This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
*Trigger warning: domestic abuse*
On the curb outside of Pine Elementary School, Annabelle sat tying her shoelaces. Her hair remained in the braids her mother had put in earlier that day. Over her shoulders, her backpack carried more textbooks than the day before, but for a rather exciting reason: it was the last day of fifth grade.
Annabelle couldn’t wait for summer: to play at the beach with her friends, to make lemonade with her mother, and to travel to see her aunties on the fourth of July. It was her favorite season. There was so much to be happy about.
At three twenty two as if on cue, a blue sedan pulled up. A grinning woman unlocked the doors, waiting as Annabelle hopped up and into the car.
“Hi, Mom,” Annabelle said, leaning over and giving her mother a kiss on the cheek. After shutting the door, her mother hurried off, still smiling to her.
“How was it?”
“It was awesome! We made s’mores and upside down pineapple cake to celebrate,” Annabelle explained. Mom turned right down the usual street, cutting through a small subdivision to get home. She let out a long sigh and their smiles disappeared. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, darling, nothing,” Mom told Annabelle as she gripped the steering wheel tighter. It was clear something was wrong, but Annabelle didn’t press. It was better to wait till Mom eventually said something.
After some time, they pulled up in front of a baby blue two story house. It reminded Annabelle of a dollhouse, because of the quaint appearance and the storybook feeling to the garden outside. At least that’s what the outside felt like.
Annabelle hesitated, but headed for the door anyways. Pushing it open, she heard a deep voice that made goosebumps spread across her skin at first. Kicking off her shoes, Annabelle made a calculated break for the stairs, but it was too late.
“Hey, Ann.” Annabelle’s father appeared in the hallway, having come from the kitchen. He smiled, still holding a phone in his hand. “How was school?”
“Fine,” Annabelle said softly, holding onto the banister of the staircase. Her body felt shaky. Like she did when her English teacher made her give her speech in front of everyone. And she hated it immensely. “I’ll let you go, I know you have a phone call.”
That was all he needed. He waved to her, putting the phone back to his ear. Annabelle rushed, up the stairs, but she could still hear him.
“Well, Otto, I don’t care how it gets done. Just that it gets done and it gets done now! Understood?” Her father’s voice boomed through the house, until Annabelle shut the door behind her. Then it was muffled just enough. She let out a sigh of relief as she fell down to her bed, not bothering to take her backpack off.
Summer. Unlimited hours at home, if she wanted. Which she didn’t. She could never tell her friends, though. They’d never understand. Especially not Jennifer, who had the picture perfect family. Every summer, they spent a month up north in Door County, tubing and boating together and having a grand old time. She’d been invited, but her father was the one to kill that one.
“Why would you go hang out with Jennifer’s family when you can hang out with us?”
Maybe it was because Jennifer’s family felt more like a family than her own.
SLAP! A loud sound startled Annabelle, causing her to sit upright and stare at her door. That couldn’t have been. Could it?
She opened her door slowly, eager not to add to the ruckus. But the sound got louder. Their argument.
“Gerald, you can’t do that. That is not okay,” Mom warned, her voice showing signs of fear. Annabelle gripped her door, ready to pounce when needed.
“It’s not okay, is it? Why did I find this in your mail?” There was a pause and the shuffling of paper.
“You opened my mail? You can’t–”
“Why are you contacting a lawyer, Tiffany?”
The pause made Annabelle’s heart ache, knocking forcefully against her chest. Her breathing got shaky. She knew what came next. Her eyes welled up with tears. She didn’t want it to happen. But she knew too well now what would happen.
“You know even if you contact a lawyer, you’ll get nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. We signed for the house. For the car. We have a joint checking account. I don’t hit you. I don’t hurt you. What are you going to tell them? That I yell at you so much it’s abuse?”
Mom was silent. Annabelle worried for the worst, until she heard the sound of keys jingling.
“Where are you going?” Annabelle’s father began to yell now, which made her feel like the house was shaking. Mom’s footsteps headed up the stairs and Annabelle pressed herself up against the wall, hiding. It was instinct, even though she knew it was Mom because Dad’s yells were too far away.
“Sweetie?” Mom’s soft voice called into the room. She stuffed her keys into her pocket as she came into the room, seeing the fear in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around her daughter, stifling tears of her own. “Let’s go. Get the bag.”
Annabelle knew what bag. It’d been packed for ages. So she went over to the closet while Mom grabbed a few other essential things: her favorite elephant stuffed animal, a pillow, and her school bag. Everything else that she needed was stuffed into a little black suitcase at the back of her closet, one that her father had never found.
“Come with me,” Mom begged, pulling Annabelle along to the bedroom. Dad was at the top of the stares. His face was red and full of rage, which increased when he saw Annabelle with her things.
“You can’t take her away from me! She’s our daughter!” Mom pushed Annabelle into the bedroom, locking it behind her as she searched for her things. Dad kept pounding on the door, making Annabelle backup and clutch her things tighter to her chest.
“Shoes, shirts, documents,” Annabelle’s mom mumbled to herself, rehearsing the checklist in her head. All the things that she needed to snag when time came, which it had now. It was time to escape.
“Tiffany, will you open up the goddamn door? We are not done discussing!” More banging shook the door. Annabelle’s mom zipped her suitcase shut and closer her purse, grabbing hold of Annabelle with her free hand. Then she opened the door. Dad stood in the way, glaring at her.
“Move, Gerald,” Tiffany commanded, but if anything, Gerald stood up even taller, puffing out his chest.
“We’re legally bound by marriage. If you leave, you’ll be responsible for me forever,” Annabelle’s father said matter-of-factly. Annabelle stared at her dad with a look of sadness and anger. Sadness to know this might be the last time she saw him. But anger because this episode reminded me of all the other ones previously. The ones that she’d never shared with anyone outside of this house.
“Goodbye, Gerald,” Tiffany said, pushing past Gerald, who immediately grabbed Annabelle by the shoulder. She cried out under his grip, until Tiffany slapped Gerald across the face, catching him by surprise. “If you so much as touch her again, I’ll make sure you never see her again.”
Gerald, caught by surprise, stared wide eyed at Tiffany and Annabelle as they headed down the stairs. Annabelle was caught in wonder of what had just happened. Her shoulder hurt. Her mother had hit her father. She was carrying all her things in her bags. Where were they going to go?
The warm summer air Annabelle loved so much hugged her as they stepped outside, rushing over to the blue sedan. Tiffany helped put Annabelle’s things in the car before they got into the car, locking the doors. Just in case Gerald would come outside, but it was unlikely. He only kept his rage indoors.
“Mom, where are we going?” Annabelle stared at her mother, rubbing her shoulder to massage out the pain. Tiffany turned to Annabelle, admiring her with tears in her eyes as she held a hand up to her cheek.
“We are going to my sister’s okay? Everything is going to be okay. We’ll be okay,” Tiffany reassured her, turning on the engine.
As they backed out of the driveway, Annabelle gazed out the window. She watched as the houses passed by, the schools, and the library she went to every week. She’d lived here all her life. And yet as they left this time, on this warm June day, Annabelle was not sure when she’d be seeing her little town again, or her father.
But she didn’t feel sad. Instead, relief washed over her, like it had just rained for the first time all year. No matter what came next, it couldn’t be like what came before it. For the first time in a long time, Annabelle knew that everything was going to be okay.
