Run Away Baby

“Get up,” said Charlie, letting go of Abby.

She stood up. “I know Rake wants to hurt me, but you wouldn’t, right?” she whispered. “That’s how he is, but you’re a good person.”

This was the wrong thing to say. Charlie stiffened in annoyance. Abby thought of his tattoo and realized then that it was about her. About what he was going to do to her, who he thought he’d be after it was over.

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop trying to think your way out of this,” he said. “Thinking’s not your strong suit.”

“Don’t be mean. Please. This isn’t you, Charlie. Are you guys actually going to hurt me?” she asked.

“‘Don’t be mean.’ You’re pretty funny. Seriously. Stop talking.” Then he put his hand over her mouth again, freezing, listening. “Are they still driving away, or did they stop?” he whispered.

Abby struggled free. “Take me into town with you,” she whispered. “Just you. Not your cousin. Tell him I need to get some medicine or something. Make up something that he’ll believe. Then you can tell him I escaped from you. And in return I’ll tell you how to get a lot of money.” She reached into her back pocket and took out the pile of bills. “Here you go. Take it. But it won’t last long. Not like the money I could get for you, if you let me.”

“You think you’re bribing me, but I see this as a gift. We both know it would have been mine anyhow, sooner or later.” said Charlie. “But thank you very much.” He shoved the money in his pocket.

“Speaking of gifts, what do you guys want with my iPod? It’s not even that new anymore. Seriously, how many Ryan Adams songs are you going to listen to…” She trailed off, not adding the phrase that came to her mind: before it ends up in the alligator pond beside my skinny bones?

“That iPod is the least of your worries. Where you’re going, you aren’t going to need it.”

Externally, she didn’t even flinch at that. “Get it back for me,” she told him. “It’s the only thing I have now, and I will need it again. I promise you that. As for that money, I won’t say a word to Rake about it. You keep it. See? I’m worth more to you than he is. Actually, you had everything going your way before he got involved.”

“Is that right?” asked Charlie, smirking.

“You know it is! But it’s not too late for you. There are still things I can do to make this less of a disaster for you.”

“You’re feisty. I’ll give you that. I don’t know where you get your confidence from, little girl. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I do too. I know I’m worth more than whatever you’ve got planned for me.”

“Shut up,” he said, his smile suddenly disappearing. Still, he stood there listening. Letting her talk. She took it as a good sign.

“What made you involve him? I didn’t deserve to be dragged into anything involving him. He’s horrible.”

“And if he’s so bad, then what am I?” Charlie asked. Abby took it as a good sign that he was asking. It showed a crack. Vulnerability.

“You’re like me. No matter who your relatives are, you’re like me.”

Charlie shook his head. He opened the door and shoved her back out into the Florida night. They were far enough from the fire pit that she could say one more thing: “If he rapes me, or anything even close, then I can’t help you.”

“You’re in no place to negotiate,” said Charlie.

“But I am.”

Out here, in the rustling night breeze, beneath the moonlight, they could look in each other’s eyes. Charlie blinked a couple of times.

“I’m telling you Charlie, you can’t make things right but you can make them better,” she whispered.

He grabbed her arm and marched her back down to the fire.

Rake had added more wood to it, so now it was a gigantic, crackling bonfire. He barely looked their way when they sat back down in their lawn chairs; he was too busy glaring up in the distance.

“I figure they live up that way,” he said to no one in particular.

“Well, I don’t know about y’all, but I’m hungry,” Meggie said. She went over to the cooler, found a bag of hotdogs, and tore it open. Next, she rummaged around on the ground until she found a stick. She dipped the tip of the stick into the fire, waited for it to ignite, and then blew out the flame. She rubbed the sooty tip on the edge of her shoe, and then stuck it through a hotdog. None of what she did made sense to Abby, but it was so methodical that Abby felt sure Meggie had done it many times before. The hotdog-on-a-stick dangled over the flames, Meggie turning it slightly. No more than a minute went by before she decided it was ready to eat. Instead of eating it, though, she turned to Rake. “You want this?”

“No.”

“You sure?”