Convictions by Julie Morrigan Read Free Book Online Page B

exasperated. He was holding a pair of scissors. He grasped a lock of Annie’s hair and cut it off, then put the hair in an envelope.
    ‘What are you doing? Leave my hair alone!’ she exclaimed.
    He slid a notepad and pencil in front of her. ‘Here,’ he said, ignoring her outburst. ‘I’ll tell you what to write.’
    Annie picked up the pencil and straightened up the pad in front of her.
    ‘Put “Dear Mr and Mrs Snowdon”.’
    ‘When I write a letter, I have to put my address first. At the top, here.’ Annie pointed to the top right hand corner of the paper. ‘Mrs Barry taught me that.’
    ‘This isn’t that sort of letter. Start with “Dear Mr and Mrs Snowdon”, like I told you.’
    ‘Then I put the name and address of who I’m writing to here.’ Annie pointed to the left hand side, further down the page. ‘Oh, and I need to put the date here, under my address.’ She looked at him. ‘What’s the address here?’
    ‘Just do as I tell you.’
    ‘But you’re wrong,’ Annie insisted. She was proud of knowing how to write a letter.
    ‘Do as I tell you or God will punish you.’ The man raised his hand. Annie remembered the slap and sting when he had smacked her previously. She put the pencil to the pad.
    ‘Dear Mum and Dad,’ she said as she wrote. Then she shouted in pain as he smacked her across the legs. ‘Ouch! Why did you do that? I was writing what you said. That hurt!’
    Write “Dear Mr and Mrs Snowdon”. That’s what I told you to write, and that’s what you will write. Do you understand?’ He tore the first sheet of paper off the pad as Annie rubbed her sore legs. Her lip trembled, but she didn’t cry. Crying was also punished by slapping.
    The man said God punished her, but she was pretty sure it was him, really. She didn’t think the God of her Sunday School classes or Children’s Bible would spend his time slapping little girls. He had a really kind face. Besides, he was more concerned about lost sheep and little lambs, and what widows might do.
    She wrote what he had told her to, then carried on as he dictated the rest of the letter to her.
    ‘You did not deserve to have me as your daughter. You did not look after me and so God has taken me away from you. This will be the only time you hear from me. I am going to be in a better place, with God, and you will never see me again. Goodbye forever.’
    ‘What name shall I put?’ asked Annie, wondering if she should use the one the man liked to call her or her real name.
    ‘Sign it “Annie”,’ he said. ‘But that’s the last time you will use that name. Do you understand? You aren’t even to think it. If you do, God will know and he will punish you.’
    Annie signed the letter, then the reality of what she had written hit home.
    ‘What does it mean? “This will be the only time you ever hear from me. I am going to be in a better place, with God, and you will never see me again. Goodbye forever.” When will I see them again? Can I see them soon?’
    The man took her hands and shook his head. ‘Look at me, child.’ Annie looked. ‘Do you remember when you got into the car with your sister?’
    Annie nodded. ‘I miss Tina,’ she said.
    ‘When you got in, you were “Annie”, but when you got out again and began your new life here, you stopped being “Annie” and became someone else. Your parents neither loved you nor cared for you. You have a new family now. God chose you for us and us for you. You’ll live in God’s house, child. You’ll follow God’s path.’
    Annie began to cry.
     
    ***
     
    Next morning, Ruth picked the mail off the doormat at the Snowdon household, as had become the custom. ‘What’s that one?’ asked Tina, watching as she flipped through them all. ‘The one in the little blue envelope. Open that one first. I think it’s from Annie.’
    Derek was at Ruth’s side in a flash as he heard his daughter’s words. He took a quick look. ‘She’s right, that looks like Annie’s writing.