apoc-a-lypse, n.

She knew before her mother did.

She saw the lipstick stained shirt before she did. She laughed at how clumsy her mommy was.

She saw the texts on the phone her daddy left open. Since when is mommy’s name “Lizzy”? She wondered. After all, who else could say “I love you” to daddy?

She heard her daddy come hours late from work. He was so busy with business meetings those days. It had to be true; it was what he told mommy. And daddies didn’t lie to mommies.

She knew but didn’t understand.

She still hadn’t understood when the fights broke out, when daddy packed away his clothes and left.

How much she had cried and begged that day. Mommy had said daddy had done a very bad thing and had to go now. Mommy didn’t love daddy anymore because of all the bad he’d done. It scared her.

She tried to explain to him that he still loved them very much. She told her all about the lipstick shirts, the texts he read all the time and the time he spent at work. All that seemed to make mommy more upset than she already was.

Mommy kept crying for days. She felt helpless. Mommy didn’t eat, cook or even sleep in her bed; she slept on the table holding onto that drink she seemed to like so much. She couldn’t really see why she liked it so much. She’d licked the cap once and it only tasted bitter and terrible to her, worse than that cough medicine mommy kept in the cupboard.

Maybe tongues were different on older people.

Other things happened to mommy too. She stopped helping her with her English. The words got complicated again. They started to twirl and twirl around in her head like they did before, refusing to slow down so she could put them on paper. Mommy wasn’t even angry when her teacher wrote a note in her notebook. She didn’t even go and see the counselor like the teacher asked her to. She didn’t take her to the doctor the teacher suggested.

Daddy came home one day. She thought everything would be okay now, that daddy would live with them again. But he didn’t have his clothes so he couldn’t stay. Daddy took her out to eat ice-cream at Mc Donald’s and told her mommy and he would be getting a divorce.

He told her that he’d found a new mommy who was better than her current mommy and that she could come and live with them now. It was too much to think about so she didn’t say anything. How could you just change a mommy?

She told her mommy everything daddy said when he dropped her home. She didn’t take that well either.

Maybe she should go live with daddy.

In a few days, mommy dressed her up in her Sunday clothes and took her to a big place.A man in a funny dress sat on a high chair, and asked mommy and daddy questions.

Daddy, it turned out, had committed a crime! It was called an “infidelity “and from the way some people stared at him, it was really bad. A few days later, it turned out mommy had committed a crime too! That one was called “neglecting” and it was because she hadn’t taken her to the counselor for her condition. Dyslexia, it was called. She had a lady sitting in the court spell it for her.

Then, the funny man started to ask HER questions.

Did she love her parents?

Yes she did.

Which one would she like to stay with?

With daddy, if mommy didn’t stop sleeping on the table.

Why did mommy sleep on the table?

That drink she liked made her sleep.

The man said some really fancy words after that but she understood that she’d have to stay with daddy.

When she went home for the last time, mommy started to cry again. She cried and cried and wouldn’t stop, then went into her room and stayed quiet.

She shrugged and took out her homework. Mommy was probably asleep again. She had the Wacky Words one again. Her mommy loved those. She took the dictionary in her room and went to her mommy’s room.

“Mamma, look! It’s the Wacky Words again!” she said.

Mommy was sitting on the bed. She looked really tired. She probably took some pills from her drawer to sleep better because the pill box was next to her. It was empty.

“That’s very nice, Suzanna…” Mommy whispered. She sounded like she was about to fall asleep. “Let me help you out.”

Together, they opened the dictionary and looked at some words. A big word caught her attention.

“Mamma, is this word okay?”

Mommy nodded, took her notebook and wrote it down slowly.

She hoped her teacher would think she was improving.

When she looked back at mommy for a sentence idea, mommy seemed to be asleep.

That was okay. It was a weekend after all. Mommy would help her tomorrow, and if she didn’t, Daddy would when he came to pick her up.

She washed her hair in the sink with soap and wiped her body with wet wipes like she always did when mamma was asleep. She was getting good at it, there was hardly any soap left in her hair this time.

When she went to bed, she was finally happy. Mamma was returning to her.

The next day, she woke up early and went to check on Mamma who was still asleep in that exact position. She thought that was odd. Mamma rolled around a lot when she slept.

While she waited for her to wake up, she grabbed some dry cereal and ate that. After a while, there was a knock on the door. She drew a chair to the door to look through the peephole. It was daddy with another lady. She opened it.

“Hello, Suzie,” Daddy said. “This is Lizzie, your new mommy.” Lizzie smiled and waved at her.

“Do you love my daddy?” she asked. Lizzie nodded and hugged her.

“I love him, and I love you too!” Lizzie whispered.

“Where’s your mommy?” Daddy asked. She told him she was still asleep. Daddy went inside her room, and called Lizzie after a while. They stayed there for a bit, and then Lizzie came out again to take her to her room.

“Stay here.” She told her as she ran outside again.

Soon, there was a siren as an ambulance came to the door. People spoke very quickly and there was noise everywhere.

Suzanna watched a stretcher take mommy away. A doctor then covered her body in a sheet. She’d seen that in movies before. Mommy didn’t tell her she’d be going away.

Why hadn’t she told her?

Maybe she stopped loving her too.

She looked at her notebook, at the word Mommy had written. She could at least complete the work Mommy left for her.

When Lizzie came back inside to check on her, she found her asleep on top of her notebook. When she looked over her shoulder to see what she’d been writing, she ran outside for Daddy.

apocalypse (əˈpɒkəlɪps) n.

a great disaster : a sudden and very bad event that causes much fear, loss, or destruction

“The apocalypse finished today, the doctors took mommy away.”