Astral

Chapter 6: Gram

       I wake up, lying in yet another bed. However, something is different. It's silent. I look around and I realize I am back up in my bedroom. My lights are all off, but I can still see my mushroom poster in the dim light from the sun behind my curtains. 

      I try to move my head and not just my eyes, it doesn't hurt as bad. It is not comfortable or great, but it's not as bad as it was earlier. Where did everyone go? I wonder. I'm so confused and a bit disoriented, now I am alone too. I realize my mouth is dry and my throat hurts. Im thirsty. 

      I stumble into the kitchen slowly, trying to not fall with every step I take. In the kitchen, the counters are all dirty. They have food stuck on them that's been there for days. The sink is already overflowing and there are flies everywhere. I walk over to my cabinet, avoiding the peeling tiles on the floor and all of the cat hair clumped up into piles. I open the brown cabinet door and it creaks loudly. The high-pitched noise hurts my ears and I wince in pain. I reach for the glass at the top, but I am too short. I clear a spot off, on my counter just big enough for my two knees to fit. Then, I climb up to get the cup. When my hand meets the cup, I grab it and pull it down. 

       When I get the cup down, I see an odd-colored liquid inside of it. "What the fuck is that?" I whisper to myself and lean into the cup to smell it. My nose is greeted with the smell of vinegar and rot... I jump off of the counter, leaning over into the sink that's next to me. I immediately throw up expelling whatever was left in my stomach. I choke and gag, still smelling that awful smell in the back of my nose. I can almost taste it in my throat. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" I scream, eyes watery and still coughing from the mysterious mixture.

       "I have no idea. Clark brought it in. Who knows what the hell that is." I jump and turn around to see where the voice was coming from. My gram is in the hallway walking towards the kitchen.

       "That's disgusting." I laugh a bit, but the puking had made me dizzy and the laughing didn't help too much. I grab the side of the counter and hold myself up straight.

       "Water." My grandmother says turning around to go back to her room. I stand there trying to look around me but everything is so blurred again. I get scared quickly. Where did she go? Did she forget me?

       "Here darlin'. Drink this up." She says handing me a pink big hospital cup. I take a sip. Ice cold water. Yum. 

       "Best water I have ever tasted." I laugh again at the thought of it. How could water taste so good?! I think to myself. 

        I walk into my Gram's room. It's really cluttered in here too. There's a white bookshelf in the corner. It's all in disarray. The shelf has a few books on the far right, under a stack of falling papers. It seems to have not been touched in weeks or maybe even months. My gram used to love to read. However, now the books are just victims to the dirty domicile like everything else, like everyone else. Under the books, there are so many papers. There are construction papers, cards, old-school worksheets, and scrapbooking papers. The bookshelf looked as if to be made of paper with the amount of paper it has on each shelf. The papers blend in with the white wood in some parts, making it hard to even tell the difference. Hidden behind the shelf there is a window. There is a brown fuzzy blanket in the top of the window, closed in the window frame to stop the draft. On the wall, you can be greeted by the faint pale blue paint and black spots of mold seeping through the corners. On the brown carpeted floor there are wrappers, miscellaneous clothing items, random stains, and on one part of the carpet you can be greeted by a hard candy stuck to the floor. The carpet is no longer soft. Instead, it is clumpy and scratchy from all of the things spilled, then mopped back up again.  The room has a lingering smell of nicotine, body odor, and gin. This bedroom used to be Clarks. My grandmother does the best that she can trying to cover the stench with her cinnamon wax melts or her pine-scented air fresheners. However you can still sometimes smell what it used to be. 

        I glance over to my grams bed. She has a purple quilt on her bed with tons of different phone cords, word search books with a wide variety of pens and pencils, and a few TV remotes. I look over at her, and I see that she is flipping through channels trying to find something good to watch on her smart TV. She likes watching FBI shows and true stories from the ER. She also often makes me watch soap operas with her. "What's up Munchkin?" She asks me.

        "Nothing exciting, I'm pretty confused though," I say, anticipating an explanation. 

        "There is not too much to explain," She says while still looking at the TV. "You needed to stop, and you were not stopping, just kicking and kicking away over there." She turns to look at me and a slight grin comes over her. "You just about killed that man, you little fireball. I have never seen such rage in someone's eyes. You did that just for me. Thank you Astral... But next time, don't break his ribs!" 

       "I broke his ribs?" I ask concerned. I don't like Clark, and I don't care what happens to him. 

       However, he still is human. 

       "Az, your brother had to stop you. You were going to kill him..." My Gram responds.

       "Where is everyone now?" I ask still confused.

       "Well, your brother and sister are at school. Today is Thursday. Your mother is with Clark, God knows where. Your mother is real upset with you, I'd stay away from her for a bit if I were you. You know how they say love is blinding? Well Astral, your mother is blind. I hate to say it, But she's the most blinded that I have ever seen. She thinks he loves her. She doesn't think that there is better, she doesn't think that she deserves better. Az, your mom is lost right now, as we all are." My gram explains.

       I nod, not knowing what to say. She's right... I'm still standing, and I feel a bit weak in the knees like I'm too weak to hold my own body weight. I sit down on the edge of her bed, after moving some cords and chargers to the side. My gram puts on an FBI show and we begin to watch it. 

       As I watch the show, I notice something. Today's Thursday...

       I have therapy today...