Lost In The Clouds

The lava lamp had always been special, because it was a gift from Taylor. True when she clicked it on at night it gave her room a most magical air, but Leah had never expected this wispy golden form of a woman to spring from it and offer her a wish. Suspicion surfaced, disbelief lacing itself in her words. "What do I do to earn it?" Leah well remembered her father's countless "nothing is free in this world" lectures, cigarette smoke swirling through his freezing cold study, the irratating scratch of his pen as he balanced the checkbook."Present me with a problem, and I will grant your wish." The voice was to giddy, like Leah's dad's girlfriend when she'd had to many glasses of champagne.

"Unless of course, your without worry." The tease wrecked Leah's train of thought, sending it spiralling back to when she'd found out, weeks and weeks ago that felt like yesterday.

It was a still night when Leah crept out the back door and found Taylor crumpled on the porch swing. The sun was seeping from the sky sending a vibrant farwell in orange and pink. Leah focused on the sunset and pretended not to see the mascara dripping down her sister's nose. Taylor had always been the mom Leah never had, now that she was the one broken; Leah had no idea what to do. She leaned into Taylor, hoping to breathe in her sister's signature mixture of scents that never failed to comfort. Dove soap, melting power, and a spritz of summery melon perfume. Instead she smelt sadness, like rain.

"He doesn't understand. He doesn't see people as human beings with thoughts and feelings, just a long string of numbers added to the budget." Leah could almost see her father as he confronted her sister, hear his pockets jingling with the change he never wanted to part with. A sob escaped from Taylor's lips and she pressed a thin hand against her belly. Somehow Leah knew she wasn't protecting what she held inside, but mourning what was gone.

"Have you thought it over?"said the genie, almost motherly, if not for the mysticism and unpredictability playing in her voice. There were other more valiant things to wish for; like world peace. But Taylor meant the world to Leah. She pressed the button on her lava lamp, watched the colors bubble up, and took a deep breath.

"My sister hasn't been happy for so long, she can't forgive herself for having an abortion."

There wasn't a puff of smoke, shower of sparkles, or magic word; but as the genie faded away, Leah glimpsed into the future. She saw Taylor in the clinic lot scribbling a letter to her unborn baby, and sliding it out the window. As Taylor drove away the exhaust from her car pushed it upward, and her letter was lost in the clouds.