The small child caught in between youth and womanhood hid beneath the stairwell curled into a ball tears rolling down her face soaking her favorite nightgown. She tried to block the noise that pierced her ears, but the words were too loud and so full of hate. She tried to get to her “happy place” but she couldn’t reach it she couldn’t even see it was as if her mind a windshield and rain was slamming against it with broken wipers. What seemed a lifetime grew quiet and she began to uncurl herself but very slowly as she had been tricked before. Silence stayed so she crept down the hallway to her room and climbed into her childhood bed continuing to pray the night to end. Morning brought sobriety and stillness. It also brought apologies and downward stares that knew damage had been done. She made her sandwich put it in her pink backpack and walked out the door. “no kiss good by” she turned with a blank expression and replied, “no kiss goodnight”?