Charlie Reyes

Through Her Eyes

"OUCH! MOM!" her entire voice had changed since they returned from Kakslauttanen, the sweet (not quite angelic) but childish tone she once had completely disappeared. Nothing that she noticed, but it was just another thing of recent that had sent her mom into a further spiral. Anything that kept her a child seemed to vanish, the carefree pint-sized dictator she once now took a possessive role over her mother, questioning every move. "It's been like forever mom, we need to put these away.." she added nearly wanting to scream at her mother's lack of reaction. Gaze dropping to the cardboard box stuffed with their belongings that she had just stubbed her toe on, she let out a dramatic huff. One of the few pieces of her that the past six months of her life hadn't altered. LIVING ROOM in her mother's sloppy penmanship across the front of the box letting her at least find peace in the fact it was in the right room. Forever was an exaggeration, the box had sat there for roughly six months. Six months of watching her mother doubt each move she made, six months of watching as her mother jumped at every ring of her phone and knock on their door. Six months of her worried there would be a day her mother didn't come home to her. Little eyes now back at her mother, pleading with her to pull her head from the illuminated screen of her iPhone, pulling her foot back she slammed it against the box its contents making enough noise to finally gain Charlotte's attention. "I hit my foot" tears threatened to pour down her cheek at any second, her tantrum instantly paying off as she found herself in her mother's warm embrace. She reeked of the bottle that sat on the kitchen counter, but in that moment she didn't care. Her mother's affection was one of the few things that made sense to the young girl anymore. Each day clinging to the fact that normalcy would return, Empty promises fell from her mother's lips about how she would unpack soon, that she had just been busy. That she was sorry. That thing would go back to normal. That everything was okay. That she just needed to be a kid. Ending the moment with a series of kisses pecked across her cheeks, she watched as her mother finally pulled away, moving the box to the corner of the room, where she was certain it would remain for another six months. Six months since their return from Kakslauttanen, and the only thing that she knew was nothing made sense anymore.