Dempster Road

Chapter 5 - Adelaine Curtis

Adelaine left the orphanage with her new parents, the Haslows, when she was four and one half years old. Soon to begin her new life and family, in a suburban, two storey stone house, situated on several acres of rolling lawn and woodland landscaping. She had her own room, freshly decorated and filled with little girl accessories, and a bounty of stuffed animals.

Mother Haslow doted on her, and Adelaine grew to feel a real love and affection for the handsome woman, enjoying the many things they did together each day. When she entered school it was her mother that walked with her, both ways, and encouraged and applauded the daily achievements she proudly brought home to paper the refrigerator, or her bedroom door. It was also her mother who gave her a most prized possession, a cameo locket on a silver chain.

Father Haslow displayed his enthusiasm with his continued habit of cuddling and lifting her up for a twirl above his head, or dotting her curly hair with kisses. As Adelaine grew, the attention grew with her, and when she was in her last year of primary school, Father Haslow surprised her with a dad and daughter weekend at an outdoor wilderness camp.

He had purchased a tent and sleeping bags, a small stove and lamp, and took every opportunity to extol the opportunities of sharing such an adventure with other dads and daughters. Mother Haslow joined in; her pleasure at seeing the love and sharing of father and daughter filled her with the knowledge that they had worked hard, winning the status of a perfect, happy family.

That feeling changed abruptly after the special weekend. Adelaine kept to herself in her room and spoke very little, much to mother's confusion and concern. Her schoolwork fell off, and when the family was called in for an interview, Adelaine suddenly exploded in a fit of rage, and accused her father and some other fathers, of molesting the girls on the 'special' weekend.

The meeting erupted into a shouting match of denials and threats, and Adelaine ran out pursued only by her mother.

It took less than a week for the school to press for an investigation and uncover the fact that Adelaine's accusations were true, when two other students came forward. Under the strict rules of Adelaine's adoption, she, and the other two girls, were removed from their home environment while the case was brought before the courts, and before it was even begun, Adelaine disappeared.

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It wasn't long before survival meant compromise, and compromise, for a quick solution to immediate needs such as food and lodging, meant turning to the very thing she had run away from . . . except this time she had a measure of control.

Five years on the streets and both her skills and finances had developed to a level of creature comfort that included a name change from Haslow to Curtis – a name from a magazine that caught her eye.

Her confidence firmly established, she made a surprise visit to her old home, snapping pictures and spending a strained afternoon with her distraught mother, then only a few necessary moments with her father in his workroom in the basement.

She left as quickly as she had arrived and once again vanished, surfacing miles from home, and with her, a renewed outlook and ambition. Adelaine changed her lifestyle and enrolled in an art school, where she excelled in fashion design, and applied that talent into a full time position with a small, name retailer.

Soon her line became popular enough that she could choose assignments, and allow herself more leisure time, which she used to insert herself into social activities. Popular but reserved, Adelaine soon ran through a series of unsatisfying relationships with men, whose goals she recognized from her years on the street, and it revived the inner rage she still held for her foster father.

Her opinions of the men in her social circle soon alienated them, and eventually drove away her female friends as well.

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