Small Town

00. Prologue Black Dress And A Mess The black dress the young girl was forced to wear was itchy. It’s rough scratchy material irritating the small girls under arms and waist. Long sleeved with a flowing skirt that ended just below her knees, it wasn’t an ugly dress, but it was a dress. The young girl despised dresses and skirts. You can’t climb a tree, or onto the roof, in a dress. As far as she was concerned dresses were the absolute worst. Taking a long look in the bathroom mirror, thanks to the stool she stood on she could almost see the entire dress, the porcelain counter hiding only her knees and the dirty white sneakers she wore. The young girl huffed yanking at the fabric for what felt like the millionth time. If her mother was here, she wouldn’t have forced her to wear such a monstrosity of a dress, her mother would have let her wear black slacks and a tie. Much like her daddies outfit. But her mom there wasn’t here anymore. The young girl hadn’t cried yet. Part of her still did not believe this was happening. That she and her father had actually just attended her mothers funeral. How could she? Her mother was just here? They were just watching their favorite series together, binging on junk food and being scolded by her father for doing so. This isn’t fair! The young girls eyes filled with tears, tears she wouldn’t let fall. She was a child. She didn’t understand death. And yet everyone was telling her, her mother was dead? She’d never see her again? Never be held in her warm embrace again? No this couldn’t be real. Please be a bad dream? Shutting her eyes tights she balled her fists begging a god she never believed in that she was dreaming. That he mommy was okay. Just then a loud crash filled the air. Like a pile of glass plates shattering against the hardwood floor of their little apartment. The young girl scrambled to the floor kicking her stool away she jerked the door open. Slowly stepping out of the bathroom the child creeped her way to the dining room. She knew her father had been setting up Some foods for what he called ‘the awake’ since they had gotten back to the apartment. The girls father, dressed in a simple black suit, his brown curls stuck to his forehead he stood shaking, practically vibrating, eyes glued to the spot her mother always sat. Broken dishes, silverware, and the smashed reminates of what was a casserole littered the floor around him . The young girl was caught off guard by her fathers appearance, tears streaming down his face, his eyes were so dark they were practically black. He hadn’t been the same since the night his wife had passed. This was the first time he’d gotten out of bed since, and even then it was only due to the care and begging or his best friends Mark. Mark was the only reason the two had attended the funeral, Mark had been the one along side his girlfriend Ann that bought the girls dress, helped them get read, and drove them to the cemetery, and now the sole reason they were home, getting ready for the ‘the awake’. “Daddy?” ... The girls dad never did respond, instead Mark cleaned the mess while Ann took the young girl away. That was the last time the girl saw her dad outside of his bed. She tried her hardest to help him but it was like her dad refused to live without his wife, and for two weeks she tried to get him up, to eat, bathe, anything. She wanted her dad back. She NEEDED he dad. For two weeks it was like she was alone.. She made her self food, and tried to clean up after herself. The young girl, the child, tried so hard to help her father but in the end she was just that, a child. Two weeks later Mark was back. The last time she saw he dad, he was curled on the floor shaking just as he had done the day of her mother funeral, dried tears staining his face. The young girl, Trin, had never seen him like this. He was nothing more than a shell of the man he once was. He was no longer the doting husband and caring father. He was nothing more than a broken man. Mark took her away that day, She stayed with Mark and Ann for a few days, but they couldn’t keep her. So she was told about her mothers-mother and father, her grandparents, people she had never met or even talked to. 3 days later she found herself on a place headed up north to a town she’d never heard of to live with family she’d never met. She was alone.