let there be Light | ONC 2020

The Drawer

This wasn't the first time the drawer had refused to open. And it probably wouldn't be the last, either. But Liera Homalla wasn't one to give up easily.

Coming from the kitchen with the largest knife she could find in her mother's cabinet, Liera approached the rebellious drawer with a look of determination. She would not let this drawer get the better of her. She was not born into a family that gave up, and a drawer was certainly not going to stop her now.

Jamming the knife into the side, she slid it across the opening, trying to find whatever was keeping the drawer stuck. Almost halfway across, the knife caught something, halting her movements.

"Ah ha!" Liera whispered to herself, smirking. She twisted the knife, pushing whatever was in the way down and slid the drawer open.

Liera raised the knife into the air above her, shouting in triumph, "Take that, drawer! You may try and stop me, but you will never be able to stop a Homalla."

"Liera!" The knife dropped to her side instantly, nearly cutting her mother's arm off in the process. Her mother's eyes grew wide and she shouted again, "Liera! What on earth are you doing? Are you trying to kill me? This is not the way normal teenagers lash out!"

Liera could barely contain the amusement she felt at the look on her mother's face, accidentally letting a pinched smirk through. Her mother did not look amused.

"I'm not lashing out, Mama."

Crystal grey eyes squinted back at her suspiciously. There was a reason her husband called her 'his light'.

"I promise, the drawer is the only thing lashing out." Those eyes moved to frown at the drawer hanging awkwardly off the desk from being pulled out too far.

"Darn thing, your father will fix it when he gets back."

"Papa's coming back?" Jaia and Liera turned simultaneously at the small voice behind them.

A girl stood, hugging an old dress stuffed with straw. The fabric had been cut into the shape of some kind of four-limbed creature, paint used to draw two eyes and a curved mouth. Their father had made it for his youngest daughter before he had left almost two weeks ago.

Jaia shared a look to Liera, almost by instinct. Then she was kneeling in front of her daughter, "Papa will be home soon, sweet Sayd. But he's on an adventure, and adventures take a long time. But he'll be back, I promise."

Liera swallowed at the last words her mother said. Was that something that she could promise? Liera shook her head. She couldn't think like that, her father was a Homalla, after all.

Despite the confidence their mother had spoken with, Sayd looked at her older sister for confirmation. Two was better than one anyway.

"He'll come back," she smiled, almost mischievously. "The drawer depends on it."

Her mother turned from Sayd to look at her. Liera once wished she could have inherited those stunning eyes instead of the dark ones she had gotten, despite her father's chestnut ones.

But her father had said that in a world filled with light, those mysteriously dark eyes would have illuminated into something amazing. That was when he promised to find light, for her.

Just to show you how beautiful something can be if you just add a little light to it.

A promise she had always believed him good for.

"Why don't you go get dressed, we'll be leaving in twenty minutes," Jaia told her daughter, and Sayd pranced back down the hall.

As Liera saw her mother coming across the room to meet her, a soft look in her eyes, she forced a smile on her lips.

"Honey," she said gently. Liera turned her attention to the stupid drawer and took out a match from the diminishing pile.

"Yes, mama?" She said innocently.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. A comforting one. But Liera didn't want it.

She turned to face her mother, "I'm fine, mama."

Jaia frowned, almost guilty. "I wasn't going to-"

"You were." She didn't mean to sound so accusative. Her mother was only trying to comfort her. "But I don't need it. I promise." It seemed a lot of promises that weren't theirs to keep were being made today.

Jaia pressed, "He'll come back."

Liera had mastered a fake smile over the past two weeks. "I know."

She rushed towards the hallway after her sister, not bothering to close the drawer.

Liera had learned that it was better to leave the drawer open to keep it from jamming again.

As she knew it would.