Take Me Home {Completed}

Chapter Sixty-Two

Unedited

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"From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow."

-  Aeschylus

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Chapter Sixty-Two:

"Well, you see, when I was little," Hannah paused as she took Parker's seat beside Nola. Suddenly, she realized that she was about to unload a bunch of personal baggage onto Nola. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Hannah considered if it was the time or place. Folding her arms in her lap, Hannah released a sigh. "You know what? It's really not a story you would want hear, especially now. You just woke up-"

"I would like to know," Nola interrupted. She bit her tongue after speaking, knowing it was rude to interrupt. "Please," She egged on after a minute has passed, "it . . . would help take my mind off everything."

Hannah gave a dry chuckle, "I doubt that."

Nola's eyebrows connected, as she felt confused as to what Hannah had meant.

Looking up, Hannah saw the quizzical expression on Nola's face. It was then that Hannah felt obligated to speak - but admittedly another portion of Hannah wanted to explain her story to another person. And, on top of everything, in Hannah's case, Nola had to understand what she had been through in order to understand why she was trying to be Nola's friend.

Gulping, Hannah still felt nervous as she began to think of how she would tell Nola. ". . . My parents got a divorce when I was just a few month old. The court gave my father custody because my mother was an alcoholic and when she drank she wasn't the nicest of people . . . I would visit my mother every once and awhile growing up, however, I was never a heavy presence in her life, nor was she one in mine.

"I was about fifteen," Hannah continued, releasing the floodgates of her past, "and my mother, who had gone off the grid for several months, called me out of the blue. She said she was finally sober. My mother told me that she had found a man and they were going to get married. She explained to me that she wanted me at the wedding.

"After battling with myself for a few weeks, I decided to go to the wedding. At the wedding, I was first introduced to the guy my mom marrying. I thought, at the time, that he was an alright guy . . . Mostly I was just in awe, not at the guy or the wedding but at the fact that my mother was sober.

"What you have to understand is that when my mother was sober, we were two peas in a pod . . . So, when she got back from her honeymoon, I decided I would visit her more in order to take in as much of her sober self as she would let me.

"The first visit to her house we had dinner, watched a movie and settled on a card game, called Uno, to wrap up the night. Elian, my mother's husband, kept losing Uno, over and over, to my mother and I. Each time he would get madder and madder, the first couple of times he lost both my mother and I would tease him. However, he's anger just kept rising and soon my mother quit taking jabs at him - remaining silent the whole night." Hannah looked down at the floor, feeling ashamed of herself. "I should have stopped then too, but I kept teasing him. After a while he stormed out of the room, infuriated.

"The next morning," Hannah proclaimed as tears swelled up in her eyes, "My mother had bruised wrists and arms . . . I . . . I ignored it," Hannah remarked, "I didn't have to question what had happened. Just the look on my mother dull eyes said everything.

"I didn't confront her about Elian's abuse, nor did I say anything to anyone. Instead, I figured I'd keep coming back to their house, with the intent to help my mother make - and keep Elian happy." Hannah saw the look that came across Nola's face.