WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

SAM PEMBROKE

CHAPTER ONE

WHY?

The day dawned particularly rainy. Inside their grandparents home, Rose and Emily stirred awake. Rose stood up from her bed and looked out the window. Everything was wet and the rain kept coming down at a good clip.

"Too wet to go outside today. Guess we'll have to stay indoors." Rose thought to herself. Suddenly, she heard shouting from across the hall. These shouts seemed to be in anguish. The next thing she heard seemed to be her mother trying to calm down the shouting, but the shouting continued. Rose walked over to the door and listened.

"That's Emily. What's going on with her?" Rose thought again.

"You don't love me! You never have! You simply gave me away. You never thought anything about it." Said Emily.

"I didn't give you away Emily! I simply wasn't psychologically able to raise both of you!" Ruth shouted back.

"She's having one of her tantrums again." Rose said to herself. Rose then found herself sitting back on the bed listening all the while.

"Do you want me to take you to the hospital Emily? Is that what you want?"

"No! You can't take me to daddy's hospital!" Emily screamed.

"But I will Emily. I can't have you doing this. Not here." Ruth said in a terse manner.

"Do what you want with me. Since you don't love me."

Rose couldn't bear to hear this. She wanted to march in there and give Emily a peace of her mind. She also wondered what her mother was going through at this point. To Rose, Emily's disastrous mood swings disrupted her little world.

A world that was at peace.

Breakfast that same morning was tense. You could cut it with a knife, that's how tense things were. Emily merely picked at her food. Edith, who had been sitting at the table while the commotion had been going on spoke up.

"What do you plan on doing with her?" She obviously meant Emily.

"I'm taking her to Broadacres. I feel that this is beyond my control. She thinks I don't love her." Ruth said, still rather tense from the goings on minutes prior.

"Obviously she needs medication. Those mood swings will get her into serious trouble. How will the other girls react if she does this at school? I do believe the term will be starting soon." Edith said coolly.

"Mother, she's on medication. I don't know where she gets the idea that I do not love her, but it distresses me." Ruth said.

Emily, who'd been sitting there at the table rolled her eyes. It bothered her that they were talking about her. She wanted it to stop.

"Don't talk about while I'm here. I'd like to be excused from the table." Emily said in great anger.

"Young lady, you are being discussed. You may not leave the table. You have misbehaved, and you are going to be punished for it. I think a psychiatric facility will be a good temporary place for you." Edith replied.

"Mother." Ruth pleaded.

"Ruth, you will take Emily to Broadacres. Maybe they can shock treat her or something. No proper young lady would ever do as you have done."

"No. I won't have them shock her. She's too delicate." Ruth uttered.

Rose, who had also been sitting enjoying breakfast looked with pleading eyes to her mother. Suddenly, she began to speak.

"I don't think Emily is a bad child. She just needs help. That's all." Rose said as she picked up her toast.

"Rose dear, this doesn't concern you." Ruth quietly said.

"She's my sister isn't she?" Rose replied.

She had a point there. The rest of breakfast went by quietly. Finally, Ruth told Emily to get her pea coat.

"You're taking me to daddy's hospital?" Emily asked in a hurt tone. Ruth simply nodded and Emily did as she was told. She put on the dark blue pea coat and opened the door. Tears were streaming down her face as she did so. It was a few minutes before Ruth joined her on the front porch. When she did so, Emily took her by the hand.

"Do we really have to do this Mrs. Bukater?" Emily asked, struggling with her tears.

"I'm afraid so Emily. You know I love you. I just wish it didn't have to come to this." Ruth replied.

"But I don't want to go. Mama will be so cross with me if she finds out that I've been in Broadacres." Emily pouted.

"Emily, she's your mother. She has every right to know that you're there. She has cared for you during the past thirteen years." Ruth said coolly.

"I just wish you could have done it. I wish I was never even born." Emily continued.

"Don't say that Emily. You don't know what it's like to lose a child." Ruth said. Her features began to droop.

Emily thought about what Ruth was going to say next and she sat down on a chair.

"Before you were born, I had a daughter named Alice. Alice was my world. I loved her. She loved me. I thought she could beat the illness. I thought she was a fighter. Pneumonia claimed such an innocent child from me. I felt like I couldn't go on Emily. Her death drained me emotionally and psychologically. When I gave birth to you and Rose, I knew an old friend from school who had been trying to get pregnant." Ruth said trying not to get choked up.

"That's why I went to live with her? It wasn't because you didn't want me?"

"Not at all. Come on Emily, let's go to Broadacres. The sooner you get help, the better it will be for you. Heaven forbid you have a mood swing at school. What will Ms. Allen say about that?" Ruth said.

Emily pondered a moment and replied; "She'd send me to my room. They would be so ever cross with me if that would happen."

Ruth got up from her chair. Emily did the same. Ruth kissed her on the forehead and they walked down the front walk.

Emily's journey had just begun.