Little Sister

1988

It was lunch time, all the kids were piled outside taking a break from a continuous amount of sitting and learning, it was best that everyone got a break. While all the other kids played on the playground and chowed down on their freshly packed food, Bailey sat away from all of them on a concrete bench along the fence. She couldn't be less interested in all the play that came with being a child, the talking of toys and parents, playing pretend and acting as if they could see the crazy things that they spoke on and on about, it wasn't something Bailey could find herself doing.

The girl stared down at the ground, scraping a stick across the cement over and over again to see how sharp she could get it to be, her skateboard under her foot sliding from side to side, though there were many things Bailey could be occupying herself with, she didn't find any interest present when other activities came to thought, not that her current form of entertainment was at all fun.

"Hi Bailey!" Another girl's voice chirped. The redhead rolled her eyes, avoiding any form of contact with the girl in front of her. The girl in question was Holly Wheeler, Mike and Nancy Wheeler's younger sister. Bailey was aware of her existence long before now, but she never willingly interacted with her before, that's because she was like the other kids, she was normal. "What are you doing?" She asked curiously. Bailey didn't answer, already tired of the other girl, not that she saw her much in the first place, Holly was a grade down from Bailey, so the only time they saw one another was during lunch or recess, not that it was something Bailey wanted.

"Is that a stick?"

"No, it's a yoyo." Bailey said sarcastically.

"I was just asking."

Bailey remained quiet, she was being rude on purpose to chase Holly away like she did with the other kids, but after an entire year you'd think it'd work by now.

"That's a cool skateboard." Holly started again, but not a word came from the redhead. "Where'd you get it?"

"It was my moms."

"That's so cool! I wish my mom skateboarded when she was younger!"

Bailey didn't reply, well aware that Max, her mother, was only so many years older than her. Too young to have had a child, too young to have endured anything that she did.

"I've never seen your mom before." Holly continued. "Where is she?"

"She's in the hospital." Bailey said darkly.

"What for?" The redhead hesitated.

"She's in a coma..." She trailed.

"What's a coma?"

"It's a deep sleep, so deep that you can't even breathe on your own."

"How long is a coma?" Bailey rolled her eyes but aknowledged that most kids don't know shit about anything.

"It's never the same," She said, throwing down her stick and looking at the other girl. "sometimes people could be in one for only a few days, sometimes, forever." She said, flashing her eyes at Holly to scare her. "Sometimes people are awake, but they can't do anything, they can't even open their eyes."

"That sounds scary." Bailey didn't say anymore and picked her stick back up, maybe if she got it sharp enough she could use it as a threat or something.

Baileys thoughts moved to Max and what she could be going through, if she was even there anymore, the doctors said she's braindead, she has been for the past few years, and there was no chance that would change, but Max had to be there still, right?

The redhead peeped back up at Holly for a moment and spotted the look of pity on her face. Don't sit down. Don't sit down. Don't sit down. She begged in her head, but Holly coudn't read Bailey's thoughts and took a seat next to the older girl. Bailey sighed loud and brought her knee up to her chest, turning away from Holly and resting her head on it, looking at the stick in her hand as she ran it against the concrete, her eyes examinng every detail of the twig, all to make sure Holly got the message that Bailey didn't want her around.

"How do people get stuck in comas?" Holly asked.

"How much longer are you going to ask me questions?"

"I was just wondering..." Bailey rolled her eyes but continued on anyway, to give Holly a scary learning experience.

"There's no specific way that it happens, sometimes, it just happens out of nowhere."

"How did it happen to your mom?" Bailey stopped messing with her stick, she thought for a moment, wondering if she needed to stick to the story in the paper or tell her what really happened, if she should even tell her anything at all.

"You know, there are bad people out there, and they do bad things, but a lot of them like to hurt people." She lifted her head and turned to Holly. "Do you know how those kinds of bad people work?" Holly shook her head in response, listening close to Bailey.

"They like to hurt people to make themselves feel above everyone. They take away from people to feel powerful, or in control, and they do whatever it takes." Bailey started to scrape her stick across the concrete hard, going faster and faster as she thought about her mother and all she's seen her go through. "Rarely do they feel bad about what they've done, most of the time they don't care, at least not until they actually face consequenses." Thoughts of Max's abuser sitting there in cuffs begging Bailey for forgiveness pushed itself into the light, but regardless of how young she was, she knew what that monster did to Max.

"At that point they claim they're sorry, but they don't really mean it, they're just sorry they got in trouble, sorry they got caught. Because in reality, if they were sorry they wouldn't have done it in the first place, they wouldn't have done it over and over again, so much that they tear you apart, destroy everything you have, your innocence, safety, dignity, your life. They take it all from you to make you weak. Like bending a paper clip. They keep going until you snap!"

Suddenly Baileys stick snapped against the cement, she let go of it and let it fall, looking into the palm of her hand. Her fingernails had left painful marks in her skin. She could only sit there frozen, her eyes staring down at these cuts as they started to bleed, posing as a reminder of her mother.

"Is that why your mom's in a coma?" Holly questioned, breaking the silence between the two of them. "Bad people were hurting her?" Bailey nodded slowly and laid her head back down on her knee as that anger and meaness she was wearing dissapeared.

The few people she saw that hurt Max, weren't even the beginning.