Free Abandoned by Angela Dorsey

I’ve heard anyone so excited to see me. You always do my heart
good. And of course, I’ll bring Sweetie. I’ll be driving out, so
she can ride in back. I hope she doesn’t get carsick this
time.”
    “Me too,” said Lauren. “Hey, why are you
coming out now anyway? What about your job? What about the
stalker?”
    “I’m taking some time off work. I
couldn’t stand being away from my favorite girl any longer,” he
said, ignoring her second question.
    “But what about the stalker?” Lauren
persisted.
    “We can talk about that when I get
there, okay?”
    “So you’ve found something out,”
concluded Lauren. “Is that why you’re coming out early?”
    Her dad laughed again. “You are
persistent, aren’t you? Yes, the mystery is solved, but I’d rather
tell you about it face-to-face, okay? Do you think you can wait
until tomorrow evening? I should get there about six.”
    Lauren grimaced. “I guess I can wait,”
she said slowly. “But it’ll be hard. Why can’t you tell me
now?”
    “It’ll take too much time to explain and
besides, this way you’ll have more time to get Trooper all fancied
up.”
    “Yeah. Hey, you should have seen him
today, Dad. He looked awesome.” Lauren went on to tell him about
the visit to the tack store and her purchases. She tried to
describe how beautiful Trooper was, but knew her words didn’t do
him justice. “You’ll just have to see him, Dad,” she finally
concluded.
    “I’ll bring my camera too,” he offered.
“Now how about you let me talk to your Aunt April for a minute,
Kiddo. I have to let her know to expect us.”
    “Us?”
    “Uh, Sweetie and me.”
    “Okay, Dad. I can’t wait to see you.
Bye.”
    Lauren held the receiver while Aunt
April washed her hands and dried them. When she took the phone and
started talking, Lauren went back to peeling potatoes.
    Aunt April took the receiver from her
ear. “Lauren?” she asked. “Would you mind running out to the cellar
and getting me a couple jars of peaches for dessert?”
    “Sure,” said Lauren. She walked out the
back door and slipped on her shoes that she’d left on the porch.
The cellar was the old fashioned kind, built into a hillside near
the house.
    “Okay, Alan. She’s gone,” she heard Aunt
April’s voice come from the kitchen. The door was still open a
crack and Aunt April’s voice was clear. Knowing she probably
shouldn’t, Lauren moved a little closer to the opening.
    “What?” Aunt April’s voice was shocked.
“It is her then.”
    The
stalker, thought Lauren. I
shouldn’t be listening. I should wait until Dad tells me
himself. Slowly she backed away from the door, trying not to
make the boards squeak.
    “Did Beth explain herself? About where
she’s been all these years?”
    For a moment, Lauren couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe. Beth. The person
in the blue car was named Beth. Was it a coincidence? A horrible,
terrible coincidence? She tried to move her feet from where
they were rooted to the porch.
    “I thought we’d never see her again.”
Aunt April’s voice floated from the crack in the door. “Poor
Lauren. She thinks…”
    And Lauren ran, her thoughts tearing
through her head like a herd of wild, crazed horses. The stalker is my mom! She wasn’t killed in that
car accident. This is even worse than her being dead. She left us
because she wanted to! She abandoned us!
    Somehow, Lauren found herself in the
barn. Trooper threw his head into the air, startled, when she
rocketed into his stall, his halter in her hands. Within seconds,
the halter was on his head. She led him from the barn and ran to
the gate. She undid the special latch and flung it into the grass.
Lauren barely had the presence of mind to close the gate behind
her. Then she led Trooper to the woodshed, to the chopping block.
She jumped from the block onto his back, and dug her heels into his
side. As she trotted Trooper down the driveway, she heard the back
door bang open and Aunt April call to her to