Just Like Home

by Sarah Gailey

The urge to escape subsumed any thoughts of responsible caretaking.

She needed sleep, right away, thick rich dark sleep, and in the morning everything would be the same but she would be able to face it all without breaking.

Her mother has told her several times not to sneak, as if it’s Vera’s fault that nobody pays attention to the sounds of her life.

“Boys are just like girls, in almost every way. But men … men are demons, Vee.”

This was her house. It was hers. She would not be afraid of anything in it, not now and not ever. Not even a darkness that climbed beneath her eyelids to keep her from peeking.

“He tried to build us strong and steady and whole. But he didn’t keep us safe. He didn’t know how to shelter us from all the hurt that was waiting, because he thought that hurt was the shape of love.”