Light (3 page)

What the hell did I just do?
I glanced at my hands one more time.
What the hell was happening to me?

I’VE LIVED IN CHICAGO ALL MY LIFE AND I HAD NO
idea where I was. The buildings all looked the same, foreign and it felt as if I’d been transported to another place, far, far from home.

My phone had broken when Clare shoved me and it’d fallen to the ground.

It was in the front pocket and I knew Tim was going to kill me for ruining my first phone. The black screen had a huge crack and the phone didn’t even try to turn on.

Eyes scanned me up and down as I wondered through the city, wearing only my tutu over a pair of slacks. I’m sure I looked like someone who’d just escaped from the loony bin. Walking into another alley, I removed my torn tutu and walked with the thing in my arms. When the sun started to set, fear got hold of me.

It was funny how strange people get. They knew that I was lost. The fear was evident on my face as I walked in circles, because I could’ve sworn I’d passed the laundry shop on my left half an hour ago, yet none of them stopped to ask if I needed any help.

Soon I found a bus stop and plunged down. Traffic was jammed and I just wished that by some miracle I would find my way home tonight.

As I sat, my eyes caught the bruise on my arm illuminated in the lamplight. It was in the shape of finger marks and I couldn’t recall who’d given it to me. It had been Derek or Mark.

The bruise was turning purple now, but the only thing I saw was the soft golden grit-like dust leaving my hands as I threw heaps and heaps at them, behind my closed eyelids.
Where did it come from?

My mind was seriously going on a trip and I started thinking that maybe Derek slipped some of his mom’s narcotics inside my glass of juice at lunch and this was the result, but when I pinched myself, it felt real.

“Meow,” a cat close by said as it jumped onto my lap.

“Shades?” I stared at the cat with huge eyes. It looked like her, she had those two round markings around both her eyes and raven black fur with a grey bushy tail. The markings around her eyes were what gave her the name, because it looked like she was wearing sunglasses.

I liked to think that Shades was mine, but she wasn’t. Tim was highly allergic to cats. She was a stray and would come to my window every night begging for a bowl of milk and a warm place to sleep. She’d been my secret keeper for the past year and I didn’t know what I would do if the cat ever got run over by a car or got hurt.

It felt nice seeing a familiar face, even if that face belonged to an animal.

“I’m so dead. Tim is going to kill me.” I looked down at the cat with both my hands cupping her cute scrunched up face gently. She was a Persian, and I couldn’t understand how she could be a stray.

“It was Clare and her gang, look.” I showed her the marks on my arms and she stared at them. Yep, she really did. That was why I felt I could tell her anything. She always acted as if she understood everything I told her. I blabbed the whole story as she was nestling herself on my lap. When I was done she opened her eyes and just gave me that look, the one that said, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay and that Clare is a bitch”. I giggled at that thought.

Shades jumped off my lap and stretched. She looked back at me and started to walk further down the street.

“You’re just going to leave me here?” I yelled after her as she ran past people’s feet. She turned around and came back.

Okay, that was freaky.

I just stared at her as she rubbed herself on my leg and looked at me again. She started to walk again and something inside of me said that I should follow her.

I knew it was silly and I felt extremely stupid as the cat led me through dark alleys and rushed down some stairs. There were plenty of homeless people sleeping below the streets. Fear crept over me as they stared, but they stayed on their cardboard mats. I even climbed through a gutted window and was back on the street.

Chas, you’re stupid, the cat has no idea what you said.

Still, It was better to be with someone familiar, even if that someone was Shades, than being alone with strangers looking like I was crazy. Guess talking to a cat furthered that possibility.

We turned so many times and walked a block or two before she made another turn. It felt like hours and it was finally starting to sink in that this cat had no idea where she was going. She was probably looking for her next meal.

Suddenly, she stopped and didn’t want to go any further. I crouched down and blew out a huge gush of air. It was dark and the only lights that shone were from the street lights. I picked up the cat and held her close to my face while scratching her ear.

“This was stupid, huh? I shouldn’t have followed you,” I spoke softly, close to her ear.

Shades stared at me as if she was chirping something at me and I giggled and looked around.

I saw Ms. Botty’s flower shop and I stared at the cat. My eyebrows knitted as I looked at Ms. Botty’s flower shop again.

Ms. Botty’s flower shop was two blocks from where we lived. Mom purchased flowers once a week from her.

“Thank you, you genius,” I kissed Shades on the neck and the cat jumped out of my arms and ran in the opposite direction of my house.

I giggled, this feeling was so strange. Mom was never going to believe that a cat brought me home, or maybe she would, she was a bit fruity and believed all sorts of crazy things, but Tim wouldn’t. He was the realistic type and would probably give me the worst beating for scaring Mom like that.

My heart jumped into my chest. Tim had only given me a hiding once. He was from one of those families that believed that you should bend the tree while they are still young. Mom didn’t like it one bit and I could still remember the huge fight they had that night.

I stopped for a second when I saw three cop cars in our driveway.

My heart pounded. What the hell was I going to say? I didn’t even have a story and telling them the truth would win me a straitjacket for sure.

I couldn’t think of anything and lying was just going to end up biting me in the ass. I wasn’t a liar. The one time I had lied, I found out that I was really crappy at it, and decided to only speak the truth as best as I could. But this time the truth was insane. Nobody was going to believe me.

I closed my eyes and opened the door. A familiar smell lingered in my nostrils. It was warm inside and I felt like crying as I’d really had the crappiest day ever.

Mom gasped as she ran to my side and folded her arms around me. We looked nothing alike. She was a red head with beautiful blue eyes and very sensitive skin. Me, I had dark, shoulder length, raven black hair with high cheekbones. I assumed I must look like my father, who I knew was Asian as it was clear in my appearance.

“Where the hell have you been?” Tim screamed and rushed past three cops who were taking a statement in our living room. “Do you have any idea what you just put your mother through?”

He was right, my
mom
. Why would he care?

I hated crying and tried really hard not to, but the tears won the battle as my mother hugged me again.

“She is safe now, Tim. I’m sure whatever Chas went through, she’ll tell us after she’s taken a bath.”

“Vinique! That’s it? That’s all you are going to do?” Tim yelled some more with his hands in the air. He was beyond pissed off.

“Don’t push me today, Tim!” my mother yelled. “I had a really shitty day.” She’d never spoken to Tim like that before, or glared at him like that. It wasn’t like her.

Tim grunted and the lamp on the table was smacked down from its spot and smashed onto the ground.

“Mr. Swanson,” one of the cops said. “You need to step out of the house for a second.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Is everything okay, here?” The lady cop asked.

“We’re fine,” Mom said with the sweetest smile she could master. “My daughter is safe, that’s all that matters. Thank you so much for coming out. You are free to leave.”

Mom still had her arms around me. She’d never been this upset before and I really felt crappy.

The cops just watched us for a couple of seconds and then the lady cop smiled. “Okay, if you need our assistance, just call us again.”

“Thank you again, all three of you and don’t worry. We are perfectly safe.” Mom tried to alleviate their worries and the cops left.

Tim stared at both of us. I hid my face in my mom’s shoulder, but I could feel his eyes on me, glaring into my soul. With huge strides he left and went to the basement, to his man cave.

I jumped as the door of the basement slammed hard behind him.

Mom kissed me again and led me up the stairs and into the bathroom. She didn’t say a word, didn’t ask a question, just opened the taps.

“What happened, Chas? Where were you? Why didn’t you phone? Do you have any idea what you put me through today?” She was close to tears.

“I’m sorry, Mom. It was Clare and the gang again,” I said and start telling Mom everything. I even showed her that my phone had cracked when Clare pushed me. She wasn’t happy about that either. I told her as much as I could, except the part where soft, golden brown dust-like grit had emerged in my hands out of nowhere and made my opponents fall asleep…..it sounded so crazy.

Mom caught sight of the bruises on my arms as I was still busy telling her what happened, sort of and I thought she was going to explode. “What is this? This is going too far, Chastity. It’s me and that school tomorrow.”

“Please Mom, don’t. You’re only going to make it worse, I’m begging you.”

“Chastity.”

“Please, I’ll be fine. I found my way home, please.”

Mom just gave me that look. The one that said she knew that I was in terrible danger and couldn’t do anything for me as it was my battle to fight, not hers.

“Fine, but one more incident Chastity Blake, just one more, and I’m marching down to your principal, you hear?” she said and hugged me again.

“I’m going to make us something to eat.” Mom finally gave me a soft smile, with a worried look, and left the bathroom.

I wasn’t even hungry, just so tired, but the bath was working its miracle.

My mind skipped through the events that happened this afternoon and lingered on Shades taking me home. It was her road, but it’d done the trick. I was home and all thanks to a cat.

Nothing made sense. It was impossible, and yet it still happened. Fear of tomorrow, not knowing what Clare and her gang was going to tell everyone knotted my stomach. I never hated school like this before, and for Clare to believe that scaly bastard over ten years of friendship, hurt a lot. I wasn’t even into jocks. Yes, their pecs and beautiful features were nice to look at, if only they were smart. Most of the jocks I knew were idiots and did dumb idiot things like drinking and smoking and showing off their talents in front of girls like Clare. She was smarter than that and it hurt that she was so blind to Ty’s dog manners.

I was more fascinated with the minds. The geekier they were, the better, if only you could take their minds and put it into someone like Ty, then his rumors could’ve been true, and the sad part of it was that Clare knew that about me. She knew everything about me, except what I’d done today. I hadn’t even known that myself.

She was right, I was a freak and every time I closed my eyes I saw her crouching down next to Mark, yelling those words at me.

After the bath, mom and I ate alone. Tim was still in his man cave, either trying to cool down or trashing the place. It was probably the former because no sound came from the basement. He had a temper but always tried to keep it at bay. Mom had this calming demeanor, she could calm anybody down.

“Is that all that happened today?” Mom asked. I just stared at her. At times I swore she could read minds. That she knew the truth about me. It would freak her out, even if I was her daughter. No normal human being would understand. I didn’t even understand it.

I nodded. “Can we please just not speak about this Mom? I’m really tired and just want to go to bed.”

“Okay, baby.”

I poured a glass of milk and heated it up slightly. I did it every night and wondered if my mom knew about Shades, if she did, she didn’t say anything. I took a can opener and hid it inside my bathrobe pocket when she wasn’t looking. A tin of tuna from the cupboard also went in there when Mom went to Tim’s man cave. Shades deserved it tonight.