front porch tales 16

It was quite some time before Alice took a deep breath and turned to look at Victoria. Her face was splotchy and red and her eyes held the look of someone who was lost and in despair; a look that she remembered coming from a hurt horse she had taken care of last summer. “Thank you.” Her simple words warmed Victoria’s heart and she nodded and offered a gentle smile. “Do you want to talk about it?” Alice momentarily averted her eyes to the wall before speaking. “You know, I go there every week hoping to see him and never finding him.” “Going to see who, Alice?” The question left the room silent leaving Victoria to feel like she should not have asked, but her fears were soon proved false. “My pa left me here as soon as I got old enough and I have not seen him since.” Her body rocked with another heavy sob before she continued. “One day on our way to mass I thought I caught a glimpse of him. I was so excited to see him that I hurried to follow him until he stopped at a saloon and looked back. I immediately knew that it was him and he looked me straight in the eye but he turned around and entered the building before I could say anything. I followed him into the saloon but only found a room filled with foul smelling, rude men.” The last words trailed off as if she could not bear to speak them. At that moment Victoria had no words to speak as the guilt of her thoughts from the past few weeks hit her so hard that she began to cry. She had supposed the worst of Alice when in fact she just needed to be a friend. Her pa would have been ashamed of her for judging a person by first appearance. Alice eyed Victoria with genuine surprise at having someone care. “Today I went to my same table and waited for hours and then I saw him walk in the door.” Her breath caught in her throat and it seemed like she would start to cry all over again, but she managed to continue. “You know what he did?” She did not pause for Victoria to guess. “He stopped right at my table and said ‘girl, you get out of here and don’t come back!’ You should have seen his eyes. They were… I could tell he never wanted to see me again.” Alice slammed her fist against the wall which made something come loose from behind the wall and clatter to the floor. “I hate him!” She hissed with genuine pain in her eyes. Victoria did felt that no words would be the correct words to speak but she laid her hand on Alice’s knee and said. “I am sorry.” Apparently the words were enough for Alice as she moved closer to Victoria and grasped her in a tight hug. The flood of tears came again and did not stop until Alice began to sink heavier against Victoria who realized that Alice had drifted off to sleep. Victoria gently laid her friend down on the bed and pulled the covers over her shoulders. “Sleep well, Alice.” She then made her way across the room and silently slipped into her own covers with a new respect for her roommate.