Eenie Meenie Minie Mo

Chapter Thirty-Six

 I passed a really hard test that Mom had been helping me study for the entire weekend. Not only did I pass, I made an A! I only got two questions wrong, but that was better than two questions right. I couldn’t wait to get home to show her my paper, and then we could celebrate with ice cream or something. Something good always came of passing tests. It was a little childish, but I liked spending the extra time with my mom.

  The bus dropped me off a little early since a couple of kids got picked up by their parents today. I raced into the house, screaming at the top of my lungs my test score. I couldn’t wait to see the look on Mom’s face! She was probably in her room. That’s where she usually was lately. She’d been sad. But I just knew this would make her happy again! At least for a little while.

  The TV in her room was really loud, and it was on the news channel. That probably meant she was in the bathroom. She turned up the volume so she could still hear it when she took showers.

  A huge grin on my face, I shouted over the TV, “Mama! Are you in there? Hey, I passed my test today!” I knocked on the door instead of walking in. I’d learned my lesson from just bursting into my mom’s room.

  The door wasn’t shut, though. So when I knocked it came open. I figured that meant she wasn’t showering, so I pushed it open the rest of the way.

  “Mama? Did you hear me? I said I passed my……”

  At first I thought she’d bought a new rug. Or maybe just retiled the floor completely. It’d been so white and now it was so…..red….

  But when I looked up, the red followed my eyes, going up the bathtub. My heart hammered against my ribcage, a scream lodging in my throat. So slow did my eyes roam. It was like I couldn’t even control it. I wanted to look away but….I….couldn’t….

  And then there was red all inside the bathtub, mingling with the water. My mom lay in the middle, slumped against the wall with her head towards the door. Her eyes were wide open, but it was like she didn’t even see me there. She looked like one of Colleen’s dolls.

  It was when my eyes registered all the marks on her body that I started screaming. My feet refused to move toward her or out of the bathroom, my eyes glued to her still and bloody form. I screamed and screamed, willing her to come to her senses and tell me it was all a mean joke. I wanted her to tell me it was a joke. It had to be. She was always pulling pranks on me! But this one was really mean and I wanted it to stop! She needed to stop right now! I refused to stop screaming until she jumped up and cleaned the red paint everywhere.

  Why wouldn’t she just do that? Couldn’t she just wake up and tell me it wasn’t real? That she was sorry for scaring me? That she’d gone too far this time? Wasn’t it enough that she hardly ever paid attention to me or Colleen? Now she had to do this! Tell me this is a prank! Make this stop! I want it to be over NOW!!

 

   I jolted up so fast, my head bashed against the back of my chair. Sweat poured down my face and back. I swear, I was seven years old again. I closed my eyes for one second and suddenly I was seven years old again.