(Page 1 of 7) Carol 5.6 from Betrayed By God by Tristis WardSUMMARY: While living in a group home in Monee, Carol does what she can to entertain herself and pursue her calling. This piece follows "Carol 5.5"Mrs. Hape does not know why she did not turn the little bitch over to Child Services. She has been nothing but a constant source of trouble and disruptive to boot, due to the constant parade of officials who come through here looking for her. Like Deputy Harris is right now. He has come to the back door in the middle of dishes. Mrs. Hape answers it with the same respect she always affords the law, but when Harris tells her he needs to take Roslyn, she balks. She has a lot more cleaning to do, and all he is doing is getting her out of her punishment.
She caught the girl drinking yesterday. She has no idea where she got the bottle, but the whiskey in it was almost gone by the time Theresa Burk pointed out her hiding place in the shed behind Glenn's Tack Shop.
She was perched on top of a stack of feedbags drinking straight from the bottle. In the dim light of the shed, clouded with the weightless particles of ground feed, she looked more like the coloured girl she more often resembles now, but Mrs. Hape has learned to grit her teeth and ignore those traits. She has reasoned that if she refuses to believe them they will go away. That appears to be Roslyn's way of handling them, too.
"For fuck's sake." The girl cursed when she finally took notice of her. This was after several minutes – or a long time, at least – of her standing there agape with fury while her eyes grew accustomed to the dark.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Hape demanded.
"Finally getting a decent buzz to numb the soul-killing boredom of this one-fucking-horse town." She gestured with the bottle around the small shed, grinning roguishly. "I checked. All this is for one horse."
Mrs. Hape was sure she felt something in her head pop from the anger that shot through her over the little bitch's belligerence. "Get your ass down here, young lady! You drop that bottle!"
"It'll get in the feed."
"Drop it!"
She did not drop it. She took another swig and carried it down with her, handing it over with a bitter smile. "Don't know about you, but I respect Ol' Glenny enough not to ruin his stock."
"Did he give you this?"
"No." The answer came straight away, and the girl looked her in the eye when she spoke. Her eyes, which were brown instead of green, did not look even a little bit drunk.
Rudolph Glenn has been a neighbour and friend for decades. He would not take advantage of any of her girls. But what was Roslyn doing in his shed? Did she sneak in? Was this his no-good boy's doing? Mrs. Hape's weighing of that was interrupted by Roslyn's brush past her out into the back gravel lot of the store. Theresa was still out there, although she must have been leaving, because Roslyn only got to her at the edge of the field.
"You got a problem, Theresa?" She asked, pushing her backwards.
Theresa was scared. She had stayed to enjoy the fruits of her vengeance on the slut who got away with turning the men's heads around here away from her. Mrs. Hape's wrath for drinking and sex was legendary. When nobody came running nude out of the shed, it had been a disappointment, but at least she got her for the booze.
And then she did not.
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