Hey guys! Thank you SO SO very much for the reviews. I'm loving them.
Someone mentioned/questioned as to why Phil works in business, whereas the character type he is should be a jobless person. As I mention to them, Phil has a job for a reason. It doesn't necessarily have to be business, but it was the only job I could think of. But him working at a business is a link to a connection that helps Kitty along the way in the story.
Thanks again and enjoy this.
P.S as many as you know, with the exception of "Shooting Stars!" chapter, All the chapters begin with the letter H. Why? Because Hope, Help, Hospital, Home. The main ingredients in the story, so ... yes.
Next Morning... Tuesday...
Kitty woke to the sound of Phil screeching her name at the top of his lungs. The bloody curl of his throat was ear-aching for Kitty but much worse for Kathy who woke up suddenly, from the startle. Kitty got out of the bed and grabbed Kathy, bouncing her and trying to sooth the toddler. "Shh, it's okay Kathy. It's okay."
She heard Phil's boots roaming up the stairs, each step was a thunderous roar of a hurricane. "Bitch!? BITCH! Where's my pancakes? I told you last night to make me pancakes!"
"First off you didn't say a thing to me." Kitty bluntly said, still bouncing the toddler. "Second of all, don't scream. You woke Kathy up."
"Do I give an honest fuck?" Phil asked. "You're coming to work today, for a while."
"Why?" She sneered-ly asked.
"Why else? To keep a damn eye on you and that brat you're holding. Hurry up and get dressed before I smack the both of yous. Take a short shower."
Phil left after that. Kitty rolled her eyes as she went over to her t.v and put on a kids show for Kathy. Once Kathy was settled Kitty jumped in the shower, washed her hair quickly and her skin rapidly, she got out and went to her naked closet. It was the middle of December and Phil took all her warm clothes. The next thing to being warm was wearing her blue tights, from a long ago friends wedding in which she was a bridesmaid, white shorts and a red tank top. She grabbed those, got dressed in the bathroom, grabbed her cardigan from the other day and put her white sneakers on. She brushed her hair, added makeup on and picked up Kathy, a toddler play bag that contained crayons, snacks, a coloring book and her Teddy Bear, all by the time Phil yelled at her.
"Hurry up, you slow girl!"
Ten minutes later the three of them, with Phil's bagel from a bagel pickup, arrived at his work business. He parked in his parking space and turned the car off.
"Listen here Blondie," Phil turned to Kitty. An evil glare in the middle of his eyes. "You will not tell anyone about anything that has happened at home. Got it? I swear to God if you tell anyone anything, I'll make you dead in a second. Understand?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Don't sass me...Kitty?" He questioned. Kitty raised an eyebrow. "Is you name Kitty or not?"
"Kitty."
"Good. Now shut up from now on."
"How long am I here?"
"Until three. Now shut up."
Inside the work building Kitty, holding a sleeping Kathy, followed Phil to this work office. His office was in the very back of the floor, where almost nobody could be seen and rarely had anyone in the work space go back there to get things done. As rare as it snowing in the middle of June. Possible, as it can happen, but impossible to stay. Glass windows, a silver desk with a Mac computer, papers all over the place and a photo of him with five other women. Secret girlfriends. Not surprising. She sat down in a chair and placed Kathy on the floor and took out the coloring book and crayons.
Ten minutes into the work time, Kitty felt her stomach growl. She's been hungry for a few days and barely had anything to eat. She save the food she make for Kathy and before she could serve herself, Phil would come home and scream at her. Kathy turned up to Phil, wondering if she could ask him if she could eat or not. Before she could ask, a woman came walking in. Dressed in a gray suite jacket and gray skirt, with a white blouse and tan heel shoes. She came in, starting to ask Phil if he knew anything about her husbands whereabouts when she saw Kitty and Kathy. She smiled warmly at them.
"Phil, who are these two girls?" She asked, her voice similar to an angels voice.
"Kitty and...Annabelle." Phil said. "They're here for a while then Kitty's leaving for a friends home, I assume?" The eye expression he gave Kitty demanded she nodded. "They're such good girls."
"I can see." The woman said. She turned to them and saw from the expression on Kitty's face, she looked hungry. "Kitty? Do you and Annabelle want some doughnuts You look very famished."
Kitty was starving. But she didn't know how Phil would react. She answered, "I would love to, but Dad says I have to stay here and watch...Annabelle...while he's working." God, calling my own sister by the wrong name, just to go along with the lady.
"She can come too. Phil, is that okay?" The woman asked Phil.
"Sure." He said, then turned to Kitty. "Just make sure not to vomit afterwards, got it?" His expression told Kitty what she had to do afterwards.
Kitty nodded, and laughed saying, "Dad please, I'm not like that Lima Loser at my school who's in the hospital because she's bulimic. Come here," She picked up Kathy and carried her out of the room.
Down the hall into an open office space laid a few boxes of doughnuts. The woman closed the door behind them and said with a smile, "Feel free to take as many as you want."
"Thank you." Kitty said, placing Kathy on the table and opened a box. "Pick whatever one you want, Kathy."
"Kathy?" The woman asked, surprised. "I thought it was Annabelle."
"Annabelle is her name," Kitty lied. "But Kathy is sort of a family name."
"Oh I see." The blonde curly hair woman said. "I'm Shirley Broderick."
Phil's bosses wife. Kitty thought. She smiled and said, "Shirley? As in Shirley temple?"
"As a matter of fact, yes and no." Shirley told the girl. She sat down across from her. "I was named after my grandmother, born the same year as Shirley Temple. And I wanted to be Shirley Temple when I was growing up. I loved her hair, her dresses, her ability to act and dance and sing all at once. I loved her in Curly Top. The Animal Crackers song was my all time favorite song."
"Mine too." Kitty said, smiling a bit. She didn't know why, but she felt close to this woman. Closer than she felt to anyone else, even her own mother. "I use to watch it all the time at my grandmothers home before she died."
"I wanted to be Shirley Temple when I was younger. She was the best person. You know how when your little and something scares you, you find something to make you get away from what scares you?"
Cheering and singing. Kitty thought. "Yeah."
"Shirley Temple was mine." Shirley told Kitty. "I didn't have the same hair color as her, or looked at all like her, but she was beautiful too. I just had to be Shirley."
God knows why Kitty asked this but she did. "What scared you?"
Shirley looked at Kitty with a soft facial expression. She gave a faint smile. "I had an abusive childhood home."
Kitty's heart stopped. She didn't move an inch. With her mouth lightly opened she kept staring at Shirley. "You did?"
Shirley nodded. "It was dark days in my home. Everyday my mother and my father would yell at me for no reason. I urinated on my father's shirt, I threw up on my mother's skirt. I made a huge mess. It was usually yelling. But by the time I got older it became worse. My mother's new boyfriend, Frank, would punch me in the face and kick my back. He'd call me a slut and a whore. My mother would laugh as she watched this go on. sipping her wine glass full of expensive French wine. My father was even more tough on me. He'd kick me harder than Frank and strangled me until I pass out or nearly died. I was an only child, thank God, but I wished I had a sibling to protect me. At least then maybe I could find comfort. When I was a teenager I caused problems. I made fun of everyone because they had perfect families, I was a bitch to the innocent and I swear to God I was ready to kick somebody's ass if they messed with me. I had no friends in the middle school or high school."
Shirley continued on for several minutes, Kitty listened carefully as the women spoke. Every word she said hurt Kitty. Kitty knew what it was like. The pain, the hurt, the weakness in her to not be able to tell anyone about her un-perfect family. She knew every detail of it.
Shirley smiled. "Eventually I got out the house. I ran away from Florida to here in Ohio, when I was eighteen. I graduated my high school and that night when I got home I picked up by bags and ran for the next bus. Although, now that I recall it, I was going to New York and not here in Lima. But, fate changes I suppose. I stayed at a shelter for girls and women for about three years until I earned my way to college and studied child services classes. I graduated the top of my class and got a job at the LCPS: Lima Child Protection Service.""Wow, that's amazing." Kitty admired. "From the way you seemed before all this, you always seemed like a strong person with no abuse."
"Well look at Christina Aguilera, Rhianna, Janice Dickinson, Ozzy Osborne and Oprah. They've all had some sort of abusive childhood when they were growing up. Look at them today; Singers, super model, and talk show host. They made it far in life from their abuse." Shirley smiled. "I may not be Miss Temple. But I'm so happy to be working somewhere where I can stop children from being hurt anymore." She said. "Call this corny, but it's my job. If you or anyone you know is under the age of eighteen and is an abusive home; please call me."
Kitty nodded. She so desperately wanted to tell Shirley about the life as the Wilde house. The hurt, the pain, the drunk asshole, the innocent baby, the bruises, the red marks from slaps. Everything that was negative in the house. She wanted to be saved, but more so, wanted Kathy saved.
No, I can't do that. Kitty thought. If I tell her what happens, they'll separate Kathy and I. And Kathy needs me right now. More than ever. Since Aunt Myra's death last night Kathy can't go back there. She's with us. And I will protect Kathy from all this pain that, that idiot Phil does to us.
Kitty turned and found Kathy covered in chocolate fudge, white cream, pink frosting and sprinkles all over her sister. She clapped her hands and yelled, "Kitty!"
Kitty, after eating her own donuts, took Kathy to the bathroom and washed her sister. When she left she went back to Phil's office, finding him with his body rolled back on the chair and almost closed eyes. Ew, a blowjob in public?
"Dad, I—" She began to say when she entered.
"Get the fuck out!" Phil yelled, throwing a book at her head. "Go! Go! Go!"
Kitty grabbed the toddler bag as Phil screamed at her. She left the room and ran down, far away from the screaming asshole.
Outside she hailed a taxi ride back to her house. It was there she was getting ready to leave when saw Ryder and Finn walking down the street. She turned to the two with a suspicious glare in her eyes.
"Are you suppose to be in school or kissing Mr. Schue's butt?" She asked them.
"I could ask the same thing." Finn said. "Kitty, why are you still home?"
"And who's this little girl?" Ryder asked.
"It's my niece. My cousin is deadly sick today and there's no money for a sitter and nobody can watch her, so I offered." She lied perfectly. "Why aren't you guys in school?"
The two boys looked at one another, talking with their eyes, before turning back to Kitty. "I'm skipping." Ryder said.
"You've been ditching a lot." Kitty commented. "Like to visit Honey Boo-Boo."
"Kitty be quiet." Ryder said. "Stop be jealous."
"Whatever." Kitty said. She then had an idea. "Ryder, are you going home?"
"Uh, not really, why?"
"Mr. Schue Jr?"
"No, I'm going back to the school." Finn told her.
"Beiber hair, is it possible, POSSIBLE, that your crazy I-Don't-Want-My-Babies-To-Grow-Up mother can watch Kathy for a while, while I go out doing some shopping?" She asked him.
"I dunno." Ryder said. "You sure you want...Kathy... around my house?"
"Please!" Kitty's voice pleaded. "I... I just need to get stuff done and doing it without Kathy would make it quicker. Please!" her eyes widen, green eyes watery.
Ryder, somehow feeling bad for this girl at the moment, could read her face and body expression. She really needed to get stuff done and he knew for a fact that it would be easier for the young girl if she didn't have a child on her. He nodded. "Sure, I guess I can take her home and have Mom watch her for a while."
Kitty smiled. She held up Kathy in front of her. "Ryder's going to take care of you for a while, okay? I promise you he won't let anything happen to you, okay Baby Kitty?"
Minutes later after telling him what time she would get her sister and a few more things, Kitty got in her mother's range rover and drove off to the mall. She still had Shirley's words on her mind. The abuse. She then got Marley on her mind. Little miss perfect with the perfect family.
She wanted a Marley Rose life.
