Solitary Confinement

Mischeif's challenge this week is to repost any blog you've written that you're most proud of, no matter the content, as a sort of honor to the Myspace blogging community (in light of recent chaos).

This was my first attempt at fiction writing, originally posted as a Blogophilia write in September 2008.

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Chelsea sat at her bedroom window looking wistfully outside at the street.  All of the neighborhood kids were there playing a game of street tag, all except her, that is.  She leaned her forehead against the glass and thought about how unfair life was.

She glanced at the clock; how much longer did she have to stay in here?  That morning Chelsea had opened the door to her mother's bedroom and saw her and her boyfriend, Eddie, naked on the bed.  Eddie screamed at her mother to "get that brat out of here, now!"  Her mother jumped up, threw on a tattered bathrobe and grabbed Chelsea by the arm, dragging her back to her own bedroom.  "You're staying in solitary confinement until further notice, missy," she spat.  It was now 1:00 in the afternoon, and she had to pee.  She hated Eddie.

"Solitary Confinement" was one of Eddie's phrases.  He had been dating her mother for about 3 months now, but it seemed more like he was living with them since he was always around.  He shaved his head and had tattoos all over his arms, and even had one on his face that looked like a tear drop coming from his eye.  She wondered if that was something you had to get in prison, for one of Eddie's friends had a tear tattoo on his face as well and she knew they had been in prison together.  Eddie always smelled like beer and sweat.  Sometimes when Chelsea would walk past him, he'd laugh and pat her on the behind.  She tried not to walk past him very much.  

She looked at the clock again, 1:15.  She wondered if she should try and sneak out, but the floorboards in the hallway sqeaked so bad she knew she wouldn't get away with it.  She walked to the door, opened it a crack, and softly yelled, "Mom?  Can I come out now?  I really need to pee!"

No response came from her mother's bedroom, nor from the living room.  She held her breath and listened for any sound, any at all, but she couldn't hear anything except the faint wheeze of the window air conditioner.  Deciding to risk it, she shimmied down the hallway towards the bathroom as quickly and quietly as she could, floorboards squeaking and sqwaking with each step.

  

Once relieved, she wondered what she ought to do now, go back to her bedroom or sneak out to the kitchen to grab some food?  She was really hungry since she hadn't gotten to eat breakfast.  But, she was worried that she couldn't hear anyone in the house.  Surely her mother and Eddie wouldn't have left without telling her?  Of course, if they had it wouldn't really surprise her.  Her mother had been acting weird ever since Eddie had come into their lives.  

She tiptoed to her mother's bedroom door and listened.  Nothing.  She cracked it open, and saw her mother lying under the covers, asleep.  Eddie wasn't with her.  Chelsea breathed a sigh of relief.  Maybe he had gone out and wouldn't be back for a while.  She headed out to the kitchen with a grin on her face, thinking of Lucky Charms.  Rounding the corner, she stopped up short, the grin leaving her face.

Eddie was there, leaning over the kitchen table and sniffing something into his nose from a small mirror.  She had seen her mother doing that before; her mother had yelled at her that it was medicine and not to say another word about it.  Chelsea had wondered about that, but did as her mother said and didn't ask questions.  

He looked up at Chelsea, angry at first that she had interrupted him, but then a sleazy smile spread across his face.  He looked her up and down, eyes piercing through the thin fabric of her Cinderella nightgown.  Fine, that's just fine, he thought.  Need to cop me a feel of that.....

Chelsea jerked backwards as Eddie reached out to her.  As he got up from the table his arm knocked the mirror onto the floor, shattering it into pieces.  "Now look what you've done little girl, you made me break my mirror.  Know what happens to little girls that break mirrors?" he sneered.

"No," she whispered, eyes locked on his.  She was scared, her heart was hammering in her chest.  She wished her mother was awake.

"They get seven years of bad luck.  But I think I know a way to stop that from happening....wanna know how?"  He edged close enough to her that she could smell his bad breath.

"H-how?" she said, her voice starting to tremble.

His hand shot out and clamped down on her arm.  "If you give me just a little kiss, I think that'll stop it.....c'mere...."  Eddie pulled her closer to him.

In that split second, Chelsea rememered what her friend Gina from across the street told her to do if anyone bullied her:  she brought her knee up as hard as she could between his legs.  Startled and in pain, Eddie let go of her arm to grab himself and Chelsea ran to the front door and out into the street, screaming for help.

Officer Jeffries was parked down the block, giving the kids playing tag a warning to stay out of the street when he heard the scream.  He saw Chelsea dart out of the house, and saw Eddie lunging for her, shouting "Come back here you little bitch!" 

Officer Jeffries ran towards them, whipping his gun out of its holster at the same time.  Chelsea kept running, across the street to Gina's house where she banged on the door until Gina's mother let her in.  Chelsea collapsed in her arms, sobbing, as Gina peeked around them through the door and saw Eddie being arrested.

Later that night, some people came to drive Chelsea to her dad's house to stay.  Her mother had been arrested too.  Chelsea was tired from all that happened that day, so many people had her explain over and over again what Eddie had done.  They were also very interested in learning what the last three months had been like in her house with Eddie there.  Now she just wanted to eat something and go to sleep.  She hoped her dad wouldn't be angry with her about what happened.

She crawled into the backseat of the car, clutching her Mickey Mouse doll.  Gina and her mother were standing on the curb; Chelsea waved goodbye to them through the rear window as the car pulled off into the night.