Page 5 of Genesis

I start school Monday and I was hoping to make some friends in my new neighborhood, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to do that. I hate this place already, except for the boy who just walked away from me.

He’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, but who cares about that. I’ve got more important things to worry about. Like my mom in there.

My heart seizes up, the muscle tired of what it knows the future holds.

Mom thinks I’m stupid. I know why she moved us here. It’s closer to her brother, the man who’s probably going to raise me. I’ve cried so many nights alone in my bedroom. I’ve shed every last tear in my body, I honestly don’t think I have any more left.

Kicking a rock, I twist back and head toward my own house. The one right next to theirs. I hurry up the steps and open the door. My ears perk when I step into the living room. Mom is coughing again. I swipe the door shut behind me and hurry up the stairs to her room.

“Mom?” I say, pushing her cracked door open. She sits on her bed in her nightgown, looking down at a napkin in her hand.

My eyes go to it.

Crimson stains the white.

She quickly balls it up, but it’s too late. She’s coughing up blood now.

“Hey, baby,” she says. “You okay?”

“Am I okay?” I ask. “You’re coughing up blood, Mama.”

She swallows, her brown eyes switching from trying to protect me to the truth. “Come here,” she says, patting her bed. I walk over slowly, sitting on the end of her bed instead of right where she touched the comforter. There’s something happening. Something I didn’t even notice until it was already in full effect.

I’m pulling away from her. My body is trying to protect itself from pain.

The pain of losing her.

She looks down for a moment before lifting her chin. “You’re old enough to know the truth,” she says. “The cancer has spread.”

My chest rips open, and my heart bleeds and weeps. But my face stays emotionless. “How long?” I ask. I sound like I’ve aged ten years asking that question. I’m surely the oldest eleven-year-old on the planet. I pull on my snap bracelet.

She shrugs. “They don’t know for sure.” A tear rolls down her cheek, but her face doesn’t crack. She always tries to be strong for me. I look down at the comforter, grabbing a loose string and twirling it around my finger.

“Well, I guess there’s no use in unpacking my things then, is there? Tell me, why did you move us in this house? Why didn’t we just move into Uncle Hale’s?” I get off the bed. “That would make more sense, wouldn’t it? Since you’re going to die and leave me.”

“Bexley,” Mama says, sitting up and reaching out to me. But I shake my head and run out of the room. I take off down the stairs and yank the door open, running out into the street. The fire still roars in the night sky, just like the fire I feel inside of me.

Life’s not fair.

I look to the left of me, balling my fists. I want to scream to the top of my lungs, but instead, I take off running down the road. I run as fast and hard as I can until I get to an alleyway near some abandoned buildings.

Out of breath, I lean my back against the wall and wipe the sweat from my brow. I shut my eyes for a moment as my mind runs. I’m not going to have a mom in my future. The one person I’ve always had is going to leave me.

My heart thumps sadly, distraught and feeble. How will I live? What will I do?

Opening my eyes, I look down and spot a rock. I pick it up and push off the wall. My eyes go to the windows above the building and I rare back and throw the rock as hard as I can, immensely satisfied when it shatters the glass. Shards sprinkle down like fallen rain, hitting the cement below my feet.

“You always take off running down dark streets?” I hear. I snap my head behind me.

A boy older than me, with dark hair and clothes too nice for this neighborhood, stands with his hands in his pockets.

“Did you follow me?”

Danny shrugs. “I was sitting on the roof and saw you take off. I was curious to see where a little girl like you could be going at this time of night.”

“Why?” I ask.

“I’m a curious person.”

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