Mabel's Journey

Mabel pressed up against the wall as much as she could; trying desperately to prevent the light from revealing her presence. As long as she remained immediately below the window, no one would see her.  Her heart beat loudly, she wondered if they could hear it too.  Mabel knew for sure that if she was caught, the consequences would be the usual merciless flogging.  She winced at the thought of her Dad beating her mercilessly with electrical cords brought home from his construction site.  She was tired of being the scapegoat, being blamed for everything that went wrong.  There were times when she ran and hid for no apparent reason, just the thought that she’d be blamed again.  This time however, Chavi told her that she would be flogged for having removed her stepmother’s old wedding dress from the trunk and to make matters worse, staining the dress. Mabel could not believe they’d be angry over something so silly; moreover, Milton joined in and tried on Dad’s old wedding suit too.  True enough as soon as they got home Milton received a flogging but Mabel decided to run instead…she was not up to enduring another night of applying cold-presses to her wounds.