The Birth of Bane by Richard Heredia Read Free Book Online Page A

the way she was stomping
about, I could tell she was just as irate as me.
    “ Valerie!” I
said emphatically.
    She was glancing
in my direction, another stinging remark upon her lips. This one
was for me. Suddenly, her eyes bulged as if some unseen pressure
had filled her head beyond capacity. Shock exploded across her
face, making her gasp.
    “ Ooow!” she
exclaimed, bringing her hand to her ear.
    Elijah stared
back at her like she’d gone mad.
    My mother came
whirling into Val’s bedroom, pruning fork in hand. “What the hell
is going on in here?”
    Valerie ignored
us. It was like we weren’t even there. Her eyes were locked on my
baby brother once again. “How did you -?” she tried to ask, but
couldn’t finish. Her throat clenched, strangling her
words.
    Eli tiled his
head to the side, beyond confused. I could see tears beginning to
gather at the corner of his eyes. He didn’t understand what was
transpiring in Valerie’s head. To him, she probably didn’t seem
like his sister anymore. She was a stranger, a raving lunatic he
laid eyes upon for the very first time.
    “ Explain
yourself, Valerie,” pressed my mother, her brow knit.
    My sister peered
through her bangs, bewilderment and a tinge of something that
looked like fear etched on her visage.
    “ Valerie…” It
was the threatening tone my mother uttered when she on the verge of
true anger.
    “ M-mom, Elijah
flicked my ear,” she said, breathless, as if she’d run a mile.
There was doubt in her expression. I don’t think she really
believed what she’d just spoken aloud.
    I frowned. It
was clear there was no way my little brother could’ve touched her.
He was too far away. And, he’d been angling away from
her!
    “ No, I didn’t!”
He was finally indignant. He’d had enough.
    Valerie’s eyes
were wild now, darting around the room, toward each of us, out the
windows. I could see all other emotion evaporate from her face like
rainwater before an unrelenting tropical sun. There nothing but
fright left in their wake. “S-someth-th-thing hit m-my ear,” she
mumbled, stricken, her hand coming up to touch her right earlobe.
She pulled it away as if she’d been stung.
    Elijah dropped
Valerie’s shoes on the floor and scurried into my mother’s
grasp.
    I gazed at
Valerie, truly at a loss for her erratic behavior. This was so
unlike my sister. I really didn’t know what to think. She was never
like this. Unglued, snappy, denunciatory weren’t adjectives used to
describe my younger sibling. Yeah, she could be rigid, maybe even a
little cold at times, but she didn’t have a mean bone in her body.
And, suddenly… there was this change in her. I had never seen her discard the protective shield she often placed over
Elijah. Never. She was as protective as my mom. She always came to
his defense, alleviated his fears, even kept our erratic father as
far away from him as possible when he was raving drunk and
rampaging about. I had seen her run, full-tilt, with Elijah in her
arms, away from the particularly bad confrontations that occurred
within our household from time to time.
    I had even seen
her take a blow in his stead.
    No, she was
fiercely vigilant of his well-being. And yet…
    I couldn’t
connect the dots.
    It didn’t add
up.
    Yet, I could see
an angry blotch of red on her ear.
    I was
wrangling-up every cliché explanation I could corral, trying to
figure out what was going on in her head.
    “ It’s cold,”
muttered my sister, her hand stretched out before her.
    “ What’s cold?” I
asked, before my mother had the chance to say anything
else.
    Valerie stared
back at me as if she were on the verge of death. “My ear, it’s
freezing cold.”
    “ Jesus Christ!”
sputtered my mom. “You better get your shit together, Val! I’ve had
enough of your bullshit!”
    “ B-b-but, ma
-.”
    “ No ‘but’s’,
young lady. You either get a grip or I’m going to ground you for a
week.” She spun on her heel and left, Eli still holding