Chapter 6 Kaylynn
KAYLYNN
“How’s your food?” I asked.
Ariel shrugged. “Okay.”
“You need anything to go with it? Some more apple juice?”
“No.”
“Want another slice of peanut butter toast?”
“I’m okay.”
“What about a banana? I hear that’s good on peanut butter toast.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Daddy eats that. It’s gross looking.”
I snickered. “Well, if you need anything else, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Can-we-go-out-somewhere-today?”
The question flew out of her mouth so quickly, I wasn’t sure I’d heard her right.
I looked at her from beyond my coffee mug, watching how sheepish she became after firing the question out into the ethers.
I’d been trying to get her to talk all through breakfast. She came downstairs, flopped down at the kitchen table, and didn't say a word while I cooked her food.
All she did was yawn, nod her head, and sigh every time I asked her a question.
“You want to go out somewhere today?” I asked.
She blushed. “This house is kind of boring.”
I grinned. “I suppose it is, in a way.”
“Why don’t you have TV or anything?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess there’s so much negativity on television lately, I don’t feel like watching it.”
“TV has cartoons. Those are funny.”
“I haven’t watched cartoons in a very long time.”
“You could do Netflix, like Uncle Lyle. Then, you have cartoons and fun shows without the bad shows.”
“Uncle Lyle, huh? You like him?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s he like?”
She sighed. “He’s Uncle Lyle. I don’t know. He’s weird. Works on cars. Always comes home smelling like butthole.”
I giggled. “That’s a pretty rough smell.”
“Especially from Uncle Lyle,” she murmured.
I laughed softly to myself. “Want to go out and get a TV, then? You know, to watch Netflix?”
She perked up. “Really? We can do that?”
“Sure. Why not? We can get something for the living room so we can both watch it.”
“And the bedroom?”
“Maybe not the bedroom. But you can stay up an hour later and watch Netflix if you start coming down and socializing more. How does that sound?”
She thought about it hard. “Okay. Don’t ask questions about Daddy, though.”
I paused. “Why not?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t like it when you do.”
“Fair enough. Can I ask questions about Carlie, then?”
“Yeah.”
“And Uncle Lyle?”
“Mhm.”
“And school?”
“I guess.”
I held out my hand across the table. “Deal.”
We shook on it, then finished up our breakfast. I sipped down two cups of coffee while Ariel finished her peanut butter toast and juice.
Then, we set off for the store. I mean it wasn’t as if I had to keep us cooped up in this house.
I just had to make sure she didn’t get away from me.
So, I kept her close. We drove to the electronics store and I talked to one of the customer service reps about what I wanted.
A television and Netflix, however that worked.
I wasn’t savvy when it came to technology.
I kept myself as far away from it as possible, actually.
My cell phone was a smart phone, simply because my brother demanded it to be one.
But I didn’t use all its functions. Just for calling, and the occasional text message.
After forty-five minutes with the customer service representative, Ariel and I walked out to the car with a fifty-inch flat-screen television and something called a Roku.
The guy said the directions were simple, so I didn’t bombard him with too many questions.
And judging by the pep in Ariel’s step, she probably knew how to use the thing anyway.
A nine-year-old.
Knowing how to use technology more than a twenty-seven-year-old.
“Can we go do something else now?” she asked.
I closed the trunk, shutting the electronics inside. “I don’t know. What were you thinking?”
“Lunch.”
I giggled. “We just had breakfast, silly town.”
“So, a snack?”
“What in the world kind of snack would you want?”
She smiled brightly. “Ice cream.”
“Oh. I see where this is going. A big, fat ice cream first thing in the morning.”
“I mean it’s not really first thing in the morning.”
I grinned. “You’re good at getting what you want, aren’t you?”
Her smile faltered a little. “Not really.”
I wanted to press on about her statement, but I also didn’t want to upset her. This was the most playful she’d been since being dropped into my care over two weeks ago. And I was enjoying it.
“Well, ice cream it is, then,” I said.
“Really!?” she exclaimed.
“Really, really, really.”
She threw her arms around my waist and hugged me tightly, her head falling just between my breasts.
It shocked me, the contact. She hadn’t so much as touched me for more than a high-five since she’d been here.
Of her own volition, that is. I softly wrapped my arms around her, cradling the back of her head in the palm of my hand.
I closed my eyes. I reveled in the moment.
Did this mean she was starting to trust me?
I mean if that was what this meant, then I might be able to get her to talk about her parents a little more.
Figure out who they are. What their names are.
You know, other than Uncle Lyle. If I could figure out who her parents were—or who her father was—I might be able to get her back to them without my brother knowing.
It was a super-risky plan. Especially since I wasn’t quite sure whether or not we were being followed.
But, for Ariel’s sake, I had to take the shot.
“Ready for that ice cream?” I asked.
I ran my fingers through her beautiful hair as she nodded.
“Ready.”
We climbed into my car and I watched her gaze out the window in the backseat.
She kicked her legs around as a massive smile crawled across her face.
I drove to the nearest ice cream place I could think of that might be open at ten in the morning.
And still, it took me going to two separate places before I found a place that opened around eleven.
That meant sitting in the car for a little while to wait. But Ariel didn’t seem to mind.
“Wanna listen to some music while we wait?” I asked.
“Okay.”
“Do you have a favorite kind of music?”
“Um… the one with the instruments?”
“I think all music uses instruments.”
“No, no. The stuff with real instruments. Like ‘jellos,’ and ‘bases,’ and ‘flouts.’”
I paused. “You mean ‘classical?’”
“Yeah! That’s it. Can we listen to that?”
“You like classical music?”
She nodded. “Mhm. Daddy and I listen to it all the time. He loves it.”
Huh.
“Well, you’re in luck. Because I love things like opera and symphonies,” I said.
Then, I turned on my favorite classical music radio station.
I watched her in the rearview mirror as she swayed and bobbed with the beat. Her little hands started flailing around softly. Almost as if she were conducting the philharmonic herself. It made me smile. Such a precious girl when she wasn’t so angry.
Maybe it was good she was in my care.
Part of me wanted to return her to her family.
To her father, at least. But I’d gotten a glimpse of how angry this little girl had become.
And it made me wonder if she even came from a good family.
At the very least, she came from someone who didn’t understand how to deal with kids.
She’d made that painfully clear. Ariel reminded me a lot of my brother and how he’d act out as a child.
Back when my father was grooming him to take over the role he had now.
She had the same kind of anger that silently devoured my childhood.
That made me regret a lot of decisions I’d made with my life.
And that kind of anger didn’t come from good parents.
We listened to song after song until the ice cream parlor in front of us opened.
And still, once they were opened, we listened to two more songs before we finally got out of the car.
We walked inside, trying to make up our minds while the owner of the small store got everything in order.
Ariel stood next to me, pressing herself close.
She took my arm and wrapped it around her, placing my hand where she wanted it.
She wanted me to hold her. To touch her.
To cradle her against my side. So, I did. With great pleasure.
She wrapped her hands around my waist.
“You two know what you want yet?” the owner asked.
“Actually, yes. I think I’m going to get a medium birthday cake surprise. Just without the whipped cream,” I said.
“I can do that. And you?” he asked, looking down at Ariel.
“That sounds really good. Can I have one, too?” she asked.
“You can get whatever you want, you know,” I said.
“I know. It’s just—I kinda had my eye on that one, too.”
“Well, then it’s yours.”
“Can I get extra birthday cake bits?”
“Of course. Just tell the man what you want.”
She smiled. “I want extra birthday cake pieces in it, too, please.”
My eyebrows rose. Please. That sure as hell was the first time, I’d ever heard her say that.
“Coming right up,” the man said.
He got to work on our massive ice cream birthday cake surprises, and I couldn't wait to eat it. Ariel was in such a good mood, and I knew I’d cherish this day for a while to come.
I paid for the ice cream in cash and we sat down, taking up a table in the corner.
I sat back against the wall, keeping my eyes out the window.
Just in case my brother “happened to find us.”
Just in case someone was watching.
Ariel hardly spoke as she gobbled up the ice cream. And I had to admit, I couldn't blame her. The damn thing was delicious. I took heaping bites of it myself. She wiggled around in her chair as the sugar seeped into her veins, causing her to practically vibrate with energy.
And with that energy came a loosening of her lips.
“I think you’d like my Daddy,” Ariel said.
I nodded, trying to keep my composure. “Oh, yeah? And why’s that?”
“I don’t know. I just think you would.”
“Well, maybe someday I’ll meet him.”
“That’d be cool. Daddy doesn’t have a lot of friends.”
“Why’s that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, he has Uncle Lyle. But that’s not really a friend.”
I furrowed my brow. “Not really a friend?”
“Yeah. I mean, he’s Uncle Lyle. He can’t be ‘uncle’ and ‘friend.’”
“Oh, he can’t?”
“Nope. He can only be one thing because he’s one person.”
“Well, I think someone can be as many things as they want.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Mhm. For instance, my best friend in high school? She was a ballerina and a swimmer. She was good at both. Competed in competitions with both,” I said.
She paused. “Daddy tells me someone can be really good at one thing, or kind of good at a lot of things.”
“I think what he means is that if you’re serious about something, you have to give it your all and not focus on much else.”
“Huh?”
“Like, if you want to go to school to be a teacher. You have to focus on your classes and your grades and pass your tests. Which means you have to study. If you use the time you need to study to do other things, like play with friends and sleep all the time, you won’t be able to study to pass your classes. ”
“Oh! Well, that’s different than what I thought he meant.”
“Sometimes Daddies don’t talk well.”
She nodded. “Yeah. Mine doesn't talk well. He gets upset a lot.”
I paused. “I’m sorry to hear that. My daddy got upset a lot, too, when I was growing up.”
“I mean, he’s not mean. He doesn’t hit me or anything. He’s just… lonely. Or maybe lost. I see him staring off sometimes, and I don’t think he likes it when I see that.”
Thank fuck, she doesn’t come from an abusive family.
“Have you ever asked him what’s wrong?” I asked.
“Sometimes. But he gets upset. Says it’s ‘adult stuff’ and that ‘I need to be a kid for a while.’”
“Maybe he just wants you to enjoy things while you can,” I said.
“I’d like to enjoy it with him. But he’s always working.”
“Hence why you’re with Uncle Lyle.”
“Yeah. Uncle Lyle’s more like Daddy, I guess. And Daddy’s just…”
My heart ached for her. “A friend?”
“Yeah. I guess. But not like Carlie. More like, my teacher’s a friend. But not a friend that’s around a lot. And not a friend that talks a lot.”
The more she opened up to me, the more I found she came from a misguided family.
Not a bad one. Simply misguided. However, the way she talked about her father sometimes warmed my heart.
She had a great deal of love for him. She wanted him around more often.
He just wasn’t. More than ever, as we talked over ice cream, I was set in my plan.
Rejuvenated, and had a fire lit underneath my ass.
I had to figure out who this man was so I could get her back to him. No matter what.
Even though it might get me killed, this girl didn’t deserve what was coming her way. None of these children did.
And for once, I’d make the right decision instead of the easy one.