Melody's Melodies

►

Melody wakes up with ‘Holocene’ by Bon Iver blaring in her ears. She removes the wet Ziploc bag which is filled with now just water and thin pieces of ice and puts it on the floor.

She sits up and pulls the ear buds out of her ears. She looks over at the clock, it’s 4am on a Monday. She gets to go to school today.

She finds it funny how everyone complains about being at school and how they hate Mondays, they can’t wait for Friday and the Weekend. She looks forward to Monday, the less time at home the better and since her dad made her quit ballet a few months ago, she looks forward to the school week more now than ever.

Melody gets out of bed and she’s reminded of the ache in her ribs, stomach and back. She sucks in a quick breath and makes her way quietly to her bathroom.

She quietly gets ready, brushes her teeth thoroughly, showers in warm water and then looks in the steamed mirror. Her hand goes to the mirror and she smears the cloud, trying to see her reflection.
She sees her mother instead of her own reflection and instantly thinks of the news that came to her and her father three days after Amara left.

~~~~~~~

The police showed up at their house at eleven at night. Melody’s father wasn’t drunk that night, but he was busy destroying the office, looking for anything that could lead to Amara’s destination. Melody was in the living room watching cartoons, because she didn’t like hearing Griffin in the next room, reminding her that her mother was no longer there to protect her.

When the police knocked on the door, Melody absentmindedly walked to the door and opened it. She looked up to see two very tall men compared to her, staring down at her. One of the men smiled down at her and bent down to be at a level with her.

“Hi sweetie, is there an adult here?”

Melody nodded, “my dad is here.”

“Can you find him please, we would like to speak with him?”

“Is he in trouble?”

The man gave Melody a sad smile, “no hun.”

Melody nodded again and then walked quickly to the stairs, up them and stood in the doorway of the office. Griffin was quickly thumbing through papers.

“Daddy,” she said softly.

“What Melody?” he asked sternly, throwing the papers down in frustration.

“There are two men at the door.”

“Did you answer the door?”

“Yes. . .”

“Now why the hell did you do that, you know I don’t like you answering the door?” his was voice slightly louder. “Tell them, I can’t speak with them right now.”

“But-”

“Go tell them, Melody!” he yelled.

Melody shrunk away and she quickly scurried, going back to the front door. She opened it seeing the two men speaking to each other, then they both looked at her.

“He can’t speak to you right now,” Melody said quietly.

The man, who spoke with her before bent down again. “Are you sure? Can you tell him that it’s about a young woman named Amara?”

That made Melody’s chest tighten.

“My mother?” she said softly.

The man simply nodded.

Melody went back to where her father was and knocked on the wall to get his attention.

“Dad.”

“What do you want now?” He asked, with his back to her sitting in an office chair, face in his hands.

“It’s about mom,” she replied.

Griffin’s posture straightened, he slowly turned around to look Melody in the eyes and for an instance his face was soft, and there was no anger anywhere to be found. Then it quickly wiped away, Griffin stood up and stalked off down to the front door with Melody following silently behind.

Melody sat on the sofa and turned the volume down on Powerpuff Girls. She heard her father and the other man that never said a word to her, speaking back and forth.

“Are you, Mr. Heywood?”

“Yes, why?” Griffin asked suspiciously.

“I’m detective Zingger, and this is my partner detective Dean. You’re the husband of Amara Heywood correct?”

Melody’s father nods, “yes, do you know what happened to her, where she is, she’s been missing for three days?”

“May we come in?”

Griffin nodded, stepped aside to let them in and they stepped inside. Griffin lead them to the living room and the three of them sit. Griffin gave Melody a look that told her to go to her room.

Melody silently walked up the stairs, but she didn’t go to her room. She walked to her room door, opened it and then closed it loud enough for the three men to hear. She then tiptoed to the top of the stairs, sat down on the top step, and slowly slid down each step until she was towards the middle of the staircase, but still hidden by the wall. She leaned against the wall and listened.

“Well, where’s my Amara?” Griffin asked impatiently.

A man spoke, but Melody couldn’t tell which of the two detectives it was. “Amara, was found two towns away, she uh-“

“When is my wife coming home?” Griffin interrupted.

“Mr. Heywood, your wife was in a car accident. . .”

“What!? Who the hell was she riding with, what hospital is she in?”

“We don’t know who the man was, we questioned the man at the hospital, he had two broken ribs and a broken arm. He said that he picked her up, she was hitchhiking on the road.”

“Where is my wife?” Griffin nearly yelled.

“Mr. Heywood, the car accident was fatal for her, your wife she, she didn’t survive. She died instantly when impacted.”

“What the hell do you mean she didn’t survive,” Griffin explodes.

Melody blocked everything out, she clamped her mouth shut with both her hands to refrain from crying out and tears stung her eyes and slowly the tears leaked out.

Melody’s body shuttered and she quickly padded her way up the stairs, jumped into bed, bundled herself in bed and let her shaking sobs put her to sleep.
~~~~~~~

Melody wipes away the tears that have made their escape, running down her cheeks. That memory replays in her mind constantly, everyday something reminds her of that night and she wishes she could just forget it all.

Melody shakes her head, trying to shake the memory away and continues to get ready for school. She goes into her room, finding her: thin pastel green long sleeve shirt, gray cotton leggings and black thigh length pleated skirt.

She slips her clothes on, combs and brushes her long hair up into a messy ponytail, grabs her iPod and goes downstairs. She makes a chicken salad sandwich with wheat bread puts that into her sandwich shaped container, puts some carrot sticks into a Ziploc bag and stuffs her lunch into a brown paper bag. She then goes over to the cabinet under the counter and grabs a bottle of water.
She grabs her backpack from under the window in the living room, stuffs her water in the side pocket of her floral backpack, grabs her house key from the key holder near the door and walks out of the house.

Melody doesn’t lock the door, because she doesn’t care if someone were to break into her house. She doesn’t care if someone were to find her dad and beat the shit out of him, because that’s what he’s done to her for so long.

She turns her iPod on, puts her ear buds in and walks to her school bus stop listening to Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven.