Do Not Disturb
Jul. 13th, 2008 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aesthetic_mojoThe few hours alone in her room each day were the most treasured moments of Charlie’s day. Allowed to wash and dress alone, she was as well permitted to prepare herself for bed. There was no dawdling, of course, but as she aged she was allowed longer to prepare herself. Her appearance reflected on the family, after all, and appearances were everything when you were the first daughter.
Sometimes she found that time while she did her school work if her keeper decided she was focused enough on her work to leave her to it. She had to complete the work, there was no slacking, but she could stretch. She could laugh at something she read or swear in frustration at a difficult math problem. She could, for those few minutes, be more than a pampered princess. She could be human.
When she left that house, she stayed in a series of filthy motels that reeked of sex and pain. The walls were flyspecked and the television didn’t work beyond showing her fuzzy images of people performing unlikely sexual acts. Men who saw her in the parking lot sometimes banged on the door of her room at odd hours.
None of that mattered because of one thin piece of plastic she could hang from the doorknob whenever she wanted. “Do Not Disturb” were the sweetest words she’d ever heard.
Sometimes she found that time while she did her school work if her keeper decided she was focused enough on her work to leave her to it. She had to complete the work, there was no slacking, but she could stretch. She could laugh at something she read or swear in frustration at a difficult math problem. She could, for those few minutes, be more than a pampered princess. She could be human.
When she left that house, she stayed in a series of filthy motels that reeked of sex and pain. The walls were flyspecked and the television didn’t work beyond showing her fuzzy images of people performing unlikely sexual acts. Men who saw her in the parking lot sometimes banged on the door of her room at odd hours.
None of that mattered because of one thin piece of plastic she could hang from the doorknob whenever she wanted. “Do Not Disturb” were the sweetest words she’d ever heard.
