Break Me Where the Heart Is: Short Story ✔️

Mother

Mother never liked the stars - said they reminded her of too many ghosts circling about the sky, getting ready to devour every living soul that crossed under their desperate path. She would refuse to go outside when dark arrived at our front door, and would hide away in the bedroom until morning came upon our presence.

I never understood why she hated them, and the only reason I could fantasize for her strange way was that maybe deep inside, her guts twisted and turned, knowing her fate was never to be one of the stars, instead she would be a lifeless soul in the midst of fire and rock, deep below the glory of the sky and its Heaven.

But to me, the stars remind me of the beauty still left out in the world. They are the perfect wild flowers upon a beautiful meadow of night, still innocent.

The many years of sadness and anger towards my mother leaving me and Sister and the oblivious man in the chair, grew and expanded my curiosity of what crime had come upon Mother to want to leave us.

Her feet had left us behind to suffer the burnings of her absence.

Her hands had closed the door from her family; her husband, her children.

Her eyes had traveled away from the pain she left stabbing at our hearts.

And her mind had left an innocent child standing in a cloud of dust with no understanding of why she was leaving.

Mother was a mastermind of evil and secrets.

Through the years, I had even began to wonder if she had ever loved us. Was she thrilled to get to leave? -That's the question that really burned at my mind.

Sister ran away a long time ago to find Mother and forgive her, but I stayed planted behind; She believed Mother had hope of forgiveness, but I believed Mother had not a single piece of heart left in her body to be forgiven.

Father didn't try to stop her, and neither did I; we had just asked her never to bring Mother home in the process.

Father had awakened from his sleep of depression days after Mother had perished from our roof, and had become happy again. Many years were passing by, and when I was older I asked him quietly why Mother had left so many years ago.

He replied with angry tears, "You're mother never loved me you see.... I-I was just a distraction and toy for her to play with. She had other men she loved more"

That's when my growing understanding of Mother's faults hit me and I cried softly into my Father's shoulder the whole rest of the night.

I used to wait at the doorsteps when younger and hold a small smile on my face, waiting for her to appear in front of me once again; but then Father spoke those words, and deep down my heart immediately put her face inside a deep hole and closed it tightly, disappearing her from any of my love. I decided right then that she wasn't worth the wait of a million stars, and never sat on that front porch again

I would never miss Mother another day in my life. Period.

Because in the end, secrets do tear everything in their path, and unfortunately my heart was one of them.