"Lilly & Christina"
Chapter 3 – Extreme Measures
It was 3:00 a.m. Ellen tried to calm down Lilly, who was screaming all night. Well, little Lilly wasn't the only reason she was up. Michael hadn't arrived from work yet. Usually, he left work at midnight and was home before 1:00 a.m. But, in the last month, he was always arriving late. Ellen never smelled alcohol in his breath, but she was always sleeping when he arrived. Or pretending she was.
The last two years, after the birth of Lilly, hadn't been easy for Ellen and Michael Rush. Jumping from job to job, still living in that old building in Kensington Avenue. Their rent was always late, the electricity was rarely working, because they rarely paid for it.
Ellen wasn't working right now. The factory she worked had closed 3 weeks ago. That left Ellen a lot of free time to be wit her daughter Lilly, and with her own thoughts.
3:20 a.m. From her bedroom, she hears the door opening. Michael enters the bedroom.
"Hey baby, What you're still doing up?" He asks.
"I don't what's happening, she won't sleep." Ellen answers. Lilly has calmed down but she's still crying. Michael picks up Lilly. He lifts her up and plays with her for a while. She stops crying. "You really do some magic on her." Ellen says. He gets up from the bed and kisses Michael. He hasn't been drinking. Suspicious thoughts begin to appear on Ellen's mind. "Why did you arrive so late, baby?" She asks.
"I was working. Some extra hours." He answers, but not looking directly into Ellen's eyes. "You know, I'm new there. I have to make a good impression." He kisses her another time and leaves the room to get something to eat.
Ellen puts Lilly in her crib. She watches the little girl sleep. When she had Lilly, she felt like she had gained strength to fight all her problems. And she really did. But lately, it seemed like her strength had abandoned her. Or maybe her problems were getting bigger? She walks to the bedroom's door. Michael's still eating. She goes back inside and closes the door. She opens her small wardrobe and reaches for a bottle hidden behind Lilly's clothes. She opens the bottle and drinks directly from it. Immediately, she feels her body on fire. She looks at Lilly – who is sleeping now – and lets the tears fall.
2 weeks later….
Ellen opens the food cabinet in the kitchen. It's literally empty. How could she not notice they were running out of food? From the bedroom, Lilly is crying. She's hungry. Ellen opens the fridge. There's some milk, but not enough to feed Lilly. Ellen warms up the milk and gives it to Lilly. She wants more.
"I'm sorry honey… I don't have more." Ellen rocks Lilly on her arms. But her mom's lullaby won't solve Lilly's problems. Ellen makes a decision. She changes her clothes, and then Lilly's, and leaves.
She gets down to the 3rd floor and knocks in one of the doors. A 50-something woman opens the door.
"Good morning, Mrs. Turner. Can you watch Lilly today?" She asks. Lilly is still impatient and crying.
"Oh sure, my dear. Another job interview?" She asks, leading Ellen inside her apartment.
"Yeah." Ellen answers. "I hope I'll be more lucky this time."
"I'm sure you will." Mrs. Turner takes Lilly in her arms, and watches how much she's crying. "Are you hungry, my dear?" She says to the little girl.
"I gave her everything I had, but…"
"It wasn't enough. Don't worry, Ellen. Go to your interview." She opens the door to Ellen.
Ellen kisses Lilly goodbye. "Mommy will be back in a few hours." And then to Mrs. Turner, "Thank you so much, Mrs. Turner. I promise when we get back on our feet, we'll pay you for all those babysitting hours."
"Stop that. For me it's more than a pleasure to take care of this little Angel. She pays attention to what I say, smiles to me… my granddaughter never does that."
Ellen smiles. "It's the age, Mrs. Turner. I'm sure I'll get a lot of bickering from this one when she's 14."
She kisses Lilly one more time and leaves. At the street, she looks for someone. She waves as she finds her friend Cher. Cher and Ellen want to high school together. Only at that time Cher used her real name, Alice. But nowadays, she couldn't. Going by Cher avoided a lot of problems.
"Hey, Ellie!" Cher greets her happily. "How is everything?"
"As bad as they could be, Alice. My daughter is hungry and I don't food, and I don't have money." Ellen says, as they walked to an isolated corner of the street. "About that offer you made me…"
"Changed your mind?"
"I'm desperate for money. And you promised I could to do it like a one-time thing."
"Don't worry. I'll take care of everything for you. I'll get you someone really nice. Actually, he's coming to meet me in about half an hour." Cher says as she caresses her friend's hair. She knew exactly how this moment felt like. "Isn't Michael working?"
"He is, but what he ears is not enough. Or he's not bringing everything into his house." Ellen answers, on a bitter tone.
"No, Ellen, come on. Michael would never cheat on you."
Ellen watches the people passing by on the street. "And still, look what I'm doing to him."
Meanwhile, on the other side of Philadelphia….
Three men are sitting and drinking in a bar table.
"I don't know, man. I've been on this job for three months and it's not being worth it." Michael says as he pours himself more beer. "Today I had to leave my house without breakfast because the only thing left was my daughter's milk. I really need more money."
"Give it time, Mike. You thought you'd get into this business and three months later you'd be buying yourself a house in the suburbs and be telling your wife she doesn't need to look for a job anymore? It took me over a year to see the money really coming in." The one that answers him is Dean, a 25-year-old New York native, who, in he's free time, used his Italian looks to seduce women, going by the name of Antonio. And in his work time, he was know as Tony, the youngest man to ever command the drug business in East Philly. "Look, Mike. I like you. I see a good future for you. But I can't trust you completely after knowing you for only 3 months. Just do your job as I tell you, and you'll get what you deserve." He finishes and lights up his third cigarette in the last hour.
"Yeah, don't worry man. Anywhere you work, you have to climb your way to success and money, right? In this business, it isn't any different." says John-Paul, Tony's bodyguard and closest adviser. Paulie, as everyone called him, was a 6-feet tall black guy, who was born somewhere in Texas and came up North to search of better opportunities. "You're not telling your wife anything you shouldn't, right?"
"Of course not. She thinks I'm working at a construction site. She already has enough problems trying to survive with the money I'm giving her." Michael lights up a cigarette.
"I didn't know you smoked, Mike." Paulie says.
"Mike has finally listened to me. You need to have something that makes you forget." Tony says, tapping on Michael's shoulders. He looks at a clock on the wall. It says 11 a.m. "Come on guys. Time to work."
The three men get up and check their guns. Paulie drops some money on the table and they leave the bar. Michael is the last out. He can't believe he got himself into this life. But he couldn't stand anymore to hear his daughter crying because she was hungry, or cold, since her clothes weren't enough to keep her warm on the winter. One month after he started working with Tony, he brought her a doll. It was hard to avoid Ellen's questions and complains. "We don't have money to buy food, and you buy her a doll!" It was what she said. Little did Ellen know that Michael didn't buy that doll. Tony had his men break into the house of a client who was late on paying for the products he bought. Tony's men filled two box with things that could possibly be worth something. When Tony picked up the doll from one of the boxes, he tossed it into Michael's hands. "Here. Take this to your kid." When he saw the shine in Lilly's eyes as she hugged the doll, life leaves you nothing but extreme measures.
Now, back to Ellen….
Ellen felt sick as she followed that man through the motel's hall. He was Gary Booth, a 60-year-old wealthy business man, who loved paying for sex. "Sex is power, sweetie… and the woman's got the power. Until she's getting paid for it." He told Ellen as they drove to the motel.
After they got inside the room, he closed the door, and led Ellen to the bed. They sat next to each other. Gary reaches for Ellen's face. He tucks her hair behind her right ear. "So, Cher tells me this is your first gig."
"Yeah, it is." Ellen answers. She's terrified by that man's touch.
"And you got a daughter, right?" Gary says, as he touches Ellen's mouth.
"Yes, I do. She's two, and her name is Lilly."
"After we're done here, we'll go buy something for her." He says with a smile.
Ellen does her best to smile back. "Thanks."
He gets up and asks, "What do you drink?"
"The same you're having," she answers.
Gary goes back to her with a glass of scotch. She drinks it at one gulp. He looks at her for a while, and then says, "Makes it easy to forget, doesn't it?" She nods, already dizzy from the drink.
She keeps her eyes open as he kisses her. She thinks about Michael. About how much they've driven apart in the last couple of years. She used to know exactly where he was, all the time. He didn't even had to tell her. It wasn't like that anymore. And it seemed like path with no return.
Two hours later, Gary was over with her. Ellen puts her clothes on, and fights back tears. Gary gives her one-hundred dollars. She hadn't seem that amount of money in a very long time. "Now, we are getting something for your little girl. Last week I bought an adorable tea set for my nice… you think your daughter would like it?"
"Oh, I'm sure she'll love it." Ellen says, as they live the room.
About two hours later, Ellen arrives home with groceries. She picks up Lilly at Mrs. Turner house and gives her 5 dollars. Back at their apartment, Ellen gives Lilly her new tea set. They have dinner like they didn't have in many weeks. Ellen watches Lilly give some tea to her doll. Was it right to give her daughter a gift that came from where it came? She tried to make herself believe that sometimes, you have no choice but to take extreme measures.
It's around midnight when Michael arrives. Ellen welcomes him with a kiss. "You're early today. That's so great."
Michael notices the plates on the table. "How did you buy food?"
Ellen thinks for a moment. "Cher gave me money."
Michael digests that information for a moment. Usually, he didn't like that his wife was still friends with a hooker, but now, who was he to judge her? Actually, now he could see that she was just another person who didn't have another choice.
Before he could say anything, Ellen adds, "And she also bought her this tea set."
"That was really nice of her. Tell Cher I'm really grateful." Between a hurricane of thoughts, Michael manages to say something.
"Really? You always said you wanted me to keep distance of her."
"Well, our daughter is happy, isn't she?" He asks.
"Yes, she is." Ellen answers, trying to prevent any tears to appear in her eyes.
"Then it's all that matters." Michael says, embracing Ellen and kissing her on the forehead.
To be continued
On the next chapter: Ellen finds out about Michael's new business, while he suspects of her new drinking habits. And then, six years later, things are slightly better for the Rushs. Daughters Lilly and Christina seem to be growing up just fine, until a terrible thing happens. Something that will change their lives forever.