“Do you like Ms. Faith?” I flexed my fingers around the steering wheel.
“Yes. We are doing a business fair where we can win a real prize. I want to get first place.”
I nodded. I thought about our discussion earlier that day.
Discussion was a bit of a stretch. I shut her down and didn’t listen to her reasoning at all.
I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel. Danny had been through so much. He didn’t need more difficulties in his life, including some label.
“When we get home, we can throw the ball around?” I asked Danny.
“No, thanks.”
He never wanted to throw the ball, but sports was the only way I knew how to play. Before long it would be too cold to domuch of anything outside. Danny asked to build LEGO sets once, and I tried, but I always seemed to do it wrong.
There was a list of rules somewhere, but I wasn’t privy to it.
“Is there something you want to do together?”
We pulled up to our simple ranch-style home with broken shutters and a crumbling shed in the back.
“Nope, I’m good.”
“Are you hungry?” I asked.
“Yep, I already told you Grandma burnt the pancakes.”
I nodded as I turned off the truck. Danny opened the door and hopped out, rushing to the front door. I shut the door of the old truck and fumbled through my set of keys as I listened to the constant sound of the neighbors free-ranging chickens.
Inside, Danny took off his shoes and his shirt and went and grabbed his favorite blanket and wrapped up like a little burrito. This wasn’t the life Cassie wanted, but it was a beautiful life, and it was mine.
Chapter Three
FAITH
Ihadn’t heard my mother’s disappointed voice since I left home just over three years ago.
The panic increased a hundredfold. This very well might send me spiraling right back into my therapist’s care.
“Mom?” I whispered. “Are you okay?”
A part of me was excited to hear her voice, and I allowed that part of me to hope that she might say she loved me or even missed me. My heart betrayed me as it picked up speed, with hope.
“Don’t call me that!” came the quipped reply.
My eyes widened and I inhaled a sharp breath. I’d know that anger anywhere, but I refused to call her Meredith. She would do anything to maintain the persona that she was in her early thirties.
Surgeries, Botox, crazy fad diets, and mostly not acknowledging her aging offspring.
“Is everything okay? You sounded sad.”
“Of course I’m not sad. Don’t be ridiculous.” The rough edge of her voice left me raw.
“How did you get my number?”
“Honestly, Astrid, stop being so simple minded.” Her annoyancegrew louder through the line. “I am tired of waiting for you to end this tantrum.”
I chewed on my bottom lip, unsure what to say.
