Free Committed to You by Kenya Wright

above the mantel to hold more of them. Mom and I pretty much looked alike. I could see it even better in these pictures. If her photos hadn’t been in black and white, then surely people would’ve been confused at which one of us it was holding our trophy.
    “How many beauty pageants were you in?” Jay asked.
    I cringed. “So many I hate talking about it.”
    “I don’t know what trips me out more, the dead cats or the way you’re smiling in those beauty pageant pictures. It’s like you’re forcing yourself to grin through pain.” Pipe put his phone up.
    I guess my beauty pageant pictures won’t make instagram.
    “Well, I was definitely forcing myself to smile during the torture.” I towed Jay and Evie down a dark hall. The ceiling light must’ve needed to be changed. Usually Mom kept one on regardless of whether it was day time or not. Today it was just shadows and blackness.
    Pipe followed us down the darkened passageway. “I’m starting to think Jay has a point. Maybe we should wait until we come down from our highs. I mean the stuffed cats were freaky, and now we’re going through this gloomy hallway. It’s like some sort of horror flick. It’s like Norman Bates meets that reality show Toddlers and Tiaras. I’m just feeling evil spirits radiating from the wall. I’m sensitive to things like that.”
    Evie tapped him on his shoulder. He jumped and shrieked. She did her best to hold in her laughter. “Pipe.”
    “Y-yes.”
    “Breathe in and out,” she whispered. “Think through the paranoia. You’re just tripping right now, nothing else.”
    “Everything is okay?” he asked.
    “Yes, you’re with friends.” She held his hand as well as mine. “You’re just having a bad head trip right now. Come back to us.”
    “So there were never dead cats in gaudy clothes?” Pipe hooked his arm around her free one and frowned.
    “Umm … well the dead cats were real,” she admitted.
    “And the scary beauty pageant pictures?”
    “Hey, they weren’t that bad,” I said.
    “Just breathe and forget about the cats, Pipe.” Jay tensed on my right as we left the darkened passageway and a glass door greeted us. It led out to the back yard, and I could see a few of my family out there in chairs.
    Our house sat on five acres of land so the yard was huge. Platters of food covered a long table in the center. Several relatives lounged in chairs scattered throughout the space, chatting and nibbling their food on small plastic plates. I spotted my mom farther off in the right corner, surrounded by all five of my aunts.
    “Okay, here we go.” Evie released my hand. The urge soared through me to grab it back, but I remembered that she hated for us to touch her in public.
    It’s enough that she even came down here with me. I won’t push her anymore.
    Jay opened the door. The hinges squeaked, and everyone’s attention turned to us
    “Cynthia!” Mom shot up from her seat and dashed toward me.
    It took everything in me to not roll my eyes and groan. Mom loved drama, especially when an audience surrounded her. A pink dress with a rose print at the top clung to her slim frame. She rushed to me with open arms. It was so unlike her usual bored welcomes to me. However, due to the audience, it was now time for Mom to play the stricken and widowed mother.
    “I worried so much. You didn’t call me when you got in.”
    “I’m sorry, Mom.”
    She hurried to me with swinging arms, and then barely two feet in front of me, she gasped and swayed back. “Oh God. I just can’t deal with all of this. I just can’t. God, take me now. Just take me.”
    My Uncle Anthony jumped up from his chair and grabbed her just as she fell back. “Oh, Dorothy. Are you okay?”
    “Why did your father have to go?” Tears fell from her eyes. Her words were squeaks amidst sobs.
    I tightened my grasp on Jay, even more thankful that he, Evie, and Pipe were there. I’d always been the odd one in my family. My relatives gave me space and