Chapter 27
Cordelia's Story
Cordelia's Story
Cordelia--13
"Come on Copper! Get away from them. Their just a bunch of stupid old boys!" I screamed across the street at Tyler and Joey. They were 20 years old and still living at home. A bunch of low life losers. Copper didn't have to be told twice. He ran up to me and jumped up on my chest.
"Good boy!" I praised him.
"Cordelia Chase! Put that mutt out back this instant!" my mom screamed at me.
"He's not a mutt," I mumbled gripping Copper's collar and locking him up behind the fence. He whined and put his paws up.
"Sorry boy. Wish me luck!" I smiled and ran back to the front where mom was waiting for me in the car. Dad was coming to the court house in a different car. Today was our court hearing. Today the judge would decide if I would live with my mom or my dad depending on the comments from myself and some of our relatives. When I say 'relatives' I use the term lightly. Relatives really meant my Uncle Sam, Aunt Jasmine, and Dad's best friend Joey. The only one I really knew was Joey. My aunt and uncle lived in Cedar City and I never see them. I sat in the backseat and looked out the window at the houses we passed by. My mom always wanted to live in a townhouse. Maybe she would get her wish today when I went off and lived with my dad. I hope I would get to live with my dad anyway. My mom was mean to me and she didn't like Copper.
"You know what to say in court today right Cordelia Chase?" my mom asked looking in the mirror at me.
"Why do you keep saying my name like that?" I snapped. I didn't care if I misbehaved today. If things went my way then I would go and live with Dad. The rest of the trip was quiet. When we finally arrived at the court house my dad was waiting for us out front.
"Daddy!" I cried jumping up into his arms.
"Hey baby. I missed you this morning," he whispered.
"Don't be telling her lies John," my mother snapped yanking me away from my father. We walked into the court room in silence. I hoped things turned out the way I wanted them to.
Once inside the courthouse I took a seat next to my mother; dad sitting next to us behind and opposite desk. The judge called order and we all had to stand up. I was so scared my hands shook in front of me. Once Joey was called up to the witness stand I started to realize the reality of my situation. I wondered what things would be like if I lived with my mom. The first thing she said we were doing if she got custody of me was get rid of Copper. She said he shed too much and was a worthless animal. It had made me so mad but scared at the same time. So instead of defending my dog I had to bite my tongue and keep quiet.
The judge asked Joey some basic questions like if mom was a good mom; dad was a good dad, yada yada yada. But then a question came up that interested me.
"Has Mrs. Chase ever given Cordelia alcohol before?" Joey nodded.
"I saw her once when Cordelia was 3. She put Bacardi in her sipper cup to get her quiet."
I raised my eyebrows. I never knew that before. It just made me hate my mother more. After Aunt Jasmine and Uncle Sam went up it was my turn. I was even more frightened now after hearing things I never even knew before. Like the way my mom used to hit my dad in front of me when they were in arguments or the way she used to hit me and lock me up in the closet when I was a toddler. If I heard these terrible things about my mother I wondered what I would hear about dad.
But nobody was here in my mother's defense except her attorney who kept looking at me like I was a burden to the whole courtroom. A bailiff came up to me and told me to put my hand on the bible. I quickly did my hand still shaking.
"Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god?" he asked. The words flooded into my head. I understood them but somehow I couldn't find an answer.
"Ms. Chase?" the bailiff asked after a while.
"I-I do," I stuttered my face turning red. I looked to my mother who looked at me like I was an idiot. But I felt better when I turned to dad and Joey who smiled encouragingly. They asked me the basics and I answered, ignoring everything my mother had told me to say. When it was time for the judge to take a break I ran over to my Dad and hugged him tightly.
"You did fine," he whispered. I still shook with fear as the judge approached the stand after the break was over.
"Well considering the things we've heard from everyone I feel that the best way to go is to give full custody of Cordelia Chase to her father." I let out a long sigh of relief and hugged my dad.
"You can't do this!" my mom shouted and came over to us. I hid behind dad but she was still able to smack me.
"Security!" the judge called and in an instant two officers were on my mother dragging her away.
"You'll pay for this!" she screamed. It was the last I ever saw of her.
After Cordelia's story had been told they decided to sleep. A train assistant had come by a short while ago to assure them that they would be arriving in Chattanooga in about a half an hour.
"You sleepy Cordy bear?" Spike whispered stroking Cordelia's hair.
"Is that my name now?" she smiled and kissed Spike on the nose. After all the things that had happened she wondered what she had done to deserve to have everything going so well for her now.
"Fred still hasn't told us her story," she whispered nodding over to Fred who was curled up, asleep, next to Wesley.
"She's the one that made up this bloody game," he said. As Cordelia stroked Spike's chest and looked over to her fragile friend she couldn't imagine what Fred's story for misery would be. She could only wonder what little uppity Fred had in mind when she started the ring of stories. Why would such a carefree person like Fred base the stories around such an awful thing like misery?
One could only wonder.