Page 23 of The Kidnapped

“I didn’t get those, but I did pick up some beers. I also guessed you didn’t have limes, so I got some of those, too. It’s Corona, so you have to have limes.”

“Wow,” Raleigh said, taken aback as she closed the door behind Hollis.

“I may be wrong – you can tell me if I am – but I suspect that the next hour or so is going to be a hard one. I thought food and a beer might help, but if–”

“No, it’s great,” Raleigh interrupted her. “Thank you. I worked later than I’d planned, and I honestly just forgot to eat.”

“How often does that happen?” Hollis asked, shifting the second bag Raleigh had just noticed in her hand.

“Pretty often,” she admitted. “Let me get that. We can eat in the kitchen. We have time.”

Hollis followed her, and they sat at the kitchen table where they ate their burritos in relative silence and they each finished one of the beers Hollis had brought. The lime they’d cut into lay on a cutting board on the kitchen table, and the chips and salsa had remained untouched. They’d decided to eat those while they watched since Raleigh would probably be anxious and could use a distraction. Just before the show started, Hollis opened them each another beer and dropped limes into the bottles. Then, they sat on the sofa, and Raleigh turned on the TV, changing it to the appropriate channel to wait.

“Your place is nice,” Hollis noted.

“Thanks,” she replied. “It used to be nicer. I mean, there were toys everywhere and toddler dishes always in the drying rack, but other than that, it was usually pretty clean.”

“It’s still nice, Raleigh. I mean, you actually have a place. I live with my mom.” She winked at Raleigh.

“And you love it, don’t you?”

“Having this time with her? Yes.” Hollis smiled.

“How is she tonight?”

“She was a little better today. She has some tests coming up that she doesn’t want to get, but she seems as happy as you can be when you have stage-four cancer. She fell asleep around eight, which is good. She’ll probably sleep through the night, with the new meds they gave her.”

The show started, and Raleigh stared at the TV. She hadn’t even noticed that she’d started biting her nails when, on the screen, Kenna walked through this very house and pointed out Eden’s empty bedroom. Hollis reached for her hand and took it. She held it between them on the sofa, and Raleigh hadn’t realized how much she’d needed someone’s touch. She cried throughout most of it, but especially every time they put a picture of her daughter on the screen. At some point, she’d ended up pressed to Hollis’s side, and the woman just held her. Raleigh didn’t feel embarrassed or worried that Hollis was seeing her like this; she just kept watching the show and letting Hollis hold her. When it was over, she sat up, wiped her eyes, and picked up the half-empty beer from the table.

“I’ll just clean this stuff up,” she said as a way to get out of the room, feeling like she needed a little space right now.

“I can help.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ve got it.”

Raleigh picked up Hollis’s empty beer bottle and tried to grab the chip bag they hadn’t touched at the same time, but she ended up dropping both. The bottle didn’t break on the carpet, but the tortilla chips spilled out and made a mess.

“Shit. What is wrong with me?” she asked.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Hollis said, moving to kneel on the floor to help Raleigh get the chips they now couldn’t eat back into the bag. “I’ve got this. Why don’t you put the beer bottles into the trash or something? Maybe put the salsa in the fridge so you can have that another time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Hollis told her.

Raleigh took the beers into the kitchen and emptied out the one she knew she wouldn’t finish. She put the bottles into the trash and the salsa in the fridge, and then she slid down that fridge onto the tiled kitchen floor. The tears fell in earnest until she was sobbing with her hands covering her face.

“Come here,” Hollis said softly, and Raleigh felt her sitting on the floor next to her then. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Raleigh managed out. “I’m okay. I do this… all the time.”

Hollis pulled her back against her side and wrapped her arm around Raleigh’s shoulders.

“Why did you want to watch the show tonight?”

“I felt like I had to,” Raleigh said, resting her head on Hollis’s shoulder.

“For her.”

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