Hi all and happy holidays! I have caught the infamous COVID virus and now I have some time to write. A blessing and a curse and all of that. Here is a little more backstory from Beth.
It was inevitable that Beth would become a teacher. She was the oldest of four siblings in a single parent family and was therefore something of a second mom. She was also obsessed with order and making lists and right and wrong. When she babysat her siblings over the summer, she would make lists of what she was doing each day and what terrible things her siblings had done.
July 17, 1995
8-8:30 breakfast
8:30-9 drawing
9-10am tv
10-11am outside
11-11:30 lunch
11:30-1:30pm tv
1:30 clean!!
4:30pm mom home
-brother threw toy at sister
-sister tore down curtain
-sister refused to clean up dishes
Of course her mom would come home tired from work and not wanting to deal with everything that had transpired that day. Beth had to figure out how to deal with it herself.
This need within her to make things structured and good led her to be the perfect teaching candidate. What Beth wouldn’t realize until much later was that to choose such a profession in the United States meant that she was a bit of a glutton for punishment.
She also wouldn’t realize until much later in life that this was what she was truly meant to do.
Beth felt herself coming back to Nick’s car after her brief daydream. She did that–escaped from reality into her mind at times. One of her therapists said that it was a coping mechanism. Little did she know, she would be falling into this “coping mechanism” over the next few days.
She winced, remembering her ankle, and looked in the rearview mirror to try to assess the situation. She knew she was stuck in the car and that she was going along with whatever this guy thought he was doing. But she didn’t know where they were going.
They had already passed the turn for the hospital. It must have happened during that daydream. Was that good or bad? It was an escape, but she thought that she needed to be more alert and focused.
