Day 15: Take a story (from November or before) and cut it in half. “Ash Girl”

(I reduced my story by 2/3 and altered the point of view character, see earlier post with the same title. Inspired by true crime story though major details have been altered, including the alteration of names as well as certain events. See Unsolved Mysteries “Missing Witness” episode on Netflix)

Photo by Manuel Asturias on Unsplash

I knew I had to help Mama and her boyfriend cover up their crime the night Nina almost died. Nina had gone nuts, telling Mama she would turn her in for killing our stepdaddy with his own gun. Mama and Kyle loaded her into the back of the pickup and took her to a field, told her to get out. When Kyle got out with the shotgun, Nina hopped back in and snuggled next to Mama so tight it would be impossible for Kyle to shoot only one of them.

It would probably be hard for you to believe this was the same Mama that used to wish God’s blessing on all six of us every night, that used to work so hard to provide for us best she could. I guess life had made her hard. Sometimes we didn’t have water or electricity. Often, we moved from house to house with each of her boyfriends or husbands just to have a roof over our heads.

What I did for Mama when she turned bad I did because I was scared she would kill me, kill all of us. I scattered the charred bone and ash of my stepdaddy from the window as she drove down the highway. Our stepdaddy had taught us to milk cows, feed chickens and goats, tend our small crop. I had winced and cried when I retrieved his burned remains from the firepit, but it was like I had grown numb when I scattered his cooled ashes to the winds.

When Nina disappeared, I finally turned to the sheriff, even if I would go to jail with Mama.