What Lies Beyond the Earth

Chapter 3 ~ Miri

There was this one night when I was around 5 or 6, and I was about to ask my Mom to tuck me into bed, again. I'm not perfect, I had just experienced a terrifying, gut-wrenching nightmare. This giant, 30 something foot tall lizard thing was coming after me, and when I tried to run away the ground became quicksand and I was sinking deeper and deeper... Further and further... But that's not the point.

I was just about to turn the corner into the family room when I heard my Mom and Gramma talking.

"I know she's young," said Gramma, "but she is going to find out eventually. The earlier we can all accept that, the safer we can all be. The better I'll sleep at night."

Learn what? LEARN WHAT!?

"You haven't had a good night's sleep since I've known you." Replied my Mom in a very derogatory tone. She had always been extremely vivacious, which is probably why I am, so hearing this was a whole new level of weird.

"Please Mija, I know it's going to be tough, but how is it worse than lying to her? She deserves a right to know where she comes from, who she is. And who knows, maybe once she learns she'll be able to-"

I never found out what Gramma was going to say that I could do, for at that exact moment, I had been leaning too much onto a vase that had just taken a nosedive from the counter and came crashing to the ground. I did what any reasonable, intelligent person would do in such a situation - I ran into my room, slammed the door (a little harder than nessaccary), and pulled the blanket all the way over my head as I had always done when my brain was exploding from contemplating and trying to gather my thoughts. I couldn't. I still can't.

For a while I thought about if and how I would ask "Mama, what were you guys talking about last night?", as I am a very, very inquisitive person. But I never found out. For that same day, Papa had gotten up extra early, had his usual coffee, gone to work, and never came back.

A few years later, Gramma passed from a stroke, and it was just me and Mom. It was more prevalent than ever before that no matter what they had kept from me for all those years, no matter what Gramma had buried with her, I could let nothing come between me and Mom, because all we had left was each other.

And I thought that was enough, until the accident. Until the night that changed everything.