Little Bird
By: Kait Rose
Chapter One
Madison
9 years ago…
‘You dumb bitch, you burnt dinner again! How fucking hard is it to cook a decent meal!” My daddy was a drunk and an idiot. He thought just because he owned this rat infested trailer, we should be on our knees worshipping him.
I looked up from my book to see him back hand my mama again. She hurries to the corner of the kitchen, bracing herself for the blows that are about to come. I put my book down and crawl out from under the table to go help her. She looks more frightened than I ever seen her before. Her whimper catches my attention and I look over to her to see her mouth, go hide. This time I refuse to be afraid and hide like a coward, but be brave like mama is against daddy.
While crawling across the kitchen floor, I feel his body looming over mine. “You’re much as a dumb cunt as your mother, girl!” Daddy screams at me and grabs me by my pony tail. I feel something cold touch the back of my head and before I can blink my mama is screaming.
“No you fucking bastard!”
Bang
The look in my mama’s eyes as she drops to the ground, blood pouring out of her head, is something I know I will never be able to forget. I run towards her forgetting that my daddy has a gun and I just hold my mom begging for her to come back.
“Girl, get off your mother and fucking come here!” Daddy starts approaching me, but before he can get to me, men in black uniforms coming rushing in.
“Sir, drop your weapon and put your hands up, we have you surrounded!”
Bang
My daddy looked me in the eye, put the gun to his heart, and pulled the trigger. I saw no remorse, only emptiness. Not even a good bye or I’m sorry. I laid there cuddled up next to my mama wishing this wasn’t it.
My mama would always sing to me, “Black Bird” by the Beatles, at the end of the night when my father would come home drunk and high. She would make me promise to always fly, never fall. I always promised her, but at this moment I realized they were nothing but broken promises.
~.~
Days have gone by since my daddy decided to take my mama away. Miss Delilah, the woman who said she was going to find a home for me to live in, told me my mama is now an angel looking over me. I prayed every night since then that daddy would never find her, but what I over heard from the adults talking, my daddy is in a special place down under. I hope it isn’t too nice, he doesn’t deserve it.
I might only be ten, but I knew the way we were living wasn’t normal. My best friend, Stella Ryan, had the perfect life I always wished for. Her home was the complete opposite of mine. She actually has a house without holes, cigarette burns in the rugs, or mold growing in the corners. Most of my good memories come from playing in her castle playhouse. Her daddy and mama would dress up like a king and queen, her brother would be our knight, we would play the princesses, and her dog Benji would play the dragon. I use to wish every night that I could have that life. My mama was sweet and kind to me, but from what Stella’s mom said to her friends, “Good riddance. Her mama was always high and her daddy was addicted to the bottle.”
It was safe to say that Stella’s parents weren’t the biggest fans of my parents. The one time daddy came to pick me up from Stella’s house, he decided to steal Mr. Ryan’s wallet. Her parents were upset and wanted her to stay away from us, but Stella told them I had nothing to do with it and refused to give me up as a friend. She was my only friend, most kids didn’t want to play with trailer trash.
When we started kindergarten, no one wanted to sit by me. My clothes were two sizes too big, I had holes in my shoes, and my hair was a curly mess, but Stella came over and told me we were going to be best friends. I was scared it was going to be a joke, but every day she sat with me and we would come up with our own fairy tales. It was one of my favorite times because it helped me escape my reality.
Since both of my parents had no family, it was decided by the town that my daddy would be cremated and mama will have a funeral and burial service. Bellingham, SC was a small town, but my mama and daddy grew up here. Before she turned to drugs to escape her reality, as what Stella's mama said, she was one of the most popular girls around here. She was captain of the cheer squad and came from a rich family, but when her parents died in a car accident, mama went down hill. That’s when she met my daddy, a criminal from the trailer park. As much as the town talked about my mama when they thought I wasn't listening, my mama was an angel in my eyes.
“Madison, I hate to bring this up again at a time like this, but once the burial is over, I am going to take you to the Montgomery’s house. You remember what I said right?” Miss Delilah whispered to me when we were walking through the cemetery to where mama was going to rest.
“Yes Miss Delilah. You said they were going to take care of me as long as I behave.” Most of the time I just liked to read, I was more of a quiet kid. I didn’t like to draw attention to me in fear that
