Wednesday, September 23, 2015

When I Lie in Bed at Night PT 7

Part seven
The high pitched laughter of a three year old boy jolted Alana from her sleep. Alana wasn't used to sleeping around strangers. In fact she was scared and paranoid. She kept her back pack tucked safely beneath her feet. She even placed her feet in a way that she would know if someone were tampering with it. She didn't even know what she'd do if she woke up and found someone stealing from her. So, to avoid a confrontation with a thief, Alana did her best to stay awake. However, that was hard. The hum of the bus as it glided down the highway eased her to sleep. No matter how hard she tried to fight it off, her eye lids would become heavy, her breathing would become relaxed, and she would drift off into her thoughts.
     This was all new to her, so, she would have a lot to dream about. This was the first time that she had ever been on a bus. In the small town she grew up in, there were no buses. Everything was so close that all you had to do to get to where you needed to go was walk. She had gone out of town before but it was to another small town in Georgia and she and her family drove down in the church van. She had never even been outside of the state before. So as she rode down the highway, everything amazed her.
     The cities had giant buildings and bright lights. They were nearly blinding at night for someone who was only used to seeing the moon in the sky. Speaking of the moon, it wasn't even visible, neither were the stars. All that Alana could see was building after building after building. There were too many to count but they were beautiful. They were so beautiful that Alana nearly used up all the memory space on her phone taking pictures of everything she was seeing. Every time she would take a new photo, she would think about who to send it to. Maybe her dad would like them?
     Once the bus would leave the city and drive into the darkness of the night, leaving its dazzling lights behind, Alana would think about him. She couldn't even see the country side at night. It was just a dark space. It was almost scary not knowing what was out there.
     She felt the same about her father. Online she had read about his crime. All she had to do was type in his name and right at the top of the list was an article about the murder. It happened twenty-two years ago. It must have been a few months before she was born.
     Her mother was no help. Once she knew his name, Alana would asked her mother questions about him, but for once, her mother wouldn't say a word. All she said was that, “He was a mistake, not you.”
     After reading about his crime, Alana couldn't help but wonder if that was true. He had killed a cop. That alone made her hesitant to go see him. What if he was dangerous? What if he just didn't want to see her? Maybe he didn't want a daughter? Even though those thoughts terrified her, it was better for her to just find out the truth, rather than spend the rest of her life wondering.



(To Be Continued)


Copyright © 2012 by April Thompson
All rights reserved. No part of this writing may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the Author.

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