Another Bullshit Story Where the Parents are Dead

Chapter Twenty-Two: We’re So Starving

xXAdele’s POVXx

Time went by quickly in Willow. The day would seem like it was going in slow motion, but soon enough, a week had passed. Elphie was the first to notice. “Hey, guess what?” she started. I turned to her from a book I’d taken from the shelf to keep me occupied between chores.

“What?” I asked, looking over at Ms. Oak, the woman from day one. She was reading a book at her desk. Her hearing aid was on the table next to her desk. I looked over at Elphie to hear her answer.

“It’s Friday.” she said. I gave her a look.

“So?” I asked. “What’s so great about Friday?”

“Friday is when people come to take others in. And it’s the day we’re allowed to go places.” She leaned back in her chair. “How does a field trip to the ferry sound? We could maybe get to Jersey and back before two in the morning.” I chuckled and shook my head at the mention of Jersey. If I’d been taken from there, I knew it wasn’t my place anymore. It was better to get it behind me.

At that moment, a woman knocked on the door. She waited a moment before she realized Ms. Oak’s hearing aid wasn’t in. She said, “Elphaba Berkhardt!” Elphie looked up immediately, like she’d been called by her sister. She got up and went over to the woman. Ms. Oak looked up. The woman pointed to the clipboard in hand and lead Elphie out the door. She closed it behind her. I was alone.

Elphie didn’t come back until it was time to eat. And even then, she had to take her lunch out to the chairperson’s office. My eyes followed her, making my feet fall victim to my mind, unnoticed.

I kneeled by the Chairperson’s door when Elphie closed it behind her. I overheard them, Elphie, and a woman talking.

“So, what do you say?” the woman asked. “Do you want to come with me?”

“Why would you want me?” Elphie asked.

The chairperson sighed. “We already told you Miss Berkhardt. Misses Wood has been looking for someone older, being that she is older in age. You are the only one legible.”

“I say, no.” Elphie replied, angrily. “There’s plenty of kids out there that deserve a better home than me! I at least have parents that can take care of me when all of this is over in my life! I at least have a sister in the state that could come and get me at any time! And what are you talking about, ‘I’m the only one’? What about Adele? She’s been through tons of more shit than I have! Take her!”

The chairperson yelled at Elphie for whipping out her dirty mouth. She yelled more and left the room. She noticed me listening at the doorway. “Hey.” she said. She pushed the door open more. “You wanna go in?” I looked in the room. The woman had short blonde hair and eyes that creased when she smiled at me. I nodded, and went inside.

“You’re Adele, right?” the chairperson asked. She straightened his tie as he and I both sat back down. He sounded nervous after talking with Elphie. I nodded at his question. He cleared his throat. “This is Misses Wood. She’s looking for a teen she can take in, possibly for good. It seems you fit the age slot. You are over thirteen, correct?” I nodded.

“You’re quiet, aren’t you?” the woman asked. I nodded again. She smiled at me. “I know it’s asking a lot, pulling you up from, obviously, good friends, but would you mind doing an old hag like me a favor by coming and staying with me?” I nodded aimlessly. “Great.” She took my hand and patted it. She fed me information I didn’t really need to know. The whole time, I just looked straight ahead at the sage wall of the chairman’s office.

Minutes later, Elphie and I were in the dorm room. She was holding a stuffed dog from the little kid’s toy box. She stroked it as she talked to me. “So, where is it?” I shrugged. “Are there other kids?” I shook my head. “Do you think she’s nice?” I shrugged. “You know, you’ll have to talk eventually.”

“Not necessarily.” I replied. I folded a button down shirt and put it into my bag. Elphie sat up from the mattress next to me.

“Are you mad at me?” she asked. I snapped my head into her direction.

“Why did you give up your chance at a great home?” I asked. “So I could suffer more if it sucks? So I could stay in New York a little longer?” She turned a light shade of green.

“No,” she stated. “I did it because I care. I did it because eventually, I’ll get out of here! I did it because you can’t go live with your uncle, but I can go be with my sister! I did it because you deserve a better place than this! I did it because I’m actually trying to be a better person, and a better friend!”

“Giving up something you wanted isn’t exactly being a good friend,” I told her. She looked at me with her watery black eyes. She choked back tears, and you could hear it in her voice.

“What do I need to do for you to know I care Adele?” she inquired. “Did I need to know you for my entire life?” she breathed out. “Is it because I didn’t asked about what the nice social worker was talking about with you in private? Is it because I didn’t ask about this?” She took my bandaged wrist in her hand. “Adele, what the fuck happened? Are you happy?! I asked you! Now, give my a straight answer!”

“I went through a lot in Jersey,” I told her. I sat down on the bed, letting my wrist fall. “One Halloween, I went to a party at this old house nearby with my friend Sakura. The party ended really late, and I was living with Jared at that point. When I came home quietly, he was stoned and really drunk. He started beating me, which I kind of expected. He just told me that the only reason I wanted Sakura as a friend was for sex.

“He called me names, like ‘Fucker’ and ‘Whore’. He even threatened to kick me out, even though I was pretty much his only supply for money. I told him it’d be better than living with him, and he broke one or two ribs, and told me to go die. So, that night, I picked up a knife from the kitchen drawer and started slashing my thighs.

“One night when I was living with the band, I got really depressed from all of the memories rushing back to me, including my Mom’s death and Dad’s disappearance. So, I went in, and relapsed after a couple of months clean. I cut a little too deep and viola! Here I am, mummified wrists and all.”

Elphie reached over and held me. She started crying. “I did the same thing after the thing with my Dad.” She sobbed into my shoulder. I held her closely, listening to her every word. “He touched me Adele. And it felt so wrong, but he made me try and make it feel right.” She sobbed long and hard. I rubbed her back consolingly.

After ten minutes or so, she pulled away. She wiped her eyes clean of mascara and eyeliner. “So, I guess it’s goodbye.” She hugged me again as I got up. “You have my number. Call me when you need me.” She pulled away. “Good luck.” She released me and let me walk out on another place I was just starting to love.

++++++++++++

Misses Oak’s, or Kara’s, house was nice. It had a white porch, and yellow siding. It looked like something out of The Brady Bunch, but it wasn’t too much. It seemed perfect for her personality.

Her husband Dave was really nice. He smiled a lot, and was quiet for the first day or two. Now, he’s talking up a storm. He works at an office in the city, and is absolutely head over heels for his wife. He and Kara had lost a baby years ago, and only now were they finally ready to take on a new child.

The room they gave me looked like it was meant for a Victorian Heiress. It has trimming with read and white roses across cream colored walls. It had a king sized canopy bed in the middle of the room. The end tables were carved cherry wood. As old fashioned as it was, it was gorgeous.

As much as I liked Kara and Dave, I felt like I didn’t belong there. When we ate dinner together, as a “family”, Kara and Dave would talk, and it almost seemed like it was a movie I was watching in HD on cable. Especially when I found the baby’s room, still set up with yellow and white ribbons everywhere. That was almost the heartbreaking, tear jerker of the vision.

And at that moment, I felt like I didn’t belong.

Now, a week has past. Elphie called me two days ago to tell me that her Mom came to visit her, and she had taken old advice from her sister and me and told her Mother what happened to her with her Dad. Her Mom cried, she said. She might testify against him, or divorce him with a restraining order, she said. This point in life was definitely a drama.

But it only turned to tragedy when I was on my laptop one night at three in the morning. I’d been looking up news articles for a current event for a class at my new school, and I found it. A link to an article about My Chemical Romance, ending their ten year march and breaking up. I held back tears and closed the computer.

And at that moment, I knew I had to leave.