Her Mysterious Ways

Chapter 12: Please stay with me

So it was Saturday. Saturday had to be the most boring day of the week when it wasn't the football season. Every Saturday I had a farmers market to go to, and today was no exeption. I had to go make enough money to support our family of three for another week at least or we would be eating kraft dinner for a long time. I hoped it would go well, but I never really knew.

See, I couldn't get a normal job beacuse thast would require parental permission, which was something that I was not going to get any day in this lifetime. It was near impossible actually, unless I wanted to get killed. Also, I couldn't tell them that I couldn't get parental permission, because if the government found out, Gracie and I would most likely be put into the care of someone else, which couldn't happen. So ultimately, I was stuck. It wasn't my fault, but it was my problem, so I delt with it by scraping money off of farmers markets. It had seemed to work so far, and I wasn't about to stop now. We needed the food.

Gracie was still at her sleepover, and I didn't have to pick her up until after work, so that was fine. Then there was my grandma that I needed to worry about. I was always weary of her staying alone. She was always forgetting things, and I was worried that she was going to forget something and call someone and accidentally get us discovered and tooken away, and I really didn't want that. But at the same time, I had to leave her alone sometimes, so I did what I had to do.

"Grandma, remember that I'm going to work today. Gracie isn't here, so you're alone. You got that?"

"Yeah yeah." She waved a dismissing hand and looked out the window.

"Also, your lunch is on the table and I should be back by three, okay?" I made sure she was listening.

"I know. Don't worry. I also know that you left me a note right in front of me on everything you just said. Now, just go." She patted my hand and smiled an old lady smile.

"Okay grandma. I love you. See you around three." I gathered my stuff and headed out the door. I really hated walking with all of my supplies, but I had no other choice, so I did anyway.

~

~

They needed to move the market inside. It was cold and I didn't like it at all. The fall chills crawled up and down my spine as if they wanted me to leave, but I stayed. I had to anyway. It wasn't like I could just tell them to take this inside or I would leave, because they had so many vendors that they would just say "See you!" And walk away. So, I just stayed where I was and prayed that someone would buy my pictures.

~

Oh no. Oh no. No. No. No. Shit. Shit. Shit. I thought. She was here. She was here and I couldn't do anything about it. Luckily, I had never seen anyone from my school here before, and I really didn't want to. I couldn't let anyone know that I was into photography and that I sold it for a living. I couldn't let them know that I was poor. Who knows what they'd say. I tried so hard to prevent anyone from knowing. Thrift stores sold good enough clothes and the football team always had old equipment. I just had to think of different ways to hide it, that's all.

But now she was here. That just threw a wrench into the whole plan. She couldn't know. Luckily, after we danced the night before she didn't ask any questions. I just said that I had to go and she said goodbye and that we were never to speak of this again. I understood her point, but I also didn't. I guess I never really knew what her point was.

I hid under the table. I didn't know what else to do, so I hid and prayed that she wouldn't see me. I just pretended to be organizing something, but really I was trying to mentally organize my life. I guess she didn't see me, but I hid under there until a customer came and bought some Christmas prestents for her kids. It was nice to see that there was a mother that cared for her children. Also, she bought a lot of pictures, which made us both happy. I didn't really think about christmas until that moment. I guess I had more important things on my mind.