The Reprisal Of Alice Burkhart

In Adamsville village of Ohio, a 25-year-old girl named Alice Burkhart used to reside with her stepfather, Bill Crowley, who was a seasonal peasant in the nineteenth century. They had been residing at a small-headed crib, with a nearly shattered front door for the past 17 years, with a storeroom withstood at some distance from the house, adjoining a cattle house as well.

For most of the day, Alice did not have much of chore to do at home and so she felt like she had no motive driving her life with clouds of isolation haunting her as she watches children playing through her window. She considered them fortunate enough to not feel left out like her. She was being withheld by her stepfather, who tormented her with sexual abuse every night. She remained quiet out of a sense of fear that if she would not obey him, her drunkard stepfather might even attempt to strangle her to death. Soon, as she grew to be three years older, she used to glance at mother's passing bye her house with their children and soon enough she started to contemplate her life's scenario if she could have a little partner's of hers as well. Bill was an obstacle in these aspirations of hers as he thought of her as his destined servant and like any other man in the town, he oppressed women in the way he wanted to. Alice knew that Bill would be furious if he ever knew about her wishes and so she started to resist her feelings and deluded herself with the thought that her whole life's only purpose is to remain loyal to her stepfather’s wishes.

But she remained uninformed of the fate that was destined for her to experience and so the day came when she made a decision that altered her life drastically. On one random day, Alice was supposed to buy some vegetables from a local store and on her way home, she found a baby boy lying on the sidewalk of the road, unnoticed by many commuters. A sense of empathy and kindness fueled Alice’s confidence as she withheld the boy in her arms.

The thought of her father getting enraged by her decision and murdering the child came to her mind, many times while glancing at the innocent asleep face of the baby, but she couldn’t gather the courage to look away from him and it broke her heart to even think about leaving him in that awful condition.

At last, she made a decision and took the baby in her arms and rushed to her home, before her father could return home before the sunset. As she reached the front door of her house she came up with an idea to hide the baby in the storage area. She thought of it as the perfect place for the child, as her father used to open the room, only during the season of harvest.

About three months had just gone by with the baby hidden in the storeroom and farming season coming on a rise and Bill remained unaware of the events in his house as the noise made by the boy were not enough to reach his ears at night after a hard days work at the farm, taking incentive measures for his crops. Although there was not much of a chore for Alice the whole day like before, she was more ecstatic than ever because she finally found moments of joy with the boy. At times, Alice would agonize the circumstances when the boy would grow old, but she found savoring those moments with that boy much more essential.

Alice finally had found a purpose in her life- to nurture another life, but alas it was impossible for her and her boy to remain hidden from the eyes of the world and so the day came when Dirk Marker, a known friend of Bill’s on his way to the field, saw Alice holding back the baby in her arms. Dirk was captivated to watch Bela babysitting a baby and he went to Bill’s farm and told him that he told him about the event and soon Bill started to discern serious doubts of treachery about her daughter leap to his mind and he started to allude himself by assuming that she had been impregnated by her own lover. As he reached nearby the front door of his home, he saw Alice with a baby boy held closely to her chest and upon witnessing this undiscovered reality, he shouted in rage at her and warned her that she made the biggest blunder of her life by deceiving him. Left petrified by the rage in Bill’s eyes, Alice ran off to the other side of the house along with the boy to break free from her father. Watching Alice run away from him, made Bill feel disgust by his servant’s disloyal treatment to him for a mere child.

That betrayal by Alice left Bill mad enough that he decided that now he would teach Alice her “real place” killing off the boy atrocious way possible in front of her. Lead with this madness, he shouted her name and chased her like a predator. Alice tried hard to outrun him, but he eventually caught her and while he gasped, he started scolding her at the highest pitch of his voice. As Alice listened to him, Bill took the baby away from her.

Bill approached the side shore of the river flowing through the village, with the boy being captured in his arms. Alice watched him make his move and she knew that he was going to drown her son. She tried to stop him, by begging for her son’s life but her numerous attempts were meaningless to Bill’s ears. It seemed as if Bill’s egoistic dominance blinded his eyes to an extent that he was unable to witness the sinless gaze of the little fellow on him. Alice pulled his leg, numerous times while weeping but his cold-hearted stepfather kicked her in the face and went on towards the river.

After one sudden kick, Alice recapitulated all the oppressed periods that she faced and how she finally found her own reason to live her life. She knew deep inside her gut that she would not let that demon kill her son and as time rushed by and the lifetime of her boy was reaching a near dead end, she hurriedly followed her stepfather and soon discovered an iron rod lying nearby. She lifted the rod in despair and incensed feel and stroke his head down on the gravel with the rod. Blood kept spilling off of his head as he gazed back at her, in disbelief and laid dead at the site. Alice captured the baby from his hands and wailed while holding her baby at last back in her arms. Alice glanced at Bill’s corpse laid down with mouth open in shock. Consumed by Bill’s hatred, she stabbed him in the chest with the rod and bashed it in his eye as retribution for laying his evil eye on her child. She left his corpse laid there and glimpsed at the alluring twilight, with a glimmer of hope in her heart for the uncertain future and walked over his corpse, departing away from the village and her miserable memories, as she clutched her son in her arms in search for a new whereabouts, where she could make nice souvenirs with her son.