Angela

Sunshine seemed to fill each plant from the inside out.  Angela felt as close to happy as she ever did. 

Henry had gone to town to purchase groceries.  It was the first time that he had ever trusted her to stay alone.  He had gruffly said, "You know that you can't possibly escape me.  If you aren't here when I return, I will find you.  You will die.  Don't leave, and I won't have to kill you."  Then he gathered his things and left.


Angela stood in the clearing.  She threw out her skinny arms and sang at the top of her lungs.  The music felt so good rising through her throat and out into the brilliant spring day.  Nobody had ever taught Angela about music, not in the orphanage and certainly not with Henry.  He loathed (the word that he had used) music.  He called it "The noise of misery."


Angela knew that when she sang, it raised her spirit.  That was enough for her.  She made up words and tunes as she went along.  It was extremely rare that she got to hear any music. 

Henry did not usually take Angela where there was other people.  He said, "You can't trust anyone!  Nobody even sees me anymore.  I'm absolutely careful to blend in.  I look like most of the men on this planet.  You, do NOT blend in.  Even if I put you in boys clothes, and make you look good and dirty, you still stand out in a group."


Music comforted Angela so she sang.  She sang to the sun, she sang to the cheerfully burbling brook, then she sang back to the bird that sang to her.  Very still she stood below a tree and listened to the magical warbling that a Robin was causing.  She sang back the same notes that the bird sang.  Finally the bird grew tired of the game and flew away.


Henry had left Angela one stingy strip of jerky, and one piece of dried apple.  Angela ate them sitting by the brook.  The water flowed musically.  The washing of water over rocks and old tree stumps created rhythm, melody, and even a unique version of harmony.


After slowly eating and enjoying her meal Angela drank her fill from the brook.  She had learned that drinking water after eating dried food filled her too thin belly better.


She wanted to stay awake.  Treasuring each precious moment that Henry was gone had become a game to her.  She did all the things that she enjoyed that he never would have tolerated.  She climbed high into a tree and sang to the tree.  She skipped stones on the brook and listened for those sounds. 


As happiness bubbled up into her heart she felt a smile burst forth on her face.  She danced up and down the hills nearby.  Angela wished that this moment could last forever.


Finally, exhausted, she lay down and fell asleep. 


Her luxurious nap was brutally stolen from her.  Henry snarled, "Wake up!  Here you are sleeping while I work to feed your fat belly!" 


Angela looked down at her stomach, trying to see if she had missed a change in her painfully skinny status.  Her ribs still stuck out further than the skin that was stretched over them.  Her belly went far in instead of sticking out.


She shook her head.  Henry made it a point of ridiculing each and every person that they ever saw.  Angela discovered quickly that there was not really anything wrong with the other people.  The flaws all lay in Henry's sick. twisted, miserable mind. 


Angela vowed that she would not accept Henry's unhappy view of life.  She was determined that the first opportunity that came her way she would escape.  She smoothed her hair as she stood up slowly.  "Henry, why don't I make you dinner?"