Lucy hugged her mommy tight, with tears streaming down her face.
"Mommy, why can't you stay?" She sobbed.
"Honey, we talked about this. It's important for mommy's job! And you won't be alone all weekend. Robert will be here with you," her mom tried to reassure her.
Mommy didn't understand! She didn't want Robert to be with her! Why did she have to marry that mean old man anyway? He has secrets! Ones he told Lucy not to tell mommy. Secrets that made Lucy cry...
"Why can't I go stay with Grandma Lulu?" Lucy begged.
"Lucy! Listen to me. You are staying with Robert. You will be perfectly fine, and Grandma Lulu gave you a beautiful doll for you to play with. Remember? She said she will protect you from anything bad happening. Now be a big girl, and give me a kiss! I'm gonna be late for my flight," mommy demanded.
Lucy squeezed her beautiful doll to her, hoping Grandma Lulu was right, and gave her mommy a kiss on the cheek, then turned around and marched upstairs to wait by the window to watch her mommy drive away.
Happy to pass by without Robert stopping her, she sat by her window and played with her brand new doll.
"What should I call you?" Lucy asked.
The doll had bright yellow hair and pretty blue eyes, just like Lucy and Grandma Lulu. She wore a pretty blue dress to watch her eyes and had a pretty pink smile. The smile made Lucy happy, because most of the time she was scared.
"I'm gonna call you Sunny," Lucy decided. "Let's play tea party!"
Later around lunch time, Lucy got hungry and realized she would have to go down stairs. Hopefully Robert wasn't going to see her. Mommy didn't know that he hurt her. Sometimes he would play hide and seek with her, but he always found her!
Tip toing down the stairs, she listened, but it was quiet.
Lucy sighed with relief.
"We have to be quiet, Sunny," Lucy whispered to her doll. "We don't want Robert to know where we are!"
Scurrying across the floor, she made it safely to the fridge. She couldn't cook on the stove... She wasn't allowed! But she was a big girl! 7 year old's can make sandwiches!
Carefully and quietly she pulled out the turkey meat and some sliced cheese and pulled the mustard out from behind the beer cans and milk, and set it all on the table. Then she quickly went to the pantry and pulled out the bread. She needed to hurry, though. She didn't want to risk being caught!
Pulling down a plate from the cupboard, she placed all her things on the counter, and set about making her lunch! As soon as she was finished, she put everything away so she wouldn't make Robert mad! It was always worse when he was mad...
She looked at her sandwich and knew it would make her thirsty, so she pulled down her special pink cup and poured a glass of milk.
It still wasn't much, then she remembered mommy bought her nice juicy red apples and placed them down in the drawer of the refrigerator.
Sitting down to her lunch, she did a quick check around the room.
Robert still wasn't here. Thank goodness!
Before she ate she folded her hands to say the blessing on her lunch, just like mommy taught her.
"Dear God. Thank you for my lunch. Please make Robert stay away from me. Amen."
Then her hungry tummy couldn't wait any more, and she dove in.
She hummed happily as she ate her big girl lunch and looked at her beautiful dolly. She swung her legs back and forth as she munched on her apple. She was careful not to spill her milk. That would make Robert mad.
When she was finished, she put her apple core in the garbage and rinsed off her cup and plate before putting them in the dishwasher. Leaving her things out in the sink also made Robert mad!
Grabbing Sunny, Lucy made a mad dash for the stairs, but was cut off.
He smelled like beer again. Yuck!
His eyes were all red. Lucy didn't know why his eyes turned red. Maybe because he was always mad at his boss?
His hair was all messed up and looked greasy. He needed a shower! When my hair is messy, mommy always makes her take a bath!
So why didn't Robert?
"Hey Lucy, girl. Time to play..." he slurred his words.
"I'm... I'm gonna... just play with my dolly from my Grandma," Lucy stuttered in a whisper.
"But you don' wanna make me lonely, do ya? Your mommy left us, and now I'm so lonesome... I just wanna play with a pretty little girl..." he drawled.
Lucy slowly backed up away from Robert.
It didn't do any good. Robert pounced on her!
"Awwww!" Lucy screamed. "Let me go!"
Lucy fell under Roberts weight and dropped her Sunny doll.
"Please let me go!" she begged.
"But I wanna play," breathed Robert into her neck.
Lucy hated his smell! It made her tummy sick. Her lunch tried to come up, but she swallowed it down.
A sudden cackling noise startled both of them.
"Who's there?" slurred Robert.
"Someone who is gonna play with you, Robert!" whispered a twinkly voice. It didn't sound like a person.
"Who are you?" Robert slowly backed away from Lucy. "What do you want?" he growled.
"You like to play with Lucy so much... I thought we'd have some fun!" sang the voice.
Then, Sunny stood up.
But she didn't look like Sunny. Her eyes were red and her pretty pink smile wasn't smiling any more.
"Sunny?" Lucy asked.
"Don't worry, Love! Grandma Lulu gave me to you to protect you, and that's what I'm gonna do!" Sunny said.
And then she ran after Robert...




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