Me and the Gretchen Boys

Chapter 1: Bottles

Bottles. Bottles everywhere. I clean them all up, or at least I try to, yet no matter how many bottles I pick up more appear. Hennessy, Smirnoff, and Crown Royal just to name a few of the labels. All of her favorites.

In the midst of my never ending cleaning she appears. I hear the door creak open slowly. The sound seems to echo and ring in my ears. I don't even have to turn around to know who it is, I can feel her cold presence.

As soon as I get chills that run down my spine the room gets dark. There is nothing but darkness, the bottle, that woman, and I.

    After trying to keep my racing heart steady, I finally turn around and bow slightly to her. She kicks off her cheap red heels that just barely miss my body. I can see the amusement she gained from her act. Then she says,

    "Is that how you greet your mother? Don't look at me like that."

   She starts to grin and her grin grows wider and wider until it looks inhuman. I become paralyzed in fear. My body refusing to move or say anything. It just sits there and watched my mother become a monster.

Then all of a sudden the bottles start to move. They fly in between us at a rapid pace and plant themselves on the ground. The bottles are hurling in between us like they have a mind of their own. I can tell the only goal in their 'minds' is separating my mother and I.

   Even though my mother was smiling and her mouth was not moving, I could hear her yelling.

   "CARMEN! CARMEN! PLEASE HELP ME!"
At that moment my voice was taken from me. No matter how much I yell nothing comes out. No matter how much I try to move, my body stays immobilized.

   No! I finally gain control of my body. With my mind in a frenzy, I run to the bottle of walls that are barricading me from my mother.

No!

Hot tears began to well up in my eyes. I can feel the back of my throat burning. I can feel my heart cry. Then the bottles start solidifying into stone.

Think Carmen, think! The bottles are stacked so high I couldn't possibly climb over them. Its so wide I can't possibly run around it either. There's nothing I can do.

I fall on my bum and begin to cry. I feel like an abandoned child that is unwanted. A failure. I couldn't even manage to save my own mother, my own blood.

It's just me, the darkness, and those wretched bottles. The bottles that took my mother away from me. The bottles that make me feel like I'm worthless. Those cursed bottles that tore my mother up inside out. The bottles that ruined my whole life. Help! Help! Help!
   "C........ Carm... Carmen wake up."

   I awaken from the shout-whisper gasping for air and sweating profusely. I look around to the left and right rapidly. I'm in an airplane and there is a lady sitting next to me.

   The lady waves her hand in my face and jokes, "Earth to Carmen. Remember me, Mrs. Gretchen?"

   Then it all hits me at once. Every minor detail.