Olivia's Trek (1) by DM Sharp Read Free Book Online Page A

citizen of and under the laws of the United States.”
    “Don’t you miss your family, Daddy?”
    “They are bad people, Olivia. They are what is called a white WASP family.”
    “Like the insect that stings?”
    “Yes, exactly like that. Now go and bring me another white container from behind the hut.”
    I’m ten and I’ve discovered a lake not far from where we live and spend most of my weekends swimming. When I’m not at school, the meals are few and far between and being in the water distracts from the hunger. I run there first thing, jumping in, waiting for the way my breath comes in big jolting gasps like someone has clamped on an ice neck brace. The water bites, my skin smarts and burns. I love the way the water plays with me.
    I’m still passing through the tunnel while the movie is playing, watching myself over time.
    Momma cries a lot now, she’s always coughing. Daddy shouts at her about how he gave everything up, all the wealth and privilege, that he has broken my grandmother’s heart in the process, for her. They are shouting because of a magazine lying on the table in the kitchen with a picture of a man that has the same hair as my daddy on the front. I’m twelve and I love reading.
    Momma goes to the bathroom and Daddy slams the front door as he goes out. Sometimes he doesn’t come home for a few days. No one seems to notice that I am here like they used to so I take the magazine and find a blanket to wrap around me as I read. It says that the Carters are one of the oldest established families in Manhattan and made their money by selling gunpowder during the American Civil War, that they are listed in the Forbes Top 200. My other name is Carter, too.
    Momma coughs more and more and there’s blood on her hands, in the bathroom, the towel has blood on it but we can’t afford any healthcare. Then one day, I come home from school and the man from the magazine is in our house, on the Reservation. He has a kind smile but very sad eyes whenever he looks at me. Daddy is crying as the kind white man with yellow hair wrestles me away from him, into the biggest black car I have ever seen. Daddy pushes me off, screaming at me to not make everything so difficult and to be good for my uncle who I am going to live with. He says Momma has died.
    The movie zips forward to me and the very first friend I made when I arrived in Manhattan. It’s my Aunt Victoria. I’m watching the time when everyone in the apartment searched for me, panicking that I had run away, but she was the clever one who found me, reading with my flashlight. I was in my walk-in closet, which was larger than any room I had been used to.
    “Olivia, little pumpkin, why on earth do you insist on spending all your time in that crammed space?” Her kind eyes and hands stroking me to coax me out.
    “It’s so big here. I’m scared I’ll get lost.”
    “But sweet child, we spoke about this. This is your house. All of it.”
    My nose wrinkles at the thought of this giant adventure park being mine, making her smile.
    “I tell you what, how about we discover a new room every day together, hand in hand? Maybe that way it won’t be so scary?”
    “Okay.”
    “And the flashlight? I’m sure it’s not very good for your eyes you know.”
    “Daddy says we don’t have money to put the light on so I have to use the flashlight.”
    Her eyes close and she takes a deep breath before pulling me out of the closet and I sit wrapped in her arms, my ear next to her heartbeat, her comforting smell making me feel sleepy.
    Scenes of playing hide and seek with the son of the man who Uncle Preston is always meeting with in his study continue to roll on. In a land of people with pale skin and blonde hair, the little boy with the jet black hair reminded me of where I came from. We communicated with our eyes for a long time before we actually spoke. His name was Lucien and he spent a lot of time in my new house because his mommy was sick. He always said she was