Short Fiction Series

Mama Was In a Bad Mood Last Night

So I hid with Bunny under the porch

Mama had been in one of her bad moods last night.

I’m only 8 years old, but I know when to hide from her and when it is safe.

Last night, though, she’d thrown out my prettiest pink top because I spilled my milk on it. It made me mad and I screamed at her. That’s when I knew I had gone too far.

She got that wild crazy look in her eyes and began looking for dad’s belt. She started digging under the pile of clothes on the kitchen floor and I high-tailed it out the back screen door with her yelling at me to come back.

Sometimes if I stay away for a while, she’ll calm down and won’t be so mad when I sneak back in.

Under the back porch is a secret place for me to hide. I play there sometimes with our dog, Bunny. I named her Bunny because she was so fluffy when she was a puppy. Nowadays she’s as skinny as I am, but I share some of my food with her every day.

In my back porch hide-y hole, I keep my favorite things so nobody will find them.

I have my baby doll and my two books that I love reading over and over again. Plus, once I snuck a jar of peanut butter out of the house when she and dad were snoring one afternoon. It tastes so good when I dip my finger in the jar and get a big mouthful.

Anyways, last night I snuck back in just after dark because she’d stopped yelling and everything had got real quiet except for the football game playing on the TV.

The volume was always turned up loud because my daddy said we talk too much and he can’t hear over us.

My mom was standing at the front door, talking to a delivery guy and I figured she wouldn’t do anything with a stranger watching, so I peeked out at him from behind her dress and he smiled back at me and waved.

The name tag on his shirt said Jim. I grinned at him and waved back. That’s when mama noticed me and she used her hip to push me out of sight.

But I liked the friendly delivery man. He was probably a nice dad to somebody.

I looked over at my daddy laying on the couch asleep, his big belly rising with each snore. Before my mom finished signing her name on Jim’s clipboard, I ran out the back door and around to the front porch.

“Hey, mister!” I smiled again, waving my hand like crazy.

I stepped closer to the porch, not so my mom could see me, but close enough that when Jim stepped on the ground, I’d be right next to him. He turned to go back to his truck and as he walked by me, he paused and looked down at me.

“Hey, how are you? Are you okay?” He sounded so nice.

I reached out to pat his hand and nodded my head.

Just then, mama stuck her head out of the door and yelled, “Get back in here, Missy! Don’t think I forgot your little temper tantrum a while ago!”

Before she could get to me, I made a Big Wish. I held my breath, closed my eyes and held on to Jim’s hand. And I made the Biggest Wish I’d ever made in my whole life.

The woman reached out to grab the little girl.

As I climbed into the seat of the delivery truck and drove away, I felt a brief moment of guilt over leaving Jim in that body to deal with the woman who’d called herself my mother for 8 years.

I hoped he’d find my secret hiding place under the back porch with Bunny and my jar of peanut butter before she came after him with my dad’s belt.

Thank you to KL Simmons for being such a great editor!

And thanks to Kirby Workes for giving me the story idea:

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