CHANGE

Chapter 3

Just leaving work and gazing up at the sky, I could tell that it was going to snow soon. My mother and I lived an hour away in the country. Snow days like these had me concerned for my safety.

By the time I was near home, it was pitch black and snowing hard. I'd driven in snow storms before but always hated it. It made me feel uneasy. That is when I heard from my sister the most. Normally, she was too busy to reach out that much. But when there was bad weather, she liked to check in on us. That was a result of her car accident many years ago.

I could still remember the night we got the call like it was yesterday.

Flashback

I was upstairs watching TV. My mother was downstairs, along with my brother and father. My father was still alive during this time, but things had been slowly growing off with him. My father had lost his job back when I was seven years old. This had been extremely hard on all of us. My father had not been able to find another job. My brother was the one who started working and helped to support everyone financially.

My brother happened to be home this evening. It was just a normal evening. I was talking to my mother when my brother — Daniel — received a phone call from our aunt. It had turned out My sister — Alice — had listed her as her emergency contact. Alice had been in a car accident. I was so confused and worried for her. All I wanted to know was if she was ok.

But she wasn't ok. She had been reduced to a state like a coma. There were emotions going through me that I never expected to ever have to feel. And I didn't want to feel them. I stifled them down. I found ways to escape the pain. It was either through music or heavy daydreaming.

But I was headed down the wrong path at one point. I caught myself starting to shoplift. Once I had been caught, I decided that I could never do it again. They talked about sending me to Juvey. That was not somewhere I wanted to end up. I was with my mother at the time, and she couldn't believe that it was me. I lied and told her someone else put them in my bag. She decided to accept that.

The saving grace was things ended up getting better with my sister, but that was very long for her and everyone involved.

End of flashback.

I had been very hard on myself after shoplifting. I couldn't believe I let myself go down such a dark road. I could have ruined my life if the shop owners had wanted to press charges. They told us both no trespassing at least. My mother didn't want to accept that, but she had no choice.

A wave of guilt washed over me even now, thinking over that whole incident. I was finally pulling up to the house. The snow-covered roads had me concerned for travel tomorrow. I parked my car in the backyard and got out to go inside the house.

My mother, once again as always, greeted me once I was inside.

"Hello, Rosemary," my mother began from the couch. "How was your day?"

"Fine," I mumbled, very sad inside.

My mother must have been able to tell. She gave me a look.

"What is wrong today?" she asked, turning her eyes away from the TV.