Page 2 of Ewing

He was so happy that he’d found a friend in the Applegate family through their daughter Pauline Dixon, whom he’d met at the hospital. The family provided him with endless hand-me-downs as well as advice that he couldn’t get from his family as he was the only one that had all girls but for Billy and the only one with an infant. Just then, he decided that he needed a good long nap.

~*~

Liza asked again why it was her that had to go to the Cross house to babysit. She still didn’t have an answer, but she was willing to bet that no one wanted to do it because the kids were brats. She said as much to her older sister, Pauline.

“I’ve told you this several times, Liza. They’re wonderful children, and they have a good fatherin Ewing.” She told her that they probably had all the gizmos in the world. “Doubtful any of them have much more than the clothing on their backs. Why are you being such a bitch about this? Christ, I would have loved to have been able to babysit a rich man’s kids for a couple of hours and make the kind of bucks he’s talking about.”

“He’ll more than likely sue me or something if one of them gets a simple splinter.” Liza knew she was being a bitch, but she had wanted to go to the mall with her friends, not babysit. Besides, there was a cute guy at the movie theater that she wanted to get to know, too. She looked up when Shelby, the second older sister, came into the room. “I have to sit for the Cross kids.”

“Good for you. I hear that poor Mr. Cross hasn’t been out doing anything since he got them. They’re supposed to be these really nice kids, too.” She said that it was also more than likely a lie concocted because they had money. “Oh, grow up. You’re sixteen. Get your head out of your ass and go sit the kids. You might enjoy it.”

“Doubtful that anyone would enjoy watching six kids with money.” Shelby asked her if she was pissed off because they had money. “Yes. I’m betting that he only pays about ten bucks an hour for me to go there. I will miss out on fun at the mall and be made fun of because I’m stuck there. I need to get away from this family. Why would anyone think that it’s all right to volunteer anyone for a sitting job when they know that I have a life.”

“You’re sixteen, as I said. You’re not entitled to a life just yet. Mom volunteered you because you said that you wanted money this summer. Well, you’ll get it this way.” She stomped her foot while leaving the kitchen, where her sister was laughing at her. “What are you going to do when he gives you fifty bucks? Complain about that, too?”

“I’ll go.” She looked at her sister Megan when she came into the kitchen. “Mom said that you were being a brat and that since you think you’re too good to go babysit for the nicest family around, I’ll do it.”

“Really?” She nodded, pulling off her sweatshirt in favor of the warmer weather. “Really, and for truly, you’ll do this?”

“I said that I would, didn’t I? Besides, it will be the perfect way for me to get out of the house and make a few bucks for my next quarter in college. I’m sure that you would be mean to the kids simply because you don’t want to be there.” She told her sister that she would not. “Sure you won’t. Like you weren’t mean to Clay when you watched him for only fifteen minutes. However, if I make some really good bucks off of this, I’m going to rub it in your face for all eternity.”

“Good. I’m so glad that you’ll do this for me.” Liza was making plans even before she pulled out her cell phone to call her friends. One of the girls had an older brother, Devlin, who was going to be dropping them off at the mall, and she couldn’t have been more happy. She didn’t even feel guilty for her sister taking over the dreaded job because she was going to have herself some fun. “Can I borrow ten bucks in case we can go to the movies?”

No one in the house would lend her even enough money to get her a cola while the others had pizza at the mall. Family sucked, and she would be so thrilled when she was old enough to leave home.

Liza only had a couple more years, and she’d be free. Once she was, she wasn’t ever coming back to this stupid town, even for funerals. Well, maybe for a funeral, but nothing else. They all sucked as far as she was concerned.

By the time she was picked up, she’d made enough phone calls to let everyone know that she’d been set free. Posting selfies of herself on the web had her doing kissy faces to her followers. Getting into the car, something else that she was going to own soon, they were all headed to the one place where she could be free and herself.

The mall around here wasn’t the one that the tourists liked to visit. It was a little more run-down than the one just outside of town, but it was a place that didn’t cater to the stupid and boring people who came to the park a million times a year. She was excited too that the movie theater guy was sitting in one of the big seats outside the movie place and was smoking a cigarette.

“Here, have a hit.” It wasn’t a cigarette at all but some pot. Telling the guy—he was even morehandsome this close that she didn’t want any had her friends and Vance, the guy, making fun of her. She didn’t want anything to do with drugs. Her family would kill her if they found out, and she knew that they would, and she’d never be able to go out again.

“Come on, Liza. Just take a little. It’ll get you all relaxed.” Liza was good at ignoring peer pressure. Simply telling them no had worked before, but this time, it was in front of Vance. Shaking her head she could feel her resolve waning and wondered if she was going to be able to say no all night. “You’re a big baby. What are they going to do, smell it on you? By the time we’re headed home, you’ll be all right, and we’ll have had a good time.”

“No.” She finally walked away, her heart pounding in her chest enough to make her feel like she was in trouble. Vance came to sit next to her, and he told her it was all right. “I just don’t want to get into trouble. You have no idea how hard it is to have so many sisters and brothers, and they know your every move. Just stop it. All right?”

When she looked at him, he blew smoke in her face. For a few seconds, no more, she felt good, but that soon wore off, and she felt a pinch to her arm. Turning to yell at the person who had hurt her, she was falling off the chair and onto the mall’s dirty floor. The syringe in his hands made her so terrified that she didn’t know what to do now.

“You just had to keep saying no, didn’t you? Stupid bitch. You’re not going to fuck up my ability to make a little more cash.” She could hear voices; however, she wasn’t able to respond to them. Her mouth felt nasty, and her entire body felt like it didn’t belong to her. “We’ll have to carry her. She’s too fucking stupid to just do what others told her. Put them in the trunk with that kid Devlin. Moron. Thought he could take me on when we knew what we were doing. As for this bitch,” The kick to her ribs had her crying out. “Put her in the trunk, too. It’s all she deserves for making me have to drug her up.”

She was helped to the car by being dragged. Liza could see the other girls that she hung out with. Each of them, too, was being dragged out of the mall. Terror like she’d never felt before made her sick to her stomach, and just as she was getting her feet under her, she felt another pinch to her arm, and she was out.

The next time that she woke up she was in complete darkness. Knowing on some level that she was in the trunk of a car didn’t make her feel all that much better about her situation. Being where she thought she was made her ill again. The smell of someone who had puked was close to her, and she couldn’t move with the weight of something or someone atop her. Trying to get to her cell phone, she nearly sobbed when she found it in her pocket. She couldn’t get it to her mouth, now with all the weight on her, so she dialed what she hoped was 911 so she could get out of there.

“Ewing Cross.” She started to hang up but didn’t know if she’d get to call anyone else. Pulling the phone as close to her as she could get it, she could see that she had about eleven percent battery left. “Hello? Is anyone—”

“I’m about out of battery. I’ve been kidnapped from the mall. I think that there are…I don’t know. Three people with me. Can you call my mommy for me?” Feeling stupid because she’d called her mom mommy, she tried her best to concentrate on what he was saying to her. “I’ll babysit for you forever if you get me. Please, Mr. Cross. Can you find me?”

“You said you were at the mall. Which one?” She told him. “How did you get there, and do you know if the car you’re in is the one you arrived in.”

“One of the girls with me, she’s been puking so that’s all I know about the car.” She looked around the best she could. “One of the tail lights is just a hole in the car. I don’t know what that means, but if that helps.”

“Can you hear anything? Is it a rough motor? Can you hear other cars? Does it feel like you’re going really fast?” She didn’t know and started crying. “Pay attention to me.” His voice was hard like she’d pissed him off, and so did what he said. “Listen. What do you hear?”

She was smashed up against one of the girls she had been with, and it felt like she wasn’t breathing. Of course, she couldn’t tell, not where she was, but she hoped they were all right. Listeningto pay attention to her surroundings, she could hear car horns as well as the swishing of something going by her super-slow. She told the man that.

“Good. You’re on a back road and not the highway. Where were you in the mall? How did they get you out of there without you fighting them?” She told him that they’d been at the movie end of the mall and that a man by the name of Vance was the one who had given her something. “All right, that helps. I’m almost there now. Just keep calm. I know that you’re a shifter, but I don’t know that I’ve ever known what.”

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