PS01 - Tall, Dark & Lonely Read Online Free PDF Page A

the change happen and if it didn’t god help them all, because her mother
    was not above throwing a tantrum, yelling, hitting or manipulating her three children.
    Madison took a deep breath and counted to ten in her head. She was pissed and for good reason. After twenty-three years of
    hell Madison thought that she was finally going to make a real break for it. Candy promised to sign over custody of the kids.
    This time she was going to do it. Madison couldn’t wait. She had money in the bank, her college degree and plans. She was
    moving out of their trailer, their dumpy broken down crowded trailer, and taking her brother and sister with her. Her mother
    had agreed.
    Hell, Candy practically threw a fit and demanded Madison take them years ago. It was her turn for a real life she said. Madison
    owed it to her. After all it was all Madison’s fault this happened in the first place. Her mother would have been a model by
    now if she hadn’t got pregnant at sixteen. Candy believed Madison owed her gratitude for not getting an abortion and she
    reminded Madison of that at every opportunity.
    The only clue to Madison’s father’s identity was that she was clearly half Native American. Her hair was jet black and her
    skin was naturally tanned and she had brown eyes that reminded people of caramel. That gave her mother the only clue to her
    paternity. Thankfully her mother was a racist and only “slummed” with a colored boy, what she called everyone that wasn’t
    pure white, once. So, her father was Andrew Soloman, a boy from the local tribe. Unfortunately, he died after Madison was
    born. He wanted to raise Madison and Candy had been overjoyed to get rid of her burden.
    When Madison’s father died in a house fire Candy threw a fit and stormed out of her mother’s house. She took her infant
    daughter and headed out on the road towards California, but only made it as far as the next state over. There she began a life of
    worthless jobs, welfare, affairs with married men and drugs. They traveled all over the country until Jill came along and then
    they settled in New Mexico where Madison took over the care of her siblings and ran the house, well, trailer.
    Madison had counted the days down until she was eighteen and could escape her mother. She never planned on leaving her
    siblings, but she desperately needed to get away from her mother and her manipulative ways.
    Candy dreaded her daughter’s eighteenth birthday. It meant her freedom to run around would come to an abrupt end. She would
    have to find a job or someone else to take care of the kids. So, when the morning of Madison’s eighteenth birthday came,
    Candy did what every self-respecting woman would do when faced with real responsibility for the first time in fifteen years
    would do.
    She hightailed it out of there.
    She left a note for Madison of course. She wished her a happy birthday and thanked her for taking care of the kids. She found
    her true love and was heading to Vegas to be with him. Madison didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She finally rid herself of
    her mother, but was now faced with supporting her two siblings sooner than expected.
    So, for the past five years Madison raised her little brother and sister. No one missed their mother. In truth, Madison played
    mother to them both since birth. Candy took on the role of the older sister who didn’t like her siblings very much and was never
    there. Everyone has a role to play after all.
    Madison took on menial jobs to put herself through college as well as put food on the table and clothes on their backs. She
    avoided her real life. Her only friends were from the Reservation where she spent her free time when she had any. There was
    no time for boyfriends. Well, no steady boyfriends. She was afraid of turning into her mother so she refused to allow herself to
    get serious about anyone.
    Candy fell in love with every man she met. She became obsessive and pathetic and Madison was not her mother. Any