MAYA

normal

TWO

MAYA KNEW something was wrong when her mother broke down in front of her. She had never been good with feelings and her embrace was awkward as she tried to calm her mother.

"We are getting a divorce."

The words, said between sobs, had shocked Maya to the core. Who had thought that something like that would happen to their white-picket-fence family?

With nothing to say Maya had sat beside her mother, calming her as sobs racked through her body. Maya didn't feel sad, didn't feel angry, just empty. All she could think about was how she would be the one both of her parents would confide in. How she would be the one carrying the unsettling weight of being the messenger between her mother and father. How she, regardless of how much she wanted to, wouldn't cry.

"Aren't you sad?" her mother asked her, meeting her gaze with watery eyes. "It's not normal to not cry. Do you want us to divorce?"

Maya knew it wasn't normal, just like a lot of things she did. It wasn't normal to be on her phone as much as she was, it wasn't normal to eat as much as she sometimes did, and it wasn't normal to be at home as much as she was. Maya knew she wasn't normal.

"Of course I'm sad," Maya said, her voice wavering. "And I would never want you to divorce."

"Then why aren't you crying?"

Because according to her mother, Maya wasn't normal. And normal kids cried.

She didn't say that, instead she replied, "I'm shocked."

Maya walked to her room and lay down on the bed. Releasing a shaky breath, she closed her eyes. She didn't like having to comfort other people and she didn't like it when her mother commented on how she should be.

Because what did it mean, being normal?

Apparently, it meant being nothing like Maya.