Zest Lit Issue 2, October 2013 | Page 208

The door started shaking. He was trying to knock it down. Lisa and Elie went into her bedroom and hid in the closet, unsure of what to do. They didn’t want to call the authorities, there were drugs in the apartment. Surely a neighbor would appear soon, wondering what all the noise was about. Hiding seemed like the best answer until then. Now they could hear his small body slamming against the door, only four inches separating them from this boy who longed to be a man.

The body slamming continued and the door started to give. There was a creaking sound as if a barrel was about to burst open. Elie hoped he wouldn’t hurt them or destroy the clothes hanging in the closet, which her mother had given her, outfits she had worn as a newlywed while honeymooning with Elie’s father. They had spent a few days in Niagra Falls, Elie had seen the photos of her smiling father with his arm tightly around her mother and her large dark eyes, bright red lipstick punctuating the image. Lisa was now clinging to her, and they remained huddled in the closet, cowering. Elie remembered the first magic trick she had ever learned, the one with the vanishing bead and paper cup. Her father had taught it to her one evening after dinner.