Page 55 of Pretty Broken Wings

I’m staring at Mom as the tears track down her face. It’s all red, not smiley like it usually is. My hands feel stuck.

“I’m okay.” Mom waves her hand at me, standing up. “It was just an accident, don’t worry.”

Mom stands up, pushing at her hair.

An accident? “Did you fall again?”

“Huh?” Mom looks at me quickly, wiping away tears.

Mom falls a lot. Dad always gets mad at her for it, and there’s a lot of yelling. He gets mad a lot. This time, I’m glad he’s not mad about us. He yells about our glasses and how much money they cost, and it makes me want to cry. I offer to give the glasses back to Mom, but she never lets me. I can never do anything when he yells about that.

But I can do something when Mom falls. I always get her a bag of peas from the freezer. They make her feel better.

“Oh, yeah.” Mom smiles at me. “Please don’t be scared.”

I’m already moving to the freezer and pulling out the peas. This will make her feel better. Giving them to Mom, my stomach still feels twisted.

Mom issad.

And that makes me sad.

Later that night, I can’t sleep. I think… there’s something in my closet. It looks like a man peeking out from the shadows.

I’m stuck. My legs won’t move.

“Mom?”

The room is silent. I heard Mom and Dad earlier. They were yelling again, but they’re quiet now. Maybe Mom’s sleeping. Sleep is good for when you don’t feel good.

I stare at the man in the closet, and he stares back.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I hope he goes away. He’ll go away if I don’t look at him. I know he will.

All I can see is Mom’s sad face.

And I wonder—animals don’t cry. Do they get sad? They must not get sad if they don’t cry, right?

I’ll start bringing them peas, just in case.

CHAPTER THIRTY

It’s a shit-ass day. I do everything right; I present all my arguments in a clear and compelling way. I outmaster the defense. But as the day goes on, my client gets more and more pale. She keeps glancing at the defendant. She can’t keep her eyes off him, and I know what’s coming. I try everything I can to avoid it.

But by the end of the day, she tells me she wants to drop the case. And for a second, all I can see is my mom.

My hands shake. She wants to drop it after everything he did?

But my client is almost frantic about it, and I’m paid to serve my client, not take a personal side in cases.

When I walk out of the courthouse, my vision tunnels. Just get to the car. Just get to the car, tell Mom everything went well, and get home. Don’t think about anything else.

Like the fact that Raven is with my brother. When I’d shuffle papers, I imagined I could smell her. Even though I knew it was just in my head, I’d still look up and around the room every once in a while just to make sure she wasn’t there.

Because she’s with my brother.

That thought makes another wave of rage rip through me.

Of course, she’s with my brother. That’s where they always go.