Fly's Story

This is the first chapter of Fly's Freedom. Find out Fly's story, it will break your heart.

Fly never wanted to run away, yet here she was, pedaling away from the place she had called home for so many years.

As she rode towards her new start she recalled the last awful moments with Aunt Daisy that had pushed her over the edge.

It was the day of her 14th birthday, her friends were barely out the apartment door and Aunt Daisy was already yelling at her. Part of the reason that Fly still had her birthday party on her birthday was because her father wouldn’t want her to stop living her life for him, another part was to annoy Daisy. Mostly, though, it was because she knew that Daisy wouldn’t fly off the handle with a giggling gaggle of 14 year olds hanging around the apartment, no matter how drunk she was.

“Charlotte Marie Chase, get in here this instant!”

Fly, not wanting to upset Daisy more, obediently and fearfully, padded down the hallway towards the raging mad face of her aunt.

“You! It’s your fault! He’s dead! My brother is dead! Get out! I hate you! The only reason I agreed to take custody of you is because is was his last wish! Just go, just go! Cover the cafe for me. I’m gonna take the day off.” Daisy always go like this on her birthday. She blamed her for her father’s death. She got close to Fly’s face and whispered another word, “Go,” her breath reeked of alcohol. All Fly knew was that, in some sick and twisted drunk realization, she somehow blamed Fly for her father’s leukemia . She got drunk in grief the night he died, every year she did that same ritual. The most painful part, it was on Fly’s birthday. The day that was supposed to be one of the happiest every year.

Fly couldn’t keep eye-contact with her aunt after that, but instead she looked at the kitchen where her eyes darted around until she saw her only birthday present, a beautiful canvas picture of her and her parents before they died, smashed and in the trash can. It was from her best friends Lily, Cecile, and Rose. She’d barely had it for an hour and now it was gone, simply gone, never coming back-like all the other happy things in her life.

She ran off to the kitchen, crying at the loss of her one and only birthday present and the harsh words from Daisy.

She grabbed her work apron, tears streaming down her face, and ran down the back stairwell that led to the kitchen. She knew that the old cook, Maria, in the kitchen would comfort her. Of course she’d have to lie about the real reason for her tears, but she could still take comfort in Maria’s arms.

She gave into what she needed most, motherly love, and collapsed into the cook’s arms. Breathing in the scent of spices and let herself take three deep, shaky breaths. Then she looked up at Maria’s wise old face.

“Dear child, it will be alright. Your father is always with you, as long as you remember him he will never truly be gone. That goes for you beautiful mother as well.” Maria said this every year and Fly knew it was 100% true.

“Now, go. You must work. Show the world that you are strong. Do this for him. It is what he would want for you. You know him better than I and you should know that he would never want to stop you from fulfilling your potential”

So she did it. Fly worked her shift and then some. Customer after customer, gave her their condolences and told her to take her time filling the orders.

She thought she would get through the hard day without too many more tears, but then came the man with the long mustache. He had piercing gray eyes and a birthmark on his left pinkie and of course, the long mustache.

“Hey! Waitress! Some service over here! I’ve only got 30 minutes and I’ve got some boys to keep in line.” Those words burned through her like a red hot knife. Didn’t he know what today was? If he lived in the small town of Whiteridge, he should know, as did all the citizens, that this was the anniversary of her father’s death.

Gritting her teeth, she replied to him in the way she must, “Yes sir, what may I get you to start off?”

“Gimme’ the uh…, double bacon cheese burger and a Cherry Cola,” the man replied sourly.

“Coming right up!” Fly returned in as happy a voice as she could manage. She tried for a smile but her body seemed to be striking against her and refusing to work the way she wanted it to.

Writing down the order as she went, Fly had to resist the urge to run back to the kitchen.  After placing the order ticket on the table, she hid in the kitchen until the food for the man was ready. After composing herself, she walked out of the kitchen, plate and drink in hand and approached the booth.

“Here you are, sir. Anything else I can get you?” Fly said, not pretending to be happy anymore. She was sure that the man had tried to be mean, the triumphant look in his eyes told her so.

“Yes, I’ll have a slice of key lime pie,” the man croaked in a voice that was too low to be human. Fly’s throat closed up, key lime pie, her father’s favorite. It was a charity the people gave Fly not to buy key lime pie on this most sad of days. Fly walked away without bothering to reply, this was the worst day of her life.

“Maria! Maria!” Fly cried like a baby once she was in the safety of the kitchen.

“I’m here child,” Maria replied from somewhere behind Fly.

“D-Did you see, th-that man out there?”

“Hush, child. I saw, I saw. Now, you just gotta’ tough it out and bring him his pie. The sooner he gets his food they sooner he’ll leave.”

Dutifully, Fly brought the man his pie, and when he was done, she silently cleared his dishes and brought the bill.

The rest of her shift passed without too much more pain, and she was, for the first time in her life, relieved to be returning to the apartment.

“What did you bring for dinner?” Aunt Daisy asked in a voice that suggested that if Fly said ‘nothing’ she’d be punished.

“Pasta, courtesy of the kitchen staff,” Fly answered.

“What’re you standing there for then, girl? Bring it here!” Daisy commanded in a dazed tone. Fly carefully picked up the styrofoam box of food and placed it on the glass coffee table in front of Daisy.

“One more thing, Jack is coming over tomorrow, you know my friend, I’ve told him all about you. No amount of good behaviour can save you now. He knows exactly how to handle your kind, he has a nephew who thinks he can commit a crime and get away with it. Don’t think about going to a friend’s house, I’ve called their parents and said you are grounded from friends for breaking my good china. I’ve also had your phone disabled. You better learn self defense by the time your shift at the cafe is done, he’s coming at 6 o’clock sharp,” Daisy said this with a horrible hunger in her voice. She’d threatened Fly before, but never followed through with it and certainly never involved another person with it. Wait! she thought Nephew, abusive, it’s the man with the mustache from downstairs!

Fly silently walked away to her room. It was 9:00 PM.

What am I going to do? Fly thought, pacing around the confines of her small room like a wild horse newly stalled.. There’s no way I can protect myself unless….I run away. I am going to run away. But how? The minute I’m gone, my picture will be all over the news. I could bike away...  So Fly decided.

Fly, being a planner like her mother, sat down on her bed before acting rashly. Daisy was always unpredictable when she was drunk. If she caught Fly… she didn’t even want to think about what Daisy might do to her. She realized that the later she left the better chance she’d have. She reasoned that, although it would cost her more time, it would be worth losing time than risk being caught.

She began by packing a sweatshirt, a change of clothes, a novel, her survival book, a thermos from her 7th grade camping trip, the small tent from camping, water bottles, and granola bars. She had to stop five times when she heard Daisy move and get up. She put all this in her backpack. Petrified, she slid the backpack silently under her bed and looked at the clock, it was 9:30 PM. Daisy wouldn’t be asleep yet. She stepped out into the hallway and scanned the living room for any sign of Daisy, she saw the light under the bathroom and took the moment to sneak downstairs to Daisy’s office and take the $300 she thought she’d need. Before she left for the office, she made sure to put a pillow under her blanket and turn the light off so that if Daisy came looking it would look like she was sleeping. Fly didn’t know how to get out though. The entire building had a state-of-the-art security system to keep people out of the cafe. Fly looked around her small, now dark, room to which she’d returned after taking the cash. The window!

Putting her sweatshirt and backpack on, Fly climbed out the window and jumped the 10 feet to the ground. Instinctively, she tucked into a ball as she hit the ground to absorb the blow. She got up and found that putting weight on her left foot sent tendrils of pain up her leg.

Fly ignored the pain and silently jogged across the lawn towards her bike. She kicked up the stand and was about to go when she realized she could take more than she had first thought, her backpack was full but her bike basket wasn’t. She looked bewilderedly up at her window and wondered how in the world she was going to get back in.

Fly began to walk around the house and looked in vain for a way in, that is until she got to the shed. The shed held all manner of helpful things that Fly could use… including a ladder, she hoped.

Creek! Creek! a sharp sound cut through the silent night as the old shed door protested to being opened. She flinched, expecting to see Daisy staring down at her from the window when she heard the noise. Daisy didn’t appear. Maybe, she thought, Maybe, she’s fallen asleep in the couch in a drunken sleep. That would be good, she’d get what she deserves-an awful overhang, and I’ll have more time to get away. A cloud of dust billowed up from the dust-covered concrete floor and Fly had to hold her breath to keep from coughing. The dust settled and Fly couldn’t believe her eyes, all her father’s things were lined up on shelves and in tubs in here! On the left wall began the things from his childhood, then high school and college. Oh! His college diploma, she grabbed it and stuffed it in her backpack. Continuing on to the right wall now was his job applications, wedding photos, hospital photos of when Fly was born, his picture’s of Fly, and finally, the saddest of all, the photos from the funeral and hard drive on which the funeral photos were on. No wonder Daisy never opened this thing. Fly could be nostalgic all day if she allowed herself, but she was on a time-sensitive mission. She knew there was a ladder in here somewhere. Ah! The back there it was, the ladder, it wasn’t very tall, more of a step ladder than anything, but it would do. Fly carefully stepped over the boxes and finally her fingers felt wood under them. Fly braced her knees and began to lift the ladder, it wasn’t as heavy as she’d expected. She pushed it up high over her head and started to walk out of the shed.

Bang! The ladder hit the ceiling and Fly was startled for a moment before she realized that it was just the ladder. A few more steps and Fly was out. Whew!  Fly let out a deep breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and set down the ladder to catch her breath.

She let the ladder lean against the house and began the scary climb up the steps of the ladder. One unnerving step at a time she made her way up the lader.  Only two more steps... One more... I’m done! Fly congratulated herself. She climbed off the top of the ladder and clutched the nearest thing her fingers could feel, an old shingle. She pulled herself up and found herself quite cut up by the ill-cared for gutter and shingles. They were only little cuts and Fly added them to the ever-growing list of things to deal with later.

Only when she looked back down to the ground did she realize that the ladder was her father’s old one. She remembered they’d used it on painting day when they had moved to their new house.

She focused on making her way up the steep roof towards her open bedroom window.  One crawling step at a time, she made her way up and into the window frame of her room’s window.  She crawled silently over the wooden frame and dropped to the floor without a sound.

She crept down the black hallway towards the apartment kitchen and stepped over the old creaky boards, the locations of which she’d long since memorized. She stepped over to the cupboard and slowly opened the creaky door.  She winced at the smallest protest from the door and held her breath every time there was a noise in Daisy’s room.

Inside the cupboard were water bottles, granola bars, and an old tea kettle. Fly took a box of granola bars, half a dozen water bottles, and the tea kettle. She gathered these items into her hands and stole back to her room.

Once in the safety of her room, Fly let out a deep sigh of relief. She’d pulled it off, now all she had to do was get it down to her bike without making noise. Fly brainstormed how to get the supplies down. She decided to make a kind of sack out of one of her old shirts and carry it down that way. So she put the supplies in the middle of the shirt and tied it all up in a big, lumpy knot and began the descent back down the roof.

She tried to go slowly and control the descent, but the universe seemingly had other ideas because, half way down, her foot slipped and she slid down the roof, catching herself just inches above the gutter that surely would have woken Daisy had she hit it. Her nerves told her to go down the ladder but, in reality, she’d have to jump again because during that slide she’d slide several feet to the right. There was no way she could move that far over without sliding down farther. She eased herself into a  squatting position and prepared to jump. 1,2,3! she thought as she launched herself off the roof and towards her freedom. This time she hit the ground much more smoothly but still managed to twist her already painful ankle during the landing.  She re-entered the shed and pulled out a rope and tied down her little bundle of extra supplies. Fly regretted having to leave her parents’ step-ladder out like that, but she couldn’t chance the danger of it making noise. She was lucky she didn’t wake Daisy the first time, but now it was pitch black outside. She touched the red stain where Lady, their old Irish Setter had made red-paint footprints on painting day when they moved to their new house. She quickly wondered where Lady was now, she’d been, what, 14 months old that day, that was four years ago, so Lady would be 5 years old now. They’d had to give her away when her dad died. She hoped Lady was happy.

Climbing onto her bike, Fly pushed off of the driveway for the last time and said her silent good-byes and began to build up her speed as she sped down the road.

Fly sped down her street and said goodbye to the old stop sign with the fire pits from when Jackson Michaelbee had blown up a firework in a hole next to the sign. He had gotten in huge trouble because a patrol car had driven by right as he set it off.  Jackson was in jail for the weekend then had to clean up trash for 2 months after. All the kids in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade had been talking about it for almost a year.

She rode a few blocks over and recalled the many times she and her father had stopped at Walter’s Bakery for donuts and hot cocoa when she was young. They stopped just after her ninth birthday after her dad progressed to stage 4 leukemia in January. He got too sick. At first it wasn’t so bad, long movie nights and on good days, going out to dinner. Then there was the in-home nurse and the surgical masks to keep out germs. Finally, there was the once daily hospital visits in full surgical garb. Once they knew he only had days, they let him go to hospice and that’s where he later died. She remembered feeling sad, then in denial, and finally feeling cheated that she’d only had 10 short years with him.

Author's Note

Ignore grammar and spelling mistakes, I only want reviews on plot, character, etc.