With each passing day, graduation draws nearer for Adira Reid, who is currently in her final year of high school. Constantly trying to balance her time and responsibilities, she feels like she's walking on a tightrope. With a busy routine filled wit...
Mom's gone. She disappeared right in front of me, leaving me in this dark, empty vast. I can feel the panic bubbling just beneath my skin, but the sounds of voices force me to cease all moving and breathing.
"Adira, come here, honey." Mom's voice calls. I look around and find a sliver of light. Pushing myself towards it, I watch as it gets bigger, until opening up into my living room, but it's different. Washed out? Mom is sitting down on the couch, while a younger version of myself is sitting in front of her. She's running a brush through my hair, but it's shorter than what I have now. Bri is on the recliner that's in the same position it's always been. She has her arms tightly wrapped around her torso, her eyebrows furrowed, and her lips furrowed in a frown. "Lili, I don't like this."
"I have no other choice. It's either this or she-" Mom takes a deep breath, pausing a second "I told you this is the only option. I need your help. I have everything else figured out. I don't know how I'll do it, but I'll give her my memories, in case something happens to the barrier or me. I've done it once. I just have to figure it out again."
"She's seven years old. Who says her brain can handle that? It's still developing."
Mom's quiet for a moment, fear and sadness taking hold, then she shakes her head.
But what's said next I can't hear. No, my attention is on my younger self. She's looking at me, tilting her head in a way a dog would, before getting up and walking over to me.
"Is it time?" She asks but doesn't wait for me to answer as she takes my hand.
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A baby is crying... Wait a baby is crying?
I spin around. I'm still standing in the living room, further than I was when my younger self grabbed my hand. The one in question that's now freezing, missing the surprising heat of hers. The lights are aggressively flickering like it can't decide, but it's getting brighter. Too bright. When the bulb bursts, I jump and there's a little yelp from the hallway.
"I know baby, I'm coming." Mom says, rushing into the living room, straight to the couch, lifting pillows, even throwing one. "if I could just find your pacifier. Mommy doesn't know where her head is," she mumbles before giving up. She heads for my room, or more appropriately, my nursery. I've seen what it looks like before through Mom's photo album. The nursery was her favourite to decorate. She said she started right away when she found out she was expecting.
I watch her bend down into a white crib lifting a tiny human, dressed in a pink footy onesie.
"Lili, I found it!" a male voice calls from the kitchen, making me jump again. Footsteps sound as the man jogs from the kitchen into the living room and past me into my room... Nursery... oh whatever. "It was in the fridge." He says with a small laugh, a little breathless. She turns, bouncing the bundle in her arms, rolling her eyes. exasperated
