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July 19, 1982
AMARA STRUGGLED WITH THE ZIPPER of her suitcase, the task of closing it nearly impossible by how haphazardly she'd thrown everything in. The room she'd lived in for the first fourteen years of her life was completely empty, save for the other two suitcases that stood by her doorway. The walls that had once been plastered with calendars and math and science tests she'd done exceptionally on were barren, her furniture unassembled and packed into the moving truck standing in the driveway, every crevice of her closet checked over to ensure she didn't leave anything behind.
Her family was leaving Ohio today. And though her parents insisted it was because Scott would have better luck finding a good-paying job in Indiana amid the energy crisis, Amara knew deep down the move was really due to her failure to get accepted into a single high school in Cleveland.
"Hey, we're hoping to leave within the next half hour!" Eurydice called from across the hallway as she carried two bags to the top of the stairs, sliding them down to the bottom where Kevin stood ready to catch them and bring them out to the truck. "Need any help over there?"
"I'm okay, thanks!" Amara responded through gritted teeth, still attempting to zip up her last suitcase.
Eurydice disregarded this, for she was familiar with Amara's tendencies to avoid asking for help, whether she was grappling with a challenging English assignment or trouble packing her bags in this case. Like most people, she opted to read between the lines in order to understand how her daughter was feeling. It annoyed Amara to no end: she could mean it when she said she felt fine and Eurydice would still act as though Amara's body language indicated her emotions even if it contradicted her words.
"Here, let me help," Eurydice offered upon approaching the doorway to Amara's bedroom, smiling sympathetically.
"I'm fine, Mom. I can handle it," Amara huffed. As if to prove her point she rested her body weight on top of the bag and succeeded in jamming it shut. Shifting it upright, she pushed it to the side where it collided with her other suitcases. "See? I got it."
Eurydice's facial expression morphed into dismay as she acknowledged the growing rift between herself and Amara. Amara had once turned to her for support with everything; standardized tests, insecure hecklers, indifferent teachers, bruises on her knee, and everything in between. It was natural for the bond between a mother and her daughter to fracture when the latter reached teenhood, a tug-of-war between the mother's overprotective instincts and the daughter's desire for independence, but Amara's autism further complicated matters. It only amplified Eurydice's protectiveness over her daughter and made Amara long for freedom from her mother, but only so she could lose herself in the pages of Timescape and gaze up at the stars decorating her ceiling while Fleetwood Mac echoed in the background, rather than go to the mall and parties with friends she didn't have.
