Part Five - A Return to Sarah
("What's the matter my dear, don't you like your toys?.")
Sarah sat in her room as she listened to her father and Karen getting ready for the treat that they had planned for Toby. As it was a weekend, and neither of them had been called into work, they intending on spending some 'quality' time with their son down at the local zoo.
"Sarah are you sure we can't change your mind?" Karen peered her head around the corner of the door and looked about with the interest of one who knows that she does not have an open invitation within this domain.
Sarah smiled and shook her head. Though she didn't necessarily mind spending her weekend going out with her family, the prospect of having to spend all day watching animals pacing the small enclosures that surrounded them did not exactly appeal. Vaguely she recalled a time when she was very young and had went on a school excursion to an animal shelter, her teacher had been forced to ring home to arrange for Sarah to be picked up and she had a faint memory of the disappointed look on her mother's face as she entered the reception area where a member of staff had been keeping an eye on the distraught child.
It was one of the last memories that Sarah actually had of spending time with her mother. Soon after the freedom of her child attending school had enabled her to spend more and more time away from the home. And then finally she just wasn't there anymore, and it was her father and not her mother who tucked Sarah in at night and read to her until she was too sleepy to protest as he turned the light out and shut the door.
"No I'm fine, honest."
Karen hovered uncertainly and Sarah wondered for a moment whether she was going to attempt to persuade her stepdaughter but instead she merely shrugged and backed away, leaving Sarah to the privacy that she valued so much.
Part of Sarah wanted Karen to have pleaded with her to come along, to suggest that the outing would not be the same without her. She knew however that that was not the case. Her father, Karen and Toby were this comfortable family unit that Sarah did not seem to be able to fit into. When her father had first married Karen Sarah had tried, at sixteen though she was too old to be spoiled by her new stepmother and too young to move out or be left to her own devices.
It would have been all too easy for Sarah to cast Karen in the role of the wicked stepmother and take up the mantle of the poorly done by first child but it simply was not the case, no matter how hard Sarah attempted to justify this viewpoint. Karen went out of her way to try and make Sarah feel wanted within the house, but the truth of the matter was that increasingly she was counting off the days, months, and she guessed that realistically years, until she would be able to live independently. Away from the small family who simply did not seem to need or have a place for her anymore, apart from the occasional evening when someone was needed to take care of Toby whilst the couple went out.
Below Sarah heard the front door close firmly and listened as a car door slammed shut. They would probably be away for the majority of the day, so long as Toby did not fall ill, which meant that she would have several hours to try and pass the time and not think of the events of the last couple of days.
("What's the matter my dear, don't you like your toys?.")
Sarah sat in her room as she listened to her father and Karen getting ready for the treat that they had planned for Toby. As it was a weekend, and neither of them had been called into work, they intending on spending some 'quality' time with their son down at the local zoo.
"Sarah are you sure we can't change your mind?" Karen peered her head around the corner of the door and looked about with the interest of one who knows that she does not have an open invitation within this domain.
Sarah smiled and shook her head. Though she didn't necessarily mind spending her weekend going out with her family, the prospect of having to spend all day watching animals pacing the small enclosures that surrounded them did not exactly appeal. Vaguely she recalled a time when she was very young and had went on a school excursion to an animal shelter, her teacher had been forced to ring home to arrange for Sarah to be picked up and she had a faint memory of the disappointed look on her mother's face as she entered the reception area where a member of staff had been keeping an eye on the distraught child.
It was one of the last memories that Sarah actually had of spending time with her mother. Soon after the freedom of her child attending school had enabled her to spend more and more time away from the home. And then finally she just wasn't there anymore, and it was her father and not her mother who tucked Sarah in at night and read to her until she was too sleepy to protest as he turned the light out and shut the door.
"No I'm fine, honest."
Karen hovered uncertainly and Sarah wondered for a moment whether she was going to attempt to persuade her stepdaughter but instead she merely shrugged and backed away, leaving Sarah to the privacy that she valued so much.
Part of Sarah wanted Karen to have pleaded with her to come along, to suggest that the outing would not be the same without her. She knew however that that was not the case. Her father, Karen and Toby were this comfortable family unit that Sarah did not seem to be able to fit into. When her father had first married Karen Sarah had tried, at sixteen though she was too old to be spoiled by her new stepmother and too young to move out or be left to her own devices.
It would have been all too easy for Sarah to cast Karen in the role of the wicked stepmother and take up the mantle of the poorly done by first child but it simply was not the case, no matter how hard Sarah attempted to justify this viewpoint. Karen went out of her way to try and make Sarah feel wanted within the house, but the truth of the matter was that increasingly she was counting off the days, months, and she guessed that realistically years, until she would be able to live independently. Away from the small family who simply did not seem to need or have a place for her anymore, apart from the occasional evening when someone was needed to take care of Toby whilst the couple went out.
Below Sarah heard the front door close firmly and listened as a car door slammed shut. They would probably be away for the majority of the day, so long as Toby did not fall ill, which meant that she would have several hours to try and pass the time and not think of the events of the last couple of days.