Two Birds, a stone, and the Sky (Chapter One)

The sky was blue. It was a simple color, but it inspired many things. It was the fact that it was that certain shade of blue and that birds flew through it which made me feel so great. What is more freeing than being able to fly? Of course I’ve never flown before, not even on a plane. I’ve never been eye to eye with clouds, I’ve always been underneath them admiring their great majesty and prowess. Some days the clouds moved faster through the sky than other days. My momma used to say that was because of the wind. I like wind. You cannot see wind, but you can see its effects like the rustling of leaves or the goose bumps on your arms.

I continued to stare into the sky as the world seemed to continue on without me. I dug my fingers into the grass pretending that the ground was in the place of the sky and that if I let go I’d fall all the way into outer space.

“Hey, idiot! Get up!” It was Henry my older brother. I sat up in a daze and looked behind me and sure enough there was Henry huffing and puffing towards me and my favorite spot by the lake.

“David and I have been looking everywhere for you. Lucky for us Thomas knows your favorite hiding spot.” Henry grabbed my wrist and hoisted me up which evidently led to my stockings being ripped even more than they already were and a big ol’ bloody scrape on my knee.

“I haven’t been hiding!” I tried to pull my arm away from Henry’s strong grasp, but it was to no avail. He held onto me like as if I mattered to him. But I knew the case was that he was responsible for my chores if I didn’t get them done. He couldn’t have cared less if I drowned in that lake.

“Then what in the Hell have you been doin’? I had to do your damn chores! And Missus Callaghan is waiting for you! Oh, you’re gonna get it Ava!” Henry was now pulling me through the field away from the lake and towards the school. His short buzzed hair looked like little carrots sprouting from his head, his big head. I could just imagine the rage he had in the green eyes all of my brothers and I shared. But instead of cowering in fear I began to laugh because all I could think about were his messed up front teeth which made him talk funny.

“You shouldn’t be laughin’ we’re almost there and Imma tell Missus Callaghan on you.” Henry started to walk even faster and the large, but run down school came into view. It was out in the middle of God’s country. The driveway was four miles from the road and the only vegetation was overgrown grass and the potato farm that laid east of the building.

We were coming in from the backside of the school, which was a three story building made from some sort of stucco material. The roof was flat and had many issues like flooding and being able to see the stars as you as you tried to sleep.

Miss Callaghan was waiting for me with a bible and a paddle in her hands. I knew what was coming. I had skipped my chores and this was what I received for my debauchery. I was going to get a whooping. Ain’t nothing ever good comes from a whooping. She should know that by now. I used to get scared of the paddle and do my best to stay out of trouble, but trouble was always waiting for me. I got hit so many times by that dang thing that I just became numb to the whole charade. She spanks me, and I listen to the bible verses she reads to me and I nod and say “Of course I’ll be good.”

“Thank you Henry for fetching your sister. You can go now” Miss Callaghan nodded at Henry. Henry snarled at me and ran inside. Miss Callaghan turned her beady dark eyes at me and her thin lips were curved into a menacing frown. Her wrinkles were so deep that her eyebrows disappeared into them and her grey bun was tied tight into a top knot above her head pulling her cheeks making her skin look tight and slightly less wrinkled than the rest of her face.

“And you! You insufferable child. Oh, you are going to get it. The lord has told be of your sins. You are the bane of my existence and this paddle is too good for you. Take this bible.” She thrust the bible at me. This was different. This was very different. My hands shook as I took the book. I was now finally afraid of Miss Callaghan.

“Read Romans 10:13.” Miss Callaghan demanded as she twisted the paddle from hand to hand. I quickly opened the book thumbing through it until I found the write page.

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” I read the words slowly and clearly although I was shaking.

“Do you call on the name of the Lord?” Miss Callaghan voice was stern and cold. It held no mercy nor sympathy. It was the voice of a woman filled with hate.

“Ye-e-s” I stuttered. She raised the hand with the paddle in it and I covered my face with my hands and the bible, but she used her other hand to hold my arms down.

“Your momma left you here with me. She ain’t gonna help you now. And God don’t love you so he ain’t gonna help you! I can’t hear you child! What did ya say?” Her true accent and vocabulary came out as she began to yell. Through blistering tears and desperation to get away I yelled,

“Yes! I call on the name of the Lord! I promise!” I was now yelling trying to push her hands away but instead just dropped the bible to the ground. It thudded lightly against the grass, and I knew right then and there what was going to happen.

“How dare you drop such sacred text!” She swung the paddle and I tried to turn my head but it still made contact with the paddle. I fell to the ground and my head began to spin. I felt a warm liquid slowly flowing down the left side of my head and drop onto the grass. As I lifted my head I saw Miss Callaghan grab her dress as not to get the ends dirty from my blood and storm towards the school.

“You are not a good person.” And with that she opened the door and went back into the school.

Something of awful stench crept into my nose, and my eyes slowly opened to my two brothers Thomas and David. Thomas’s stern face was crunched into concern as he helped me sit up. David’s kind face which looked similar to Henry’s, but held much more empathy, was full of thought as he examined the wound on the side of my head.

“You gotta stop getting yourself in trouble Ava.”

Author's note: It is a boarding school out in the west of Texas which is where people often drop their children off and never come back. (Explained later on) It is run by Miss Callaghan, a crazy Christian and an assortment of other people like her. She is abusive and only teaches about the bible. Ava is about eight years old and has three older brothers. Henry is very keen on his "studies" and gets Ava in trouble on purpose because he believes what he is doing is right. Henry is twelve. Thomas is fourteen and David is sixteen. They are the kind brothers who do their best to take care of their siblings, especially Ava. The story is going to be about Ava's plight until she is able to leave when she turns fifteen. (She escapes with a normal family on a road trip). To get to the point the story is going to highlight abuse and extreme religious people. It is also going to show a young girl's story about lost childhood, and trying to find herself among a new world that is more accepting of her than her old world. If that makes any sense at all.