Creatrix

Chapter 11 Bold on the Breeze

A window had been left open in the upstairs room of the café and the room had a chill, but the rain outside had stopped. The air was filled with that wonderful freshness you get after a heavy rainfall. Anika felt revived; her own personal storm had ended hours ago. 

She turned the Lightcrystal off, left it on the table and picked up her cup, it was still full and a solid skin had formed on the top. She’d been playing for several hours. All of the other booths were empty except for one, and the boy who worked in the café sat there. His eyes were closed; the Lightcrystal glowed softly in his hand. 

Anika rushed past him and down the steep staircase, left her cup on the counter and walked out into the coolness of the night. The sliver of a new moon cut through the clouds, providing little light, as she crossed the street to the dim lit alleyway on the other side. Before she was seen in the headlights of a passing transit van, she ducked down into the shadows. 

Her stomach twisted when she turned down her street; the lights were on at home and she wondered what would happen. The tightness in her body felt like a warning, he must have stayed up waiting for her – there’d be nowhere to run to this time. The café would be closed before she got back there, so she’d have to take whatever was coming. She searched her pocket for the key, found it and stepped up to the door. Her hands were shaking as she pulled it towards her and loosened the sticky catch. 

Her father’s heavy coat was slumped on the floor in the hall. She hung it on the banister, and covered it with her own. Then, holding her breath, she pushed the door to the living room. Holding her hand over her heart, she peered in. He slept; lying sprawled on the settee, his heavy breath rising in his chest, one arm hanging to the floor, the other slumped across his body. He sighed in waves and there was no malice about him now – he looked peaceful. 

The living room smelt like a stale bar; he’d kicked an ashtray across the carpet and spilt his drink, empty beer cans littered the rug. Anika hated having to clear up after him again. She bent down, scooped up the dog ends and ash with her hands, and put the ashtray back on the table. 

In a moment of tenderness, she crawled up to her father and gazed at his face. It was easy for her to feel compassion; she loved him, but now the years had battered him and he was a broken and bitter man. She missed her dad, missed the man he was when she was younger, long before the fights, before her mother walked out. He had a temper, even then, but Anika had got used to it. She knew that neither of them really meant the nasty things they said and did to each other when they were fighting, and she’d learnt to keep out the way. Her dad was always kind and loving to her, they were close. Anika loved him so much her mother despised it and they would argue about it, and she would beg her mother to leave him alone.

‘You don’t understand, I mean, how could you? You’re too young!’ Her mum would cry at her. ‘You act like it’s all my fault!’  

Anika wasn’t stupid, she understood - she knew her dad was sick; he’d told her so. It was the drink. He didn’t want to hit her mum and he told Anika time and again, that he was sorting it out. She could talk to him and love him back then. Now, nothing she could say was right.

 ‘Everything will work out for the best.’  He had told her after they had watched her tear stained mother drive away, screeching down the street, after a furious row. It was a lie and just a week later they had their first real fight. He’d been drinking again, and he was sobbing. Anika put aside her own grief to care for him. She was trying to make it okay, but there was nothing she could say to console him and his sorrow soon turned to anger. With nobody left but himself, he blamed her.

‘It’s your fault! It’s all because of you! She thought you hated her!’ he screeched, ‘She left because of you!’  He had grabbed a silver plated frame holding a photo of her mother and launched it at her - she jumped to avoid it and it shattered against the wall, spraying glass across her shoulders and into her hair - embedding in her memory, forever.