Cassidy laughed and splashed her sister, careful not to get salt water in her eyes.

 

Grace laughed and swam around under water.  This was the first time that their parents had ever taken them anywhere for fun.  This was the first time they taught themselves to swim.  As long as Daddy stayed in his chair, Grace was happy.

 

Cassidy tossed a long piece of seaweed at Grace when she came up for air.

 

“Eww!!! Gross!” eight-year old Grace exclaimed.

 

Cassidy grinned.  “*I’m* not afraid of the seaweed!”

 

“It’s icky and slimy….it could be alive!”

 

“It’s a plant, you silly!”

 

“So?”

 

“It’s not going to bite you!”  Cassidy glanced toward the blanket to make sure Mommy stayed away and gasped.

 

“What is it, Cassidy?” Grace asked, looking back at the blanket.

 

“They left us!”  She shrieked.

 

“Where’d they go?” Grace’s lip began to tremble.

 

“I don’t know… it’s like in that book where the parents leave their kids and they leave breadcrumbs to find their way home,” Cassidy said.  “Except we don’t have breadcrumbs, and I don’t *want* to go home,” she admitted.

 

“Hansel and Gretel?” Grace suggested.  “I don’t want to see Daddy.  He’ll hit me when he finds we weren’t with them when they left.”

 

Cassidy almost said she’d probably get locked away in the cellar again, but thought better of it.  “It’s okay… we didn’t drive very far.  It was only a couple minutes.  We can walk home if we have to…”

 

“But it’s a lot farer away when we walk! And we don’t know where to go!”

 

“Yes we do.  I do.  Daddy’s friend lives near here, he brought me one time and forgot me there.  She gave me a ride home and I watched.”

 

“Can she give us a ride home now?”

 

“Maybe.  But I bet she’ll let us stay if she can’t.  Come on.”  Cassidy took her sister’s hand and led the way.  Sure enough, she was able to find the house and she climbed the porch and knocked on the door.

 

Lola came to the door, half dressed.  “Yeah?”

 

Cassidy looked at her feet, trying to look pitiful.  “Daddy forgot us again,” she explained.

 

Lola raised an eyebrow.  “Who’s us?”  She looked around the empty yard.  “Don’t see no one but you.”

 

Cassidy turned around.  “Grace!  Get out of the bushes!”  She hissed.

 

Grace peered around the side of the bush.  “Cassidy!  Mommy says that lady’s a whore!”

 

Lola laughed.  “Come on girls, I know who your dad is.”

 

Grace didn’t move from the spot.  If Daddy was in there too….he might get mad.

 

“Come on, she’s nice, Grace.  Promise.”  Cassidy tapped her foot impatiently.

 

Grace looked around.  “Does she have ice cream? Mommy gives me ice cream.”

 

“I got chocolate chip.  C’mon in, girls.” Lola stepped aside so they could come in.  Grace ran up the steps and gripped Cassidy’s hand.

 

Cassidy led her into the house.

 

Lola led them into the kitchen and pulled out the carton of ice cream and two spoons.  “Give me a couple minutes and I’ll drive you home.” She said, leaving them alone in the kitchen.

 

“See?  It’s okay,” Cassidy assured her sister, handing her a spoon.

 

“But…” Grace sighed. “I just wanna go home.  I’m tired.”

 

“We’ll be home soon,” Cassidy promised.

 

Grace nodded and ate the ice cream.

 

Lola came back a few minutes later.  “Come on girls, I’ll drive you home.”  She led them out to the side of the house where her car was parked.  “Get in.”

 

The two clambered into the car.

 

Lola drove them home, making sure they both got inside their house before she drove off.

 

“Where the hell were the two of you? And who was that?” Emily demanded.

 

“You and Daddy left us,” Cassidy said as bravely as she could manage.  “Daddy’s friend brought us home.”

 

“Gonna be a little smart mouth about it?” Emily slapped Cassidy.  “Your father and I had to go to work.  You should be grateful we work and are kind enough to feed you.”

 

“Sometimes,” Cassidy said quietly.

 

“Why you little….get in the cellar.” Emily said.

 

“No, ma’am.”

 

Emily grabbed Cassidy by the arm.  “You do as you’re told!” She glanced at Grace and put Cassidy in a nearby closet for the time being.   “Grace…go to your room.”

 

“Mommy…don’t hurt her…she was just trying to get us home.  And the whore lady was nice, she gave us ice cream.” Grace said.

 

“Grace get upstairs!” Emily yelled.  Grace scampered up the stairs.

 

Cassidy rapped on the door.  “Let me out!”

 

Emily grabbed a pair of scissors and put them in her pocket before opening the door. “You took your sister to a WHOREHOUSE???”

 

“We had to get home!”  Cassidy cried out.  “But I wish we hadn’t!”

 

Emily grabbed her by the hair and brought her down to the basement, throwing her on the floor.  “Did you ever think we left you there for a reason?”

 

“Because you don’t want us!”  Cassidy yelled back.

 

“Don’t want *you.*”

 

“I hate you!”  Cassidy screamed, running for the stairs.

 

Emily grabbed her by the hair.  “I’m sorry to hear that.” Emily took out the scissors.  “Such a shame.  You don’t deserve to have hair.”

 

“You don’t deserve to have Grace!”

 

Emily began cutting chunks of Cassidy’s hair off.  Cassidy seemed to be less and less affected by Emily’s conventional beatings, so she decided to see how her rapist’s daughter would react.

 

Cassidy, however, didn’t seem to be reacting at all.

 

After Emily cut off what seemed a good amount of Cassidy’s once long red hair, she went upstairs and left the girl to herself.

 

Cassidy glanced at her reflection in a puddle on the cement floor. 

 

Grace came down the stairs a few minutes later.  “She’s gone.”

 

Cassidy just nodded, still staring at her reflection.

 

“Cassidy?” Grace said after a minute.  “I’m sorry I got you in trouble again.”

 

“Don’t worry about it.  You better go on up before she gets back.  Lock the door behind you.”

 

“She didn’t lock the door.  Come upstairs.”

 

Cassidy shrugged.  “She’ll hit me some more if I’m up there when she gets back.  Go on.  Go up.”

 

“No.” Grace said, coming down the last few stairs.  “Not by myself.”

 

“Go on!”  Cassidy said sharply.

 

Grace simply shook her head and picked up a strand of Cassidy’s hair off the floor.  “I won’t.  And you can’t make me.”

 

“You bet I can.  I’ll tell Daddy.”

 

“Cassidy, please, don’t.”

 

“Go upstairs, then.”

 

“Only if you come with me.”

 

“Mommy’ll be mad at you too if you’re here when she gets back.  Go!  Go away!”

 

Grace was about to say something when she heard a car door slam.  She ran upstairs, praying it wasn’t Daddy, and if it was, he wasn’t too drunk or in the mood to hit something.

 

“What’re you doing up?”  He wobbled slightly as he took off his shoes.

 

Grace backed up slightly.  “You…you forgot us at the beach, and we got home a little while ago.”

 

“Go on upstairs, then.  Where’s your sister?”

 

“Downstairs.  Mommy cut her hair because she brought me to the whorehouse.”

 

David opened the cellar door.  “Cassidy you get up here!”  He called.  “You girls get upstairs.”

 

Cassidy took her sister’s hand and led her up the stairs to their room.

 

Grace crawled into her bed.  “Why is Mommy so mean to you?”

 

“Cause she doesn’t want me.  And I don’t like her either.  Go on to sleep.”

 

“You can’t tell me what to do.” Grace stifled a yawn. 

 

Cassidy shrugged.  A second car door had slammed outside, and she knew what that meant.

 

Emily looked in the open cellar door and saw that it was empty.  “Cassidy Evangeline!  Did I say you could move?” She called from the kitchen.  She made her way to the stairs to rip the child out of her bed.

 

“I said,” a voice said from behind her, and there stood David.  “You leave that girl the hell alone.  She didn’t do a thing to you but be born.”

 

“If it had been up to me, she wouldn’t have been born at all!”

 

“Well she was, so tough shit.”

 

“What the hell do you care anyway?”

 

“She’s my kid.”  David picked her up and carried her into the master bedroom, closing the door behind them.

 

“Get the fuck away from me! What do you think you’re doing?”

David smiled pleasantly.  “Bet you could guess.”

 

“I’m not the same little girl I was when you raped me the first time, you must be insane if you think I’m going to let you do that to me again.” Emily looked around the room for a possible escape route.

 

“If you’d *let* me, we wouldn’t *have* this problem.”

 

“Leave me alone.”

 

“No… no, I don’t think so.”

 

Emily backed up to the wall as he started towards her.  “I think so.  Stay the fuck away from me.”

 

“Well, you got the fuck part right.”

 

~*~*~

 

Emily stared at the little stick.  No.  Not again.  How could he…that bastard got her pregnant. Again. 

 

“You’re home early.”  Surprisingly, David had come home both early and sober.  Perhaps it was a special occasion.

 

“Yeah, well…I found something pretty disturbing out today, and it repulsed me so much that I got sick and had to leave early.”

 

“Oh?  That’s good.”  He didn’t seem to be paying attention.

 

“Yeah.  Once again I have your disgusting chromosomes in my body.” Emily said to him.

 

“Well good for you.”  He walked off, trying to find his daughter.

 

“I’m pregnant, you asshole.”

 

“I got the message.  Thanks.”

 

“Well, you know, you usually don’t understand anything when you’re sober.”

 

“Get lost, would you?”

 

“What’s in the bag?”

 

“None of your damn business, it’s not for you.”  He headed upstairs to the girls’ room.  David opened the door and found them both playing on the floor.  “Happy Birthday Cassidy.” He said, handing her the bag.

 

Cassidy looked up, surprised.  Someone had remembered?  Someone had actually remembered, and cared enough to give her something.  Unthinkingly, for a moment just glad to be ten, she got up and gave him a quick hug before backing away a few steps.  “Thank you, Daddy.”

 

David nodded and watched as she opened the bag. 

 

Grace watched Cassidy, silently wondering why she never got anything for her birthday, or why no one seemed to care enough to acknowledge the day.

 

Cassidy opened it slowly, wanting the moment to last, and pulled out a teddy bear.  “Daddy, thank you.”  She’d never gotten anything for her birthday except a yearly round of not-very-nice birthday punches from her mother.

 

“You’re welcome, Cassidy.” David said, before leaving the room.

 

“Here, Grace, you want to hold it?”  She offered, holding the bear outstretched.

 

Grace nodded, taking the bear and squeezing it as hard as she could.  It was probably one of the only times she’d hold a stuffed bear.  She certainly wouldn’t be getting any for her next birthday, or any other time, for that matter.

 

Emily’s voice drifted up the stairs.  “Cassidy, get down here!”

 

Cassidy just barely restrained a whimper.

 

~*~*~

 

Cassidy sat on the edge of her sister’s bed.  “Are you awake yet?”

 

“No.” Grace replied from somewhere inside the blanket. 

 

Cassidy grinned and tugged the blankets off her sister.  “Happy Birthday.”

 

“No! Don’t say that.  It’s not happy.”

 

Cassidy sighed and handed her a box wrapped in paper.  “Fine, guess you don’t want this…”

 

Grace shot straight up.  “What is it?”

 

“A present.  Go on, open it.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Cause it’s your birthday, stupid!”

 

“I’m not stupid.” Grace muttered, opening the present.  “Why are you giving this to me? It’s yours.”

 

“It’s yours now,” Cassidy said, watching her sister lift the teddy bear from the box. 

 

“But why?”

 

“Cause you need it more,” Cassidy said simply.

 

Grace squeezed the bear.  “Thank you, Cassidy.” She got up to hug her sister.

 

“Welcome, Gracey.  Happy Birthday.”

 

Grace put the bear down on her bed.  “But…don’t you want it?”

 

“Yeah,” Cassidy admitted.  “But I’m giving it to you anyway.”

 

“Thank you.” Grace repeated, giving the bear another squeeze.

 

“Welcome.  Come on, we better get dressed before Mom comes up here.”

 

Grace nodded and got dressed.  Cassidy had gotten her an actual present.  This wasn’t the normal custom in their house, usually a beating or something.  Sometimes a waffle.

 

“Hey, I bet there’s Cheerios,” Cassidy said as she pulled on her second shoe.

 

“Maybe with strawberries?”

 

“Maybe.  Daddy sure didn’t eat ‘em and Mom didn’t come in last night.  I listened.”

 

Grace raced downstairs once her hair was pulled back in pigtails.  She looked around the empty kitchen and opened the fridge.

 

Cassidy came downstairs a moment later to grab bowls and spoons.

 

“Maybe they already left.” Grace said hopefully, reaching for the Cheerios.

 

Cassidy looked out the window.  “No cars.  Guess they might have.”

 

“Good.” Grace said glancing at the clock.  “Cassidy we have to go or we’ll be late for school.”

 

“Okay… bring the Cheerios, we can eat ‘em on the way.”

 

Grace grabbed the box of Cheerios and her backpack.  “Hurry.”

 

Cassidy picked up her own backpack and the two set off.

 

~*~*~

 

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