DURABLE (completed)

Is Change Good?

With my heart hammering in my ears and my thoughts a jumbled mess, I drove towards home. I needed to be surrounded by the familiar sweet scent of vanilla and cinnamon; lay in the plushy goodness of my futon sofa, and binge on lots of ice cream and cake until today's events were lost in a haze of sugar. After I came down from my sugar rush, I would open a bottle of wine and slowly process just what had transpired.

I was a street away from home when my phone began to ring. "Let It Flow" by Toni Braxton sounded and without looking I knew it was Tianna.

Tianna Moran was my only friend who knew a little about my crazy past. She was grace personified and looked like she had stepped out of a beauty magazine. Being around her always filled me with confidence and power. She was in a word intoxicating and how she juggled a husband and a six-month-old baby while holding down a job as an executive at a large firm, baffled me.

Her life was perfect unlike mine that was filled with unexplained issues; mostly medical ones that got worse with each passing year. I felt a faint prick of jealousy and rolled my eyes at myself. She was exactly who I needed to talk to.

I hit the answer button. "Hey T." My voice wobbled both from stress and relief. A hoarse whisper came through the line, "I need you to come over." Her words sent the strangest sensation of dread down my spine and the pity party I was having came to an immediate end.

"Come over? Are you sure?" For as long as I had known Tianna, I had never been to her house not for a party, a sleepover, or even to pick her up.

"Yes please and hurry." The tremor and urgency in her voice had me swallowing my questions and stepping on the gas pedal.

"Okay. What is your address? I'll be there before you know it." Tianna stuttered her address through sniffles and before I could respond the gruff sound of a masculine voice sounded and the line went dead.

The test results from my doctor's appointment and running into Det. Walker became distant memories as I sped down I-95. My heart was in my throat and the dread I felt earlier settled in the pit of my stomach.

The GPS said forty-five minutes, but barely twenty-five minutes later I was pulling into the Moran's driveway. As I walked up the steps to the door, I noticed how isolated their house was and that it was eerily quiet.

It was one of those huge, old, colonial homes with a massive back yard. There was the main house and another much smaller one for the help. In my mind, I could practically see my ancestors picking cotton in the field.

I shrugged my shoulder dismissively, rang the bell, and waited for Tianna. A minute passed with no answer. In fact, there was no movement at all on the other side of the door. Frowning in concern, I rang the bell again then double checked to make sure that one of the cars in the driveway was hers.

Still, there was no answer and the awful feeling I had on the drive over was now in full bloom. Grabbing my cell, I dialed her number but it rang without an answer. I couldn't even hear it through the thickness of the door.

Something within me awakened and the most peculiar sensation of pins and needles spread through my body, and suddenly I could see every dust particle in the air and hear the woodpecker in the tree about two feet to my left and 8 feet off the ground. I could even smell the mulch that was piled in the backyard.

Before I could panic at the abrupt influx of heightened senses, a muffled sound of skin connecting with skin followed by a voice pleading for it to stop flowed to my ear.

I immediately recognized Tianna's high- pitched voice as well as the angry, growling voice of her husband, Michael. From the sound of things, he was smacking her around.