Page 83 of Left Behind

“Okay,” she said, and followed him inside. “The little house has a blue roof! Did you see that, Bubba?”

“I did,” Wiley said as he got a bottle of sunblock from his medicine cabinet, stood her up on the lid of the commode, squirted some of the cream in his hands, and started with her face and neck. “Gotta put some here, right? We don’t want that pretty little face to get burned.”

Her chatter shifted back to a whisper. “Am I really pretty, Bubba?”

He paused, cupped her cheeks, and looked her straight in the eyes. “Yes, you are. And even better, I love that you’re my sister.” Then he squirted another dollop into his hands. “Now your arms and legs,” he said, and rubbed the cream into the skin. “All done,” he said, and turned to wash his hands as she climbed down.

“You didn’t do you, Bubba,” Ava said.

“I don’t burn,” Wiley said, then held his arm up against hers. “See the difference in the color of our skin?”

“Mine’s white. Yours is tan, Bubba.”

“That just means the sun can’t hurt my skin as fast as it can hurt yours.”

“Why is our skin different if we have the same daddy?”

“Because we have different mothers.”

He watched the understanding dawn and realized Dani was right. This little girl was smart and, it appeared, had a really good memory, too.

“Your mother wasn’t an ass.”

He laughed. “No, she wasn’t, but we’re not gonna say that word to anyone else. That’s just a secret between you and me.”

She nodded. “I can keep secrets. I know Corina’s secrets about Clyde.”

Wiley froze. He didn’t know whether he wanted to pursue this or not, and reached for her hand.

“Ready for that cold pop now?”

“Yes!”

“I like orange,” she said.

“I know, Sister. And what kind do I like best?”

“Coca-Cola in a can.”

“I’ll race you to the kitchen,” Wiley said, then watched the delight spreading across her face as she took off running. He made a lot of noise coming up behind her, but purposefully lagged.

“I win!” she shouted as she reached the refrigerator first.

“You sure did, and the winner gets a cookie. We can eat them outside.”

She danced around him like a puppy and then settled in the swing beside him with the cold can of orange soda between her legs, periodically breaking off a piece of cookie and stuffing it into her mouth. It would take longer than a couple of days to get past having nothing, to having it all.

They sat for a few minutes enjoying the treats, but after she was through eating, he heard himself ask, “What did you mean about knowing secrets about Corina and Clyde?”

“Corina made a mistake.”

She made a whole fucking bunch of them, baby girl, Wiley thought, but he didn’t say it. “What kind of mistake?”

“She gave Clyde bad pills. It made him do crazy things.”

The skin suddenly crawled on the back of Wiley’s neck. “How do you know this?”

“I heard Corina tell Janie when they were drinking too many beers. The pills made Corina see spiders in her hair, and Carl saw them, too, and cut it all off and ran away. She was bald for a long time until her hair grew back.”

---