Nora, Kelly, Carol, Melody, Tiffany, and her daughter were out enjoying the day out as a family. Nora shared the letter she received from Ginger with the family, just before they left. They were walking through the park, just enjoying the day together.

Tiffany had the day off from the restaurant she worked at. She was pushing the baby stroller with little Maria laying inside. There was a crowd gathering just ahead of their path.

“I wonder what is going on, up ahead?” Kelly was curious.

“Let’s find out.” Nora was curious as well.

They walk up to the group and notice there was a teenage girl, dressed in a flashy leotard sitting on a unicycle. She was juggling six batons that were on fire. The crowd was amazed at how she didn’t miss the batons and the tricks she was performing with them.

There was a battered suitcase that looked like it held the batons set up with a sign that said Donations are welcome. The teenage girl looked like she was enjoying what she was doing.

“Mom, can we donate to her?” Carol looks at Nora and Kelly.

“That’s up to you, Carol. If you want to, go ahead.” Kelly was thinking about donating as well.

“I want it too.” Carol opens her purse and pulls out a ten-dollar bill and toss it into the case.

Melody does the same thing. She liked what the performer was doing.

“Melody, toss this in there for me, please.” Kelly hands Melody a twenty-dollar bill for her and Nora.

“Okay, mom.” Melody accepts the bill and tosses it into the case.

They watch the teenage girl perform several more tricks before she stops and bow from the applause. Nora noticed that she was around Carol’s age and had several scars on her face. One scar went across her face, just above her mouth. The second scar started just above her right eyebrow and went all the way down the corner of her eye and onto her cheek. It stopped just above the other scar that went across her face.

Diane watches as the crowd that gathered to watch her, drop money into the baton case. Just from what she could quickly count, she figures there are about three hundred dollars. That was just counting the big bills she could see right away. She also noticed that a Hispanic woman was looking at her.

She recognized the other woman standing next to the Hispanic woman. Her name was Kelly, and she uses to work as a waitress up at Union Sixty-Nine club. She had heard that she got married several years back to a Hispanic woman. Standing with the two women, were three teenage girls and one was pushing a baby stroller.

Kelly spotted their entertainer looking towards them. The girl looked familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on where she knew her from.

“Do you know her?” Nora noticed her wife looking at the teenage girl.

“I think so. I can’t remember where I have seen her before.” Kelly normally could remember people she knew, but this time she couldn’t.

“Do you want to go and speak to her?” Nora looks at her wife.

“Yes. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Kelly walks towards Diane.

Diane notices Kelly walking towards her. She wonders what she wants.

“Excuse me, but do I know you?” Kelly stops in front of the baton case.

“No ma’am, but you do know my older sister. The two of you use to work together up at Union Sixty-Nine club.”

“Who is your sister?”

“Evelyn Brown.” A smile appears on Diane’s face.

“Now I remember you. You’re Evelyn’s younger sibling. I remember you coming up to the club and staying in the office doing your homework. How is your sister?” Kelly always liked Evelyn.

“She’s fine. She’s a police officer now and has a wife.” Diane likes her sister’s wife.

Her sister-in-law is the owner of a florist shop over off Peach Street. Sometimes, she helps out around the shop.

“Does your sister know you perform in the park?”

“Yes ma’am. She made me get a performer's permit.” Diane gathers all her stuff up.

“Well, tell your sister hello for me.”

“I will and it was nice seeing you again.” Diane starts walking towards the parking lot.

Kelly joins Nora and their children. She looks towards Nora “that was Diane Brown. I worked with her sister up at the club me and Christina worked at.”

“Do you know how she got those scars on her face?” Nora was curious.

“I didn’t ask her. I know she didn’t have them when she was younger, and when I worked with her sister.” Kelly now wonders where she got them.

“They don’t look very old.” Nora figures they were only one year or two old.

“Next time I see her. I’ll ask. Let’s go and get some lunch for our children.”

“Can we go to Van’s for lunch, mom?” Carol likes Van’s.

“I don’t see why not.” Nora didn’t mind Van’s.

Chris’s House:
Chris sits in her closet with the overhead light on, providing light for her. Occasionally, she could hear her stepmother’s voice talking to the man she slept with. She also heard her stepbrother and the woman he slept with as well.

She heard the man ask how the house and yard had gotten so clean. When her stepmother said that she had the maid and yard person come in and pick the place up. She got very upset, as tears leaked from her eyes. She hated what has become of her life.

She listens some more to the conversation going on between her stepmother and the guy. Since she was going to be stuck in her closet for most of the day. She grabs her schoolbooks and starts reading the next few chapters.

When she starts getting hungry, she pulls out a ramen noodle bowl and adds some cold water to it. She kept two gallons of water hidden in the same space as the food. She knows, she needs to microwave the noodles, but she didn’t have access to the microwave.

She eats the noodles cold. Chris knew she had other can foods she could eat, but she didn’t want to open them. An hour later, she hears the doorbell ring. She wonders who it could be.

“Mom! The pizza delivery person is here.”

Chris heard her stepbrother yell for their stepmother. She just cries as she puts her trash away. She falls asleep from all the crying she does.

Seven hours later Chris wakes up from her bladder waking her. She had to pee very badly. She gets up and opens her door slowly and listen. She doesn’t hear anything as she opens the door a little more and steps out of her closet.

Chris walks to the nearest window and notices her stepmother’s car was gone. She rushes from the window to the bathroom, just as her bladder decided to let go. She sits on the toilet seat and empties her bladder. She wonders where her stepmother and brother went.

Once Chris is done and has cleaned her hands. She walks into the kitchen to see if her stepmother left her anything. She looks in the refrigerator, but there wasn’t anything leftover from the party or from what they ordered for lunch.

She goes back to her closet and grabs her trash and put it in the outside trash can. She walks into her stepbrother’s bedroom and over to where he hides his money. She knew he never counted what he had. She removes a twenty-dollar from his stash and put it in her pocket.

She puts the rest of the money back and leaves her stepbrother’s room. Since no one was home, she sits in the living room and watches a movie. She does keep an eye out for her stepmother to return. The last thing she needed was being caught watching the television.

She spots the Sunday newspaper and starts looking through the job section, seeing who was hiring. Maybe if she could get a job and hide the money she made from her stepmother. She could move out and get a place of her own. It would be rough on her, but anything was better than being treated like a nobody in her own home.