Her Soul

Chapter 3 Misty

Misty was over the moon. She got all of her pre-hire paperwork done in record time, then went to a coffee shop a block from her apartment. She didn’t have much in her bank account, but she could swing a celebratory coffee after today.

Misty ran into the shop and ordered her usual, then her phone dinged.

Mr. W.: ‘I just got a call from Hale, good job kiddo, we are proud of you'.

Misty: ‘Thanks, I will never be able to thank you and Mrs. Whitmore enough for everything.’

Mr. W.: ‘You know we love you kid, Trish wants you to come over for dinner to celebrate soon.’

Misty: ‘I would love to!!!!!’

Misty put her phone away and grabbed her coffee. The Whitmores were the family she had always wanted. She knew that not everyone could be as lucky as she was to be brought into a family like theirs, and she was going to make them proud. She never asked for help, but they always found a way to give her a hand up when she needed it the most.

Walking down the sidewalk to her building, she cast her eyes down and pulled her bag closer to her. This neighborhood wasn’t the safest even in the daytime, but as soon as she could afford it, she would be out of there in a nicer place. Once she could invite people to and not have to explain the mysterious stain on the front steps. Her phone dinged again as she was pulling her keys out of her bag.

Mother: Misty, I need you to call me now. Please don’t play games with me.

It had been a month and a half since her mother texted, and anytime she did it was always drama, or begging for money, but Misty knew that if she didn’t call, her mother would start blowing up her phone soon. Misty had tried blocking her mother and changing her number, but her mother found a way to Brodstone and, in a high mess, started screaming for her at the doors to her dorm room. Misty had been called into administration over that incident and was almost asked to leave campus. Since then, Misty called when her mother asked.

“Hey mom, what’s up?”

“I need you to do me a favor. I am kind of short on some bills and I need a couple of hundred to get me to the end of the month.”

It wasn’t a question, it was expected. “Mom, I am sorry, I told you last week when I sent money, I really don’t have it.”

Her mother started wailing over the phone, “All I have ever done for you is make you happy and take care of you. How could you tell me no when I am begging for help? Do you know what you are doing? I am about to lose my house. I have no food in my house, and my power is going to be turned off at the end of the week if I don’t give them something. I should have known that asking you was a bad idea, you are up there in New York and you have just abandoned me. You don’t care, you never cared about all the sacrifices I made for you. All you care about is your fancy apartment, and all the dinners you go out to every night while I sit here and starve. Just never mind, I will figure things out.”

Before she could say anything, Misty heard the phone disconnect. She stopped inside the door of her building and looked around. Ya so nice, they finally got the broken glass replaced in the window next to the door of the building. She heard something crawling in the wall as she pulled up her bank account. She sent her mother the last two hundred dollars in her account. She would have to pull change out of her laundry money to get the bus fare for the next two weeks, but at least she had stocked up her pantry with some mac and cheese and pasta when she got her check from the gas station last week. She had called her boss there to let them know that a two-week notice wasn’t an option. Her boss had been understanding and told her that her last check would be in her account as usual, and he wished her the best.

There was no thank you text when Misty told her mother the money was sent, but she didn’t need that. She just needed her mother to forget her number, and get clean. ‘She loves that stuff more than you. You should have stayed. You could have fixed her if you had just stayed. She needed you and you just abandoned her. What kind of daughter leaves her mother like that?'

Misty huffed and pushed the ideas out of her mind. She had to get focused and ready for the morning. To get to work at 8 she would have to catch a bus at 6:30.

She texted Katie to fill her in on the events of the day.

Misty: ‘OMG you won't believe what happened!!!!!!’

Katie: ‘Dad told me, this is such a huge deal!!!! I am really happy for you babe. I know you are excited.’

Misty: ‘You have no idea! It is finally happening! I am going to use my degree!!!!’

Katie: ‘We need to have lunch some time soon. Dad said you agreed to dinner, but I want to get to you before they do. I want all the office tea.’

Misty: ‘I haven’t even set up my desk yet. I don’t have the tea lol’

Katie: ‘Well when you do, I need to know it’

Misty smiled to herself, Katie was forever going to be the journalist and ask all the questions that came to mind. She was like the sister she never had.

Soon she was drifting off to sleep as the neighbors screamed at each other and the sirens wailed down the street. Just a couple more months and she would be out of here.