Page 22 of Stay Dangerous

I hadn’t seen Nana since Summer’s funeral. She’d asked to take us then, and Mom reacted the same exact way. They’d always disagreed on the things my parents did to keep Summer alive, and Mom branded her an enemy when they stopped receiving money for Summer's medical bills.

It’s why they turned to gambling in the first place.

But still, Nana lived across the country, in some Southern state that had all four seasons. It’d be a fresh start, with an adult that gave a fuck. Auty and I could rebuild our sisterhood.

“Yes. As soon as I call her back, she’ll buy your plane tickets. It would only be for a year, or maybe longer. Maybe you guys could do high school down there, and come back for college. I gotta get these monkeys off my back, and I can’t do that worrying about you and Autumn.”

I was nodding my head before he even finished. “Yes. Yes, I’ll go.We’llgo–”

Our family bible smacked Dad’s head into the wall before he crumbled to the floor.

He was knocked out cold, with Mom standing over him.

Her eyes flicked to mine, and an evilness I’d never seen from her directed at me.

But it did the opposite of what she wanted, judging by her eyes expanding as I shrieked.

“What is wrong with you?! Why would you hurt Dad?!” I pushed her as hard as I could away from him, before bending down.

He was still breathing, thank goodness. I ran down the hallway to the kitchen, where the housephone was. Before I could grab it, Mom pushed me away, into the fridge.

“We have to call an ambulance!”

“You’re not calling anyone!” she shrilled, a shaky finger pointed at me.

I hardened my resolve. I had to get us all out of here.

“Oh yeah? Watch me.”

I reached for the phone. Before my fingers grazed the receiver, pain bloomed on my face as Mom slapped me out of the way.

“You don’tfuckinglisten!” she screamed, hitting me again and again.

I reached out, gripping her shoulders and pushing her as far as I could away from me.

“STOP HITTING ME!”

I reached behind me for a knife out of the set, and pointed it at her.

She landed on the couch and froze.

“The next time you lay a finger on me, I will use it.”

Mom wiped her runny nose but nodded. She relaxed when I lowered the knife, but I didn’t put it down. Not yet.

“Dad is hurt,” I said with a calmness I didn’t feel. “I’m calling an ambulance… we’ll say he fell, okay?”

She nodded again, like a child who was scared of getting spanked. So docile she was, after causing harm to those she swore she loved.

All of our memories were tainted with Summer being sick. I wondered then if there was ever peace in her life. Of how she was before her kids, when it was just her and Dad, living life, building a home in her hometown after meeting and moving here after college. Was she normal then, before life got her with no vaseline?

The ambulance came as Dad began to come to. Mom played the doting wife, too shaken to give a real account of what happened, while I said a half-truth; I’d been in my room until I heard him go down.

We followed them outside, into the sunset, as they loaded him up. Mom held onto me like she’d collapse at any minute, but I snatched away from her when we got to the back. I cut my eyes to her, making her flinch, before she climbed in with him, and they sped off to who knows where.

“Wynter! What happened?!”

I turned toward Turkey’s house and watched Auty run toward me frantically.