Free Fall. // l.r.h.

Step 4: Don't Leave. Please.

The tiny neighborhood named after the sweetest of flowers was all but dead beneath my view. Every light, every sound, every person, all was still on Rhododendron Avenue. I sat perched on the warm rooftop of our little house, legs dangling freely over the edge. Peering through the darkness into the minuscule skylight in Mama's room, I could distinguish Daddy's firm silhouette seated in front of her on the tattered bed. I could see them talking, no more than six inches from each other's faces, as the soft glow from the coat closet flooded the dimly illuminated room. Mama was crying. Head in her hands, Daddy's hand on her shoulder. He seemed jumpy, as if someone could burst in at any moment.
They don't want us to know about this. Realization washed over me. This conversation, whatever it is, I'm not supposed to know about it. 
I lowered my ear to the glass panel, attempting to apprehend this secret meeting.
"Harper was right, Lucy. I never should've come back." Mama only sniffled in response. "So what'll it be? Do you still love me after all this time?"
     "Always," she murmured.
I looked back up at the stars, all aglow, ever present. Only these stars ever seem to listen. The freaky nerd girl who only talks to stars.
My eyes fluttered about, breathing in deeply. Big Dipper... Little Dipper... Canis Major... Canis Minor... Orion's Belt...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Harper!" I was being shaken as a frantic voice was screaming my name. "Harper, please wake up!"
I was suddenly jolted awake as the person hovering over me shook me again, even harder this time. I immediately opened my eyes, squinting at the rising sun filling the sky. "Lindsey?" I questioned in a groggy tone. She was sobbing hysterically, shoulders heaving up and down. "Lindsey?" I said again, panicked this time.
"They're gone." She threw her face into her hands, crumpling down beside me on the roof.
I scrambled up, holding her in my arms. "What? Who's gone? Is everything okay?"
She whimpered. "Mama and Daddy. They're gone." She dragged me inside the house to the kitchen and pointed at the wall beside the backdoor. I brought my hands up to cover my gaping mouth as tears rushed to my eyes.

I'm sorry.

It was written in large print black marker. Mama's handwriting. I looked through the glass back door towards the empty driveway.
Empty. Mama's little black sedan and that old blue minivan were both gone. Daddy's motorcycle, just as mysteriously as it had come, had vanished.
Lindsey tried in vain to calm her heavy breathing. "There's... There's more, Harp." She stepped over to the tables and slowly settled into a chair in front of it. I stood behind her as she opened Mama's laptop. "I checked this to see if they left any clue where they went. And I found this in the search history. Look."
The numbers for all the bank accounts under our family's name were displayed on the screen. All of them were empty.
I dropped to the ground. "Do you still believe him?" I screamed. "Do you still think he's here to make it right? Daddy convinced her. They left. Oh God, they left us here with nothing." Lindsey sank down beside me as little footsteps ran through the hallway. Maggie and Eli appeared in the doorframe of the kitchen.
"Where's Daddy?" Eli was so blissfully confused.
"Your Daddy is a bad man, Eli," I whispered, pulling into my lap.
Lindsey held out her arms for Maggie to fill the space. "Mama and Daddy did something very bad today." She stopped speaking, cut off by her own gasp. I followed her gaze to the window. She stared out at the empty street. I knew she was expecting them to come back. She trusted them. She always trusted people too much. But this time I saw something inside her break. She knew they left for good this time.
     Lindsey's voice dropped to a whisper. "They're gone, Maggie. Mama and Daddy are gone."