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By Root 1084 0

Do you think I would have suggested it if I’d thought it wouldn’t work or if it was like we could be harmed?” Shern’s voice shook as she looked from one sister to the other staring at her through the light coming from the floor like she was a lunatic or, worse, a fool. She wasn’t a fool. She thought she was being the oldest, the decision maker, the action taker. She was proud of herself, had even felt a fragment of something that approached happiness in this house as she’d arranged for their escape. And now they were staring at her and just snatching her swatch of happiness right from her. Didn’t they know what would happen to her if she stayed? Didn’t they even care? Bliss had her buddy Tyrone; Victoria and Ramona were like girlfriends. Whom did she have? Mae with her drooping eye? Addison with his snake of a thing that he couldn’t wait to ram inside her? She hated both Victoria and Bliss right now. Was so angry at their selfishness that she just wanted to mash her hands into both of their staring, disbelieving faces.

“Then don’t go, you little selfish bitches.” She cried the words out and picked up the neatly packed double-handled shopping bag and dumped it on the floor by the green velvet couch.

“Oh, no, you didn’t.” Bliss ran up behind Shern and grabbed the back of the neckline of Shern’s lace-trimmed flannel pajama top. “I know you, Miss perfect-grammared, never curses, gonna-remind-someone-what-Mommie-said-about-them, didn’t just call us bitches.”

Shern pulled away from Bliss, and the lacy neckline of her pajama top made a searing sound as it ripped along the back. “See what you did.” Shern turned around and knocked Bliss to the floor right on top of the bag of dumped-over clothes.

Bliss kicked up at Shern again and again, and then Shern was all over her, and they were both kicking up the dark air in that bedroom and making slapping sounds and saying “ouch” and “you bitch” this and “you bitch” that.

Victoria tried to get to them, to break it up. She was crying now too. “Stop it. Have you gone crazy? Just stop it.” Before she could hobble to where they were, a rush of bright yellow light pushed into the room like a missile landing and fell right over Shern and Bliss.

Ramona was behind the light as she pushed the door all the way opened and walked in the room. “What the hell is happening in here?” she said. She clicked the switch on the wall, and the low lamplight retreated completely under the beds. She ran straight to Victoria, who was sobbing in the middle of the room, pointing to her sisters, crying, “Make them stop, Ramona. Please make them stop fighting.”

“Wait, wait, are you all right? Come on, first let’s get you off of that leg,” Ramona said as she guided Victoria back to the bed. “And they are gonna stop fighting, hell, yeah, they are. Because if they don’t, I’ll have to get in it, and if I have to get in it, both their behinds gonna be kicked to kingdom Kong.”

Shern and Bliss sat up, breathing hard and irregularly. They looked at neither Ramona nor each other. Shern did look at the little travel clock that sat on the dresser. It was 1:45. They should be leaving out the door right now. She could feel the sound of a bus pounding through her ears. Her ears felt like they might explode. She picked herself up and staggered to the bed and flopped on it. She lay wide, not caring that there was not enough room for Bliss on that bed. She covered her head with the pillow and cried into the bed.

Bliss just sat on the floor, staring at the clothes that Shern had dumped. Her hair had come undone; even the sponge roller that held her bang in a curl had come out and hopped to the other side of the room.

Ramona bent down and picked the roller up and tossed it over to where Bliss sat. “Curl your bang back up, please,” she said to Bliss. “And get those clothes up. How the hell they get out of the trunk any how? And put that lamp back on the table where it belongs. And then your fresh ass better go on back to sleep. And I better not catch you and your sister fighting no more. I wish I had a sister, and all you