"…there's a picture in that file- I don't think I was supposed to see it- shows something on the rooftops. It's too blurry to tell what it is, but it's glowing, I swear."
"…glowing." The radio host drawled, obviously as skeptical as Anna.
"Yes! Glowing! Bright blue, and definitely human, or at least humanoid-"
Anna switched off the radio. She didn't have time for this. Well, technically she did- she was stuck in traffic- but it was an expression. She refrained from honking her horn, instead focusing on the rhythm of the windshield wipers, shielding her rusty car from hail. It was strange- the temperature rarely got below 40° in this part of California, let alone cold enough for hail to form. Having lived in southern California her whole life, Anna had never actually seen hail.
She struggled to keep her eyes open. It was late, the moon a half crescent in the sky. The craters in the moon formed dark blotches on its surface. It looked like a woman screaming, that's what Robert liked to say. Anna always thought it looked like a Rhino, or one of those cave painting of a buffalo. Steve thought it looked like a moon.
A fond smile found its way to her lips. Steve had always been a… difficult child. Then again, Anna had never been the best mother. If she had been, she would have left Robert years ago. Anna wished she had, but… even after she finally realized the man she married was not the man she fell in love with, she couldn't bring herself to leave. She didn't love him anymore- not since the first time she saw her child's bruises- but staying had been- had felt- it was her only option. The only feasible one.
She could have packed up and ran- she knew that. Anna had a brother in Ohio that would have welcomed her. But Anna was scared- no, terrified - that Robert would find them. Exhausted and beaten down- physically, emotionally- Anna stayed. She stayed for fifteen years until one day, Steve called up the police. Not Anna- no, she wasn't strong enough. It was Steve who saved them.
Robert was sentenced to a year, but his girlfriend bailed him out after two months. By then, Anna had already filed the restraining order. Steve was her hero. He always had been.
Anna jolted alert as the cars began moving again.
It didn't take long for her to get home after that, and as she passed the dimly lit streets of her town, she was reminded of her late night piano rehearsals. Her dad would pick her up, carrying her on his shoulder to the car, though she was much too old to be carried. There was always a book on the dashboard, and Anna would pull out a folded napkin, picking up where she left off. The sky was dark… Anna read by the light of the passing streetlamp. Even though it was quiet, it always felt sacred to her. A time to be with her dad, away from the school and annoying little brothers.
But when the moon was high, she watched her fathers face instead. He always smiled, slowing the car so he could watch it pass under a cloud. One day, Anna asked what he was looking at.
"The lady in the moon," he said.
Anna dropped her purse off on the counter, yawning. She wouldn't have even noticed the table, if it weren't for Steve's flour coated hands tapping it on the shoulder.
"Er- sorry." Steve said, attempting to brush off the flour. He only made it worse. "Um. I made you dinner."
Anna rubbed her eyes. "I thought your friend was coming over. You were going to do that apology thing we talked about."
Steve rubbed his hands on his jeans, caking them in white. "Eli couldn't make it." Anna was impressed with what he'd done. Sure, the pasta looked a little lumpy, but he'd folded the extra napkins they'd stashed from the McDonalds drive-thru like they do in the fancy restaurants Anna could never afford. He'd cut up a lime and placed it on a plate like a green smiley face- an inside joke. "So I thought we could eat together, just you and I, like we used to."
"Steve, It's midnight. You have school tomorrow, you shouldn't stay up this late just to wait for me to get home."
Steve ignored her, and pulled out a chair at the head of the table- that was where Robert used to sit, but Anna didn't say it aloud. So Anna sat, and Steve told her about that new show he'd been watching. She laughed when the main characters, Adam and Josh, broke into a building to find a Shifter only to confuse a regular human. Steve's face turned bright red then, like it did when people found out Anna was dating the coach, but he was smiling.
In the reflection of her glass- it was clean, did Devin do the dishes? - Anna saw the moon.
"She looks like the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me."
Anna studied the moon. "What was mom like?"
Before she died. Anna thought. Before Afghanistan. Before she left us.
Her dad shook his head. "Your mother gave me you, Anna. You are the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me."
My honorary aunt had an abusive reason Lina finally got away is because my family babysat, and we saw the dog. It was chained up in the basement, filthy, and starving. I remember, one time, the oldest kid I was babysitting hit the dog with a bat. I told him to stop, and he told me his father did it all the time. We called animal control, and because of that we found out about everyone else.
I don't know if he ever hit her, but I wouldn't be surprised. I do know that she was scared of him, and that he had broken her down to the point where she felt that she had no worth. He told her that she was lucky to have him, because no one else would take her. At that point, she was so exhausted with night shifts and three children that she believed him. When you hear the same thing so many times, for years, you can't help it.
Abuse is horrible. Domestic violence is horrible. Don't ever do that to a person, and if you're the victim of domestic violence or abuse, please tell someone. You don't have to go through that alone.
