Prologue
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Abigail wrapped her hand around the cold, crescent-shaped, metal door handle of the front door that belonged to her mother’s olden townhouse; warm light flowed through its widening cracks, its origin coming from beyond the door and releasing itself out as it slowly creaked open—as if she was living in one of those stereotypical horror movie scenes. Although, unlike in those movies, what was beyond the door was nothing of any kind of a horrific state, but her lovely sev—no, eight-year-old daughter, Maxine. From the moment the handle of the front door started to have even the slightest bit of motion Abigail could hear the stomping of little feet on the other side of said door, and when she pushed the handle down all of the way and swung it open—letting all of the bright light from the other side to flow out into the dark night— she was welcomed with her young daughter leaping into her unsuspecting arms.
“Hello birthday girl!” Abigail exclaimed as she lifted the small frame of Maxine and spun her around in the air in circles, just like one of those fluorescent green zero gravity rides that resided in carnival parks and local fairs, well actually probably more like one of those slower swing rides at Cedar Point. “You’re a lot heavier than I remember you being, how much did grandma feed you?”
“Hey!” Maxine replied seeming as if she was offended, as Abigail placed her back down onto the ground. “I do not weigh that much, you’re just weak.”
“Wow, so all of the sudden you just want to bash your own mother, I see what age does to you,” Abigail replied with a smile as she playfully hit her daughter lightly on the shoulder. “Go get your things together, I need to talk to your grandmother for a minute.”
“Okay,” Maxine replied. “She’s in the kitchen.”
“Thanks love,” Abigail replied kissing her on the forehead and motioning for her to get moving. “Now go, you take forever.”
Abigail watched as Maxine bounced down the nearby hallway, her feet hitting the floor lightly as if she didn’t weigh a thing, and disappeared into the guest room once she reached its dead end. Abigail turned away from the door, of which her daughters’ form had just passed through, and stalked towards the kitchen. Her mother was stood at the counter, knife in hand, a little slicing noise cutting through the air just as she sliced a pineapple.
“How’ve you been?” Abigail asked as she neared the thin form of her mother.
Edna looked up at Abigail, her gaze holding a strong, yet chilling glare, “You would know if you would talk to me more than once, maybe twice, a year.”
“You know I can’t,” Abigail said whilst standing right in front of her mother, the granite counter being the only barrier between them.
“Any why is that?”
“Mom,” Abigail replied quietly, her eyes begging for her not to continue with her interrogation. “H-how is Jess doing?”
“Great her and Josh are doing great, and Ashley is excelling in school.”
“That’s great.”
Edna’s gaze stayed indifferent upon Abigail, making it feel as if a lit match had been placed upon her skin leaving behind its searing and burning pain: “Do you even care Abigail? Because last time I checked you haven’t seen or even spoken to your sister since her daughter was born. And that was eight years ago.”
“Of course I care!” Abigail yelled as she smacked her hand down on the table causing a small tingle of pain to flow throughout her arm. “You think that I separate myself and my family from you guys because I don’t care. I do it specifically because I care. Because I have gotten myself into some deep shit over the years and am afraid of what it will do to you and to Jess and even to little Ashley.”
Edna moved from her place behind the counter, moving towards her daughter, her hands raising up to rest on her cheeks: “Then talk to me love, let me help you.”
“That’s the issue mom. You can’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Mom, just drop it, please. I don’t want to get anyone else involved.”
“Does this mean that Maxine is involved in whatever this is?”
Abigail looked into her mother’s eyes, searching for some kind of clue as to what was going on inside of the others’ head, but the only thing that she could decipher from the foreign look was worry, a common friend of hers: “Inadvertently yes.”
“Does she know?”
“She knows nothing about anything,” Abigail replied as she rubbed at the small black marking that lay upon her wrist. “And I don’t plan on her figuring it out either.”
“She will eventually,” Edna replied rubbing her hand supportively on Abigail’s cheek and then pulling her hand back and moving back to her place in front of her massacred pineapple.
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Abigail replied, her voice seeming to falter slightly.
“Have anything to do with what?” Max said from the archway that connects the living room and kitchen together.
“Nothing love,” Abigail replied forcing a smile to rise out from its hiding hole within her and join her other facial features to make her seem as if she was that joyful loving mother she had always been. “Now come on give your grandma a kiss goodbye we got to go.”
Electric blue eyes gazed out and into the darkness of night, watching as the dots of light emanating from the street lights above blurred together as they drove their way towards home. Trees lurking beyond the thin metal rails that separate the road of fast cars from the one of the beauty of nature; the trees were almost completely bare in the coldness of late November, but still holding onto their few final shreds of red and orange life that keep them in consciousness.
Abigail turned her head towards Maxineś small form, her head placed against the window as she stared beyond the glass of the car window and out into the world around her; watching as if it was her first time seeing it.
“Hey love,” Abigail said disrupting the quiet but steady sound of the radio and causing Maxine to move away from the glass slightly. “I bought the stuff to make your favorite cake, so when we get home I thought we could make that and then watch whatever movie you want. Does that sound good? Because if not we could do something else.”
“As long as I can eat the leftover batter in the bowl,” Maxine replied with a smirk.
“Okay,” Abigail replied her voiced heightened in a specific way as if to mock her. “But if you get sick it’s not my fault.”
“It would be entirely your fault,” Maxine replied her smile widening. “And you know it.”
“Okay fine, whatever, but you’re going to school tomorrow no matter what.”
“And I will,” Max replied. “I promise.”
Abigail turned the wheel to the right and Maxine watched as they left behind all of the bright yellow light that gave the highway a kind of golden aura and began to near their house.
Once the small silver car was close enough to their address to where they could see their driveway Maxine noticed another car in their driveway, one that she hadn’t seen in months and of whom the owner she hadn’t seen longer.
“Is that dad’s car?” Maxine asked her mother, her body suddenly fueled by her newfound excitement.
“Yes, it is,” Abigail replied. Her eyes seemed to be filled with something that Maxine hadn’t seen before. Something that scared her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Abigail replied he breath slightly shaking. “I’m fine, sorry I was just surprised.”
The second that small vehicle was beyond the end of the driveway Maxine unbuckled herself and was basically leaping out of the car before it even came to a full stop, completely ignoring the protests of her mother. Abigail pulled her keys out of the ignition and leaned back in the seat of her car, her head moving up towards the ceiling, letting out a breath that she hadn’t known she was holding.
Tap. tap. Tap.
Abigail leaped out of her seat startled at the unexpected noise. Her eyes met ones of which matched Maxine’s, except on Jordan Walker they were more like ice and held a certain unplaceable coldness to them. Abigail moved her hand to the car door handle and pushed herself out of the warm car.
“Sorry, I must’ve spaced out,” Abigail said once she was face to face with her husband.
“I’ve missed you,” he replied as he pulled her into his open arms. Abigail could see Maxine waving from inside his car.
“Are we going somewhere,” she asked.
“Well I got some extra cash so I thought that we could bring Maxine to that diner she loves so much,” Jordan replied with a large smile that seemed almost unnatural.
“That’s like two hours away,” Abigail replied her voice changing from its normal pitch to one that held more of a type of sternness to it. “She has school tomorrow and it’s late we are not driving for four hours.”
“We wouldn’t be driving,” Jordan replied his smile turning more into a smirk. “I would be.”
Abigail looked right into his cold blue eyes: “She has school tomorrow. So no your not.”
“It’s her first birthday that I’ve been here for in years,” Jordan pleaded. “Please.”
“Fine,” Abigail caved. “But she’s sleeping in the car and that’s final.”
Electric blue eyes stared out beyond the glass, yet again glued to the large streetlights above just as before, although this time the emanating light shone brighter, giving everything around them a glowing aura; making everything seem as if was from another distant world. Light after light passed by them, the speed of which their car was accelerating making them all join together as one long stream of light, one line of glowing glory. She tried to keep count of them as they passed on, but the second they were out of her sight a new one came into view and within seconds she lost count. Maxine didn’t have a clue as to how long they had been going down this seemingly endless road, all she knew was that they had passed over a hundred or so lights and her head was starting to ache, she turned away from the window to look up at her parents in the front.
Abigail’s platinum blond hair cascaded down her face like a waterfall covering the little details on her face and hiding them from the view of the young child’s eyes in the back. Her usual bright emerald green eyes stared blankly out of her window, and it was as if every little thing that had happened over the course of Abigail’s life had been erased. Like she was just some character whose story was literally highlighted and deleted, never to be heard of by the world. What was left was a mere image of a person whom of which had been left in the past, never to be seen again.
The screaming sound of rubber as it fought against the pavement below tore through the silence that had been held for so long in the little silver car. Maxine’s eyes widened in horror as the red front a semi-truck came hurtling towards the car.
Time slowed.
Milliseconds turned to minutes.
Seconds turned to hours.
And one minute felt like an eternity.
One minute that changed the course of Maxine Walker’s life forever. One minute that looked into her innocent blue eyes and took their virginity. One minute that stole the lives of the two people that she loved most in the world. One minute to say her goodbyes. One minute to remember. And one minute to her eternal suffering.
