Finally, I came out of the bathroom. He sat in the living room with his hands on his chin. He was rubbing his eyes under his glasses. He looked to me when I stepped foot in the living room, staring right back at me.
“Tavi, I’m sorry about your birthday-“
“It was you . . .” I whispered. He straightened his back. “All those years ago.”
“Tavi?” he questioned me.
“The house, my parents rented out, you rented it.”
His eyes brighten up, “You remember me? Oh my God, you actually remember me-“
I cut him off, wanting him to know that it wasn’t okay. His tone was too happy. I stood in front of him and then replied with a hand up, “When someone takes away a person from the life they knew, it’s hard to accept them. It’s hard to think of them as sane. William, you took away my life, and that’s what I have a hard time accepting, and it hurts a lot. I don’t know why you did, or why you thought it was right . . . but it’s not.”
He seemed to give a weak smile. I shook my head. It didn’t work, and he knew that. He looked down and whispered, “You wanted it.”
I went cold. “What are you talking about?”
“That day, I told you that you could escape to the mountains. And you told me you wanted to. That one day you wanted to escape.”
I shook my head. “My mom will figure out you took me, you know that right?”
He laughed. “I’m one of the thousands of people she rented that little house to. She won’t even remember me.”
I felt frozen in time. “Why me?”
He shrugged. “Why not?” Was it that easy to decide on a person to take, just pick a random girl? “I really liked you, and it was oblivious your parents weren’t really around.”
“What gives you the right to take me?”
He went quiet, but went on. “Because I love you, and I wanted to take care of you.”
“I’m not sure how I can respond to be honest. I will never love you. You are just a stranger to me. I don’t know what kidnapping me would do. I’m sorry, but it’s not helping, and I’m not sure what you were thinking when you stalked me, grabbed me, and stole me-“
He grabbed my hand and held it. He started to cry and put his forehead on my hand. I could feel the wetness of his tears creating puddles of tears. He whimpered as he did this. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grown man cry before. I felt strange and awkward.
“Stop it,” I said with a starchy throat. “Stop crying. You shouldn’t cry, it’s weird, stop it!”
He nodded. I took back my hand and sat down next to him. He was still crying. “I’m sorry,” he said in a breath. His whispered, “I’m sorry for being an acid snowflake.”
“I’m sorry, William, but I don’t feel sorry for you.”
The tears stopped. “You look just like her, at this age.”
“Who?”
“Emily,” he whispered. “My wife.”
“The one that died?”
He slowly nodded. “When I first saw you in that house, reading next to the window, my heart skipped a beat. You looked just like her. When I left the rent place, I kept seeing you around town. It was hard to get you out of my mind. At first, I would follow you to make sure nothing happened to you. But after you got attacked . . . I knew I had to take you in.”
“But. . . I’m not Emily.”
“I know,” he smiled. “You’re better.”
“What makes you think that it’s okay to take me?” I asked him.
“Because I am the judge,” he said. I looked to the floor. There was no sense in even trying to talk to him. He was living in his own little world, and he was the ruler.
“I am protecting you. You were in danger. Your mother wasn’t raising you right-”
I cut him off. “She is the best mother.”
“Oh yeah?” he stood. He wasn’t crying anymore. “You were home alone all the time when you were little. You were picked on at school. She had you walk everywhere. She didn’t feed you right.”
I tried to protest, but he cut me off and went on.
“She wasn’t responsible. Her husband was the same way. No one paid a lick of attention to you. She’s your mother. She’s supposed to take care of you, but instead, she only cared about herself. You still think she’s a good mother?”
I covered my mouth, trying my best not to let tears escape. “Yeah,” I started to say, “She was always there for me. That was just a hard time-”
“Plays, school actives, dance class . . . Did you see her?” he challenged me.
I thought about it for a second. Then I gave in and shook my head. “No.”
“I was there in the crowd, did you know that?”
I gave it another second and then sighed. “No.”
“How is it that a stranger gave more of a damn than your own parents?”
Tears started to flood my cheeks. “You are not the judge.”
He didn’t like that. I saw him tensing up. He looked away, his eyes wandering everywhere but me. He finally said, “You hungry? Hope the kitty cat didn’t eat all of the cake.”
I shook my head. “I want to go to bed.”
He gave a nod. “Okay. Are you going to go crazy? I just don’t want you to break down again.”
“No.”
“Tavi, is there . . . is there anything I can do to make things better for you?”
I stared at him, not even shocked. “Just take me home.”
“You know that’s not going to happen.”
“I know.”
“Please, Tavi,” he said getting closer.
“William,” I warned. He ignored me and took another step.
“Tavi, please know, I do love you, and I only want what is best for you,” he said. I didn’t move. Where could I run? Not outside, not in the snow. It was too cold to try to escape. I would be dead by morning.
“Are you sure it’s not what’s best for you?” I stabbed him with words. He stopped. He didn’t have anything to say. I felt like a flower picked out of a colorful field to be placed in a mad man’s vase, to be watched slowly as I crumbled and died.
“Tavi, I’m sorry for everything,” he said. He came closer and put his arms around me slowly like I was glass. I let him. I didn’t want to move; I felt too numbed to move. He hugged me tightly. I didn’t move my arms. I couldn’t give him the hopes I may love him one day.
It must have been around midnight around that time. My birthday was over, and I declared it was truly one of the worse birthdays I have ever had.
Wait, not true. When I was eleven that I must say, was the worst because I invited everyone in my class and no one showed up. That hurt too. At least I wasn’t alone on my 16th birthday.
He started to talk again. “I knew when you got attacked all those years ago; I had to protect you. So I came here, build this, and took you. We’ll be happy up here, away from the world and away from evil.”
“And live out the rest of our lives here, till we’re dead? No way for my mother and father and my brother to see me? Just you and me?”
He thought it over for a second, and then said with a little discouragement creeping into his dark bear-like voice, “It will get better Tavi, I promise, it truly will.”
“Do you want it just to be us?”
“I can protect you this way, away from everyone.”
“Okay,” I said. I gave in. There was nothing I could do anymore, and plus I just wanted him to shut up. I couldn’t escape, I couldn’t run, drive, yell. I was gone on the inside. “I want food.”
ns 15.158.61.20da2
