Safe and Sound Read Online Free PDF Page B

troublemaker. They all usually went hand and hand. Lola pushed the guilt she felt with that thought away and inwardly put a layer of armor on. She was home.
                 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    3
     
      She crept past the partially opened bedroom door on the way to her own bedroom , hoping against hope they were asleep and wouldn’t know she was home two hours late fro m school . Supper would be late as well. Lola’s stomach churned at the thought of repercussions.
      The floor creaked and gave her away.
      “Lola , is that you ?”
      Lola closed her eyes. “Yes. I’m sorry for being noisy.”
      “Open the door.”
      She didn’t want to open the door, she didn’t want to see her mother and Bob in bed and think of the things they did there. It made her nauseous. How could her mother st and the look of him, the smell of him, his touch?
      “I have to get ready for work, Mom.” A lie. She didn’t have to work tonight. Lola didn’t want to be home either.
      “Please come here.” The weakness of her voice, the acute sorrow in it, pulled at Lola. She slowly pushed the door open. It smelled musty and unclean in the room. It smelled like Bob .
      Her mother was huddled in the middle of the bed, looking small and child-like. A light blue blanket covered her, pillows propped her head up. The curtain was drawn, casting the room in shadows. With relief, she saw Bob wasn’t in the room.
      The room was small and sparse of furnishings. Though Lola’s room was small too, her mother had unselfishly given her the slightly larger one of the two. The walls were painted a pale green. T here was a bed and a dresser in the room, some framed photographs.
      “Mom?” There was a catch to her voice, a waver in that one syllable word. Lola cleared her throat and made her way to the bed. She looked down at her mother, wondering at what precise moment their roles had reversed.              
      She kept hoping her mom would come back to her, that she’d suddenly wake up and be who Lola knew her to be. Maybe the strong woman Lola remembered hadn’t really ever been; maybe she was a figment of Lola’s imagination.
      Why did she keep trying to catch a glimpse of that person? She supposed, on some level, she couldn’t give up on her mom.
      Lana patted the bed. “Sit down. I want to talk to you.”
      She silently shook her head. There was no way she would sit in the spot Bob slept, no way .
      Lola pretended not to see her mother’s hurt look and instead focused on a framed photograph above the bed. It was a picture of her, taken when she was seven. Lola was missing her two front teeth and her eyes sparkled with happiness. Her skin had a healthy glow. She wore a purple dress and had a red headband in her auburn hair.
      Had I ever been so innocent?
      She turned away. “Where’s Bob ?”
      Her mother folded over an edge of the blanket, head down. “Out with friends.”
      ‘Out with friends’ meant he was drinking at the bar. When he drank at the bar, he came home late and missed w ork. Bob also went from mean to really mean. All it took was a wrong look or word and he got scary real fast. Lola’s stomach turned queasy and it was harder to take a breath.
      “I thought…I thought maybe we could hang out t onight .” Eyes full of hope fixed on Lola, waiting.
      Lola’s chest tightened. She wanted to. She so wanted her mother back, if only for one evening. Lola was desperate for her old mom. This new mom she didn’t know and didn’t like.
      Her lips parted and she almost sa id yes; was on the verge of it, b ut t he urge to confront her mom was strong er . She had to try to get her mom to see reason.
      “Mom, please leave him. We can leave tonight, while he’s gone. We’ll be okay without him, I promise. You’ll be okay. Please. ” Lola regretted the words as soon as she saw her mother’s face .
      Lana’s face closed up and she