She reminisced on how her eyes lit up, and the sparkle of their brown embers would shine when the sun hit them at just the right angle, whenever she noticed him coming her way. Because of how often she walked with her head hanging low enough for her chin to almost graze her clavicle, no one seemed to notice them. They were the gift her father left behind that she held like a treasure. They were the window to her nightly visits to see him in the mirror while repeating her mantra. Jared noticed them too. He used to stare into them while they sat on the steps connecting the playground to the school building. It was like he could read into her deepest thoughts through them, and actually liked what he was reading.
Sasha was tired. She had been on her feet all day restocking books since it was kindergarten learning day in the library’s lobby. While she loved to watch the children learn & to help them even more so by directing them to the books which suited their own personal interest, those little boogers did no more seem to know how to put away the literature that came flying off the shelves in their wake, than a dog could explain what exactly he wanted for dinner each night.
Jared, whose mother had passed away while they were still in grade school, still came by to check on his father who had grown frail in the years since his wife’s car accident. For reasons no one could explain, he began to drift away from life, first with a significant weight loss, and then the inability to care for his day-to-day needs on his own. Jared had hired a home nurse to take care of him when he went off to college, and after he got his medical degree, he was able to help out as well.
It was there where she saw him, climbing out of his black sedan, and headed toward his father’s apartment door. His gait was that of a man with confidence. He seemed to flow in slow motion from his car to his dad’s front door. It reminded her of the way former president Obama strolled through the streets while the camera man followed to gather every image of him before he hopped into an awaiting vehicle. He was in no rush, and she appreciated his strides of leisure. How she loved to watch him walk.
“Jared?” She called out to his back as if she didn’t know that it was indeed him. “Is that you?” A smile spread across her face as joy set in and replaced the sulk of weariness that was once there.
He turned to her with a dazzling smile across his face. He had recognized her voice, and was happy to see her. They came together and embraced. She filled her nostrils with the scent of his cologne.
“Sasha, how have you been?” The baritone in his voice was soothing medicine to her ears. Jared pulled back only enough to hold her close and take in every fragment of her lovely features. There was an innocence still captivated in the embers of her eyes. He had never told her how much in love with them he was. When they were growing up, he would fantasize about swimming in their mesmerizing depths.
She allowed him the pleasure only for a moment longer before she looked down, hiding them under the curtains of her lashes. A soft laugh escaped her lips as her face lit up with a smile. He couldn’t help but laugh along with her. The time they spent catching up in the yard between the buildings where they had grown up, seemed to fill in the spaces of her life that she never knew were empty.
When she finally dawned the door to her apartment, the dinner Mama had made for her sat cold on the dining room table. The shower water was running, and the steam made slow dances in the glow of light under the door. Mama was getting ready for bed.
Sasha krept past the bathroom door and made her way into the bedroom, closing the door behind her. She collapsed onto the bed and sighed deeply, clutching her chest and staring up at the ceiling. Eventually her lids became heavy to heavy to hold open. They began to flutter closed and within minutes she was swept away into the blissful fantasies of her dreams.
After their first meeting, she began to see Jared on a more regular basis, leaving many dinners on the kitchen table sitting cold. Sasha couldn’t remember a time in her life where she had laughed so deep, or felt so light. She had become the butterfly, creatures for whom she had always admired. They were mobile paintings in the sky. The finest sense of artistry simulated with every flap of their lovely wings. The only other man who had ever come close to warming her heart, and making her feel as though she could fly, was her father. Time had a tricky way of messing with her. It stood still, sped up and slowed down, all seemingly within the same moment. This was she and Jared’s relationship all wrapped into one.
Mama had taken notice, and didn’t know whether to feel slighted by her only child, or happy that she had finally found a love all her own. She worried now about her place in Sasha’s life. Where would she fit in when the two built a world around themselves and closed everyone else out? It was bound to happen. The story was nothing new. She and her husband had enjoyed that kind space away from everyone when they built their own island of love. All they could see was each other.
Just as sure as there is joy though, there is most definitely pain which follows. If only Sasha could be spared the type of pain Mama had known. She would sacrifice her life to protect her from it. Losing her father at a young age had taken such a toll on her mind and her heart. Now, she was able to spread her wings and finally embrace the possibilities of life’s best.
All was going well for Sasha, and she was blissfully ignorant of the fact that she was being watched. The prying eyes had been following her and Jared’s every move for the last two months, waiting for the opportunity to get back at her for what she had done.
For almost fifteen years she had lived with the torment caused by Sasha. Now was the time for her to show just how much pain she had caused. It was finally time for her to pay for breaking up her family.
Maddy-Grace adjusted on her haunches, massaging her legs until the blood began to circulate through them again. The needle points prickling through her skin were becoming unbearable, but she did not want to move an inch for fear of being noticed. Her body inched deeper into the brush she used to camouflage herself. If they held onto each other for much longer, she was sure her cover would be blown, simply by the sheer disgust she felt every time Jared’s hand crept around Sash’s waste.
That should have been her he was embracing. It was just another sign that Sasha was owed what was coming to her. After all, it was her father who had broken up the family she so cherished. Before he came along and stole her mother away, her world was perfect.
All of those years ago, Maddy-Grace’s mom decided she was no longer happy being a wife to her father, and a mother to her only little girl. They had been the best of friends, and she never left her mother’s side. If her mother wanted to get her hair done, Maddy-Grace was sitting under the dryer next to hers. If she wanted to lunch with friends, Maddy-Grace had a seat at the table too. Even when her parents had date nights on the couch, they would invite their only child to sit between them under the blankets and watch a movie until they all dropped off to sleep.
Those days were well behind her now. The last memory she had was her mother climbing into the passenger side of an old red truck, never looking back to see the single tear pouring down the cheek of her only child. She watched until the old truck disappeared with Sasha’s father sitting at the wheel. She didn’t understand it then, but now she knew for sure; their selfishness was what caused her whole life to go into a tailspin, and since neither was around any longer, it only left one person to pay the cost. Every time she looked into Sasha’s face, she saw that of her father’s, like he took the face which belonged to him, and left it with her as a parting gift.
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