Free Body of Ash by Bonnie Wheeler Page B

on the table. If Marge’s mother was working a late shift on the Alzheimer’s unit, it fell on her to have his supper done. If she forgot something as simple as butter for his bread or a knife to cut his meat, Darryl would curse profanities in her face while gripping her flesh so hard that it left bruises in the shape of his fingers. If he was having a bad day – his cruelty wouldn’t end until he was passed out in his chair.
     
    It was because of him that she ran away with Bruce Ray when she was just a teen.
     
    Despite his acne and prominent overbite, Bruce had a Chevy van and promised to take her places. Loving his guitar and how he looked in his acid washed denim, Bruce dreamed of playing big music gigs in Nashville. It only took a few make out sessions in the storage room at the All Star Video , where he held a weekend job, for Marge to believe he was the answer to all of her problems. As he hiked up her blouse, the boy whispered that they would put New Hampshire far behind them. On fire with the idea of moving beyond her father’s reach, Marge willingly agreed.
     
    One night, after checking to make sure her folks were passed out drunk in front of the console television set, Marge packed up her meager belongings and crept out of the mobile home. She left her mother a simple note; one that expressed her sorrow for leaving without a goodbye, but that she couldn’t live with her father a moment longer. Bruce was grinning as he helped her climb into his passenger seat. Marge forced herself to watch the trailer park disappear behind her all the while vowing never to return home again, no matter what happened in the future.
     
    Unfortunately, Bruce’s Astro van only made it as far as Connecticut before breaking down. Since it was summer, they pitched a pup tent at a local campground and both took shifts selling hotdogs at a concession stand in an attempt to earn cash. By the time Bruce saved up enough to have the transmission repaired, summer was over and nights were becoming too cold for camping. Overwhelmed with the situation, Marge began begging Bruce to get her back on the road, but her boyfriend had already moved on to a little slut from Harwinton. 
     
    As Bruce and Becky drove off to Tennessee, Marge was stuck with the decision as to whether or not she should return home to her mother’s denial and her father’s perversions or find a way to stick it out on her own in Litchfield County. Refusing to accept defeat, Marge chose to rely on her own strengths to survive.
     
    Taking what was left of a week’s wages at the wiener joint, Marge bought an attractive outfit to use job hunting. Her skin was tanned and her pale hair had natural highlights from spending the summer outside. Without an impressive work history and barely graduating school, for the first time in her life, Marge had to turn on her sex appeal to get what she wanted. As far as she could tell, it was her only advantage when interviewing with men. After one week, Marge was able to find work at Staples and moved in with a coworker who was a single mom and desperate to split a rent. 
     
    Although she could take or leave it, sex with a man wasn’t so bad as long as she could get a little security out of it. Having a good buzz on didn’t hurt either. Going home wasn’t an option. She’d rather walk into hell itself before running home to her father.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    20
     
    KATIE
    Friday 1:45 AM
     
    Assured her mother was a sleep, Katie stepped out into the tranquil darkness.  The fire escape wasn’t the sturdiest part of the apartment complex, but the rickety staircase, required for the town’s building code, was more than a back entrance. It was a safe little haven for Katie to sit out on and contemplate her world.
     
    With a plastic lawn chair just big enough to fit on the landing, Katie tucked one leg under her bottom and listened as her next door neighbor’s wind chime played a quiet song. The breeze was