Getting to Normal

Chapter 3

When Alexa got home, she ran in the house to find her little sister in the living room. She had never seen Carly sitting in the living room before. That's usually where mom was, and nobody wanted to go near mom. When she got closer, she could see that her left cheek and eye were swollen. She ran back to the kitchen to get an ice pack of some kind. She went back into the living room and handed it to her sister. When Carly looked up at her, Alexa could see her eye was almost swollen shut. "Why didn't you text me?" Was all Alexa could get out. She sat down next to Carly on the couch. She turned on the tv and felt Carly put her head in her lap. They silently decided to wait till tomorrow to call the cops. The both fell asleep on the couch leaning on each other.
The next day, Alexa woke up and started to panic. Carly wasn't where she was last night. She heard something in the kitchen and felt a little relieved. "Alexa are you awake?" It was Carly. Thankfully her voice was coming from the kitchen. No axe murderers. "Just woke up. What are you doing?" They didn't cook, or go into the kitchen for any reason except to leave the house. "I'm making breakfast. If we are going to call the cops about mom, we need to make this house look normal. We need to clean. We are not going to school today." Carly sounded a little nervous, not usually like Carly. She never got nervous. "Calm down, they need to see this isn't a good house to live in, so they know mom can't take care of us." Alexa had no clue what to do. Carly's face was still swollen from last night. "I want to stay here. If we leave, all my friends will still be here and someone will actually care what I do and not let me do half of it." Alexa didn't think that Carly was aware of how bad the situation was. "Carly, they have to know! We can't live like this until we are 18!" She was starting to get a little irritated with her little sister. She needed to know how bad the situation was. Knowing Carly, she could get new friends anywhere they went. "Alexa, I don't want to move! I want to stay here so I can do whatever I want! Now clean, get rid of the drugs, and get some Febreeze!"
Carly! I can't do that! you know I can't! We need someone to care where we are all the time. To wait up for us until we get home. That's how it is supposed to be! Normal families do stuff like that." Carly turned away, back to the stove where she had almost completely burnt the pancakes she was trying to cook. Alexa knew that neither of them knew how to cook anything but the few things dad taught them before he became distant.
"If we do this, our lives will change forever. We might not even live in the same town anymore. Let alone the same state. I really don't want to leave, Alexa. Please don't make me leave." Carly looked sad, distant even.
"If I can call, I will promise to ask about staying in the area. I know it's scary, but mom needs help that we can't give her. And we need help that we can't give ourselves." Alexa slowly walked over to the phone. She picked it up and headed over to the phone book on the side table next to the couch. It was open to the pizza restaurants in town. She flipped until she found Child Protective Services and dialed the number. Carly slowly inched out of the kitchen into the living room and Alexa put the phone on speaker.
"Hello, this is Child Protective Services, how may I help you?" The voice sounded perky, which was strange to Alexa. They must get really worried calls. It might be mandatory that they keep the feeling light.
"Umm, hi. Do you do house calls? Because if so we need one." Alexa went on with where she lived and descriptions of their house and how to find it. Right then, they heard the back door open. In the doorway, was their mom. Standing fully dressed and holding grocery bags. Why did she have to walk in with groceries after they hung up. Why not before?
        Alexa put the phone down and walked to her room. She motioned for Carly to follow. They were in silent agreement not to tell their mother. She would do everything in her power to keep them. Even if she was a lousy mother.
About an hour later, there was a knock on the door. Alexa and Carly walked out of their rooms to answer the door. In the living room, they found there mom in her usual pajamas. With junk food wrappers spread around her. Watching "America's Next Top Model". She was oblivious to all other sounds besides the t.v. show. Carly went to open the door. She had an icepack to her face still. The swelling had mostly gone down, but it still hurt. "Hello, I was called by a young lady asking for a house call? Is this the right house?" In stepped a lady with a very nice black pant suit on, holding a briefcase in one hand and a piece of paper in the other.
"Yes, this is the right house" It was Alexa who was the first to talk. She motioned for the woman to step into the living room. Her face looked completely level at the sight of the room. Even though there were piles of trash everywhere and a woman who looked like a mental patient, sitting on the couch watching television. Completely oblivious to everything around her. For the next two hours. They were all asked questions. There mother was pulled away from her t.v. show and was not very happy about it. After they were all spoken to in the privacy of the kitchen, the women whose name turned out to be Mary, walked into the living room and sat on the couch opposite they were sitting. The t.v. was turned off and they were all waiting to hear what she had to say.
"I'm very sorry to say this. I hate to split up families who seemed to be so happy before. There must have been some major conflicts that happened to get us here. I have decided that I am taking the girls with me and will be calling someone to take you" she said pointing to the mother, "somewhere where you can get help."
"We, Carly and I, just have one thing to ask. Can we please stay close enough to town where we can still go to this school? We really don't want to leave our lives and I read somewhere that friends help in times of need." Alexa started to panic. She didn't know what the decision would be.
"I was just about to explain that. We try to keep family members together in situations like this. Which we were able to do. There is someone who is willing to take you for a while that lives here in town. They have a son. They just moved into town and I'm pretty sure he goes to your school." Alexa was stunned. There had only been one new kid since her 8th grade year. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. The one guy she could actually stand at her school, would notice that her family was a mess. That she was a mess.
        They were told to pack as many clothes and keepsakes as possible as fast as they can. They needed to leave soon. Alexa headed up to her room and grabbed all the bags she could find. She started filling them with band t-shirts, her two pairs of jeans and some stuff from her desk. She took a bad into the bathroom and grabbed everything from her drawer. not that she has that much stuff.
"Carly, you almost ready to go? I can help you pack if you-" Alexa was halfway in her sister's room with the door wide open. Her sister was laying on her bed in what looked like a very uncomfortable and unnatural position. There was blood everywhere. Alexa ran downstairs. She didn't know where she was going, she just needed to be out of that room. Everyone was worrying about her becoming like her brother. Nobody even thought it would be Carly. She started screaming when she made it outside. No words, just screaming. Mary ran out of the house to see what was going on. So did her mother.
        "She's gone! She's gone, she's gone!" Her screams began to turn into tears. Mary knelt down and put her hand on Alexa's back but Alexa moved away. She didn't want to feel anyone touching her. "We weren't paying attention! We thought she was fine!" Alexa didn't know whether she was angry or sad or both.
Mary and her mother were still confused. Alexa hated being the only one that knew what has happened. What her sister had done to herself. That her sister would not be going with her to a safe place. "What happened Alexa, tell me what happened" It was Mary. She hadn't moved from where she had knelt down to try to comfort Alexa.
"Carly is gone!! She's gone forever!" She was still scream crying. She wasn't calm enough to bring her voice to normal.
"Did she run away?" This time it was her mother. She was still standing on the porch. Half inside half outside. "Why would she do that? I'll go look in her room." Alexa wanted to burst out laughing but she couldn't stop screaming, or crying.
After a while, Mary went upstairs too, to check on Alexa's mother. She heard someone running down the stairs and seconds later someone one the phone. Talking in a shaky voice. "Yes, blood everywhere." Pause. "Yes, 3 people were in the house. everyone was downstairs." Then she hung up.
Alexa had finally stopped screaming by the time the police got there. It all went in fast forward slow motion for Alexa. One minute she was outside watching the police walk into her house with the ambulance right behind them. The next she was watching the stretcher carry her sister to the van. Then the next she was in the back of a car being carried off somewhere. Away from the only person she had left in the world that she could call family. She was confused as to where she was going for a little while. She just stared out the window.