Yesterdays Gone: SEASON TWO (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER) (Yesterday's Gone)

going to be really angry; she was going to completely lose her temper. Alexis was going to be in more trouble than she’d ever been in before. She had asked, no, begged Mother, to go to a dance at the community center tonight. Mother said no, of course, since dancing with boys was a sin and Alexis was obviously already running around with too many sinful thoughts inside her head as it was. She certainly didn’t need to be in a room full of boys whose bodies were practically made of sinful thoughts.
    Alexis hated living in the sticks like they did, hated being home schooled even more. Dances, and the few other events held at the community center, were really the only chances she ever had to meet people her own age and socialize. Rebecca understood that, even felt some of the same feelings herself, but that was still no reason to lie to Mother. Alexis was going to be in big, big trouble. And while her mother could be a bit too strict at times, acts this defiant deserved whatever punishment her mother served up.  
    Like Mother always said, “Nothing separates a child from God like the evils of their own will. It is a parent’s job to ensure that their child stays on the righteous path.”
      Rebecca left Alexis’s room in a fraction of the time she took to enter and ran toward Mother’s. She would be mad at Rebecca for waking her, but madder if she didn’t. Even though Rebecca fell asleep too early to know for sure, she figured Mother must have gone to bed not too long after since tomorrow her mother had the morning shift at the diner. She’d been going in extra early ever since Lydia got pregnant. Trucks started rolling in right around 6:00, which meant Mother had to have her apron on no later than 5:30. A half hour drive to get there, and another half hour to get ready and paint the tired from her eyes, meant she was getting up at 4:30 sharp each morning.  
    Rebecca opened Mother’s door to a deafening snore. She approached her mother’s sleeping body, reconsidering every step. Maybe I should just go back to bed. But darn it, Alexis deserved to get caught, and Rebecca deserved some of Mother’s appreciation, and attention. Whenever Alexis was in “big trouble,” Mother spent more time with Rebecca for some reason. Maybe they would even make another rag doll to go with the Raggedy Susie they made in November.  
    OK, I’ll tell her. But how should I put it so Mother doesn’t get too mad right away, or mad at me?
    Rebecca tapped her mother’s shoulder, waited for her to turn, then let loose all at once with everything in her head, “Mother, wake up! Alexis snuck out of the house and I think, though I’m not certain, that she snuck off to the dance even though you told her not to go!”
    Mother was awake on contact of the first word. She offered a quick look at Rebecca with full moon eyes and silent understanding, then launched out of bed and over to her dresser. She opened the bottom drawer, yanked out the first item she saw, and pulled the ragged camel colored sweater over her bony frame. Then she dashed into the kitchen where she grabbed her keys from the hook, her pack of Pall Malls, then yelled back at Rebecca, standing in the threshold. “You’re not staying here alone. Get in the car. We’re going to get your sister.”
    Rebecca climbed into the old El Camino she thought once belonged to her dad, though she wasn’t really sure since Mother had never really answered the question and her memories of him were too old to sort. They drove the first few minutes in silence, Mother’s anger frosting the windows as her cigarette smoke filled the cabin. The cigarettes made Mother look old. Though the woman looked young for her age, and had beautiful blonde hair like Alexis, there was something about when she smoked that made her look old. Old and sad, which made Rebecca sad.  
    She wished things could be like they used to be. But over the past few years, something had changed, made her mother so serious and quick to anger. It must have been big and bad, maybe scary too. Rebecca wanted to ask her mom what was wrong, so many times, but truth was, she was afraid the answer might be her. It seemed Mother was disappointed in her. She wasn’t sure why. She listened and behaved so much better than Alexis. She even tried to do things that she knew would help her Mother, like get her coffee cup ready before she went to bed, and put coffee in the filter, and other little things like that to make her