"Momma?" Claudia whispers, stepping quietly into the rickety old shack.

  The weary young woman peers around her, forcing her vision to adjust in the dim lighting of the front room. She steps cautiously toward a table littered with tarot cards and the tiny petrified bones of rodents. With a sigh, Claudia finds a nearly empty spot on the table and sets down the loaf of bread in her right hand. The burlap sack, containing a half-gallon of milk, Claudia grips tightly in her left hand.

  "Momma, I brought you some groceries! Momma?!" Claudia says, louder this time.

  "I heard you, baby! Quit your shouting!" Momma Sybil hisses from the dark kitchen entryway. "I heard you the first time. It takes me a minute to get myself together, that's all. Be patient with your mother."

  Sybil approaches her daughter at a slow gait, dragging her mangled leg behind her. Claudia stares at her mother with empathy and a large degree of pity. Momma Sybil had once been extremely gorgeous. Too beautiful for her own good. Puberty had been much too kind. At fourteen, Sybil had already possessed the voluptuous shape of a grown woman. It was also the age at which she'd run away from her seemingly pathetic life. Sybil's hope had been to make her way to California--to be discovered and become famous. The reality of the situation was much more grim.

  Young Sybil spent over a year alone on the streets, fighting for every spare moment of peace. Several encounters with drunken men, with appetites for youthful flesh, had eventually led to the injury Sybil is now forced to live with. On one occasion, Sybil had chosen to fight back against her wannabe suitor. She'd paid dearly. The scorned man had tossed the fifteen year old over a train trestle. Sybil was lucky to have only broken a leg. With no family to speak of, no medical insurance, no job, and a target on her back; Sybil's injured leg was never set back properly.

  Dragging herself painfully to a back alley doctor she'd been told about; Sybil begged him to take what little money she had and fix her up. Sybil never walked the same again. But at least, the line of lustful suitors had dwindled. Sybil was still beautiful. But her crippled leg made most men of that sort turn up their noses.

  Drifting into yet another small town, Sybil had become little more than a reclusive hermit. She lived and worked out of an old run-down shack; telling fortunes, selling love potions, and making crafts for new brides and small children. The shack was close to being condemned. In truth, it should have been condemned years ago. But almost everyone in town loved Sybil. No one wanted to see her run off of the property.

  The strangest part of the whole situation? No one seemed to know Sybil's real name. Everyone simply called the hermetic woman Momma Sybil. To Claudia, Sybil is mother. The doctor who had set Sybil's leg, had done so on one condition. All it had cost Sybil was a night of fiery passion. Eight months later, she had given birth to a baby girl. A second unscrupulous doctor had delivered Claudia into this world; and into the hands of a wealthy adoptive family. A much better life for the infant than Momma Sybil could've provided. At least, financially.

  "Mom, I can't stay long," Claudia says in a panicked voice. "Leonard will be home soon."

  "Leonard...Skin-ard. Hmph. Why should he care how long you stay? I've known that boy since he was too young to wear britches. Now, he's too old to want to keep 'em on!" Momma Sybil chuckles.

  "Momma, please," Claudia complains half-heartedly, a laugh building in her chest. "Here's your groceries. I brought you a little milk from the house, and some eggs. I made cornbread today. So Leonard won't wonder where they went. I had some money saved up. I bought you some bacon and a loaf of bread. Try to eat something, Mom. You're looking really thin."

  "Stop fussing over me, Claudia. I'm fine," Momma Sybil says. "I'm more worried about my little girl. How are you, Claudia. I miss you so much. After sixteen years of watching you grow up from a distance...I hate having to do it all over again. Why did you marry that bastard, honey? After what he did to you?"

  "Momma, we've been through this. I couldn't live life like you did. Having to hide who my father was. Having to pretend I wasn't even your baby. I wanted my son to have a good life. And he does. For the most part. He struggles some days. And so does Leonard. But, I think they love each other. He looks a helluva lot more...Like his father...Than I did. No one would ever know. He'll have a good life. That's why I married Leonard. I want my son to have a chance."

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  "Oh, baby. I hear what you're saying. But why Leonard. You could have found another man. All you had to do was leave this town. I wanted to kill that son of a bitch when you told me what he'd done. Not again. Not my baby. But to hear you'd married him? I nearly died myself. You deserve better, baby."

  Claudia becomes flustered. She absently toys with the burlap bag holding her mother's room temperature milk.

  "Obviously not, Mother. I mean, I didn't have a whole lot of choices. Once he found out I was pregnant...He wouldn't leave me alone. And now, I have even bigger problems."

  Claudia presses a hand to her mouth and holds back tears.

  "The man I told you about, Momma. The man I met in church. He says, he knows you. Or rather, he knew you. Before you became Momma Sybil. He told me he'll tell everyone who I really am. Who you are. He'll destroy me and expose us. Unless I...Unless, I give him...What he wants."

  Momma Sybil's face grows stern and her brown eyes narrow. She inches closer to Claudia, dragging her bad leg.

  "And what does he want?" Momma Sybil inquires, studying Claudia's pale face.

  "I think you know, Momma. It's been going on for...Quite some time. But, he got angry today. He hit me again. And then, he raped me. He got mad because I said I loved him. He didn't believe me. He called me a liar and a whore. I know I was lying, Momma. But what was I supposed to say? He would have hit me either way."

  Claudia breaks down in tears. Momma Sybil reaches to grab her daughter into her arms. A loud clatter by the door draws both women's attention in that direction. Jeremiah stands like a statue in the entryway. He peers at the strange woman with the beaded necklaces and flowing clothes. The woman who looks so much like his mother, only darker.

  "Oh my god! Jeremiah? What the hell are you doing here? Did you follow me?" Claudia exclaims through her shock and fear. "Where's your father?"

  Jeremiah slowly approaches his mother and grandmother, small eyes narrowing to slits. He studies every detail of the slightly older woman. She is maybe a little older than his father, but younger than his father's mother. But she is definitely family.

  "Who are you?" Jeremiah says. "Why does Mom call you mother? She already has a mother."

  Claudia breaks down into further tears. She pulls Jeremiah to her chest, fear making her eyes grow wide.

  "You can't tell anyone you were here, Jeremiah. No one can know about me and Momma Sybil. Her life could be in danger. Maybe even yours and mine. It's like the drawings I asked you not to draw. You can't tell anyone. Do you hear me, Jeremiah? No one."

  "Okay," Jeremiah says with a thin smile. He turns to Momma Sybil. "Are you my grandmother?"

  Momma Sybil glances at her frightened daughter before answering. With a sigh, she reaches out her left hand to Jeremiah. The child takes it and offers the older woman a large smile.

  "Yes, dear. Yes, I am. I'm you're grandmother," Sybil says.

  "It's nice to meet you," Jeremiah responds as politely as possible.

  "It's nice to meet you too, Jeremiah," Grandmother Sybil says.

  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

  Later that evening

  Claudia stands at the kitchen window, looking out at the stars. Jeremiah stands beside her at the sink, helping to wash the dishes. He looks up at his mother with bright eyes.

  "Mother, what does Aquarius mean?" Jeremiah says. "Why did Grandm...Why did the woman say I have the sign of Aquarius? What does it mean to have a sign?"

  "We don't worry about such things, Jeremiah. That's not our faith. Momma Sybil uses that fortune telling stuff to make money. That's all. Now, hurry up and wash the dishes so I can dry them."

  "Okay," Jeremiah says.

  Claudia whirls at the sound of Leonard's loud voice. Her tired husband enters the kitchen and heads for the fridge; presumably for a beer.

  "What'd you take the boy out there for? That bag of bones is batcrap crazy. I can't stand her. Had my fortune told a few years ago. Just for laughs. She said I had a line of brutality...Or whatever. Called me evil or some damn thing. Weird thing about it is...She wouldn't even take my money. Read my fortune for free. Then, called me names. That's no way to run a business, I'll tell you that much. Don't ever take my son around that crazy gimpy-legged woman again. I mean it."

  "Okay, Leonard. I just thought it would be fun. Sort of like you did. It won't happen again," Claudia hurriedly assures her peeved husband.

  "Good," Leonard says.

  Grabbing a slice of cake from the platter in the fridge, Leonard walks over to the sink. He bends to kiss Claudia's cheek before taking a fork from the drying towel spread out on the counter.

  "Thanks, baby. Supper was good tonight," Leonard says.

  He takes his slice of cake and disappears back into the living room. Claudia breathes a sigh of relief.

  Explanation: The streets are not a good place to be. Especially, for a runaway youth. Some members of this group fare worse than others, depending on which types of crimes are being taken into account.

  Source: been there

  Not preachin'; only clarifying for context's sack

  On Claudia's account of events: Consensual sxe ends when the first 'no' occurs. Because readers usually frown on r*pes and other accounts being put to the page in detail; I have not explored those things in detail. He proceeded. Therefore, what followed afterward is now classified as either r*pe or SA. Same for marital and same if it were a guy vs a girl. Same rules apply.

  Young child of the streets, Momma Sybil, before being harmed by her much older, secretive suitor.

  This story begins prior to 2015 (my semi-first published story with these title characters takes place circa 2015. Art of Aquarius takes place 3-4 years before that).