Underneath The Withered Tree

Chapter 2

I smiled as father walked into the door, "Daddy!" I yelled jumping into his arms, the rest of my sisters followed.

"How was work, darling?" My mom smiled placing her knitting onto the table temporarily and standing to greet him.

"It was... good." He hesitated. You could tell my mom noticed, but she didn't say anything.

"That's great honey!" You could see that mom knew. The moment her eyes went hollow and the glow disappeared, when her knees buckled under her weight that now felt like millions of pounds. She knew that every time he was going into work early it was for her. And every time he stayed late. And every time he left the house without notice and coming back at late hours. It was for that woman. The woman he loved.

One afternoon, father came home from work and mother didn't bother to greet him kindly, but instead greeted him with a stack of heavy papers.

"I'm not signing these!" He screamed throwing the papers to the ground.

"Sign the papers, Reuben! I need out of this marriage! I know you're always seeing her. That skank of yours!" Mom yelled almost in complete tears.

"Here you go with the accusing!" Father yelled this time holding a firm grasp on mom's arm.

"Let go of me!" She yelled frantically pulling away, but she was no match for his large grip. Us girls quietly peaked around the corner of the hall watching as our father slowly turned into a stranger we barely recognize.

Swiftly, his large palm swept across mom's face, then, silence. Everything was silent. Like he had slapped the life right out of her in the moment. Only a small gasp escaped mom's mouth, then nothing else. We all quickly got to our rooms, frantic to not be noticed by him.

***

"Alice! Wake up, Alice!" I woke up soaking wet to see Charlotte standing over me. I wiped the sweat off my forehead. "Are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah I'm okay. Just a, a bad dream." I sat up, checking around me. "I'm fine." She went back to her bunk and fell back to sleep.

I stared at the ceiling of my room replaying the events of the night where my father wasn't my father anymore. Just a stranger. A stranger. Before I knew it I had faded into my sleep again.

***

I grabbed the apricot in my hand, grabbing it as gently as possibly to not squish it, but failing. The ants that inhabited the fruit quickly scurried across my fist.

"Hey!" Father looked up from his newspaper, "Did you really not learn from what happened to Abigale? Must I show you again?" Victoria and Charlotte looked up startled.

"No father." Charlotte shook and you could see the terror build up in her eyes. He continued back with his paper angrily.

I remembered that tomorrow I was returning to school. Luckily it meant less fruit picking since most would be out of season, but it also meant having to explain bruises and the scrapes that lined my skin.

***

All of us girls lined the mirror in the bathroom preparing our hair as neatly as possible and making sure that every inch of our faces (and bruises) was covered in pounds of makeup. I wore a nice top and some jeans with a new pair of boots that father had allowed us to pick out.

If anyone knew they would say father was awful. That he 'wasn't right in the head' and didn't deserve to be a father. And yeah I mean even though he did do bad things he was also very good. Sometimes he would let us all watch a movie together or buy us new clothes.

All of us walked to the bus stop together with our painted on faces and dressy clothes. At the corner where a sign labeled "OakRidge Bus Stop" we all crowded then all twelve of us girls entered the bus as our new journey began.