~Suzanne~
“Morning mom,” I said as I walked in the kitchen in my sport bra and panties.
“Good God Suzanne put on some clothes,” she said, adverting her eyes from me.
“First of all, I’m your daughter. You don’t have to move your eyes away from me while I’m half naked. You changed my diapers for Christ’s sake. I mean unless you’re into that kind of thing, which would be gross.” She just laughed and rolled her eyes. “And anyway I would sleep with clothes on, but you have yet to get the AC working and I get very hot at night.”
“Was that a reference to something sexual?”
I paused. “Maybe.”
She grumbled and picked up a bagel. “Suzanne, you know money’s a little tight right now. Just turn the ceiling fan on high when you got to sleep. And don’t cover yourself with fifty blankets.”
“Mom, you know I can’t sleep without the weight of the blankets on my back. It makes me uncomfortable.”
“Well then there’s no point in complaining about the heat then is there? And anyway I thought you left for school and hour ago.”
“Nah,” I said as I hopped on to the counter. “It’s a teacher work day. We don’t have school.” I did a handstand and walked to the bowl of apples on my palms. “You’re dressed casually.”
“They changed casual Friday to Monday.” She took a bite out of her bagel. “Can you get off on the counter?”
“Oh mother.” I picked up and apple and slid to lie down on the counter. I stretched out my body and let my black hair fall on my shoulders. “You’re funny. You see when you took me out of gymnastics, I didn’t have anywhere to play around.”
“So the kitchen is your play ground?”
“Yep. And I think I should get a scooter you know?”
she threw her head back and laughed. “And where is this idea coming from?”
“Michael has one. He drove me home on Saturday, remember?”
“But Michael is sixteen, and you’re fifteen. You can’t even drive a car yet.”
“But mom-”
“The answer is no sweetie.” She walked over to me a kissed my cheek. “I gotta go. Remember to lock all of the doors and put the alarm on. And also close the windows unless you put some clothes on okay? Oh and by the way we’re having fa-gee-tas tonight.”
I sighed. It didn’t matter if my mom was born in America, she still struggled with her semi-broken English, and pronouncing Mexican food was an issue for her. “You mean fajitas?”
“Is that how you say it?” I nodded and she started laughing. “No wonder…we went to lunch the other day and I ordered fa-gee-tas and everyone looked at me like I was insane.”
I hopped of the counter and kissed her back. “Jesus Christ mom. Bye!” she laughed and walked out of the door and I watched her out of the window as she drove off. I huffed and went to the restroom. There was no reason to take a shower now. I just was too lazy to feel water on my skin. And with the morning bustle, most if not all of the hot water would be gone by now. I just had to wait.
I checked myself out in the mirror, than I had to stand on my toes to see. I was short, very short. Like four eleven short. Not even five feet, compared to my mom who was almost five eight. Thanks genetics. You’re a real help.
The bright light right above the mirror made my almond milk colored skin shine, and my brown eyes sparkle like little gold flecks were in them. I had a bird nose. That’s what I liked to call it. It was small, but it looked like a birds’ beak and I hated it. My rosy pink lips stood out the most on my face, and I puckered them and made the typical Asian girl peace sign. “Damn sexy,” I told myself. I checked my hair, and suddenly wanted bangs. Yea. That’d be nice.
I grabbed the scissors out of the cabinet. I parted and combed a reasonable size chunk of hair in front of my face, and put the rest in a bun. “Here goes nothing.”
The sound of scissors chopping away at my hair made me cringe, and I was sort of regretting doing this stupid idea. Snip. Snip. I grumbled as I finished the last bits. I looked at myself. I shrugged. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the most perfect thing I’d ever done. I could just have mom take me to the salon and fix it up there.
After cleaning up the hair and putting away the scissors, I walked back in my room and turned on the T.V. searching for something to watch.
I made the mistake of laying down with out a pillow on my head, and my “big ol’ boobs”-as Michael would say-were in the way.
I flipped through stations and the only things that were playing were baby TV shows and early morning new. I clicked on the the news after seeing nothing interesting was on. “Hundreds of people in Lincoln Park have disappeared after a burst of lighting ran horizontally through the park. We have a video taken by a stand byer’s phone, who dodged the light just as it came by.”
I watched the video that they played on the screen. It was just the park. The guy was filming a little kid, and then fog came, then a burst of lighting, then everybody was gone. What a hoax, I thought. April fools day was coming up, and people were pranking people left and right. That’ll be funny when they realize they’re wrong.
I flipped to other stations and watched Nick Jr. on some bubble show. I climbed back in my bed and called one of my friends. No answer. “How about Carolina,” I mumbled, dialing her number.
It took few rings but she picked up. “Suzanne where the hell are you?” she shouted. She sounded like she’d been crying. Her voice was cracked and I could hear the water dropping off her cheeks. “I’m at home. I didn’t feel like doming to school today.” The whole thing about the teacher workday was a lie. I just wanted to get out of school without a huge fuss by my mother. It was funny because she normally doesn’t believe me when it comes to things like that. “Are you crying?”
“Yes!” She shouted. “Haven’t you watched the news?”
“What? That BS about the light taking people?” I scoffed. “You believed that?”
“Well it’s kinda hard not to when you hear people in the floor above you screaming their lungs out!”
I grunted. “Carolina, you should stop reading those sci-fy books-
“Oh my God my mom is calling me!” she said. “Suzanne I love you. Stay inside and don’t open any doors and windows. Call your mom.”
“Yea. Bye you psycho.” I hung up and opened some windows and let in the early morning sunlight. I looked down at Chicago, at the little ant like people scrambling around to get to work and school. Far off near my school I saw tons of people running, and a thick fog covering the area. Wow, I thought.
I looked down and saw somebody look up at me. It was a blonde boy, smoking a cigarette. We stared at each other for a while, before a pressed my breasts against the glass. It was something I didn’t think about, but it was pretty funny. He smiled lustfully, and I smiled back.
Some of his friends walked up to him and looked up. I backed away as they knocked each other around laughing.
I walked in the kitchen and grabbed some orange juice out of the refridgerator. I heard a knock on the door, and I walked over to it. Through the peep hole, I saw my mother.
“Yes?” I said opening the door.
“I left my bag.” She said walking in the door. “I see you put on some type of clothing.” She stopped in her tracks and stared at me. “I don’t like it.” She said, pushing past me.
“Well it isn’t going to be perfect since I did it a few minutes ago.” Leaving the door open, I walked behind my mother. She disappeared behind the door of her room. I sat on the counter again and swung my feet over the edge. The room got brighter, and I squinted my eyes.
“Did you see that mess over by my school,” I said. I froze and remembered I was supposed to be there today.
“What mess?” She called back.
“Uh never mind. Forget I said anything. Jesus Christ. The sun’s trying to kill me.” I said, turning to the window. But I was faced with the bright disc of lighting that was on the news a few minutes ago. My blood ran cold and my nerves were on edge; I couldn’t move. My fingers felt like spikes, and my heart was pounding.
“Stay inside. Don’t open any doors or windows. Call your mom.”
I slid my eyes to the door, which was wide open. This wasn’t a hoax. This was real. And this thing was really in front of me.
It was just there, staring at me. It had something, a brighter light, right in front of it, aiming at me. “Suzanne! Where’s my bag-” I heard my mom walk in behind me, and she froze. “Suzanne what’s that?” she asked. The smaller light dashed to her. it dashed back and forth between us. I think it was trying to decide something, I don’t know, but being still was the only thing keeping us safe from it.
“Suzanne I need you to run out of the door.” My mother quietly tried. I could hear her taking a few steps towards me.
“No mom don’t move-” but that light shot out at her and I could hear a poof sound behind me. My body went stiff. “Mom?” I whispered. There was no answer. I called her again. Still no answer. Suddenly my mind went blank. I didn’t see anything. I just felt my body making all of these jerking motions towards something.
Then I stopped, and realized something. I had killed it. The Light. It was demolished into a thousand electrical pieces on the floor. I dropped to my knees and searched around. I was searching for any sign of my mother. Any sign of where she had gone. There were none.
I sat there. Crying to myself while my heart ripped into pieces smaller than the ones scattered at my feet. Why did it go for her? Why not me? Where was she? Where did she go?
I heard the windows in the back explode and shatter. The sound of metallic grinding against each other was in our rooms. “Suzanne. I need you to run.”
That’s exactly what I did. I ran out the door, just as those things came in looking for me.