Ancil“Call for backup officers. Do something!” Tom said. “I’ll pay you extra.” He then threw a couple US dollars at the officers.
“Just let it go man,” the officer said. “The girl don’t like you.”
“I paid you, you can’t take their sides. You owe me,” Tom said.
One of the officers removed the cuff from me and while doing so he said to Tom, “If you don’t want to get arrested for bribery you will just let it go. The people here obviously don’t want you around. Go record a song about it with Demi Lovato or something and LET IT GO.”
“I’m not leaving without you Katherine. I love you. I really do. I always have,” Tom said.
“But are you desperate?” I asked.
“What?”
“Take him away officers,” Kate said. “We’re done here.”
The officers took him and no matter how much he yelled at them to let him go they just took him away into their police car.
Kate turned to her father who was particularly quiet and said, “You know I can’t come with you.”
“I understand darling,” he sighed.
“But I love you. It’s hard to say it because you’re always so angry all the time, but I really do love you. I mean — you’re my dad, I can’t not love you. You still took care of me, made sure I had a roof over my head, and that I never went hungry. I can respect that but I think it’s time I do what’s best for me.”
“I understand,” Vince repeated.
“Goodbye Vince,” Kate said, giving her father another hug. Another hug that seemed to last forever as everyone at the shelter looked on.
“Goodbye Kate.” Vince looked at Kate for a while then turned around to walk away.
“Wait!” Kate shouted.
Vince turned back around and said, “Yes.”
“In my room, three feet away from the light bulb there’s a secret entrance to the attic. There’s a safe in there with a few thousand dollars. I want you to have it.”
“I’ll keep it safe so whenever you decide to come back home it’ll be there, waiting for you”
“I made my decision. The only person who ever really cared about my wellbeing was my mom and she told me in that letter to make the decisions that are best for me. I think I owe it to her to actually do as she says.”
“At least visit sometime,”
“No,” Kate said, abruptly with a high deal of certainty in her voice. She seemed harsh at first but the smile at the end made me think otherwise. “I can’t. For a long time in my life, I couldn’t shake the nightmares. Nightmares of you. I just couldn’t get rid of them. As I got older they got less frequent but they got more intense; so intense that I began to dread even closing my eyes. But for the first time in my life, I’m not afraid to close my eyes. I’m free. Why would I leave that?”
Vince sighed then said, “Well my doors are always open in case you change your mind.”
“Okay.” They both hugged again then Vince walked out of the shelter with the two officers and Tom.
Life at the shelter went on and got better especially as Christmas grew closer. The Christmas experience in Trinidad was completely different. First of all, there wasn’t any snow. I never experienced a snowless Christmas but it did get rainy so it was still cold at times.
The Christmas feel at the shelter went into full effect after everyone’s Christmas exams were over. Tanty Mavis played Christmas music all through the shelter which in Trinidad was Parang and decorated the place with new curtains and Christmas lights. The Christmas tree stood tall in the middle of the galvanized area in front and it sometimes got in our way especially when the place was crowded but no one complained. The place looked great and also smelled great with all the delicious foods being cooked; ham, black cake, pastel, sorrel, and some other things that I didn’t even know about. It was a merry Christmas.
