Chapter 2 #3
“I know that, silly. But you’re here-here.
Isn’t this cool? Do you get to sleep somewhere awesome like this?
It smells like gas, but a funny gas. And I can hear people working on airplanes.
Sometimes they say bad words when they drop something.
” She giggled. “Mommy doesn’t like me saying those words, but I can’t help it if I hear them.
And we get to sleep in a real bed! I even get my own! ”
She was talking a mile a minute, and it was adorable, even if it bothered Pyro that she thought being here was cool. And he didn’t miss her last statement about sleeping in a “real bed.” As if a military cot was a real bed.
He realized he was frowning and silently admonished himself…but a split-second later, he remembered that the little girl couldn’t see his facial expression.
“We’ve got our own room on one of the lower floors,” Edge said from behind him. “It’s definitely not as cool as where you get to sleep.”
Bowie tilted her head up and gazed somewhere over Pyro’s shoulder. “Who’re you?”
“I’m Edge. And I brought Chaos too. We’re Pyro’s friends.”
Bowie giggled again. “Your names are funny. But I guess mine is too, so that’s okay. I’m Bowie Burns. I’m here with my mommy.”
“Is your daddy coming to join you soon?” Chaos asked.
Pyro frowned at Chaos over his shoulder…even if he was secretly relieved he’d asked the question he desperately wanted the answer to.
To his surprise, the usual sunny child scowled, then violently shook her head. Her fingers tightened on his shoulders as she spoke. “No. He’s dead. He hurt Mommy and me and we’re glad he’s not here anymore.”
Whoa. Her response was vehement. But more than that, Pyro could hear the fear in the words. His body tensed, and he had to force himself to relax. Bowie said the man was dead, so whatever he’d done to the girl, he couldn’t do it anymore.
“Hi. I’m Penny. I’m assuming by what you’re wearing that you’re pilots like Pyro? Thank you for what you’re doing here. There’s no way we could’ve gotten out of the city without your help.”
Pyro stood, taking one of Bowie’s hands as he did so he didn’t break their connection.
She tilted her head back and smiled up at him as her little fingers tightened in his grip.
He realized a little too late that it probably didn’t look great for an almost-stranger to be so friendly with a child he’d just met, but thankfully Penny didn’t look alarmed in the least.
“Ma’am,” Edge said respectfully with a nod.
“Nice to meet you,” Chaos added.
“What are they wearing?” Bowie asked, with childlike innocence.
“Our flight suits,” Pyro told her.
“What’s a flight suit? Is it like a bathing suit?”
All four adults chuckled.
“No, sweetie. Not even close. It’s like a one-piece shirt and pants combined. They’re sewn together, and it has a zipper up the front to keep it closed.”
It was obvious Penny was used to explaining things to her daughter in terms that she could visualize in her mind, since she couldn’t use her eyesight to help her understand the world around her.
“Oh! Like my fuzzy Elsa pajamas I used to have. You know, the ones with the footies?”
Pyro grinned, he’d never had his flight suit compared to a fuzzy pajama romper before, but for a girl who couldn’t see for herself what he and his friends were wearing, it made sense.
“Yeah, sweetie, exactly like that. But they’ve got heavy black boots on their feet. Their flight suits end at their ankles. They don’t have feet sewn in like your PJs did.”
“Do your feet get cold?” Bowie asked, as she stared up at the men. “That was my favorite part about my PJs. They kept the red dust from getting inside while I slept.”
“The boots keep our feet warm, and all the dust out,” Edge told the little girl.
She nodded. “Can I feel?”
Pyro blinked in surprise. What exactly did she want to feel? Their boots?
Penny spoke before he could ask. “It’s not polite to feel people’s clothes while they’re wearing them. Remember? We don’t touch without permission. Not other people, their belongings, or animals.”
Bowie nodded sagely. “I remember. Sorry, Kylo-Pyro.”
“It’s okay. Did you have to leave your fuzzy-feet pajamas behind?”
To his surprise, the chatty little girl shrugged and turned her gaze downward. She also let go of his hand and reached behind her for her mom.
Penny took her hand, and Bowie snuggled into her mom’s side.
Pyro wondered what he’d said wrong and wished he’d kept his mouth shut. His hand felt…empty, now that Bowie’s fingers weren’t in it.
“It’s actually been a while since she’s had those PJs,” Penny said. “When we moved a couple years ago, we had to leave them behind then.”
That sucked. There was a lot in that explanation that Pyro didn’t understand, but all he knew was that he didn’t like Bowie’s sudden sadness. He wanted to fix it. He just had no idea how.
“Do you know what the plan is for us?” Penny asked. “I mean, we had a meeting, but all we were told was that more evacuations were being scheduled, and that once everyone who could be brought out of the country was here, we’d learn more.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know,” Pyro told her.
“We aren’t involved in what happens after we pick up those we’re sent to evacuate,” Edge explained.
“Right. That makes sense. It’s fine. We’re good here, it’s just…difficult to think about what comes next.”
“I’m sure you’ll be taken care of,” Chaos told her.
“Of course we will.”
She said the words, but Pyro could hear the concern in her tone.
“We got a bag full of stuff!” Bowie said, excitement back in her voice.
It was nice that the sorrow the girl felt about losing her footie PJs seemed to be gone.
“It’s all free stuff. I got a T-shirt and some sweatpants, and even a pair of socks!
There was also a toothbrush and toothpaste, a bar of soap, and a chocolate bar!
But Mommy won’t let me eat it because it’s late.
But tomorrow after breakfast, she said I could have it.
Oh, and we get breakfast, lunch, and dinner here!
Today we got a box with a sandwich and potato chips.
It was awesome! Even if I had to take the tomatoes off.
Tomatoes are yucky. Do you like tomatoes? ”
Pyro wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or his friends, but he answered anyway. “I do.”
Bowie’s nose scrunched up as if she was reconsidering him for friendship. But then she said, “That’s okay. I can give you my tomatoes and you can give me your pickles. But only dill pickles. Not sweet ones.”
“That’s not how it works, honey,” Penny said dryly.
“It’s fine. She can have all my pickles and I’ll gladly take her tomatoes. Do you like spaghetti?”
“Sketti? Yes! I love it! But we haven’t had it in forever.”
Pyro was going to explain that spaghetti sauce was made from tomatoes, but as if she could read his mind, Penny frantically shook her head. He grinned and nodded.
“Did you get a bag of free stuff too?” Bowie asked.
“Nope. I think we were cheated,” Chaos joked.
All of a sudden, Bowie let go of her mom’s hand and turned to quickly rush back toward their cots.
Pyro frowned. What was she doing? And shouldn’t her mom go with her, since she couldn’t see where she was going?
“She’s fine,” Penny said, reading his thoughts again. “She counts steps. Counted how many it took to get to where we’re standing. She’ll just walk the same number back to our cots,” Penny explained, watching her daughter fondly.
Sure enough, Bowie stopped close to where she and her mom had been sitting.
She reached her arms out and shuffled forward until she came into contact with the cot once more.
She felt around on top of the sheet and blanket and picked up the bag that hadn’t been opened yet.
Then she turned and headed back toward the four adults.
It was almost hard to believe the child was blind.
“Here, Bowie,” Penny said quietly, as her daughter veered a little off course. The girl immediately corrected her trajectory and walked straight for them.
“That’s really amazing,” Edge said. “How her hearing compensates for her lack of eyesight.”
“It really is,” Penny agreed.
Bowie reached them and said, “Mr. Chaos?”
“Just Chaos, Bowie,” his friend corrected gently.
“Here,” the little girl said, holding up the bag.
“You can have mine, since you didn’t get one.
Mommy and I can share. She says it’s good to share, that the secret to being happy isn’t what you get or what you receive, but what you share with others who need it more than you.
And it’s not fair that you didn’t get a goodie bag when you got here. So you can have this one.”
Pyro was speechless. His friends looked just as shocked.
All three of them stood there with incredulous looks on their faces, staring at the little girl wearing a huge smile, holding up a bag with the few items they’d been given since they were evacuated with literally nothing but the clothes on their backs.
“It’s okay,” Bowie said, when no one took the bag from her. “You can have it.”
Pyro went to his knees in front of the girl and put his hand over hers on the handle of the plastic bag.
He lowered her arm. “It’s so kind of you to share,” he said carefully, not wanting the girl to feel as if her gift was being rejected.
“But I don’t think the shirt or pants will fit any of us.
How about instead of us taking your gift, we go to whoever’s in charge and ask that they give us our own?
That way, you can keep yours, and we’ll get one too. ”
Bowie seemed to think about that for a moment before saying, “Okay. But if you don’t get one, you can still have mine.”
“You’re sweet, little Bowie. Thank you.”
The girl beamed.
“It’s getting late, sweetheart. Time to get ready for bed. Why don’t you go back to our cots. I’ll be there in a moment, and we can go brush our teeth together.”