Maybe Tomorrow

Louisa looked up from her lesson book and gasped as she saw the angle of the sunlight coming in the window. Putting away the heavy tome she grabbed her bag and dashed to the door. No sooner had she crossed the line from church property to the mundane then her personal temptation flew up and sat on her shoulder.

“Was it any better?” the fairy asked.

“He got a new job. So today is sure to be better. But I’m late, I need to buy the things for dinner!”

“You could just come with me. We have many children for you to play with.”

“With mama gone, it is up to me to keep dinner on the table and care for little Robbie!”

“But you never get to see your friends. Aren’t you lonely?”

Pausing to haggle over the price of a pair of fish.

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“I don’t have time to be lonely.”

“Still, it must be hard being the woman of the house at only ten?”

“Mama used to say, ‘A man may work from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.’ So, it is just the way things are.”

Running as quickly as she could down the street, the bag nearly more than her half-starved body could handle.

“Are you sure you won’t come? No one ever hungers. There is never a need to cry.”

Louisa paused outside the front door to the hovel she called home, a dreamy look in her eyes for a second.

“No, not today. Maybe tomorrow.”

The door closed behind her, the fairy flittering in the air, forced to listen as the door let sound escape,

“Damnit Girl! Where have you been? I get home expecting my dinner, and the oven has gone cold! Out whoring with the boys again, right? I expect my dinner waiting when I get home!” *SLAP* The sound of a heavy and rough hand striking a soft and pale cheek made the fairy shudder.

“Papa!” came a frail voice trying to hold back tears.

“Since you’ve been whoring, where’s the coin? Hmm?”

“There is no coin, just what you gave me to buy dinner…”

*SLAP* The thin voice wailed in pain. A voice in an incoherent rage screaming almost drowning out the sound of blow after blow raining down…

Outside the door, the fairy had gone still. Tears rolling down its cheeks.

“Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow?” the fairy whispered.

And it settled down to await the dawn and its next chance to pull the girl away. A terrible silence coming from inside.