Rabecca Karma: Chapter 2

Chapter 2
Sisters

As I got out of Jamie’s car, I saw Derek about to pull into our driveway.
“Bye, love you,” I said, and quickly shut the door. “Derek!!” I screamed. Jamie drove off and said “love you too” as he passed.
Derek turned around when I screamed his name. I was running towards him. “Hey Rabecca!” he walked up onto the front porch and rung the doorbell as I entered the yard. My mom opened the door and wrapped Derek in a hug. She saw me walking up towards them and backed away.
I reached the front porch and went upstairs. It wasn’t a good idea to be out there while Derek asked her.
I dialed Jamie’s number on my phone. “Hey Becca,” I sighed as I heard my little nickname from his beautiful voice.
“Hey. Derek’s asking for me and him to go bowling. I’m so happy I have him.”
“Awesome. Yeah Derek’s a really cool guy.
The front door closed. They must have come inside. I heard my name called. “Hold on baby.” I stuck my phone in my pocket and went downstairs. Derek was gone. Uh oh…my mom looked mad.
“Are you going bowling with Derek?”
“Yeah, if you’ll let me,” I forgot that Jamie was on the phone and she started yelling at me.
“—need to stop leaving unexpectedly! Of course you can’t go! I have no reason to let you go! And you could get involved in a gang or drugs or—”
“Mom, you know he’s against that stuff!!” I raised my voice and then regretted it. She grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me. My back hit the lamp and my head smashed into a coffee table. I screamed.
“Mom,” I yelled at the top of my lungs as she walked away, into her room. I was the one that usually left, not her. I put my hand on the back of my head and found that there were tiny pieces of glass stuck in it. I then remembered Jamie. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and whispered, “Hello?”
“Rabecca I’m coming to get you!” he didn’t leave me. He had just heard the fight and heard me get smashed into a coffee table.
I wallowed there in pain…I opened my eyes to find myself in a hospital. I looked around. Derek! Jamie! They were both here!
“Derek,” I said quietly.
He looked over at me, and so did Jamie. Derek spoke.
“Rabecca I’m so sorry I left. I didn’t think about what she would say to you—or do to you. I was about to turn off your street and I heard a scream. I knew it was you. So I came back as fast as I could.”
“How bad am I?” I asked, curious.
“You’ll be fine. And out of here in just a few days. Mom, on the other hand, is not fine.”
I looked over at Jamie questioningly.
“When I said I was coming to get you, I brought the cops. I had started a recording on our phone call after your mom called you downstairs. We’re all going to court next week.
This was it. No matter if she pleaded not guilty over and over again, we had evidence. She was going to leave. I wouldn’t live with my mom anymore…who would I live with then?
Derek answered my unasked question. “Of course, you’d come live with me.” I’d be farther from Jamie. I look over at him again and him again and he looked at me. I love you, I mouthed.
He smiled, love you too. I smiled too. As long as that was true, I could live. I looked back over at Derek, and fell asleep.
* * *
Three days later, I was taken out of the hospital. My legs were stiff, so Jamie carried me to his car. We left to his house, and when we got there, he told me they’re just going to get stiffer if I didn’t walk around. So I stood up and walked slowly to his door.
“I feel like a slug!” I laughed. He laughed at me. That was pretty much the only reason I ever tried to be funny around him—his laugh. I loved it. If his laugh was a song, I would never get tired of it, and it would be my favorite song ever!
My legs were starting to feel a little bit better, so I walked faster. “Hey, we could still go bowling.”
He chuckled. “I think we have school tomorrow.”
“Aw man.”
“Let me drive you tomorrow,” he offered. I looked up at him, suspicious. He was looking down at his black Vans.
“Why?” I asked, suspicious again.
“Because I want to,” He walked over to me and grabbed my hands. “Do you want to go for a walk?”
I didn’t even think about it, I just answered, “Sure!” I smiled up at him and he laughed at how short I was compared to him. I was about 5 foot 2 and he was a foot taller than me.
“Let’s go then,” he said and started walking away, towards the door. I caught up with him quickly.
We walked in silence and I was thinking about when my mom had attacked me a few weeks ago. It was the usual—I had done nothing wrong. I had just come home and I had left my cell phone at school by accident, so I picked up the house phone and dialed Jamie’s number. It started calling, but I realized my mom was on the phone.
I had hung up and told her I was sorry, but she hung the phone up, and I ended up in a corner being kicked over and over.
I also remembered her throwing stuff at me once when we were in the kitchen. She had just barely missed me with the knife, but the can opener had left a scar on my left arm. She had thrown a pan and then came over to me and continuously hit me with it.
“Jamie, where are we going?”
“I have no idea, really. I just thought maybe we’d get out of the house.”
I had a thought just then. I had never told him that I used to have a sister.
“Jamie, have I ever told you about my sister?” I knew he was going to say no and he was going to be confused.
“No. You have a sister?”
“No.”
“But you just said—”
“I had one,” I interrupted him, afraid to tell the story. “See, I had a sister named Gabriella, who, if she was still alive, would be 19 years old. She was beautiful. She left before my dad died.” Jamie knew almost everything that had ever happened to me. I wonder why I never told him.
“Okay, so my mom abused her too. One day, my mom got so mad at her because of one little thing, and she struck. She jumped on her, kicking her, and brought her down to the ground. She dragged her across the living room floor, slapping her and hitting her like crazy. She reached the fireplace and smashed her head against the fireplace. Gabriella was 14 at the time. She had been abused for 6½ years and that last attack killed her.” I made air quotes around the last two words.
“Two mornings later, and I was eight at the time, I went in her room and couldn’t find her. Soon enough, my dad died, Derek left and it was just me and her. She abuses me like she abused Gabriella. Derek didn’t want me to disappear too, but there was really nothing he could do.” I went silent and then looked over at him. There was more…I couldn’t say it.
He looked frightened, shocked. “What did she look like?”
“When she was 14 she left, so…at the time, she had long brown hair and dark chocolate brown eyes. She had long, black eyelashes and she was absolutely gorgeous.”
“Gabriella Karma?”
“Yup, Just like Rabecca, Jane, Dave, and Derek Karma,” I said, then frowned. “Karmen…” I said quietly.
“Who...?”
I almost burst into tears. He heard me sob and looked at me, concerned. I just looked away, and shook my head.
“Oh…sorry Becca,” he said quietly, understanding how fragile I was. “I didn’t mean to…”
“Don’t worry about it. I never explained Karmen to you.” I looked at him now. “It’s time you knew the truth.” He looked confused.
A tear ran down my face, and I turned away, not wanting him to see me crying. “Shhh…don’t cry.” he pulled me into a hug as he repeated this. “Shhh…it’s alright.”
I shook my head. Whenever Karmen came up in a conversation, or I even heard her name, which rarely even happened, nothing was alright. “Karmen died of child abuse,” I said, and then cried even harder, his shirt becoming soaked.
“I hate your mom.”
“I do too,” I said, my voice breaking.