Between Enemy Lines

Between Enemy Lines (Chapter 3)

Between Enemy Lines

Chapter Three

Eliza woke up the next morning, she didn't know when she fell asleep, but the first thing she did was check on Noah. He was still sleeping peacefully, she went to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked at her reflection and saw how red her eyes were from crying so much and she could see the dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. She felt terrible, she tried her best to hold in the feeling of having to throw up, but she couldn't hold it in. She made it to the toilet and threw up, she knew she was sick, but knew she still had to go to work because Noah depended on her. Once she was done, she felt bad for another reason. She just couldn't stop thinking about what names she's been called. She remembered being called a worthless slut when she was being repeatedly beaten and raped, then she remembered being called a whore behind her back, which is why she stopped going to church. Her neighbor called her a drugged up whore when she was outside. She started believing what people were calling her.

She leaned up against the sink holding herself up feeling the tears burn in her eyes from crying so much, she lit up a cigarette in the bathroom, knowing not to smoke anywhere near Noah. She still hates that she had started smoking, but it was something that helped her with some of her stress. She also started taking anti depressant pills to help cope with her depression. After she finished her cigarette and took her pills, she said a prayer to God, praying that she would get help and that things would get better for her and Noah. Once she changed her clothes and made sure that she didn't smell like cigarettes, she went to wake Noah up to feed him and get him ready. She hated to wake him up and she was sure that all of the traveling was hard on him, she held Noah close and kissed his cheek. Noah held onto her and smiled. A lot of times Eliza felt like she wasn't a good enough mother for him, but that would change when Noah would smile and laugh. Maybe she was being too hard on herself, as long as Noah was happy and healthy, that's all that mattered. Noah didn't say much, but Eliza smiled as he said two words.

"Love Momma."

Eliza kissed his cheek again and held him close again.

"I love you too Noah. So much. I know we have it hard right now, but one day things will be better."

Eliza wasn't sure if she believed her own words, but it gave her a little bit of hope. She carried Noah to the car and fastened him into his car seat. Noah's teeth were still growing in so he couldn't eat a lot yet, but Eliza handed him a bag with Goldfish crackers in it. It was something he could snack on while they were on the road. She also had Noah a cup with apply juice. Noah loved toy cars and spent most of the day playing with them. It made traveling easy for both of them, he would sometimes get fussy traveling all the time, but most of the time he was well behaved. Noah had started getting around good, Eliza thought it would be fun to stop at a park and let Noah play for a while. There were swings for babies and toddlers, Eliza strapped him in and started pushing him. Once he was swinging pretty good, she walked around and saw the smile on his face. He started reaching for her, once the swing slowed down she grabbed him out of the swing. She put him down and he started running around trying to catch up to the bigger kids without much success. Eliza stayed close to him. She smiled at how much fun he was having. It was times like this that she forgot about her depression. She called out to him when he stopped.

"Noah... did you have fun on the swing."

He could talk a little and knew what she asked.

"Yes."

"Do you want to go slide?"

Noah smiled as he heard that. He always loved slides.

"Slide."