| Act 4:: Inner Vision A slam and it was morning. They had spent most of the night arguing, and as dawn approached they finally realized how ill conceived their entire life together had been. Car door open and shut, the sound of wheels on gravel, bottom out, and then they where alone. Suddenly the house seemed ghastly in its vastness. Mackenzie sat in her bed watching the walls change color in the early morning light. She had left before, often for months at a time, but she always came back. In the end, her mother couldn�t survive by herself; she needed her husband and daughter to hold her together. Footsteps in the hallway and the shuffle of feet against the carpet outside her bedroom door; no doubt her father knew that she was awake. Instead of a gentle tap on the door the feet continued past, to their bedroom. The door open and squeaked shut, the shattering of glass rang through the house like the church bells that announced the coming of the hour. Mackenzie hated the peace these days would bring; in her world silence was unbearable, an unseen killer hidden in the shadows. Whether the reason was the guilt that stemmed from her relief in a break from the fighting and the alcohol, or the anxious anticipation of her arrival brought, Mackenzie wasn�t certain. Perhaps it was the mixture of these emotions that left her dreading the eventual encounter with her father. It wasn�t as if she could hide herself away until everything came back together again, no matter how disjointed the pieces may have been. |