I finally got my new phone, but I don’t have anyone to talk to since neither Dante nor the masked man have reached out to me. I left my new number with the Captain, but Dante has yet to text or call.
I miss him so much.
I sigh. “You two have fun. I think I'll stay home.”
Ebony’s face softens with concern. “Essence?—”
“Plus, look at my face.” I gesture to my face, which is still bruised and gnarly looking. “I can’t go out like this.”
“Look, I know you’re grieving, but it’s not healthy to stay cooped up in the house all alone,” Ebony reasons softly. “I just don’t want you to go to a dark place because of what happened. And I have some concealer you can use,” she adds on hopefully.
“I know, but?—”
“Pleeeease, Aunt Essy?” Matthew begs, pouting.
How can I say no to that face?
I chuckle. “Okay, I'll go.”
“Yay!” Matthew squeals, jumping up from his chair and running around the dining room. Ebony scolds him, or tries to anyway, but he’s so excited that he’s not even listening.
She shakes her head and sighs. “If you fall and hurt yourself, Matthew, that’s a natural consequence.”
Right after she says that, Matthew does, in fact, fall and hurt himself. Instead of running to his mom, he runs to me for comfort; he knows he should have listened to her.
Ebony rolls her eyes but goes into the kitchen to grab an ice pack. “You’re lucky your auntie is here to hug you when you don’t listen, Matthew.”
I rub his back and rock side to side to calm him down. “It’s okay, buddy. You have to listen to Mommy when she tells you to stop running in the house, okay?”
He sniffles and nods. After Matthew calms down, we finish our dinner and head to the carnival.
Ebony pays for our tickets, and as soon as we enter, Matthew runs over to the merry-go-round. We follow him over, climb onto the horses, and ride around. When we’re done, we grab some snacks—even though we just ate dinner not too long ago—and play some of the games.
At the ring toss, I set my phone down on the table and grab the stack of rings. Somehow, I get all of the rings around the old Coke bottle and win a prize, so I choose the stuffed Dalmatian wearing a firefighter hat.
“Here,” I say to Matthew, handing him the plushy. “Since Mommy won’t let you have a real dog, you can at least have this one. It will be like having Lunchbox with you all the time after we leave.”
His eyes go wide and round with excitement. He takes it from me and squeezes it tight, which completely melts my heart.
“Can Lunchbox come over tomorrow, Mommy?” he asks Ebony, looking up at her with big doe eyes.
I know she wants to say no, but she sighs and says, “Okay.”
Matthew and I cheer happily at that and run to the next game. After about an hour of being at the fair, he starts to yawn.
“You getting sleepy, baby?” Ebony asks him, crouching down and running her fingers through his thick coils. It’s dark now and close to his bedtime.
He nods, and we walk back to the car. As we’re pulling off, I reach into my jacket pocket to see if Dante has texted me—even though I know he hasn’t—but it’s empty. I check the other pocket, too, but it’s not in there.
“What’s wrong?” Ebony asks when she sees me frantically patting myself down.
“My phone is missing,” I say, checking the floor to see if it fell.
Where the hell is it?
Ebony pulls over to let the cars behind us pass and parks. “Let me call it.”
We’re silent as we listen for it vibrating, but we don’t hear anything.
