Wretched! Trifecta Challenge (Week 16)

Teenie sat at the kitchen table, hands cupping her cold mug of coffee, staring into the space above her stove, not seeing the wall behind the stove, stained with grease, tomato sauce splatter and other evidence of previous meals. The wall was disgusting, as was the rest of this dump. She hated it here. She’d hated it for a long time.

Numb with exhaustion, she let her mind wander back to a night she’d never forget. The events of that night she shared with her two-month old baby as if it were a fairy tale, events that happened to a princess in a land far, far away. Except that she was the princess and the tale was a tragedy. Her bitterness crept into the story no matter how much she fought it off. But she couldn’t let it go; that night was forever seared into her memory.

“How long before you get me out of this wretched place?” she’d asked her man.

“Soon, baby. Real soon. I got plans. Big plans.”

“I hate it here. Folks always fighting, stealing, pissing in the hall.” She hadn’t told him yet, but she’d missed her monthly. She suspected more than knew, but like her mama always told her, a woman’s suspicions are just a hair shy of the truth.

What she didn’t know, and didn’t suspect, was that her man’s big plans involved his buddies, weapons and the local liquor store. What she did know, and would’ve told him if she’d known his plans, was that those damned weapons made all the difference between life in prison and life on parole. He’d robbed her and her baby as sure as he’d robbed the liquor store that night, and he’d left them in their own prison with a sentence as long as his. She didn’t imagine they’d ever get out.

The baby began fussing; Teenie appeared not to hear.

My response to this week’s Trifecta Challenge. The word is “wretched” – 3: being or appearing mean, miserable, or contemptible <dressed in wretched old clothes>