Shadow

Chapter 15 - Repentance

Old films and highlights of the news around the world within the last twenty-four hours were the least of Valerie's concerns when she flicked through the channels, sitting in her dressing gown on the sofa where her cousin had sat a couple of hours ago.

She wasn't making it up, she thought. It wasn't the drugs talking. This really happened.

Yes, it did happen, and she had witnessed that. Maybe not exactly everything, but there was something in Jack's room. Something unnatural. Abbie and her friend had seen it, and so did she. It frightened her to a point where whenever she would think about it, she could feel her skin prickling all over her body and her stomach churning.

The only thing she was relieved about was the fact that Jack was alright. As long as he was living and breathing and there was nothing to bring harm to him, then nothing else mattered to her, not even her own health and safety. That little boy in there (who lay asleep in the crib, but with the door open so Valerie could check up on him every now and then since she wasn't going to get any sleep tonight anytime soon after what occurred) meant the world to her.

She would give her life to protect him.

A mother's love was indeed powerful.

The love she had for her son made her think of her own mother, Trish Matheson. The woman who made the phrase, God will punish you if you commit a sin, annoyingly popular in their household.

Everyone had known that Trish was a religious nut, however, the ones that respected her were the churchgoers that agreed with her moral values. Trish would practically wear the trousers, not only in the marriage but also in the house too. Her rules are there for a reason is what she used to say.

From an early age, Valerie was educated in the teachings of the Bible and raised strictly as a Christian girl. Trish would force upon the rule of praying to God before bedtime (also inflicting the popular prayer of Now I lay me down to sleep...)

Everything was a sin in Trish's eyes: smoking, stealing, swearing, alcohol, drugs, pre-marital sex, dressing provocatively, same-sex couples, and even having impure thoughts about the opposite gender. The list was endless. Valerie thought if she even breathed the wrong way, then her mother would probably consider that a sin too.

Her mother bestowed upon her to wear a small, diamond cross pendant around her neck, telling her Jesus would protect her from the sins in the world.

Trish didn't believe in birthdays (You should celebrate by reading the holy teachings of our Lord and the fact that you are alive, she would say), only Christmases, when she would let Valerie have some well-deserved fun out of the sheltered existence she had endured for so many years. Trish also didn't believe women should be working; working and earning money was a man's job; being a housewife and a proper mother to her child was something she believed she excelled in.

Valerie's father, Tommy (Tommy-Boy to his rowdy friends, Thomas to his wife), was somewhat of a devout follower like his wife, and in his own way, respectful to the religion (although at times he would go for a few drinks at a local bar with some of his work colleagues, while telling Trish he was working late). Lying to his wife, that was sin number one; drinking with his friends, that was sin number two; and having impure thoughts about the curvaceously-chested woman sitting at the end of the bar, that was sin number three.

There were times when Trish and Tommy would argue about the rules of the house and how Trish would revert everything back to religion.

Valerie could see the rift it would cause in their marriage, especially in the later years when she had Jack. Her father was more lenient and not averse to bending some of the rules for Valerie, just as long as her mother didn't find out. She always wondered how in the hell her parents even got together; Valerie's grandparents on both sides of the family were good friends since their time in high school, and so her parents had met from a very early age.