Shadows

The Rayne apartment is a gigantic rectangle. As you enter the dwelling, to your right is a kitchen, with fridge, stove, sink, counters, and cabinets. A square card table with two, light, folding chairs served as the dining table. On the left, coming into the home, you would find a large open space, naturally, lit by a big sliding glass door, that opened onto a balcony. The grand space, served as a living room. It had two, big comfortable, easy chairs, placed in front of a, small, black, box, that was a color television set. The TV sat on a stand, with little doors, that opened to reveal shelves. The top shelf had a VCR and game system. The bottom shelf held video games and tapes.

Continuing through the apartment, past the kitchen, dining room, and living room, you venture down a narrow hallway. A door on one side of the hall leads you to the bathroom. A door on the other side of the hall leads you to one bedroom. There is a bed, dresser, closet, clothes strewn about the floor, and a few other nick-knacks that indicate this room might belong to young girl. This room belongs to Lucinda..

At the end of the hallway, was a slightly larger, bedroom. This room had curtains, a dresser, a bigger closet, and a bigger bed, compared to the other bedroom. There were no clothes on the floor of this room, but the hamper was over flowing. This room was Cheryl Rayne's room.

Upon returning home after school, Lucinda wandered down the hall to her mother's room, where she found her mother in bed. Whenever there was a family crises, Cheryl Rayne always went to her bed to sleep, rather than deal with it. "Mom?" Lucinda tried. "The lights won't come on when I flick the switch."

Cheryl Rayne, rolls over on her bed, to look at her daughter. "Yeah, yeah, I already know. The power's been cut off. I didn't pay the bill." In a sarcastic, annoyed tone. "Are you happy, now?" Cheryl continued her explanation, doing whatever to appease Lucinda in order to make her go away so she could go back to sleep. "The power company shut us off. I'll make sure we get the lights back when I get my check. Ok?"

Lucinda wasn't surprised. This was the other shoe dropping, from when her mother tried to bribe her with that game system. "What are we going to eat? How are we going to bathe? Everything in this apartment is electric. Stove, water heater, everything." Lucinda inquired in a carefully measured voice. Cheryl had a tendency to be mean and bitter when things went wrong. Lucinda was internally praying, that she wouldn't catch any angry backlash, with these simple, necessary inquiries.

Cheryl responded in a nasty tone. "We won't starve, I brought some food home from the nursing home, where I work. Light some candles, eat your, and leave me alone. Later, I'll take the electric coffee pot down to the second level of the building and borrow some electricity to heat some water so you can wash your hair before school." Cheryl rolled over going back to sleep.

Cheryl Rayne was a nursing assistant at a local nursing home. It was a good job, enough to pay the bills, and provide a good enough place to live. If only Cheryl Rayne would just live at her means.

In a stoic manner, Lucinda left her mother to sleep. It would do no good to whine and complain, when her mother was in bed at a time like this. That would only infuriate Cheryl Rayne. An angry Cheryl Rayne was unpredictable. If she didn't get loud and yell back, Cheryl could turn violent. Lucinda knew this from experience, ever since her father left.

Cheryl Rayne had been separated from her husband for over a year before packing herself and her daughter up, moving to this apartment. Every year, Cheryl would use any excuse, no matter how minor, to find a new home. The area they had moved to was unsafe, the school her daughter was going to at the time wasn't good enough, they were running from Lucinda's father, Cheryl was restless and needed a change. Whatever the reason, Cheryl found new, weaker excuses to uproot the small family every year. Moving expenses alone, made keeping up with things like bills, next to impossible. In addition, Cheryl enjoyed showering her daughter with lavish gifts to try to fill the void left by not having her father in her life. What good were video games, movies, cable, televisions, if there was no power to use them?

As if business management issues weren't enough, Cheryl Rayne had other issues as well. Whenever life got to hard or complicated, she took to her bed sleeping away her personal time, absolutely refusing to deal or cope with any adult situation. Cheryl had hypothyroidism, so the sleepiness that came with a low metabolism was a /very/ convenient excuse for her not to be able to get anything done. Cheryl's failings were present, before Lucinda's father, Thomas Rayne, left the family.

***

Years before, when Lucinda's parents were together. Lucinda's dad, Thomas Rayne, worked as a prison guard. After witnessing two shootings, Thomas Rayne needed to take a leave of absence from the dangerous line of work. Around the same time, Thomas, was also /officially/ diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Due to his disability, Thomas became a stay at home dad, in charge of looking after a very young Lucinda, who couldn't be left to care for herself on her own. Thomas was a good dad, for the most part. Just extremely strict when it came to his child rearing techniques. If young Lucinda ever need discipline, Thomas didn't hesitate to spank. Sometimes, when he got started spanking he didn't stop. If Thomas didn't use spanking as a form of discipline on his daughter, he would grab a fist full of Lucinda's hair, yanking for all he was worth. Lucinda had grown tired of the hair pulling, and at least twice, cut her own hair in hopes that Thomas Rayne couldn't get a good grip on the locks. Cutting her own hair didn't stop Thomas Rayne's abuse. Only intervention from someone else in authority could stop it.

Sometimes when Lucinda's mother would try to step in to protect her daughter from Thomas Rayne. Either physically, by stepping between Lucinda and Thomas to get hit herself or by contacting the police to stop the harsh discipline. Of course, taking the place of her daughter as her husband's punching bag, wasn't the only reason she got hit. The manipulation and mind games she pulled to get her way would also get Cheryl beaten. She could also give as good as well as she received with her words and antics. Then, when Cheryl got hit for her behavior, she would play her favorite role, as the victim, claiming she was only defending herself. The young Lucinda saw all this physical violence, and knew it must be stopped, somehow.

Young Lucinda was riding with her parents to a fast food restaurant, to get some burgers that would be their supper. Thomas and Cheryl were in the front seat, arguing because Cheryl had temporarily misplaced the bank card. Young Lucinda was sitting in the back seat and couldn't really see everything that was going on in the front of the car. All she really saw was Cheryl reaching, and Thomas smacking her, hard, with his hand. Young Lucinda stared at the floor in the car, frowning, coming to the realization that this stuff must stop. Her mother shouldn't be hit. It was wrong for anybody to be hurt in that manner. Nobody should be struck like that. A small plan was formulating itself in Lucinda's innocent mind. In order to end the pain her father inflicted upon Lucinda and her mother, Lucinda's father would have to go away.

Eventually, the missing Bank card turns up, allowing Thomas to go through a fast-food drive-through to get the supper. That's when Little Lucinda decides to kick her plan into gear. She starts acting up and being a super brat. Whining, fake crying, otherwise being really annoying to her father. The weak excuse she found was that she was hungry, when she really wasn't. Having been told she would have to wait until they got home before she could have her supper, Lucinda pretended not to accept that answer. So she pitched a fake tantrum, purposely designed to upset her father to the point where he'd turn on her and beat her to get her to mind his instructions. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. Lucinda succeeded in angering her father. When he stopped the vehicle at their home, he set the bag of food down, got out of the car, went over to Lucinda, grabbed her by the hair, yanking her from the car, then he pushed her against the side of the car, and proceeded to swat her for all he was worth.

Cheryl, panicked and concerned for her daughter, ran inside the house. Inside, she called the police for help. The police show up, right in the middle of the spanking. From their point of view, it looked like an adult abusing a child. The officers grabbed Thomas, roughly, pulling him away from Lucinda. Lucinda stood away from her father being held, so the police couldn't see through her crocodile tears. In as loud and pitiful a voice as she could muster, Lucinda called. "DADDY HIT ME!!"

That was the last straw. Thomas Rayne was sent to jail. A few days later, his bond was posted by Lucinda's grandmother. He returned to the home, he had shared with Lucinda and Cheryl to collect his things. He was leaving the family never to come back. The entire time, Thomas was there, that final time, Lucinda chose to hide in her room. Feeling sad and somewhat guilty for making her father go away. Afterward, he was gone from Lucinda's life. After Lucinda's father left, Lucinda and her mother continued life as best they could.

***

Cheryl squandered the household finances, then taking to her bed when an important utility was cut off. Lucinda felt guilty. She won't mention the power outage, she never does. Too ashamed and embarrassed to seek help. Forcing herself to cope, pretending that everything is normal when in the outside world. No one would ever hear of the difficulties Lucinda faced at home. She believed she drove her father away and thought that if she spoke up about her home life in public, Lucinda would lose the only parent she had left. Lucinda was between a rock and a hard place.

Lucinda understood and accepted her reality better than her mother. Cheryl didn't want to be an adult, thus she didn't act like one. Since the family was just Cheryl and Lucinda, someone had to act like an adult. The pity of it all was that Lucinda didn't have the powers of an adult. If Lucinda tried to bring in another adult to try and help her mother on the same level. That new adult might destroy the small family. Lucinda didn't want her family to hurt or break anymore. She wanted it healed and fixed. As depressing as her home life was, Lucinda would keep that reality a secret.

Lucinda went to find the candles and a lighter, lighting the chilly apartment. Afterwards, she eats the food her mother brought home for her, for supper. At last, she opens her textbooks, to begin reading and studying by an open window, until the last of the sunlight fades for that day. Once the sun goes down, Lucinda will not bother to awaken her mother to use the electric coffee pot to get the hot water. Instead, Lucinda will take a sponge bath using cold water tolerating it on her head in order to wash her hair. Before her day is finished, Lucinda will set out her clothes, set the battery operated alarm clock, and go to sleep in the silence that is night.