Who Even Knows

Chapter 3 My Mother

"Hey!"

"What?" Erabella answered her mother in the dim morning light.

"Need help cleaning. Everyone else is asleep so that leaves me and you."

"Okay." She answered as her mom closed her bedroom door.

Her mouth was dry and scratchy. Her throat felt raw and her head pounded. The world was hazy, a fog settled over Era. She crawled out of bed, discarding another ripped nightgown.

"Why didn't you go to school yesterday?" her mom greeted her.

"Not feeling great." Era croaked.

"Well keep that s**t to yourself. I don't need any other issues this week. Not like you're going to finish school anyway."

Erabella's mom, Desiree Delaney, was a short, round, hypocritical, hateful woman. But then she was also fun, generous, strong, funny and Erabella's mom. She couldn't help but love her no matter how terrible she was to her. She looked at her little toes, the nails eternally black after a case of frostbite when her mom threw her out of the house in a rage.

Erabella had been little more than a toddler in a pink nightgown but vividly remembered the incident. It was snowing. Era had committed some tragic infraction against her younger sister, Samantha.

Rage ruled her mom that day. Her eyes were black instead of their brown counterpart. It was so cold without shoes. But ever the happy baby, Erabella had played on the swingset. She laughed as she fell into the snow bank.

Eventually Desiree had relented, tossing baby Bella into a hot tub upon coming back inside.

"Earth to Stupid! Hello?" Desiree waved her hand in front of Erabella's face.

Erabella loved her mom. Not the way she hated her dad. Her mom had moments. She could hold onto those. But she still couldn't wait to graduate and leave. She was plenty old enough at 19. Just had to graduate high school finally.

"Don't forget to scrub around the baseboards." A wet rag sailed across the room, landing on Erabella's shoulder.