The Eternal Community

by J Meverington

  Alice laughed. Mrs K had so much character and it was a shame that she’d never get a chance to drink ouzo with her. By the time she was old enough, she’d be long gone.

  Alice finished her shift at five and headed home, went straight to her bedroom, lay on her bed, and thought about Carter Willis. Nobody ever talked to her, not nicely anyway, although it was her own fault for not letting anyone near her.

  Chapter 17

  Alice remembered back to when she first moved to Kentucky after her parents were killed in a car accident. She’d been eleven at the time. When she first arrived, the other kids had avoided her, not knowing what to say to the orphan girl.

  It had been awful; her parents were dead, and she’d been catapulted from her life in California, to a small town in the middle of nowhere. For the first few weeks she randomly broke down in tears causing the other kids to snigger behind her back, but that was nothing compared to the pain she was going through.

  A few weeks on, once she had settled down, one of the girls approached her at lunchtime. Alice had just taken a mouthful of her sandwich when a girl called Rachel asked if she could join her. Alice shrugged, and the girl sat down.

  ‘Would you like to be friends?’ Rachel asked, exposing her buck teeth as she smiled, producing more of a grimace, her lazy eye wandering off on a tangent.

  Alice almost choked on her sandwich, disgusted by the girl in front of her. The last thing she wanted was to be friends with her; she could do much better. She ignored her and carried on eating her lunch.

  Over the next few days, Rachel kept hanging around her like a lost puppy. She rattled on about stuff like cross-stitch and her stamp collection. Alice couldn’t stand her and worried her association might prevent her from making her own friends, people she had more in common with.

  Rachel rambled on about a giant jigsaw puzzle she had completed and how her father was building a frame for it, so she could put it on her wall.

  Alice broke her off mid-sentence. ‘I’m sorry Rachel, but I don’t care about your jigsaw or your cross-stitch. I don’t want to be friends with you.’

  Rachel’s jaw dropped, and tears welled up in the corner of her eyes. She stifled a sob and ran off, leaving Alice sitting there alone regretting what she had said.

  A few months later, Alice went through a growth spurt and her expensive Californian clothes no longer fitted her. Her aunt refused to buy her any, so she had to wear hand-me-downs from her foster sister. Krystal, however, was shorter and fatter and her clothes hung like sacks on Alice’s tall, thin frame, making her look like a freak. As a result, everybody treated her like one.

  How life had changed for her, having been transported from a wonderful life and straight into Hell. Her parents, Peter and Felicity, had taken her on holidays to exotic locations such as Disney World in Florida, London, and even as far as New Zealand. But her favourite place of all had been New York, with its buzz like nowhere else on Earth. At eight years old she attended her first Broadway show, and had fallen in love with the theatre. Way back then, she decided she wanted to act, to stand on a stage and entertain the audience. Some people might have thought this a far-fetched idea, but her father had had many contacts in the show biz world. She’d already acted some small parts in movies, so her dream could easily have become a reality.

  But in a short space of time, all was taken away from her. Her parents’ death had been traumatic enough for a young girl, but her father had been involved in criminal activities and had run up a lot of debt. The sale of their house in Beverley Hills didn’t come close to covering it.

  But nobody knew this until months later. The only family she had was her father’s cousin, Uncle Nat. Of course he jumped at the chance to take her in. He thought he would become rich, knowing how well off her parents were. By the time he found out no money was coming their way, it was too late. Alice was stuck in Kentucky and nobody from her previous life wanted anything to do with her.

  While she mourned the loss of her parents she struggled to cope with her new life where she was treated with contempt. With no money of her own, she was trapped and reliant on her foster family.

  Three years later, when Alice had just turned fourteen, she saw a job opening at the grocery store. Mrs K felt sorry for her standing there in her sack-like clothes, and hired her on the spot. Alice worked every day after school and also on Saturdays and took home $85 per week. She didn’t have a bank account, so she put the money in a drawer in her dresser, and let it accumulate.

  Alice came home from work one Saturday, opened the drawer to put her earnings away, and found the money had gone. She panicked and ran into the kitchen to tell her aunt she’d been robbed. Aunt Melissa pulled a wad of money out of her purse.

  ‘Is this what you’re looking for?’

  ‘Is that mine?’ she asked.

  ‘What are you doing with a drawer full of money? We’re struggling to eat in this family and you have over $300 in your drawer?’

  Alice gasped at the amount. She had no idea she’d saved so much in only a few weeks.

  ‘Mrs K gave it to me for working at the shop. I earned it.’

  ‘Well, now you’re working you can start paying your own way around here. From now on, you’ll bring all your earnings to me and it will go towards food and rent.’

  Tears formed in her eyes. She’d worked hard for her money.

  ‘But I was going to buy some new clothes with it.’

  ‘What’s wrong with the clothes Krystal has given you?’

  Alice glanced down at her oversized T-shirt and jeans that were too short. She looked like a freak.

  ‘They don’t fit very well.’

  ‘What?’ Melissa snapped.

  ‘Nothing,’ Alice replied, meekly. Her aunt had a wicked streak and she didn’t want to upset her.

  The next day after school when Alice arrived at the grocery store, Mrs K knew something was up as soon as she saw her.

  ‘Oh my little Alice, what is the matter?’

  Alice burst into tears, unable to contain her emotions any longer. Mrs K put her arm around her and led her into the back room.

  ‘Alice, what’s happened?’ Mrs K’s concern made her cry even harder.

  Once her sobs subsided, she said, ‘They’ve taken all my money.’

  ‘Who’s taken it?’

  ‘I’d been saving my earnings, but Aunt Melissa found it and took it.’

  ‘She stole it?’

  ‘She told me it was for rent and food and I have to give her all the money I earn from now on.’

  ‘Oh you poor thing.’ Mrs K pulled Alice into her soft cuddly bosom. Alice couldn’t remember the last time she’d been hugged.

  ‘Did they say how much money they want for food and rent?’

  ‘$85 a week.’

  ‘But that’s all you earn. Did you tell them how much you were getting?’

  Alice nodded, and Mrs K handed her a handkerchief to wipe away her tears.

  ‘What say I give you an extra thirty minutes of work after school, to give you a little bit extra they needn’t know about? Then when you turn sixteen, you can work late night Thursday and do some extra hours on Saturday. You can keep the extra money you earn for yourself as long as you don’t tell her about it.’

  Alice nodded, wishing Mrs K was her foster mother. Alice decided new clothes were a luxury she couldn’t afford and would save every cent she could to enable her to escape from her horrible family.

  At the end of her shift, Mrs K presented her with a metal box with a key in it.

  ‘You keep your extra money locked in here from now on and hide this box somewhere. There’s a little something extra to get your savings started.’

  Alice opened the box and inside sat a crisp fifty dollar bill. She burst into tears again, overwhelmed by Mrs K’s generosity.

  Chapter 18

  Back in the present time, Alice’s thoughts drifted back to Carter. The other day at school, he’d talked to her like a normal person, not some k
ind of freak. Did he like her? Or was it some kind of set-up orchestrated by Peaches?

  He’d told her how he struggled with English and had offered to pay her for doing his assignment. Alice knew she’d get kicked out of school if caught, but the money tempted her.

  With nothing better to do, she sat down and worked on it, taking care to word it as Carter would, so as not to arouse suspicion. She still hadn’t decided whether to hand it over to him yet; she’d make that decision tomorrow.

  ***

  The next day at school Alice opened her locker to find a sealed envelope had been slipped in. She ripped it open, and inside contained a letter from Carter accompanied with a one hundred dollar bill. She shoved the money in her pocket making sure nobody saw, then read the note.

  ‘Hey Alice, here’s payment for the assignment, please email it to me before lunchtime. Carter.’

  He’d written his email address at the end. She patted her pocket, liking the feel of the money inside. Decision made. Alice used the school computer to email him as she didn’t have her own. She didn’t even have a phone. As soon as she’d sent it however, a feeling of unease came over her as she wondered if she’d done the right thing.

  ***

  A few days later, Alice finished her shift at the grocery store just after seven. She loved late night Thursday’s because Mrs K, a fabulous cook, always invited her to stay for a smorgasbord of Greek delicacies.

  Alice knocked on the door and Mr K opened it.

  ‘Welcome my child, welcome,’ he said in his thick Greek accent, indicating for her to enter. ‘What would you like to drink? Beer? Wine? Ouzo?’

  ‘Just a glass of lemonade please Mr K.’

  ‘Still a tee-totaller I see.’ He shook his head as if she were mad.

  ‘I’m only seventeen, Mr K, legal drinking age is twenty-one.’ She told him this every week.

  He walked away tut-tutting as he went to the fridge and poured her a glass of lemonade. Garlic and spices wafted through the house, making her feel at home.

  A veritable feast had been laid out on the dining table. There were little cabbage parcels filled with meat and rice. Some flat breads, cut into triangles, sat around a variety of colourful dips, and a large salad took pride of place.

  ‘Sit down, sit down.’ Mrs K gesticulated toward the table. ‘Help yourself while I cook the meat.’

  Alice sat down next to Mr K and helped herself to some bread and dips. After a while, Mrs K brought out a plate of sizzling meat, the smell causing her to salivate. Alice piled her plate high with salad, topped it with meat, then added a dollop of tzatziki on top.

  ‘Mmmm, this food is so tasty.’

  The Kyriocopouloses used to own a popular restaurant in Chicago back in the 70s. Then the recession hit in the early 80s and they had sell up and move to Kentucky where the cost of living was cheaper. It was a sad story they had told her many times, but secretly she was pleased they had moved here, otherwise she would never have met them.

  ‘So Alice, tell me about your master plan? You’re not going to run away and leave us, are you?’

  That was her plan, but she didn’t want to tell Mrs K that yet. She’d been like a mother to her and the idea of leaving upset her.

  Mrs K must have seen the sadness in her eyes. ‘Don’t worry dear, I can’t blame you. I’d leave as well if I could.’ She winked to show she understood.

  Mr and Mrs K had been unable to have children of their own and Alice had a feeling that was why they treated her the way they did. The three of them had landed in a foreign world, far removed from their own. It was not their first choice to be there.

  ***

  Alice waddled home with a bloated belly, thinking about how hard it would be to say goodbye to the Kyriacopouloses. Would she keep in touch with them? No idea. Once she left this awful place, she would not return. Not ever.

  Apprehension kicked her in the stomach at the thought of going home to her hostile foster family. The horrible school kids are more bearable than listening to her family’s constant bitter gripes towards her. It wasn’t her fault her parents had been killed and she got stuck in this terrible place.

  The sound of footsteps behind her interrupted her thoughts. She glanced behind her, but couldn’t see anyone. The shadows from the trees made her vulnerable, so she picked up the pace. The footsteps behind picked up their pace. Was someone following her? Alice wished she hadn’t refused Mr K’s offer to drive her home, although her chances of being killed by his driving were high.

  Alice broke into a run, keen for the safety of her house, but someone grabbed her arm from behind and pulled her behind a tree.

  She thumped them in the stomach with her elbow and whipped their hand behind their back, thankful for her martial arts training.

  Carter Willis stood there, a look of annoyance in his eyes.

  ‘Carter, what are you doing?’ she asked, stepping a safe distance away from him.

  He pulled out a crinkled sheet of paper from his pocket and shoved it towards her.

  ‘This? What’s this?’ he spat.

  ‘Your assignment paper,’ she replied, deadpan.

  He pointed to the mark on it. ‘I got a ‘C’. I paid you to get me an ‘A’.’

  Carter was not the brightest jock in the box.

  ‘No, you paid me to do your assignment.’

  ‘Well I want my money back.’

  ‘Do you think the teachers wouldn’t notice if you suddenly went from failing to getting an A? They’d be suspicious don’t you think?’

  Carter appeared to think about this for a moment. She could see his brain ticking over.

  ‘Whatever, I paid for an A and that’s what I want. So give me my money back.’

  Alice didn’t want to give in to him and she definitely didn’t want to give him his money back. She needed every cent she could lay her hands on.

  ‘So you don’t think the teachers would be suspicious if you handed in an ‘A’ paper?’

  ‘Of course not, I’m not stupid, just lazy.’

  ‘Okay, no problem. Well, what if I get you an ‘A’ on your next assignment. I’ll do it for half price.’

  ‘You’ll do it for free!’

  ‘Half price or I’ll walk away now.’

  She could tell she had him. He needed her, and she needed his money. She watched him as he appeared to weigh up his options.

  ‘All right, but if I don’t get an ‘A’ this time, you’re gonna get it.’ He stormed off.

  Alice couldn’t believe what an idiot he was. An ‘A’ would to raise a lot of questions with the teachers and he would get into trouble for sure. She would have to make sure she wasn’t around when that happened.

  Chapter 19

  It was shortly after 8:00 when she arrived home, opening the door quietly, fearful of the torrent of verbal abuse her foster father would unleash onto her. Luckily he had fallen asleep in front of the TV, empty beer cans scattered about the floor. After silently closing the door behind her, she scurried upstairs to her bedroom.

  Once safely inside, she opened her closet, removed the backpack covering the loose floor board and retrieved the metal box Mrs K had given her. Using the key on her necklace she unlocked the tin and placed her earnings inside. Ensuring it was securely fastened again, she replaced it under the floorboard and returned her backpack to its rightful place.

  She knuckled down to do her own homework as well as Carter’s, hoping he wouldn’t get into trouble for getting an ‘A’. Did he really think the teachers were that stupid?

  Alice heard her aunt and uncle and cousin go to bed and waited another hour, wanting to be sure nobody came in while she counted her money. It was after midnight by the time the house had quietened down enough for her to feel safe enough to do so.

  She pulled out her money tin and started counting. She’d managed to save $2500 dollars in just over three years and there were still a couple of months left until school ended. This would enable her to save more money from her job at the
grocery store, as well as the assignment money from Carter. That should be enough for her to escape this dreadful place.

  After replacing the tin in its hiding place, she grabbed her backpack and started sewing some false pockets into it. This would be a hiding place for her money when she left.

  ***

  The next day at school, the same group of girls stopped Alice in the hallway, blocking her path. ‘Hey, Weird Al, Whatcha gonna do?’

  Alice looked for a way around them, but there was none, so she stayed put and waited. Peaches took a step towards her.

  ‘Hey Weird Al, why are you so weird?’ she said, and the other girls giggled.

  Alice remained silent.

  ‘Cat got your tongue?’

  Silence.

  ‘Look at you, dressed in your freak clothes. What’s wrong with you, bitch?’

  Alice didn’t want to waste her time talking to her. Peaches was stupid and would probably end up a crack-head or a prostitute. Ignoring her, Alice tried to barge past, but Peaches pushed her and banged her against the lockers.

  ‘Cut it out, I need to get to class.’

  ‘Oh, Miss Goody Two-Shoes, doesn’t want to get in trouble for being late.’

  Alice had had enough. Staring directly into Peaches eyes she said, ‘What I’d like to know is, what is it about me that bothers you so much? Why do you care how I dress?’

  ‘I don’t care how you dress, bitch. You’re a weirdo and I don’t like you being in my school. I think you should leave.’

  ‘Whatever, you’re not worth wasting my time over.’ Alice pushed Peaches out of the way and stormed off to class, feeling good about herself for having stood up to her.

  ***

  The following Monday in class, the teacher handed out the assignments. Alice received an A+ as usual. She glanced over to see how Carter got on and he gave her a thumbs up, not noticing the look the teacher gave him, too excited about his grade. A bad feeling developed in the pit of her stomach and she hoped he wouldn’t drag her down with him.