The Showers of Blessings

The Cage

“You can drop me off here, Aiden.” Kyla grabbed the purse at her feet.

“Are you sure? It’s a long walk home for you.” Aiden turned off the ignition, reached his hand over to touch Kyla’s shoulder, met her eyes with his puzzled look.

“I’m okay. I don’t want to wake up anybody.” Kyla wanted to get out of the car but was not in a hurry.

“But it’s dark.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Be careful. Text me when you get home.” He rubbed her shoulder with one hand and touched hers with the other.

“I sure will.”

“I’ll text you when I’m ready.”

“Okay.”

I’ll take the cross walk here. The whole town is asleep. Kyla pulled her cardigan sweater tighter across her chest.

Good, the light is out in the living room. I’ll go in from the back of the house, just in case. She unlocked the door and opened it with a slow motion, listened to any faintest squeak.

“Hey sis, you’re late to come home.” Cole’s silhouette popped up from the chair in the kitchen.

“Uh, Cole, why are you still up? You scared me.” Kyla moved into the moonlit area of the kitchen.

“I thought you worked from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. tonight. I wanted to borrow money from you to go camping with my friend tomorrow.”

“No problem, Cole. I made good tips tonight. How were things at home?”

“Same thing. She cried and yelled at Dad all night.”

“Do you want to come to my room to talk?” Kyla tiptoed to her room. Cole slid his feet close to the floor, not to kick anything by accident.

“Sorry, Cole for getting us in this situation. I thought Mom was bad, this bitch is hell.” Kyla pulled the clothes out from her drawer and closet.

“Well, sis, how did we know?”

“Mom jumped on me every second she got and didn’t let us see Dad. I wanted to stay away from her.”

“The day we came to Dad’s place was the same day he brought Josie and her kids home.”

“She never liked me and made me her slave for two years. All she does is crying, yelling, sleeping and making more babies.” Kyla grabbed more things from the bathroom and threw them in the bed.

“She couldn’t touch me because Dad didn’t let her.”

“Good for you, Cole. At least you could go to school. I’m her slave during the day and work in the restaurant at night to earn my allowance. She made me sick.”

Kyla yanked a duffel bag from the closet and shoved all the stuff from the bed into the bag.

“What are you doing, sis?”

“I’m going away with Aiden. He’s picking me up in a few hours and driving to Los Angeles. If we leave by 5:00 a.m., we’ll be there in the evening.”

“What? She’d be mad and get Dad to go after you.”

“By the time she opens her eyes, I’d be long gone. Besides, I just turned eighteen thirty minutes ago.”

“Text me when you get there, sis.”

“I will, Cole. I’ll be back to get you when you finish high school.”

~

March Speculative Fiction Prompt – The Cage