Peppermint And Gunpowder

Chapter Eight: Dance, Dance

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 

Then God said, 'Let there be light!' and there was light. And God saw that light was good. Then He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day' and the darkness 'night.'

And evening passed and it was the first day."

"How did He create the earth?" Gracie asked as she lay curled up against my side. The boys all had gone out to do their rounds with the batteries--Poison went as well, despite my protests. Nobody even knows about last night, about Poison and I in the bathroom, about the orange red tint on his chin and lips, about the hug and forehead kiss, about us holding hands tightly into the early hours of the morning.

When I woke that morning, our hands were no longer connected. Our knuckles brushed gently, but they both lay off the edge of the bed, unmoving. I wondered if he'd slept at all.

I wonder, as we lay hand in hand in hand, if he ever wanted to move away. Even after I fell asleep, if he still held my hand. If he still thought of me, if I appeared in his thoughts as he appeared in my dreams.

"Mercury?" Gracie shifts so she sits on her knees, poking my arm gently. "You okay?"

"Hm?" I turn to her, wrapping my arms around her small body.

"You look like you're thinking."

"Oh, I was, but I'm okay now." I fiddle with the ending of her hair. "Sometimes I just get lost in my thoughts, you know? You know how sometimes you're thinking so hard about something you just forget about the world around you? You forget you're talking to someone, or you're supposed to be doing something but you don't realize because you're thinking so hard?"

She just nods. "What were you thinking about?"

"Just... something." I pull her into my lap, moving the Bible onto the small table before the sofa. "What did you ask before?"

"Oh. I asked how God created the earth." She holds my hand and plays with my fingers.

"How did He? We don't know. Nobody knows, well, He knows."

"Why doesn't anyone know?" She traces the veins in my hands and palms, stopping at the end of my shirt sleeve and going back in her steps.

"We don't know why we don't know. That's one of the two biggest mysteries of the world." I say and she pauses, just watching my hand, thinking.

"What is the other?" She asks.

"The meaning of life. Nobody knows what it means; is it to be successful, to be remembered, to have a family, or just to die in the end?"

"I don't know." She drops hers and my hand, thinking. "I don't know."

"Nobody knows." I hold her tightly, smiling. "That's why it's one of life's biggest mystery."

We sit together on the sofa, and we talk quietly.

"When will the boys get back?" Gracie gets off the sofa and stands beside the table, picking a doll up off the floor beside the sofa.

"I'm not sure, soon I hope. I'm worried about him." I say, studying the doll clutched in her small hands. It's dark fabric hair is pulled into pigtails, a small fitted dress of red fabric falls to its knees. A single boot is taped to the left foot.

"Him?" Gracie sits back down on the sofa, doll in hand.

Him. I hadn't realized I'd said that.