Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The grass under Bowie’s hands was scratchy. She could smell the ocean, hear the waves lapping gently on the shore, and taste the salt in the air on her lips. Her heart was beating way too fast and hard in her chest.
“I’m not scared. I’m not scared,” she whispered quietly as she crawled slowly toward the ocean.
But the truth was, she was scared.
She might only be six years old, but she wasn’t stupid. She learned a lot by listening. Her hearing was super good. Mommy said it was because her ears were making up for her lack of sight.
When she lived in Africa, she heard Mommy cry at night sometimes, even though she was trying to be very quiet.
She heard what the other grownups said about her when they were in Gabon.
That she wasn’t smart enough to go to school.
That she’d be a burden…whatever that was.
It must be bad if it meant she wasn’t allowed in school.
She’d heard them say they didn’t have the time to teach someone like Bowie, and besides, she couldn’t read or write, so why bother sending her to school at all?
But her mommy always told her how smart she was. Took the time to teach her at night when she came home from work. Bowie knew her mom also gave her the most food. She heard Mommy’s stomach growling even when she swore she wasn’t hungry.
Things were so much better since they’d moved to Nor-fick. Bowie had a bed—a really, really soft one. And as much food as she wanted. Mommy was happier, and Bowie got to go to a real school. She had a best friend, Abigail, and the bad men didn’t come around anymore, making Mommy cry.
And then there was Kylo-Pyro. She loved him so much! He was so nice to her and Mommy. She felt safe with him. He didn’t treat her like she was stupid. He made her laugh and he read to her all the time.
She didn’t really know what was happening, why someone would hurt Kylo-Pyro and put them in the trunk of a car and take them to that house, but she understood that none of it was good.
That the bad man who took Mommy’s money in Africa was the one making it happen.
That if she didn’t get help, Kylo-Pyro would be hurt in the morning.
That alone made her keep crawling, even though she was shaking with fear.
“I’m not scared, I’m not scared,” she repeated. If Kylo-Pyro said it would help to pretend she wasn’t afraid, she believed him.
Bowie’s world was pretty predictable. She could get around the apartment without any problem.
She knew where the furniture was and Mommy kept everything very neat.
She could recognize voices and knew all her new friends.
But being outside in a place she’d never been, alone, wasn’t something she’d ever had to do before.
She’d always had Mommy or someone else with her.
But Kylo-Pyro couldn’t fit through the window.
It was up to her to help him. For some reason, she thought about Laura Ingalls Wilder from the Little House on the Prairie books Kylo-Pyro was reading to her.
She found herself in all kinds of scary situations, but she was smart and able to get through them.
And then there was Wonder Woman. Kylo-Pyro had started letting her listen to the cartoons, and she wanted to be just like the superhero. This was her chance.
She couldn’t let Kylo-Pyro down. He said all she had to do was find the water and follow it. She could do that.
The grass ended, and Bowie let out a small whimper when her hand unexpectedly landed on a hard rock.
She’d reached the end of the grass. Moving so she was on her butt, Bowie carefully made her way over the rocks even more slowly.
They were sharp, and they hurt her hands and butt, but the sound of the water was louder now.
Her hands slipped three times, hurting her arms, but she kept going.
Then all of a sudden, the hard rocks under her disappeared—and she could feel sand.
She’d done it! She’d reached the beach!
Feeling proud, Bowie shifted back to her hands and knees and continued to crawl toward the sound of the water.
The sand was cool under her palms, unlike when she and Mommy and Kylo-Pyro went to the beach.
It wasn’t long before the sand turned damp and mushy.
She was getting close to the water. She remembered the feel of the wet sand from when she’d played in it and made sandcastles.
The feel of a wave cascading over her hands made her jerk and yelp in surprise.
She was at the water! Her excitement was quickly replaced by fear, which threatened to overwhelm her.
She didn’t mind being in the water with Kylo-Pyro, because he wouldn’t let her head go under, but she didn’t want to be in it without him.
Mommy had warned her that just because she’d floated one time, that didn’t mean she could swim.
As much as Bowie wanted to be a mermaid, she understood she had to practice first.
She stood and tried to figure out how close to get to the water lapping at the sand. She took several minutes to listen to the waves, figuring out the pattern of when the water came up and when it retreated.
Tilting her head, she then tried to listen for the music Kylo-Pyro said he’d heard when they got to the house.
But all Bowie heard was the sound of the water and the occasional bird.
She’d also been embarrassed to admit that she sometimes mixed up left and right.
He’d said to go left…but Bowie wasn’t sure what direction that was.
Biting her lip, she was unsure what to do. What if she went the wrong way? What if she messed this up and didn’t find anyone to help Kylo-Pyro, and the bad men took him away? She didn’t want him to get hurt!
Tears filled her eyes, and Bowie felt them on her cheeks.
“I’m not scared,” she whispered with a sniff.
Finally, she turned and started walking—one slow, careful step at a time—hoping she was going in the right direction. That she was going toward where the music had been.
It was a little weird not hearing anything but the water. There were no cars, no people talking. She’d gotten very used to a loud world, so the silence was pretty freaky.
She liked that word, Abigail used it all the time. Thinking about her best friend made her feel better. She wished she was here right now. She’d know which way was left and which was right. She was the smartest person she knew.
Determination rose within Bowie. Abigail said she wanted to go to Disney World with her. Bowie didn’t really understand what Disney World was, but since Abigail loved it so much, it had to be great.
Bowie walked as straight as possible, making sure to stay in the mushy sand, which meant it was wet, and continuing to move slowly so she didn’t trip. Every now and then the ocean surprised her and washed over her feet, but Bowie made sure not to get sucked into the water.
After walking for what seemed like hours, she started to get tired.
She wanted to lie down, to rest. Her legs were heavy and her belly was rumbling.
She hadn’t had anything to eat since lunchtime at school, which seemed like so long ago.
She worried that she’d gone in the wrong direction.
She hadn’t heard anyone. And definitely no music.
She had no idea how far she’d walked or how much longer she had to go until she found someone to help her.
But Kylo-Pyro had seemed sure that she’d run into someone. That someone would see her. She recited her address and Mommy’s phone number out loud, just in case she forgot it.
The longer she walked, the more tired she got. The more her feet hurt. They were wet from the water and it wasn’t easy to walk in the sand. Her legs felt as if they weighed eight hundred pounds, and the taste of salt on her lips was making her really thirsty.
She wanted to stop. To sit in the sand and cry. Tears fell from her eyes, and it took all of Bowie’s strength not to give up.
But then Kylo-Pyro’s voice sounded in her head.
Telling her how proud he was of her. How strong she was.
Bowie didn’t feel strong, but thinking about him being hurt kept her walking.
The bad men who’d taken them had hit him.
And he’d cried. The knowledge that Kylo-Pyro was in pain, her favorite person in the world after Mommy, kept her going.
He was counting on her to find help.
“I’m not scared, I’m not scared,” she repeated over and over as she walked.
Just when she thought she couldn’t go another single step, that she’d failed, that this beach was going to go on forever…she thought she heard something ahead of her.
Voices. People talking! She was sure of it!
Any thought of being tired disappeared, and she began to walk faster. People meant help. In the back of her mind, she heard Miss Blake, her teacher, telling them about “stranger danger,” but Kylo-Pyro had said to find someone and ask if they had a phone, so that’s what she was going to do.
As she continued walking, the voices got louder, and Bowie could hear them talking about fish. Then one of the men said something about sixty-nine, and how tasty some woman was. Which made no sense to Bowie. How could a lady be tasty? And what did sixty-nine have to do with it?
Her steps faltered. Were the men eating people? No, that couldn’t be right.
The two voices got louder as she continued walking, and the fear Bowie had managed to push down as she’d thought about her friend, and Disney, and Kylo-Pyro becoming her daddy for real, returned tenfold.
“I’m not scared, I’m not scare—”
Her words were abruptly cut off when she slammed into something hard.
She fell back onto her butt in the sand, and a wave immediately soaked her from waist to toes as it came ashore.
Panicked, Bowie scrambled to her feet and tried to get away from the water, but she tripped, this time on some rocks. She went down hard once again, and wasn’t able to stop the alarmed cry from escaping.