Talk

All her life Susie Hale was told not to ask questions. Not to talk. Don't wake your sister.

The silence was killing her. That was all she had. No answers. Silence. Pretend that nothing was wrong. That everything was all part of the adventure. Moving from one small town to another, living out of a car, and later on the streets.

Her father, George Hale a charming man, who chose to live an unconventional life, and stubbornly forced those ideals on his family.

He drank. He would pick fights. He would disappear for days on end only to return and uproot them from their life and they would find some new place to live. The Hales lived on the run for years, always looking over their shoulder. As the family fractured, Susie and her sister Mary had to stick together as they weathered their parents' lies, abuse, and found the will to set out on their own and make a life for themselves. The silence was killing Susie. It was time to talk.

Book Blurb:
I screamed and flailed around behind him, at first I tried to just walk around the edge of the water but he kept pulling me in by my ankles, and every time that he did I would flail around some more and swallow more of the hot water that burned my eyes, the inside of my nose and my throat. I sputtered. My lungs burned. I tried to hold onto his arms, his neck and each time
I grabbed him he would push me away. I floundered and I sank in the water.

I could hear my Mom yelling something, and Mary was crying because she was yelling and then I felt my father’s hands on my waist as he pulled me up and then back to the edge of the water. I hadn’t stopped shaking until the water was up to my knees.

“There you go, It’s okay, catch your breath you did great.” my father said. “That was fun wasn’t it?”

I was still coughing and spitting up water and rubbing the wet clumps of hair off of my face. I started getting dressed without toweling off.

“Wasn’t it?” he asked and that tone was back in his voice when he thought something was funny, something that made him laugh and laugh but never made anyone else happy.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“You see! She’s fine!” he yelled back up at Mom before he yanked my pants and underwear off with one quick tug and grabbed me right back up holding me close and threw me into the middle of the spring.

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