Reality {Aerosmith}

FIVE

 

‘Every life has a measure of sorrow,
and sometimes this is what awakens us’
-
Steven Tyler

FIVE

Weeks past, life seemed almost normal as Delaney continued school five days a week though the walk from school was different, no longer did she go down ‘Olive Street’ but a couple blocks down to ‘Lawrence Drive’ where her Gran greeted her each afternoon. She spent her weekends with Maddie, either down at the large dam or the small main street with its post office, grocery store and hardware store. Delaney’s nights were the worse, the dreams of her parents living on Olive Street coming alive. She wasn’t sure which was the nightmare, the dreams or reality? The dark circles under her eyes made her believe that it could be the dreams, the scenes of mum and dad around the house and their laughter ringing in her ears.

Right here and now, it was a Friday and the last class of the week, meaning the hallways were filled with plans for the weekend. There was talk about a party tonight but Delaney didn’t have the heart to join the rest of her fellow students like she would usually do. Now with her parents’ passed away, she couldn’t find the sense to care about that sort of thing, when a few months back she would have been out there with Maddie sneaking through her window.

She could remember the one time her parents had actually caught her climbing back into her bedroom in the early light of the morning.  She had one foot on either side of the window when her mum passed the cracked door, she had paused at seeing her figure as it filled the doorway. Surprisingly, her mum simply winked and carried on to their bedroom down the hall where her dad was snoring away in the bed.

The next morning, Delaney had been expecting some type of scowling though no such thing happened. Dad simply read his daily newspaper, sipping the black coffee next to him like any other morning that he got ready for work at the real estate in the next town over. Her mum was in her dressing gown, pouring the sugary cereal in a medium sized bowl and passing it to Delaney when she walked towards the table. She had managed to finish a whole bowl full of cereal and walk out the door on time without a word about the night’s events.

Now that Delaney thought about it, her mother probably wasn’t as up tight as she believed, thinking back to the multiple of times she had gotten away with things. Maybe her mother had been a wild child at some point, how else would she have gotten involved with Steven?  

Finally away from the public, the voices of her fellow students, she was feeling numb, unsure what to do as she laid on her back on the mattress in her bedroom. Her eyes flickered to the box, the scribbled words of ‘Mum + Dad’ on the outside of the cardboard. She hadn’t looked in the box since she packed it and left the house, maybe it was time to take a step forward and find her way.

She slid down the side of her bed, her back against the wooden boards of the frame as she lazily pulled the box in her direction beside her right side. She opened the flaps and reached inside, her fingers touching a soft fabric. She pulled out the designed shirt from the annual carnival that happened in the community, it was her mother’s from last year, the tomato sauce stain still present on the bottom of the white singlet top.

She traced the stain, thinking back to the rides and fairy floss that came with it. It was always a great couple of days with her mother helping out with events and a day listening to the live music with a sausage in bread in hand with Maddie sitting beside her.