Tales from Oakboro: A Collection of Short Stories

Martha the volunteer

  Summary

|Once upon a time in the quiet town of Oakboro lived a girl named Martha. She was a passionate animal lover and dedicated her life to volunteering at the local pet shelter. As the head volunteer, Martha made sure every animal was fed, groomed, and given lots of love. She took her volunteering duties seriously, dedicating her free time to making sure the animals were taken care of.

Everyone in the town of Oakboro looked up to Martha and admired her commitment to her work. Despite her kind and caring nature, however, Martha had a strained relationship with her family. Issues from her childhood had caused a rift between her and her parents, siblings, and extended family. While Martha tried to make peace, the issues were too deep to break through.

So in order to protect her own wellbeing, Martha made the tough decision to cut off her family. It was a difficult step to take but it helped Martha stay focused on what she was most passionate about: taking care of animals in need.

Martha's life became increasingly devoted to her work at the pet shelter, and over time the town of Oakboro began to see a dramatic decrease in the number of homeless animals. Martha always made sure that any animal who came under her care would leave with a warm smile and a loving home.|

Martha walked out of the shelter with a smile on her face Michael just helped her out with the computer and she just got a new volunteer and got a new golden puppy their new home.

The petite blonde woman locked up the shelter making sure to leave some food left over in all of the cages and tanks for everyone she turned and started to walk past the fountain everything was closed down now it was silent all you could hear was crickets or little animals running by.

Her healed boots clicked softly on the concrete sidewalk she walked past Janet and Michael's house walking up to Michael's garden and grab in a couple tulips he said she was allowed earlier that week she brought the tulips to her home a couple houses down unlocking the small door and walking in to the Green home she put the flowers in a vase next to the other ones people have brought her three dogs came barking at her legs as her cats just laid on the couch she walked over and started taking off her work clothes her feet were killing her and she was exhausted

She lays down onto the couch before her phone started ring she looked at it and her heart dropped she recognized the number immediately to be her mother she hasn't spoken to the woman in years she hesitates before clicking the green button and puting the phone up to her ear

"Hello darling!!" Cringed at her mom's over really nice voice she immediately knew what this meant the old woman wanted something "hello Brenda..." She said quietly her mother or as she calls her birth giver was not happy at that "now now! Do you not call your mother by her first name I haven't spoken to you in years are you done your little tantrum?" She said the last part in a wickedly sweet voice that could have made Martha's teeth rot.

Martha clenched her fist annoyed "by tantrum do you mean me cutting you out of my life because of how you treated me as a child?" She said aggressively her mother scoffed on the other side

"I treated you amazing as a child I gave you everything you just an ungrateful spoiled brat and I think it's time you gave back!" Martha was so close to hanging up but wanted to hear what the woman wanted

"Your older brother is ill and we know you have the same blood type as him we are wondering if you could come get tested his kidney failed because of his drinking so if you come get tested you could donate your kidney to him!!" The woman spoke like that was a good thing Martha immediately burst into flames of anger her brother was The Golden child treated like the prince of the world he was 30 and lived with her mother and father he was a drug addict and an alcoholic and they supported him every second of the way

"Why on Earth would I do that?!" She screamed into the phone her mother snapped back at her "your brother deserves it you moved all away from us to go be selfish and throw your life away your brother is actually trying!" The disgusting woman spoke

"He's trying?? He's a drug addict! He drunk his soul away he has three kids and you guys pay his child support!" Martha stood up screaming into the phone causing her animals to quiver away

"Do not speak to me like that young lady I am your mother!" "Are you sure about that? Last time I checked my mother was the teddy bear that I had in my room I saw that more than I saw you everyday!" She finally got sick of this conversation and hung up blocking her mother's number something she should have done years ago

She immediately collapsed onto the couch and started crying but took in a deep breath to compose herself standing up and brushing herself off picking up one of her cats and carrying it to the kitchen "don't understand them.." she started cooking herself some ramen noodles not in the mood to make anything else by the time it was done she started slowly eating it with some metal chopsticks

Still quietly crying before her phone buzzed again she dreaded picking it up but she opened her phone and saw it was a text message in the volunteer group chat she opened it and it was a video she was curious

Continue to eat as she set her phone up on a phone stand wiping away a couple of her tears and clicking on the video

The video was of her and a couple of the kids chasing the animals around that day one of the younger boys accidentally called her mom in the video he was the son of a single father she smiled softly remembering that moment his name was Matthew he was always at the shelter with his father

It got to the point where he started calling her mom as she was the woman he saw the most her heart was warmed she thought for a second looking down at her blocked numbers on her phone and then finally realized with a soft smile family has been blood and nothing more but now she realizes she has her family here they care about her and treat her better than her blood family ever will....