Chapter 4 #3
He’d have a fit about it and would tell her that she was going to end up back in prison if she were to keep it up.
It was just one little candy bar, not like she was robbing the place of all its cash.
For as much as she was tempted to do that, she knew that to be caught would take her right back to the place she’d only just been released from, and she didn’t want that.
His keeping her on a tight leash bothered her, too.
He was forever telling her to behave herself in the event that she got caught.
What were they going to do with an aging old woman who liked to get her thrills out of stealing from merchants that seemed to have too much anyway?
Put her in jail? For a fifty-cent candy bar?
A three-dollar tube of lotion. She pulled it out and used some of it on her hands.
She’d never had such pretty-smelling stuff before that belonged only to her.
Belinda knew that she could get used to the finer things in life.
She’d never had her nails done until she was in prison, and one of the other women would do them for a price.
She loved having her hair washed by someone else, too, just to get all the tightness out of her head until she was nothing more than a limp noodle.
There were plenty of things that she missed about prison, but the solitude.
She couldn’t stand her own company for very long, and she knew it.
All the talking to herself aside, if she had to be by herself for long periods of time, she’d lash out at someone and get herself into trouble again.
It was the way it had been going on since she’d been a child.
She didn’t know how long she sat there, but the sun was starting to go down.
Getting up and making sure that she didn’t have any evidence of the chocolate or the lotion on her person, she made her way back to the building where they were staying.
She did wonder why no one had run them off and thought that the security around here was very lax.
Another reason why she didn’t think they’d bother with her stealing was that they had other important things to do before getting to her and her petty theft.
She might even get herself some of the pretty bottles of lip gloss the next time she was in one of the little shops.
When she was where they were sleeping, Allen was gone again.
Not that she really cared, but he’d been leaving her alone a great deal over the last several days.
She was going to have to talk to him about it.
When he got a job, she would need something to do, or she could go with him.
Whatever the work that he was going to be doing was, surely they’d not care if she were to hang around for a bit now and then.
It was coming on dark when he returned home.
She’d eaten the sub and thought that it was delicious.
She’d not tell him, of course, nor would she thank Sammy for it when it was her turn to have lunch with her.
And she most certainly wouldn’t be bringing back a sub for Allen.
She wanted to dine in a restaurant, like the one across the street from where they were squatting.
Looking out the window that looked right into the parking lot, she wondered what sort of food they’d have in such a place.
People were usually dressed up when they went inside the place, and she noticed that a great many people brought some of the food out with them in bags.
She’d never do that. If she couldn’t eat it all at one sitting, then she’d leave it to prove that she had money to burn.
Maybe she’d have Sammy or Justine take her there when it was her turn.
They were probably taking turns with feeding them because it was costing so much for one.
But then she remembered that he’d brought her food too and wondered again why she’d not been invited when her father had been there.
Belinda wondered if he even thought of her when he was eating with their daughter.
“Justine. I need to find her.” Why she thought that Justine would be any different than Sammy was about taking them out to lunch, but she remembered that when she was younger, she would be the one who cracked first. She’d be sobbing even before they hit her, and she never understood that when they were little.
She also had the most fun with Justine when she’d been trying to protect her sister.
That only happened once or twice before Sammy would protect Justine.
And she was meaner than her older sister, too, by a great deal.
“What are you going on about? And why do you smell like candy?” She told him that she’d swiped a candy bar at the store, and he acted like she’d robbed the place of all its cash.
“It will get you put back in prison, Belinda. What will you do then? I’m not going to be hanging around you anymore if you think that stealing is the way to go.
Good lord, are you trying not to get with our daughters anymore?
One screw up and they’ll toss us aside like yesterday’s old newspaper. Don’t do that again, all right?”
“I was hungry for something that didn’t come out of a dumpster if you want to know the truth.
And it was only about fifty cents. No one is going to take me back to prison for one half a dollar of a candy bar.
They have better things to do, I would imagine.
” He said that once he had a paycheck, then he’d buy her candy bars.
“To be honest with you, Allen dear, it sort of made me sick.”
She needed him not to understand that she wasn’t as good as he was.
He might be driving her crazy with his rules about getting caught and seeing their daughter, but they were rules that were going to get them what they needed.
Some money and a home. Surely their daughters would want to see them with the finer things of life after all this time?
“I talked to that man about a job. He’s going to have me start in the morning.
I’ll be gone from eight until five or so.
So you’ll need to get your own lunches and dinner for a while.
Just until I get us a check and we can use the money to get us some food from a real place.
” She asked him if she could come with him as she’d be bored all day.
“No, you can’t come with me. Do you want me to lose the first chance we’ve had since getting out of prison?
You can find something to do around the town.
Go to the library and read a book. I know they won’t let you check one out without a form of identification, but you can sit in there and read a book or a magazine if you behave. ”
Belinda wanted to snarl at him that behaving wasn’t getting her anywhere, but eating out of dumpsters, but she was trying to be on her best behavior right now.
And she might not be able to have lunch with Sammy and Justine if she were to be bad.
She was tired of the rules that got her nothing but a headache.
Biting her tongue, she watched as he rinsed out his clothing for tomorrow and then took a freezing shower.
Christ, but this was getting harder each day to be like Allen so she could have her time with the girls.
And she was going to have it by god if it was the last thing she did in this life.
Lying down on the hard floor when Allen did it took her forever to get comfortable enough to try and sleep.
Once she rolled to her back, she was glad that the weather had turned hot so that she could sleep without a blanket.
She wanted a pillow and was tempted to get up and get Allen’s shirt to use, but it would be too much effort.
Besides, he really needed to work so that they could start having things that they needed.
Money was the first thing that popped into her head, and she couldn’t wait to see what sort of things she could do with a bit of cash now and again.
She just hoped that she could convince her daughters that she was as good as gold so that they’d set her up in a house.
She didn’t care if Allen wanted to live with her, too; she just wanted a place to live so that she could have something of her own around her.
Even if she had to steal them to get them, as she kept telling herself, no one was going to bother with an old woman who stole things that she needed.
They might even have a pity party for her and one of those GoFundMe things where someone put a sad story online and then they gave them money.
She could use one of those things about now.