Room in the attic, p.1
Room in the Attic, page 1
Room in the Attic
Vivian E. Moore
iUniverse, Inc.
Bloomington
Room in the Attic
Copyright © 2003, 2011 by Vivian E. Moore.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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ISBN: 978-1-4620-1578-8 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4620-1580-1 (dj)
ISBN: 978-1-4620-1579-5 (ebk)
iUniverse rev. date: 5/16/2011
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVIII
CHAPTER XXIX
CHAPTER XXX
CHAPTER XXXI
CHAPTER XXXII
CHAPTER XXXIII
CHAPTER XXXIV
CHAPTER XXXV
CHAPTER XXXVI
CHAPTER XXXVII
CHAPTER XXXVIII
CHAPTER XXXIX
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
A good life is what most people dream about, consisting of love, happiness and a sense of well-being. Cori was no different, marrying her high school sweetheart and settling down to what she thought was a good life. However all that was about to change.
CHAPTER I
“Why can’t I take that job, Tony? It pays well enough and Mama said she’d watch the kids for us while I worked.”
“I don’t care, Cori, no wife of mine is gonna work, and that’s that! What kind of man would I be if I let my wife take a job to take care of us? I’m the man of this household dammit, and it’s my responsibility to take care of my family.”
“Could you at least think about it? Nobody’s saying I have to work it forever, just long enough till you can find another job.”
Cori looked at Tony, wondering why he didn’t realize this was the simple solution. Franklin was a small community, and there just weren’t enough good paying jobs to go around and she needed to act while the opportunity was available.
“I know you wanna help, Cori, but that’s backbreaking work at the hosiery mill. My mama worked thirty years at that place and it damn near killed her, making her old before her time. I can’t see another woman I love go through that hell, Cori. If I have to, I can go to Cartersville, I hear it’s plenty work down there.”
“Cartersville?” she said, worried that he was serious. “That’s a hundred miles there and back Tony, we can’t be moving, not now.”
“Why Cori, There ain’t nothing here for us. My folks and yours are living on a fixed income, what reason is there to stay?”
She contemplated whether to tell him that there may be a good reason, even though it was too early to be sure, but if it could change his mind about leaving, then she had to try.
“I’m pregnant,” she said, waiting for his reaction.
“What!”
“I said I’m pregnant.”
“I heard that. What in the hell are we suppose to do now, Cori? I can’t take care of the two we got, much less one more mouth to feed. You gonna have to get rid of it.”
He saw the way she looked at him with unmasked hurt on her face.
“You don’t mean that. This is a life, Tony, our baby. How can you just ask me to do that?”
“I ain’t asking, I’m telling! You can go over there to that free clinic and have one of them doctors do one of them examinations on ya.”
“You mean abortion?”
“Yeah,” he said, although he couldn’t look at her
“I’m not doing it, Tony, this is our baby growing inside me, the same as the other two, and I won’t do it.”
“Oh you will do it, or else!”
“Or else what, Tony?” she said, looking at him with a defiant gleam in her eyes. This was her child and she wouldn’t commit murder just to satisfy him.
“I’m leaving.”
“You mean you’d run out on me and the kids?”
“Yeah, that’s what I mean. What do ya expect me to do, Cori? It’s your fault anyway. If you’d been taking those pills they gave ya over there, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.”
“I don’t believe you’re trying to blame me for this, when it was as much your responsibility as it was mine. Why are you putting this on me?”
“Because you’re the woman, and I ain’t got no control over that!”
The discussion had now turned into a full-fledged argument, but Cori was not backing down.
“I’m sorry that you think you share no responsibility for me being pregnant, but if you want to use this as an excuse to just up and leave us, then you go right ahead. Go ahead and run!”
Cori knew she’d hit the nail on the head—she could see it in his eyes—because he’d already made up his mind, and had probably been thinking about leaving for months. Way before he lost his job, and now her pregnancy gave him the courage finally to do it.
“I’m sorry, Cori, but I guess I ain’t cut out for this family thing. I tried, God knows I did, but I can’t make it work. I don’t wanna end up like my folks, old, broke down, and still poor. I need more, Cori, more than what you or this town can give me, that’s why I got to break away.”
“Break away? You mean run away don’t you?”
“Whatever. You can say what ya want, but I’m leaving, and that’s it!”
If he was going to leave, then she wasn’t going to stop him. “Get out! Go on, get out! We don’t need you. We’ll be all right. You’ll see, and once we’re back on our feet, don’t come running back! You hear me, Tony? Don’t come running back!” It hurt Cori deeply to know that the only man she’d ever loved would turn tail and run like a coward. Run away from her, his children and, most importantly, himself. She should’ve known from the start that Tony was not a strong man and lacked the confidence that it took to be a real man, because running was his way of life. One of the reasons his mother had stayed at the factory for so long was because she had a runner, too. His father left her for five years for another woman, and only came back because his girlfriend kicked him out, and he had no place else to go. It seemed as though the apple hadn’t fallen that far from the tree. Her own mother had told her not to marry Tony because he was spineless and weak. Nevertheless, she had to prove her wrong. She regretted now that she didn’t listen. It was too late for should’ve, could’ve, would haves. Because the next morning Tony did exactly as he’d said, leaving early before Cori and the kids were awake. He left without even as much as saying good-bye. All the arguing she’d done with him half the night and crying her eyes out the rest left her exhausted, but her youngest child pulling at her eyelids awakened her.
“Eat Mama,” Rion said.
“Okay sweetie, Mommy will fix you something to eat, just give me a minute while I check on Daddy.”
Looking at his side of the bed gave Cori evidence that Tony hadn’t slept there last night. Taking Rion by the hand, she walked to the front of the house to see if he was asleep on the couch, but he wasn’t there either.
“Mama, Daddy?” he asked, waiting for an answer.
“I don’t know baby, you sit here and I’ll go find out.” Placing Rion at the kitchen table, Cori went back to the bedroom to see if any of Tony’s things were missing. The first place she looked was in the closet. Two of their four suitcases were missing, which gave further evidence he’d gone. Searching the dresser next, she found that everything belonging to him was gone as well. The realization that he’d actually done it hit her hard, and she took a seat on the bed, feel
While Cori contemplated her own problems, hundreds of miles away she shared a similar situation with a young man that destiny had selected as her soul mate. Unaware of the chaos in Cori’s world, William Christopher Williams was about to embark on an adventure that’d take him on highs and lows. This journey would change his life and so many others around him.
It was his sophomore year of college, and he planned to spend his summer hiatus exploring the country, as it was his intention to enjoy the good fortune that being the son of two affluent parents had afforded him. He was an only child and his mother sometimes over-indulged him. At least his father thought so, not wanting his son to have a whimsical attitude about life. William Sr. was an admiral in the Navy, and had been so for nearly twenty-five years, and his mother, Jessica, was a labor lawyer for the District of Columbia. It’d always been his father’s dream that he’d also join the Navy, becoming one of America’s finest. It’d have been easy to enlist as an officer, amassing college credit for one of the Naval programs offered at the base. However, Will had other ideas about his future and wanted to see just what the rest of the country had to offer outside of D.C. One of his favorite hobbies was art, although knew he’d never make a living as an artist because his father wouldn’t hear of it. Having big plans for his future, he’d invested much time and money, insuring that it’d happen. Moreover, this business of him taking the summer off to travel across the United States was absurd to his father. Especially when he assumed that he’d do something more useful, such as helping him out in his office, hoping he’d catch the military fever and reconsider. That wasn’t going to happen, Will thought to himself. He’d always been an obedient son, doing exactly as his parents expected of him. Not this time, though, now was the time for him to break away from family traditions and make a life of his own. Traveling this country’s great highways and byways was where he’d begin.
“Dad, what’s wrong with me wanting to see the world? That was one of the reasons why you enlisted yourself.”
“Things were different then, son. There weren’t many things that a man of color could do when I was your age, either enlist or become a factory worker. Your grandparents were laborers; my father worked as a welder and helped build most of the bridges that link our city to the next. Your grandmother worked in the furniture factory for years and finally had to stop because of her aging hands. Don’t get me wrong, son, I admire my parents greatly for being strong, and I was never ashamed of how they’d taken care of me and my brothers. However, son, your mother and I’ve set money aside over the years for you, and why you’d throw it away while other young men your age where wishing they could go to school is beyond me.”
“I’m not throwing anything away, Dad. I only want to explore, seek out what it is I really want to do in life. I’m not dropping out of college, just taking a break for a little while, three months over the summer, and when it’s over, I promise I’ll be back to school.”
Looking at his son thoughtfully, Will Sr. knew there were many things that could happen over a three-month period, and had seen it before when he was his age. Many of his high school friends had decided also that over the summer they’d try to find themselves, only to be lost forever.
“I don’t see why you can’t take that time and do something useful besides traversing around the world.”
“Not the world, Dad, just the United States.”
“Don’t get smart with me young man, you know what I mean.”
“Mom thinks it’s a great idea, she feels that I should want to see how other people live, and that I might even learn something from the experience.”
“Pooh on what your mother thinks; sometimes I think she disagrees with me just because she can.”
In many ways young Will was just like his father, and Will’s mind was already made up. No matter what he said to discourage him, it wasn’t going to make a difference.
“Where will your first stop be?” his father said, seeing the look of surprise on Will’s face.
“Does this mean you’re okay with the idea of me going?”
“Well, I guess it does, doesn’t it? You’re twenty years old now and hardly a child, so I can’t tell you what to do or stop you, now can I?”
“Thanks, Dad, in three months time you’ll see; I’ll be back home and back to school.”
Giving in to his son’s wishes had cost William Sr. greatly. He’d recover from the dent it’d make in his wallet, but his pride would take longer to rebuild.
Will was waiting for this encouragement; now that he had it, he was unstoppable. He was completely on top of the situation, and had already mapped out his route. Tennessee would be the first state, all the ones that lie in between, Texas, and then on to Arizona, and hopefully California. He understood the constraints of time wouldn’t allow him to see all of the country, but at least it was a start. There was no turning back now, he thought to himself while he packed his things for the trip. He paused momentarily when he saw his mother peeking around the door.
“So you’re really gonna do it, huh?” Jessica asked.
“I have to. If I don’t take the opportunity while I have the chance, I never will, Mom.”
“I know, son. I’m all for seeking and living out your dreams. If I’d listened to my parents, I would’ve been a homemaker raising probably twelve children. However, I had dreams and desires that consisted of doing something more fulfilling with my life. I love being a wife and mother, but I just couldn’t resign myself to that only. While your father was off doing his tour of duty, I went to law school and in between that I made time to become a mother.”
Will knew the story of how his father had wanted more children, which had initially caused them problems over the years.
“Dad never forgave you, did he?”
“He did after some time. Guess he finally accepted the fact that I was going to have a career outside of the home. After all, I did give him one of the best sons a father could ever wish for, now didn’t I?”
“If you say so,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Don’t be modest, son. You’re a good kid. That’s why I trust you to make the right decisions about your life. Well, I know you’re leaving early, so I’ll get out of your way and let you get back to packing,” she said, closing the door behind her.
Freedom was something Will looked forward to, and he couldn’t wait to put as much distance between himself and the always-watchful eyes and domineering control of his father. Throughout his teenage years, he’d had to listen to his drilling lectures about responsibility and having a good career plan. One day he’d settle down to all his father’s expectations, but right now all he wanted was to have a little non-parent-controlled fun. This trip was the gateway to that freedom, his rite of passage. However, what he hoped mostly was that when he returned, his father would no longer see him as a child but as the man that he nurtured him to be.
