BrookLyn's Journey (12 page)

BrookLyn
didn’t move.
She
wasn’t even sure if
she
could.
I
wish
I
never c
ame
home.
I can’t take this anymore.
She
raised her eyes. “Please take me
away from them
,” she pleaded to the heavens.

She
had a
fleeting thought of leaving
and
tossing her plans
for college
out of the window.
How the hell would
an unemployed,
eighteen-year-old
high school student
be able to live?
She was afraid to tell
anyone
what her life had been like. She was ashamed. T
hey probably wouldn’t help anyway
.
She
just wanted a normal happy life. As long as
she
was
under their roof,
she
’d never get one.

BrookLyn
managed to get up off of the bed and close
her
door
then she
lay
on
her
stomach
across the bed.
H
e
’d
thrashed a pattern of welts across her entire back side—
her
belly was the only part of
her
body that didn’t hurt.

She
suddenly
felt like someone was watching
her
.
The hairs prickled on the back of her neck.
She raised her head as far as she could to see if
someone was in the room
.
“Gabby?” she murmured then shook her head. Wishful thinking.
The door remained closed and she was alone in the room,
alone with
her suffering.
She pulled
her
blanket
over her as best she could. A cocoon.

At that moment
,
as with
too
many others,
BrookLyn
wished
she
could die.
She let her eyes drift closed, wondering if Gabby was thinking of her at that moment too. Maybe that’s what she had felt.

Then, b
efore
she
knew it
,
she
was
asleep
,
letting
her
dreams
bring her the only
comfort
she knew.

***

Her
tears
helped
her
fall asleep
,
but hunger woke
her
up
again
.
BrookLyn
hadn’t eaten all day.
She
sat up slowly, walked gingerly into the bathroom to try and pull
her
self together.
Her
face wasn’t bruised
—he knew better than to leave signs she couldn’t cover up
.
E
ach painful step
she
took
served to
increase her hatred of her father.
She
washed
her
face, brushed
her
teeth
,
and went to the bathroom.
Then she
straightened out
her
wrinkled clothes
and
broken spirit
,
and
forced herself
down
stairs
to grab a turkey sandwich.

Her
mother was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper
.
BrookLyn
walked toward the refrigerator
, not
say
ing a single word
to her
mother
.
She
could feel
the woman’s eyes burning into her back
while
she
painstakingly got
her
food together
.

She
’
s waiting for me to say something to her
.
I w
on’t
.
You are
the reason I fe
el
this way
, Mother
.
You
didn’t beat me
,
but
you
orchestrated it.
You allowed it.
BrookLyn
pulled her back up tall
, picked up
her
sandwich, chips and soda
,
then
walked
out of the kitchen.

“No eating in your room,”
her mother
said.

Since when?
It had been years since
they had
sat down
together
at the table to eat.
They
weren’t a family
,
so
why act like one.
BrookLyn
silently
turned around and
then
stood with
her
back to her
mother
as
she
ate at the counter.
She
hated eating standing up but
she
refused to
sit at the table with her
mother
.

BrookLyn
didn’t
have to
look at her
mother to know she was probably
smiling at the pained sight as
she
hovered over
her
sandwich.
At that moment, she
hoped
beyond belief that
Gabby
really
was
coming
to
see her
,
sav
ing
her from
this hell
.
B
ring
ing
her
th
e
solace
and peace
from the night before.

“Ms. Cora will be over soon and you better mind her.”

It was what she had expected and she didn’t respond.
BrookLyn
just
ate
her
sandwich as fast as
she
could and crept back to
her
room.
She climbed
into bed
,
p
ulling the
blanket over
her
head.
She
felt the need to hide
out of
her
mother’s view in case she
wanted to bother her again
. It angered
her
knowing
how much her mother
enjoyed
her
pain
.
She curled into the all-too-familiar
fetal position
, seeking relief
.

BrookLyn was
still
buried under the covers when the door flew open. Her mother
interrupt
ed
her silence
.
“We’re leaving.”

“Okay.”

“No guests. No parties. No nothing.”

“Okay.”

“Ms. Cora
is
on her way. Let her in when she knock.”
Her mother
walked away
without
waiting for her answer
.

BrookLyn slowly got up out of her bed, and went downstairs to wait
.
Thirty minutes later
,
she let
Ms. Cora in
without saying anything besides
a sullen
hello,
and
then
she quickly
turned to
go
back upstairs
.

“You okay?”
she asked.

Maybe she had
noticed the sadness in BrookLyn’s eyes
when she
’d
opened the door
.
Maybe she knew.

BrookLyn
stopped and looked down
the
stairs at her.
“I’m just
tired
, Ms. Cora
.
Thank you for asking.
” She lied
,
knowing she couldn’t speak of it.
She wasn’t ready.
She left Ms. Cora alone and went back into her room.

Before she could shut the door
,
a
light
tapping at
the
bedroom
window
caused her to look
.
BrookLyn
opened the window and watched
Gabby
climb skillfully
off
the tree
and into her room
.
It had never even occurred to BrookLyn that it could be so easy to get through that window.

Gabby
came sauntering
in
to
the room
as if she was strolling in the front door
,
and BrookLyn just
sat there speechless shaking her head
slowly from side to side.

“I’m here to pick you up for the weekend.”

BrookLyn pointed toward the
window.
“How
long were you outside
?
Did you hear—”

“I just got here a few minutes ago.
He hurt you
didn’t he
?”

“Yeah, he did.” With her eyes on the floor, BrookLyn did her best not to cry.

“I knew it.”

“How? It’s not visible.”

“I just knew. I
see it in your eyes.” Gabby
reached out and touched
BrookLyn’s
face
.

BrookLyn didn
’
t know what to say. She
gazed
back
at Gabby
as she moved closer to the bed. She was staring at BrookLyn with those
piercing
eyes again—those beautiful eyes that locked her right in, tucking away her fear.

“Are you ready?”

“Uh, my bag is in the back of the closet.”

“This bag?”

“Yes
, but
Ms. Cora might still be up
.”
She was hard of hearing
,
but BrookLyn wanted to make sure she was
sleeping before they left.
“
If she
’s awake
,
or
on the couch
—”

“Didn’t I tell you I had this covered?”

“Yes but
—
”

Gabby didn’t know Ms. Cora like she did.
If the woman had fallen asleep on the couch
,
she might
wake
back up
and come to check on BrookLyn
.
Leaving without confirm
ing that she had taken her medicine and gone to bed
would be a death sentence.

“Trust me then.
Let’s
tiptoe
down and see if she’s sleeping.”

They
snuck
gingerly over to the banister. The snoring from downstairs let them know she
was resting peacefully
on the pullout sofa
in
the
office
.
BrookLyn went to check the kitchen to see if Ms. Cora’s pills were there.
She spied her little plastic pill case by the sink and peeked to confirm that the Friday slot was empty. It was.

They
slinked
back toward the bedroom
,
ready to escape
,
undetected for the night.
Gabby looked
seriously
at BrookLyn
.
“
Stand
still
.
”