Category : Stories

Sub Category : YoungAdult

Cali was a little girl who lived in a rural world. A world that not everyone could save her from. She lived in a small house with her ill mother and her cruel step brother. 
      It had been the three of them for a long time. Every summer was hot and dry. Every fall was windy fading in crucial memories. Every winter was cold and lonely. And every spring cleansed them until their heads were filled with new memories coming back in place.
      Just to think an eleven year old girl  would mind every harshness flutter through her like a knife. Not after that one summer...where from that point on her life had changed..
         On June 30, 1987 
In the rural part of Tennessee stood the home of Cali Shavens. Her mother, Mary Shavens inside her room with the door closed sleeping. Her older step brother, Mickey Shavens-Cole sitting beside her on the sofa. 
         She stared at the old box tv showing black and white static. The antennas on the top of it didn't seem to be helping it work. Mickey stared at  it for a while then he got up to bang his hand against it again. Cali just sighed and twisted  her long, black ponytails. 
        "It doesn't seem to be working, Cali." Mickey says banging his hand at it one more time. She sighed again and looked down at her plain, two-pieced dress. Mickey looked at the tv and then turned to his young step sister. He wasn't a fully educated student since he's always working.
      Mickey's father had left him with the woman he cheated on his mama with. James Cole wasn't a loving husband to begin with. So he stayed to help out illed Mary who had also been played by his father and that his mother had died from the same illness. 
      "It's okay, Mickey. It probably wasn't going to work anyway." She says calmly. He walks up to her and stare. She smiled at him and went to her small bedroom. 
      Later that evening, Mary went out with... a friend. She claimed she will be spending the night out with her boyfriend. Despite the fact that she was sick and that Mickey tried to convince her to stay, he gave up and let her go anyway. "There's no way you could stop a woman from her reckless doings at times like this." He had thought to himself. Cali was in her room again staring at another box tv with antennas showing nothing but  static similar to the one in the den. Her mama didn't want her staying up late, but she couldn't find her sheeps to count herself to sleep. And the air conditioning is broken during summer months. 
        She didn't have any idea that her mama left. Soon after Mary had left, Mickey decided to go check on Cali. When he opened her door she quickly pretended to be sleeping thinking that Mary was there. 
        "It's just me, Cal. Mama's gone." Cali sat up from her blanket and looked at Mickey. He sat beside her. "What's wrong? You can't sleep, huh?" She nods. "It's really hot in here." Mickey looked at the box tv showing static. "I know. Just like every other summer we have to bare with it." He looked at her and touched one of her long ponytails. "Mickey? Where did mama go?" She asked him. "Out with a friend. She said she'll be spending the night with him." He says disgustedly. "But she's sick. She isn't supposed to be going out like that. Why didn't you try and stop her?" Mickey put his hand on her cheek. "Believe me, Cal. I tried, but she went anyway. She believes that her friend will take better care of her." "Well that's just saying we don't take better care of mama. I love mama and I would take care of her with all my heart." Mickey thought that way differently than Cali. He was only there because he had no one to care for him. His family on his mama's side had had their own family of children and they just couldn't afford to make more room for him.
        "Say, Cali?" "Hmm?" "Do you Love me as a brother?" Cali stared at him for a few seconds and then replied. "You mean as a step brother? Well I'd say as a real brother." For some reason he felt burned in his heart. "Why do you ask, Mick?" "Well I just have a hard time seeing if people really do love me. My daddy abandoned me and my mama's side of the family didn't take me in. I just feel unloved by that. 
        Cali felt bad for him, so she gave him a peck. Just a peck of a kiss on his cheek. Mickey looked at her shocked. "Don't worry, Mick, as your sister, I'll love you so you don't feel unloved. I'm here for you."
        In that moment, Mickey was falling in love with her. So he kissed her back and she kissed him back. It continued on until he forced himself on her. Her whimpering and crying as the static sound of the box tv took over the scene.
    After that a few years passed and he was still raping her. By then Mary had passed away. Until she finally graduated high school she was able to realize what her step brother Mickey was doing to her. So in the spring she went to confront him. Mickey who was 27 years old at this  time had forgotten all those times he abused Cali nine years ago.
        March 12, 1996
Cali unannounced had knocked on Mickey's door. They were no longer living together and Cali was able to afford to live and work at a nice hotel.
Mickey was becoming a father in a few months and soon married to his fiancee. 
       Once he answered the door he was surprised and happy to see Cali after so long. "Cali? I'd never thought you'd want to see anyone after your graduation. Come in!" He ushered her in and she tried to smile without crying when he gave her a warm welcoming hug.
         As they sat down across from each other, Mickey was already filled questions about how she felt getting a scholarship to college. He had also landed his way into a better education  after some time. He was now a clean, healthy young man. Cali became impatient, so after he finally asked the question she waiting for she quickly replied.
       "That is wonderful to hear. So Cal, what brings you here? At your graduation they said you got a scholarship to Harvard University. You here to spend some time with me before you leave?" Cali looked at him with her eyes nearly swelling with tears. This is when she'd have to confront him.  
        "Actually, Mickey I came here to... tell you... something." She said almost stammering. "And what is that something?" He said crossing his leg over his thigh. "Of how you... abused me back then." "Hold up. Hold up. Abused. What - What are you talking about, Cali? I never abused you." He was quick to defend himself. Cali's tears she was holding back had soon escaped her. "Yes you did. You forced yourself on me! I was only eleven years old and you... you just.." "Cali! Stop this now! I did no such thing to you!" He stood up and looked deadin her eyes just like he did years ago. "I never would have done that to you. I cared for you when Mama didn't!" "Why are you denying this?! You took away my innocence and yet you act as if things never happened! You raped me when I didn't know I was being raped! You know what you did to me! The fact that you aren't owning up to it or saying you're sorry - makes you a monster!" Cali couldn't help but cry and run out of there. She thought he'd would've made a mistake. But if he did truly felt sorry for what he did to her, he would've apologized.
           It didn't matter anymore. He was no longer part of her life. She was now leaving the damned Tennessee state. Harvard she would find a better life from there on.

The day after Cali Shavens confronted her step brother, Mickey Cole had put a gun to his head as he did remember what he has done to his younger sister and pulled the trigger. 
        A few years later
       December 5, 2009
Cali Shavens had gotten married to Sammy Davidson in Cambridge, Massachusetts after meeting him in Harvard. In 2011 they had two twins named Mary and Nickey. Both named after her two relatives. She was soon to live a healthy life. No more being poor and below poverty. She was free to live comfortably with her family. 
               
                      The End