The Fall of Grace by Amy Fellner Dominy

Author:Amy Fellner Dominy [Dominy, Amy Fellner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2018-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

July

I can do this carefully.

Or I can do this with a hammer.

I study the nine puzzle boxes that line the top of a heavy wood credenza in the game room. The puzzle boxes were gifts from Mom. I’d find one in my Christmas stocking each year. I loved puzzles but these were tricky. I’d drink my hot chocolate while I worked through the series of springs and levers that would open them. Most years I ended up frustrated trying to get to what was inside.

“It’s about the sense of achievement, Grace. That’s the treasure,” Mom said.

“I’d rather have an actual treasure,” I replied.

Mom laughed. “That’s my girl.”

Now the boxes stare back at me and I wonder if there’s a real treasure here after all.

Maybe the proof has been here this whole time.

The first box is shaped like a star. I push on one point and a bit of wood slides open from the bottom. I work at each panel until the star opens like a flower.

Empty.

The second box is also empty.

The third refuses to cooperate. That happens sometimes. The heat makes the wood swell and the pieces won’t slide no matter what you do. I pick up the hammer and set the box on the carpet. With both hands on the thick handle, I strike the octagon dead center. The wood splinters like kindling. I sift through the pieces. Nothing.

I smash the next box, and the next box and the next.

I read once about behavioral therapy where the patient is encouraged to physically beat on old cars with a steel bat. It made no sense to me. If your life is falling apart, why do you want to destroy anything else?

Now I understand.

I shove back my sweaty hair. My face is wet again with tears. I’m so sick of my useless tears. Around me the carpet is strewn with broken bits of boxes. I grip the hammer. Striking at the boxes makes me want to strike out, period. It makes me want to put this hammer through a wall. Through every wall.

“Where, Mom? Where did you hide the evidence? And what did you do with the money?”

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