Chapter 5 - The Door Aunt Helena Opened
Helena arrived with groceries, two overnight bags and the kind of determination Marlene usually mistook for aggression.
Marlene blocked the entrance.
“You are not taking my children.”
“I’m taking Savannah for the weekend.”
“She is a minor.”
“She called me.”
“She does not decide where she lives.”
Savannah stood behind Helena.
For once, she did not look at the floor.
“I need a break.”
Marlene’s expression softened immediately.
It was the expression she used whenever threats stopped working.
“You are overwhelmed,” she said. “I understand. I have asked too much from you.”
Savannah had heard variations of those words before.
Usually they were followed by a promise that lasted two days.
“I’m going with Aunt Helena.”
“What about Mateo?”
“He will be okay with you.”
“What about the twins?”
“You are their mother.”
“June only sleeps when you hold her.”
“She will learn.”
Marlene placed a hand over her pregnant stomach.
“And what if something happens to me?”
“Call a doctor.”
“You would walk away from your family?”
“I am walking away for two nights.”
Marlene’s eyes hardened.
“Take your backpack. Do not expect to come back when you realize your aunt does not want the burden.”
Helena stepped closer.
“She is not a burden.”
Savannah packed three shirts, schoolbooks and the blue notebook.
She left the diaper bag beside June’s crib.
As she walked through the front door, Mateo hugged her around the waist.
“Don’t come back too soon,” he whispered.
At Helena’s apartment, Savannah slept for fourteen hours.
When she woke, sunlight filled the guest room.
There was no crying.
No bottles needed washing.
No one was calling her name.
The silence frightened her so much that she ran into the hallway.
Helena sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee.
“The children?” Savannah asked.
“At home with their mother.”
“What if she left?”
“I checked with Mrs. Kendall. Marlene is there.”
“What if June needs medicine?”
“Your mother has the instructions.”
“What if the twins run outside?”
“Savannah.”
“What?”
Helena stood.
“This feeling has a name. You have been trained to believe nothing functions without you.”
“Because nothing does.”
“Then the adults responsible for your family need to face that.”
Savannah began pacing.
“I should call Mateo.”
“You can call once. Then you are going to eat breakfast and attend school.”
“I cannot just pretend everything is normal.”
“No one is asking you to pretend. I am asking you to stop carrying every emergency alone.”
Savannah remained with Helena for three days.
During that time, Marlene sent eighty-four messages.
Some were angry.
Some were loving.
Some blamed Savannah for Owen’s nightmares, June’s crying and Mateo’s refusal to eat.
The final message was different.
Come home tonight or I will call the police and tell them you abandoned your siblings.
Helena read it twice.
Then she looked at Savannah.
“Do not answer.”
“What if she really calls?”
“Then we tell the truth.”
“She’ll make the children lie.”
Helena’s expression became still.
May you like
“Why do you think that?”
“Because she has done it before.”
