Page 37 of Dark, Forbidden, & Taboo

“Are you Emily?”

“Huh?”

I blink rapidly a few times until the world comes back into focus. I see a very handsome young man staring at me with afriendly smile. A quick glance down at my phone tells me he’s my ride.

With a nod and a small smile, I walk over to the passenger back door and let myself in.

Maybe today is the day.

Chapter 7

Davina

Irest a hand on Angie’s back as we walk down the street. Not seeing her for even a night was enough to make me come running back as soon as daylight broke, but she seems to be okay and that’s what matters.

“What do you wanna do today?” I ask her as we stop at the crosswalk and wait for traffic.

“I wanna go to the zoo. Can we?” she asks, glancing up at me with those eyes that haunted me as a child.It’s not her fault; it’s his.

I grin down at her. “How’d you know that’s where we were going?”

“Really?” she questions with excitement.

I nod in confirmation and take her by the hand, leading her across the street. “My friend Mimi gave me some money today, and I thought we could do something fun.”

“Is Mimi nice?” Angie presses, pushing her stringy brown hair out of her eyes.

“She has to be if she’smyfriend,” I tell her confidentially.

Angie smiles up at me, then drags me across street after street until she sees the sign for the zoo. “Look!” she screams happily. “The zoo!”

Life is so much simpler for children,I think fondly as she lets go of my hand and runs for the entrance.At least, when they weren’t me.

___

A few hours later, when we walk out of the zoo, I feel the best I have in years. Angie is talking animatedly about all the animals she saw, how sticky and sweet the cotton candy was that she had, and how the soda fizzed all the way down her throat into her stomach.

Definitely not the most nutritious meal, but at least it didn’t come out of a garbage can,I reason as I take her hand and stop her from accidentally walking into traffic.

“Eyes up, Ang,” I admonish her gently. “If you get hit by a car, we can’t go back to the zoo.”

She gives me a sheepish grin, resting her body against mine as we wait for the light to change. I don’t want to take her back to sleep in the street tonight.I just know that if I introduced her to Mimi, she’d let her stay in the apartment while I’m out at the gala.

But then it dawns on me that Angie would be alone, and she’s always been afraid of the dark. Not the kind that I’ve lived through, the kind that resides deep in my heart, and gently laps at the good inside of me, threatening to eat it whole, but the normal kind. The one that most children are afraid of.

“Who’d you stay with last night?” I ask her as we cross the street.

“Grandpa Berry.”

I stop walking and raise an eyebrow at her when she looks up at me.

“He was really nice to me. Let me sleep in his bed all by myself and gave me a cheeseburger he found outside aMcDonald’s.It was still kind of hot, too. And it was almost the whole thing!” I take a deep breath and let it out as Angie continues to tell me about her night with Grandpa Berry. “When I looked in the bag, there were a few fries inside too, but Grandpa said I couldn’t eat those because they had bugs on them.”

At least.

“Was the cheeseburger still wrapped up?

She nods, “Uh-huh. He said he brought it back ‘cause it didn’t have those little black flies on it like the fries did. They weren’t in the same bag. It was just one he found to hide the burger in so he could bring it home.”

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