19320825 21:44:36

MT-N-7316

19320825 21:44:36

Helen Allegra held her right eye fully open as she lay upon her side on the bed, with her brain still fully attentive and unable to be at rest. Tonight's performance from her parents was the standard routine once it began, and more than likely the dialogue (which she didn't bother to eavesdrop upon this time) was similar as well; her Mom would bring up something about money, like grocery money or the water bill or wanting to get new clothes, to which her Dad would respond that their budget is tight and there's not much money to spend. Then the allegations would come about where the money was being spent instead, with her Mom accusing her Dad of spending it on policy or cards (which he did), and him accusing her of hiding money away regardless (which she did). With the denials would come sporadic spikes of yelling, with its frequency and volume increasing through the night as he drank more. Helen never found an adequate remedy to make it go away. If she hid in the closet, sometimes she would end up sleeping in there, which would leave her body cramped up and feeling listless throughout the day. No kind of layering with pillows and blankets over her head could ever mute their arguments. Confronting her parents was out of the question - she tried it one time and that seemed to make the amount or arguing double for that night. She remembers clinging to a stuffed rabbit and crying while cowering under the sheets when she was younger, but it's been years since she became that emotional in response. Now, her senses became numbed and her body prone, and doing this made the sensation of restlessness more aggravated.

Once again, she was tired and unable to rest. Once again, she was trapped.

This night, she decided to change it.

She got up from the bed and carefully walked over to her dresser, deliberately folding the soles of her feet down with each tip toe step in order to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible. She stripped her nightgown off, then pulled a drawer out and grabbed a dress at random. While putting it on, she thought about shoes and remembered that she had at least one pair under her bed. She knelt by the side of the bed, reached underneath and waved her arms around until she brushed against the shoes. They were thrown out the window once she stood by it, then proceeded to hoist herself over the ledge. She carefully wiggled her feet into the shoes while she looked around the backyard. The garage was before her, and the light from the kitchen illuminated a patch of grass in the small yard that was otherwise dark blue. The yelling in the house continued behind her. Her heart raced with realization that she had broken out, but her apprehension remained. Helen kept her back to the house as she stepped to the side of the yard, then she turned to face the house as she walked backwards towards the garage. Nothing was noticed by her parents. Once she reached the garage, she had enough courage to walk to the fence gate and let her self out. The latch was opened and closed very deliberately, and made no sound as she proceeded to the alleyway.

She was free.

As she walked down the alley, she realized that she had no actual plan as far as where to go or what to do, but she wasn't troubled by this. She figured that no matter where she could find a place to nod off for a while, it couldn't be any worse than where she was.