“Her Eyes are all Bloodshotty”

"No, its bloodshot" I corrected my little girl. "And what are you watching?"

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" She told me, but she was six, so she said the 're' in massacre more like a 'w'

"Turn that off." I said. "That's a bad movie." She listened and abruptly shut it off. I filed through the rummage to pull out a Disney Movie and popped it in. My daughter had rewound and left it in mid song so as soon as it started, she could jump up excitedly and start singing along.

Dorothy was so cute.

"Where's your mom, Dory?" I asked her and she told me in the bedroom.

I slowly opened a door expecting a bottle to be thrown towards my head and to shatter at the wall, I mean; Dory did say that her eyes were bloodshot

But it wasn't a hangover like I though, she was crying.

And that's when I remembered that Linda had a heart.

She was on her bed, facing away from the door, so I slowly crawled into bed.

She turned around and I saw her face smeared in makeup- that beautiful face

"What the hell do you want?" She asked

"Nothing. I.. I'm sorry was all I could say"

And she just glared at me with eyes that could burn through one hundred men

I stared down at my hands, my only tools I've used to make things better. It was weird, In every relationship I'd had, it had been my mind that destroyed everything.

So I used my hands and I rubbed Linda's temples

She wasn't heartless, never was and I should've seen that earlier

I should've seen that

But as I did this her face scrunched and she looked as if she was growing frustrated

"What are you doing?"

I never spoke when she asked those type of questions, I've always viewed them as somewhat rhetorical

I began to go under the blankets and rub her ankles; this always made her feel better

But her face stayed unphased.

So doing the final thing I could, I just lay and wrap my arms around her.

And under my arm, what seemed somewhat uncomfortably, she talked behind herself

She said "What the fuck are we supposed to do now Sam?

Answer me that question.

How are we supposed to function together?"

And like that, the tears flooded my eyes and I broke down and started crying. She looked down at me like a sad dog and I don't know whether it was compassion or pity, but she pulled me closer to her breasts. I settled on one of them, feeling a comfort spot through her t-shirt and kept crying and all she could say was "Sam…"

Until after the song ended,

There stood Dory in the doorway, done singing the Disney song, she just looked at me

I rose up to face her and she said "Now you're all bloodshot too"

She jumped up on the bed and attempted to hold us both. We immediately pulled her to the middle and I wiped my tears.

We held our little daughter together and everything felt okay for once

Derrick McCain