Destiny is Served

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

-Obstacle Courses 

Kara wakes to the sound of raised voices outside her bedroom door.  She spent most of the night having another nightmare.  She constantly dreams about the last time she was with her mother and father as a family.

For a long time she thought it was her fault her mother left them.  Kara loves to dance.  Her parents were supposed to take turns driving her to dance and gymnastics’ classes weekly.  She and her father always made a day of it.  Enzo was a proud and supportive father to her.  After her class he would take her someplace special for the two of them to have dinner or they would go to a movie or go skating.  They did lots of father and daughter activities.   

She was supposed to perform a dance in the local community center’s Christmas program on Christmas day.  Her father’s gift to her and her mother on that day was the charm bracelets they each wear.   He spent most of the day preparing the food that would be served to the guest of the program.  Amelia was supposed to take Kara ahead to the center, Enzo would meet them there in time to watch Kara dance in the program. 

Amelia did what she had been doing since Kara started taking the classes, she dropped her off at the nearest bus stop then drove off to meet her lover.   Kara waited in the cold for almost an hour for the bus to come when someone out walking their dog noticed her.  They told her no bus was coming it was a holiday.  Kara really wanted to dance in the program, she knew it was useless to call her mother, Amelia never answered her calls or returned her own child’s messages. 

Kara tried to call her father instead, the call went to his voicemail.  She knew he was getting the food ready to take over to the center.  She had worked so hard to become the lead dancer in her dance troupe.  She didn’t want to let the other girls or herself down.  Walking for eight blocks in the cold she made it to the community center.  It started to snow by the time she got there and it was time for her dance troupe to perform but Kara was suffering from hypothermia.  

She passed out on the stage having to be rushed to the hospital.  Enzo soon learned that his wife had never driven Kara to any of her classes.  She and her lover would always meet on the day of Kara’s classes.  She was having an affair with the same man for almost five months.  Kara’s parent’s never argued in front of Kara, it was always behind a closed door she heard their raised voices.  But that week it was out in the open. 

She suspected her mother was seeing someone else.  She never knew his name or what he looked like. On New Year’s Day Amelia told Enzo she had enough, she was leaving.  Kara watched her mother that morning pack her suitcase.  Her thirteen year old daughter who was becoming of an age when she needed her mother the most felt responsible and lost.  She didn’t know how to fix her parents.  She was entering her teenage years, her body was changing.  She needed her mother to guide her and teach her.  She needed to learn about sex and boys.  Boys that were teasing her, they would tell her how pretty she was.  They started hanging around the restaurant.  

Kara didn’t know how to handle them, she was worried because of what she witnessed from her mother.  She had to deal with figuring it out all on her own and also deal with the broken heart of her father.  

A tear rolls down Kara’s cheek as she relives the moment on that New Year’s Day when her mother walked out of her bedroom with the suitcase.  She didn’t say goodbye or try to explain.  She said “Take care of your father.”  Then walked past Kara out the front door down the steps to get into an expensive looking car and they drove away.  

Last night Kara saw her mother with that man.  The man that didn’t tear her family apart Amelia did that all on her own, but he does carry some responsibility.  Kara wonders now if he knew who she was when they met for the first time in Nanna Rita’s kitchen.