CHAPTER 35-4
624 Words
Eve dragged the vacuum down the hallway and into the guest bedroom. She knocked once but didn’t pause before opening the door. Mee-Kyong had been in the den all afternoon, working on her Scripture assignment. Eve heaved the vacuum in and shut the door behind her. It wasn’t fair that the new girl got the big bed, when Eve’s mattress was no larger than a child’s. Mee-Kyong was only a few centimeters taller than she, certainly not enough to merit double the sleeping area.
She skulked to the closet and fingered the clothes on the hangers. Some of them she remembered Kennedy wearing. Of course, at the time she never questioned why that spoiled American brat had dozens of spare outfits, some she only wore a few times a year. Kennedy was the Sterns’ daughter. Obviously she would have a nice wardrobe. That didn’t explain, however, why Mee-Kyong was wearing all the leftovers Kennedy didn’t take with her back to America. Wouldn’t they fit Eve just as well? When was the last time the Sterns had given her anything new?
Eve took a sheer blouse off the hanger and held it up to her shoulders. Turning from side to side in front of the ornate mirror, she imagined how she would look in it. Her figure would certainly fill it out better than Mee-Kyong’s. She turned to put the blouse away, and something draped over the chair in the corner of the room caught her eye. She walked over and fingered the soft nylon fabric. She picked it up by one of the stringy shoulder straps. She had seen that kind of dress many times before.
Mrs. Stern thought she knew all about Eve and her past, but the fat American was completely clueless. Mrs. Stern had spent all her energy lately clucking over Mee-Kyong like an old mother hen, but whatever the new girl went through, it couldn’t measure up to what Eve had suffered. Torn from her family, ripped from her old life, used up by men who didn’t care about her and would never love her. She clutched the red dress so tightly her knuckles were white. It didn’t matter where Mee-Kyong came from, or how sorry Mrs. Stern was for her. Whatever she thought she had suffered would pale next to the misery Eve had endured, and nobody would convince her otherwise.
Compliments paid in hushed whispers. “Your daughter has so much potential. It would be a shame to waste a talent like hers.”
Tears ignored in the darkness of night. “Please don’t send me away, Mama. I don’t want to go with him.”
Threats and coercion. “You’ll go with him because your father and I told you to.”
Eve needed to get to Benjamin. She flung the red dress back over the chair and retreated from Mee-Kyong’s room. Benjamin would understand. It had been so long ...
With old memories warming her fluttering stomach, she scurried down the stairs on tiptoes and rushed to the back door. Her hand was already on the handle when she saw them. For a moment, Eve froze, and then she flung the back door open. “What are you doing out here? Did you finish all your copy work?”
Mee-Kyong leaned back against the house and lifted her gaze just enough to give Eve a passing glance. “I decided to take a break.”
Eve fixed her hands on her hips. “Did Mrs. Stern say you could?”
“You can mop a floor whether or not I’m out here, can’t you?” Mee-Kyong turned toward Benjamin, who heaved shovelfuls of dirt over to the mound next to him.
“We’ll see,” Eve growled, but Mee-Kyong wasn’t even looking at her. “We’ll see,” she repeated to herself. She stomped back into the house and up the stairs to the intruder’s room.
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- Writer
