Read Online Redemption by Kaye Draper - Free Book Online Page A

leaving
us.  She got the heck out of a bad situation.  I just wonder- did she
end up better off?  Or did she end up with someone just as miserable as the old
man?"
    Rebecca
swallowed, trying to think of something to say, but Isaac saved her from that
for a few minutes more.  "The little ones- even though I was a kid, I
knew it wasn't right the way he treated them.  So I tried my best to
always get between them, I was old enough to take it.  Poor little Jess
was just a baby still when Mom left.  And Meg wasn't much older.  I
was old enough to change diapers and make bottles at least."
    Rebecca
finally found her voice.  "How... how old were you?"
    He
squinted into the watery sun visible on the horizon.  "Oh, I was
seven.  Big enough to do what Dad told me.  And a couple years later-
big enough to take a punch without much fuss."
     Rebecca
grimaced.  "You don't have to tell me this," she said quietly.
     Isaac
turned to her with a surprisingly soft smile.  "I know.  But
it's just... well I kind of feel like I have to tell you, you know?  Like
I want someone to know.  Otherwise, when I'm gone, I'll fade away and
there'll be nothing left to say I even existed.”  He shrugged.  “It's
better somehow, to know that someone will know who I was."
    Rebecca
took a deep breath, but she couldn’t seem to form words.  Isaac took her hand
and continued walking.  It seemed natural, their comfort with each other-
as if they'd known each other forever, instead of a couple of short days. 
The sun sank lower over the horizon as he told her about his childhood, how he
tried his best to protect his brother and sisters from a drunken, angry father
who couldn't cope with being left to raise five children alone.  How, as a
teenager, he did anything he could think of to get them the things they needed
to crawl out of poverty and make good lives for themselves. 
    Rebecca
gathered that he had never told anyone the half of it.  That his siblings
had no idea their older brother had sunk so low to feed them, to make sure they
had clothes and books.  That he had given up his childhood and his innocence to
police them and make sure they made it through school and into college.
    "They
all got educations or good jobs," he said with a fierce pride. 
"Jess didn't go to school, but he's a great guitar player, and his band
makes a good living playing gigs.  He managed to keep his nose
clean.  I wouldn't let him near anyone I knew would drag him
down."  No, Rebecca thought, you kept all that kind of attention
directed at yourself.
    She
wasn't surprised to find that his quest for money, and his need to escape the pain
of abuse and degradation, had led him to drugs.  He told her about the
parties he'd attended.  The people he'd met, some of them pretty
impressive.  But he had been hurdling toward destruction. "Kittie graduated from college last year,
and just a few months ago she landed a job at a great company doing
advertising."  He didn't say it, but the words formed in her mind
anyway.  And now they didn't need him.  His job as caretaker was done.
    "I'm
free now," he said lightly, but the humor in his voice didn't touch his
distant eyes.  "I can take care of myself, I suppose.  But...I
don't know who I am anymore."  He sighed.  "I think
maybe...I've got nothing left."  He glanced at her, saw the tears
hanging unshed in her eyes, and tired to play it off.  "Oh, I'll be
okay," he said with a grin.  "Look at me now; on some mythical
quest.  I'm clearly destined for greatness."
    She
shook her head.  He didn't mean it.  It was pretty obvious to her
what he did mean by his revelations.  He was convinced that he was going
to die.  That, his purpose fulfilled, he was done living.
    Only
she didn't believe that.  Because Rebecca knew something that Isaac
couldn't possibly know.  That she'd wanted to die for a long time
now.  That, in fact, she'd been dead inside for years now.  If one of them
was going to make it out