Sometimes You Need To Let Down Your Hair

Chapter 18

       I glared at mother and let the storm of emotions inside me break free. "Tell me  what you did! What was so terrible that it caused you to never allow me to have actual friends? What could you have done that would have made you decide to keep me locked away all of my life? Why did you never tell me I had a sister, or anything about my father? Why did you tell that man I wasn't your daughter? What could've made you that paranoid? What don;t you want me to know!?," I yelled. Mother stared at me, and I took a deep breath.

       I've never yelled at anyone like that. Mother looked down at the floor, crossed her arms, and looked back up at me. I saw fear in her eyes. I could tell she was irritated and angry but she said in a forced voice, "Just calm down. Everything will be alright." I gasped. All a sudden my mind was pulled back to the endless nightmares that had invaded my dreams for what seemed like forever. I was in the back of a car, crying my eyes out when those same words were spoken. The voice in the front seat belonged to my mother. 

       I took a step back from my 'mother' and sat on my bed. I thought of the two people I had ran away from, and I realized they were my parents. The woman who kidnapped me was my mother! But then that would mean that she wasn't actually my mom. I had been living a lie. I stood up from my bed and looked the woman standing across from me. Her eyes filled with confusion, and it made me want to laugh. 

       "You know what, mother," I snarled, "I just realized that we never talk about what happened on the day I was kidnapped as a little kid. Why is that? Are you just afraid I would find out that you were the one that kidnapped me?"

      Mother looked shocked, but she said "Wait a second, just calm down. Your not making any sense."

       I thought about all of the stuff I had found in her closet. The newspapers about the court cases and the lawyers. I didn't know how I didn't see it sooner. We didn't even look alike. What was wrong with me? I stomped out of the room and went to mother's closet. Before she could do anything I grabbed the box, ran back to my room and dumped the contents onto the floor. I looked closer at the items as she tried to gather them up. Everything made sense now. I just didn't understand why she did it.

       So I asked. "Why did you do it, and don't try to lie to me anymore,"  I said forcefully. The person I formally thought of as my mother looked hurt, but I didn't care. Now I knew the truth, and I would feel no sympathy for the woman who stole me away from my parents and the happy childhood I should have spent going to school and making friends. 

       After a few moments of tense silence the woman in front of me finally dropped the innocent act.  "It was their fault she was taken from me, so I took something from them. My husband and I divorced after a little misunderstanding where I passed out from drinking to much. I'll admit it was wrong to drink when watching my daughter, but I was still a good parent!"

       Mother started yelling now, totally ignoring me. "Then in court my ex-husband decided to fight for custody of my daughter Ruth because he didn't think I was fit to be a parent! Your father and mother were great lawyers, and that was who my hubby hired. It was completely unfair! Your father made me look like a villain!! And then they took her from me!! I wasn't even allowed to be around her unless my crappy ex-husband let me!! It was his fault that my life was ruined!"

       Then she laughed and pointed her finger at me, "But then I paid them back. I stole your parents' most precious thing, just like they stole mine, and I became the villain they portrayed me as!!! After having you for awhile I realized that what I did was wrong, so I ditched my car and left town before they could figure out who took you. Ever since that day I raised you like my own daughter, but you were always so ungrateful!!!!"

       She threw her hands up and mocked me in a high-pitched voice, "Mom why can't I go to public school like other kids? Mother, why can't I have friends over? Mother why do we have to move again? Mom I want to watch television, why can't we have one?" She screamed in my face, "You were so ignorant! I had to keep moving because people ask questions. They say things like 'what happened to her father?', 'where did you come from', and some even thought they had saw you on the news before! They would have found out if we stayed in one place!! If that wasn't bad enough, I slowly found out my actual daughter was starting to hate me because I was never there! My ex remarried and refused to let me see her!! The other day I saw him at a restaurant and he decided to come over and talk to me about letting me see Ruth, but you had to screw that up too!!!!"

       "Now you think that you're so smart for figuring it all out, don't you," she accused. "You think that everything will be perfect now, don't you? You'll get a hold of the authorities and go live with your actual parents?" I remained quiet. i had't even thought about what would happen next, although I would have to get out of here. She had kidnapped me after all. "What? Do you think that I won't get away with this? Because guess what, I've been getting away with it for all of these years! And don't think that you are going to leave because I can't have you messing up my chances to meet Ruth!"

       My heart sped up as I realized just how much trouble I had gotten myself into. I couldn't stay any longer, but how could I get out? All a sudden I heard something from outside. "Willow let down the rope!"