Page 208 of His Sunshine Baby

“Okay!” she says, running off to the bathroom.

While I’m busy grabbing our plates, my phone rings. Before I can even move, Estelle is running over to grab it. She is too young to read, but she recognizes the picture.

“It’s Dada! Hi, Dada!”

She starts happily chatting with her godfather, telling him all about her day. She has never met him physically yet, but they talk so often it doesn’t really make any difference. Daniel is crazy about my little star. Every time he calls, he asks when I am coming back to Silver City with Estelle.

I don’t know if I’m ready yet. I miss Daniel a lot, and all of my friends too. I miss Silver City, the Arts District, the Latinneighborhood. I know Nora woke up two years after I had gone, but I wasn’t ready to go back. Going back would mean seeing Estelle’s father again, and I don’t know if I can handle that. She looks so much like him, I guess he’ll finally believe me once they meet.

I watch my little star, on the phone. I wonder what my life would be like without her. Estelle is so well-behaved, sometimes I wonder if I really raised her alone. Well, Reagan comes often, too. My mentor never stays around, but she’s never too far away either. She drops by whenever she feels like it and lives her life as a wolf most of the time.

We live in a large forest, miles away from Silver City. I can’t remember how long we had walked until we got here. Sylviana knew about this old abandoned house, and in a few days of work between the three of us, it became perfectly fine for us to live in. It’s even a bit too big for just a woman and child.

“Mommy, it smells bad again.”

Holy shit! I turn around and jump on the casserole. Damn it, I let it burn again. How come I can never get even the simplest of dishes right? Estelle walks up to me and frowns, looking at my half-burned Bolognese.

“Sorry, baby. Don’t worry, Mommy will eat the burnt parts.”

“It’s okay, Mommy, I like the crunchy parts!”

Moon Goddess, I love this child of mine. She even loves my burnt pasta. She sits down to eat, grabbing her fork and eagerly waiting. Like any werewolf kid, she’s an energy pill and a big eater. I fill her plate, but everything’s gone in a few minutes, and she smiles, satisfied, licking the leftover tomato sauce off her lips.

“Mommy, can I have a magic cake for dessert? The one with pink sprinkles!”

I smile. The only thing I never fail at: her favorite magic cake.

“Okay, baby, but…”

I stop talking, uneasy.

I have an odd feeling. My wolf is unsettled too, looking around for a threat.

“Mommy?”

After a few seconds of complete silence, the branches from the trees on the terrace all begin crackling at once. Holy crap!

“Estelle, come!”

I grab my daughter and run across the house, grabbing her little backpack from our room.

“Mommy, what is it? Mommy!”

I don’t have time to explain. We need to leave this place and run.

It’s Sylviana’s signal. She said the trees would do this if the Dark Witch was near! I didn’t think she would really find us! Estelle is scared and struggles to keep up with me, but I keep running until we’re out of the house, a few feet away, and get on one knee in front of her to help her put her backpack on.

“Stella, listen to Mommy very carefully. We need to leave the house and run, baby. We are going to run very, very fast to the east, okay? We don’t make noise, and we keep running until Mommy says stop.”

“Mommy, why are we running? Why are we leaving home? Mommy, I’m scared.”

Seeing the tears in my daughter’s scared eyes breaks my heart, but I really don’t have time to explain! Every second matters now. I shake my head.

“Estelle, don’t cry, baby, okay? Just trust Mommy, you will be okay. You run very, very fast, like we did with Reagan, okay?”

She nods, a bit distraught, and I encourage her with a little smile.

“Alright, let’s go, baby.”

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