A Long Forgotten Promise
This is the story of a young girl being left behind by her biological mother.  She was dating a drug addict at the time and shortly became one herself.  The girl in this story is now in high school, and now finds it hard to trust people due to the amount of times one person had lied to her.  And this story is quite true.

I would know, it was me.

Avis Elfi
The rain poured outside the window, as she stared out the window.  Waiting for her mother to pick her up.  School had just ended, and the rain just began to swallow the earth.  The rain pushed heavily on the leaves causing some to fall.  After a while the girl went out and sat on the school's bench.  The women in the office sat typing away, and the teachers inside graded their papers.  All the while this young girl, only seven, sat alone waiting for her drug addict mother to come and get her.  The last time she saw her mother was at her fifth birthday, even though the mother was only a block away then.  Tears started to fall from the girl's eyes as the last car left the parent pick up lane.  Some buses still ran in and out of the schools parking lot, but her mother never came.  After about twenty minutes the girl went in to call her grandmother.  Her blonde curls sat on her lower back.  Perfect curls and a little pink dress.  She wanted to look cute on the day mommy would finally come see her.  Though, like always that had been a lie.  One of the office women looked up from her desk as she entered.  

"What do you need sweetheart?"  

The teary eyed little girl spoke softly and fast, hiccupping between every word.  "Mommy didn't come to get me…  Can I call my grandma?"  Her blue eyes surrounded by puffy red.  The women helped her call and told her to wait inside, but the girl didn't listen.  Her grandmother would be upset if she was inside.  As usual it would take the grandmother an hour to get there.  And as always the young girl sat on the bench in front of the school and drew a picture for her dear sweet mommy.  

Promises meant nothing to the girl anymore.  Too many people had broken them, and too many people had lied to her.


GRISELDA
It was raining, and she thought worriedly about her young granddaughter sitting out in the rain waiting for the dead beat mother to break a promise yet again.  This was the last time, thought the grandmother.  The last time she would let that woman hurt the little girl with long blonde curls.  Despite what the grandmother had known would happen that morning she dressed the girl in her favorite dress, fixed up her curls, and helped her put on her shoes.  After dropping the girl off that morning, the grandmother sat in her office on the phone with that woman.  Trying to confirm that she would indeed keep her promise.  Now that it was ten after three, did the worry set in.  She sat waiting to see if the girl called her.  She sat, even though she was already off work,.  This wasn't uncommon, the grandmother would work long hours and come home just in time to tuck her granddaughter in for the night.  

An hour passed, and the phone rang.  It was the girl calling.  Her hushed voice, rough from coughing.  She knew instantly that mommy never came, she knew that this would happen.  Why did I let her believe that woman again? Why? Thought the grandmother.  "I'll be there in an hour, if not I'll send your grandpa to get you.  Okay?"  

She heard a sniffle, and then the girl sighed, "Okay…"  The grandmother gathered her things, and started to leave work.  Thinking to herself, asking herself,  Why?  On the way to the school traffic picked up, and the grandmother called her husband to get the child from school.


TOINETTE
She sat in her trailer, smoke filling the room.  Short, dark brown hair loose and her light brown eyes rolling back as the high set in.  Her boyfriend sat waiting for her to pass out, he had lied to her; It was indeed laced.  His dealer was known for laced drugs.  In a matter of minutes the woman was passed out of the couch, her boyfriend now fading into the darkness that the drug brought.  The time was ten after three.  And yet again a promise to her baby girl, with the long blond curls, was broken.

Avis Elfi
An hour had passed and now the girl's grandfather was picking her up from school.  She sat for two and a half hours in the pouring rain.  Her grandfather looked at her, and smiled.  He was technically not related to her, only the girl's grandmother's boyfriend.  The girl rubbed her eyes and coughed.  

"Girly, I don't know why you wait for her every time."  He whispered as he helped the girl into the truck.  It was red, and only a three-seat.  She liked it, only big enough for the two people who took care of her.  After helping her into the truck and buckling her, the grandfather walked around and got in himself.  Music from his childhood played, and the girl knew every word.  By the time the two got home she felt better, in an hour her grandmother would be home.  Before that she would play with the dogs.  She was so small compared to them, she was small anyway.  Tequila, the larger dog, wagged his tail at the sound of her little feet running to the gate.  This dog was about the size of a horse, and black as night.  The girl played with him for a while then ran in to shower.  If her grandmother saw her caked in mud, and the cuts and bruises she would be furious.  In the mind of her grandmother the girl was to be a lady, nothing less.


GRISELDA
Traffic was slow, seeing as the rain had flooded the roads.  She would have to take the main roads home.  This would take about 15 more minutes.  A sigh escaped her lips, and paper work filled the car.

Ambros
She was giggling, and rolling on the floor.  A child with dark blond hair and light hazel eyes walked in.  He looked at her, this was normal.

"Hey mama, where's sissy?"  He knew that answer.  His sister was probably at her house, playing with her dogs trying to forget.  

"What did you say?" His giggling mother looked up from her fog, to high to realize what she had done.  The boy walked into the kitchen and made himself dinner.  As usual it would be microwave dinner, and maybe something to drink.  He ran back into his room, as his younger sister looked at him.  Worry and confusion in her eyes.  She unlike the other two was dark skinned and had dark hair.  And she was from a different man.

Avis Elfi

The sound of tires against rock, she looked at the clock.  Six, her grandmother was home.  So she quickly found pants and a shirt and ran to the table.  Tonight's dinner would be spaghetti.  
"I'm home."

Those words meant so much to her.  She had one mother figure to depend on, that wouldn't break her promises.  They sat down for dinner that night and all agreed to never let Heather back in.

GRISELDA
When she got home, the little girl with long blonde curls greeted her.  Even though she was hiding them, the grandmother knew that this little girl was covered in bruises.  After telling her not to play with the dogs so roughly, the little girl would.  No matter how much effort the grandmother put in, her little granddaughter would never be a lady.

________________________Nine years later____________________________

Avis Elfi
The girl with the long blonde curls, was now in high school.  Her hair much shorter and much darker.  No more frilling dresses, no more little girl dressed in pink.  She had shorts on, with torn tights.  The boots she had on were her step-mother's, and her shirt was torn.  From cute little girl, to broken hearted teen.  In those short nine years, she has no desire to be with that woman, no desire to see her.  That promise back then, ended it.

She was in school, the last hour of the day.  The girl was sitting on a boy's lap; he had short golden hair, and a round face.  Around them sat their friends, two boys and four boys.  One of the boys had dark hair that covered his ears, and the other had dirty golden hair.  The girls were all different.  One was dark skinned and big, another small and blonde, one with blackish brown hair and the other a coppery red.  The group laughed and talked waiting for class to end.  


It was ten after three.