Free Accordance by Shelly Crane

and slammed the door right as I saw him step off the porch. I didn’t see the keys anywhere but I searched in a mad rush. I locked my door so he couldn’t stop me just as he reached my door and banged on the window.
    “Maggie, stop. Where are you going?”
    “Away,” I said as looked in the visor and still didn’t see them.
    I beat my palms on the steering wheel in frustration and the Jeep roared to life. Just like that. It was like I willed it. I looked at Caleb through the window and he was just as stunned. He pulled the keys from his pocket and looked at them and then back at me in wonder.
    I didn’t wait any longer. I put the Jeep in reverse, no matter how it cranked, it was drivable and that’s all I cared about. I pulled onto the highway with Caleb in my rearview mirror, his hands going in the air in a frustrated move before he ran back into the house. My heart pounded and ached. It didn’t want me to leave, not mad and not like this. We weren’t made to fight, I remembered our first fight in Kyle’s back yard, how it hurt me, but I didn’t turn around.
    I had no doubt he was going to call his father. And mine. And then Caleb and Kyle would contemplate on how to bring me back and why I was acting insane. Did he really not know? He was supposed to be my equal, my love, my life. And now he was treating me as if I was someone he no longer deserved and needed to be groomed for a life of privilege. I was someone to be managed and bowed down to as if in obedience.
    Maggie, don’t do this. You need to come back and face this-
    I pushed him out and blocked him.
    How dare he treat me like some spoiled prodigy who was on the warpath or something? I was me! I am me! Wasn’t that the whole point of everything I was shown upstairs in that vision was that their race was spoiled and unclean in their actions and past thoughts: Greed, Pride, Complacency. Those weren’t minor offenses and there they were trying to worship me. This was every girl’s dream, right? Not mine.
    I hated it. I begged for God to take it all back. I didn’t want to be the Visionary, I just wanted Caleb.
    I drove for a while and then pulled into an ice cream place off the main highway. I tried to breathe and calm down so Caleb wouldn’t call a cab and follow my heartbeat to me.
    I got a text from Bish.
    Caleb said you left. I heard all the shouting. WTH Mags? Get your butt back here and answer me right now.
    Then a call from Caleb came in. I pressed the red button to send it straight to voicemail and didn’t bother to listen. I wasn’t really angry at him. Not really. I was just angry. I just wanted my life back. My chest begged for Caleb, my fingers twitching. I pushed it away.
    I pulled the visor down to look in the mirror. I saw the telling mark they had seen. It was a half sun half moon that put together made a whole with the line where they met blurry and gray, fading into each other. The sun half was white with wide slithering rays protruding. The moon half was black and smooth. It was small, about an inch and half maybe, right on the side of my neck. I ran my fingers over it. It wasn’t really a tattoo, it looked more solid than that but my skin felt smooth to the touch. It was odd.
    The two guys behind the counter at the deserted ice cream place were giving me odd looks for sitting it the parking lot and not coming up so I sighed and got out. I had seen Caleb stash a few bills into the ashtray. I retrieved them and went to the counter. It was one of those outdoor places with benches and umbrellas and you ordered through a walk up window.
    “Hi.”
    I tried to sound normal.
    “Hi there, what can I get for you?”
    “Um...” All the flavors were crazy celebrity names. I had no idea what was in them. “Which one is the most like rocky road?”
    He looked amused.
    “Rocky Balboa, of course.”
    “Oh. Ok. Well then I’ll take a small Rocky Balboa.”
    I gave him his money and waited as they made it. He handed it to me and