A Night with the Step-Aunt
Jas recounts one particularly haunting memory:
“It was late, and I was in the kitchen getting some water. She came in, unsteady, with that look in her eyes. She started asking me about my mom, why she’d disappeared, if I knew something I wasn’t telling her.”
Jas pauses, swallowing hard. “And then she got angry. She started yelling, accusing me of lying. I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there, frozen.”
“What happened?” Ivy Mae asks, her voice trembling.
“She passed out right there in the kitchen,” Jas says. “I had to help her back to the recliner. I was so scared she’d wake up again.”
The Decision to Leave
After two months, Jas couldn’t take it anymore. “I packed my bag one night and left. I didn’t even say goodbye. I just… I couldn’t stay there. I stayed in a shelter for a while until I figured things out.”
“You shouldn’t have had to go through that,” Ivy Mae says, tears in her eyes.
Roman places a hand on Jas’s shoulder. “But you made it through. You’re strong.”
Jas shrugs. “I guess. But sometimes, I still hear her voice, still see her face when I close my eyes.”
Reflection in the Present
The conversation helps Jas unpack some of their lingering trauma, and it strengthens their bond with Ivy Mae and Roman. Later, as Jas lies awake under the stars, they think about how far they’ve come and how much they’ve endured.