Madness Not on Cloud 9

A Thanksgiving Story

        Clara sat up in bed peering into the darkness. She was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. She looked around in the dark and sat up, throwing her legs over on the side of the bed. Beside her was her girlfriend, Janice. The two of them were at Janice's family's house. It was decided they would spend Thanksgiving there while Christmas would be spent with Clara's family. Clara would have been fine with it if it weren't for the fact Clara didn't seemed to get along with Janice's mother. She remembered a conversation she had with Janice the day they were to leave out:      

        "Your mom doesn't like me," Clara said. She was putting the last suit case into the back of the trunk of the mini van. Her girlfriend, Janice, sighed. The two young women were heading to the cabin Janice's family owned for the Thanksgiving holiday. The problem Clara was having was the lack of respect Janice's mother for her. Clara always thought it was because of who she was; as in, a dark skinned, black woman with large kinky hair while Janice had mostly straight hair and was mixed with white, Asian, and Hispanic. Janice's dad was part Asian and white and her mom was Hispanic, a second generation Mexican American. 

       That's one of many things Clara hated about Janice's mother. Her mother would constantly say things under her breath in Spanish, as if Clara didn't know the Latin language herself. 

       "Are you okay?" Janice asked, her voice in a whisper, a bit husky because she was half way asleep.

       "I heard the noises again." Clara said. "I can't sleep." It was true. Since they arrived, Clara hadn't been able to sleep a wink for the past three days. There was a noise she kept hearing within the walls, like something or someone crying, like a baby or something. At first Clara had brushed it off but after hearing it for two nights straight, it was becoming a nuisance. Lack of sleep caused severe headaches for Clara. 

       She placed her hand on her head and walked out the room. Out in the hall, she went to the restroom and turned on the light. The door was closed as she washed her face with cold water from the sink....then she heard it-the cries. Shocked and a bit scared, she quickly turned the water off and caught her breath. Again, she turned the faucet back on. There were the cries. She turned the faucet off and got down on her knees. The two doors to the sink's cabinet swung open but all she saw were bathroom supplies, tools, and sink pipes. 

       Her back slammed against the restroom's wall as she sighed. She held her knees together and looked at the supplies; it was then she saw something. Her eyebrows narrowed and she crawled over to the sink. She peered at the pipes and saw a spec of red-what looked to be red paint. But when she ducked her head out from underneath the sink and looked around the restroom, she saw nothing was painted red. Clara got up and got a little spec of water on her finger tips. She ducked back below, and rubbed the red spot on the pipe. A little bit of it got on her fingers. She brought her eyes closer, and she saw the red liquid was starting to look a lot like blo-

       There was a strong knock on the door. Clara accidentally bumped her head on the sink. She got up and opened the door. In front of her was Janice's mother, Miranda. 

       "Que haces?" The woman asked, her arms folded around her bosom and dark red robe.

       "Nada...estoy..."

       "I don't like it when the light is on like this-"

       Clara rolled her eyes, turned off the light and brushed past Miranda. The older woman wasn't too fond of that gesture. She took hold of Clara's hand, "Este es mi casa..."

        "Yo...se..." Clara snatched her arm away from Miranda's gasp. She walked back to her room and closed the door. She went to Janice's closet and began to search around the bottom, and top. Once her hand came over the object she was looking for, she took it down from the shelf and clicked it on. The light flashed into her eyes and she quickly turned it off. 

       Clara crept over to the door and peered out, making sure her monster-in-law wasn't lurking around. When the coast was clear, she tipped toed to the restroom. She closed the door, leaning on it just a bit to avoid any noise. Her knees hit the floor and she opened the cabinet doors. Using the flashlight, she searched around for more red spots. When she saw there were a few by the ring of the pipe, she got on her back with the flashlight in her mouth. 

       She wasn't crazy. The cries were coming from somewhere...

       Clara took a wench that was near the tools in the little bucket under the sink and undid the pipe. She didn't have nearly any time to prepare herself for the onslaught of dark red liquid that came from the sink, and poured onto her face. She hurriedly got up, again, bumping her head. 

       The door swung open as she ran back to her room then closed the door, waking her girlfriend. "Janice...Janice..."

       Janice rocked back and forth before finally waking up. She glanced at her charging cell phone and saw it was four o'clock. "Clara, what the hell?" She glared at Clara until she saw the light which reflected the blood that was on her girlfriend's face, hands, and shirt, and pajama bottoms. She got up, the covers swung off her and she crawled across the bed. Janice grabbed Clara's arms, her elbows, looking for a cut. "Where's the blood coming from?"

       "The sink..." Clara took Janice's hand and dragged her to the restroom. Janice switched on the light and the two women saw the blood on the cabinet's floor. 

       "What are you girls doing up?" Both girls jumped at the sound of Miranda's voice. "It's Thanksgiving, you should be resting up to be on cloud 9 tomorrow." 

       "Ma, what is this?" Janice asked. 

       "A mess that I'll clean up. Now shoo." Miranda pushed them out the restroom, and closed the door and locked herself inside. Both women remained there looking at the door. Finally, it was Janice who gestured for them to go back to bed.

       The two young women laid in bed with their eyes wide. Janice turned on her side as she heard Clara whisper something about madness, about the blood, about the comment about being on cloud 9. 

       "How the hell are we supposed to go sleep when that blood and that stupid ass crying can't leave my head!" Clara said, but Janice remained quiet, not wanting to talk about her mother's secret. A secret she only knew because she witnessed it. A secret that involved an affair, a baby, and a death which resulted in what Clara saw. Janice closed her eyes tightly, no, she wanted to just go to sleep and look forward to the tamales, the steamed rice her father would cook, the pumpkin pie-no, she wasn't going to let this madness ruined her Thanksgiving. No.