Family

Chapter 20

Pa angry at me. Not because I went up here too early, but because I didn't watch Claire close enough last night. I just sit at my seat at the dining table as he yells at me for losing my sister. Ma is crying at her chair. She love Claire. She love all o' us. This shatters her heart to hear her youngest is gone. But she also mad. It build it with e'ery tear that falls on the table.

"Quit it!," Ma yell at Pa.

"What?"

"Quit yelling at her! She was sleeping. Ya want her to stay awake all night to make sure her siblings don't walk off? She wouldn't work well in the barn. She wouldn't be able to help her siblings when they playing outside, or when they arguing over what the other person suppose to do. Ya expect her to be awake e'ery second of the day. This ain't her fault. It ya's."

"What ya talkin 'bout, Margaret?"

"Ya know what I saying. Ya know what ya did. All from the beginning. I told ya it'll be a bad idea, but ya always disagree with me. E'erytime."

"Shut up, Margaret."

"No. Ya should've just let them be. Let them stay with who they supppose to be with. We don't deserve 'em."

Pa getting mad. E'erytime he tell Ma to shut up he take a few steps closer. But Ma keep pushing him back with her words. Telling him what she been thinking. And it a lot. Us kids just sit and watch it play out. But their a point when Ma take it too far. "Ya ain't their Pa, ya just a man who lives here." He hit her. Flat handed across the cheek. Ma put her hand to where he hit, and took a neat. But after she lower her hand she don't stop, "And I can try all I want, but I ain't their Ma. I love 'em too. But that don't make me their true Mother."

Pa storm out after this. He walk right out the front door. He get into his car and drive away. I think he looking for Claire now. Let hope he don't find her. I hope she finds someone to help her who will get her to her right family. She young enough to forget 'bout all this and start a relationship with the right people. But if Pa catch her, she gonna be in trouble. A lot of it. She'll be in the Room fore'er. Especially since it made Ma and Pa argue. Pa really don't like when he argue with Ma.

"I must tell you something," Ma tell us.

"Ma we know," I tell her.

She looks confused and worried. "How?"

"I told them about my real family," Kate them.

"I was scared of that happening," Ma say.

"I'm sorry if I caused any problems."

"You ain't done nothing, Kate. None of you caused any of this." Ma so sad and angry when she say this. She don't wanna lose us, but I think she knows she gonna have to. I don't wanna lose her either.

"I wasn't just that, Ma. Me and Mack found the boxes in the attic."

"What boxes?"
"The boxes full of newspapers," Mack tell her.

"I know why Claire run away," Sam tell us.

We all look at the little boy sitting at the table with us. He looking at his hands on his lap. He look sad and scared.

"What do ya mean," Ma ask.

"We heard ya talkin last night," he look right at me when he say this. I look at Mack and then back at him.

"We didn't want ya to hear that Sam. We thought ya were sleeping."

Megan tell us no one was sleeping. They all just lay there looking at each other. "But when ya three where going to bed, we pretended to be asleep. And when ya fell asleep we talked. Me, Sam, and Claire. We were confused. But Claire was sad. She was angry cause she didn't know who she was no more."

Claire is so young. She can't understand what it mean to not know who ya are yet. But I guess she hated that she didn't know who we are as a family cause we ain't supposed to be a family. O' course she gonna be sad and upset.

"She wanna find her real family," Sam tell us. "She said that o'er and o'er again to us. We thought we talk her out of it. If Pa find her she gonna be in big trouble, and we ain't gotta clue what he gonna do to her."

After Ma hear Mack say this she walk to the front door and grabs her shoes. When she walks back and looks at me. "No one else leave, Annie. No one follow me. Stay here. Please. Annie, please, watch your siblings closely today."

"O' course Ma. I ain't gonna let anyone leave. I ain't ne'er gonna lose 'em. E'er." And I mean that. They are my family and I ain't gonna lose anyone of 'em.

Ma run out the house after putting on her shoes and starts the car we keep in the garage. It's rarely driven. Pa uses the other truck more. He like it better. She drive out so quickly. We could here the rocks in the driveway be kicked up a lot. Ma is gonna save Claire from Pa. She gonna save all us from Pa.