HOOKED SPOOKED

            Karen

She sat on the patio and sipped from the mug her mother gave her on her last birthday. As the lemonade went down in her, she recalled what Shirley told her while she was in the hospital under observation. Karen remembered fearing for her child’s life and more, her sanity. Shirley was in all sorts of moods, first she was happy then sad then weary then depressed then frantic then she started hallucinating before she fell asleep; she looked peaceful until she started talking in her sleep. What frightened Karen wasn’t that Shirley spoke in her sleep but what her baby said.

Shirley didn’t know that she was talking in her sleep and Karen was glad she didn’t know. For if she knew what she said, “No! A child shouldn’t have to live with that.”

Another piece of the puzzle popped up in her mind. It was Damien and his complains about Tom’s borrowing. As she thought about it, she remembered how her father used to borrow some money from her and from the neighbours just to drink another shot of whiskey. Whiskey... she never could understand how alcohol could grip someone so much to make them so shameful. Then her mind went on to her purse. The money contributed at the women’s fellowship in church which was in her possession was missing some notes. No one knew where she hid it yet somehow some notes were missing. All she recalled was seeing Tom lean away from the spot where she hid the purse the day he lied about Shirley needing attention.

She was going have to get her facts straight if she would anything about Tom’s behaviour and so she planned...