Thera

Meda bolts up in bed. A scream catches in her throat as she struggles for air. Her rapid heartbeat pounds in her ears while her chin-length blond hair sticks to her forehead and the nape of her neck. Her perfectly tanned hand brushes back the hair before moving to her stomach. It is flat and smooth like normal. She sighs with relief.

She scans the dim room. Rays of light sneak through the dark drapes of her bay windows, lighting the room enough for her to see everything. It’s not much. A simple bed, a second-hand dresser and desk. The only thing that stands out is the hot pink wall opposite her bed.

The wall color wasn’t her choice. It was left over from the past tenant’s daughter, who obviously had a flare for the dramatic. Meda thought it was loud but never got around to repainting it. She never thought they would stay in Raleigh for this long and didn’t know how to add her personal touch.

Staring at the wall, she hates to admit that the outlandish color has grown on her over the last four years. It’s the first thing she sees when she wakes up from that crazy dream. It instantly reassures her that she truly is safe from her imaginary pursuer.

Now that her breathing is under control, she notices what woke her up, her mother’s voice calling her name. Meda realizes it was getting louder the entire time she was resurfacing from the dream. By the proximity, her mother should be almost at the door.

Knock. Knock.

“I’m up!” Meda groans.

Just knowing her mother is on the other side of the door brings up Meda’s rising resentment for where the day will lead.

The door cracks open.

“As you should be.” A slim, willowy woman squeezes in.

Nothing is subtle about her mother’s appearance. Her milky skin blends into the doorframe making her red hair pop even more. It’s not the natural Earth red, which is really orange; no, it’s stop sign red. It is just the first hint of abnormality, but most people just assume she’s a hippie with a strange dye job. Her eyes, the only trait Meda inherited, are the color of pale green sea glass. The contrast is striking giving off an ethereal sort of beauty, something that Meda has always envied of her mother.

“But that’s not why I knocked…” Her mother continues.

The door suddenly swings open interrupting her mother. A petite girl with a round face and spiky black hair walks in.

“She’s knocking because your farewell party has arrived.” The girl takes a slight bow hiding her devilish grin. Her spikes don’t move at all as the light catches the blue tint in the black.

A smile spreads across Meda’s face, her previous panic instantly forgotten.

“Maddie! What are you doing here?” She leans over to glance at her bedside clock. “And before noon, no less.” She laughs.

Maddie is Meda’s best friend, only friend really. Since Deirdre moved them around every year or so while Meda was growing up, Meda never really had the chance to develop real friendships before Maddie. When they moved to Raleigh four years ago, Meda finally got her opportunity.

The only problem was she didn’t fit in. She was an outsider in a school where everyone was in the same class since kindergarten and entire families had been friends for generations. It wasn’t surprising that the other new kid, someone even weirder than her, adopted her.

Maddie is a self-proclaimed dork. She normally dresses up in theme but never looks like she’s trying too hard. It’s just her. Today, she looks like she just stepped out of a Japanese cartoon - white button-up shirt, purple and grey plaid skirt with scarf to match and purple spider-webbed combat boots.

“Well, I had to say good-bye.” Maddie says with a huff. “You’re going to be gone all summer, and I don’t know if I’ll see you before I leave for New York.”

Reality set in at her words. This might be the last time they see each other in a while, probably ever, if Meda’s mother has it her way.

“That’s right.” She says dishearteningly. “You picked NYU, right?”

“Yeah. I’ve always wanted to go there, and you’ve always told me how amazing it is. Plus it’s Parson’s! ” A hint of excitement leaks from Maddie’s voice.

Meda twitches at her friend’s zeal, and Maddie notices.

“But it would be a lot cooler if I could take a year off like you.”

Faking her own excitement, Meda’s says, “Yeah, it should be great.”

She looks past Maddie to her mother still in the doorway with a knowing look. She hates lying to everyone, especially Maddie. Besides, she’s not very good at it, even with her four years of practice.

“Well, I think it’s cool.” Maddie says while looking between the mother and daughter. “I wish my parents would let me take a year off to explore the world.”

Meda smirks. Maddie has no idea. It’s another world entire.

Maddie settles on Meda’s mother. “I’ll say it again, ‘you are the coolest mom ever, Deirdre!’”

Deirdre politely nods her head at Maddie in thanks.

“Now that you’ve said your farewell, Madison, I think it’s time…”

“Mom,” Meda interrupts narrowing her eyes, “we don’t have to leave for a little bit.” She removes the bite in her tone knowing her mother’s buttons and replaces it with a childish pout. “Can’t Maddie stay for a while?”

Meda knows she is prolonging the inevitable but she’s desperate for more time in a place she knows, the only place she’s ever called home.

Seeing the despair in her daughter’s eyes, Deirdre concedes.

“Fine, but only for a minute. I don’t want to hit traffic.”

“I’m driving until we find…” Meda stops herself.

Her mother’s eyes are searing into her for almost revealing their secret.

“Somewhere to eat.” Meda adds.

Meda quickly looks at Maddie, who looks puzzled but not suspicion. That’s what she loves about Maddie. She never pushes. She sees the mother/daughter non-verbal conversations and chalks it up to our weirdness without any questions.

“True.”

Deirdre leaves shaking her head disapprovingly.

Maddie sprints behind Deirdre and closes the door. She turns launching herself on the bed next to Meda.

“Get up!”

Meda falls back into the bed groaning.

“I can’t with you on me!”

The two girl laugh for a while settling into comfortable silence. This may be the last time they are together. The magnitude of it all hits hard.

Maddie shifts herself to sit next to Meda on the bed.

“You missed a great party last night, by the way.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, everyone from our class was there except you.” Maddie pauses. “Vincent even asked about you.”

Meda’s brows fly up in utter surprise.

“Really? Vincent Marks?”

Maddie giggles.

“Of course, he’s been trying to get your attention all year. I would bet he was hoping to make his move last night but you didn’t go.” She says wiggling her eyebrows at Meda.

“Couldn’t go!” Meda corrects.

“Breaking his little heart.” Maddie adds with a baby voice.

Meda shoves her shoulder into Maddie but says nothing. She’s always liked Vincent and suspected he liked her, but it was never something she felt she could pursue since she was destined to leave. It would have been nice to have the girlfriend experience here.

Maddie disrupts the fantasy.

“What’s up with that, anyway? Deirdre’s been even weirder than usual with her rules.”

“She just didn’t want me to be out of it for my trip, that’s all.”

“I guess.” Maddie shrugs. “Hangovers suck when you’re flying… but you don’t even drink.”
Pretending to be offended, Meda protests, “I drink!”

“One drink all night isn’t drinking; it’s babysitting.” Maddie teases.

“I don’t like the feeling of losing control. Besides, you guys act retarded when you’re drunk.”

“I don’t.” Maddie says smugly.

“But Lucas and his boys do!”

Shaking her head, Maddie counters, “But they’re retarded all the time.”

Laughing, Meda square off to her friend.

“You realize you just called your boyfriend retarded?”

Pretending to be a lovesick girl, Maddie closes her eyes shaking her head near Meda’s laughing face.
“I love him no matter his mental or emotion disabilities.” She coos baiting her eyes.

Maddie laughs at herself invigorating Meda’s own laugh. They two girls roll in the bed laughing.
To avoid the expected silence, Maddie jumps out of bed.

“Okay. It’s really time for you to get up cause I have to get out of here before we both get all weepy.”

Meda throws off the covers and crawls out of bed. She gloms Maddie into a hug.

Maddie flails her arms. “Meda… Can’t… Breath!”

Meda steps back to check on her friend. Once she sees Maddie’s fine, she hugs her again more softly.

The two break away as the door opens. Deirdre is back in the doorway.

Maddie walks to the door. She turns back to Meda.

“Have fun on your little adventure but know I’ll always be here for you.” She says with great seriousness for the first time.

Meda nods, not looking Maddie in the eyes as her best, and only, friend walks out the door.

“I’ll show myself out.” Maddie’s voice rings from down the hall.

Meda snorts at her friend’s quick recovery as the front door closes. She looks up at her mother, and all the hatred she has for this forced “vacation” erupts inside her.

Meda brushes past her mother towards the bathroom stiff with annoyance. Deirdre opens her mouth, and then closes it, not knowing what to say.

Once alone in the bathroom, Meda looks at herself in the mirror. Her hair sticks out every which way. Her sea green eyes look haunted. She splashes water on her face. Resting her elbows on the sink and her head in her hands, she take a slow deep breath steeling herself for the day, perhaps the next three months that will follow.

When she enters her room, her mother is sitting at the foot of the bed staring out the exposed windows.

“You know this is the best course of action?” Deirdre says matter-of-factly without looking back at Meda.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s done! I’ve agreed to your demands, but I’m not going to pretend this is for the best.”

Deirdre slowly spins on the bed bring her leg up under her. The pose takes away some her regal air.

“It will give you a chance to meet your father.” She exclaims focusing on the positive, which angers Meda more.

Meda couldn’t deny that she was always curious about her father. When she started school and family always came up, Meda felt lost. People began to assume that her father abandoned them. Anytime she asked about him, her mother would deflect the topic and try to distract her. So as time passed, she began to assume the same. It was heartbreaking, but she always had her mother.

All her curiosity disappeared when she found out the truth. Her mother had to flee her home abandoning everything she had ever known to have Meda and didn’t want to force that on him. Some part of Meda always hoped he would show up one day to reclaim his family, but that never happened. Now Meda was being forced to do the same thing to meet the man who never came. The whole thing infuriated her.

“Oh, the father that has a new family, instead of the first one he started!”

Meda knew she was being unfair. Her father didn’t even know she existed until a few years ago, but it still hurts to know that he had other kids. Wanting to pick a fight now, she says, “Let’s face it, Deirdre. This entire trip is pointless!”

Hearing her daughter say her name brought the fight back in Deirdre. Where she was from, the custom was to use a parent’s given name, but she always preferred the term of endearment. It just felt right. Now looking at her daughter’s defiant expression, Deirdre decides to take a different tactic.

Standing up, she states, “It’s just three months, that’s all I ask. After that you can come back. I just want you to see that it’s apart of you.” Almost forcing herself to continue. “And so is he!”

“How can they be apart of me, if I’ve never known either of them?” Meda inquires.

Deirdre’s posture deflates. “They are.”

“I don’t see how.” Her anger subsides. She flops on the bed looking up at her mother with beseeching eyes. “You and this place are all the parts I need.”

“You say that now, but you’ll see.”

Her rage returns in full force. She vaults off the bed. Grabbing a stuffed army style duffle near her closet, she makes for the door.

Completely defeated and seriously pissed off, she huffs, “Fine! Then let me see!”

She storms out the room. Deirdre quickly follows her in silence all the way out the apartment and down to the car.

Deirdre pauses at the car. Meda grumbles her aggravations walking around to the driver’s side. She seizes the keys from her mother open hand. Getting in the car, she slams the door. Deirdre sighs as she walks to the passenger side. The roar of the engine turning mirrors Meda’s rage. The moment Deirdre gets in, Meda throws the car into reverse, and they take off in tension-filled silence.

Meda navigates through the busy lanes of downtown gripping the steering wheel like it’s her mother’s neck.

As they make it out of town, Meda turns on the radio. Her fury settles enough for her to tire of the silence.

Deirdre instantly leans forward to turn it off. “It’s safer without distraction.”

To angry to care about her mother’s fear of this “planet’s barbaric transportation”, Meda jams in the on button.

“It’s not a distraction. It’s music.” Before her mother can respond, she adds, “I’m driving, so my rules.” Under her breath, she includes, “for once!”

Deirdre leans back into her chair letting Meda win this battle because deep down she knows she has won the war.

Meda glances at her mother from time to time thinking, it’s going to be a long car ride!”

Once they get to the island, they switch drivers, and the music goes off. The car is thick with tension, but neither one wants to speak first. It is a test of stubbornness with neither wanting to bend.

Meda couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t always like this. It was never normal, but nothing like it is now. Everything changed the day after her fourteenth birthday.