Crushing Destiny: An Epic Battle of Good Versus Evil in Atlanta

"Don't answer the door for anybody," Nia's mom told her, "not if it's your father. Not if it's me. Not even the police."

"You're scaring me Mom."

"I'm just telling you what to do if something happens."

"What are you going to do?"

Nia's mom had been reading a book with a green cover. She put it down on the table and looked at Nia. "There are some things I need to take care of. They're not things that can wait."

Nia started crying. "But what about me? What am I supposed to do?"

Her mom pulled her into a hug. "This is all going to be over soon. But for now, stay here." Nia felt her mother kiss the top of her head. Her mom walked out the back door and disappeared from view.

"Stay here?" Nia thought as she wandered around their little house in the woods. She was bored already, but she was afraid to go outside because of what her mom said. Her dad was always threatening to leave them and never come back, but he never did. He would yell and scream and then go sit out in the garage until he calmed down. Sometimes he brought his big orange gun with him, which made Nia really scared, but he would only sometimes take it out of its case, clean it, or look at it while he drank beer and smoked cigarettes. Other times he'd just drink beer by himself and stare at nothing in particular while his face got redder and redder until Nia couldn't look at him anymore without getting sick to her stomach.

She flopped down on the couch and turned on the TV, but there wasn't anything good on. She kept flipping through channels until she found an episode of The Simpsons that was funny, so she watched that one instead of changing again when it ended after ten minutes like she usually did because everything else on TV was stupid or sad or boring or all three together like her life was lately since her dad was yelling more than ever before about something she didn't understand about some woman named Brenda who used to work for him but didn't work for him anymore and who Nia had never heard of before except from when Mom said that Dad shouldn't talk about Brenda in front of her because Brenda was bad news, which made Nia wonder why Mom worked for a bad guy like Dad if Dad was bad news too, but then again Dad didn't work for anyone except himself so maybe he wasn't bad news after all unless Mom meant that Brenda was bad news because Dad talked about her too much which obviously couldn't be true because everyone knew that talking wasn't bad news even though sometimes Dad yelled at Mom when they were alone which made Mom cry which also made Nia cry especially if Dad tried to hit Mom which he did once after they got home from a party where they were both drinking beer until they were both really drunk but Mom fell asleep in the car so Dad carried her inside when they got home but left Nia sitting in the car by herself so she cried because she didn't want to be left alone in the dark outside their house in the middle of nowhere where nobody could hear her when she cried so she tried screaming as loud as she could but nobody came except for a bear who came closer and closer until finally Dad came out with his gun and shot him which made Nia even more scared than usual because bears weren't dangerous animals normally so how could Dad shoot one?

Nia had just started crying again when there was a knock at the door. It startled her so badly that she jumped off the couch onto the floor where she lay staring at the ceiling fan spinning around above her as tears ran down her cheeks and dripped onto her shirt until finally after five minutes someone knocked again, this time louder than before. When there was no response, whoever it was knocked again still louder than before until finally an angry voice shouted from outside: "Open up! Police!" The voice sounded vaguely familiar--or maybe it just sounded like one of those cartoon voices--but either way it made Nia think of Dad's voice when he got too angry and would start yelling at them both which always made her cry as well as get mad at him for making Mom cry too even though Mom never yelled back even though that just made Dad angrier every time which always ended with him hitting one or both of them until finally one day Mom said enough is enough we're leaving right this second even though they didn't have any money or anywhere to go so how were they going to leave? And why were they leaving anyway since they lived here together except sometimes Dad went outside by himself while they waited inside? Which just made Nia wonder why they were waiting inside instead of with Dad? Where had he gone? Why hadn't anyone told her where he'd gone? Or why had no one ever answered any of her questions whenever she asked them? Like why had no one ever told her what happened with Brenda? And how could no one tell such important things like those? Because people always forgot things because their memories are terrible sometimes especially if people don't have any money like Nia's family doesn't have any money? But then how can you buy new memories if you don't have any money? If you don't have any money then you might as well forget all your old memories since you're sure not getting any new ones anytime soon even though you're probably forgetting your old memories already because otherwise how can you forget something if you don't have any money anyway since money helps remember things better than anything else does which is probably why people are always looking for more money everywhere even though lots of other things help people remember better too like love or friendship or family or whatever except those don't help people remember better than money does unless maybe you're poor like most poor people aren't poor because they don't have any friends or families or anything else besides each other which is actually pretty nice except nobody wants to be poor when rich people get richer by taking away all your friends and families and stuff without asking first especially since rich people are evil most times especially when they own guns like my dad owns lots guns bigger than my arms bigger than my legs bigger even than my whole body except not quite big enough to eat me since I'm skinny plus I'm almost eleven years old now so I'm big enough so I bet I could eat my whole family if I wanted to especially my dad since he's not very nice lately probably because Brenda ain't working for him anymore which is probably why he won't stop yelling about Brenda not being around anymore now that Brenda doesn't work for him anymore probably because Brenda is dead now probably which makes sense since nobody's seen Brenda in weeks even though nobody says anything about it since it's none of their business although I wish someone would say something about it since I've been wondering about Brenda ever since my dad started yelling about her last month screaming who knows where else besides at us mostly especially where I live in our house in these woods far away from everybody except Brenda wherever Brenda is right now which hopefully isn't here wherever here is right here right now next door knocking on our door right now."