The Emmanuel Sisters

Chapter 12 Hope's Misery

Hope and Ms. Armstrong never told Love about what happened the day after Love ran away from the group home. It was all so horrible and they both agreed it was a conversation to have after Love's graduation day as to not spoil her special day. Besides, Hope was trying her best to also "forget about things", and just move on.
After Ms. Armstrong returned Love to the group home she followed through on her promise to Love to check up on her little sister, Hope.
On the morning Ms. Armstrong went to see Hope she ran into Hope's foster mother, Mrs. Smith. She was leaving out of the house to go to work. Mrs. Smith was a little surprised to see Ms. Armstrong until Ms. Armstrong explained to her that she was doing a routine visit because Hope had been out of school.
Mrs. Smith was a plump, warm, and kind woman. She taught at the local school, and she was known for her kindness and her integrity. Long before Mrs. Smith was married she had planned to become a nun, until she had met her husband. The two of them met each other at bible camp when they were teenagers. Mr. Smith was an altar boy, and Mrs. Smith had taught the children's bible class. They fell in love quickly, and soon Mrs. Smith no longer wanted to become a nun. She daydreamed about getting married now and having lots of children to care for. She had always loved children, and had always wanted to be a teacher. She knew she could do as much good working in the church with her husband as she could as a nun. Her husband told her how it would be a terrible waste for a woman who loved children so much not to have some of her own. But, after years of being married and trying to start a family she found out her beloved husband was unable to give her children. A fertility doctor told them Mr. Smith had a rare sperm count deficiency and he would probably never be able to father children. Her dreams of having children were crushed. But all she could think about was comforting her husband, because it wasn't his fault. She told herself, "it was just the will of God."
What she didn't know was that her husband knew all along he couldn't have children, even before they were married and he never told her.
When he was eighteen he had an affair and was afraid he had fathered and illegitimate child. He consulted a doctor about getting a vasectomy and then he found out after test were taken that there was no possible way he could have fathered anyone's child, due to his rare low sperm count condition.
Mrs. Smith decided to take in foster children once she knew she would never be able to have any with her husband.
Hope was just one of many, many foster children that she had taken in over the years. She cared for all the children with unconditional love. So when she saw Ms. Armstrong she was surprised, but not concerned. She was confident she was caring for Hope properly, just like all of her other children she had cared for in the past over the years.
Mrs. Armstrong asked Mrs. Smith why Hope had not been in school lately, and she explained that Hope had been out of school because she had the flu and that her husband also had it. Since she was running late for work that morning she showed Ms. Armstrong where she kept the extra keys, under the flower pot, and she told her to just let herself in. She said her husband would probably be asleep in the basement because he had been sleeping down there ever since he got sick so that she wouldn't get the flu.
Ms. Armstrong thanked Ms. Smith for her hospitality and she thought to herself, "Love was just worried for no reason at all, because it is so obvious Mrs. Smith is nothing but open and honest." Then she let herself into the house with the extra key.
Ms. Armstrong was familiar with the Smith's house already, because Hope's social worker was her mentor and she had been inside the Smith's home before.
The first four weeks after Ms. Armstrong was employed she followed her mentor everywhere. Love Emmanuel was Ms. Armstrong's first assigned case. Her mentor wanted her to feel comfortable on her first independent case so she worked it out where they would split up the sisters' caseload. She received Love's case, and her mentor took Hope and Faith. Faith was adopted in no time, but the other two Emmanuel sisters had been in the foster care system for as long as she had been employed with the Department of Social Services and they could never seem to get anyone to take both sisters into their home at the same time. Since then her case load had increased greatly, but her first case, Love, and her sister, Hope would always be special to her. As soon as she entered the Smith's house she called out Mr. Smith's name.
"Mr. Smith, your wife told me to let myself in." Ms. Armstrong could hear the sound of a drill coming from the downstairs basement. When no one responded to her calls, she figured, Mr. Smith was working in his basement and she decided not to disturb him, and to just go upstairs to Hope's bedroom to check on her.
After all, Hope was the reason she was there. So she headed upstairs to Hope's bedroom, but Hope wasn't in her bedroom. She checked the one bathroom that was in the house and it was also empty. It was a small house and it only took her five minutes to check the three other bedrooms, and the kitchen and family room.
Then Ms. Armstrong became concerned, she thought Hope may have ran away. She decided she better interrupt Mr. Smith and let him know Hope wasn't in her room and may have even ran away. The sound of the drilling was incredibly loud and Mr. Smith did not answer to her knocking on the basement door.
She tried the basement door but it was locked. She looked at the keys in her hand and one of them was labeled basement so she used it to let herself in. The sound of the drill got much louder as Ms. Armstrong walked down the steps leading to the Smith's basement.
When Ms. Armstrong got to the end of the steps, what she saw put her into a temporary state of shock and she stood frozen.
She was raised in a small family, and in the church. Her father was loving and kindhearted to her and her siblings. She was raised to be aware that there was good and evil in the world, but she had only been an eyewitness to the good growing up. What she was now witnessing was the worse example of evil she could have ever imagined.
She had walked in to see a sight her mind could barely register as being real.
Mr. Smith, the man her agency had great respect and trust for, was standing with his back to her and with his pants and underwear down at his ankles. He was holding a drill to poor little Hope's head. Ms. Armstrong could not believe what she was seeing. Hope's eyes were shut tight and her arms and legs were tied up.
Ms. Armstrong stood there on the bottom of the stairs still in shock. She felt like her heart had stopped, and as if she had been standing there forever, paralyzed. But actually she had only been standing at the bottom of the stairs for a few seconds in her disbelief. She felt such fear, shock and disgust.
But then she felt a strange new sensation she had never thought she was capable of feeling for another human being, she felt hate! That hatred she felt for Mr. Smith in that moment, gave her body the electric shock she needed to snap her body out of its shock and move.
But before she could make a move, for no apparent reason at all, Mr. Smith turned around and looked straight at her. Mr. Smith was also in shock seeing her standing there. He was positive he had locked the basement door.
Ms. Armstrong thought to herself that Mr. Smith looked inhuman, like a devil, or a demon from some nightmare. In her mind she yelled, "Jesus, help me!" She was not a physically strong woman. Her only fighting skills were from a two hour self defense class Social Services sponsored. She was also a very small, almost pixie like framed woman, but she was top- heavy for her small frame, and that only made her less athletic, less coordinated and more clumsy. Her first instincts were to run for help, not to stay and fight. She thought there was no way she could defeat this monster by herself.
Mr. Smith's first instinct was to kill Ms. Armstrong. He would worry about what to do with her body afterwards. This wouldn't be the first time he had to dispose of a body. But in his rush to get to her, before she made it all the way up the stairs, he tripped over the drill cord. It didn't help his coordination any being that his pants were still down at his ankles, but he was still faster and stronger than Ms. Armstrong. He grabbed hold of her foot. He yanked her so hard it caused her to fall face down on the stairs. She banged her head with such blunt force that it caused her to gash open her forehead. The blood from the open wound in her head started gushing out and it was dripping into her eyes. It was a miracle she did not lose consciousness. She struggled to get her foot out of his grip. He dragged her back down to the bottom of the stairs onto the basement floor, but she was able to get her foot loose. Then she moved quicker than he did with his underwear and pants still down. She scurried on all fours on the floor to the sound of the drill she still heard running. She grabbed hold of the drill in just enough time to roll over with it in her hands. She could barely see him because blood was dripping into her eyes from the gash in her head. He was already in the process of pouncing on top of her when he saw the drill in her hand, but he couldn't stop himself from falling on top of her because his body was already in motion. He landed right on top of her, and right on top of the drill. The drill plunged into his heart. His blood splattered all over Ms. Armstrong's fresh ironed white dress, which was already stained with her own blood oozing out of her head. His body laid on top of her and flinched with spasms of pain. She screamed out loud in horror. Then she rolled his revolting bloodied body off of her. She was now covered with his blood. She used her dress to wipe the blood from her eyes.
She said, "Hope, open your eyes, open your eyes Hope, your safe now." But Hope kept her eyes closed shut. It was as if Hope was comatose.
Ms. Armstrong untied Hope, and scooped her up in her arms. Then she ran up the stairs and out of the basement with Hope and they were outside within seconds. She ran down the street with Hope still in her arms as if she had superhuman strength. She still had the irrational fear that it was possible that Mr. Smith may not be dead, but he was definitely dead. She just wanted to get as far away from that basement and what she could only describe as Hell on Earth as possible.
Hope was silent and still in shock, but Ms. Armstrong was screaming for help as she ran down the block with Hope in her arms.
It didn't take long for neighbors to hear her screams. Several 911 calls were made that day reporting that there was a crazy, screaming blood soaked little white woman, running down the street with a black girl almost the same size as her in her arms.
A police car responded and told her to stop. The police pulled their guns on her at first, not sure if she was also armed and crazy. They ordered her to put the child down. They had to scream it several times, before Ms. Armstrong regained her mental senses and did as they instructed. Once they saw she was not armed, they proceeded to calm her down. Then she slowly told them what had just happened. Hope couldn't talk yet. She was still outside of her body. This wasn't the first time Mr. Smith had abused Hope, and she had learned to adapt to his abuse by almost willing her spirit to be in another place in time while it was all happening.
The police put Ms. Armstrong and Hope in the back of the police car. Then they called for some back up. After two other police cars showed up they entered the house. They confirmed everything that Ms. Armstrong had told them was true. When the police came back out of the house, they told Ms. Armstrong and Hope the news. Mr. Smith was indeed dead.
By then Hope had returned to her body. She was still quiet. When she heard the news, that Ms. Armstrong had actually killed Mr. Smith she could hardly believe it. But to Hope the memories of Mr. Smith were always with her, he was still alive in her mind, and in her dreams almost every night after his death.
The Department of Social Services allowed Hope to temporarily stay with Ms. Armstrong until they found her another suitable foster home. Hope had become very attached to Ms. Armstrong. She told Ms. Armstrong that she was not ready to tell Love what had happened. When she asked Ms. Armstrong how Love was doing, Ms. Armstrong told her all the good news about Love, about Love's success in school, and about all of Love's scholarship offers.
Ms. Armstrong was hoping that by telling Hope how well her older sister was doing it would give her a reason to keep working towards a better life for herself, despite the abuse she had experienced. Hope asked Ms. Armstrong not to tell Love what happened to her because she wanted to tell her everything herself, when the time was right. Hope didn't want Love to give up on her dreams of going away to college just to stay behind for her in New York. So Ms. Armstrong told Love she had checked on Hope and that Hope was fine and that she would bring her to her graduation ceremony.
On Love's graduation day Hope could still not bring herself to tell Love all the horrible things Mr. Smith had done. She didn't want to spoil Love's day. All Love talked about was how happy she was to be going to college and how she couldn't wait for her little sisters to come visit her on campus. Love said she was saving the news of which college she was going to attend for the her going away dinner later that night at Ms. Armstrong's house.
Hope had not seen Love look so happy since before Nana had died. Ms. Armstrong did promise she would get permission from the Department for Hope to go visit Love as much as possible.
After the graduation ceremony, Ms. Armstrong had to return to work and take Hope with her, but they planned on having dinner at Ms. Armstrong's apartment later that night to say their goodbyes.
They were having such a good time at the graduation that Hope didn't want to leave Love, but Ms. Armstrong had set up a meeting with some possible new foster parents for Hope up at the Social Services building, and she didn't want them to be late.
While Ms. Armstrong and Hope were in the Social Services building for their meeting with Hope's new foster parents a fire broke out in the building. The fire spread throughout the whole building quickly. Hope and Ms. Armstrong were in the interview room with her new foster parents when the alarms went off. There were ten stories in the building. The elevator was not working but they managed with others, to make it down the stairwell. Ms. Armstrong was holding Hope's hand tightly, so she wouldn't lose her through the smoke and crowds of people trying to run down the stairs. Then the ceiling came down above them. Ms. Armstrong lost her grip on Hope's hand. The ceiling caved in causing a barrier between the two of them. People were franticly screaming because they could not pass by the barrier. They were trapped. They couldn't go back up, because the fire had started up top, but they couldn't keep going down the stairs either.
Hope was screaming, "Ms. Armstrong, Ms. Armstrong." Ms. Armstrong was trapped with the others.
"Keep going Hope. I'm going with the others to the staircase on the other side of the building. I will meet you outside".
Hope only had two more flights to go down to get out of the exit door to the outside of the building. Ms. Armstrong pleaded with her to keep going, but Hope wouldn't budge.
Then someone grabbed Hope from behind. It was the man that was just introduced to her as her new foster father. Ms. Armstrong had whispered to Hope earlier that she had a good feeling about the couple in the interview room, but Hope didn't trust the husband. She couldn't trust any man after Mr. Smith.
Hope started kicking and screaming when he grabbed her from behind. But he dragged her down the stairs anyway, and finally got her outside of the building and to safety. His only intention was to get Hope out of the burning building. This man had raised three of his own girls with his wife and he had never once touched them or any other child inappropriately, but Hope didn't know that.
Hope felt an immediate disgust towards him when she felt him touch her. In his efforts to carry Hope out of the burning building, he wasn't thinking about how rough he grabbed her, his only intentions were to get her out of the building and to safety. He didn't realize how damaged Hope was from the abuse that had previously happened to her, even though Ms. Armstrong had already explained to him and his wife Hope's history.
Hope was kicking and screaming, not only because she didn't want to leave Ms. Armstrong, but also because feeling this man's hands grabbing her reminded her of Mr. Smith. She swore to herself she would never let what Mr. Smith did to her happen to her again. After they were safely away from the burning building he let go of Hope, and as soon as he released her, she yelled, "don't touch me, don't you ever touch me again!!!". Then Hope turned around and started yelling out into the crowd of people, "Ms. Armstrong, Ms. Armstrong."
When the fire department arrived on the scene they roped the building off, not letting anyone re-enter, and made all the survivors wait across the street for medical care. They waited but eventually realized Ms. Armstrong had never made it out of the building. Hope was devastated.
The lady introduced to Hope that day, as her new foster mother, tried to comfort Hope. She wanted Hope to come home with her and her husband and she told Hope that the next day, they would make some calls and find out what to do. They didn't know what else to do, none of them were hurt, and the whole scene was so chaotic. No one seemed to be in charge.
Hope also didn't know what else to do, so she got in the car with them, and kept a suspicious eye on her new foster father. She explained to them that herself and Ms. Armstrong were supposed to meet her sister Love, at Ms. Armstrong's apartment that night for dinner. They asked Hope how they could get in touch with her sister. Hope gave them the number to the girl's group home. They called the number after they reached their home, and told Hope, the group home said Love, had been emancipated by the Court's yesterday, and that she hadn't returned to the group home since. The group home explained that they had no further information on Love or any legal authority over her any longer. So the couple promised Hope they would take her to Ms. Armstrong's house later that night at 8pm to meet up with her sister. Hope knew exactly where Ms. Armstrong lived since she had been staying with her the last few days.
Back in her hotel room, Love saw the news about the fire on television. So she tried calling Ms. Armstrong's home and no one answered. Then she called Hope's foster home, and no one answered there either. In fact the message Love got when she called Hope's foster home said the number had been turned off. Love really started to worry now. It was 7:30pm, and the dinner was planned for 8pm. Ms. Armstrong should have been home if she was preparing a dinner for all of them. So Love decided to take a cab straight to the scene of the fire. The fire had happened so much earlier in the day that now there was only the search and rescue crew from the fire department left at the scene. A fireman had a list of people names that were in the building that day, and Ms. Armstrong's name was on that list. Then he explained that they took all the injured and dead to Queens Hospital and they would let all the family members know then who survived.
Love went to the hospital and waited there half the night. While in the waiting room she tried calling Ms. Armstrong's house hoping Ms. Armstrong would answer the phone and tell her she and Hope had just stepped out for a moment, hoping this nightmare would just end, but no one ever answered Ms. Armstrong's phone. Finally one of the doctors came out with a list and said these are the people they have determined were in the building earlier that day. These people either did not survive or are still missing. They were reading the names off alphabetically by last name first. Ms. Armstrong's name was first on the list. Love couldn't believe it, but then she realized, "Hope, Hope doesn't know what's going on." She got up to leave the hospital. Since she couldn't reach Hope by phone she would have to go directly to Hope's foster home and let her know what had happened to Ms. Armstrong. Before Love got out of the front door she heard the doctor call out another familiar name, "Emmanuel". She turned around in disbelief once again. She couldn't have heard what she thought she heard. Love turned to the man standing next to her. "Excuse me Sir, did he just say, "Hope Emmanuel?"
"I think that is what he said."
Love walked up to the doctor reading the list. "Excuse me, I thought I heard you say a name?"
The doctor asked, "what was the name Miss?" Then Love said in a whisper, "Hope, Hope Emmanuel?"
The doctor looked at his list, even though he knew he had just said that name, he couldn't look Love in the eyes again when he said the name once more to her, confirming her loved one was dead. "Yes I did just say that name, I'm sorry. We will have grief counselors out here shortly to assist the families and friends of the victims."
Love just turned around and left the hospital. She thought, "he had to be wrong", and she headed for Hope's foster home. When Love arrived at the Smith's home she found it boarded up, with red crime tape outside. She banged on the door and no one answered. She went to the next door neighbor's house, and they told her that all they knew was there was some kind of terrible accident, and everyone left the house.
Love thought to herself, "what the heck is going on?" She didn't know what else to do, so she just headed to Ms. Armstrong's home. When she got to Ms. Armstrong's home, it was three hours after the time they had planned to meet for dinner. Hope had already been there, and was waiting on the stoop for two hours with her new foster parents for Love to show up. Then they finally left and Hope wrote a note for Love with the address and telephone number of her new foster parents, and then she wedged it between the screen door and front door for Love to read. Right after they had left, Ms. Armstrong's boyfriend arrived at her apartment. He let himself into the home with the extra key he had, and he did not notice the note Hope had left. When he opened the door he had inadvertently let the note fly away. He was so distraught after they read Ms. Armstrong's name off as a victim in the fire at the hospital that he didn't even notice the note. He left the hospital in a daze right after her name was read off. When he walked into the apartment he didn't even turn on the lights or close the front door behind him. He grabbed the sweater she always left hanging on the coat hook next to the front door. She would always put that sweater on when she got home. It smelled just like her. He held that sweater in his hands and just slid down the wall and sat there sobbing on the floor with the sweater in his hand.
When Love finally showed up at Ms. Armstrong's apartment she found him sitting on the couch, crying his eyes out. She introduced herself to him and explained who she was. He said he already knew all about her, and her sisters. He explained how proud Ms. Armstrong was of her, and how she always talked about her to him. He also knew about the dinner she was planning.
"I actually was looking forward to spending the night hanging out with the guys while the three of you had dinner, but now I wish I could just have one more second with her." Then he looked up at Love and said, "but I'm sorry, I know you have lost your sister too. I'm so sorry."
Love looked at him like he was crazy. "My sister isn't dead. I know they said her name at the hospital but it must have been some mistake. Why would she have been with Ms. Armstrong anyway, instead of with her foster parents today? Our dinner wasn't planned to happen until tonight at 8pm and the fire broke out early this afternoon. The two of them never mentioned they were going to be together today when I saw them at my graduation this morning."
Ms. Armstrong's boyfriend realized then that Love didn't know her sister had been living with Ms. Armstrong, and that she was with Ms. Armstrong when the building caught on fire. "You better sit down. You see I know for a fact that Hope was with Debbie, Ms. Armstrong all day."
Love didn't want to hear any more of what he had to say; she was in denial. "Look, I don't want to sit down. You don't know what you are talking about, you don't even know my sister. I told you, she is not dead!" Then Love ran out of the house. Ms. Armstrong's boyfriend yelled after her, "I'm sorry", but he was still too distraught to summon up the strength to run after her.
Love caught the subway back to her hotel and it wasn't until she got back there, that she sat down on the bed and looked at the picture she always kept with her where ever she went. The picture of herself, her sisters and Nana, and then she cried. She was thinking, "Nana is dead, now Hope is dead too, and Faith is adopted and out of the country." She felt like she had no one left in the world, "even Ms. Armstrong was dead now." She cried herself to sleep while drinking down the entire re-stocked wet bar in her hotel room.