Emily’s eyes were always searching the skies. She did not know what she was seeking out. She did not really know why. She only knew that an inexplicable weight on heart would lift a little, every time she uselessly attempted to peer beyond the stratosphere. She glanced at the clock on her car before shutting the engine off. Seven pm. On the dot.
She stared balefully at the door at the house in front of her. Her fingers drummed the steering wheel at the ten and two positions, nervously. Oh, how she loathed that place. She despised the sickness in it. Love and hate at war. Never quite knowing if the next time she emerged from behind that doors, it would still be without blood on her hands. That despicable creature inside was her own father, who hated her. Now, this was no assumption Emily had made. He had told her so and then proceeded to make her life a living hell. Her father who needed her, who never had a gentle word for her. Who was incapable of seeing her as human being.Tears threatened to surface. Tears of an anguished child who wanted, more than anything else, something she would never have. Right alongside the tears, a red hot rage festered. Right alongside the rage – self loathing. A pitiful creature she was, who couldn’t walk away. Who simply didn’t know how to walk away from the madness. She bit all three back. She sat still, forced herself to be as still as a stone, until the shaking inside went away. She steeled herself until all she could feel was dead inside. But that only wounded something else that was buried deep inside her even more.
As always, when Emily got out of the car her eyes were already reaching for the sky. Sometimes, she watched the graceful swirling of the birds, caught up in the dance of the air. She wished with all her might that she could be that free – that she could remember how it felt to believe it was possible to be that free.
She stood there for a few moments, and thought idly that the just-before-sunset sky was the most beautiful. Splashes of crimson and and waves of golden coral dazzled her. There was so much warmth. Such unbelievable warmth.
As she turned to walk away, something barely caught the corner of her eye. She looked to the sky, with a frown this time. That’s when she saw it. It was both beautiful and frightening. A blazing streak was tearing down diagonally from the sky. It wasn’t just a jet trail. She saw those all the time. Jets didn’t move that fast. She was certain, it hadn’t been in the sky moments before. This was something new, a bright point of light with an even brighter tail, hot white and crimson at the edges. She squinted, struggling to see it clearly. It bore down fast. It didn’t burn up in the sky. It just kept falling with incredible speed. And falling. It fell until she couldn’t see it anymore.
She waited for a few seconds. She didn’t even breath. Her heart stopped for a second. Tripped. She almost fainted from the shock of it. The tentative thump-thump returned. Its rhythm gradually picked up. She waited. Nothing happened. Her mind was racing. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just another crazy thought. She was prone to crazy notions these days. Maybe she had imagined it. Still, she hurried into the house. She dropped her books and her bag. She turned the television on. She flicked through all of the local news channels. Nothing. She sat down. She waited a few moments. Maybe it was nothing. Quiet as a mouse, she sat down and she listened.
She felt it first, a slight tremor and a sizzle to the air that made the hairs on her skin stand up. She heard a sort of screeching that got louder and louder as the tremors became rumbles that shook the earth. When the shockwave hit, it shattered all the glass in all of the windows and doors in the house. It obliterated her flesh and liquefied her bones.
The last thing that Emily Parker felt was immense relief.
© Tonya R Moore
