Almost Crimson (25 page)

FORTY-TWO

MOON

 

 

CECE's MOTHER DIDN'T VISIT THE house for months, long after autumn chills laced the morning air. She'd insisted that CeCe first felt fully settled in her new space.

“No rush,” her mother had said via text message. CeCe had been unrelenting about having her carry and use a cell phone.

Eric had been mindful of CeCe's new space, too. He kissed her in front of the picture window after his first tour of the house, touched that CeCe had called to share such a special moment with him. She had looked up at him, wanting him to never take his gentle hands from the sides of her face.

Once CeCe had the house cleaned and a general layout in place, she redeemed Eric's offer to help by having him caravan the last of her boxes from what was now her mother's apartment. CeCe looked on, with a catch in her breath, as Eric cupped her mother's small hand and coaxed a girlish smile into her eyes. When she would retrace her lifetime with Eric, CeCe would mark the effortless glow in her mother's face as the moment she knew she would love this man for the rest of their lives.

Eric kissed her beneath her tree that evening, both of them tacky with dust and sweat. Inside, he pulled her through her the rooms and hallways, crisp with the smell of oil soap and newness, and into her bedroom. CeCe opened her limbs and her full heart as she and Eric enveloped one another for the first time. As he tightened his embrace around her body, CeCe cried out, listening to her freedom music sing against the walls of her moon-washed room.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DASHA KELLY IS A NATIONALLY-RESPECTED writer, artist and social entrepreneur. As a spoken word artist, Dasha has performed throughout the U.S., in Canada and appeared on the final season of HBO presents
Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam
. Dasha holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. She is an alum of the iconic Squaw Valley Writers Community, the former writer-in-residence for the historic Pfister Hotel, and founder of Still Waters Collective, an arts education and community-building initiative. In 2014, Dasha was selected as a U.S. Embassy Arts Envoy to teach and perform in Botswana, Africa. She is the author of one chapbook,
Hither
, and three books:
All Fall Down
,
Hershey Eats Peanuts
, and
Call It Forth
. She lives in Milwaukee, WI.