“Ditto.” She grinned, her eyelids starting to drift closed again. She reached up to touch my face. “Don’t worry, boss. I’m not going anywhere. Now take good pictures today for Gigi.”
“I’m not leaving you in the house alone.”
“What are you afraid of? Nothing is going to happen.”
She didn’t know that. This had shown me just how unstable everyone had gotten. They were sneakier, more desperate.
“Animals pushed into a corner swipe back.”
She didn’t reply, going back to sleep.
How I wished I could join her.
I felt the exhaustion set in and not just from the lack of sleep. Moving from the bedroom to the bathroom, I stripped to enter the shower.
I needed to think.
The plan needed to be re-adjusted…and fast.
CALLIOPE—AGE 12
“Calli? Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” my grandmother asked as she placed her hand on my face.
Her hair was blond and her eyes green. Her palms felt like sandpaper on my skin, but it was nice—she didn’t hit me. She never hit me. That made her better than my mom. But why did I keep hoping for it to be my mom who found me? Who asked me what was wrong?
“Nothing,” I said, coming out of the closet to sit in front of her.
“Are you mad at your mom for forgetting your birthday again?” my grandmother asked.
I shook my head. “No.”
“You are lying. What have I told you about lying?”
“Do it convincingly, or don’t do it all.”
“That’s right, sweetheart,” she replied, putting her hand on my head. “And I know you are sad, but remember what I told you before? Your mom will love you one day soon. One day, when you are the best of the very best and you have helped this family…she will love you times a thousand.”
“Why can’t she just love me now?” I muttered with my head down.
“I love you. Don’t I count?”
“You count, Grandmama. But—”
“But you want your mom to count, too?”
I didn’t nod or look away.
“You just have to keep believing, keep working, nothing in this world that is worth having comes for free. You have to fight, Calliope. If you want to be happy, you have to fight harder than anyone else. And how do you learn to fight?”
“By training?”
“And what is the purpose of being trained?”
“To fight?”
“And you fight?”
“To be happy.”