Plan 4

 She lay on her mattress in the basement listening to her favorite song over and over. She heard his footsteps coming down the stairs. 

"He" was her "step-uncle". The day he met her at her mother's wedding he very openly flirted with her. She flushed with embarrassment.  Her mother seemed very excited about this. Part of her felt proud. She was only 15 and he was around 34. She didn't know what to think about it all. She had no friends that she could ask. She had no one that she felt cared except her grandmother and she couldn't ask her something like that.

The first night she and her mother arrived in Baltimore they moved in with her mother's new mother-in-law in a two bedroom mobile home.  One of her new step-dad's brothers slept on the couch where he acted out his dreams in his sleep leaving nothing to imagination about what he was dreaming about.  Her mother's mother-in-law slept in the front bedroom with her boyfriend and her mother and new step-father slept in the back bedroom. Their activities shook the whole mobile home like a washing machine with an unbalanced load. It was both embarrassing and disturbing for her as it felt like she may as well have been in the bed with them.

Looking around she saw that there was nowhere for her to sleep so she laid down on the floor in front of the couch. Immediately the brother who had been flirting with her laid down beside her.  She had so many questions running through her mind. Was this normal?  What was she supposed to do?? There was nowhere else to go.  She rolled onto her side and tried to pretend that she was somewhere else. This was creepy.  He lay behind her and snuggled up to her.  Eventually, she was able to sleep a restless sleep. 

Now in the house where no one could know she was there, she heard the familiar foot steps coming down the stairs as the Guess Who sang out "no one knows what it's like, to be hated.." He was the only person who ever came down there. She knew what he wanted. THEY knew what he wanted. Was that why they sent him down to her?  Was that what she was expected to do?

He approached her with flowers and a box of chocolate.  Food would have been a great gift that Valentine's day. Or maybe seeing the outside of the house would have been nice too, but food definitely. 

Plan 4 was coming together nicely for her mother. The teens small bust was swelling and the 34 year old was smitten.  Well, maybe another word would be more appropriate.