this story developed when i lived in Minneapolis. I was in rush hour traffic heading home from work. It was hot and miserable. one of the things i do is look at the cars around me and wonder what their story is. Then, something hit me: there's an abducted child somewhere on this freeway, stuffed in the back of some strange truck or van, and they'll never see their mother or father again...it was a horrible thought, and then my mind started working on this story...
Lost
Lost by Brad Bodeker
1
She was running late. It took forever for them to get ready in the morning. As always the damn snooze button lured her into another morning of sleeping in, so it was flying in and out of the bathroom then getting Natalie up and dressed and ready for school and another lame excuse to the boss as to why she was late. Another morning of fighting with her to get her hair brushed.
“Nat, stop it!” Barb was in no mood for this game.
“Don’t, you’re pulling my hair, mommy!” Natalie protested.
The brushed pulled at the snarls in her long brown hair. With each pull of her locks she’d whimper and pull away.
“Dammit, Nat, be still!”
“It hurts, mommy, it hurts!”
Barb looked into her daughter’s hurt blue eyes. They were so big and round and innocent. But just a hint of Natalie’s father. The bastard, wherever he is!
A touch of guilt tugged her heart, “I’m sorry, honey, but we’re going to be late.”
Natalie settled down a bit and sucked her thumb. Five years old and still sucking her thumb. Barb thought to herself, Poor girl, I wish I could give you a little more security.
Natalie’s father, which Barb considered nothing more than a sperm donor, left shortly after she was born. Had to find himself, he had told her, said he needed to find himself in Alaska. She had found out later from a friend of a friend that he found himself another girlfriend in Seattle. He sends a card once a year during the holidays for Natalie, but she never let’s Natalie know about it. Bastard.
With Nat’s hair done, it was time to fight to get her shoes on. It was game Natalie played since she was four. To Barb’s frustration, she would kick her legs so Barb couldn’t get them on. With one shoe on, Natalie would use her other foot to kick it off again.
The clock read 8:54 am. Yep, I’m late!
Barb got Nat into the car, and off they went to the school parking lot. The parents all lined up along the semi-circle. Moon Valley Elementary School’s principal, a Mr. Guttenhelm, always stood with the front door of the school open welcoming the kid’s into class as the day began.
“Good morning, kids!” he was accustomed to saying, “Ready for another good day.”
The children never answered him, but he would just smile complacently with that smile that would make Barb just a little nervous.
“Good morning, Ms. Winters, how are you and Natalie this morning?” he greeted.
“Fine, Mr. Guttenhelm, thank you.” Barb would say back.
“Good, good.” He gave her that look, the one privileged people give not-so-privileged people do. “Off to work?”
“Yes, and running late.”
She bent down and kissed Natalie on the cheek and hugged her, “Have a good day, honey, mom loves you.”
“Bye.” Nat said, she gripped Barb’s hand a little tighter.
“I’ve got to go, honey, mommy’s running late.”
“I know.” Natalie’s head was down, her blue eyes sad.
“Come on, Natalie,” Mr. Guttenhelm grabbed her other hand. “Mom will be back to pick you up before you know it. Shall I walk you to your class?”
Natalie didn’t answer. Barb felt guilty, I wish I didn’t have to go to work, Nat. I would much rather just spend the afternoon with you. But, I’ve got to make ends meet, so we can eat and live. I’m not getting help from the sperm donor!
Before Barb knew it, Natalie was going down the hall with Mr. Guttenhelm. She waved an unseen ‘good-bye’ to Natalie and went off to her car.
She took a deep drag on her first cigarette of the morning. It felt good. She only smokes when she’s away from Natalie, because the last time she lit up in front of her she never heard the end of it. All those anti-smoking lectures they were scaring kids with these days! But she always promised herself she’d quit. Someday.
She arrived at work a half-hour late. She slithered through the back hallway, and into the break room. She punched in and made it to her desk before her boss, Angie Bollinger, came in.
“What’s the story today, Barbera?” she asked leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed.
Barb sighed; a million and a half excuses went through her brain. The wet blanket of sarcasm dripped from Angie, and flashes of red ran through Barb’s face.
“No story today, Angie.” Barb answered. “I’m just running late.”
Barb thought about explaining what it’s like to try and get through a morning with a 5 year old, but decided it didn’t matter. Besides, Angie was a career woman. Not a mom. Nor, she had announced at a business luncheon, would she ever want the anchor of children to weight her down.
“You must get your priorities straight, Barb.” Angie explained, “You can’t just start whenever you want to.”
“I know that, and I’m sorry I’m late. It won’t happen again.” Barb’s face was warm more with anger than embarrassment.
“There’s a lot of other people that can do your job, you know. People that are punctual.”
This bitch was trying to egg her on, give her an excuse to get fired.
“Don’t you depend on this job to raise your daughter?” She continued.
Barb’s fist clenched under her desk. Use my daughter in a sentence, bitch, I’ll fuckin’ kill you!
“Priorities, Barb,” she mercifully was turning away. “Priorities.”
Barb’s tongue came out as Angie went out of eyesight. She let out a big sigh and wished she could grab another smoke. The stack of work wasn’t as high as yesterday, but high enough to let her know she’d be working late.
At lunch, Barb called her friend, Jessica to pick Natalie up, as she would probably be here at work until 6. Jessica said she wouldn’t mind. Her own daughter was in a grade ahead of Natalie and she had to pick her up at the school anyways, and the two girls played well together.
So with that all set, Barbara continued the rest of her day as if nothing would go wrong. She never heard a peep from Angela again, and aggravation from the rest of the details from her job stayed at bay. After a pot of coffee and 5 cigarettes, her day was flawless. But whatever cruel god prevailed over her life, decided it was time to give her a reality check.
2.
“Mamma” Columbia lay awake most the night. She had trouble sleeping like most nights, but tonight was different. Perhaps it was the silence of the country, the way it was almost deafening at night. Or maybe the complete blackness of the night. Either, she thought she was used to; she had lived here most her life. There was something agonizing to be thought about in her mind, she just needed to be able to focus on it.
Her “boys” were in their room playing their video games. Shouting every once in awhile at dying their pixilated deaths and then ‘shushing’ each other, as they knew their “mother’s” wrath, if she was awakened by their shenanigans.
Mamma Columbia rubbed her rough calloused hands over her naked bloated body. Wandering her abdomen and then to her privates and up to her stomach again.
It’d be nice to have a child of mine own. She thought to herself. Why hath the Lord forsaken me with a barren womb?
A tear fell from the corner of her eye and into her ears. She sniffed a few times and then sighed, Be it Your will. Be it Your will, then bless me with a child.
And whether the voice was one fabricated from her own mind or an actual true supernatural voice, it was there. The voice was familiar from her childhood.
Is thou not happy with the children I’ve blessed thou with? It said to her, Doth thou become greedy with mine gifts?
She shuddered, No, Lord. No. You are right; I am blasphemous for even asking for such a thing.
Her god was silent for a while and Mamma Columbia began to whimper.
Thou hast shown great faith in Me. He finally spoke up. And I shall show you mercy. If ye seek, so then, shall ye find.
She sat up in bed, eyes wet but with the expression of joy on it.
On your knees, woman, and thank me for that which I will give to you!
Obediently, she knelt there naked in the dark, her hands in the air, her mouth in a perfect “O”, and she pleased her god the way she had been taught when she was a nine-year girl. And echoing in her mind was what her god said, “Seek and Ye shall find.”
Jessica waited in her Dodge caravan impatiently. She had left the stove on simmer and was hoping to be in and out of here with the kids and home for supper. But, as the ocean of little faces poured from the doors of Moon Valley Elementary, she looked for her own daughter Carrie and Barbara’s daughter Natalie.
Steve Miller came over the radio and she turned it up. She had been a huge fan of the Steve Miller Band since she was a teenager and more so since she had gone to their concert in Minneapolis last year. “The Joker” twanged from the speakers and she began to ease and sing along.
…really love your peaches wanna shake yo tree…She sang, her favorite part. She glanced towards the door that Carrie usually came out of. Just one kid after another, a few she recognized from birthday parties and all that other “mom” stuff. But no Carrie, no Natalie.
…I’m a Joker, I’m a smoker, I’m a midnight toker…The crowd of kids spilling out of the school began to thin out. Jessica, sighing to herself, thinking the girls were probably running around the hallways and goofing around. A bit of anger flashed in her and she shut her van off and began to walk to the front doors of the school.
Mr. Guttenhelm, standing there smiling like he does in the morning, greets her with a handshake.
“Here to pick up Caroline, Mrs. Alberson?” he asks.
“Carrie.” She corrects, “And I’m also picking up Natalie Winters as well, have you seen them?”
“Earlier today, but not this afternoon.” He welcomed her into the school, “Come on, and let’s find them. I’m sure they’re just playing somewhere.”
“Hurry up, Natalie, mom’s going to be mad!” Carrie says to Nat who was in the stall of the girl’s bathroom.
“I know, I know!” she says a bit peeved.
“C’mon, Nat!” Carrie urges, “Everyone’s leaving!”
“Leave me alone!” Natalie says; it came out more like “Lee mee lone!”
The toilet flushed and Natalie came out holding her backpack and then washed her hands like her mom taught her to do. Germs, Natalie, mom would say, germs that will get you sick. So remember to always wash your hands after you go potty, okay?
Natalie suddenly got lonely for her mom. She felt it come on after she received the note from the office lady saying that she was to ride home with Carrie’s mom, Mrs. Alberson, because mommy was working late. Again.
Minutes after Jessica and Mr. Guttenhelm passed the girls lavatory, Carrie and Natalie walked out into the hallway and towards the front doors. Carrie spotted her mom’s van and they both ran out to it.
Carrie grabbed the handle of the side door and gave it a yank like she had since she can remember in her six-year-old memory. Her hand slipped off of it and smarted. She tried it again and it didn’t budge.
“What’s the matter?” Nat asked standing there with her thumb in her mouth.
“It’s locked.” Carrie stood there confused.
She looked in the front of the van on her tiptoes and couldn’t see anything. She tried those doors and they were locked as well.
“Now what, Carrie?” Nat asked not letting go of the thumb in her mouth.
Carrie looked around the parking lot and then said, “Maybe mom went inside to look for us. You did take forever in the bathroom.”
“I know!”
They both trotted back into the school, not noticing the old rusted blue van with road dust crusted to its fenders and quarter panels. It’s motor gurgling from the large hole in its exhaust pipe. Waiting.
Jessica and Mr. Guttenhelm paced the hallways of the kindergarten and 1st grade wing. They were empty except for a few teachers coming in and out of their classrooms. A janitor emptying the trashcan by the drinking fountain.
“Let me check with Carrie’s teacher.” Jessica said, “And you check with Natalie’s, okay?”
“Of course!” Mr. Guttenhelm answered. His expression was one of worry. Not so much for the girls being ‘missing’, but the reputation of the school would be at stake.
Jessica couldn’t find Ms. Ginnacci in her room, so she headed down to the teacher’s lounge. Mr. Guttenhelm found Mrs. Holmquist in her room cleaning up some construction paper off the carpet.
Mrs. Holmquist said that Carrie had come down to her room to pick up Natalie and they both left together.
Jessica found Ms. Ginnacci in the teacher’s lounge puffing her way through a Camel light. Ms. Ginnacci said that she excused Carrie early to walk over to Mrs. Holmquist’s class to pick up her friend. But she hadn’t seen them leave.
Natalie and Carrie couldn’t find Jessica anywhere in the building. They were just going to go down the hall where the teacher’s lounge was but got distracted when they saw the playground outside.
“Carrie?” Nat stared with wide eyes, “let’s go play on the swings!”
“No,” Carrie protested, “We have to find my mom!”
“Awww, c’mon, Carrie! Please?”
“Okay, just for a bit.”
“Okay, just a little bit.” Which came out “N’kay, jus a widdle bit.”
“This is serious, Mr. Guttenhelm!” Jessica was getting hysterical.
“Please, Mrs. Alberson,” he tried to calm the coming storm. “I’m sure they might be in the bathroom or something like that.”
“Fine!” she said, “You stay here and watch for them, I’m going to look in the all the bathrooms!”
Natalie’s giggle was contagious. Both of the girls laughing the way innocent children do. No cares in the world, just a goal to have fun. The autumn air was crisp but not bitter. The smell of the river hung in the air, but it was fall and the water smelled fresh, not rank like in July.
Natalie was the first to notice the woman walking towards the playground. She swung slower as the lady approached. Carrie was saying something to her, but she was concentrating on the lady. There was something Natalie did not trust about her, the way she walked or the way she was staring in her direction.
“Natalie?” Carrie shouted, “Hello, are you listening to me?”
Natalie didn’t say anything back as this woman approached them. Carrie dropped off the monkey bars and clammed up.
“Hello, girls!” the lady greeted.
Both of them just sat there not really looking at her, just at the ground below her.
“It’s okay.” The lady assured, “You shouldn’t talk to strangers. But your mom is looking for you and she’s in the office waiting for you.”
Carrie looked up with her untrusting brown eyes at the lady. She hadn’t seen this lady working before in the office, but she really didn’t pay much attention to the big people of school except her teacher Ms. Ginacci.
The woman bent lightly and held out her hand.
“C’mon, girls,” her smile friendly as warm sunshine. “I’ll take you to your mom.”
Natalie looked to her older friend for direction. Carrie, kind of rocked herself side-to-side trying to decide whether to trust this big person.
“Natalie. Carrie. Come on, now, don’t keep your mom waiting.” The lady said.
Carrie’s eyes lit up when the lady said her’s and Natalie’s name. Maybe this lady did work in the office after all.
“Come on.” The lady said.
Carrie looked over at Natalie who was sucking her thumb again.
“It’s okay, Natalie.” Carrie said walking towards the lady, “Let’s go see my mom and we’ll go home.”
“That’s right, honey.” The lady said.
Natalie took Carrie’s hand and they walked with the lady from the playground.
Jessica, with Ms. Ginacci in tow, was going through the lavatories in the entire school, and peeking in separate classrooms.
“Maybe they’re on the playground?” Ms. Ginacci suggested.
“Which way?” Jessica asked.
Ms. Ginacci led her to the wing where the playground was close to. They walked by Mr. Guttenhelm who looked even more alarmed when he saw them coming down the hall without any children with them.
This is bad! He thought to himself, Really, really bad! The school board is going to eat me alive! The newspaper! That fucking rag is going to plaster this incident all over the fucking place!
“No luck?” he trembled.
“Do you see any kids with me?” Jessica said sarcastically.
“There’s no need to get hostile about this, Mrs. Alberson. I’m sure they’re around here somewhere.”
“We’re going to check the playground.” Ms. Ginacci said.
“Uh, all right, I’ll stay here in case they come by.”
“Good idea, Chuck.” Ms. Ginacci said with some sarcasm of her own.
Carrie wondered why they didn’t just go in through the doors by the playground. They were walking all the way around the school building towards the parking lot.
“I thought mom was in the office?” she asked the woman.
The woman just muttered under her breath. It sounded to Carrie like, Sick ‘n yee shell fine.
They rounded the corner where her mom’s van was parked. She thought maybe they were going to just wait for her mom there. Carrie looked at the woman and then at Natalie who was sucking hard on her thumb.
“It’s all right, Natalie.” Carrie trying to comfort her friend, “We’re going to wait for mom by the van.”
Natalie just kept sucking.
They got to her mom’s van and kept going. Carrie was very alarmed now.
“That’s my mom’s van, ma’am.” She stuttered staring at it as she walked by it.
The lady kept a steady grip on her hand and kept muttering, “Sicken yee shell fine.”
Carrie began to tug hard at her hand as they were gaining distance from her mom’s van.
“But that’s my mom’s van, lady!” she cried out.
Natalie felt her friend’s fear and began to cry, not letting go of Carrie’s hand as she was being tugged in the wrong direction.
“No!” Carrie yelled, “No! Mommy! Stop! Stop!”
Carrie’s struggles were unnoticed by the lady and she slipped up and both her and Natalie ended up falling to the asphalt of the parking lot. They scraped their knees and elbows and Natalie hit the side of her face on the ground leaving a nasty scrape. They both began to bellow out.
The side doors of the rusted blue van and a boy came out. His jeans were dirty as well as his t-shirt. His hair unkempt and long, and he looked to be about 10 years old. Natalie and Carrie got up at the same time; they were both frozen to the ground as this dirty-looking boy came towards them. The lady just smiled at them. Natalie hid behind Carrie and wept while Carrie just started shouting.
“Get away from us! Get away!!”
The boy had two thick gauze pads soaked with chloroform and he placed them over their faces. Natalie went out right away while Carrie kicked a bit and then went limp. The last thing she heard was, “Seek, and ye shall find! And I found me two, Praise God!”
The blue van was gone by about three minutes when Jessica, Ms. Ginacci, and Mr. Guttenhelm came out to her minivan. Sitting on the ground next to the passenger side door was two backpacks. One with Scooby-Doo on it and another with Barbie. Jessica’s heart sank and she thought she was going to puke.
“They must be around here…somewhere?” Mr. Guttenhelm spoke up.
“Would you just shut the fuck up for one minute?” Jessica barked and then started to sob.
Ms. Ginacci rubbed Jessica’s back and said, “Let’s go back in and call the cops.”
“No! No, we can’t just jump the gun on this ladies!” Mr. Guttenhelm sounded as if he was whimpering, “They have to be around here! Let’s just look some more before we call the police, hmmm?”
“Stop worrying about your reputation, Hank, and do something useful for once!” Ms. Ginacci snapped.
Her and Jessica went inside and phoned the Moon Valley Police Department.
3.
Barbara sat in Detective Gunner’s office shuddering from sobbing. She had received the call from Jessica and she just sat in shocked silence as Jessica went on with the story on the other end. She didn’t even hang up the phone as she grabbed her purse and headed straight for her car. The traffic was thick on this side of I-35; she took out her pack of Marlboro lights and began a regimen of chain smoking. Getting across the 169 interchange she had lit another cigarette and then saw she still had one going in the ashtray. She stubbed it out and began sobbing. She thought about getting out of her car and just running to the Moon Valley Police Department.
“Mrs. Winters? ” Detective Gunner said absently.
“Y..yes?” she slowly came out of her grief-stricken stupor.
The Detective gave a comforting grin, “I was wondering if you have a recent picture of Natalie we can use to put out?”
Barb looked around the office. Her guilt was a large wet blanket that hung on her and wouldn’t come off. She hadn’t pictured herself getting pregnant and then losing the father to some tramp in some other state. She didn’t find herself raising a daughter on her own, not being able to give her daughter the life she wanted. And now, here she was in some cop’s office, giving him a photo of her daughter who’s been….kidnapped? Lost? Missing? None of those words comforted her.
“Uh, Mrs. Winters?” the Detective spoke up again.
“What? Sorry.” She sniffed a few more times and then rummaged through her purse, “Yes, of course, I’m sure I’ve got one in my wallet somewhere.”
Jessica had finished her interview with the other detective and came into the office with her husband to talk to her.
“Barb, I’m so sorry!” she began sobbing, “I…wish I would’ve…God dammit!”
“It’s okay, Jessica.” She began crying again, “I just don’t understand how this all happened!”
The detective stood up, “We need as much information as you can give us. We’ve got officers looking around in the surrounding area now for your girls and we’ve broadcasted a missing child alert for both your girls.”
Barb produced last year’s photo she had done for Christmas. Natalie was sitting under a Christmas tree with a Santa hat on. She remembered that day almost perfectly. She trembles; I never thought I’d be giving this photo to a police officer to help find her. I never thought…
“Is this the most recent photo you have, Mrs. Winters?” the detective asked looking thoughtfully at it.
“I think I have one at home from her birthday this year.” She started sobbing again thinking that she may never have another birthday with her again.
“Anything recent would help a lot, Mrs. Winters. I…”
“Ms. Winters.” Barbara corrected.
“Sorry.” The cop’s face flushed a bit.
“Don’t be. I had better call her father. He probably doesn’t give a shit, but it’s his right to know, I guess.”
Detective Gunner thought for a moment and then said, “Ms. Winters, Natalie’s father didn’t put up a fight with custody did he?”
“Grant?” she laughed to herself, “He wasn’t even around when she was born. He was out drinking with his pals down at the Dogg House. Then we separated when Natalie was two.”
“Well,” Detective Gunner thought to himself how to carefully word this, “sometimes, when situations happen like they have, the other parent will have some sort of awakening and decide they want to be a parent, and when they feel that it’s hopeless they’ll get any parental rights after years of estrangement, they will go through some kind of extremes.
“Does the father still live in town?”
She was in the midst of contemplating the possibility, “No. He said he was moving to Alaska and ended up in Washington.”
“All right, it’s still a possibility we can’t rule out, although it doesn’t explain why Carrie was taken as well.”
“Unless he took her because she’d be a witness?” she grasped.
“Possibly.”
Jessica fidgeted with her hands while her husband rubbed her back.
“In the meantime, folks,” the Detective finished, “I would suggest you get together any ideas and photos that can help us find them.”
They all got up, shook hands and left.
“Barbara,” Jessica asked walking down the steps of the Moon Valley P.D. “Would you like to come over for coffee? Or a stiff drink?”
“No, thank you.” Barbara answered. “I should get a hold of Grant, and my mom’s coming up from Mankato.”
“If you need anything, Barb.”
“Same to you, Jess.”
“She what?!!” Grant’s voice bellowed over the line.
“She’s missing, Grant.” Barb said impatiently.
“Well, where the hell were you when this happened?”
“I was at work, Grant!” her anger trying to push it’s way up, but she didn’t want him to know how she was feeling. Never again, bastard!
There was an uncomfortable silence. Barb lit a cigarette, and exhaled loudly over the phone.
“Are you still smoking those fucking things?” he asked.
“I called to tell you about your daughter, Grant, not to discuss my habits.”
“Well, what the fuck am I supposed to do about it way out here in Washington?”
Barb bit down on her cigarette butt and then took another drag.
“Well, I thought maybe you’d care! But, like always, you don’t! I don’t know why I even bothered calling you.”
“Maybe because you just miss me?”
“Oh, God, get over yourself already, Grant! I have!”
“Then why are you calling if you’re over me?” his voice on the other line smug and she could tell he had this shit-eating grin on his lips. This infuriated her even more.
“Good bye, Grant. Have a nice life thinking about yourself.”
“Wait a minute! That’s it?”
“What?”
“Well, I thought we could talk…or something.”
“No, I’m busy trying to find my daughter, not talk to some egotistical piece of shit like you. Good bye.”
She hung up the phone and had a small smile of victory on her face. She put out her cigarette and started going through Natalie’s things. She was trying to find some recent pictures for the police. She found one of her in a pink-checkered dress, standing behind a giant sheet cake with a purple dinosaur on it.
More tears came out of her eyes. Where are you, Nat? Please don’t be scared. Mommy won’t give up looking for you, sweet heart.
Fran, Barb’s mom, brought in a cup of coffee from the kitchen.
“How’d it go, honey?” she asked with some caution.
“How do you think, mom?” Barb answered without any aggression.
Fran paused. They had both been crying the entire evening. From putting together flyers with Natalie’s photo on it, and answering phone calls and making a few to relatives and friends.
“Well,” Fran started, “what do we do now?”
“I don’t know, mom. I won’t be able to sleep tonight, so I’ve got to do something constructive with my time.”
“Why don’t we go around and hang up our flyers?”
Barb took her first warm sip and agreed.
Jessica was already out doing what she could. Her husband took one vehicle and she took another. She had driven by the school about twelve times this evening. Passed the spot where she found their backpacks and slowed down and started to cry and would do her rounds again.
The police were out as well. She had seen them canvassing the area by the school with volunteers. The thought that her daughter may be dead tried to creep in but she blocked it out. Too soon. She thought to herself, Much too soon for something like that to happen. She’s still alive, I can feel it.
Steve Miller came on again, same song as before. She felt the tears well up again and she turned off the radio. She drove the city limits of Moon Valley in silence for what seemed like days. She would nod off from time to time, swerving off the road and then back on again as she snapped awake.
4.
Mamma Columbia sat on her porch that overlooked the Minnesota River basin. The night was quiet, and the small airport behind her property wasn’t flying any traffic in or out tonight. The crickets, sure they were in full sing, but other than that, peace. She could see the lights of Shakopee on her left, Chaska straight ahead, and the town of Moon Valley to the right. She knew that the police would be searching the area, but that didn’t concern her.
She did not live by man’s laws, she lived by the Lord’s. And He, after all, had given these two girls to her. “Seek and Ye Shall Find.” He had said, and that’s just what she did, and the Lord graced her with not one girl, but two. How the bounty of the Lord’s grace made her heart swell.
The girls would have to adjust, of course. They wouldn’t accept Mamma Columbia right away, but they would. Just like Bill and Cory did. Besides, these girls were younger and easier to mold. She checked her watch, a plastic $4 watch from Target, and hollered for her boys.
“Boys!” she bellowed, her voice gravelly from smoking Pall Malls. Her speech had a hint of slur due to dentures that didn’t fit well. “Boysh! You better go feed your shishters!”
The two boys ran down the narrow staircase and headed for the kitchen. They grabbed two mason jars filled with garden grown green beans and then started to the basement where the girls were kept.
“Boysh!” Mamma yelled from the porch, “C’mere firsht.”
They came obediently. Michael, was the oldest, he was 10 years old. Mamma had acquired him (praise God) in Edina at Southdale Mall. He was an infant then, and his unmindful parents, had been arguing during their Christmas shopping spree. God had blinded their sinful eyes from Mamma Columbia snatching him for her own. He was a good boy. Mindful of his manners, and obedient. He was Mamma’s archangel, protective and loyal.
Gabriel, the youngest, at 7 years, was Mamma’s baby. He was taken a few years ago when the Lord had decided that Michael needed a brother. He was at a daycare center in Minneapolis. The daycare aides hadn’t even noticed that Gabriel was gone until his foster parents came to pick him up at the end of the day. He was a little wilder than his “brother” Michael, but always looked to please his new mother.
“Thank you, boysh.” She slurred, “Are you excited to play with your new shishters?”
“Yes, mamma.” They agreed in chorus.
“They’re going to be scared at firsht, so be gentle with them. God has given them as your shishters so treat them as such, undershtand?”
“Yes, mamma.”
“Good boysh.” She patted each boy on their bottom, “Now go serve them supper.”
The root cellar was dark. The floor was a dirt floor, and crawling with all sorts of unseen bugs. Carrie shivered in the corner with Natalie sleeping peacefully next to her. She was afraid to move. The darkness was thick, even with her eyes adjusted they couldn’t see her own hands in front of her. She had gripped Natalie’s hand and hadn’t let go since she’d been awake.
