Page 4 of Falling For Lucky
We half sleepily walk into the house hugging and kissing Mrs. Tina then watch from the porch as she makes her way across the yard to her house. Once she is inside, we get ready for bed, barely laying our heads on the pillow our eyes are closed. It feels like it’s only been five minutes when I hear the sound of a little voice and laughing babies.
“SHHHH. Momma sweeping,” LJ unsuccessfully whispers. The babies just babble not caring at all that LJ is talking to them.
I look over at Khloi who is sound asleep snoring quietly. I decide to let her rest. She has been a single mom and works two jobs sometimes to be able to live. She deserves to get some sleep uninterrupted sleep.
Sneaking out of bed, I close the door quietly behind me, then sneak down the hall to the kid’s room and just watch for a moment. LJ is sitting on the floor holding up a book for the twins to read. Taking out my phone I take a couple of pictures and that is when Kylen spots me, smiling wide and bouncing harder in his seat.
“Are you kiddos ready for breakfast?” I ask, smiling wide at them.
They all just babble in excitement. I first grab Kylen, changing his diaper then Rylan and LJ. Once they are all dry, we head to the kitchen where I place the twins in their bouncy seats and LJ in one of their highchairs. Turning onPandora,I start dancing and singing to the kids as I make eggs and pancakes for everyone. I’m just about to sit down and feed the kids when a very messy-haired Khloi comes stumbling in, begging for coffee.
“Thank the heavens you have coffee made.” Khloi sigh dramatically
“Did you expect anything less? I don’t function on my own.”
Khloi finishes fixing her coffee before coming over and kissing LJ on the head and taking a seat beside him, helping him finish his food. Once they are done Khloi helps me clean up and settle the kids for some playtime. We sit for just a moment in silence, and I pray she’ll let things go.
“You know good and damn well that I’m not going to let this go. Speak woman!” Kloi says grinning behind her mug.
Sighing I lay my head on the back of the couch, tracing the lines trying to figure out where to start, “Where the heck do, I even start?”
“The very beginning! Is where you start!”
“Let’s see, my family lived on fifty acres just out of town. My dad and mom were super against the outside world. Daughters were taught that to be a good and obedient daughter you were quiet, modest, clean, kept your head down, and did as you were told. The boys were meant to work on the land, take care if the animals and that’s all.” I wait for her reply.
She doesn’t say anything but instead waves me on, “We didn’t have a lot to eat some days, no computers, or phones. It was all I knew, and I was the middle child. There were so many of us and when I left mom was even pregnant. To keep people from town asking questions, being on the land, or anything my father decided to send us to public school. It was all good, we went to school, kept our heads down, and did what we had to.”
“Oh snap! You are so sheltered. Like sheltered to the max?” Khloi asks.
“Yes, there were notes sent in from my parents not allowing us to use computers even at school. We were only in school from about the first grade until seventh grade. That’s when they decided to pull us and let the older kids and momma homeschool us. When that happened, I was devastated because I had started to become friends with Trixie and Troy. They seem to have a life just as rough as mine, so we meshed. You know what I mean?” I ask.
“Oh, I completely get it. When you find someone who can understand what you are going through for just a second you latch on to them,” she smiles sadly at LJ.
“You know when we are done here you will be telling me your story as well!” I say pointing at her. She just gives me a pointed look without saying anything.
“Anyway, Troy and I kept seeing each other. I would sneak out to meet up with him and just hang out together. We would swim in the creek and just be together. Troy would bring me hamburgers and ice cream. We fell in love. My parents' financial situation had gotten worse. So my parents came up with a plan shortly after joining some kinda church; they would marry us girls to rich men in the church with money,” I whisper embarrassed by what they did. “Trading us like cattle. They needed the money so the highest bidder, the man who gave them the most money, was the one we were married off to. Being the good daughters that we were, we did what was asked and we got married. I don’t know about my sisters but the man they married me to was a complete fucking monster.”
Khloi gasps at my words. Looking over at her I see the tears swimming in her eyes.
“Yes, he was awful but what made it so much worse for me is that I was supposed to have gone and met up with Troy the night after my eighteenth birthday. I just knew he was going to ask me to run away with him on the night of my birthday. But my family obligations were sitting at the dinner table waiting. I left that night with nothing. I couldn’t make any calls or anything after that without supervision. I’m not going into the details of my time with him. What I will say is that the day I found out that I was pregnant I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay. So, when a plan presented itself, I took it and came back here,” I finish with a shrug.
“So, Troy has no idea about any of this? He could still want to be with you! This could be your second chance,” Khloi says excitedly.
“Let’s not get too excited! That man has to hate me, we both know he thinks I just ditched him that night. He never had any idea about what was going on in my life,” I tell her.
“Yeah yeah!! Let’s get this day going. I’ve got to get LJ home and we both need showers. We are going to the grocery store today.”
“You can leave him here, so you don’t have to do all the craziness.”
“That’s okay. We both know that he knows something is up and if it’s now when he finds out then okay,” Khloi shrugs.
We say our goodbyes then I spend the rest of the day with the twins, cleaning the house and doing laundry so that I wasn’t stuck wearing the same shirt as last night.
Four
Troy
“I never imagined this place could get any worse!” I growl, looking at the rundown place I called home until the day I turned eighteen.
