A Loving Father
The small barn shook in the morning wind. It was old, but sturdy,
having stood for nearly fifty years. The large door slammed against the
side of the building, so Samantha climbed from her stool and closed it.
The breeze had been gentle when she woke, but now turned cold and threatening. She sat back down and latched her hand onto
Esmerelda’s teat. Hay and slobber spilled from the Cow’s mouth as Sam
pinched the teat, sliding her hand down and squirting a tight stream of milk
into a bucket. She’d done the chore countless times and was able to let
her mind wander as she worked. A chill ran through her as she thought of
the coming winter. She hated snow, but one of her fondest memories was of
making a snowman with her mother. She smiled to herself and with one last
squeeze, filled the bucket. She climbed from her stool, hefted the bucket
and struggled with its weight. She left the barn and latched the door
before heading back to the house.
She entered just as her father burst into the kitchen smelling of early
morning booze and blood. He swayed for a
moment then propped himself up in the doorway.
He eyed his wife and daughter who had both jumped when he entered. “What’s this now?” he pointed to the table.
Her mother smiled though she looked
frightened. “It’s a cake for your
daughter’s sixteenth birthday.” Lines
from her eyes were more prevalent these days and the heavy blue bags made her
look perpetually tired.
Drunk again? Sam hated it
when her father came home like this. It
occurred more often than she cared to admit.
She didn’t know why she’d expected him to be sober on her birthday.
“Hmm,” He looked at the cake and then Maria. “Fetch me a drink, will ya?” He demanded of his wife while wiping his
bloody hands on his jacket.
“I’ll get it, mother,” Sam said and took a wooden cup from the counter
and went to the bucket of fresh water she’d collected early that morning from
the well.
“Not water, wine.” Gorden grumbled
as he shook off his coat. His tunic was
covered in blood stains as well and Sam knew that her father had endured
another rough night bouncing people from The Inn.
“The last bottle was emptied.” Maria said.
Gorden turned on her in anger.
“When?”
Maria swallowed and Sam could see the fear in her mother’s eyes. “Last night,” she whispered.
Gorden’s eyes narrowed and he smashed his fist on the wooden table. “Impossible!”
He pushed her aside and scoured the cupboards for alcohol.
Sam raised her voice to Gorden, something she’d been doing more
frequently in a bid to take the burden from her mother. “There’s none here. You drank the last of it before you stumbled
out the door last night.” She was fed up
with her father treating them like common gutter trash when he was drunk. She backed towards the corner of the kitchen,
knowing she might receive a beating for her outburst.
“Why you...” Gorden started for
her, but Maria grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“Leave her alone!” She shouted as
she struggled to pull Gorden away from Sam.
Gorden turned and caught Maria with a quick backhand to the side of her
face. Sam started towards her father,
unsure of what she would do. He turned
on her, his face dark. “Don’t you move a
muscle.” He spun back to Maria and
grabbed her tight, his giant hands digging deep into her bony shoulders. He smiled an ugly grin. “I like it when you’re feisty.” He licked his lips. “Go on, hit me.”
Sam watched with mounting horror.
“I said hit me!”
Before he finished, Maria slapped the side of his face with a crack. She scowled while he rubbed his face where a
hand mark was beginning to appear beneath his stubbly beard. He grinned and pulled Maria close, attempting
to kiss her. She backed away, but he
forced his lips onto hers. He then spun
her around and pushed her face onto the table top. He looked to Sam. “You needn’t be seein’ this. Now get out!”
Gorden’s tone was threatening and Sam knew she should leave, but she
wanted to help. She looked towards her
mother’s downcast eyes.
“Do as your father says, Sam.” she said with a shaky voice.
Sam’s rage burned hot, but she was only a fly to a man the size of her
father. She darted from the house as
Gorden began lifting Maria’s skirt. She
ran while tears burned her eyes. The
cold wind drying them as she ran, but more kept coming. She ran into the forest and found a large
boulder that sat next to the river.
She’d been going there since she was a little girl, usually when she was
upset. She found that she was spending
most of her time there lately.
The rock was smooth and comfortable, with a deep groove that cradled Sam
as if it were made specifically for her.
She’d shed many tears there, enough to almost fill the river, or so she
thought.
A cracking branch startled her and she quickly turned.
“I thought I’d find you here,” said Landis as he emerged from the
brush. His boots were muddy and his long
black hair hung in his eyes, greasy from sweat.
A piece of wheat jutted from his mouth and his straw hat shadowed most
of his freckled face.
“You scared me.” Sam turned away to hide her tears.
“Pardons, I thought you heard me
comin’.” He scratched the back of his
head. An awkward silence hung for a
moment.
“When did you get back?” Sam asked
while drying her eyes on her sleeve. It
felt like an age since she’d seen him.
He was always away nowadays- working with his father- and they had
drifted apart because of it. It seemed
that not so long ago he invited Sam to come on a trip with them, but she knew
her father would never allow it.
“A few days ago. Been busy in the
shop though.” He tried to look at Sam’s
face, but she shied away. “You been
cryin’?”
“No.” Sam lied. “Just trying to block the cold wind is all.”
“It’s not as cold as the water, I bet.”
Landis slipped off his boots, rolled his pant legs up to his knees and
walked into the river until the water reached the top of his ankles. “It’s freezing,” he said through chattering
teeth.
Sam flashed a half smile.
“Are you gonna tell me why you were cryin’? I’m not getting out of this water until you
do. You wouldn’t want my feet to freeze
off now would ya?”
Sam shook her head. “I wasn’t crying.” She waved for him to come ashore. “Now come out of there before you catch
cold.”
“Alright, but you’re not a very
convincing liar. Your eyes are redder
than a tomato.” Landis waded from the
river and sat on the boulder next to Sam.
“It was your father again, wasn’t it?”
Sam looked at Landis. She knew it wasn’t hard to guess why she’d
been crying. It was always her father
and everyone in town knew it. “It’s
nothing.”
Landis nodded. “Yeah, it’s usually nothing. Did you hear about
the nothing he did to my father?”
Sam raised an eyebrow in
surprise. She knew her father had a
reputation as a town bully, but never thought he would do anything to hurt her
friends. If he’d hurt me, why wouldn’t he hurt them?
“Let’s just say, that thanks to
Gorden, father will be bed ridden for weeks.”
Landis’ smile vanished and his careless sense of humour evaporated.
“Is he alright?”
“He’ll live, but things weren’t
looking so good last night,” he shook his head.
“All over a few coppers owed to Jonas.”
Sam remembered the bloodstains
on her father’s tunic and wondered if they were from Landis’ father. “That’s awful. Apologies.”
Something flashed in Landis’
eyes. Something Sam had never seen in
them before. “Don’t you ever... apologize for him!” he sighed and the anger
left his eyes as he relaxed. “Sometimes,
I wish I could just get away from here, ya know. Got out on my own.” He rested his hands behind his head. “One day, I think I might just pick up and
leave.” He looked at Sam. “Would you come with me, if that day ever
came?”
Sam remained silent. She’d thought about running away on countless
occasions, but could never force herself to do it. Everything and everyone she ever knew was in
Dolomina. “I don’t know. Things are bad here... sometimes, but they
could be worse somewhere else.”
“That’s a chance I’m willing to
take.” Landis said, looking past the
treetops to the clouds.
Sam shook her head. “I couldn’t leave mother and she’d never
leave father, no matter how poorly he treats her.” She climbed from the boulder and headed
towards town. She didn’t want her head
to become filled with fantasies of running away. She knew she was stuck in Dolomina, probably
for the rest of her life. She wasn’t
sure if Landis was serious about running away together anyways.
“Where’re you going?” Landis called after her.
“To the bakery. It’s my birthday after all.” She felt a change of subject was needed.
“It is? I’ll buy you a tart.” Landis hurried to put on his boots and catch
up.
Sam looked over her
shoulder. “That’s the plan,” she
smirked.
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