Abuse

Prologue

A five year old, Kay, sat deep into the living room couch leaning onto her older sister. Their mother called them to the living room to tell them a little 'secret' about their father.

The girls' father had been missing in action for 2 years. Each day, she anticipated his return and wondered why he left. Kay expected a bright and hopeful return; like he had returned with a life time supply of sugar cookies or they had won a billion dollars and would live in luxury forever.

"As you know, your father hasn't been here for a while," her mom started.

"Mhm, yeah Mommy," Kay answered excitedly. Kimberly, the elder, simply nodded as a sign to move along.

"Well......he's dead"

"WHAT?" Kay exclaimed, as tears began to angrily spew from her eyes. "How?....... I thought.....he..was..fine,"

Calm tears ran down Kimberly's cheeks but she didn't make a sound. She brought Kay into her embrace ASN began rubbing her back. "It's okay, baby. We'll be okay,"

"C'mon Daddy," Kay's tiny hands tried to push her dad into the kitchen where Kimberly was. "We have a surprise for you,"

Kay and Kimberly had attempted to make a bowl of macaroni and cheese for their dad because they heard from mom that it was a simple food to make.

"Hey Daddy," Kimberly said with the cheese smeared on her hands and face. "Mac and cheese"

Kay fixed the bowl in her hands and set it down on the table where Kimberly had just leaded their dad to. They watched intently as he took the first spoonful. "It's good isn't it?" They asked together.

He squeezed his eyes together and swallowed the dry feeling of mac and cheese down his throat. "Mhmmm......delicious," he lied for the sake of their pure innocence.

Since then, Macaroni and cheese sort of became their thing. It was their go-to meal on special occasions and they even perfected it with shrimp and fish bites. Now, eating it would never be the same again because her daddy wasn't there.

Her shiny black shoes had now become stained with the red dirt she stood in each day. When is he coming back? Mommy told her to be back in ten minutes or it'll be too late. But, 4 1/2 year old Kay didn't know what ten minutes felt like. However, she knew her time was soon up.

Each day, she made her small feet's way to the top of her road to wait for her daddy, while mommy stayed inside. She dressed up in the fancy shoes her mother bought for her 5th birthday,three days ago, so that she would impress Daddy. Unfortunately for Kay, he never returned.

And each day, she would make her disappointed way back home to repeat the cycle.

At least now she knew he was never coming back.