Church and State

Chapter Two

I slammed the dark, stained wooden door behind me. I flicked off my shoes, ripped off my jacket and threw it onto the musky floor. Usually, I would flatten it out with my hands, then neatly hang it on the coat rack, but today, there was no time for that.

"Mom, mom, mom," I whaled in tears as I ran up the stairs. I would never say mom anymore. I stopped saying that when I was eight years old. I personally always felt as if it was a childish word, and that I was too mature to use it.

Mother flung open the door with such strength and speed, I thought the door might have unhinged from its frame. She opened her arms in my direction as I ran into them. It almost resembled something you would see in a cheesy romance movie where the man would hug the woman and spin her around as they were reunited at the airport; minus the romantic spinning and replacing it with snivelling out of fear.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Mother repeated with her eyes full of shock and worry.

"I – I – I sa – a – aw," I blubbered.

"Slow down, darling. I can't understand you. Take a deep breath," mother said, stroking my long, orange tinged hair.

"I saw the government officials again."

"Oh dear, my poor Adeline." Mother was always sympathetic about this situation, it was a scary thing for me and Keagan, ever since that very day. I don't know how mother manages to stay strong when we need to talk about it. It's worse for her than it is for us.

"But mother, I saw them attack a man. Pin him down to the ground. Bury his face in the dirt. Hit him with metal rods."

Mother didn't say anything to me this time. She just squeezed me as tight as she could into her warm embrace. She kissed me lightly on the top of my head, letting me weep into her pretty, pink shirt; I left water saturated spots on the right shoulder of it. I felt a soft droplet fall onto my arm, followed by another. We hugged until my tears began to dry. A time that felt near to eternity.

"Go cuddle up with your purple, fuzzy blanket on the couch and watch a movie, okay?" Mother said softly, kissing me on the forehead.

I walked down the stairs. They creaked with every step I took; the ancient wood could barely take the weight of someone as light as myself. I've been trying to tell my mother to get them replaced, but that wasn't something she usually did.

I returned to the lonely bag of chips that I left on the couch. I was surprised Keagan didn't munch on them while I was gone. A popping sound emerged from the metallic, plastic bag as I opened it. I munched on the tangy flavoured chips as I flickered through the Netflix selection.

I mumbled to myself, "White girls? No. Sharknado? Yeah no. Walking dead? No way, that could become a reality soon. Finding Dory? Eh, I guess it could cheer me up."

I watch Dory as she swims through the ocean, so freely and so happily. It reminded me greatly of my childhood, before the whole North American system changed; it took me to a place called Canada. My house used to be in Canada, but every since the American Revolution of 2019, we live in North America. There use to be a place called the United States of America, but that was overrun too; now Canada and United States are combined into one country despite how much we disliked one another.

"You're watching that again?" Keagan mumbled as some sort of unidentifiable food fell out of his mouth.

"You're eating... eating..." I said lifted my body up from the couch a bit, stretching my neck to peer into his bowl, "umm... pasta salad again." That wasn't my smoothest comeback, but it had to work.