Lelia Alternate Ending

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Closing her eyes, Lelia whispered quietly to God, “Please save me. I don’t want another child. Life is passing me by, I’m already thirty-two. When will I have the chance to do something other than struggle through life? Scuffling to make ends meet, toiling to keep the children in food and clothing, laboring to fix-up this wreck of a house, let alone trying to force a disastrous marriage to work? And worst of all, God, I’m trying to smile when I’d rather pull the blankets up over my head and die. How will I cope? Where will I find the courage and strength to survive a fifth pregnancy? God, please help me.”
Thinking about how her life had fallen so despicably out of kilter turn into an overwhelming task. It didn’t feel right to say, but Lelia …show more content…

He heard words like, “stupid whore,” “useless bitch,” and “bastard.” Thankfully, the arguing was not as violent as he often heard. So, reasoning his mother didn’t need his help, Stevie slipped stealthily back to his bed. Restless, he didn’t sleep well after that. He lay awake, tossing and turning, listening to his mother sobbing throughout the night. As he looked out his window, he thought if he could count all the snowflakes falling out of the sky, he might fall asleep.

Because it was his parent’s anniversary, he’d made a card for his mother; a crayon-colored, giant red heart filled the middle of a piece of folded notebook paper. The words “Happy Anniversary,” copied from a card sent by his Nannie Russell, all neatly colored in. He’d had fun using a different color for each letter. No matter what, he assumed married people were supposed to act cheerful on the anniversary of their wedding day, but his mother was so sad and adrift she didn’t hear her own little child’s cries.
Lelia hadn’t noticed when Stephen walked over to her to give her the card he’d made, so he placed it on the kitchen dresser next to the sink. Afterwards, Stephen Isaac did what he frequently did during the days after the drinking and fighting; he took care of the younger

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