AT HIS MERCY

CHAPTER 1 - MOVING FEET

It was raining by the time Sara O'Mally left her apartment. She silently scolded Sal for making her come in and work tonight. But it was either that or she had to start looking for another job. She couldn't afford to lose her job now, seeing that she was already behind on her rent again. Her Landlord, a mean old sack of shit, had already promised to kick her ass to the curb if she didn't pay rent on the first of this month.

Sara looked up at the dark murky sky as she walked down the road to the subway station. She pulled her bag in front of her small frame, draping her worn black leather jacket over her shoulder in an attempt to keep her bag from getting soaked, even though the effort was useless, it provided just the amount of cover she needed for the moment to get to the station.

After arriving at the subway station she hurriedly made her way to the 11 pm train waiting. Tired and soaked she took the nearest seat to the sliding doors. Staring blindly out of the window at the moving scenery covered in nothing but darkness she couldn't help thinking of her mother. Sara's mother always loved the rain, and always said it was nature's way of cleansing the world. She dismissed the rapid rush of emotions, blinking back the tears that gathered burning her eyes, and swallowed the sudden lump forming in her throat. She missed her mother's quirky sound of laughter, the smell of freshly picked lavender that always seemed to wrap around her, and especially the way she never saw anything wrong in any person. Muriel reminded Sara every chance she had that "life was just like a book, it depended on the Author how it ended".

It had been 8 months now since her mother had passed away from Carcinoid, Lung Cancer, but the never-ending pain of losing her was still as fresh as the day she died. Sara could vividly recall the way her mother looked lying in her open casket at church, the dark somber wood and scarlet velvet, did no justice to her mother's beautiful fair skin, pale hair, and memory.

Even the black and white dress Jaco had chosen for her mother's burial did not suit her mother's typical free-spirited self, but then again her Stepfather never really did understand her mother's easy way of life, the burst of color she left wherever she went. No Jaco dimmed that with his sadistic rules and control, making sure the butterfly she was would only fly trapped in his suffocating jar.

Even now Sara could remember how she had overheard her Stepfather and Uncle at the funeral. They were smoking outside; she could smell the foul burning stench of their cherry cigars from where she was standing in the bathroom listening through the window. Jaco had been furious that Muriel had given 80% of her money to a non-profit organization that helped homeless children and left the other 20% to him to look after Sara. It wasn't like her mother was loaded but Sara knew Muriel had a policy that paid out after her father had died, which left a small safety net for them to live off. Jaco complained and hissed past his cigar that he had enough problems of his own and had no intention of honoring any part of her mother's wishes.

Sara could hear the furious bite in his voice. But she smiled because she had expected that her mother would pull something like that, she had always been a generous soul. She continued listening to her Stepfather telling her Uncle that he couldn't wait to be rid of her so he could go on with his life with his mistress of three years.

Sara had thank the heavens that her mother had insisted on her moving to the apartments near the Dance School a month before, she could still hear her Mother saying that "an independent place to call your own, is an experience of a lifetime that should you have to have my Baby Ballerina, it's a good change and you need change baby". Sara didn't want to hear of it, just the thought of leaving her alone with Jaco made her anxiety flare up, but her stubborn mother had already made arrangements for everything and signed the lease for the small studio apartment.

The only thing Sara never bargained on was that her Stepfather would gamble her tuition money away and sell everything in her mother's house to feed his addiction. Sara was out of luck and on her own in a blink of an eye, she had to quit the Dance School, give up the apartment, and find a job, that was also about the time she met Sal Kroc.