Page 67 of Left Behind

He pulled the sheet up over her shoulder, then went back across the hall and climbed into bed. The television was still on, and he was too antsy to sleep, so he lay there—watching a late-night talk show, missing Linette—and drifted off to sleep.

***

Linette wasn’t sleeping well. She kept having nightmares of the bank robbery, reliving Mr. Trotter’s murder, then seeing Wiley Pope take a bullet in the chest. In the dreams, she was trying to get to Wiley, but everyone on the floor kept grabbing at her ankles, begging her to help them. She could see Wiley, but she couldn’t get to him and kept screaming at them to let her go. Then the dream morphed to Wiley carrying Ava and walking out the door.

She woke up sweating. She knew Wiley wouldn’t do that to her, but right now his focus had to be on Ava. It was a sad thing to accept, but Linette knew, as every parent knows, the children come first, and Ava was an obvious victim of neglect and abuse.

Even though the air conditioner in her apartment was set on morgue-level cold, she got out of bed and made a beeline to the kitchen to start some coffee, then headed for the shower. Her shift began at 7:00 a.m. and she felt like crying, which was not how she needed to begin her day.

***

Wiley was used to being up early for work and was already waking up when he remembered Ava. She hadn’t called out or cried at any time during the night, and the quiet seemed ominous. He leaped out of bed and was across the hall in three long steps, only to find her rolled up in a little ball with Pinky in one hand and the white teddy bear in the other. So, she had been up in the night and had taken teddy back to bed with her, too.

He watched her sleeping for a few moments and reminded himself she wasn’t as helpless as she appeared. She’d learned a long time ago how to survive within the environment into which she’d been born, and now that he knew she was fine, he went back to shower and shave, then get dressed. They had a big day ahead of them, and he wanted to make breakfast before they went to meet Dani. While he was cooking, it dawned on him that they should have a party this evening at his house so Ava could meet her brothers, her grandmother, and her sisters-in-law.

***

Ava opened her eyes, blinked sleepily as she looked around the pink bedroom, then remembered yesterday. It had started out scary until Bubba told her he had a bed and pillow for her, and a home forever.

She could smell bacon cooking. She loved bacon. Maybe she would have toast, too. The anticipation of the unknown was too much to ignore. She made a quick trip to the bathroom and then ran barefoot to the kitchen, just to make sure Bubba was still there.

Wiley heard her coming as he pulled the last strip of bacon from the skillet. He turned off the burner and wiped his hands just as she flew into the room.

“Good morning, sunshine!” he said, and swooped her up into his arms and kissed her cheek. “Did you sleep good?” he asked.

She giggled.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Are you hungry, sugar?”

Ava nodded.

Wiley pretended to frown. “I can’t hear you!”

She giggled again. “Yes! I’m hungry.”

“Me too. Do we scramble or fry our eggs?” he asked.

Her eyes widened. “I get eggs?”

He sighed. “Yes, and bacon, and toast!”

“I like them scrambled,” she said.

“Then scrambled it is,” he said, and put her down. “Why don’t you go get dressed first?”

“What do I wear?” she asked.

“Remember where your new clothes are?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Then you pick out a pair of new panties and whichever shorts and shirt you want to wear.”

Her eyes widened. “I get to pick?”

“Of course, you do. You’re smart and little girls your age get to dress themselves. Go surprise me!”

She disappeared so fast he laughed, then reached for the carton of eggs and began breaking some into a bowl, then whipped them up. He poured the bacon fat into a bowl and then put the raw egg mix into the hot skillet and began stirring. As soon as he had the eggs cooked, he turned off the burner, covered them with a lid, and popped some bread in the toaster.

---