Short Stories

Breaking Routine

     Warning: This story is more serious with tones of alcoholism, abuse, and hints to rape. 

Work. School. Family. Sleep.

Work. School. Family. Sleep.

Work. School. Family. Sleep.

Rinse and repeat. Day in and day out.

     This was the daily routine for Pin. Work at Wiccamore, a fast food restaurant. Going to night school. Going home to her drunk father and baby sister. Then getting the four hours of sleep she can afford. 

Repeat. 

Repeat.

Repeat.

     That's all Pin knew and lived. Everything was for Nona. She took all the pain her Father gave, all the exhaustion from work+school, and (at the end of it all) the little joy Nona gave. Was it healthy? To others it was awful. But to Pin, this was her world.

Her father used to be a good man. The supportive Father others long for, but alcohol killed that man and left him in the ashes. Pin looked for the once loving Father her Nona would never know. But, there was now way to glue the ashes together. Sometimes, when her Father would have her pinned against the wall and cut off her air, she could see the slight hint of pity of the father she loved. Her would let her go and sip the poison that took the loving Father.

     Pin did have to wonder...if her Mother were still here would father be gone. No. She had no parents. Nona had no parents. Pin was her Mother now. Pin wants to take Nona away. Go somewhere over the hill and behind the trees. A Narnia for Nona. A sanctuary for sisters. A home.

Home.

Home?

What is a home?

Home is where your family is. Home is where the heart is. Nona is her family. Nona is her heart. Nona is her home. But this house was NOT home.

     Pin picked up Nona from her tiny crib and held her fragile body close. She hat to be careful. She has to be quiet. One mistake, Nona would cry out. One cry, her father would awake. One mistake. Her life i depending on a thinning string of chance. Each creaking step was a time bomb. The front door was so close, she could almost reach out and touch it. Nona began to stir and the upstairs light flicks on. Pin had to hurry. 

Does she keep going slow and risk her father seeing her? 

Or make a run to the car and wake Nona?

     Pin breathes out softly and dashes out the door as Father opened his door. Pin doesn't take the time to buckle Nona's crying figure into her carseat and slams the truck door. She locks it and fumbles with the keys hearing the angry growls of the approaching monster. She shoves the key and struggles to bring the aging Ford to life. Glass shards fly in and cut her cheek. A hand makes a grab for her before she finally hears the engine roar to life. Without a second to lose, she puts the car in reverse and stomps on the gas. The claws scratched her neck and she places an arm over Nona, keeping her from sling shotting out of the carseat. 

     Pin drives off, with the rising sun behind her. She glances in the rearview mirror. The silhouette of her father stood there. The bat fell from his hand. 

He lost. He wasn't going to keep fighting. 

He lost everything.

     Pin looks to her sleeping sister, then down to the one that grew in her belly, father always said she was just like her Mother. Whether it be for better or worse. She was Mother now. Her sisters now her daughters. 

Pin and Nona.

Now: Pin, Nona, and Destiny travel over the hills and far away.