Slave to Crime

Slave to Crime - Chapter 1

I don’t quite know when it started.

I guess it all started when I was six.

When my mum was diagnosed.

The doctor called and said the results had arrived.  I remember that day so clearly, almost like it was yesterday.

I remember the phone ringing.  I remember mum picking it up.  I remember her face turning ghostly white.  I remember my dad rushing to her aid.  I remember my mum looking at me with wide eyes.  With sorry eyes.

She had always had pretty eyes.  They were a unique shade of blue.  I was always sad that I had inherited my father’s greyish-greenish coloured eyes.

I remember the family meeting that night.  I remember hearing the word for the first time:

Cancer.

A late diagnosis.

I remember the days and months that led after the phone call, all the chemotherapy and medicines that I couldn’t even count or pronounce.  I remember mum’s hair staying back on her pillow when she sat up in bed in the mornings.

She had had beautiful, curly hair too.  It was blonde, with natural platinum blonde highlights through it. Again, I was sadly stuck with my boring brown hair that seemed to fall in all the wrong places. It was permanently straight, even when I attempted to use a curling iron on it.  The curls lasted less than five minutes.  But no, mum’s hair was perfect.

It was a shame when it all disappeared.

Like it was never there at all.

I remember seeing less and less of my mother as time went by.  I would come home from school to an empty house, my father being in hospital with mum.

Then the day came.  When we all knew she wasn’t going to live much longer.

It was too late.

I was eight at the time.

I didn’t see her last breaths.  My father wouldn’t allow it.  I didn’t even see her lifeless body.

Sometimes I regret not kicking up a fuss.  I think, despite everyone’s worries that I would be mentally scarred; it would give me sense of closure.

I remember sitting on my bed and crying for hours.  Not loudly, but silently.  I just let the tears fall from my face.  My father came in to comfort me that night.  He had been crying too.  At least, that’s what I thought, as his eyes were bloodshot and there were huge bags under his eyes.  We sat on my bed for hours.  He wrapped his arms around me, letting me bury my head in his chest.  No words were spoken, he just let me cry.  Then he spoke.

“It’s just you and me now, Autie.” He said. Just a few words, but they meant a lot.

I was sobbing loudly by that time and I was shaking uncontrollably.

I just didn’t know why she was taken.

Why her?

Why not me?

Weeks passed and life was beginning to feel normal.  I still felt the emptiness without my mother, but I had accepted the fact that I had to move on.  We all had to move on.

Then the day came when life was about to change drastically, again.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table, doing my homework, when my father came home from work.  I leapt from the table.  My favourite sound in the world now was my father’s footsteps down the hallway.  When I knew he was home.  When I knew he was safe.

“DADDY!” I cried as the door opened.  But I stopped dead in my tracks.

He had another woman with him.  I felt as if I had seen her face before, but I didn’t know where.  Her eyes scanned me up and down.  They were small and black and the way she looked at me made me feel uncomfortable.  Her hair was as black as her eyes and her facial features were harsh, much like her smile.

“Hello, sweetie, what’s your name?”  She cooed.

I stayed silent.

“This is Autumn.”  My father said “Autie, this is Naomi.”  I didn’t look at her “Autumn! Don’t be rude for god’s sake!”  I still refused to look at this ‘Naomi’.

“That’s alright,” Naomi said “I didn’t expect her to be very welcoming, she’ll have time to get used to it.”

I immediately turned to my father who was staring lovingly at Naomi.

LOVINGLY

“Dad! What are you doing?!” I almost yelled.  My father frowned at me.  I knew what he was thinking.  I wasn’t stupid, despite what my teachers at school implied.

“Autumn!”  he hissed.  I was taken aback at the use of my full name.  He hardly ever used it whilst talking to me. “I told you the other day; we all have to move on.  You need a female figure in your life.  You know that.”

I froze completely, tears welling in my eyes.  What on earth was he thinking?  Was he going to marry her? He didn’t understand in the slightest.

“Daddy! I don’t need another mum!” I cried. “You can’t, you just can’t! You can’t marry her!”

“Autumn! Stop being so immature!”  My father yelled. Naomi just stood, smirking. “You’re being incredibly selfish, young lady!”

I narrowed my eyes at him.  I had no idea what had happened to my father.  I guess love could do extraordinary things.

“I hate you!” I screamed, more to Naomi than to my father.

I turned and ran to my room.  Halfway up the stairs, however, I stopped and listened to the conversation taking place in the hallway.

“Sorry about Autie, she can be a little aggressive.” My father was saying to the woman.

“That’s completely understandable.” Naomi answered, not sounding like she understood at all. “Look Tony, I know it will be tough, but we used to have something really special!  And … I think that something is still there somewhere…”  I heard her giggle and my father giggled too.

I didn’t understand.

I was only eight.