"Amy, come here please," my aunt Tessie ordered, tapping her foot impatiently on the vinyl floor. I huffed a sign of frustration, knowing she probably had a days worth of chores for me to do, forcing me to stay up until probably midnight to finish my homework. If I didn't pass out before then.
"Coming aunt Tessie," I told her, my tone sounding like a groan. I dragged my feet into the kitchen, where aunt Tessie was waiting with her hands on her hips. She looked me up and down and huffed loudly.
"What did I tell you about getting your clothes dirty?" she snapped, gesturing at the mud stain on the bottom of my pant leg. I smelled alcohol on her breath, and knew she'd been out drinking that day. Not that there was really a time when aunt Tessie wasn't drunk, but it was always worse when she was.
"Caleb Brown tripped me on my way home," I muttered, staring at the ground. Caleb was sort of the resident bully in my school, and he just loved picking on kids who were too wimpy to stick up for themselves. Sadly, I classified myself into that category.
"I don't care, you're cleaning them up. And while you're at it, do the rest of the wash. Maybe that will teach you to take better care of your clothes next time. Teach you not to be a pig and stick for yourself," aunt Tessie sneered and turned away from me. "I'm going out with my friends so I won't be in till late. I want the house spotless when I get back. And you can cook supper," She added as an afterthought.
This had been the daily routine for almost 2 months now, me being aunt Tessie's slave, and Brooke, my 8 year old sister too, when she could get away with it. Ever since my father passed away (my mother died giving birth to my sister,) Brooke and I had come to live with aunt Tessie, apparently the only family we had left. Though aunt Tessie was extremely bitter about having us around, she seemed satisfied with making us (mostly me,) pay for it with slave labour. Aunt Tessie had a bad habit of drowning her sorrows in drinking and taking her anger out on us. I knew aunt Tessie wished she could send us away to live with some foster or adoptive family, maybe even an orphanage for all she cared, but she thought it would be bad for her reputation if people thought she just threw us out into the streets. Honestly, I think I'd rather live in an orphanage, but of course Brooke and I had no say in it.
It was then that Brooke entered the door, arriving home from school. She walked down the hall towards me (we always seeked comfort in each other, a sort of united front from my aunt,) but aunt Tessie gripped her arm and yanked her back.
"Look what you did!" she screeched in her ear. Brooke cringed away, fear obvious on her face. She was probably remembering the last time Aunt Tessie was this drunk, she'd had nightmares about it for days. Aunt Tessie then roughly turned her so Brooke could see the mud she'd tracked into the house.
"How many times have I told you not to walk through the house with your shoes on? what's wrong with you, what can't you understand? It's like I'm talking to a brick wall!" tears sprang into Brooke's eyes, and I ran to defend her.
"It was an accident aunt Tessie! I'll clean it up, and I promise it won't happen again!" even though I already had too many things to do, I had to help Brooke any way I could.
"No!" she glared at me, then turned back to Brooke, "you're cleaning this up young lady, this time with your toothbrush! Have I made myself clear?" Brooke nodded weakly, a soft whimper escaping her mouth. Aunt Tessie released her and I immediately wrapped my arms around her.
"Goodnight," said Aunt Tessie sarcastically. She turned to me, in her anger slurring her words slightly "This house better be spotless when I get home!" she growled. She stomped out of the house, slamming the door behind her. The room was silent for a few moments.
Brooke then dissolved into tears.
"Shhh, it's okay, it's not your fault," I comforted, stroking her hair as she sobbed into my chest. In truth, I was boiling with anger inside, anger towards the woman who had the nerve to do this to my baby sister.
"I'm so sorry!" Brook wailed, " I didn't mean it! It was an accident!"
"Brooke, you did nothing wrong. It's aunt Tessie that has the problem, not us," I tried to reassure her, but I was gritting my teeth in anger. Brooke looked up with understanding in her eyes. She was aware of how unwelcome we were in our aunt's house, though she was not sure why. I did my best to explain to her that it wasn't her fault aunt Tessie didn't like us, but I'm not sure she believed me.
"I want to go home!" She told me, her voice breaking on the word home. I was frozen, my head suddenly swimming with unwanted memories. Memories of my father, my sister and I walking through the forest together, riding bikes, enjoying each others company. That was home. But we had no home anymore.
Brooke saw that now my eyes were tearing up and though she didn't understand the reason behind them, she hugged me tighter in an effort to comfort me.
This was how Brooke and I survived. Not because we had an aunt who took care of us (barely), but because we took care of each other. And looking down at my sister, still crying and hiccuping because of my aunt, I didn't want to put up with this any longer.
"We're leaving," I told her suddenly, grabbing her hand and dragging her to our room.
She looked up, excited, "Really?!Yay! Where are we going?" I stopped, now caught in the question: 'Where were we going?' I wasn't sure. I suddenly remembered that beside my dad's house, we had a neighbor was extremely sweet, and loved to have us over. Maybe she would want to adopt us. If not, we might go to an orphanage. I was pretty sure that an orphanage was better than aunt Tessie's, at least they wouldn't make us feel like trash.
"Do you remember , our old neighbor? The one with the daughter named Jessica?" Brooke nodded her head, remembering the nice lady. "Maybe she would want us to live with her, she always told us how much she liked us." I knew it was a long shot, but I was fed up with aunt Tessie, and I had to do something.
As I explained this all to her, we packed. we didn't have many things, just a few items of clothes, our tooth and hair brushes, a few toys for Brooke and CDs for me, and all the money we had, which wasn't much. We stuffed it all in our school backpacks, and left the room, doing all this as quick as we could. Brooke looked sadly back at the few stuffed animals she had to leave behind, but seemed happy that she wouldn't have to live with aunt Tessie anymore.
Before leaving the house I grabbed a few food items from the fridge, enough to sustain us until we could get to Mrs. Stanley's. I also wrote a quick note for aunt Tessie so she knew where we'd gone.
Aunt Tessie,
Brooke and I are leaving. You've made it quite clear that you don't want us here, and we have decided not to bother you anymore. Don't come looking for us. We'll find our way on our own. Thank you for letting us live with you.
Sincerely, Amy Tallon
There. I tried to be as polite as possible, even though aunt Tessie didn't deserve it. I looked down at Brooke who was shifting anxiously from foot to foot.
"Things will be better now, you'll see," I reassured her, grabbing her hand and squeezing it tight. She responded by gripping it even tighter. And with that, we left aunt Tessie's place for hopefully the last time.