Pick Up Sticks
Chapter One:
"One, two, pick up sticks. Three, four, shut the door," Karen sang
"Not like that! It goes like--"
"Leave her alone Toni" Frank shouted at little Antoinette.
"She messed up again," Antoinette shouted back.
"Karen's younger than we are, give her a break," Frank demanded.
"Fine, I'm sorry, Karen, I get a little impatient sometimes," Antoinette explained, quickly moving on to something else. "Wanna play jacks?"
"It's getting late" Frank said running across the street toward his home, "Goodnight, Karen, Toni."
Antoinette looked up at the sky and saw the streetlights were on, under her breath she whispered "oh-no," she ran to her respective house and crept up the stairs. When she got to the front door she heard shouting, "not again" she sighed.
"I'm not sticking around for any more of this, Althea, and I'm not letting you harm my daughter anymore," Adam announced, picking up his various belongings.
"Your daughter?" Althea questioned. "I don't think so, without me you wouldn't have diddle, let alone your daughter," Adam listened to this statement with zero interest but little did he know what an impact it would make later on in his life.
Opening the door, Antoinette backed up, "Daddy," she whispered.
"Come on sweetheart, your not living with your mother any longer," Antoinette ran and hugged him, while he picked her up.
"You're dead to her, the judge gave me sole custody" Adam said, covering Antoinette's ears. They got in Adam's car and drove away.
-----------------------
"Where are we going daddy?" Antoinette asked, noticing they had passed the way to her daddy's house.
"Well, I thought it might be a good idea to go to the hospital and get you checked out," Adam stated uneasily.
--------------------------
"Well, what do we have here?" a doctor asked, shaking Adam's hand, "I'm Dr. Alan Quartermaine. Dr. Fields had to leave suddenly for an emergency"
"Adam Chandler. This is my little Antoinette, she's been living with her mother -- and I recently became aware of the fact that her mother has been hurting her," Adam said as quickly as he possibly could.
"In what respect?" Dr. Quartermaine asked.
"You'd have to ask her, she won't talk to me" Adam turned his back to the doctor.
Dr. Quartermaine kneeled in front of the scared little girl, "Hey, Antoinette," he said, straightening out his lab coat, "can you tell me what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, I'm fine, I just wanna go home," Antoinette dodged his question.
"Well, if I promise you that you can go home as quickly as possible, will you go talk with another doctor and tell her -- just anything you want to talk about?" Alan tried to negotiate.
"I'll get to go home?" Antoinette asked making sure of the terms.
"You'll get to go home," the doctor assured her.
"Okay," Antoinette agreed, taking the hand of the doctor to help her off the exam table.
"We'll leave so you can change into your clothes, if you need any help just ask and I'll have your father come in and help you," Dr. Quartermaine left following Adam, into the hall.
"So, how is she, physically?" Adam asked worried, as they sat down.
"Physically she'll recover, she's only got a couple of bruises," Dr. Quartermaine explained, "the cigarette burns are probably the worst, although they'll be impossible to see when she's clothed. There are various previous injuries that look as though they've healed quite nicely. I'd like her to talk to a psychiatrist--"
"Daddy?" Antoinette's eye's scanned the hall as she peeked out the doorway.
"I'm right here sweetheart," Adam reassured her, standing up, and taking her into his arms, "your mother will never be able to hurt you again, okay?" he whispered, stroking her hair.
"Okay," she answered him.
"Can you give us a moment?" Adam asked Dr. Quartermaine
"Sure" he said, "I'll go make sure the psychiatrist is ready for her," he added.
"Sweetheart," Adam said sitting her down, "you know your mommy's been sick for a while."
"She had to go to the hospital, 'cause her head was mixed up"
"Yes, well tonight she got sick in her head again, and she had to go to the hospital. Antoinette, they did everything they could but it wasn't enough. Sweetheart, she died." Adam told her.
Shocked, Antoinette started to cry. "Listen to me, it's perfectly normal that you would be upset about your mother but It's hard for people to hurt you if they don't know how you feel. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Adam questioned.
"Yes Sir," Antoinette sobbed, "I understand."
xLauren
Follow Skye as a child:
Pick Up Sticks Ch2
Follow all of BtB(Skye as an adult, too; now Machiavellian):
Machiavellian Ch1
back to fanfics
Email: Soapdeity@cox.net
