My New Daddy

Siblings

Chapter 4

Jessica and I went over to each others house almost every day after school. It was nice living across the street from my best friend. "Mama can Jessica stay over for supper?" I asked.

"Of course she can Brooklynn!" She was so busy chopping up vegetables she didn't bother looking up." I'll come with you to get her in a moment."

"Umm. Mommy? She's already here," I giggled along with Jessica.

My mother finally looked up from the supper she was making. She was surprised to see Jessica standing beside me. "How long have you been here? You've been so quiet."

Jessica fidgeted, not sure if we were in trouble or not. "Since after school."

"Alright well I'll come get you girls after supper," she smiled warmly before turning back to the soup.

While we were in my room Jessica was still unusually quiet. I kind of enjoyed the silence considering I was a quiet person by nature. However, Jessica was always a little on the obnoxious side.

"What's wrong?" I was getting worried. Was she sick or something?

"My brother went to jail last night. My mommy had to go pick him up," she sighed.

I shifted on the floor uncomfortably. Jessica never really was upset about anything. "Oh. Why is he there?"

"I don't know. Mommy wouldn't tell me. She said I wasn't even sposed to know."

"Sorry." I couldn't think of anything else to say.

Jessica shrugged. "Don't you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Yeap! I have two of them!"

"Where are they?" she raised an eyebrow at me. We've been friends for three months now and she has never heard anything about them.

I thought about it for a moment. It has been awhile since I've seen my oldest brother. "I think they both live with their dads. They should be coming to visit soon I think."

"Why don't you live with your daddy then?" She didn't understand why both of my brothers lived with their fathers when I lived with my mom. Then again being in only second grade myself, I didn't really understand it myself.

"I don't know. I don't see my dad a lot." At the end of that i started getting upset. Effectively dropping the subject.

***

Jessica went home after we ate my mom's homemade chicken noodle soup. She wanted to go see her brother to question him and I decided that wasn't a conversation I wanted to be around for. I stayed in my room for the rest of the night after she left since I normally stay Friday nights at her house.

When I woke up in the morning it was a clear day with bright blue skies. Right after I ate breakfast I put on my snow pants and headed outside. Everything was beautiful covered in white.

I decided to go sledding in my back yard. After grabbing a sled out of the shed by our driveway I headed over to the hill. To a seven year old the hill seemed pretty big when in reality it was just a small little hill. There was a small blanket of fresh snow covering my previous sledding expedition. By the time I finished making new tracks to slide down I was soaked and exhausted.

Right as I was about to head inside I heard our car pull out of the driveway. Figuring it was just my step father going some where I continued to the front of the house. I tried to turn the door knob but it instantly stuck. Once I realized it was locked I pounded on the door as hard as I could. No one came to answer.

I thought maybe my mother was still asleep so I went around the house to peek in her window. At night my mom kept the blinds closed. I would know if She was asleep or not depending on the position of her blinds. As I approached I immediately noticed they were wide open. I ran around the house in a panic looking through all windows. I was alone.

I climbed the snow banks going over to Jessica's house. When I got there I remembered her family was going over to her grandparents house to celebrate an early Christmas.

On my way back home I was crying so hard I could hardly see. I slipped several times on the deserted road and up my driveway. I was alone. Completely alone for the first time in my life. On top of that I had no clue where my parents were and I was locked out in the middle of winter.