Stars In The Sky

Participants:

kaylee3_icon.gif

Scene Title Stars in the Sky
Synopsis Sometimes what you wish for isn't what you get…
Date June 3, 2019

Raytech Industries - Sensory Deprivation Pool Room

11:57pm


The pool felt so good on sore muscles,today. The training had been intense. The ache in her muscles seems to bleed away into the body temperature water. The telepath was fast approaching the final testing to pass the NYPD academy. Kaylee didn’t feel fully prepared for what was to come. Even with the help of friends and family, she wondered why Donovan even wanted her. Daily she felt like a failure deep inside.

Even with all the training ongoing, nightly she was still sneaking down into the basement levels of Raytech to the deprivation pool room. This was a moment to herself when the world would be its quietest and she could look for those memories that might be repressed; a search for answers about her own life. It wasn’t as easy for her as others, her ability didn’t really affect her. So she couldn’t go in and kick down her own doors.

In the time she’s used the pool, she hadn't really succeeded, only found clarity in old memories. Maybe her younger life wasn’t that bad, but why was her youth so spotty?

She hoped this time would be different. Every time, she hopes….

“Mommy.”

Floating there, only the buzz of white noise in her ears, Kaylee felt like she is sinking into herself.

Or maybe she was just exhausted.

“Mommy, wake up.” The soft whisper Kaylee, no more than six was loud in the quiet room. Tugging at her mommy’s arm, blue eyes were turned to the window with worry. Nights like this were tough on the child, the ones that she is unable to get her mommy to do anything. Those were the nights when mommy took her ‘special medicines.’

Yellow bottles littered the side table, a few laying on their sides on the floor were a clumsy reach sent them. A bottle of something brown — it smelled gross — sat next to an empty glass. Kaylee knew how it smelled, cause she took a sniff of some left in her mommy’s glass once. A taste later had confirmed that it was indeed GROSS. What was worse was when mommy breathed, the little girl could smell it on her. It made sleeping tough, since they often shared the bed in the little one room apartment.

Why did adults like that stuff so much? Kaylee’s nose wrinkled as her mommy huffed in annoyance, shifting away. “‘Lee stop… Mommy needs to sleep” is whined out.

But the little girl doesn’t stop, giving her mommy’s arm another determined shake. This time, Kaylee gets a groan for her efforts and a hand pushes her away. “Mommy!” Her voice pitches up, disappointment coloring her words. What if she missed the wishing star! Kaylee had an important wish to make and maybe her mommy could too. “The stars in the sky are falling. Come see them! You gotta come make wishes with me!” It was a new concept those wishing stars, a tale told to her by her Granny and she had been checking every night for a falling star.

Kaylee grabs for the arm again, her mother jerks away and this time turns over putting her back to her daughter. The little girl’s her lip quivered a bit; but, like so many of the other times she pushed down the feelings and rubs the back of a curled fist against her watery eyes. When she cried, it made mommy worse. Made her think she was the worse parent, but Kaylee never thought so.

WIth a little huffed sigh and a stomp of her foot, Kaylee knew she was on her own tonight. Bare feet make very little noise as she sneaks through the apartment. Her journey taking her down the stairs; not stopping until she gets to the kitchen window. On the other side of the smudged pane was the fire escape. Fear tickles at the little girl’s ribs while she pulls a chair over. Last thing she needed was for mommy to wake up. The boost allows small fingers to fumble with the latch. A couple of tries and some serious pushing later, she was crawling out on hands and knees. Her progress is briefly halted, by her nightgown snagging on a split in the wooden frame. A quick tug frees her, but it leaves a small hole.

Oh well.

A little thrill in her tummy told her this was wrong, but her heart knew it was important. Tip toeing across the small landing, Kaylee moves to the edge of the fire escape. Gripping the cold bars, she leans out, twisting a look up at a dark sky framed by buildings.

For a long time Kaylee waits and watches. Each passing moment, she fidgets to keep the exhaustion at bay.

Until…

During a particularly big yawn, a light streaks across the sky. With a gasp the little girl, she whispers softly to herself, “A wishing star,” Excited, Kaylee dances foot to foot, before she dropped to her knees and tucks her nightgown under her legs. Ignoring the bite of the cold metal, she closes her eyes, folding her hands in front of her like she’s seen Granny do when she prayed.

How did Granny say it? Oh!

“I wish I may, I wish I might; please star grant me a wish” Kaylee cracks open and eye looking up; but then quickly closes it again, fearing the magic of the star fading before she can wish. “I don’t want anything for me, wishing star. I just… I just wish mommy was happy. Maybe take me away so that I don’t mess things up anymore. Make me not born anymore so I don’t hurt people like daddy says.Then maybe mommy will be happy.”

The hands fall away to lay in her lap and her, her gaze falling there, too. Thinking about her dad always made her feel sad. She still remembers him clearly telling her mommy that Kaylee was going to kill people. It confused the little girl, because she didn’t feel that way. It was wrong to hurt people. The moment passed, sleep presses in on her again.

Slowly, Kaylee sneaks back through the house to the bed where her mom was softly snoring. Curling up next to her mommy, Kaylee rests her cheek against the back of her hand. Big blue eyes studying her sleeping mother’s features, she whispers, “I’m sorry I always mess things up, Mommy.”

Slowly, Kaylee comes back to herself, the white noise in her ears returning, the sensation of the salt water on her skin. So relaxed, the telepath doesn’t even move when a spot on her leg starts to itch from the salt clinging to it.

Almost immediately, Kaylee knew this was a memory she didn’t remember. Emotions and feelings she wasn’t aware she ever had. Something her mind had clearly hidden away, for good reasons.

Floating there, Kaylee went over the memory. Turning it over in her mind, while ignoring the tears that dampened the mask over her eyes. Returned emotions gather like a brick in her stomach. It wasn’t hard to know what event triggered it. Ever since the memory of her father had been given back to her, Kaylee had been haunted by his words and by the way he looked at her.

For a little girl, to have her father look at her like she was something else? It wasn’t a father looking at a daughter, there was fear in those eyes.

Heaviness seeps into Kaylee’s mind again, pulling her down, while the past boiled up to meet her.

The telepath willingly reached for it.

“I’m not discussing this, mother!”
“Oh, you bet your ass, we’re gonna talk about this, girl!”

Her mommy and Granny were fighting again. Kaylee listened to them, while staring blankly at the door. A fist rubbs at tired eyes as she finally sat up. Sleep would have been preferred but, the yelling was getting louder.

“I mean, what the ever livin’ fuck, Karen Marie Thatcher!”

The older woman’s voice cut through the night, sharp and brooking no argument. It was enough to draw the girl to the door. A blue eye is positioned just right to peer out through a thin sliver of light. They were fighting about her again.

They always fought about her and about mommy’s ‘habits’.

“I raised you a hell of a lot better than this. If your daddy knew, he’d be so heartbroken right now.”
“Why are you even here mother?”

The door opens just enough for the tiny telepath to squeeze through. Dropping to crawl to the edge of the landing, eyes have to squint against the harsh lights. Her mommy sounded kind of tired and sad. She was always sad. Karen, her mommy, sprawled on the couch below the stairs, an arm thrown dramatically across her face. She was avoiding the scathing glare of her mother. A short glass half-filled with amber liquid gripped loosely in her other hand.

“You wanna know?” Granny rounding on her daughter, with hands perched on her hips. Judging her daughter. “Alright, Karen Marie, you wanna know? Edward called me. Edward ‘Fucking’ Ray. That’s how I know.”

Kaylee’s mom groans. “You’re kidding me. Mo — ”

“That’s right, baby.” Granny interject quickly, tone sharp and distraught. “That manipulative bastard had the nerve to call and tell me that my grandbaby was in danger.” Placing a hand on her chest like she’s been personally wounded. “He said he was concerned for Kaylee’s safety.”

“Mother…”

“Don’t Mother me, you selfish little brat.” Granny snaps. “I didn’t want to believe that bastard after what he done to you and that baby, but no… that smug little prick had to be right. Partying, Karen Marie? Drugs?” The glass is snached from slack fingers. Kaylee can’t help but flinch and duck her head. “Drinking? You have a baby girl who needs her momma. And you need to start actin’ like a one.”

“Mother! You don’t understand, Edward, he—”

“No!” Granny yells and hand slashing at the air, “You don’t understand a goddamn thing about being a parent.” Something in the old woman’s tone made anxiety thread through Kaylee. It wasn’t hard to know where this was going, tears already filling big blue eyes. “So till you decide to get right, I’m taking Kaylee Ann home with me.” The little girl’s breath catches in her throat, emotions choking at the back of her throat.

“You can’t…” her mother gasped out in panic below the little girl.

“Ooooh yes, I can.” Granny’s face is flush with her righteous anger. ”Don’t think for a moment I won’t call the police on you, that baby girl deserves better than this.”

“No!”
“Yes, I’m gonna take that baby home and if you want to be close to her, you’ll come with us and get straight.”

Karen was suddenly on her feet, the little girl flinches without thinking and scooting back from the edge of the landing. “Fine! Take her! See if I care! I didn’t want her in the first place!”

Instinct drove Kaylee to huddle lower on the ground, her mother’s anger and rejection bringing out a whimpered whine. A gasp from below says she’s been found out, but she doesn’t care, she only starts crying.

“Now look what you did, you stupid idiot,” she hears Granny hiss angrily at Kaylee’s mommy.

The intensity of her emotions, forces Kaylee to sit up. With a growl, she tears off all the equipment. Leaving them to float in the pool, while she got out.

It takes the telepath a moment to realize that she wasn’t just angry, she was furious at her parents. Both of them. They never had a good relationship, but Kaylee hadn’t know when it all started with her mother… now she had a good idea. Her parents had been married and happy, if the pictures were to be believed, but then… they had Kaylee.

Salt water snakes off her skin and pools on the floor at her feet, eyes on the shifting surface of the water. Thoughts in total chaos, Kaylee started to doubt.

Maybe this was a mistake. Was she even ready for the truth? It would be easy to just walk away and leave the past to the darkest part of her memories.

Grabbing her towel, Kaylee huffs out a bland chuckle.

Who was she kidding?

She’ll be back.


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