Unravel by Michelle Johnson-Lane (beginner reading books for adults txt) 📕

eight, about to turn nine soon, when her mother married Tobias Jackson Barker, who preferred to be called Jack. He owned Barker Motors, which had been open less than four months and did well for a new establishment. The small dealership drew curiosity from the locals and that’s where he first spotted Marianne, who had been in the market for a new car. Immediately, he knew she would become Mrs. Tobias Jackson Barker. His instincts were dead on and after a year of courting, they became husband and wife.

Jack desperately wanted to add to the family and constantly pressured Marianne to have his baby, but Marianne could not have any more children due to an emergency hysterectomy after giving birth to Matilda. Unfortunately, they had never discussed having children until after they were married. When he found out his wife could not bear his children, Jack became extremely resentful toward her. He wanted to feel his worth in the world by having his own children and knew that would have done it. His bruised pride caused him to suffer internally, and he resorted to alcohol to numb the pain.

Jack began hanging out in the area bars, where he binge drank every night after work. When he came home, he verbally abused Marianne and Matilda. Within months, Jack became a full-fledged alcoholic. This led to serious problems in the Barker household. Things got so bad for Jack that he lost the dealership and had no other choice but to rely on his wife for financial support, which made things even worse.

Every chance Jack got, he reminded Marianne that she could not give him babies. At least once a week he told her that not even her money could fix bearing his children. She was devastated and slowly began to shut down and kept to herself.

Late one night, Marianne woke up suddenly and realized Jack was not in bed. She had seen him giving Matilda weird looks lately, as if he were sizing her up for a meal. She decided she needed to check on her daughter just in case. Marianne discovered her husband fondling her daughter and leaped from the doorway to the bed in two steps and pounced on Jack like a woman who had lost her mind. Matilda quickly moved off the bed and curled up in a corner like a child afraid of a severe thunder storm. Marianne screamed, punched, and clawed at Jack until she fell out on the floor from what appeared to be exhaustion. Marianne was in catatonic state and in need of emergency care. Matilda ran out of the room to get Aunt Ruby and met her coming down the hallway.

After Marianne had been whisked away by ambulance, Matilda was left in the care of her great Aunt Ruby, who had assumed the role of the nanny. That night, Aunt Ruby heard the commotion, called for help, but had no idea what happened. Matilda clammed up tighter than an oyster in hot water and Jack left the house as if it were on fire. He returned the next day drunk as a skunk.

Matilda was traumatized and not the same after her mother was hospitalized. She told no one what had happened that night and missed Marianne terribly. Matilda was too young to understand why her mother stayed in the hospital for nine long weeks. All she knew was Mommy had left her home with Jack and Aunt Ruby. Jack continued to molest Matilda, even after Marianne’s return home from the hospital. Marianne blocked out the ordeal and rarely spoke to anyone. To occupy her time, she created a beautiful keepsake box she filled with old photographs and mementos. Marianne constantly stared at the items inside as she journeyed back through time over and over again.

Jack took advantage of this innocent child for many years until he was diagnosed with Cirrhosis of the liver. He accepted his illness as a punishment from God for abusing his family and wanted redemption, as he knew his days were numbered. He still continued to drink and became so drunk one night that he fell down the staircase, breaking his neck and dying instantly. Matilda witnessed the awful freak accident and immediately called the operator for help. Marianne and Matilda were the only two who attended his funeral because Jack never spoke of his family.
By the time she entered high school, Matilda had developed a strong defense mechanism by becoming an overachiever whenever people were around. In public, she pretended that everything was well with her soul. When she was alone, however, Matilda felt a deep emptiness inside and thought her life, up to that point, had been hopeless. She was lost but wanted to discover exactly who she was. Matilda knew she had to deal with the cards life through her way and succumbed to her abnormal childhood.

In order to move on through life, Matilda had buried the memories of her father’s abandonment, her stepfather’s sexual abuse, her classmates many years of torture, and her mother’s illness.

After all those years, Aunt Ruby had kept the house in order, prepared all the meals, and took good care of her nieces as if they were her own children.
Chapter 1 ~ College-Bound

Matilda, now fifteen, often thought about how many days she had left to graduate from high school. She had excelled passed her classmates and was placed in a higher grade.

Matilda knew she had to get away from the madness of the daily attacks from her classmates. She made plans for her future and looked forward to going off to college or a university anywhere on east coast and had applied to many. Matilda thought that if she got accepted, it would be a fantastic way to turn over a new leaf; leaving all her childhood memories behind. She realized that meant forswearing her mother but hoped the change of scenery would put an end to the nightmares that haunted her at bedtime.

Two months before Matilda’s graduation, Marianne needed around-the-clock nursing care and stayed heavily sedated most of the time to prevent her traumatic flashbacks. Matilda became depressed since her mother was not able to attend the graduation.

When that day finally came, Aunt Ruby stood in for Marianne and was very proud that Matilda had graduated with honors at the top of the class. Matilda had been accepted into the University of Maine and was ready to begin her new life.
Over the summer, Aunt Ruby helped Matilda pack her belongings. Matilda also took her mother’s box of keepsakes for when she got homesick.

The time had arrived for Matilda to begin her journey as a college-bound student. She took her mother’s car and a United States road map to take the long, ten-day drive across the country to clear her head and fully discover herself before embarking on the new journey as a college student.

She took in the different sights from state to state in between rest stops, which gave Matilda an all-new, positive perspective of the world.

On the last day, the paved roads were slippery from the misty, light rain. As Matilda approached the mile marker to turn onto the campus grounds, she realized she had missed the turn and instinctively slammed on the breaks. She slid into a tailspin and banged into the guardrail, which brought her to a complete stop. The impact caused Matilda to lose consciousness after bumping her head against the stirring wheel.
A few minutes later, she was suddenly startled by the sound of loud tapping on her window. Matilda saw a young girl, about the same age, who came to help. She felt the pain and the knot that rose on her forehead and then rolled down the window. The young girl offered to take her to the on campus nurses’ station. She found out the girl’s name was Tilly, and she was also a new student at the school. When Matilda accepted, Tilly checked out the fender bender and drove the car on campus. She then found a nurse, who treated Matilda’s minor head injury with an ice pack and aspirin.

Since classes began a week later, Tilly told Matilda she could stay in her dorm for a few days until she was well enough to unpack her car and find her own dorm. Matilda gravitated to Tilly’s magnetic personality and saw she had been so easy to talk to and would remain forever indebted to her.

Over the next three days, the two discovered they had a lot in common. They knew they had an everlasting friendship.

They became so close that Matilda and Tilly were inseparable and became temporary dorm mates. Matilda and Tilly developed the same mannerism and even looked alike, so much so that teachers mixed them up all the time. For the first time, Matilda was able to open up about everything that had happened to her growing up, which saved her from going crazy if she had kept things locked up inside her head.

Later in the semester, Matilda got word that her great Aunt Ruby passed away silently in her sleep and flew home to make funeral arrangements. Matilda was shocked. She wasn’t even sure how to go on without Aunt Ruby, who practically raised her when her mother became incapable. She took the time to reflect on the many pieces of advice (pearls of wisdom), and important life lessons taught by Aunt Ruby.

When she arrived home, Matilda found things in disarray. Every drawer in the house had been turned upside down as if somebody misplaced something important. Marianne had gone off the deep end and taken a turn for the worse. She was grieving over her loss and also wanted her keepsake box but couldn’t speak to ask anyone where it could be.

There wasn’t much more her nurses could do. Matilda laid her Aunt Ruby to rest and then made the decision to put her mother away. She had to even put their home on the market. It was a major setback for both this heartbroken mother and her teenage daughter. Matilda was still quite young—only sixteen.

Matilda took a month off from school to get things in order. She had taken her mother to see a doctor. Marianne had been diagnosed as a catatonic schizophrenic. Matilda had no other choice but to sign her mother into the Washington State Mental Institution where she would receive treatment for the rest of her life. She shared some of the family photographs with her mother but still kept her mother’s beautifully crafted keepsake box.

Matilda met Betsy Jenkins, the admittance nurse who asked her every question except her relationship to Marianne. Betsy assumed Marianne was Matilda’s nanny who lost her mind. Matilda then set up her mother’s room comfortably, cried in her arms, and bid her an emotional farewell.

The next day, Matilda flew back to school and picked up right where she and Tilly left off. She updated Tilly of her recent