Chapter Nine

846 Words
As much as she tried not to, Kate had to admit, she felt a little sorry for her sister. In their mother’s messed up world, everyone was in the wrong. Everyone but her of course. Elise usually bore the brunt of Dianne's anger, since she was home more often than Kate and had lived there much longer. Kate always tried to protect her older sister. Even though she knew Elise was at fault for most things, nothing that either of them ever did would warrant the irrational, verbal abuse that they were dealt growing up. Elise didn't know how to defend herself against Dianne and usually made the situation ten times worse than it had to be. Kate would step in to mediate and somehow manage to calm them both down, enough at least so that Elise could walk away and Dianne would be left to stew in her anger. Over time Kate had learned not to retaliate. Tony tried his best not to interfere, as it always made things worse for the girls. He himself was just as terrified of his wife when she was in that state. Instead, he tried to reassure his daughters, showed them as much love as he could and gave them different ways to cope. He went to such lengths that he even requested their school teachers only contact him should one of his girls ever be in any sort of trouble. Tony pushed them both to be independent so that they could get out the second they were financially stable. Although Kate sometimes wished her father had just taken them away and raised them both on his own, she knew this would have been difficult and was grateful for his guidance. Elise had gone the other way.  Kate, while nervous, was over the moon to be leaving today. Her father left earlier this morning to get a head start at the office, he popped his head in the door before leaving to wish her a safe trip. Kate was still doing some last-minute packing and gave her father a brief hug, allowing him to head off before the morning traffic set in. Dianne had said goodbye as if she was simply waving Kate off to work for the day and quickly headed back inside the house. Evidently, things were still very awkward between them. Kate was relieved that she would miss Ryan and her sister's return by a few hours. She still had no idea where they had been and didn't even bother to ask. She knew she would have to deal with them both when she got back, but she promised herself that she wouldn't think about it too much for now. Kate had something more important to worry about, she had never flown in an airplane and didn't think it would bother her much, until now. She was waiting anxiously in front of her parent's house, willing the uber she had called almost an hour ago, to hurry the hell up before she changed her mind. From the corner of her eye, Kate could see the old woman who lived next door walking towards her. She was still dressed in her pale blue dressing gown and matching pale blue slippers, even though it was now well past midday. She had babysat Kate on many occasions but the last time she had actually seen Mrs Boretto was when she was still living at home. Kate hadn't been lucky enough to bump into her in these last few weeks and was now very much okay with the uber being as late as it was.  Kate waved her over and greeted her with a customary kiss on the cheek. She offered her condolences to Mrs Boretto, whose husband had passed away last June. Kate was excited to tell her where she was headed and as soon as she did, Mrs Boretto asked her to wait a moment. Kate watched as she hurried back into her home, returning a few minutes later. She asked Kate to hold out an open hand, in it, she placed a beautiful silver medallion; it was Saint Christopher. She closed Kate's fingers over the medallion and placed both her hands around Kate's. “He takes a-good care of you. You keep” She said to Kate, who was now feeling a little less anxious. The old woman had lived here for over 45 years and still hadn’t managed to shake her strong Italian accent. Kate loved listening to all the wonderful stories she'd told her as a child, albeit, in broken English. Still, she was now regretting not spending more time with her, perhaps even learning a word or two to help get her through the next five weeks. Kate hugged Mrs Boretto and thanked her for the wonderfully sweet gesture, it certainly helped to lift her spirits about the flight. The uber finally showed up. Kate loaded her luggage into the back, slid her carry on across the seat and stepped inside. St Christopher was tucked safely in her shirt pocket.
Free reading for new users
Scan code to download app
Facebookexpand_more
  • author-avatar
    Writer
  • chap_listContents
  • likeADD