Half A League From The Village
Chapter 5, Episode 9
By Dorlana Vann

Saturday: Night


Scarlet found her mom in the little mud room on the other side of the kitchen folding a load of laundry. That was all Scarlet ever knew her to do—work. She had told Scarlet several years before that the reason she had left her dad was so that Scarlet would have a better life. Scarlet didn't see it that way; she didn't know how anyone could be so screwed up that they thought being alone was better. She wished her mother had fought at least a little bit for her dad. But no, she had given him away to that skank her dad referred to as "your stepmom".

Even though Scarlet wasn't sure what she wanted out of life, she did know it wouldn't be anything like her mom's life. Her mom woke in the mornings and had the same day every day; it would be the same hard working day, over and over, until she died.

"I'm leaving," Scarlet said.

"Where are you going?"

"On a trip."

Theresa glanced at her. "When are you coming back?"

Scarlet shrugged her shoulders.

"What about Christmas? I thought we were going shopping. I took off that couple of days."

The disappointment on her mom's face prompted Scarlet to lie. "I'll be back for that." She couldn't tell her the truth, that she didn't plan to ever come back. It would only start questions about school… and tears. There would be lots of tears. She refused to ruin her life because of guilt.

"Where are you going?"

"Someplace warm."

"Maybe we should talk about this. I don't know if it's such a—"

Scarlet rolled her eyes. "We're just going to… Florida. He needs to get away for a little while. His aunt and cousin are staying with his Granny, and this is his only chance."

"Oh… is he all right? Is that why? Is this because of his mother?"

"Yeah, that's right." Scarlet felt antsy. "Look, I gotta go."

"Call me or text me when you get there? I'm worried about the storm."

To satisfy her, Scarlet agreed. If I remember to bring my phone. The hug had also been for her mom's benefit.


Diesel had made it to the living room and stood with his arms crossed watching the weather on the television. He had brought Scarlet's bags with him and had set them by the front door.

"Done," Scarlet said. "Are you happy? Now let's jet."

"Wait a minute." He held her coat out to her.

A woman in an ugly, blue suit told the viewers about the winter weather alert. Scarlet didn't pay attention to what she said; all she heard was: "Leave! Or you'll be stuck here forever!" Scarlet quickly put on her coat, releasing and tossing out her loose curls with a shake of her head. "We're going to miss the flight. We gotta go."

He picked up her suitcase and duffle bag. "Has anybody ever told you how impatient you are?"

"You're just slow."

After Diesel walked out the front door, Scarlet took one last look around the living room. She groaned when she saw the bare Christmas tree she had never gotten around to decorating with her mom. "Oh, well." She shook her head, grabbed her purse off the end table, but left her phone and followed him out.

"What are you doing?" Scarlet stopped suddenly to keep from running into him.

Diesel stood on the front porch, staring up at the sky. "I'll be back," he said.

"What do you mean? Be back?"

"I have to go back to the house."
"Oh no, you don't! We're going to the airport, now! You're never going back to that house. Do you hear me? I'm tired of this, Diesel. I'm not going to put up with this shit anymore. I've been more than patient. Don't you think?"

"There's something I have to do." He kissed her on the mouth, dropped the bags, and ran to his car. The engine revved as he barreled out of the driveway.

"What the hell? Diesel!" She threw her hands up. "Where…?" She shivered from the cold wind and looked up to where Diesel had been staring. The clouds moved fast, showing only mere glimpses of a white moon.

"He's insane." She grabbed her bags off the porch and fought the wind to her car and threw them in the backseat. After jumping into the driver's seat, she sat for a moment fighting to unclench her teeth. Determined not to cry over Diesel's ridiculous behavior, she breathed heavily, in and out, through her nose. It didn't help. "Ahhhhh!" she screamed as she put both hands on the steering wheel and pulled as hard as she could.

After calming down, she knew she had to make a decision. She didn't want to go back inside the house and have her mom ask twenty million questions as to why she hadn't left yet. She couldn't simply sit there and freeze to death. She had to follow him back to his house.

"Why is he going back there?" She started her car. "Probably forgot to pack his rabbit's foot." If she'd had her own money, she would've left his ass there. "Fine, fine, fine…" she said pulling out onto the dark road. The snow had begun to fall on her windshield, light and fluffy, but she knew better than to trust its beauty. She didn't want to be out on the road when it decided to show its mean side.

To be continued…

Chapter 6 Episode 10 will be posted Jan. 7, 2010.

If you would you like to read the entire novel now, the eBook is available for the intro price of $0.99 until Jan. 1st. on Nook and Kindle .

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