Purely Fallen - D. Richardson (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📗

the time and pregnant. She was actually the one that had gotten me started with babysitting. I would watch her daughter, Emily, so she could get caught up with her studies. Her mother refused to help her in anyway, so she had to get a full time job at the same time, to pay for the day to day baby stuff and a babysitter for when she was at school. And at work.

But Lauri had graduated and gone on to college. I had never been her regular babysitter so I hadn’t heard from her in a long time. From the sound of her the stress was starting to get to her.

“I’m sorry to bother you but I didn’t know who else to call.”

“It’s okay, what do you need?”

“My babysitter just quit twenty minutes before she was supposed to be here, and I have a night class in ten minutes. My teacher said that if I missed one more class he would fail me. And if I don’t pass his class I can’t get my degree on time it would take another year to get the credit I need.”

“Are you still living with your mom?”

“No she kicked me out as soon as I graduated. I got an apartment on the east side of town.” There were three apartment complexes in this town. One to the north, one to the west, and one to the east.

“I know where you are, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Oh thank you so much.” I hung up and yelled for my mom. She usually went up to change her clothes and wind down a little right after work. She came in a few seconds later as I was grabbing my keys.

“What’s wrong, Hun?”

“Can you keep an eye on the kids for a few minutes.” She looked a little confused but nodded.

“Sure, but what’s going on?”

“Do you remember Lauri and Emily?”

“Of course, she was such a cute little girl.”

“Her babysitter just quit on her and she has a night class in just a few minutes. I’m going to go pick up Emily.”

“Okay, be careful.” I nodded and gave her a kiss on the cheek before rushing out the door.

I pushed the car past the speed limit a little and made it in record time. Lauri was already standing in front of her building and rushed over to her. Emily was three almost four and stood at her mom’s side.

I opened my arms to her and even though there was no way she could have remembered me she jumped up so I could carry her. Lauri handed me her bag and pulled me in for a surprise hug.

“Thank you so much. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”

“It’s okay. Do you remember where I live?” She nodded. “Okay, just go ahead and pick her up when you’re done.” She nodded again and I took a good look at her. She looked so tired I was surprised she could even stand. “Why don’t you take a little extra time. Go get a nice dinner or something before you pick her up. You look like you could use a break.” It looked like she was going to cry again, but she pulled herself together before they could leak out.

“Thank you, I think I might.” I smiled and grabbed the booster seat she still held in her hands. Emily was too big for the car seat I had. I gave her a parting smile before loading the little girl into the car.

I got home with five minutes to spare before putting the chicken in the oven. I was glad I had decided to make extra. I had no idea my night would be so busy. I sent Emily off to play with the boys. It was kind of cute. Emily was shy and quieter than I remembered her being. But the boys welcomed her by each of them giving her the toy they had been playing with.

Just as I was putting the food in the oven someone knocked on the door. My dad answered it but then immediately called for me. I slowly made my way to the door just in time to see our neighbor standing there with her little girl.

“Elizabeth?”

“Hi Raven. I know this is short notice, but my mom is in the hospital. They need me to go up and set up her paperwork.”

“Oh no, is she okay?”

“Yeah, she had a fall. I was wondering if you’d be willing to watch Carrie for a few hours?”

“Sure she’ll even have some kids to play with and dinner will be done in about a half hour.”

“Oh thank you, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

“Oh it’s no problem.” I waved Carrie in, she was about five so she was older than the other kids but I was sure she would still have a good time with them. Regardless this wasn’t the first time I had watched her, so she shouldn’t have any problem being comfortable. I said goodbye and showed Carrie to the other children. They were all good kids so I didn’t worry about it too much.

“Do you usually take on so many kids at once?” Gabriyel asked from the door way.

“Sometimes. It’s pretty rare though.” I walked past him and continued to work on dinner. As I had predicted it only took about a half hour.

I got all of the kids set up at the table then gave the go ahead for everyone else to grab their food. Dinner went by quietly with the exception of the times when the kids decided to carry on a conversation. When they were all done I set them up to watch some cartoons while I cleaned up a little.

I was on my way to the bathroom when I ran into Gabriyel in the hallway. He had been standing there looking at the pictures my mom had put up. Most of them were of me. Some were school pictures, others were of me growing up, but most of them I didn’t want to look at. He tilted his head slightly when he noticed me there.

“I didn’t know you were crowned Little Miss America.” I shrugged.

“I wish Mom would take those down.”

“Why? I think you looked really pretty.”

“Maybe, I just don’t like them.” I moved past him to continue what I had intended to do in the first place.

 

 

 

Gabriyel

 

 

 

After she closed the door I went back to looking at the pictures. Her features didn’t change much from when she was little to what she looks like now. They just matured instead of changing.

She was a very pretty little girl, but something changed between timed when the pictures were taken. In all of the regular ones that were just of her she had genuine smiles. Even in the school pictures. But the pageant pictures were different. There was a tension to her smiles they didn’t seem as natural, and the smiles got smaller and smaller each year. Until the last one when she didn’t smile at all.

After that even her regular day to day pictures were different. She still smiled and they were genuine, but smaller like she wasn’t as happy as she used to be. After that there were no more pictures of her with her parents. It was always just her by herself, whereas the ones in the beginning she was always with one parent or other.

I felt like I was watching her life pass but there were holes in the story. A story where a happy little girl became less and less happy when there weren’t any discernable reasons as to why. It made me curious as to who she was now, and what made her that way.

“I see you found our shrine.” I turned to see Kathleen looking at the pictures fondly.

“Yes, there are a lot of pictures.”

“Yeah, she was our only child and we wanted to remember as much as we could.” Understandable but the pictures seemed to stop when she was about fourteen.

“There don’t seem to be any recent ones.” The fond look faded, replaced by one that was part regret and part disappointment.

“I guess we just kind of slacked off on it. I love these though.” She said motioning to the pageant pictures. “Would you like to see my collection?” I nodded and she gestured for me to follow her.

We went down to the room furthest down the hall. It looked like an office slash library. But on one entire wall it was nothing but pictures. All of them were of Raven in her pageants. Some of them were in her dresses while others were of her doing different things that I didn’t fully get.

“Her talent was the batons. She used to have so much fun with them when she was a little girl.” Kathleen said as she sat in a chair that was directly in front of the pictures. It looked like she kept it there just so she could look at them. “I had always wanted a daughter. An adorable little girl that I could play dress up with, and do her makeup and hair as she got older. I had always imagined that we would stay up late talking, and she would always come to me with questions. It was unreasonable really. Raven has always been her own person and I’m proud of that.” I took a chair not far from her. I didn’t think she was looking for a conversation, it was more like a confession. “But it made me sad that she wasn’t the little princess I had dreamed of. So when she was old enough and she had gotten so good with the batons I had suggested the pageant. She didn’t object and let me plan it all. She was so good at it and won her first one. I was so excited and I thought she was happy. But eventually she decided not to do them anymore. I wish she would change her mind. Then she started coming home with bruises and refusing to tell us how she got them. The schools even called social services because they thought we were abusing her. She threw such a fit and defended us so strongly that they left and never came back. But she still came home with bruises and still wouldn’t tell us what was going on. She’s still doing it, she has a black eye and we know not to ask, because she won’t answer. I just don’t know what happened. I’m afraid I don’t even know who she is anymore. She can be so generous, you saw her with the kids. But she just doesn’t seem to want anything to do with anyone but Brett.”

“Maybe she’s just afraid that others won’t understand.” She turned to me. “She was an angel growing up as a human. There were bound to be some differences. And maybe she’s just going to through some things that she knows others won’t like so she keeps it to herself. It‘s her way of protecting others.”

“But she should know that she can talk to me about anything.” I shook my head.

“It doesn’t matter how close a child is to their parents or friends. There are still some things that you just can’t talk about. There are things that others have no way of understanding and it only causes more pain. She’s not just protecting others she’s protecting herself. Give her time she‘s still coming into her own.” She nodded and I stood as a way of excusing myself.

I was giving okay advice but I had stepped into an issue where I had no idea what I was talking about. I think what disturbed me the most was that that wall was a tribune to her pageant days. Not a single picture of Raven just being herself. It just felt fake.

I stepped into the hall to hear the squealing laughter of children. I made my way to the kitchen to see Raven come tearing around the corner with an ear to