Mia turned on JJ with fury in her eyes. “You let this shit touch me. YOU brought this shit to me. How dare you!” she turned and stalked off headed to her car.
JJ dropped to the ground where Gina lay screaming hysterically. Satisfied that she was not in any life threatening danger he scrambled up and ran after Mia.
“Mia, please…wait.”
Mia put the car in reverse, looked at JJ with pure hatred in her eyes and backed out the driveway.
JJ jumped on the hood of the car all the while Gina is still screaming. He grabbed one of the windshield wipers yelling at Mia to stop. To just…wait. Mia slammed on the breaks and he slid to the left across the hood and grabbed on to hold on. Mia rolled down the window and yelled, “JJ, get off my fucking hood. NOW!” She put the car in drive and accelerated trying to shake him off the car and when he fell to the ground, she put the car in reverse again in preparation to leave.
Her process was hindered however, by the police car that pulled up immediately behind her, blocking her and she watched as another car pulled up three seconds later.
It seemed so surreal that only 20 minutes earlier she was in Starbucks getting coffee for her and JJ so they could sit down and talk and get things right between them. Just twenty minutes.
She looked at Gina’s blood streaked face, at JJ picking himself up off the asphalt, at the police with guns drawn demanding she get out of the car and she took a deep, cleansing breath and sat there. Her cell phone rang from the cup holder where she’d placed it on the drive over and she saw her mother’s number.
Only 20 minutes earlier…none of this had happened.
************************************************************************
Derek stood in the kitchen and watched his mother-in-law as she left a message for her daughter. He knew she knew he was behind her.
She returned the phone to the cradle and walked past him as if he didn’t exist.
“Adele…” he started.
She stopped and he noted the imperceptive straightening of her spine as she slowly turned to face him…trailing her fingers lightly along the granite countertop. She didn’t face him, she stopped turning when she caught site of him in her peripheral. She looked out past the French doors leading to the patio.
“Once when I was in college, my roommate broke a frame that included a picture of my great-grandparents on their wedding day.
The glass sliced through the ink in the picture and it seemed as if it had sliced through the heart of my Grandfather and decapitated my Grandmother. In that instance, I began to hate her and even though I was taught better…I never spoke to her again for breaking my frame. For years I hated her and I blocked her from getting more than a few things I knew she desperately needed and wanted in life.”
She turned to face him, tilting her head slightly with a cold, small smile on her lips only.
“You broke my daughter. What exactly do you think that will get you?”
Derek dropped his gaze and Adele continued looking at him coldly.
Then…she walked away…humming “Amazing Grace.”
