Little Bit Crazy

Chapter One - Committed

The day my mother was committed arrived with little warning, but even less surprise. No, when the police knocked on our door and produced whatever court doc they needed to take Angel away, we were ready.

Javi and I had filled the basement studio with distractions - yard sale tables piled high with scrap. Metal bits from the shed, sunflowers, and red wall paint left over from the last state visit. We herded the others down the steps and cranked up the radio. Boy band synth was perfect for masking approaching or exiting footsteps.

Javi and I headed back upstairs and took up familiar posts, me by the front door and Javi shielding the basement, our ears strained in opposite directions. One shout from below, and the group would be compromised, our family flung apart for our own protection. Javi knew the signs, though. We'd done this too many times to make mistakes.

Like clockwork, the cops arrived with long, noisy strides up the gravel. Pushing aside the curtain, I counted half a dozen officers led by two women in muted pastels. Social workers. Megan and Allegra. They had been to the house before, but this round's reinforcements gave them renewed vigor.

They wanted to save us. Them specifically. It takes a certain kind of complex to destroy something, just so you can be the one to rebuild.

They thought taking Angel away would be the end of our life here. That our faith would finally be broken if its object was removed, and that a better me could be pieced together from the wreckage. I was only 16 after all. Still young enough to be salvaged from this coven of crazy.

The closer they came, the more we could hear the women's low-voiced chatter, answered by light grunts from the officers.

"Thank you again, officers, for realizing the gravity of the situation."

Grunt.

"We just want what's best for everyone. Especially that poor, poor child. She's only 16, you know, and so smart. Gifted really. But the mother. And those people! Come to town from all over the world to join her cult. Cult of crazies, that's what they say to that poor girl at school. Imagine."

Javi's eyes narrowed at that, but they never left the basement door. I could feel his irritation. I shared it.

Two steps and I was at the door, hand turning the knob before they had a chance to knock. I swung it open, my smile as wide as the bridge that protected our home from the rest of Silber.

"Meg. Allegra. How awful to see you. Officers. It really hasn't been long enough."

The captain squeezed his way past the shocked social workers. "Enough with the pleasantries, St. James. We don't have time to teach you and the mute," he nodded to Javi," a lesson. We're here for.."

"She's ready," I finished. "I would help her down, but frankly boys, I don't think angels belong in hell."

He shook his head. "So fucking crazy."

He had no idea.