Promises to Keep by S.W. Vaughn

Author:S.W. Vaughn [Vaughn, S.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-25T22:00:00+00:00

28

Madeline—the past

My mother visited me today.

It’s been two months since the baby, and she didn’t even ask about it. She wouldn’t answer me when I asked about being released, either. I knew the reason I was still here was that she kept refusing to sign the release papers, and because I was a still a minor, I didn’t get a say.

She didn’t want me to come home. She was afraid of me.

But in less than ten months from now, I could check myself out.

I don’t even know why she came. She didn’t say much of anything, just sat in the visitor’s room looking out the window while I tried to find things to talk about. The only real reaction she had was when I asked about Carson, if she would ask her to visit me. Ian came here sometimes, when he could get away from the job he’d taken after he graduated, and he insisted that he still wanted a relationship with me when I got out. I wasn’t sure that would work, for his sake more than mine, but I appreciated his continuing friendship. Especially since he was my only visitor besides my mother.

That’s why I mentioned Carson. Because I was lonely.

And I was shocked at my mother’s response.

“Your little bitch of a friend left town. Her and her awful family,” she’d snapped at me. “I don’t know where they went, and I don’t care. Good riddance to bad rubbish.”

She might as well have slapped me. My mother loved Carson, treated her like a second daughter. Why would she say that about her?

After my mother left and I went back to my room, Wanda came in to check on me. She was my favorite orderly, always smiling, always making jokes. And she’d really listen when you talked to her. She was the only one at Brightside who seemed to genuinely care about the inmates. I mean guests.

Wanda knew how I felt about my mother. That was why she came in to talk.

She listened as I told her about the visit, my mother’s indifference, and her bizarre behavior when I mentioned Carson. Then I had an idea. “Wanda, is there any way you could help me find her?” I said. “Carson, I mean. She’s my best friend, and it’d really help me to talk to her.”

Wanda’s brow furrowed. “Well, I don’t know, Madeline,” she said slowly. “You’re supposed to limit your outside contacts, and —”

“Please,” I begged, and put on the biggest pleading smile I could manage. “It would be so productive. Dr. Trenton is always telling me that I have to work on my social skills, and this is totally social.”

I could tell she was going to relent when her eyes sparkled like that. “Okay, let’s do it,” she said, standing from the chair next to my bed where she’d been sitting. “Come on.”

Grinning, I followed her to the nurse’s station. I waited as she slipped behind the counter and pressed a button on the computer, making it beep. “Do you know her parents’ names?” she said.

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