Chapter three

 

I looked at him and shook a little. How strange this was. I stuttered a bit when I said, “my name’s Meagan. Meagan LeAnn Walters.”

He shook my hand like I was an old friend. “It’s nice to make your acquaintance Miss Meagan.”

“Oh no sir, everyone’s always called me Lee.” I said shyly.

“Well alrighty then Lee. Why don’t you come have a seat here at the table and get you a bite to eat while Mrs. Harper and I excuse ourselves for just a moment” They had a plate already laid out for me with a mug of piping hot coffee to go with it. I had never had coffee before. I grabbed the mug and took a nice big swig, but I realized too late the meaning of piping hot. I screamed and dropped the mug, and as it fell time seemed to slow. I saw Ted beating my mother because a plate had slipped from her hand and crashed to the floor, and how he’d turn on me when she was too broken and bruised to beat up on... when the mug hit the floor it shattered into tiny pieces. The Harpers came rushing in and by then I had dime sized tears in my eyes. With a whimper I pushed myself into the corner farthest away from their looming figures.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry. It was an accident!” My small body was shaking so badly I doubted they understood me. “Please, I’m sorry...”

Lisa looked at me with pity then compassion. She walked over to my corner very slowly and reached out to cup my chin. I cringed at her touch and whimpered once more. “Aw darlin’ you don’t have to be afraid of us. We are here to help you. I promise you that neither my husband nor I would ever strike you out of anger. Do you understand?”

I took a deep breath and straightened up. “Yes ma’am. I understand.” I looked into her eyes and what I saw I just couldn’t comprehend. Bill walked over to us and stood behind his wife.

“She’s right Lee I would never hurt you. For one I’m a man of God, and two you’re just a kid that’s been severely mistreated. You are safe here, and that’s why Lisa and I have decided that we want you to stay here with us, but we need to know if you have any family first.

 “My mother’s dead. I don’t know who or where my father is.”

Bill Harper looked at his wife, then back at me. “Lee, honey, I’m sorry for your loss... He pause seemed like an eternity. “What about any Aunts, Uncles, or grandparents?”

“None that I know of.” I replied my voice finally had stopped quivering. These people wanted me to stay? They wanted... me? Bill looked at me kindly.

 “Well of course, you ain’t old enough to be out on your own. Stay here and if you decide you want to go when you are grown then you can make a life for yourself. What do you say?”

My mind was spinning. These people wanted me to stay? What was the catch? There was always a catch with grownups... that’s how it’d been with Ted. They were right though. I wasn’t old enough to take care of myself. I might as well accept his offer.

“Thank you”, I said shyly. “I would greatly appreciate it.” I spent the rest of the day getting used to the middle aged couple. They didn’t ask many questions about what had happened to make me run, but I could see it in their eyes. After supper was cleared away, I snuck a smoke behind the barn so the kind couple wouldn’t see me. I had been dying for one all day. Around sundown Lisa told me that we would be heading into town after morning chores to get me some new clothes. The c**k crowed as the sun tried to inch its way over the horizon of clouds. Lisa had knocked quietly on my bedroom door only minutes before with a kind request to stop burning daylight and get up out of bed. I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to oblige, but I knew that if I was going to make it work here I needed to do as they asked. After breakfast I clumsily helped Lisa hang laundry on the clothes line, and we climbed in their old pickup to go into town...

            The passenger seat of the stuffy blue true that I was occupying was straight-backed and stiff. For most it would be impossible to doze off in such a seat but I was lost in thought about everything I had seen that day. It had been a long way into town, and Lisa had chattered on and on about some community picnic thing coming up soon. Well, I didn’t know if she was talking about the town we just went to, but if she was, there was no way I was making that long trip again. After a while I did dozed off, and before I knew it Bill was shaking me awake.