Twenty

5. Broken

Maria was woken up by the sound of a loud bang followed by shattering, she knew immediately that it was coming from her daughter's room. Quickly she threw on her robe and rushed over to the door. She fumbled in her pocket for the key before undoing the latch that was meant to keep her daughter safe, but now she feared was doing the opposite. The lock clicked and she swung open the door and was surprised to see her daughter sitting alone in the darkness. Maria was confused, that is until she nearly pierced herself on what remained of the lamp in the doorway.

"What did you do?" Maria asked calmly, though it was clear to Christian that she was upset.

"I broke the lamp." Chris retorted. "Isn't that obvious?"

Christian had never used that tone with her before, it was disrespectful and brash- Maria didn't like it. "Why did you do it?" Christian didn't reply, instead, she just stared at her mother waiting for a response. "Do you remember that it is a sin to not respect your parents?"

Christian seemed to take a moment to build up the nerve to respond. "I-I know." She said hesitantly before raising her arms and wildly gesturing to her room. "But what are going to do about it? Lock me in my room? I'm already here."

Maria didn't know what to say, she thought that her daughter had been taught better than to behave like this. She felt the need to yell at her, tell her how truly rotten she was but she couldn't. She never raised her voice to her daughter; she barely would change her tone. "You could have been harmed." She said, looking down at the sharp remains. "What if I never heard a sound?"

"Maybe you should unlock the door so that if I needed you, I could come get you- like how a normal door works," Christian said, surprised by her own bitterness.

"That door is to keep you safe. It is to keep you from making any more mistakes that could cost you your eternal life. It is there to make sure that you never..." Christian didn't notice but for a small glimmer of an instant, it looked like Maria wanted to cry. "The door is there so that you cannot harm yourself."

Christian buried her head in her arms, concealing a sob. "I'm not going to hurt myself, mom."

"Your adventure on the balcony tells me otherwise." Maria countered sternly. "I distinctly tell you not to go somewhere for your own good, and yet you do it anyway just to disobey me. You know that the fall would kill you and that is why you are in here even now."

Christian felt the urge to yell boil in her chest, she wanted to tell her mother all the ugly things she had ever thought about her. But instead, she just replied, "I'm sorry."

"Good, you may confess this at our next service." Maria crossed her arms. "Now, I must clean up this mess."

Christian got up from where she was sitting. "No, I can do it." But as she took a step forward, she forgot herself and suddenly felt a ringing pain shoot through her leg. "Ah!"

Christian fell backwards onto the floor raising her foot to find a remnant of the lamp embedded in the heel of her foot. Tears instantly began to fall from her eyes and a sliver of blood began to trickle to the floor. Maria acted quickly, in a second, she was at the medicine cabinet grabbing ointment and bandages and in the next, she was at her daughter's side. "Hold still." She said, raising the injured foot in one hand.

With a quick motion Maria pulled the shard out of her daughter's foot, Christian nearly fainted as she let out a little cry. "Mom, it hurts!"

Maria used a cloth to dry up some of the blood from the wound before coating the bandages in the ointment. Slowly she wrapped the bandages around the foot and tied a knot at the top, she inspected her work before standing back up. "You should be fine, the pain will not last."