A grin spread across the woman's face as she watched her little girl jump and splash in the muddy puddle. It had rained all day, leaving the small child locked up in the house with her mother all day. But now the mother brought her daughter out to play under her supervision. The woman turned her gaze up to the sky, watching the pink clouds roll across the dimming sky in the cool evening. It had been so hot and muggy before the rain, but now everything felt cool and clean.
Everything except the little girl, who grinned up to her mother with thick brown mud on her face. The woman chewed her lip for a moment before reaching out for her hand, saying, "Come on Seble, we need to get ya cleaned. If your pa came home an' saw ya like this, he'd be very angry."
Seble already had known better than to anger her father, she had learned that from a young age. So whenever her mother said something would make him angry, Seble immediately followed her mother to fix the situation. In this case, the mud all over Seble's dark brown dress and face. To be fair, Seble rarely got to go out and play, and when she did she wasn't allowed to leave her mother's gaze. Seble had no friends her own age, she hadn't even met a kid close to her age.
However, Seble knew better than to whine, or cry, or even pout for something when her parents said no. It made her father angry, and she couldn't make him angry. Seble's mother could see this too, and she felt bad for her daughter. She could see all her daugher wanted was to please her father, but Seble's mom also knew that pleasing Rick was impossible.
Instead of fighting Rick in anyway, Seble's mom just choose to take Seble outside whenever she could to play, but still never let her meet kids her own age. Seble was sheltered, growing up with only what her parents told her and gave her.
Margaret carried Seble up the hill, the girl wrapped in a cloth in her arms after she had just been washed in the nearby river. Rick sat on the step leading up to the front door of their small house as Margaret sat Seble down to run inside and get dressed. She then looked to her husband, who looked to be in his usual drunken state.
"She was muddy," was all Margaret said to him.
His brows lifted up as he stared at her, his beige eyes studying her closely, "How? How did she ge' muddy?"
"I let her out under my supervision."
"I though' we agreed ta no' le' 'er out without me aroun'."
"We never agreed to anything, you decided that and told me what to do."
He nodded slowly as his eyes narrowed on Margaret, his voice escaping in a slurred speech, "Wha' if some man decided 'e wanted 'er. Or you. 'N I aint aroun' ta 'elp ya."
Margaret chewed the inside of her cheek, a nervous habit she had picked up before she said, "If you lock both of us up to protect us, we will never be happy."
Rick pushed himself to his feet as he walked over to Margaret, rage firing up in his eyes and Margaret could clearly see it, "Look, this is 'ow we gonna do this. She's stayin' inside 'n only allowed ta come ou' when I say so. When she turns twenty, Imma marry her to a man I fin' tha' will be good fer 'er. 'N you will jus' teach her 'ow ta behave. Got tha'?"
Margaret didn't respond as she glared at him, she loved her husband. That much was true, but when he commanded her like this, it only angered her. But her silent response only earned her a slap across the cheek, knocking her back with a yelp as her husband shouted, "Do ya got tha'?"
At this point she just nodded, murmuring out, "Yea, got that."
He nodded curtly as he spun on his heels, marching into the house. Margaret reluctantly followed in and made her way to the fire, stirring the pot of stew slowly. She could hear the little excited shriek of Seble as the little kid leaped onto Rick's lap and the oof of air coming out of him.
"Pa, pa, pa, pa!" She chirped repeatedly.
The soft, still slurred voice came out of Rick as he said, "Hai there my lil' wolf pup."
"Pa, guess what!"
"Wha'?"
"Momma took me to the river to take a bath. And she told me today that the fish in the river really like to swim, but that I can't follow them or I'll drown. But she also said that there is a way I can learn to swim and that I had to ask you if you'd teach me."
A soft chuckle escaped out of Rick's mouth as he kissed his daughter's forehead, "Alrigh' kido, I'll teach ya ta swim. Once tha' goat gives birth ta 'er kid."
Seble let out a squeal of excitement, Margaret wished she could tell the little girl that anything Rick promised while drunk tended to not come true, but she didn't want to ruin her child's excited moment. Nor did she want to make her child dislike Rick. So she kept silent, stirring the stew for supper, listening to the two talk and play behind her.
