The Dreamer by May Nicole Abbey

now.”
    “Aren’t you?”
    “No,” I told him defiantly. “I am on a mission to gather information, to discover truth at all costs. Despite any consequences.”
    “And there were no truths to discover at home, I’m sure. To ‘discover truth’ as you call it, one must travel oceans, irreversibly it seems. Sounds like running away to me.” He shrugged. A little smugly, I thought. “Continue then. What were you running from as a child?”
    “I heard my parents arguing.”
    “About what?”
    “About me,” I said slowly.
    “What about you?” He seemed very interested.
    I watched a spider climb up the far wall. It had spindly legs, and looked very clumsy, like it would trip and fall and tumble to the floor at any second. “They were arguing about whose turn it was to have me.”
    He looked confused. “To have you?”
    “Yes. They were divorced.”
    “Divorced!”
    I looked at him. “Yes.”
    “Very well. Continue. They were fighting over you and …?”
    “No,” I spoke slowly, turning my attention to that poor spider again, laboring up the wall very slowly. His legs were too long and clumsy, and I knew he wouldn’t make it. “Not over me. My mother took me to my father’s house, but he hadn’t been expecting us. They told me to go outside to play, but I didn’t. I stepped into the next room and listened. My father said that he didn’t expect us until tomorrow. My mother told him there was a lecture she couldn’t miss. They argued. She said she needed a break, that it was his turn now. And he said he had me as much as she did, and he wasn’t going to let her push me off on him again.”
    The spider fell, as I knew it would. It fell to the floor. I couldn’t see if it got up again. I doubted it would. Its legs were too long and thin and awkward. And I didn’t feel sorry for it at all, either. It had no business climbing that enormous, splintered wall.
    Suddenly a seagull called from outside, a piercing, sorrowful sound, and I snapped out of my past. I found the captain watching me with a look of horror on his face. I laughed lightly and said, “So I ran off, promptly tripped and fell, and neither of them got their way.”
    The captain didn’t reply.
    “They were both brilliant and accomplished professors at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. They led full, demanding lives. ”
    Still he said nothing.
    “And I am grateful for the experience, Mallory. Let us examine it objectively. It was a turning point in my life. It gave me the drive and ambition necessary to achieve all I’ve ever achieved. Knowledge, education, academic success, have been the boon of my existence. And that day, that moment , was when I chose my life’s journey. And what a journey it has been. Despite the setbacks. All I’ve accomplished, all I am , is due to this scar. And, now I think of it, one might say I would never have met you without this scar. So thank you … thank you for reminding me.”
    He stared at me. “You poor little thing,” he said. I should have known he would take it too seriously.
    I shook my head but said nothing.
    “Are you married?”
    I blinked. And he did, too, as though he were surprised at his own question.
    “Marriage? How ridiculous!”
    He frowned and shifted in his seat, looking nettled. “It’s been known to happen, a woman running from an unhappy marriage.”
    “Yes, but not to me. I’m nobody’s dupe!”
    “A dupe? In marriage?” His voice was a challenge.
    “Oh, I’m sure it works for some people. But it isn’t for me. I’m too independent, too focused on my work. Any time spent on the marriage would be time taken away from my study. Knowledge passed on is everything. You don’t know what I’d be giving up if I became a wife and mother.”
    “Ambition is all well and good, but I think you might have underestimated the influence of those who live quiet, humble lives. My mother for instance.” My ears perked up. I always paid close attention to the