Runaways (Orphans 5)

"So," Tommy said when we were all close to finishing, "tell me how you girls ended up sleeping by the rocks. Where are you from?"

Raven looked at Crystal and Crystal looked at me. Butterfly had been watching Anita with interest and I had noticed her looking at Butterfly too, a small smile on her lips.

"You're going to find out anyway, Mr. Edwards," I said. "We ran away from a foster home in New York. We took our foster father's car and we were finally caught the day before yesterday."

Tommy sat back and looked at Anita, who shook her head.

"You were caught but you drove out here? I don't understand," he said.

"Our foster father came for us. He came for us mainly because he had a package of cocaine hidden under the back seat of the car. We found it quite by accident and threw it away," I continued. "We were afraid to tell him. We pretended we were taking him to where we had buried it and last night, after he had gotten us to a motel, I snuck out while he was asleep and we ran away again. And then we ran out of gas," I said.

"We were frightened and just drove off, not paying attention to where we were going," Crystal added.

"Now that's quite a story," Tommy Edwards said.

"Why did you go back with him?" Anita asked sharply.

"If we didn't agree to go back with our foster father, we were all going to jail for stealing his car and we were afraid of being split apart," Raven explained.

"We're sisters," I said. "We have to stay together."

"We don't have any money," Crystal said. "We're afraid of what he's going to do to us, especially now."

"I see," Tommy said and thought a moment. "Well, we have something of a situation here." "Will he find us?" Butterfly asked.

"Not here he won't," Tommy said. He looked at Anita. "I'll go make a few calls."

She nodded.

"Can I help you with the dishes?" Butterfly asked Anita.

"Why thank you," Anita said, her face brightening with a genuine smile.

Butterfly started to clean the table. Tommy rose and left us.

"The rest of you can go into the living room if you like," Anita said.

"Thank you," Crystal said.

"I guess we're going to be going back to jail," Raven said when we sat in the living room.

"What else are we going to do?" Crystal said. "No one wants us and returning to Lakewood isn't what we want. I'm tired," she said, sinking further into the chair. "I'm tired of the struggle."

"Wonderful," Raven muttered. Her eyes went to the mantel and then she stood up and went to look at the pictures. I sat there feeling as if I could burst into tears at any moment. "Look," Raven said, "they have a baby girl."

She brought the picture of the three of them to show to Crystal and me.

"Please don't handle my pictures," Anita said from the doorway.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just admiring your baby," Raven said. "Where is she? Sleeping?"

Butterfly came in and looked at the picture.

"Yes, she's sleeping. In the ground," Anita said coldly.

All of us looked at her, no one able to utter a sound. She saw how hard the news hit us and softened.

"We lost her when she was a little more than three. She would have been five next month. She had a problem with a valve in her heart."