The witch who came knocking

There once was a little southern gal named Shelly who had big brown eyes and a shy smile. She lived with her Mother, big brother, and her younger half brother In a small studio apartment.

The shelter let them live in the apartment for free because Shelly’s Father had disappeared one day, leaving them homeless, without any money.

They were given food, clothing, furniture, and other items that they needed, because they were too poor to afford to pay for it themselves.

Several years had gone by, and still they didn’t know what happened to him or why he couldn’t come home. Then one Christmas Eve they all went to the mall to see Santa Clause, and there he was waiting for them.

Everyone was excited to see him again. After Shelly and her brothers sat on Santa’s lap they all followed her Father to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Everyone talked and laughed together for a couple of hours and then her Mother said it was time to go, but her Father could not come with them that night.

Her Father told her not to worry, she will see him again in two days, then the following weekend and then every other weekend after that. He missed her and was sorry that he had been gone for so long. He is back in her life now and they will be spending alot of time together from then on. He promises that he will not disappear again.

He looked at her Mother and asked if that is what she wanted and her Mother said yes, as long as you are going to stay in our lives, and not be going in and out of it. She gave him her phone number and hugged him saying she will see him in two days, then they all left.

But two days later came and went and Shelly did not get to see her Father, neither did she see him that weekend, or the weekend after that. She didn’t see him again until two years later. Shelly, her Mother, and both of her brothers were spending Christmas week over at Nanny’s house. Aunts, Uncles, and all the cousins came over to visit them there every night, so Shelly didn’t think nothing of it when her Mother asked her to peek out the window to see who had just pulled into the driveway.

Shelly didn’t recognize the car so she opened the front door to get a better look. A tall man got out of the car. He was looking right at her with a big smile on his face. It took Shelly a few seconds before she realized it was her Father. She ran to him and hugged him tightly.

There was the sound of another car door shutting, curious Shelly looked around her Father to see who it could be. Shelly’s eyes squinted in anger. It was a wicked witch. So that was what kept her Father from being in her life she thought to herself. She probably cast a spell over her Father to make him think that he was in love with her and that she was his wife instead of her Mother.

Well, Shelly told herself, it’s time to break that spell and help Dad remember who he really loves and who his wife and children are. That way he will stay and not be forced to leave with her.

The wicked witch was heading towards them quickly, but Shelly was quicker. She pulled her Fathers arm and begged him to hurry and come into the house. He thought that she was really excited about him being there and wanted to show everyone that he was there and thought nothing of it and allowed her to rush him inside.

Once her Father was inside Shelly looked back at the the wicked witch and just as she got close enough to walk in, She stared at her, making eye contact, and then slammed the door in her face, and locked it.

Once inside Shelly began to talk loudly to drown out the sound of the witch knocking on the door. Her Father was so excited to see her that he didn’t hear the witches knock even though he was right by the door, but Nanny did.

She asked if there was someone knocking at the door. Shelly shrugged and said she didn’t hear anything but her Father turned around to check anyways, and he let the wicked witch in.

The wicked witch sat down on the couch but before her dad could sit down beside her Shelly already had a plan. She pulled her Father to the love seat where her Mother and little brother was sitting and smiling sweetly up at her Father she told him that she wanted to have both her Mother and her Father sitting next to her for Christmas.

Her Father chuckled and said well ok, thinking it was an innocent request, and sat on the love seat which was really too small for all 4 of them to sit on.

Right then her aunt,uncle, and her cousin walked into the house. Shelly immediately called out to them to come over and sit on the loveseat with them.

Her aunt thought that they were playing a game, so she played along and told her husband to squeeze himself onto the couch, and then she sat on his lap and held her daughter, making it 7 people all squished up on the loveseat. Meanwhile across the room the wicked witch sat all by herself on the large three cushioned couch just as Shelly planned.

This was her family and not the witches, and she was going to make sure that the witch knew that she was not welcome there.

After a few minutes of being squished, Shelly’s father had enough and started to stand up. Shelly had to think fast and distract him before he sat next to the witch. She grabbed her Moms phone and told her Dad that she wanted pictures of just the three of them together and when he asked who would take the photo she said her little 4 yr old brother could.

Her Father sat down again for the photo but he was standing up again after a couple minutes. Shelly looked at the witch, then she grabbed her Fathers arm and pulled him towards the hallway. Let’s go play in my room she said. Her Father took two steps in that direction but then stopped and turned around. Let’s go sit on the porch instead he offered. She tried to drag him into the bedroom one last time before giving up and going to the porch where her brother joined them.

Ten minutes later Shelly saw the wicked witch stand up and starting to walking towards them so she stood up and said let’s go out to the yard. Her Father said sure maybe we could play frisbee and then seeing the witch who just stepped out on the porch, he asked her if she would like to play with them.

The witch said she would love to and they all began to walk out to the yard. Shelly grabbed her Fathers arm once again and pulled him so that he would walk faster hoping that the witch would turn around and walk away if they all took off ahead of her. But that didn’t work, the witch still followed behind.

Shelly’s Father threw the frisbee to Shelly and she threw it to her brother who threw it to their Father who threw it to the witch and the witch threw it to Shelly but Shelly did not try to catch it. She just stood there until it hit the ground and then picked it back up and threw it to her Father.

Neither kid would throw it to the wicked witch and neither kid would catch it when she threw it to them. Their Father asked them to be nice and play with her too, but they wouldn’t.

Both children continued to ignore the witch and distract everyone who might talk to her all day Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The day after Christmas their Father gave them a hug goodbye and began to head to the car. The witch followed behind him, but before she made it to the door Shelly, with tears streaming down her face came running to her.

The witch held out her arms ready to comfort Shelly, but she wasn’t coming for a hug. She threw her fist at the witches stomach and hit her several times and then ran off. The witch didn’t say anything, she just walked out to the car and both the witch and Shelly’s Father took off.

Adam had just been hired at a carpet store as an installer. Even tho he has many years of experience as a floor installer, because he was new to the company and didn’t have any tools of his own, they only gave him the jobs that the other installers turned down. Jobs that were difficult, would take a long time to complete, and didn’t pay enough for them to bother with it.

Most of these jobs needed two people to do, but the pay wasn’t enough for Adam to hire an assistant. So Mary, his wife, went to work with him. Even though he didn’t pay Mary for her work, his paycheck still barely covered their rent, leaving them with no money for groceries.

They had to go to the food bank and borrow money so that they can have one meal a day.

After three months working for the same company, things didn’t get any better for them. Instead of being given better jobs, or more jobs to do, they were given less jobs. Way less. And the few tools that Adam did have, were stolen from his truck, which now had issues that needed immediate repairs. All taking place in December.

Mary thought that meant that they wouldn’t be able to celebrate Christmas that year. They couldn’t afford to drive to any of her relatives houses, they couldn’t afford to buy each other a gift, and they couldn’t afford to buy a Christmas tree, or even a Christmas ham. They couldn’t afford to do anything at all. And they had no work for the next two weeks because it was Christmas.

But Adam had other plans. He decided that instead of paying the rent, and instead of fixing the truck, he was going to buy plane tickets and they were going to fly across the country to go see his kids for Christmas. But first he needed to buy them presents.

Mary told Adam that he should go see his kids, but she wanted to stay home. She would not be able to enjoy Christmas with the stress of knowing that the rent would not be paid. The money that would be spent on her ticket would be half the rent, so they would only need to come up with the other half when he got back home.

Another reason that she didn’t want to go was because he planned on staying at his birth Mother’s house. The very Mother who sat next to his ex wife in court instead of next to him. While knowing that his ex wife was making false accusations against him in order to prevent him from seeing his kids. And ontop of that, his ex wife was spending the whole week there as well.

She rather spend Christmas alone than there.

He bought her a plane ticket anyways and told her that he wasn’t going to leave her home alone on Christmas.

On the brighter side of things, she thought to herself, at least she would see Adam’s smile when he sees his children again. It had been too long since the last visit. And anyways, she hadn’t had the opportunity to meet his children yet, and she was looking forward to it.

Adam parked the rental car in his Moms driveway and was already out of it and starting up the walkway before Mary unbuckled her seatbelt.

The thought of having to walk up to the house by herself gave her anxiety so she got out of the car as fast as she could dropping stuff as she did so. But as soon as she caught up with him, he asked her to go back to the car to get his phone for him, which she reluctantly did.

She ran to the car and grabbed his phone and when she turned around she saw his daughter had met him outside and was peeking around him and looking at her as she hugged him. Her eyes seemed to narrow as if she was angry at Mary for some reason, and then she grabbed Adam’s arm and pulled him towards the house making him walk faster.

The two of them went through the door and then his daughter looked out from the door at her, waited a couple of seconds and right when Mary got to the door, she slammed the door in her face and then Mary heard the door lock turn.

Mary was surprised by the welcome she received. She didn’t do anything to be treated so rudely. She hadn’t even met the child or anyone at that house before.

Mary reached for the knob and turned it to check if she might have been mistaken, but it was definitely locked. Instead of her husband bringing her into the house and introducing her to his family, she now had to knock on the door as if she had just showed up there on her own, uninvited.

She knocked on the door, but everyone inside was talking so loudly that she wondered if they would even hear her. Then she heard Adam’s Mom ask if someone knocked on the door and his daughter responding that she didn’t think so. She knocked again just in case they believed her, and she ended up outside the whole time.

Adam opened the door for her and then turned back to his daughter who was talking to him and pulling on his arm still.

Mary looked around and saw that his ex wife was sitting on the love seat so she walked over to the large couch which was empty and sat down on it waiting for her husband and his daughter to join her. But instead they sat next to his ex wife.

That Christmas was the worst Christmas that Mary had ever experienced. Everyone was extremely rude. She was a guest in their house, yet no one greeted her or said a single word to her the whole time. Adams Mother asked him if he was thirsty and brought out a drink for him, but she didn’t offer Mary one. Everyone seem to act like they didn’t even see her there.

Even her husband completely ignored her. The only time he spoke to her was after the children were asleep and that was to ask her to help him open up toys and put batteries in them. Upset with how she was treated, she said no and went to bed.

After he was done setting up the Christmas toys, he didn’t join her in bed and try to comfort her. Instead he sat at the kitchen table and talked to his ex wife for two hours, and only when she asked him when he was going to bed did he finally join her.

She wished that she had purposely missed the flight and made him choose to either stay home or go without her. If she could have left she would have. But the house was out in the middle of the country, down a long dirt road, an hour drive from town, and she didn’t have a car, or any money. There was no cell service, and she didn’t know anyone or have anywhere she could go. If she did get up and walk out the door, she would be completely lost with no way to contact him by the time he would have noticed.

Adam and Mary were married for 18 years, and would have been married longer if Mary had not become a widow. They had continued to visit their children as often as they could and even gained custody of them, but as the years passed, Shelly became ruder and ruder to Mary, never relenting. Mary was as patient and as loving as anyone could be, but when Shelly called social services and accused Mary of making her do dishes as midnight while sick, Shelly finally got what she wanted and caused Mary to have a mental breakdown. Mary had enough and no longer wanted to be with her husband, even though Adam sent Shelly back to her Mothers and did all that he could to make it up to Mary, it was too late. All Mary could think about was how she had been through hell because of that kid and she couldn’t find happiness or the love that she once had for her husband. All she wanted to do was to die. She remained with Adam until he passed away, their marriage lifeless and depressing for them both the rest of their years together.