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hurt people badly, did we? Well, maybe we hurt

ourselves somewhat, but we weren't on anyone's Most

Wanted list. Teachers barely tolerated us, were happy when we didn't bother them, and swept us along like so much dust from one room to another, one teacher

to another, as if everyone was to share the burden. Yes. I wrote in the notebook, it's true I did get

arrested more than once. I was put on probation. I did

violate it and I was in danger of going to a real prison.

Yes. I knew why Daddy felt he had to place me with

my uncle and aunt after Mama ran off with someone

and deserted us. but I also knew my aunt and uncle

never wanted me and were surely relieved when I got

myself in new trouble and ran away. My aunt could

claim she was right about me: I was hopeless and now

she had a good excuse for getting rid of me forever. I described it all, how I was cornered into

hurting that boy, how I was arrested for it and decided

to run off, how disappointed I was in Mama when I

found her in that clinic, and how betrayed I felt when

my uncle tricked me and got me taken here. I was

never as mean to anyone as they were to me. I wrote. I

don't deserve this.

As to my fears, I couldn't come up with much

except what I had feared when I was a little girl and

could actually hear the rats scratching their way

through the walls, visiting different apartments as if

the whole place were a mall for rats who could shop in this one's kitchen cabinets and then another and pass the news on to the world of rats out there: Come to Phoebe Elder's home. Her mother is a slob. Lots to eat on the floor and counters, and she's so out of it most nights in a drunken coma, she won't even know

we're there.

I used to curl up in my bed, wrapping the

blanket so tightly around myself it was a wonder I

didn't smother to death. Some nights I sobbed myself

to sleep. Some nights I woke up positive a rat had

crawled over my legs or sniffed my hair. I would


Tags: V.C. Andrews Broken Wings Horror