Sam: A Girl's Journey

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sam was not looking forward to her weekend with the rotten bastard and his new family. She didn’t want to go spend time with an abusive asshole, in the middle of nowhere, where she didn’t know anyone and she would feel trapped with no escape.

He picked her up Friday evening and it was a long boring drive to his house. Frank tried to engage her a few times but she only gave short one-word answers to his questions. He would get annoyed, yell at her and then complain to his wife about his daughter’s attitude as if he expected her to have an answer. Sam kept wondering how much further this place could be and when Frank turned off the paved road and started to drive down dirt roads, she thought to herself that he brought her up to the backwoods to kill her and dispose her body where no one would ever find it.

There were times when she thought Frank was truly capable of killing someone and she was sure that he could justify it in his mind if it fit whatever purpose benefitted him the best. She wondered if he really would kill her over the pittance of child support he paid. He would kill her, dump her body where no one would find it and claim she ran away from home. As they drove deeper into what appeared to be a forest, the more she imagined just how easy it would be for Frank to get away with it. She had to stop letting her imagination run away from her.

However, there was that one time when he had the pistol in his hand during an argument with Sue as he stood in the doorway with Sue between him and Sam. It was a time when Sam considered that Frank was violent enough to kill them both. She thought just how terrible it was that a child had to concern herself for the safety of her mother and herself. She wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have used the gun if it would have served his purpose and he thought he could get away with it. Either way, she would stay on close guard for any signs that he had a plan. She would never allow herself to be alone with him.

When they finally got there, he showed Sam where she would sleep. She refused to call it her room because there was nothing here in his house she wanted to call hers. It was already late and her stepsister was already asleep, so they just went to bed.

The next morning, she woke up and found something to eat for breakfast before she went outside to look around and couldn’t believe how there was absolutely nothing around but trees. She couldn’t believe she was literally in the middle of a forest with maybe two other homes on the entire dirt road on which they lived.

She was not going to wander far since who knows what was lurking in the woods and that would be the perfect plan for Frank. He could follow her into the woods, kill her and dump her body for whatever creatures roamed the forest to feast upon her. Holy s**t, she needed to calm down and stop with these thoughts. She thought to herself that there was no way anyone would believe it coincidence that she went missing her first trip here. Frank was stupid but he couldn’t be that stupid to attempt this on the first visit.

She wasn’t sure what exactly was she supposed to do here, so she went back inside and asked what was there to do. Her father told her to find something to do. Sam asked, “I don’t know anyone here, we are literally in the middle of a forest, so what exactly am I supposed to find to do?” She couldn’t comprehend why he drug her up here and had no plans for anything to do. Why did he want her here and was this only about being an asshole?

Once again, she hated to deal with her stepsister who was about a year younger than her but was more popular, socially advanced, athletic and confident and she made sure Sam knew it. She had a theory about why her stepsister was more popular especially with the boys but she stopped short of calling her a slut aloud.

Even though it was less than two full days, it was a long boring weekend and she clearly was out of place here. She also disliked that the family was what most considered rednecks. She was born and raised in the north and her “northern” stuck out. She had no accent, spoke at a different cadence and clearly had different interests. Many other children Sam encountered took her being shy and reserved attitude as standoffish, aloof, unfriendly and superior. She never understood why Frank moved them south and then he turned into a stupid southern redneck.

She just wanted to get through the weekend and go home so she tried to avoid any conflict with anyone. Finally, on Sunday afternoon, it was time for another long boring car ride home. There was no way she could do this every other weekend; two long car rides sandwiched around staring at trees with the bonus of an asshole that she knew would turn abusive and violent at some point.

When she finally got home, Sam couldn’t wait to get out of the car. She didn’t say anything to Frank as she bolted for the house and even though her behavior pissed him off, he didn’t say anything to her about her rudeness. He did however say something to Sue. He gave her the standard complaints about Sam’s attitude and rude behavior. He told Sue that needed to correct it because Sam was becoming something no boy would ever want.

He never considered that he bore any responsibility for the influence he had upon his daughter. Frank always viewed women as how they were acceptable to men. Sue, as usual, let Frank’s complaints fall upon deaf ears. Sue thought to herself that if he thought she was going to accept any more of his s**t now that they were divorced, he was more delusional than she thought. Frank went to his car and left without a word to Sam.