4. Unfamiliar blood ties
It turned out that Abigail's family had moved several times after her birth. After a journey that seemed to last days, but only lasted 2 hours, tops, the carriage stopped in front of a little wooden house. In her dreams Abigail had pictured this moment so often.. Always there had been a big house, like her parent's. But not only the house mattered, also always, her parents had ran out to embrace her happily.
Her birthparents.
Now there was just silence... and no sign of life.
Confused and somewhat scared, Abigail glanced at Mr. Johnson, who seemed bored and eager to start doing more interesting things instead of bringing a little girl home.
'Here we are. Time to go.', he said.
Slowly, Abigail took her suitcases, and stepped out of the carriage. Before she could thank the man for bringing her home, he was gone.
She was all alone now.
Her heart beating fast, she walked over to the door, and knocked.
When a woman with blond hair, about 30 years old, opened with a baby on her arm, Abigail looked for a sign of familiarity.
'Any' sign, that would show this woman was family.
But there was nothing.
'Yes?', the woman said, looking up at her up and down.
'My name is Abigail.. I.. I .. was brought here. M-mister Johnson said you were my real family.. I was adopted as a baby.', Abigail explained, feeling the tears well up in her eyes, but she fought against them.
Tears were a sign of weakness.
For a moment, the look on the woman's face seemed to soften a bit.
'Hope.'.
Abigail frowned. Hope? Was that a name? 'No.. Abigail.', she said softly, yet firmly.
Without any more words, the woman let her into the house.
It was even smaller on the inside, and dirty too. It wouldn't surprise Abigail if there were rats.
'So you're her... the lost sister.'.
The lost sister... was this woman her sister, Abigail wondered. She'd always wanted a sister, but she never imagined one like.. this.
'Yes, ma'am. I'm her..', Abigail replied, eager to show that she had some very good manners.
'Ma'am? My name is Mary. I'm your sister. Great, another mouth to feed.'. The softened look on Mary's face disappeared again.
Then her eye caught Abigail's suitcases. 'What's in there?'.
'M-my possessions, Ma'—Mary.'.
'Possessions? Let's see.', Mary said, roughly handing the 6- month old baby to Abigail, who wasn't sure what to do with it. She'd never held a baby before, specially not a crying one.
Mary put one of the two suitcases on the table and opened it. Her eyes widened at the sight of the pretty clothes, made of the finest fabrics, she'd always only dreamed of those. And even now they were prettier than in her dreams. Her own clothes were just plain dresses, sewn in a hurry, in a boring brown or green color. 'So they really are rich..', she mumbled.
'I beg your pardon?', Abigail said, not sure if she heard it right.
Mary looked up at her and took the baby from the blond little girl.
'There's no time, or space here to be beautiful. We're going to have to sell them.'.
Abigail's bottom lip trembled. 'W-what?'. She couldn't do that! Selling the dresses! They were hers! The only thing she had left from the life with the people she loved.
'Yea, princess. Sell them. Unless you'd rather starve?'.
Abi shook her head in terror. She'd never thought returning home would be so.. loveless.
'Excuse me.. My.. my parents, where are they?'. She was wondering if her parents were like this too, then maybe she'd rather run off and go home. Her mother wouldn't turn her down if she would know she was unhappy here, right?
'Your parents? Mother died giving birth to you and father died last year. He probably drank himself to death.', was Mary's careless reply. She did care though, but years of unhappiness had turned her bitter.
She led the scared girl to a chair and put her down. 'Let me tell you something about this family. Yes?'.
Abigail nodded, trying to overcome the big shock of being an orphan.
'Besides me you have 7 brothers and sisters. 5 of those, Matthew, David, William, Sarah and Samantha are married. Thank God they left the house, the less the better. Elizabeth and Becky, almost 18 and 20, are still at home. They're out selling eggs and milk right now. I was married too, I have two children. Daniel, 3, and Hannah. ', she pointed at the baby. 'She's six months. My husband Jacob died last year in a forest fire. He's probably better off than in this hell.'.
Abigail was shocked by the way her sister talked about her diseased husband. She was also shocked to find she had so many brothers and sisters.
'In case you hadn't noticed,', Mary continued mercilessly. 'We're poor. We all work to live here, and don't expect you'll be able to continue you're status of 'princess' here. You'll have to work too.'.
'Yes, Mary.', Abigail replied. She didn't mind working, she wanted to do something. She'd never known what it was like to be poor, but she was sure about to find out.