Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Did you hear me?” Nancy Spaulding shouted in my face when I just stood there, wondering what to do. “I said, strip! It’s shower time, you stupid girl!”
“But…but there are lots of other people here!” I protested, as Minh and Maria stripped on either side of me.
“So? It’s shower time! Now get undressed! Or do you want to be locked in the box tonight?” she demanded.
“Not the box—you don’t want the box!” Minh whispered urgently. “Take off your clothes, Kira—hurry!”
Unwillingly, I did as she said. I didn’t know what “the box” was, but it didn’t sound like much fun.
After we were all naked, Nancy started running us through the shower. Theo, as the only boy, went first. Then Minh, then me, then Maria.
The water that came from the rusty showerhead was ice cold, making me shiver as I took my turn. I didn’t know it then, but it was always that way—Nancy believed that cold showers “built character” in the foster kids she watched, though of course she and the rest of her family all enjoyed steaming hot showers and baths themselves.
There was a slimy old bar of soap that was all we had to use and it had to double as shampoo as well. Of course, this played hell with my Mixed girl hair. Though I had the color and the loose curls from my father, I still had some of the texture of my mother’s hair. And there were no hair products available like the special Curly Custard Auntie Amelia had thoughtfully provided for me. The soap made my hair dry and brittle, which ensured that it was always going to be a mess.
I didn’t wash my hair that first night, though—I just soaped myself up quickly and rinsed myself off, wanting to get out of the freezing water as soon as possible. It didn’t help that Gary Spaulding was staring avidly at me through the clear glass shower stall door, either. I had never had a grown man look at me that way—like I was a piece of meat he might want to eat or some fruit that might be tasty when it got just a bit riper.
Nancy Spaulding ignored the way her husband ogled me. She handed me a short, ragged towel to wrap around myself and pointed me to the sink with its row of plastic cups and toothbrushes.
“Brush,” she commanded. “For three full minutes. Be sure you get those teeth sparkling clean—we can’t afford to pay for any cavities!”
We all brushed on command and when we were finished, Nancy started shooing us out the basement door. All except Maria.
“Maria…” Gary Spaulding stepped forward, blocking her path, when the older girl tried to scuttle around him. “You lucky girl, you get to sleep in the main house tonight,” he told her, his greedy little eyes gleaming lustfully.
Maria shot a despairing look at the basement door, looking like a prisoner eyeing the door to freedom, I thought.
“Please, Mr. Gary,” she said in a low voice. “I’m real tired tonight.”
“Then you’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep in a real bed, won’t you?” Taking her by the arm, he shoved her towards the stairs that led up to the main part of the house. “Go on—I’ll be in to tuck you in, in just a minute, sweetie.”
The way he said those words made me feel like a spider had crawled down my spine. I didn’t quite comprehend what was going on—I had been very sheltered, being home schooled for the past two years—but I understood that whatever it was, it wasn’t right.
“For God’s sake,” I heard Nancy Spaulding mutter to her husband, “Just don’t get another one pregnant! You know what I had to go through, getting the last one an abortion!”
“Don’t worry, I promised I’d be careful, didn’t I?” he demanded. “I just got…a little carried away with the last one.”
“Well, be sure you don’t get ‘carried away’ with Maria—at least wear a condom,” she hissed at him. “She’s the best cook we’ve had in ages—I don’t want to lose her!”
I felt a shock as the full meaning of this casual exchange finally hit me. I also understood why Maria had spit in “Mr. Gary’s” food. What horrible things was she going to have to endure tonight? And might something similar happen to me while I was here, in the Spauldings’ house of horrors?
I fervently hoped not. I remembered Maria saying that Gary Spaulding didn’t like girls with “small tits,” but I also remembered the way his eyes had crawled over my naked body as I took my shower.
As I was still thinking all this, Minh shoved me gently in the back to get me moving. We went through the basement door together but once we got outside, I balked.
There, standing on alert right beside the steps that led up from the basement were the two savage beasts that had rushed at me as I tried to rescue my things from the trash pile.