During Betty’s lifetime they had been evicted four times and counting and she had been to three different schools each year since she was nine. She was the second eldest child, oldest of the girls (two other sisters). Her older brother was an absentee and her mother had left them, leaving all six of them in their unemployed fathers' care. She had abandoned a long since sinking ship. Betty knew it was coming, so the day her mother left she didn't understand why she wasn't better prepared. 2
Getting up each day was becoming harder and harder, though she wouldn’t show it. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday she got up, packed lunches, got the kids ready for school and sent them on their way. And every day she would walk past her unemployed father, ever sitting on the couch watching nine year old football reruns. 3
It didn’t always used to be that way. Betty remembered the better days, if you could call them that. The days where she had close friends who she could share her lesser secrets with, when she had more money, and her family could actually be classified as functioning. Sure, maybe they weren’t the tightest back then, but at least she could say she had two parents. Now she wasn’t even allowed to talk to her mom. 4
In a way Betty didn’t blame her mom for leaving, some days she actually wished her mom the best, though not always. Betty knew it was even harder for her sister Margret to understand why their mom had left, and more importantly, without them. Margret didn’t understand the situation. Betty could understand. Mostly. Their dad had hit a little bit too much for their moms’ taste. Even if (from what she could hear) there had been really good make up sex after. Still, hitting was hitting. It was no wonder her mom took off. Only now her dad had the make up sex with her. And it wasn’t really good. So secretly, she did blame her mom. Who in their right mind would leave their teenage daughter with a
ty father like hers? 5Betty wished she never got curves, she wished she was more like Margret, skin and bones. Betty wished a lot of things. Betty still believed in fairy godmothers. She had to. Every Friday she went to youth group with Margret and their younger brother Marcus. Margret said she never wanted to go home. Secretly Betty thought the same. It depended on the mood their father was in. Sometimes he could be a really great guy. Especially when he planned special vacation trips for them. Betty remembers a beach trip from last year. That was when her father was dating, so Betty was left alone for awhile. She liked that.6
For Margret’s birthday Betty wanted to buy her a necklace, but in reality, she's going to run to CVS for some cover up. Then they’re going to spend the night having girl talk, Betty’s going to teach Margret how to use makeup properly. Last Sunday their father got a job, last Tuesday he lost his balance. At least Betty bought the nice kind, Cover Girl Cosmetics. Betty thinks it’s amazing how something meant to make a girl feel so beautiful, can turn out to be so ugly. She’s surprised at her deep thoughts. Maybe tonight she’ll write it down. It all depends. 7
Betty looks left and right, right to left. The zooming traffic is so mesmerizing. When she’s sixteen, she promises herself, she’ll take after her mother in one more way. Speed. Fast. Gone. Left, right she looks again. Soon, Betty’s mouth makes a small ‘oh’ of surprise. Looks like she’ll be taking off a little sooner than she thought, Betty is amused by all the noise, all the shouting, all the people staring down at her. She clutches the CVS bag closer to her chest. The bottle is cracked, the liquid cream seeping through the bag, over her shirt and running gently against the spot right above where her heart is. She sighs in relief. She’s protected now; no one can see just how damaged that vital organ is. She hopes Margret won’t be mad at her, because now she realizes that a lack of curves won't really matter. She almost regrets leaving, but than again, she is her mothers’ daughter. 8
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