Madison

I've made a wish for a very long time that things would go back to normal. I gave up on that wish four weeks ago. Last year, my mother died of yellow fever. My father has never been the same since. He's been very depressed, and as so, drinks to make the pain go away, which causes me pain because with the drinking, he abuses me.

My dad is a big man, when he's at work, he works all day and comes back home all sweaty. His job doesn't even know that he drinks. But I am the opposite, I'm a skinny little girl. You can see my elbows and knees, at least that's what everyone says. But I don't doubt it though. I am pretty skinny.

I suddenly jump out of my thoughts as soon as I heard Dad's voice.

"Madison!! Come down here you little brat!!"

I jumped from my bed and ran downstairs. I saw him sitting in a chair at the table with a beer in one hand and a folded piece of paper in the other.

"I need you to take this note and bring it over to Chester. He's at home right now.," He explained , holding out the note towards me.

Chester is Dad's drinking friend. Every weekend, or whenever they had off work, they would always try to get together, grab beers and start drinking, laughing, and talking about random stuff. I was always upstairs doodling in my journal, with a flashlight over me, in the dark. I looked at the note in his hand.

"Dad, I can't go over there. Every time I try, I would always get greeted by him slapping me."

Dad leaned in closer to me. I tried my best to avoid his eyes.

"Don't talk back to me. I told you to take this note and bring it over to Chester. Do you want another black eye, Madison?"

I kept looking down and shook my head.

"Then I suggest you do as I say.," He put the note in my hand. "If I hear another word from your mouth, I will slap you myself."

I grabbed my coat, put the note in the pocket, and started towards Chester's house. The roads were filled with snow. They were also quiet. I didn't see any cars in the street today. It took an hour, but I finally made it to Chester's porch. I knocked on the door, and was greeted by Chester's stupid wife, who was smoking a cigarette.

"Hey Chester. Jimmy's redheaded girl is here.," The woman called.

I have an exaggerated smile towards her.

"Hello to you too Dina."

"Is there something that you need? Because if so, you're not getting it."

I put my hand over my face.

"I don't want anything, Dina. Dad wanted me to give this note to Chester."

"What's it say?" She asked, blowing the smoke towards me. I waved it out of my face.

"I don't know. I don't exactly care anyways. I'm simply just doing what Dad wanted me to do."

Chester came into view.

"What do you want, Madison?" Chester asked with a bored look on his face. "I was in the middle of my tv show."

"It's not what I want. It's what Dad wants. He's wanted me to give you this note." I explained, handing the note to Chester.

Chester grabbed the note and started reading it.

"Tell him tomorrow at 5pm."

I walked back towards home. My hands started getting really cold. I looked down at my hands and realized that I left my gloves at home.

Minutes passed, and as I kept walking, I started feeling more and more dizzy. When I got home, I put my coat on the coat hanger. I saw Dad sleeping on the couch. When I shook him awake, he awoke with a jolt.

"Oh. You're back. What did he say?" Dad asked , rubbing his eyes.

"Whatever you asked him, he said tomorrow at 5pm."

I walked up to my room and closed the door behind me. I changed into my pajamas and knelt down next to my bed, putting my hands together.

"Mom? I know you're watching us right now. Me and Dad. We're not doing good without you. Everything has changed and now I'm scared of dad. None of us used to be like this when you were around. You knew how to make someone feel a whole lot better. Dad is suffering out of the both of us. And it's horrible. I can't go to him for anything anymore." I sighed. " I really wish that here, mom. We both miss you very very much."

I crawled into my bed. I covered myself up in my blanket, and felt a whole lot warmer than before. I'm just hoping that the dizziness goes away by tomorrow.

I opened my eyes the next morning. The dizziness obviously did not go away. I put on some warm clothes as fast as I could, fixed my hair, and ran downstairs. Dad was in the kitchen drinking another beer. He was in his work clothes ready to go. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, put it in my backpack, and walked out of the house and was on my way to school. I had a test in math class. I wanted so badly to pass it. Once I got to the school, a boy came over to me, and punched me in the face. I fell to the floor.

He and some other kids yelled "Freak!!"

Once the bell rang, all the kids ran inside . I was still in the floor, people were stepping all over me, like I was a door mat. Once I managed to get up, I went into the hallway. I saw marks all over me.

***********************************

School was finally over. Instead of going home, I decided to go to my secret hideaway. My treehouse. Once I got to the ladder, I climbed it and entered my tree house. This was the place where I could do my passions without anyone disturbing me. Like drawing, reading, and singing. I layed down on the bean bag. In my mind, I was thinking about the 86% I got on the test. I felt very proud of myself.

I opened my eyes. I didn't even realize that I fell asleep. I quickly checked the time. It was six o' clock. Dad is going to kill me. I quickly started running home. When I reached my front door, I looked through it. I saw anger on Dad's face, while he was pacing around the living room. Chester and Dina were sitting on the couch. I thought that I would see Collin, my best friend, Chester and Dina's son. But I didn't. I took a deep breath, and opened the door. Everyone started staring at me. Everyone started staring at me. Dad walked up to me, and slapped my face.

"Where were you?! You are two hours late?!" My dad yelled.

I started rubbing my cheek, it was hot and stingy from the slap. My eyes started getting teary.

"I'm sorry dad. Someone needed my help.," I lied, once again, avoiding his gaze.

He looked at my arms and face. He grumbled.

"Will you mind telling me what's happened to you?"

I looked up at him.

"What do you care? You never bothered to ask me all those other days. So why ask me today?" I asked, with a bit of anger in my voice.

"Madison Sophie Anderson. You will tell me at once what has happened to you!," He demanded.

"Fine. Do you want to know what happened to me so badly?! Fine. This black eye is from a boy who punched me, and all these bruises on my arms and legs are from people literally stepping all over me! Are you finally happy that you got an answer!!," I was screaming at my father at this point, with tears pouring down my face.

I ran upstairs to my room, and slammed the door behind me.

The next day, as usual, I woke up, put warm clothes on, fixed my hair, and went downstairs. I got my water bottle from the fridge and put it in my backpack. I didn't see Dad this morning. That was strange. I put my backpack back on my back and walked out of the house. As I was crossing the crosswalk, I saw a car that went straight towards me. Then I saw everything black out.

I slowly began to open my eyes, but then closed them again. I felt a big band holding on to my hand. It was Dad. His hand was clinching to mine. Like he never wanted to let it go. I moved my fingers a bit to let him know that I was gonna be okay. His head shot up and I slowly started to open my eyes. I turned my head to see his face. It was filled with tears. They seemed like tears of sadness thinking that I would never wake up again.

"Daddy?"

His other hand started touching my face. "Hey sweety."

I couldn't help but start getting tears in my eyes as well. "What happened to me?"

Dad seemed like he wanted to ignore that question, but he answered it anyways. "You...you were...you were hit by a car.," His voice was breaking because he didn't want to answer that question.

I felt like I was in shock. Now I remembered. I remembered a green car coming straight towards me.

"When I got the call that you had been hit by a car, I rushed right over. In that moment, I regretted everything I did to you, and I made a wish. I made a wish that you would come back to me."

We both started crying a little bit again. I needed a hug. I tried leaning into Dad so I could hug him. My head started hurting, painfully. Instead, he hugged me. I leaned into his chest. His warmth made me feel so tired. I began to close my eyes.

"Go ahead, my love. You can fall asleep if you need to."

I closed my eyes all the way, while Dad held me close to him. That was the moment I knew, that even though, Mom isn't physically on the planet, Dad and I were gonna start over, and be a happy family once again.