As Once Upon A Set
of Wheels goes through the final stages of a fresh editing process, readying
for paperback release, I find myself going over the story with fresh eyes and
thinking about the other characters that we meet in the story.
I am already
writing a trilogy of books with regards to the family of one of the most evil
characters; Miss Astin. However I find myself wondering about the others who
cross Lotus’ path.
Having already
written a 5000 word short story, written in five chapters about the life Lotus’s
greatest friend ‘Tempo’ led up to meeting the dangerous little girl: The Beat
Boys. I have decided to a compile a few more short stories about the people who
wove in and out of Lotus’ life and how they reflect back on the time they spent
with ‘the little girl, nobody calls their own.’
Once Upon A Set Of Wheels
The Tales of the Cursed
I’m starting in
order from this point, and begin with the one of the first people Lotus
introduces us to in part one of her tale: Baby Driver.
The Tales of the Cursed
I was first assigned to visit the
Suffolk house when Rebecca was about eighteen months old, the adoption services
had finished with their supervisory visits long ago. Jean and Robert Suffolk
had taken to their adopted daughter like naturals, as if she was born of themselves.
She had had the most difficult of starts; abandoned in the middle of no-where,
her biological parents were never traced and after a few months in foster care
she was homed with the Suffolks, things seemed to finally be looking up for
her.
It was in November and there was
an early frost, the ground was frozen after heavy rain the previous evening.
Jean had been driving to mother and baby group; little baby Becky was in the baby-seat
strapped on the passenger side of the car. They say she hit black ice and the
car just spun out of control. Of course in 1982 there were no airbags to be
deployed in a Datsun Sunny, Only the front seats had belts, the chances they
stood against a solid stone wall would never be high. They rushed them both to
the hospital and amazingly Becky was fine, barely a scratch on her, but poor
Jean didn’t survive the Ambulance journey.
There were of course family liaisons
and care workers that worked with Mr Suffolk through the grief and offered help
and care with baby Becky but at first he outright refused and declared he was
more than capable. It was when she was about sixteen months old and Jeans
parents got in touch with child services, they said they had concerns about Becky’s
welfare and Roberts health; both physical and mental. he had stopped allowing
them to visit him and Becky, telling them they weren’t apart of his family
anymore. He told them that Becky was his girl and his alone and no-one else
could have her. they were disturbing statements and social services appointed a
review of the situation.
Campbell was her first social
worker; he knew Becky a long time, a lot longer than she ever knew him. He always
said that he wasn’t happy with the situation with her father, something just
wasn’t quite right in that house. He performed the initial reports and decided
that little Becky should have regular visits, someone to keep an eye on her.
So that was my place, and I
watched over Becky for about three and a half years. She was a beautiful little
girl, and her face lit up like a little star every Tuesday when I arrived for
my visit. She had the most delicate olive skin, with light brown hair that was
starting to wave as it grew, and just a dash, a light sprinkling of freckles
over a little button nose. She was quite small for her age, but nothing
excessive; she was delicate and petite, but there was a ruggedness to her. Even
at the age of two i could see a hard shell forming around her, a shield that
would rise whenever someone other than her father close to her. When he was
close to her, there was something else that came from her, it was almost as
combination of fear and adoration. I went to that house every Tuesday for
almost two years and I do not believe I ever once saw an affectionate moment
shared from that man to his daughter.
Jeans mother dies when Becky was
just two, there were complications with her diabetes and one day she simply
collapsed and fell into a coma, she passed away two weeks later. Her husband
just six months later, they said of a heart attack; a broken heart was the true
interpretation. So little Becky was all alone with Robert Suffolk, and it was
then, I do believe I realised that this man did not love that little girl at
all. He had loved his wife and she had wanted a child so desperately that he
had wanted one too. his want was to share her love and when she was gone the
love for the child it seemed had never been there.
He was diagnosed in the summer
when Becky was three, testicular cancer, easily treatable with the result of
removing both testicles, and some chemotherapy. however he decided this would
be too much for him and to look after a child as well. One Tuesday I went to
visit and he asked if he could speak to me alone, he explained the situation
and stated that he wished to Becky in care, and back up for adoption. When I
asked how we would explain this to Becky, although I wasn’t happy with her
being there I didn’t wish to separate this little girl from the only family she
had ever known without real cause.
“Tell her I died!” he stated
coldly. “She has killed everyone else in this family, and now she is killing
me. Tell her she succeeded and take her away from me before she finishes me
off!” he believed this little girl, this baby who was so innocent in everything
back then, was cursed. he blamed her for Jeans death, for the deterioration of
his sanity, for her grandparents deaths and now for his illness. He told me he
believed her biological mother had most likely abandoned her because she knew
she was cursed. Honestly I was horrified!
I did wonder, two years later
when the doctors came out of the theatre and looked down to us as I sat holding
Becky’s hand. This fragile little girl, looking shocked and scared and covered
in her foster brothers blood; just for a second I wondered if death did seem to
follow her, especially as I had just received my own diagnosis the day before.
I moved away and someone else
took my place in her life, many took my place as her carer, her guardian, and
many died. As soon as I left my health returned, my diagnoses was not as bad as
originally believed and I took on a new life. I married a wonderful man and had
three beautiful children, but there nights, I would sit when they were all
asleep and wonder about that little girl who was lost right from the day she as
born.
Thirteen years had passed and I
gazed upon the woman, the young, fragile, still petite and delicate, but now
ever so cold and hardened, woman as she stood in the dock. Her skin was still
that unblemished ivory except for the scattering of freckles over her little perfect
nose, her hair long and flowing, and in different lights either dark blonde or
light brown. It’s her eyes that get you though; those deep, bright, sparkling
green eyes. no longer has death just happened, just followed her, it has become
apart of her; she has exacted it upon those who have hurt her and those who
have loved her have wilted, become ill and lost their lives. The only one still
standing that young policeman who looks so tired now.
Everybody hates her so much. But
as I stand and watch this terrifying young woman, I cannot help but see that
helpless little girl, alone with no-one to come to her and I wonder what
would’ve happened if Jean had never hit the patch of ice that day.
I wonder most if Robert Suffolk,
who lives still to this day in agony and torment of a broken mind, told any
truth in his maddened woes. Only one person who ever loved Rebecca Suffolk has
survived, everyone else who gave their hearts to her, had their lives taken,
either by her hand or near it. Was the baby found in the middle of nowhere with
no one to call a mother or father, was she cursed to damn all those who she
touched?
About L.M. Steel
Through junior School she concentrated on poetry, then onto high school she moved onto songs, short stories and plays.
Once she left high school she moved onto writing novels and scripts.
The novels are now becoming available to read and one day, the scripts will be directed and filmed for you to see.
Lee was born in 1982 in Rochford, Essex and lived on the outskirts of the village of Canewdon.
At the age of six she moved to West Yorkshire with her parents, elder sister and younger brother, where they owned and ran a dairy farm. Due to the egg crisis of 1991 the farm and business was lost and Lee, with her family, was housed in Sowerby Village, with other ex-farmers, redundant miners and former military families.
She attended Newlands Junior School, and then moved up to Ryburn Valley High School, where she gained 9 GCSE’s
At 17 Lee began a legal apprenticeship course and earned an NVQ Level III in Business Administration
Lee graduated from the University of Huddersfield in 2011with a 1st Class Msci Degree with honours in Forensic and Analytical Science.
She moved to Hampshire to begin work as a Laboratory Technician in 2011.
Lee is a keen rower, enjoying refreshing mornings and evenings out on the Solent. She is also a green tag in Taekwondo, although it's a sport she hasn't quite got back into for a while.
Lee now lives in Southampton with her partner Alexandra Steel who serves in the Royal Navy, and Lee’s Patterdale terrier Cracker
The couple have plans to have a Civil Union in August 2013
Writing
It was at Newland Junior School, that Hazel Hellowell first spotted Lee had a talent for creative writing and encourage her poetry, resulting in the local paper publishing her first poem: Weeping Willow at the age of 10.
Moving onto Ryburn Valley High School Lee continued to write, but it wasn’t until Year 10, where she took up Expressive Arts, that her teachers, Amanda Glover and Jackie Newman also noted Lee had a talent and desire to write and encouraged her to do so. At 14 her second poem was published Heartbreaker.
In 2002 Lee went to Washington DC after being nominated by the International Society of Poetry for the Poet of the Year Award 2002. Although Lee didn’t win, she did win a Poet of Merit Award. for her Poem Hopless Shadow. Lee's first book was published in october 2012: Judged by Your Peers
Links
A blog of allsorts
from a writer: http://lmsteel1.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @LMSteel1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lmsteeauthor
Cover Reveals as well, coming in the New Year:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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