Hugs & Blows

Unintentional

Odette’s hipbones rubbed against the edge of the kitchen sink in a way that was very peculiar feeling. Ethan had told the housekeeper that she did not need to work while they had been away if she would just clear out the fridge before the food spoiled. Odette was not hopeless and had washed many a dish at Tic Tac Joe’s, so she was content with doing the household chores for the rest of the week. She really liked Esmeralda, even though the older woman was constantly making her eat, she figured Esmeralda deserved a few extra days of vacation. Odette dried her hands on a towel and decided to go write in the bedroom no that she had finished washing the dishes from her and Ethan’s late night dinner that was in celebration of finally returning to California.

Odette was furiously writing a story about a girl who was slowly being driven crazy when her pen flew out of her hand and rolled beneath the bed. She bent down to reach for it and was suddenly reminded of the last time she had spoken to Betsy’s mother Judith. Judith had left her husband and moved away shortly after her daughter’s death. She was working as a school nurse in the new town and one of the students there had been suffering from delusions and waking nightmares about men residing under her bed.  Odette knew that there was nothing beneath her bed except for the pen, she rolled her eyes at her own ridiculousness and stuck her hand into the darkness.

She reached around for the pen but could not find it, she was about to give up when her hand landed on something. It was a cold cylinder and far too big to be a writing utensil. When she realized what it was her breath caught in her throat. It was the glass that she had dropped when she found a blubbering Ethan crying in worried shock about his parents. She picked it up and knew that she needed to wash it immediately. Odette had not considered herself to be a superstitious woman but she hesitated in front of the trash can debating whether or not she should just toss the sadness tainted glass out. She thought it would be best to just try to wash the bad memory away.

The water was hot and Odette gripped the glass a tad too tightly. Before she realized what was happening the glass shattered in her hand deeply slicing into her wrist. She was shocked, the pain felt different than when she was self harming. Unexpected pain was always worse and scarier. She hated feeling out of control, she turned to grab a towel to hold against her wound but she slipped and fell to the ground. Everything was fading to black and all she could think was how terrible it would be to die from an accidentally slit wrist.