Page 84 of Twisted Revelations

39

Luke

Food, music, and festive times flowed inside and outside the center. It was a packed house since Beverly and Laura had consolidated the members of both centers to have their annual event at Beverly’s location.

Streamers hung from the ceiling and balloons floated about. Those that had lost their infusion of helium had drifted to the floor and were being kicked playfully about by moving bodies.

Laura and Dax were engaged in a game of dominos on the opposite side of the building from Beverly and me. Three fully-stocked tables of food, punch, and soda lined the front wall and were manned by the center’s volunteers. Laughter, dancing, and mingling bodies of the center’s kids and teens and some of their parents filled the space with life.

Escorting Beverly to her function and observing the way she reacted with the children and teens revealed the reason why she enjoyed her work. She gave her attention to each person who needed it and sought ways to defuse the problems put before her.

For a crying pregnant teen, she’d become a consoler. When a kid’s feet were hanging from his worn shoes, she’d made one call and produced a new pair of shoes. They were a size too big and cheap, but the boy had cherished them like she’d given him a brick of gold.

As I sat losing my Monopoly money to a pair of nine-year-old snaggle-tooth twin boys and the eight-year-old girl who bossed them around, one of my eyes was always on Beverly and the entrance. She’d had to pull me out of the parking lot, although I’d spotted the additional protection that they’d enlisted for themselves.

Currently, she was speaking to a teen girl, no more than fifteen, and from what I could make out, the girl had an abusive boyfriend. He’d left her right eye black and swollen, and her bottom lip was split right down the middle.

“He gives my mom drugs, so she’s going to let him in if he comes to the house.” The girl’s cracking voice found its way to my ear.

“Is this the first time he’s done this?” Beverly held the girl’s face in her palms, examining it.

“Yes. I think he was showing off in front of his friends.”

“I know a place you can go for a few days. I don’t know the next time I’m going to be here at the center, so I need you to text or call me if he puts his hands on you again. Don’t let this become a habit,” she urged, eyeing the girl with the sternness of a disciplining mother.

“Yes, ma’am.” The girl nodded and tossed her arms around Beverly in a long hug before walking toward the back of the center.

I sharpened my focus so I could tune out the background noise and concentrate on the two phone calls Beverly made, filling in whatever blanks I couldn’t hear by reading her lovely lips.

First, there was the one where she smiled and talked to secure the girl a place to stay. The second was the call that had her face tinted in darkness as she gripped the phone like she was choking someone. That second call was to the person who would pay the girl’s abuser a visit. She’d asked for the abuser’s age to ensure he was old enough to catch the beatdown she was about to send him.

Being at the center had opened my eyes. I’d faced my share of demons, but some of the kids here lived a hellish life the rest of the world ignored or didn’t care to see. Beverly and the volunteers were all they had.

I approached as soon as she was alone because I knew it wouldn’t last long.

“Beverly,” I called. I loved saying her name.

“Luke,” she replied, her smile embracing me in ways I didn’t understand.

“I’m impressed with the work you do here. I believe it is severely under-appreciated and deserves more support. I’d like to become a sponsor?”

That lovely smile brightened her face, making her green eyes twinkle. “Thank you. Are you serious? You’d sponsor us?”

“Of course I would. You’re doing amazing work here,” I complimented. I meant every word, but I’d have said and done anything to make her smile like that.

When her gaze lifted and her smile disappeared, I spun to figure out what had stolen her happiness.

A light-skinned African-American man stepped in our direction. He was tall, about six-two, and muscular. He reminded me of Dax in the expensive way he was dressed in a full suit. His possessive gaze was locked on Beverly, and I immediately took on a protective stance. A step put my body in front of hers.

“It’s okay,” Beverly assured, but I wasn’t budging until I was sure. The man approached, but he would have to go through me to get to her. I gripped her waist and nudged her further behind me, her feet scraping the floor from my quick movement.

“It’s okay, Luke. That’s Kadeem,” she offered as her fingers wrapped around the bicep of the arm I’d used to keep her in place.

“It’s okay, big man,” Kadeem stated his cocky attitude on full display. Dax had informed me about Kadeem, and I understood his attachment to Laura, but would he also lay his life on the line for Beverly? I didn’t know the answer to that question, so I stood my ground and waited for his reaction.

“I don’t know where they keep finding you crazy ass white boys, but you’re fucking serious, aren’t you?” He squinted when I didn’t answer, attempting to figure me out.

Silence was the answer to his question as the tension between us started to spark to life. I no longer heard the music or the crush of voices that had filled the space. My senses were focused on the man in front of me.

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