Beating hearts

Chapter 9

Ara yawns and stretches out of her bed, a morning tear trickles down her cheek as the sunlight filters through the window. Her breath catches in her throat when she remembers her very vivid dream. She reminds herself that is all it was, a dream. But she still couldn't shake it out of her head. She couldn't stop thinking of what her gored mother kept on saying.

"Blood everywhere, all over one another. Blood everywhere dripping down into the gutter. What to do but sit and cry, didn't even get to say goodbye."

She didn't know what the dream meant or if it meant anything at all, she decided to put it out of her mind and forget about it because after all, it was just a dream. A horrible dream.

Ara got dressed and went downstairs. Morgan was in the living room sitting on the couch watching some old western movie. She used to watch all kinds of western shows as a kid. Why? She hasn't the slightest clue, Ara found them predictable, and dramatic, but Morgan couldn't get enough of them. She remembered a story her mother once told her. Morgan was around the age of 4. She had dressed herself up in an oversized pink cowgirl outfit and was running around the house pretending she was a sheriff, in charge of the town. She had been waving around what she thought to be a toy gun, she had found upstairs in one of her father's old boxes. Ara's mother, who was 8 years old at the time, came around the corner, entering the room. Morgan yelled "bang!" Pulled the trigger shooting her in the left shoulder. It was a good thing it was only a Beebe gun, but it still left a little round scar, and Morgan got in severe trouble for it.

Ara loved hearing that story, she loved hearing any story that was a part of her mother's life. She wanted to know everything she could possibly learn about her. Her childhood days, her high school years, college years, the days leading up to her mother meeting her father, their love story, and their days together before having Ara and Lilly. The funny, the sad, the scary, the inspiring stories of her life. She wanted to know everything. She wished she could go back and ask her mom these questions. Because now she will never know.

"You sure slept in, it's almost noon," Morgan said to Ara as she joined her on the couch.

"Yeah, I didn't sleep too well last night. Aren't you supposed to be at work?" On the screen, there is a chase scene, cowboys on horses shooting at an Indian tribe. Gunshot's fire and Indians fall off their horses into the dirt.

"No, I got the day off," Morgan replied. "Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for your date?"

Ara smiled. "No, it's not until tomorrow."

"Oh, that's right, Lilly's date is today, or tonight rather," Morgan got up off the couch, headed to the kitchen, and opened up the freezer. After all the dream chaos Ara completely forgot about Lilly's date, and she was the one driving her to it.

"You both have dates, and I am going to spend my weekend watching TV and getting fat," Morgan said peevishly as she returned to the couch with a tub of chocolate ice cream. Ara laughed and scooted next to her, scooping some ice cream out with her finger.

~

The afternoon came fast. It was a quarter till 8:00 when Lilly came down the stairs in her new black laced dress, her makeup all done, and her long blonde hair curled.

"Do I look stupid?" Lilly asked her sister who was waiting for her at the bottom of the staircase.

Ara laughed. "You look perfect."

Lilly playfully frowned at her. "Liar."

"Alright Lilly, smile," Morgan said pointing an old Polaroid camera at her.