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Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Allie stood there in complete shock and tried to simply take deep breaths through her nose and not run from the sight of the man standing before her. Amelia began to speak but Allie held up her hand to silence her as the man stood up, though he couldn't stand all the way up because of the low five and a half foot ceilings.

His clothes were worn and tattered, full of holes and covered in stains. His body was thin, deathly thin, and he didn't seem to have a lot of strength. His left leg stuck out at an odd angle and the ankle was twisted so his foot laid nearly on its side. His left hand seemed normal but his right was crooked and the knuckles and joints were swollen and looked quite painful. His left shoulder came a bit higher than his right but the truly shocking thing about this man was his face......

The man let out a whimper and turned, scooping his cloak from the floor and shuffling away quickly. He hid himself behind some crates and Allie reached out and grabbed Amelia's arm when the girl tried to chase after him.

"We're leaving," she warned. She dragged Amelia from the attic, closed and locked the door, and then pulled her sister behind her to their bedroom.

"Allie, what are you doing?" Amelia demanded once they were inside. "You hurt his feelings!" she added with a stomp of her foot.

"I think I am the one who should ask you what you were doing!" Allie countered. "You were told not to go back up to that attic."

"You forgot about me and I had no one to talk to! Why not go talk to him?"

Allie sighed and pinched her nose between her fingers, "Amelia, do you want to be homeless again? Did you enjoy sleeping in doorways and doubling over from hunger pangs?"

"Of course not," Amelia mumbled as she sat down on the bed.

"If you keep sneaking to that attic, you are going to be caught and then that's exactly where we'll be," Allie warned.

"It's not right, Allie! It's not right that that man is locked up there alone."

"It's not our business."

"Then why did you go up there?" Amelia demanded. "Why did you go up there today?"

Allie shifted her feet and adjusted her apron, "I went to the library to find you and you weren't there, you weren't anywhere else I checked and so I knew that's probably where you had run off to." It wasn't the entire truth but it was all the truth Amelia was getting for now. Allie was not going to have her thinking that disobeying her was right.

"I thought you'd forgotten about me," Amelia admitted, biting her bottom lip.

Allie sighed and sat down beside her sister, "Of course not. Mrs. Treadwell caught me and asked me to delay my break to help her pick out the best choice for a meal tomorrow night. Her son Theodore is going to be returning from his business and we're planning a large dinner."

"Allie..."

"Promise me you won't go sneaking into the attic anymore?"

The sisters stared each other down for several long moments and then Amelia sighed and flopped onto her back, "Fine. I won't sneak up there any more."

Allie was glad to hear it. If Mrs. Treadwell caught Amelia and laid a single hand on her.... Allie shook her head to clear those thoughts. It wouldn't be the first time that Allie had been pushed to use force to protect her sister.

"Thank you, Amelia. Now I'll go get us some lunch and bring it up here so we can eat together. After that I thought maybe you'd like to go outside and take a walk. It's a beautiful day."