He didn't know if it was worth fighting this battle when he could not even look at his only living child.