Her shoes turned and walked away I bobbed my head up and down eating the cheese and crackers like a chicken. I didn’t see any use in father tying me up in the uncomfortable ropes but father doesn’t need a reason according to mother. I don’t know why I’m down here why can’t I be up there. Whenever I’m down here I feel like its punishment for doing something wrong but what do I do wrong? The only reason I’m here now is because their having a party… are the humiliated by me? Do I embarrass them? Well whatever it is I don’t like it, why can’t I be like perfect Elaine, My parents go on and on about how wonderful she is and what am I?
The party is over and if I don’t do something about this napkin before mother unlocks the door Elaine is going to be punished. I grab the napkin with my tied up hands and run down the old wooden stairs. I hide it behind the old cookbooks from the past years. I hear the key wobble in the doorknob and I quickly run to the middle of the cold cement floors next to my empty bowl of what was chicken noodle soup. She opened the door in her long black dress and her blonde hair up in a fancy hair style
“Callum?” she said hesitantly with a tear in her eye
I ran up the stairs with my black and red striped pajamas as she opened her arms and hugged me, I stepped into the hug and I would have wrapped my arms around her as she did to me but the ropes were still hanging onto me. Father came closer.
“Evelyn get away from him!” My dad hissed
You could tell she was heated she yelled back at my father.
“Richard he is just a boy!” My mom snapped
“Go!” My father roared as his cold hand hit my face so hard I felt a tooth knock out of place.
I walked up the stairs terrified as I saw Elaine in her bedroom she looked kind of upset which is odd, she always seems so happy, excited about things. I smiled and she smiled back, as I marched through the hallway of the giant house with my arms still tied behind my back. Elaine walked behind me in her blue button up pajamas
“It might be a bit difficult to brush your teeth with your hands behind your back” she smirked.
“I suppose so” I laughed.
She kneeled down and untied the rope, she stood up as I freed my hands from the position they had been in for hours. She took the rope and rubbed my head through my buzz cut blonde hair and smiled.
“We look a lot alike don’t we Laney? I chimed
“My blonde hair is a lot longer but yeah I guess so” She responded
She walked back into her room and I into mine as I jumped in my blue fisher price race car bed with spider man sheets and blankets I laid down and tucked myself into my sheets clutching my dark brown build-a-bear I made with my mom a week back. Soft creaks came up the stairs. My father came in and sat on the edge of my bed.
“Callum I don’t want any trouble tonight got it” He muttered
I nodded my head and smiled as I sunk into the comfort of my mattress. He walked out of the room and back down the stairs all you could hear was a mumbling of what seemed to be an inflamed conversation and there it was SMACK! I laid there thinking, looking out my door at the living room lights through the banister you could see the kitchen and the high ceilings were filled with two shadows. Elaine walked over and stopped at my door as tears streamed down her face.

I nodded my head and smiled as I sunk into the comfort of my mattress. He walked out of the room and back down the stairs all you could hear was a mumbling of what seemed to be an inflamed conversation and there it was SMACK! I laid there thinking, looking out my door at the living room lights through the banister you could see the kitchen and the high ceilings were filled with two shadows. Elaine walked over and stopped at my door as tears streamed down her face.
“Elaine?” I whispered as I sat up leaning against my light grey and orange striped wall.
She came over to me and sat on my blanket, as she was wiping her tears with the edge of her shirt sleeve.
“You know what’s happening right?” She sobbed
I stared at her confused and now full of worry looking down at my teddy bear in his rock and roll guitar pajamas. I didn’t want to know either if it would upset me but she told me, no mercy to it, she came flat out and just said it.
“Mother and father are fighting again” she whined
I quietly trembled in fear because I knew what that meant.
“Should we hide” was all I could manage to sneak past my teeth.
“I don’t know” she stated
“Do you think mommy is okay?” I quaked

The next morning I spent most of my time hoping that Mother would be okay but Laney told me she might not be I trembled. My jeans and red t-shirt from the Grand Canyon merely trotted into my room to grab my teddy bear lying on the ground that I brought everywhere. I got some of the clothes mother had bought for my teddy and dressed him up with a red t-shirt like mine and jeans just like me.
I walked down the stairs Elaine laughed as she saw my teddy bear all dressed up and tapped my mother’s shoulder to show her too my mom laughed a bit and opened her arms for a hug. I ran into her arms and hugged her as I smiled. Elaine Stood with her arms crossed smiling at me. Her long curly blonde hair was down and there was a small pink bow that matched her floral dress in her hair her low top white converse sneakers covered her feet as she bent down to re-tie one of the laces. Mother’s Hollywood look was stunning her long black pants that flared at the bottom complemented her beige top and her black Hollywood sun glasses sat on top of her head as her coral purse hung on her wrist.

The bruise from the night earlier seemed as if it were growing like every other bruise I had gotten from father. Mother had seemed to be fine besides the giant bruise in the edge of her face but thankfully her short blonde hair wreathed her face and it was barely noticeable. But we weren’t the only ones with bruises. Elaine’s “Memories” If you will covered her arms thankfully her white sweater covered her bruises because father was taking us to a meeting today for his new work line something about a new clothing line or something. Then there was a giant party and I was invited this time! No rope, no more hiding and I can actually have food. Like real food.
The meeting was a bore. A complete, utter, bore. We were now getting ready for fathers company party. Mother was dressed to her finest and Elaine was just wearing what she had worn before dad was also just wearing his company suit and mother had dressed me and my teddy bear in a long sleeved button up white T-Shirt and a burlap colored vest and black pants with funny looking black shoes. Mother was fixing her earrings when she came out in a long sparkly navy blue dress. We got in our car and drove away. Elaine started singing a line from her favorite song on the radio and I joined along because I had listened to it over a billion times.
“Give me your, Give me your attention baby.” We caroled
Are dad quickly yelled at what seemed like the top of his lungs.
“Quiet you ungrateful pests!” He said
My mother quickly jerked the steering wheel yelling.
“Richard you’re the ungrateful pest!”
The car swerved off the cement road and burning rubber squealed as we glided across the road a tree on the side of the road got closer and closer and then everything went black.
Large beeps filled the room; everything was hazy but clear in a way I looked around somehow I was here. In a wired dress gauze pads all over my face and arms I was connected to so many tubes.
“Hello?” I mumbled
A girl ran towards me her hair was bouncing up and down red blotches covered her sweater and dress. It was Elaine everything seemed to be clearer
“Elaine?” I managed to whine
She squealed with happiness hugging me trying to make sure she didn’t hurt me. Right then a nurse walked in with a clip board and a pen her skin was darker and her black hair was pulled back into a low pony tail. Her white shoes went perfectly with her teal scrubs that kind of reminded me of Elaine’s Pajamas.
“Are you two Elaine and Callum Walker?”
Elaine stood up and looked confused like she was speaking some sort of a foreign language.
“Yes, that’s us” she stated
The women handed us a small white envelope with a small cursive print on the front it appeared to be mothers hand writing. Elaine took the envelope as a tall man entered the room with gashes and bruises all over his face. He came over and hugged us. It looked like father, He smelled like fathers minty smell, he looked like father, but he sure didn’t act like father. Father cried a tad into our shoulders. As Elaine looked at the man harshly she backed away and unfolded the envelope.

My mother was gone. Died in that car accident, I’ve lost one of the people I love the most because of my father. I’m five years old and I don’t have a mom. Just a stubborn, rotten to the bone, ungrateful father. In fact I can’t even call him that I might as well just call him Richard. Just Richard, He didn’t even deserve that name is what my sister said.
It had been a week or two since my mother had died, Dad was as stubborn as ever, he thought four “Memories” a week was being sympathetic. I doubt he even knew what sympathy was. I was playing in my room with my teddy bear just talking to him about my week. I knew he wasn’t mother but I felt like if I talked to him maybe, just maybe mother could hear me. Elaine walked into my room again with tears streaming down her face. Dad had been yelling at her for over two hours and most of her face was a red-ish, purple that she know would become a bruise. I ran up and hugged her. I doubt she wanted sympathy but I know I wouldn’t want to take a walk in her shoes. She smiled hugged me back with was a good feeling, It was warm and loving. Like mother but it was better in a way.
It was later that night. Elaine’s Face was somewhat still red but getting darker by the second. She was studying for some test she had to take in a few days. Father and I were watching Sunday night football meanwhile eating some pizza rolls that were still really warm. Mother taught me how to make them incase father forgot to feed me when she was working late at her job. The phone rang. The caller ID listed it as a “private caller” Dad picked it up. It was a man with a deep voice; he had been leaving messages since mother died. It was a police man. I knew he was asking questions about her death, if we were okay, and how father was holding up. He hung up the phone.
“Who told?” He screamed so loud I’m sure the people in Asia could hear.
Me and Elaine looked at each other and quickly shook our heads.
Elaine quickly spoke “I promise I didn’t do anything father, I would never”
He looked at me, If Elaine didn’t do anything then it had to have been me.
“But father I…”
His face had a horrible expression on it his hand clinched together as I thought that was it, I was going to see mother but Elaine shot up from her seat grabbing her 436 page textbook that probably weighed over 12 pound as she hit him so hard I was sure he would get a “memory” of his own. Right against the side of his head like Mine, He hit the ground faster than Elaine would run to get to forever 21 on black Friday. She stood in shock with a single tear falling down the side of her face. She was panicking, but we both knew he wasn’t dead.
“Go get your teddy bear” She whispered.
I ran up the stair as fast as my little feet could carry me. I grabbed my teddy bear. Elaine grabbed her phone, laptop and I grabbed my mother’s tablet she mainly used for work, but had a few games on it I liked. We ran down the stairs and Elaine put everything in her backpack and we ran out the door. Just our luck, Rain and a lot of it. She opened the door again to grab an umbrella we walked down the road; there were no houses around us we lived in a woodland type area at the time. I didn’t really know where we were going but I had a good idea. The diner, Moms friend had owend it for over 18 years and her daughter Cassidy was Elaine’s best friend. Elaine said she knew about daddy and so did her mom. Whenever daddy got really mad she would send us there. It was one of my favorite place in the whole world.
We walked in with the “memories” covering our arms and face. Immediately Mrs. Harvey saw us, a bit damp from the rain she took our coats and hugged us with tears streaming down her cheeks. We didn’t say a word but we didn’t have to. She knew what was happening, She sat us down in a booth and put her hand on Laney’s shoulder, we both know she was going to say something but instead she walked away sobbing into her elbow.
“I didn’t do it” I said
“I know you didn’t, I did.” She proclaimed
I sat confused how did she know he was going to hit me..?
“Why did we have to leave Laney?” I Chimed
As calm a smooth sea she replied “because I would do anything to protect you Callum.”
And that felt nice to know. Elaine Would smack people upside the head with a textbook for me. And for some odd reason that made me feel safe, really safe.
Cassidy came out of the kitchen and sat next to Elaine and hugged her. They talked for a bit, as I sat there consuming the chocolate shake that Cassie’s mom had given me. Then we started talking and before saying anything I intruded.
“Daddy was about to hit me and Laney grabbed her History textbook and swatted him” I said as I smiled.
“Really!” Cassidy exclaimed
“Yeah” I said
And from that moment on We lived Happily Ever After.