A Light Unto My Path

Chapter Two

As soon as I had politely excused myself from the table, I washed my dish and tripped up the stairs to hit the shower. Warm, luxurious water began to flow out of the nozzle in a steady stream. Funny, 'steady' was definitely not a word to describe my family at this point, especially my father. It was like trying to tiptoe on glass while balancing weights on your fingertips. Each footstep creates tiny spiderweb fractures, but if a weight drops, shards of glass will slice clean through you.

Above the hum of the water surging through the pipes, I hear the unmistakable rise of voices. There they go tearing into each other again.

"God, why are you so fucking incompetent, Chrissie!" Daddy screamed.

"You never think about anything and-" Daddy continued, but as I crossed the hall to my room, I pushed the door shut behind me, muffling most of the argument. I always found it peculiar that Mama never raged back at him. She just sat quietly and took it.

Still wrapped in a towel, I let gravity take over as I fell onto my bed. I laid there and stared up at the ceiling, contemplating whether or not I should go find my little brother, Dani, who had been missing since before breakfast.

I needed something to take my mind off the commotion from my parents room, so I proceeded to my dresser to get dressed. On my way downstairs, I peeked my head inside Dawn's room to see what she was up to. She was, as usual these days, laying on her bed with her earbuds in and eyes closed.

Once outside, I scanned the immediate area around the house for any sign of my elusive 11 year old brother. My guess was that he was probably hanging in a tree somewhere, because there was no way you'd find him in the house while my parents were lashing at eachother.

A few days ago, Dani had asked Daddy if they could go fishing, but Daddy never actually got around to taking him. Later that same day, Dani approached Daddy again to ask, and Daddy began to yell because Dani asked him again. So as a result, Dani has been spending a lot of time outside. For a brief moment after breakfast, Mama whispered something to Dawn, and several minutes later, Dawn walked out the back door with a plate of food. She was taking some breakfast to Dani no doubt. Now I just had to figure out where, exactly, that was.

"Tarzan! Where are you!?" My voice carried into the wind.

Then, somewhere off in the distance, I caught a flicker of movement jumping out of a tree. Found him.

He crept low through the waving grasses. I knew how this game worked, so I played along. I sprinted up to the base of a large pine tree and scanned the field for Dani. Nothing. I turned around to start walking back when suddenly Dani sprang up out of the grass and yelled "BOO!"

My scream echoed and in turn, some birds flew wildly from a nearby tree.

"Ha! I got you this time!" Dani boasted.

"Only because I let you." I smirked playfully.

Dani laughed and his dirty blonde hair fell into his pale blue eyes. He got the light eyes from Mama who had brown hair and green eyes. Nobody actually knows where the hair came from, but it's safe to assume they also came from Mama who had bleach blonde hair as a young child. Over the years, it darkened into a milk chocolate color.

"Hey Maple, do you think we could go to the river today?" Dani asked.

"Hmmm...you know what? That's not a bad idea." I said, also keeping in mind what had unfolded at the house.

Dani grabbed his river gear and backpack off the backseat of our black Excursion, and I quietly snuck back upstairs to gather a bag and my swimsuit. On the way out, I checked Dawn's room again, but this time, she was gone. Interesting.

Once I was outside, there was Dani sitting on his four wheeler all ready to go. I could see the impatience in his posture, so I dropped my backpack and ran to the barn to get Secret.

Secret was my horse, and a very proper girl. She held her head high 24/7 and she walked like nothing would ever weigh her down. This trait, unfortunately, made it very difficult sometimes to get her bridle on. She was part Thoroughbred, so naturally she was tall already, reaching 15.4 hands at the withers. All she had to do was raise her head and I wouldn't be able to reach it. Luckily, today Secret was feeling generous, and she let me slip the bit right into her mouth.

Secret and I approached Dani at a comfortable trot that slowed to a walk so I could jump off to get my backpack. As soon as I was up on Secret's smooth bare back, Dani, Secret, and I started off down the road towards the river.