- 4.
Because of Uncle Joe, we finally stopped
eating “vegetable platters.”
Mom didn’t cause any trouble for a few days.
We almost had a normal life.
Mikey finally woke up.
I asked him if he felt okay.
When he said he did, I felt relief flood over
- me.
“It’s all thanks to Ellie. She had a dream you
were in danger and told me to go save you.
Twins, right? You could feel what happened
to him.” Uncle Joe laughed.
Mikey smiled shyly. “Thanks, Ellie.”
I smiled back. “Don’t mention it. We’re
family.”
If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably be married off
already.
After all, my mom was the most wonderful
woman in town. Anyone who needed money
or meat knew they could go to my mom.
So why wouldn’t that mean giving me away to
be a wife?
Last time, Mom always talked about the
lonely old men in town, how they were
helpless, with no kids, and no one would even
<
find their bodies when they died.
I didn’t think much of it. She was always
overly sentimental.
Then, one day, she said she wanted to
introduce me to someone. It was the old man,
Mr. Peabody.
“Ellie, he has no family,” she said. “If you
marry him, you can give him children, or at
least take care of him when he’s old.”
“Ellie, are you going to let him die alone?”
I was only eighteen! I hadn’t even finished
high school, and she wanted to marry me off!
We had a huge fight, and she tried to drug
me, hoping I’d sleep with Mr. Peabody and
く
have to marry him.
Mikey heard me crying and crawled out of his
bed to save me. I escaped that fate.
But after Mikey died, Mom didn’t give up. She
finally got her way.
And I was abused and killed by that old man.
счё
