Chapter 7

"These kids are bad as Hell!" Machlon remarked as he hurried out the double doors of the local middle school to meet his sister. So far he had no friends here in Florida and didn't want any. Truth be told, the kids his age scared him. "They need to have paddling here too." Corporal punishment was still legal in Kentucky's schools and their mother had never been hesitant to consent for school staff to straighten her children out. It went without saying they would get worse at home later for getting into trouble at school too. 

They walked to school and back daily, same as they had done in Kentucky, except walking back home was a lot safer there than smack dab in the middle of the ghetto where Isaac had them living. If they did not have school to attend then they did not come outside. Their mother had never been wealthy by any estimate, certainly did not have anywhere near the amount of income Isaac did, a disabled Army veteran, and yet she had still managed to purchase a comfortable 4 bedroom home in a solidly middle class neighborhood where you could walk down the street to the convenience store without worrying about getting mugged and the yards had grass rather than rusted cars on cinder blocks. In this place you weren't ever even safe inside your own abode, which more likely than not resembled a shack you wouldn't want your dog living in. 

"No, they need to be locked up somewhere." Amaris shook her head quickening her pace as they passed a house with a mean looking guy and three pit bulls in the yard. "Away from civilization."

It was a fairly short walk, four blocks in 10 minutes, yet regardless of the season they arrived at Isaac's place soaked with sweat and exhausted. Machlon was always hungry whereas Amaris would be desperate to peel off the sticky clothes and shower off. One off them would call out, "We're back!" careful not to refer to this place as home. 

Today that wasn't necessary however. Isaac was in the driveway and one look at his face told them to be worried. More specifically, Machlon knew that he needed to be wary since the brunt of Isaac's wrath was always his. Amaris never had to worry about catching Hell, regardless of how moody and spoiled she acted. 

"I told you." She said ominously. "Didn't you learn anything while we were in Kentucky for christmas?" 

Though he did not say it, he knew exactly what she was talking about and his heart hurt. He just wanted to wake up from this living nightmare and have everything back to the way it was supposed to be. Why was he being punished for simply wanting his familiar life back? Yeah he had learned there were consequences for talking too much. He had also made up his mind that he would take a thousand beatings if in the end he achieved his goal. 

He refused to acknowledge Isaac's eyes, black as thunder, boring into him. He had done nothing wrong....not in a perfect world at least. He wanted to go home and he was certain that if she knew what was going on then she would let him without further delay.

Mommy had taken to calling their cellphones at odd hours when she figured she was least likely to get stonewalled by Isaac and more likely to get either Amaris or Machlon on the phone. Since the five day sabbatical in Kentucky over the holidays, contact had become not just heavily controlled but alarmingly restricted against the terms of the agreement signed granting Isaac legal guardianship. Only Machlon had attempted to insist on his and Amaris's natural rights to speak to and see their mother, taking her calls behind Isaac's back whenever he could. His little sister steadfastly refused to touch the phone and told him he would live to regret his own defiance.

Reviews

[SweetNutmeg]

"A bashful and private guarded person by nature, she could stand no more of Isaac creating a dramatic scene loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear"

Reader's note: I always pictured Amaris as spoiled and sullen, not bashful and guarded. Maybe I just mis-read her before this? This description caught me by surprise. That's my reaction as a reader, and I could be just being unobservant.