Megan Franchino knows her chance for escape is now or never. With school finally out for her son Antonio, and her abusive husband going out of town she just might get far enough away before he starts looking for them. If they fail to get away, Megan knows she will not live to regret trying. There is no choice though, their recent injuries prove that if they stay one or both of them will eventually die from the beatings.

There is only one place she might feel safe to go, but will she be welcome there? Can she even get there? How long can she stay? What then? And if her husband's family does catch up to them, is there any way to keep Tony safe?

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The Legal Stuff: Dollar Runaways © 2014 By Tiffany Shar
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 By Tiffany Shar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Preface

Like the first four books I posted here on BigCloset, I will be posting a full copy here on BigCloset. I was planning to post it a chapter at a time, but due to some real life events that took place in the last week I am doing two per week instead so it’ll be completely posted before I get too busy with other things! The book has a total of 26 chapters and a short epilogue. The full version should be completely posted by early March. For those that cannot wait however, I have an e-book version of the full book available from Lulu.com as of today. You may find it at My Store. My assumption is that the majority of my readers would be more interested in this edition of the book rather than a hardback or paperback. There are two types of eBooks available depending on how you wish to read it. One is the ePub format that you should be able to load on any e-reader (you may need an additional app, but I believe all will read it), and the other is a standard PDF formatted file. I believe the PDF is the best way to read it on a computer screen personally. If you enjoy this work perhaps you will consider supporting me by purchasing it ($5.95 for the eBook formatted files).

Several readers have commented on the similarities of the story to Wanda Cunningham’s ‘Incognito Parallel.’ I would reference you all to the ‘Dedication’ in the first chapter where I recognize that her tale most definitely sparked my imagination, and this book! I believe you will find that in the end though this work is its own story.

One caution before continuing through this book; it is darker than my past novels have been. If it were a movie it would probably be rated R for Language and Violence. Much of this novel is just as light as you are used to seeing from me though!

Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoy reading Dollar Runaways!!

 
Chapter 7: Trust
 
I SPENT THE last half-hour before lunch helping Consetta make a salad, and then carried the bowls and plates into the dining room for her to set next to the serving area. She’d apparently made a chili con carne (Texas Chili) for lunch that day along with fresh jalapeño cornbread. As all of the hands came in for lunch and I was given lots of compliments on my pretty apron by them. I showed Annie my new boots and she ‘awed’ about them too. I really hated pretending to be younger, since this was all really embarrassing, but we couldn’t afford someone to decide I wasn’t a little girl.

I heard Gloria eventually say to Hank, “Amber will join up with you this afternoon to help with the fence check. I have a few forms I still need her to fill out before I let her do too much more.”

“Sounds great, hope to see you out there!” Hank said to Mom.

I was helping Consetta with dishes again when Gloria came up, “Ashley, Consetta can finish those, your sister, you, and I need to talk about some things.”

“Okay,” I said, “Sorry,” I told Consetta.

“Hija, no worries. And I expect you to go spend some time playing with those pretty dollies this afternoon!”

“Okay,” I said with a warm smile.

I followed Gloria out of the kitchen and into her office that was located towards the front of the house. Mom was already sitting down in a chair next to an older gentleman. Gloria pushed up another chair on the other side of my mother. She made sure the door was shut and locked before she returned to her chair across the large desk.

“Roger, thank you for coming.” Gloria started, “I need your help with something, and I’ve managed to convince these ladies to trust you.”

He looked questioningly at Mom and I, “What is it I can do for you?”

“Well, honestly we’re not sure,” Mom started. “I guess let me go ahead and introduce ourselves and tell you everything going on...” Mom chewed on her lower lip, clearly having trouble trusting anyone, “My name is Megan Franchino, I’m thirty-seven, and this is my... Son... Anthony Franchino.”

“Your son?!?” He did a double take and looked at me.

Mom nodded, “He’ll be eleven in four weeks.”

“This sounds like some story...”

“It is sir. I married my husband, Raimondo, fifteen years ago right out of college...” Mom proceeded to tell about the abuse that began about five years ago, “At first it was just a shove now and then, then it moved to slaps, and the last year or so it’s been full on punching...” Mom had tears in her eyes and I could tell that this was really hard for her. I reached over and grabbed her hand next to me and held it. “About six months ago he started going after Tony too. In the last couple weeks I was sure he was going to end up killing me.”

“You think it would ramp up like that?” Roger asked.

Mom nodded, “Yes, because of the reason for all of the secrecy. My husband’s family is all, well... Family. Mafia.”

The light dawned on Roger as he looked back at me and seemed to grasp the situation. “So you’re really worried he’ll find you, even all this way?”

“Yes sir,” Mom said.

“This is an awful long ways away from Columbus...”

“I know, but any closer and I’m sure he’d find us. Even here I’m not sure we’re safe.”

“Why?”

Mom asked him if he’d heard of the dollar store chain the family owned, and he nodded. “The family owns all of those and uses them as a front for their business. They obviously have a few other fronts too, but that’s their main one. Drugs, guns, anything illegal are pretty easy for them to ship around the country as legitimate shipments.”

Roger said, “Pretty smart actually...” he thought for a moment. “You told me what led to you running away, but why don’t you go ahead and tell me about how you got here. I’m curious as to how your son is now pretending to be a younger girl for instance. I don’t want there to be issues of child abuse mentioned here.”

Mom’s eyes opened wide, “Child abuse?”

“It’s okay sir, I went along with it because we needed to hide.”

“I believe you son, but we’ve got to be careful how we spin this. So, start from the beginning.”

Mom breathed in again and said, “Ray-my husband had a weeks worth of work he was supposed to do up in Vermont. They had been getting worried something was wrong up there and he’s kind of their fix-it man. Knowing he was leaving I packed all of the cash I’d been putting away, all of our personal documentation, and anything else I thought we had to have, during the previous week when he wasn’t there. Once he had driven down the street I had Tony go pack a suitcase and I did the same. We left my cell phone, his iPad, and anything I could think of that could be tracked there.”

Mom took a breath then, “We packed the car and I left a note for Ray on the refrigerator that we left. I mentioned that I wasn’t going to allow him to hit either one of us again and encouraged him to just let us go. I’m sure it won’t do any good, but it was worth a try. We then got into the car and drove to Dayton where I had already made an appointment to buy a used car from a lady. We parked our current car at a commuter lot there and then took a taxi to the ladies house. Once we bought the car with some of the cash I had, we went back and switched out bags over and left.”

“That seems pretty extreme,” Roger said with a wide expression.

“That one would have been easy to track with the computer system onboard.”

“Oh, you’re right there.” He admitted. “Go on,” he said.

“Well we got in the car and just started driving. Just outside of Lexington we stopped for gas and we met a mom and her daughter who were also running away from her husband. After we ate dinner I gave her some money in cash, and also my debit card to use to fill up a couple times on her way to Charleston. I told her to dump it well away from her final destination though…”

“Do you think that will fool your husband?”

Mom shook her head, “I’m just hoping it maybe buys us a few more hours…” She sighed, “I originally thought we’d have a week to clear out… But, that night after we checked into the hotel and went to bed I got to thinking we wouldn’t have that long. My husband calls every single night when he’s gone, and the one time I didn’t answer him he was furious. He came home immediately and gave me a severe beating that time... He said I’d been fooling around or something.” Mom shuddered in pain and I squeezed her hand, “That night I was sure he had to have tried calling. I figured at most we would have one more day before he would be going back home to beat me for not answering the phones.”

Roger and Gloria both sat with stunned expressions over all of this. “Anyway, I knew we needed to come up with some way to disguise ourselves, even if he bought the bait we were heading towards somewhere in the South East. It was only a matter of time before Ray started to have the family looking for us...” Mom breathed and looked at Roger, “Death is a certainty for me if my husband finds us, I have no doubt about it. The next morning when we were at breakfast the waitress mistook Tony for a girl, and never picked up otherwise... And it gave me the idea. Ray would be telling them to look for a thirty-seven year old lady and her ten-year-old son... We changed that.”

“I suggested that she be younger, and that meant I probably should be younger too,” I said, speaking up for the first time. “I didn’t really like the idea, but I don’t want my mom to die. My dad’s a monster and we had to get away... I’ve been mistaken for a girl many times, and because of how small I am, people always think I’m younger...”

Mom squeezed my hand back. “We went ahead and stopped by Wal-Mart and picked up some basic clothes to cover both of us with new looks. I also picked up a car seat since Ashley was going to be eight... And I’ve already had to deal with a cop once with thinking he was too young to be without one. Definitely not hitting the 4’9” law!” Mom laughed a little bit nervously, “We stopped in at a McDonalds, changed, and then started driving some more. That night we checked into the hotel and dyed our hair red from our normal blonde. Afterwards we did a bit more shopping so that we’d have enough clothes at least for the next day.”

Gloria had grabbed a glass of water for each of us and Mom stopped to take a sip. “Thank you,” she said to Gloria. “The next day I decided to stick around in Dallas and grab anything else we would need shopping wise. I knew Santa Fe and Albuquerque could cover most possibilities, but wasn’t sure if we could get everything. Also, I didn’t want it to be overly obvious what we were doing...” Mom paused again. “Ashley mentioned to me that morning that we still had our original luggage and I wasn’t sure if they had trackers on them... I know at one point Ray was really mad that the airlines lost his luggage on a trip and talked about getting some. I didn’t know if he ever did do it though, so we needed to lose those. We went ahead and dumped them in a dumpster next to Denny’s and bought another set.”

“Well, at that point we had been paranoid, but Ashley mentioned that the tracker could possibly lead them to knowing where we stayed, and what car we were driving. That meant switching cars again. We dropped our old car in the long-term storage at the airport and took a taxi with all of our stuff to a new hotel. From there we took another taxi to buy the car we have now... Nice guy there...” Mom smiled, “Anyway, we did a bit more shopping - took Ashley to the American Girl store, hair cuts, and generally relaxed a little bit that night.”

“That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” I said quietly.

“Well, when we decided Ashley was eight I decided I would be the responsible adult and always make sure she was buckled right into her seat. I know an older kid would never put up with it, so we figured it would add to the illusion she was younger if nothing else. Luckily we decided that, because one of his cousins walked out of the hotel and stared right at Ashley as I was doing so. I noticed Ashley freeze and we were both relieved when he didn’t recognize her. We maintained the age thing even more then through breakfast and drove the rest of the way here through Amarillo yesterday.”

“Wow,” Roger said, taking a sip of his own water, “this sounds like something straight out of a movie...” He sat there thinking for a moment. “Okay, first thing, umm...” he looked at me, “would you prefer me call you Ashley or Tony?”

I didn’t hesitate, “Ashley please.”

“Okay, are you okay with being Ashley for now? Because if you aren’t, now is the time to say something. I don’t want there to be any possibility of this being used against your mom later.” He paused, “Really, you may have to be Ashley for a long time if this goes to court and probably convince the judge that you don’t want to be Tony at all then.”

I gasped a little bit, but surprised myself saying, “I like being Ashley. I...” I paused, “I’d rather be a girl I think.” I admitted.

He smiled at me, “You make a lovely young lady, and you’re not the only person like that. I have had many clients over the years that have decided their bodies and minds don’t line up – if that’s the case for you that is fine. I think you should have a couple years where we’re safe hormones wise,” he said looking at Mom, “but if this goes on too long you probably should have Ashley into a doctor to start treatment to keep her from developing as a man.”

Mom nodded. “I just want to live long enough for us to have that problem.”

“I can understand that. Now, let’s talk about options here.” He said. “I think hiding here as you are will work for a few weeks just fine, but the longer you do this the more documentation you need. Ashley will need to go to school and I don’t know quite what we’ll need to do there. I think the idea of pretending she’s younger is smart, but that would of course mean instead of going into middle school she would be going back several grades.”

I gulped. After a deep breath I said though, “If I have to I will.”

“I’m sure you would,” Roger said kindly to me. “I can work on trying to use a friend of mine to get you two new identification stuff... But it’s tricky. He’s going to need to know a general reason at least, and I hate giving out any information on you at this point.”

Mom nodded, “My husband’s family has connections everywhere it seems too.”

“Probably your safest option at this point honestly would be to approach the FBI and get into the witness protection program, have you thought of that?”

“It’s a last resort though,” Mom said as she nodded, “it’s not perfect, and there have been plenty of people found in the program…”

He nodded, “They’ve helped a lot though too.”

“I would also have to probably testify... And I’m pretty sure that somehow through that process they would be able to get rid of me.”

Roger nodded again. “Okay, let me talk to my friend and see if he’d be willing to come up with identification documents for you. If he’s willing to do it it’ll be legal and pretty much impossible to prove otherwise. That would make it possible for you to get a job and enroll Ashley into school. If we manage this I’ll get you to give me the school papers you mentioned and I’ll get some new ones based off of that for her. If anyone asks, say you grew up in the Dallas area for now. We’ll also have to figure out the whole college thing for you if we’re sticking with these ages...” He looked thoughtful for a moment, “Gloria, may I borrow a sheet of paper there?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, let’s start with Ashley, what’s her full name?”

Mom looked at me and I just nodded for her to decide. “Ashley Marie Caffrey.”

“Date of birth?”

“What’s next Tuesday?” Mom asked Olivia.

“June 18th,” she said.

“Okay, so 6-18-2005,” Mom said.

“You’re going to stick with the younger age for her?”

Mom looked at me and I nodded, “It’s safer. I know third grade is definitely not sixth grade though...”

“Dad won’t be looking for third grade girls though.”

“Sure you don’t want to split the difference?” He asked.

I shook my head, “I’m short enough, and it’s not like I’ll suddenly grow too tall to fit in. With Mom being short, and Dad is just two inches taller, I won’t get that tall.”

“Okay, I guess we can deal with that. You know the other option would be home schooling.”
Mom shook her head, “If Ashley has to make it convincing she’s going to have to be around other little girls.”

“Fair enough, and your information?”

“Amber Marie Caffrey, 10-9-1989,” Mom said. I had a feeling she chose randomly since I couldn’t find any reason for it.

“Now, you know this story you’re putting out there doesn’t make you Ashley’s mother, right?”
Mom gasped a bit, but nodded. “I don’t know how to handle that.”

“Well, assuming this continues, how long is the story that you’re supposed to be down here?”
“Three to six weeks,” Gloria answered for her.

“Well, I suppose your parents can die on this vacation they’re on. We give you custody of Ashley then...” He thought for a moment, “That definitely takes care of explaining why you have as much money as you do. Maybe we can set it up to where you work on a masters degree at a university so you can find a good job after a while too...”

Roger looked down his list... “The car you have now, I assume you haven’t done the titling on it yet?”

Mom shook her head, “No.”

“What was the story behind it?”

“Well his mother-in-law owned it and she passed away.” Mom answered.

“If it has enough time on the stickers on the windshield let’s wait until I talk to my friend. Assuming we can get identification papers for you we’ll have you go register it then.”

Mom nodded.

“For now make sure you don’t speed and don’t get pulled over.”

“Yes sir,” Mom said with a smile.

He thought for a moment and then asked, “Okay, worst-case scenario and he can’t help. I think you need to go to the FBI then. Do you have anything you can give them, other than testimony?”

Mom looked like I did when caught doing something wrong, “Yes I do.”

“What do you have?”

“Well, I have a copy of Ray’s computer drives at home, his laptop, and his desktop at work... I also scanned pages of a notebook he keeps in the safe, but I have no idea what it says. It’s a code of some sort, but no clue what.”

“Where is it?”

“Two copies are online, and I have a couple of Ziplocs of SD Cards and USB Sticks.”

“Make sure you keep those safe,” he told Mom. “I can see what you mean about being danger...”

Mom nodded, “There was no other way though.”

“I’m sure there wasn’t... Well, let me get out of here and go see what I can get done. Hopefully I’ll at least have a yes or no on whether or not he can help tomorrow morning. I’ll go see him this afternoon at the end of the day...”

He stood up and Mom gave him a great big hug, “Thank you...”

“You’re very welcome young lady, I’ve known Gloria for forty years, if she says someone needs and deserves my help, I make sure I help them. You’re a very brave woman!” He then looked down at me, “And you little lady are by far the bravest little girl I’ve met in a very long time.”

I gave him a hug and we saw him out the door.

RAY WAS SERIOUSLY tired of driving now. As soon as he’d finished up with Ryan he had started driving again. It was only the second hour, but that was long enough for him. He knew that everything was going to have to be reworked for getting stuff across the Canadian border, but he felt like their Minnesota outfit could handle the change. At some point they would probably have to start leaning on their southern branches a bit more too.

‘Texas is pushing our luck right now... And Arizona isn’t much better. I’m thinking New Mexico might be our better bet down there,’ he thought. ‘The only problem down there is we have to negotiate with the cartels, and I really hate dealing with those Mexicans...’ He grimaced.

His main concern though that he kept coming back to was Megan. He was not going to just let her go, he was going to find her, and make Tony into a proper Franchino man. Just as he was beginning to brood on it some more his cell phone started ringing, “Hello, this is Raimondo,” he said into the phone.

“Ray, this is Stella,” his blood froze, Megan’s bitch mother was calling.

“Hey, how are you doing?” He asked calmly.

“I’m doing okay, but I wanted to ask if everything was alright there. I haven’t heard from Megan since Thursday and can’t get her to answer the house phone, or her cell phone.”

“Really?!?” He asked, “I thought maybe I was just missing her myself. I’ve been up in Vermont since Saturday at one of our stores checking on some accounting.”

“I’m kind of worried, would you let her know to call me as soon as you talk to her?”

“Sure, will do, I should be back home tomorrow night and I’ll have her call you then. Maybe something happened to her cell phone. I think they may have been doing some phone line work so that might explain the home phone too.” Ray lied.

“Oh good, that makes me feel better.” Stella said. “I’ll talk to you guys later, give my love to her and Tony please.”

“Will do,” he said, “Bye.”

“Fuck!!!” He screamed a moment later and slammed the phone down into the seat.

I LOOKED AT the pink unicorn on the riding helmet with a bit of skepticism for half a second before placing it on my head. When Roger left, Mom headed out on a four-wheeler to go find the hands working on the fence, leaving me with Gloria. She insisted it was time for me to learn how to ride, so I had changed into jeans and a Disney Princess shirt.

“You sure do like princesses, huh?” Gloria had asked me as we walked down.

“Uh-huh!” Had been my in character response. Mom and I had a brief conversation before she left that we needed to keep up the act completely. Gloria had been in the room then and also understood.

For her part I thought Gloria liked me, and I don’t think she had too much of a problem with me being a little girl. While I was there she was going to treat me like a favorite niece it seemed. All of that led to me having this helmet on my head. “You look cute in that helmet!” Gloria said to me.

“Whose helmet is it?” I asked.

“It was Madison’s from a few years back. She’s long since outgrown it though,” Gloria told me as she began saddling up one of the horses.

“This is Beauty,” she said while petting the horse with her hand, “She’s our most gentle mare, and great for a little girl learning how to ride!” Beauty nuzzled her hand and I looked in anticipation at the great big animal I was going to be riding. In the next ten minutes I learned that Gloria had two-dozen horses right then. “Now a few things with horses... first, make sure you never walk behind them.”

I nodded, “Why?”

“Well, horses get a bit nervous when people walk behind them. Beauty probably wouldn’t do it, but most horses will naturally kick at you if you surprise them back there. Once they get used to you and you’re brushing them down you can be back there, but even then try and be to the side.”

“Okay,” I said.

When Gloria had Beauty all saddled up she handed me the reins saying, “Okay, we’re just going to walk her outside, you can lead her along.”

“Oh...kay.” I said. This was kind of scary, but kind of cool too. “Come on Beauty,” I told her. She snorted a little and followed us on out to a corralled area where Gloria took the reins from me.

“Okay Princess, let’s get you on up on her. I’ll give you a boost and I want you to put your left foot there, and then swing your right foot on the other side. You can hold on to the horn, it’s the part sticking up on the top.” She told me and I nodded before she picked me up by the waist with no more effort from her than if I was a little baby. “Upsy daisy!” she told me.

I giggled nervously.

“Doing okay?”

“Uh-huh!” I told her. “This is cool!”

“Now let me go ahead and adjust these stirrups. It doesn’t look like anyone else is going to be stealing your saddle from the rack anytime soon! You are a small thing, aren’t you?”

I blushed. I sat there while she took the stirrups up a few notches and my feet could sit comfortably in them. “Okay I’m going to go ahead and walk you around the pen a few times so we can get you used to how it feels.”

Gloria proceeded to give me an hour long riding lesson and corrected how I was sitting and making sure I was comfortable before she said. “Okay, let’s try you holding her reins.”

My eyes must have grown as big as moons, “Are you sure...?” I asked.

“Absolutely, you’re a natural!”

“Okay,” I said. She handed me the reins and I directed Beauty around the corral several times before she said, “Well, I need to get her back into the stall and go take care of some other things. We’ll do this again tomorrow!” She told me.

“Okay,” I said, “but how do I get down...?”

Gloria laughed at me and helped me off the horse. Really she was tall enough, and the horse was short enough, that she basically could pick me straight up and off. “How can you do that?” I asked her.

“Well sweetie, you’re waay lighter than stuff I have to move around the farm. I could probably carry you all day and not even break a sweat.” She smiled.

I blushed again, “Thanks for teaching me how to ride.”

“You’re welcome. Maybe in a couple days we’ll be ready to go out for a real ride and you’ll be ready for Amber and you to go explore on your own.”

“Really?” I asked, “You think I can do that?”

“Sweetie, you can do anything you put your mind to. I have no doubt that you’re going to be a great person as you grow up.”

I gave her a hug and grabbed Beauty’s reins she was offering up, helping lead her back into her stall where she showed me how to brush her down and gave me an apple to feed her.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE it!!!” Agent Kline said as he read the e-mail. He picked up the phone.

“Jake, so the mom called...?” He listened for a moment, “Well we know that’s not true, he was just home the other day... No, I think he’s just as clueless on where she is. I’m sure she’s run for it... I’m just as surprised that she hasn’t let her parents know she’s okay...” He thought for a moment. “Jake, I have a bad feeling about him and her parents... Put a detail to watch them out there.” He listened, “No, I wouldn’t be surprised if he took them out if they make too much noise. Not when he just killed two of our men up in Vermont... Yeah, I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Where in the world did you go?” he asked the room quietly when he hung up the phone.
His phone rang again, “Agent Kline speaking...” he listened for a moment and smiled, “Well at least something good came out of this... Did you find anything interesting in his browsing history?”

Agent Kline wrote down the notes, “Contact that company and serve them with a subpoena for the records on that tracking device. I’d be willing to bet that was on the suitcases they ran with... No, I bet she dumped the luggage there since Raimondo hasn’t found her yet. Everything indicates that he hasn’t located her. I think Mrs. Franchino is a lot smarter than your average housewife.”

“Take her in if you find her? Nah, but I think if we find her we should offer her protection... I have a feeling her life is forfeit if he finds her... Yeah, I’m sure she figured it out... All we can do is wait... Check into that tracker for me though anyway, thanks!”

He hung up the phone for a second time and stared at the notes he’d taken. While Ray had plugged in the card from his agent into his computer, it installed a small program that ran a one time send of the computer’s browsing history and other basic information to their systems the next time it was connected to the internet. Due to warrant issues the program erased itself immediately, but it allowed for some interesting information in case their agents drop was compromised. Unfortunately it didn’t send the rest of the information that was supposed to be sent to to the Bureau. Agent Kline sighed deeply, it was a circumstantial case to go ahead and arrest him now in connection with the disappearance, but he didn’t believe for a moment it would hold up in court. For now it would just have to be one lead to help build the case against Raimondo.

Everything pointed to Megan taking off and running with her son. The trail towards Charleston had been an obvious subterfuge to him. Agents had quickly gotten copies of the footage at the convenience stores and determined it wasn’t her using the card. Whoever had used the card did a good job of keeping her license plates from being readable while she was stopped… He hoped he could identify her eventually, but figured she was just a useful pawn in the grand escape plan Megan had setup.

Dallas seemed far more likely after the luggage ended up there… But, if they went to Dallas, they had to get there somehow. If he could figure out what car she’d used...

“Hey Dave,” he said a few moments later into the phone. “can you pull up listings for vehicles for sale in Dayton in the general area of this commuter lot address...?” He listened, “Look through the classifieds and Craig’s list for me. I think we’re looking for a four-door car probably... A lady with a little boy paid for the car in cash. See if you can do any legwork on that for me. It needs to be done fast though, I’m guessing there will be others close behind.”

“Thanks Dave,” and he hung up the phone. He was sure that the way to crack the case against the Franchino’s was out there! Agent Kline had never before felt so strongly about a hunch, he just had to find her before her husband did!

AFTER GLORIA FINISHED giving me my riding lesson she suggested I take a shower and change back into my dress. She also showed me how there was another door to come into the house that was a mudroom. She explained that I should leave my boots and anything else that was muddy there. I had bounded upstairs, taken the shower, and put my dress back on before realizing I didn’t know what to do then. The last several days we had a mission, get away from Dad.

‘Now what?’

I looked myself over in the mirror on the dressing table and found a brush to brush my hair back out a bit. I brushed it back straight and left it loose going past my shoulders. I just kind of stared at my face in the mirror for a few moments. I smiled at myself and lightly fingered my new earrings. I was cute, and I was pretty certain I wanted to stay that way.

‘It looks like I’m going to have to go through with it on the age thing for now...’ I thought, more than slightly annoyed. While we were traveling I hadn’t liked playing that I was younger, but it seemed like the best idea. It still seemed like the best idea, but I hadn’t really thought about having to possibly be back in third grade this next year. ‘Maybe we can make it fourth somehow...’ I thought to myself. ‘At least the schoolwork will be easy…’

I shook my head and gathered Kaitlyn, Saige, Kristin, and Kaelye on the floor next to me. I came up with some sort of make believe play about them being the older sisters to the babies and played with them for a long while apparently. Mom surprised me when she said, “Ashley?” from behind me.

I jumped up and ran to her and hugged her, “You’re back!” I said.

“I was just working on the ranch sweetheart,” she told me.

I had tears in my eyes though, “But you weren’t with me...” I said, “I guess I’m pretty messed up from all of this.”

Mom hugged me for a long moment and then said, “Dinner is almost ready, the rest of the hands are gone, but Consetta wanted to make a special dinner for us tonight.”

“Really?” I asked. “I really like her!”

“Everyone does, she’s a sweet lady.” She gave me another squeeze and then said, “Why don’t you straighten up in here while I go grab something in my room and then we’ll go downstairs together?”

“Okay,” I said. I put all of my dolls on the dresser next to my bed. Thinking about it I went ahead and grabbed Kaitlyn though, since we were twins and she needed to come to dinner with me!

Mom smiled at me when she saw Kaitlyn, “Well, I’m glad we stopped there, you haven’t hardly sat her down since you got her!”

I smiled and hugged her, “Thank you again.”

We walked into the informal dining room off the kitchen and were greeted with a great smell. I looked at the table and saw a big roast, mashed potatoes, rolls, corn, gravy, and salad all laid out.

“This looks really good,” Mom told Consetta who was grabbing a ladle from a drawer and setting it down.

“Thank you,” Consetta said to her, “sit down, Gloria will be coming from her office in a moment.”

“So you got your first riding lesson today?” Mom asked as she sat down next to me.

“Uh-huh, it was fun... and a little scary...” I told her.

Mom smiled at me, “That would be normal. I’m not looking forward to building back the endurance on a horse in the next week.”

“You ride?” I asked.

“Of course she rides, haven’t you ever told her?” Consetta asked Mom incredulously.

“Told me what?” I asked.

“Your mama here used to do equestrian events when she was a teenager.”

Mom blushed.

“And, she was really damn good at it too,” Gloria said, coming in behind Mom.

“How come you never said anything?” I asked her as we began passing the food around.

“Well... I was competitive in it up through college when I met your dad. After a while though, he decided he didn’t like me doing it and convinced me to stop.”

“One more reason to hate him...” I said softly.

Mom gave me a shoulder hug, “It’s been about thirteen years since I last rode, and I’m not looking forward to being saddle sore this week!”

Gloria and Consetta both laughed at Mom. Consetta asked, “You haven’t ridden since you were ten?”

Mom gasped... Obviously thinking about her blunder before saying, “But you know...”

“I do, and I let Gloria know I know, but be careful hija,” she told Mom. “It’s just probably best to not mention your riding history around the hands...”

Mom nodded gravely and tried to remember not to screw up like that again. I could tell she was stressed and upset, but so could Gloria.

“It’s okay sweetie, and we’re going to get you safely setup somewhere in the next couple months. Everything will work out just fine, just wait and see.”

Mom nodded.

Dinner continued in silence for a bit until we were all stuffed beyond belief. “Thank you Consetta for the meal,” I said to her.

“You’re very welcome sweetheart.” As I stood and began picking up dirty dishes she said, “I have them. Why don’t you go play some more?” she encouraged.

I looked at Mom and she nodded at me. I decided to go back up to my room and looked through my doll clothes. I changed Kristin’s outfit first and pretended to feed her. I was just rocking her when Mom came in and sat down on the floor next to me.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this being eight deal?” Mom asked me.

I nodded, “I’m willing to do whatever I have to,” I told her. “Dad might think to see if you changed me into a girl, but he’ll never think to look for a younger girl.”

“What if this ends up being permanent?”

“Well... I guess I graduate high school at... Twenty, instead of 17!”

“But...”

“Mom, I doubt we’re able to keep up the charade that long. Either something’s going to happen to Dad to make him stop looking, or he finds us. That’s a long time in the future. The worst that can happen is I have to do this until I can graduate... Kids graduate early sometimes, right?” I asked, knowing it was true because a cousin of mine had done it two years early last year. Mom nodded. “Then I can always do that and be closer. If you really want... push me a grade ahead as far as my age and put me into fourth grade. It would be a little closer to sixth at least.”

“We may do that... We’ll have to talk to the school though, once we figure out where we’ll live.”

I gave her a hug, “It’ll be okay Mommy,” I told her.

“Aren’t I the one that’s supposed to reassure you?” Mom asked.

“What do you think little sisters are for?” I asked with a smile.

“For tickling!!!”

Mom said and all of the sudden she pounced and began tickling me mercilessly. I thought she would never stop and I finally had to say, “Stop, I’m going to wet my pants,” over my giggles. She let up and I dashed for the bathroom, coming out still breathing hard.

“You’re a big meanie!” I told her with the best pout I could make.

“Yep!” She said and then hugged me again. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Now, I think my little princess needs to clean her toys up, and then it’s time for bed.”

I looked at the clock, “But it’s only eight!?!”

She whispered, “But unfortunately that’s when eight-year old girls go to sleep in our house.”

I glared at her, but let it go. I remembered she was right that would be more normal, but it didn’t make me like it anymore. I had just finally gotten a bedtime of nine this year. ‘I guess I’ll have to wait two more years to get that back...’ I thought morosely.

Once I had my pajamas on Mom tucked me in again and said, “Goodnight Princess Ashley, I love you,” she kissed me on the forehead and closed the door.

My last thought before I went to sleep was, ‘I hate peacocks.’

MEGAN OPENED THE door quietly to check in on her daughter and put away the rest of the clothes they had bought earlier. She watched her sleep for several long minutes before closing the door. Megan was beginning to realize that she couldn’t think of Ashley as a boy anymore. She blamed herself for it a little bit, but at the same time she knew there wasn’t much she could do about it. The fact it had only been a few days since they left seemed impossible. She quietly closed her door and walked back into the hallway.

Gloria didn’t make it look like the house was modern, but there was a full wi-fi system hooked up in the house. Actually there was a TV Home Theater in the basement that somehow had gone unnoticed by her daughter so far. ‘I’m not complaining about that,’ she thought to herself. It was nice to watch her daughter playing with her dolls instead of electronics. She’d almost given up trying to get Tony to play with actual toys back home. He seemed more comfortable playing with dolls than he ever had with the toys Ray had insisted on getting him. That more than anything else, convinced her that Ashley might be transgendered.

All of Tony’s life he’d leaned more towards playing with girls when they would have him, and playing with their toys anytime he could. Megan shuddered as she remembered a few years back when her husband had caught him playing with one of his cousin’s baby dolls at a family gathering - that was the first real abuse she’d seen. She’d done her best to try and justify in her mind that she and Tony deserved it, but she knew that was just an abused spouse’s mind games. Megan was highly intelligent... When love didn’t blind her.

She also hadn’t been completely blind as she’d watched her son turn his back on every manly thing her husband tried to get him to do. Her son had even gone so far as to have one set of play habits on his iPad when his dad was home, versus when he was gone. If it weren’t for some of the journal articles she came across the previous night she would blame all of this on him.

Whatever was going on, she was certain Tony wasn’t going to be jumping up and down to come back. Her only real hope was for all of it to end so her daughter could at least be with girls her real age down the road. ‘Another year or two in elementary school might not be so bad for her though,’ she thought, ‘She could get some interaction with girls before the hell that is middle school.’ The idea of saving her baby from that hell for a year or two still was something she did like. Megan knew her son got picked on at school daily in elementary school, but she knew it would just get worse in middle school. If he had some of his father’s personality she was sure he would probably just beat the living tar out of people to get them to follow him, but he didn’t have any of that. ‘Because ‘he’ doesn’t really exist.’

‘I hope we were right to trust Roger... Or, that at least he’ll be smart enough to get us through this without anyone else finding us.’

Megan found herself going to bed earlier too, knowing that the morning milking was not going to be easy. Gloria had promised to leave her on her own, much like she was planning on leaving Ashley on her own tomorrow. She’d always firmly believed in learning by doing! At least she had done the milking for an entire summer before, so it wasn’t exactly a first time!

Chapter 8: Futures

THE NEXT MORNING I was prodded awake by my mom, “Ashley, wake up Princess.”

I wiped my eyes and looked up at my mom looking like a real cowgirl. “Morning,” I said sleepily.

“And good morning to you too. Come on let’s get you dressed for your chores.”

It was then that I remembered I had to feed the chickens. I looked at the alarm clock and realized it was only six in the morning and still dark outside. “Ugh...” I said and climbed out of bed.

“Here, wear these,” Mom pointed to a pair of jeans, a Hello Kitty shirt, and a pair of long socks that would go with my boots. It was tough to get myself together before going outside, but eventually I recovered my boots from the mudroom and went out to the barn to fill the buckets of feed for the chickens and turkeys.

I had just finished when I noticed Gloria watching me, “You did a great job!” She told me and gave me a squeeze on my shoulder.

“Thank you,” I told her and then noticed the peacocks, “what do they eat?”

“The peacocks? They mostly fend for themselves, but I do leave a bit of feed out in a bin over there for them each afternoon,” she pointed out to me.

“Oh,” I said.

“Are you volunteering to feed them?” She asked with a laugh.

“I hate them, I might not be the best person to do that...” I admitted.

Gloria laughed again and said, “Don’t worry about it, that’s on my list. Since you’ve gotten all of this done why don’t you go and see if Consetta needs help with breakfast?”

“Okay!” I said excitedly. I liked Consetta a lot! I hurried to the house, took my boots off in the mudroom, and then headed into the kitchen.

“Good morning,” I said to her brightly.

“Buenos dias hija,” she said to me and gave me a hug.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“You are a sweet thing, aren’t you?”

I blushed.

“Why don’t you take those juice pitchers out there for me.” She suggested, “Be careful they’re pretty heavy.”

I was a bit embarrassed to say they were pretty heavy for me, but I managed to do it without spilling a drop. I was pretty proud of myself! She had me do a few other things, but most of the work had already been done. “Go ahead and get your food,” Consetta insisted to me.

“I can wait until the others get here,” I tried to say.

“You can eat with me,” she insisted.

“Okay...” I gave in.

I was hungry though, so it wasn’t like she had to twist my arm that hard. “Here, do you like chocolate chips?” She asked me as she motioned towards pancakes.

“Of course,” I said.

“Well here you go, you’re the only one that’s lucky enough to get these,” she said with a smile to me as she put two chocolate chip pancakes on my plate. I took a little bit of eggs and a slice of bacon and sat down at the table. She sat across from me just as everyone made their entrance and Mom came and sat next to me after she got her plate.

“You got chocolate chips?” She asked incredulously.

I just smiled, “Yep! I’m ‘cause special!”

“Uh-huh... Sure you are...” Mom said making a funny face at me. She turned to Consetta, “You’re going to totally spoil her you know.”

Consetta just grinned back at her, “She’s worth spoiling!”

Breakfast went much the same as yesterday other than that though. Mom and the other hands were going to ride on horseback up to a meadow where a large chunk of the herd was grazing to check on them. Just before she was to leave though, the phone rang. Gloria answered it and then motioned for Mom to come over to her.

I didn’t know what was said, but Mom looked relieved when she came back and gave me a big smile and a hug. I hugged her back and she said, “I’ll be back late this afternoon, you be a good girl for Consetta and Gloria.”

“Okay,” I said.

I watched Mom and the hands head off to work and tried to figure out what to do. I looked at Gloria and Consetta, “Is there anything you need me to do?”

Gloria gave me a serious expression, “Yes there is. And it’s probably the most important job there is on the ranch today.”

“O...okay,” a little nervously, “what is it?”

“You need to go play, go explore, and just go have some fun!”

I smiled at that, but asked, “Are you sure?”

Gloria nodded, “you’ve had a hard week, you’re a kid, go off and have fun! If you go into the barns at all let me know so we can make sure you’re okay. Please don’t get into any of the animal stalls without an adult there - okay?”

“Okay,” I said with a smile.

With that I headed upstairs first since I didn’t really want to stay in jeans all day. I managed to find a bright blue skort that I thought went okay with my top, and put on another pair of socks, followed by my Princess shoes. I looked in the mirror and was pretty sure I fit the bill for an eight-year old girl wanting to explore. I looked at my dolls and said, “Who wants to go exploring with me?”

I knew of course there would be no answer, but Saige seemed to want to go. She was of course from this area and liked horses - so it seemed fair. I changed her out of her pajamas and into the blue dress she came with before leaving my room and closing the door. ‘What should I check out first?’ I thought to myself. ‘I haven’t seen the other bedrooms yet...’ I was feeling a little guilty about that one though, so I thought, ‘Only the ones that are open...’

I walked down the hall towards the front of the house first. There were three more doors to the right, and one at the end past the staircase, to the left. All of them were closed. I could also see a square spot in the ceiling where you could get into the attic. I was pretty sure one room was Gloria’s, and the other two...? Consetta didn’t live there, so I wasn’t sure. I walked back down the hallway towards Mom and my rooms and checked the first one on my left at that far end of the hallway. It was the one I think Madison’s older brother was supposed to stay in next week. It was pretty plain, with a western motif going through it. I saw it had its own bathroom and a set of bunk beds instead of single bed. I left that room and decided to check out Madison’s.

Gloria had said my room used to be hers, but obviously she’d taken over the new one and it was updated to be a bit more mature. A white daybed like mine sat against the wall, but everything was a bit more muted in yellows. The curtains weren’t as lacy and it just felt a little bit more grown-up than my room. I could see the door that led to the bathroom our two rooms shared. She also had a bigger closet it seemed!

There was one other bedroom I could see and a couple closets throughout the rest of that floor. The other bedroom had a set of six bunk beds - barracks style, and I guessed that the hands could stay there overnight at times if they needed to. “Where to next?” I asked Saige. She seemed to think downstairs would be good and that’s where I headed on the back staircase. Taking that staircase meant I suddenly realized there was a basement!

I peeked around the corner to make sure no one was looking... I didn’t want to get in trouble for looking, but I also wanted to know and not get caught if I wasn’t supposed to! So I went down the stairs quietly. The first room to my right was a big laundry room. It looked like a laundromat with several big front-loading washer and dryers. I could see on one end you could actually go through a door at the back of the house there. By going through a door at the other end of the room you could get to a large room that had shelves laden with blankets, sleeping bags, tents, and other camping supplies. “Cool!” I said.

I walked back down the hallway past the staircase and found an amazing room filled with toys and games. There were dolls, action figures, Lego’s, train sets, stuffed animals, puzzles, board games, and trivia games all neatly put away in buckets and shelves. The middle of the floor had a comfy looking rug to sit on, and I could see a couple of card tables and chairs carefully put away in the corner. “We’ll have to come back here and show the others later, huh?!?” I said to Saige.

I left that room and went to the next room down to the right and found an arcade. There were two pinball machines, an old Space Invaders machine, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and a few I didn’t recognize. In the middle of the room was a pool table with a rack of pool cues off to the side. “I bet Madison’s brother really likes this room...” I told Saige. “I don’t think it would probably look right for me to be playing here though,” I added.

We walked down the hallway and tried the next door, disappointingly it wasn’t as cool though, as it was a big room with a boiler and hot water tanks. Immediately outside of that room was a large room where the long hallway ended with a ping-pong table and an air hockey table. That left just one door next to it to go into. I felt my heart leap as I walked into that room though. Inside was a TV that was gigantic! I guessed it was a 65” TV, and a very nice one at that! I could see speakers around the room to give it surround sound like Dad had done in our house. In the back of the room was a bar that had a popcorn machine and a soda fountain!

“Wow!” I said.

“Pretty cool huh?” I heard behind me, making me jump!

I wondered if I was going to be in trouble, but I said, “Yeah it is!”

“I wondered when you would find the basement,” Gloria said.

“You have the coolest basement ever!” I told her.

“Well during the winter we don’t have quite as much to do around here and it’s nice to relax. I usually have my family here over Christmas too, so it’s a nice place for everyone.”

“Do you have kids?” I asked her, hoping I wasn’t wrong to do so.

“Yes I do, two daughters and a son.”

“They don’t help you with the ranch though?” I asked, a bit surprised.

“No, my son is a doctor in Albuquerque, one daughter teaches history at the University of Colorado, and the other is a stay at home mom in Houston.”

“I’m surprised they aren’t around,” I told her honestly.

“Well, my son has talked about retiring and taking over the ranch when I get sick of doing it... That or we’ll sell it. It used to be really important to the family to pass it on, but if they decide down the road that they don’t want to deal with it anymore I’ll understand. It’s not easy to make a living running this place, but I really couldn’t picture myself anywhere else.”

She smiled at me then, “Such questions for a seven-year old!”

I blushed, “May I come and watch a movie or something here sometime?”

“Ashley you’re more than welcome to use anything in the basement when you want to. The only thing I ask is that you only watch a little bit of TV at most each day. There is so much to do around here that I don’t want you to become a couch potato!”

I smiled, “Not me!”

“Well, have you explored outside yet?”

“No, Saige and I were going to do that next.”

“So that’s her name?” She asked, looking at her.

“Yes, she’s from New Mexico, so she’s showing me around,” I told her with a smile.

Gloria laughed, “You do have the character down. Now go keep exploring. Make sure you’re back for lunch and we’ll have your lesson afterwards, okay?”

“Okay,” I said and gave her a quick hug before scurrying down the hallway and upstairs to the first floor.

I had seen the dining room, kitchen, sitting room, and Gloria’s office on the first floor already. There was one doorway I hadn’t been into yet though, so I decided to go check it out. I slid open the pocket door and gasped!

Inside the room was a library! A big fireplace was featured directly across from the doorway and the walls were covered in built-in bookcases from floor to ceiling. I found myself quickly scanning up and down the bookcases from one end of the room to the next. Gloria had some really old books in the beginning of it that looked to be at least a hundred years old. I found everything from farm manuals to classics like Moby Dick and Jane Austin, to children’s picture books, and about everything in between! I saw with a smile that she had all of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy Books, which I loved, Babysitter’s Club, Bobbsey Twins, and even more modern fiction like the Twilight and Hunger Games books.

“We’re going to have to come back here Saige,” I told her. I loved that there was even a few high backed recliners and a loveseat facing the fireplace that would be great to lay and read in. I was smiling as I closed the door back to the amount is was open and decided to check outside around the house and barns.

RAY LOOKED UP at his father’s house as he drove up wondering what mood he was going to find his father in. He opened up the front door and said, “Pops, I’m here!”

“Down here in the office,” his father shouted.

Ray was unsurprised to see his cousin Greg in there too. “Hey Greg,” he said politely.

“Ray,” he said giving him a handshake.

“So it seems like we had a near miss,” Giovanni said after motioning them both to seats.

“Yeah, if the cops had taken two hours less to get going they could have caused a lot of problems.” Ray said.

“Good job on catching the mole, I assume everything is taken care of?”

Ray nodded, “He and his contact, who was his supervisor, have been properly taken care of. There shouldn’t be any issues there.”

His father knew that meant the bodies had been destroyed, which was how he liked things done. “What kind of other damage control do we need to worry about?”

“Well the files he had didn’t make it out, so I’m hoping there wasn’t any other information out before it. If they’d gotten the information it’s possible they could have linked our other stores to that one... But I don’t think so. We’ve got things pretty well compartmentalized in each region.”

He watched his father nod and said, “Good. I’ve already shifted our imports over to Minnesota. I’m glad we already had a backup plan in place just in case this happened. Since we didn’t lose any of the product this won’t really be much of a hit for us.”

“Nope, Ryan called me on my way and said they’ve even been able to reopen for business since there was no evidence,” Ray laughed a bit and so did the other two.

“Now, Ray, what the hell happened with you and Megan?”

Ray looked a little frightened all of the sudden, “I don’t know Pops.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit! I told you to stop hitting her and treat her like a lady!”

Ray squirmed a bit. “I...”

“I know full well you’re an asshole and you didn’t listen. Your mother, God rest her soul, would have killed you on the spot if she’d known what you did. And, I’m assuming you probably were beating on Anthony too?!?”

“I...”

“It doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done, but what you have done is created a serious liability for us.”

“I don’t know what you mean...” Ray said.

“Really? Are you that stupid?” Greg asked him.

Ray stared at Greg and said, “What?”

“You can’t tell me that Megan hasn’t figured out what the family does over the years? She’s been married to you for fifteen years. What happens if she decides to go talk to the feds?!?”

“She won’t...”

“She very well might. Hell, it’s probably the smartest thing she could do right now.” His dad surprised him by saying that.

“What?”

“Think about it this way, she knows that she knows too much! I wouldn’t come back to an asshole like you, I sure as hell wouldn’t let my grandson around you anymore if I could help it, so she’s going to run to wherever she can find safety.”

“She won’t go there though,” he said firmly.

“And what makes you so sure?”

“Because I’ve got her convinced that we have the feds infiltrated and I’ve even shown her some photos before of people we’ve supposedly killed that have been in witness protection.”

He didn’t expect the slug to come, but his father managed to give him an uppercut to his jaw that made him see stars. Before he could turn around and go after his dad, Greg grabbed his arms. “Enough!!!” Greg said to both of them.

“What’s done is done, now we have to clean up the mess.”

“You’re right Greg,” Ray said while massaging his jaw. “Dad if you ever do that again...”

“It won’t happen again Raimondo, next time that is needed it’s going to be a bullet.” His father said coldly. He felt the blood drain from his face.

“You...”

“Shut the fuck up.” His father said. “Unfortunately we can’t risk that she won’t possibly go there in the future, so we have to find her. The lead in Dallas so far hasn’t led to anything. Eddie has been canvassing the hotels with people looking for them, but hasn’t found anything yet. If we could figure out what vehicle she left Dayton in that might help us, but I doubt we’ll ever figure that out.

Ray nodded. “She’s going to have to use her identity somewhere eventually, she’ll want to get Tony into school.”

“Yes she will, but will it be as themselves?” Giovanni looked thoughtful, “I would be very surprised if she didn’t come up with a new identity for the two of them. Probably new names, give Tony the haircut he needs, and maybe even dye their hair. That takes time though, and money. All of this has taken money... Where did it come from?” His dad asked coolly.

“I’m... I’m not sure actually. Her debit card was used several times, but it wasn’t her.”

“I know that,” his father glared at him, “So where the hell did it come from?” He glowered at his son, “Find out, because I want to know. My guess, she found some place where you were putting away some dough.”

“I wouldn’t...”

“Bullshit, I know you do. I don’t even mind because I think it is part of your right as my son to have it. However, I think you must have been an idiot and left it too easy to find. Figure out how much is gone so we know how much she’s got to live off. Figure she’ll go through about six grand a month after the first month. She’s probably spent a fortune for now though, given I doubt she stuck with the original car.”

“Pops, you make it sound like Megan knows tricks out of the CIA’s handbook or something.”

“Do you know what her grandfather did for a living?” He asked.

“No...”

“When you started dating her I looked into everyone in her family. No one could really tell me, but I’d bet money that he was CIA. Man was a ghost in records and I have no doubt that some of that suspicion passed down to her dad, and then to her. Her parents spent enough time working out of the country they may have been in the business too. Don’t doubt anything with Megan trying to get away from you. She knows full well if you find her she’s dead.”

Ray looked at his father with a cold expression, “Duh!”

“But,” Giovanni interrupted, “you will not harm Tony. He is to come back here and he’ll live with me until he graduates high school.”

“But...”

“No buts, I don’t trust you to raise him. Yes he needs to learn to be tough, but he doesn’t need to die from his father inflicting injuries on him. For every bruise I see on him when he gets here you will have a broken bone. Capiche?”

Ray nodded stiffly.

“Now, I want to start getting some things moving on using our New Mexico chain to start pulling things in from down south. In three weeks you’re going to fly down to Albuquerque and spend some time getting that part of the business going...”

Ray had just finished up talking about some of those details and was leaving when he turned around, “What do we do about Megan’s parents?” He asked. “They called me and were asking questions.”

Giovanni thought for a moment, “Tell them the truth, she left you and you don’t know where they are. Ask them to tell her to call you if they speak to her.”

“What?!?!?”

“Well it’s either that or kill them. I think it’ll be too messy to do that, so be honest. It also puts you in the clear when they start investigating you. I’ve got a crew that’s going to tap their phones this weekend, who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky?” He paused, “Either way she’s not going to run to them and put them in danger.”

It took everything he had to nod and start walking away. ‘I’ll make a call to her parents and read most of her letter... I guess it’ll work as well as anything.’

“MEGAN, CAN YOU come back to the ranch a little bit early?” She heard over the radio that Gloria had given her. Cell phones weren’t reliable in the area the ranch was in, so they used small handheld radios most of the time. The meadow was just in range of the ranch.

“Sure,” she said, “how soon?”

“Now would be best.”

Megan looked up at the rest of the hands in the clearing. Hank gave her a nod, “Go ahead, there’s more of us here than we need anyway. You remember the way back?”

“Yep,” she said.

“Well let us know if you have any problems, otherwise we’ll see you when we get back. If you get a chance could you fill up the four-wheelers for tomorrow?”

“Sure.” She replied with a smile. It took about an hour-and-a-half to make it up there this morning with the group, and it looked like it would take another hour or so to get back down the hill, so she started moving down the trail as swiftly as her horse could safely manage. They had spent the morning triple checking cattle against an inventory sheet and had tagged a couple of new calves that had been born in the last few weeks since they’d last tagged. The ranch tended to mainly brand with irons in the spring as a backup, but ear tags worked easier in a lot of ways for them. It seemed to hurt a lot less too as far as she could tell!

“Gloria I’m heading back down now, I’ll be there in about an hour probably.”

“Ten-four,” she said.

‘I wonder what that’s about...’ Megan wondered to herself. ‘I’m guessing it’s not something wrong with Ashley. That would be a different radio voice... Maybe Roger got back to her?’

The time she spent by herself riding down the hill was a lot of fun. If it wasn’t for the soreness she could already feel creeping in, she was certain she could have done it all day. Ray had been an asshole for making her stop riding! Maybe she’d be able to teach Ashley how to ride as well as she once had. She’d let Gloria get her started though, since she was very good at teaching kids to ride. During the summer that she’d spent at the ranch as a teenager she’d enjoyed watching her work with little kids a few times a week and knew she was good.

For the second time that day though something was weighing on her, ‘What is Ray going to do about my parents? I’m sure by now they’ve probably called him to try and figure out where I am. I call them every night normally, and usually they FaceTime Tony every other night too. If they haven’t called him yet I would be shocked.’

The problem was she couldn’t just call them right now. She figured it would be inevitable that they would be tapping her parent’s phones. She knew Ray’s family could do that since she’d clearly seen evidence on the computer files she had. ‘I wonder if Roger could get them a message. Maybe if he called through another person he trusts. I don’t want it to come from this state though…’

By the time Megan had ridden down to the barn it was already close to three in the afternoon and she’d been munching on trail mix for a while. As she rode up and slid off she saw that Ashley was riding around the corral on Beauty. Gloria had introduced her to Megan when she first mentioned teaching Ashley. She was certain that there probably wasn’t a better horse out there for it either!

‘I need to buy a camera, too many amazing moments keep passing me by without one handy!’ She griped at herself, planning to get one at the weekend. The pink helmet on her head made her smile almost as much as watching her daughters seat on the horse. It was a picture perfect moment, and she looked like she’d been riding horses forever. Gloria would insist on keeping her in the corral riding for another day she figured. ‘Maybe this weekend the three of us can go on a short trail ride together…’ she thought with a smile.

Ashley suddenly spotted her mom and waved excitedly. Megan led her horse to the corral and watched for a few minutes as Ashley controlled Beauty around the pen, changing directions as Gloria instructed and looking like she was having a blast. When Gloria realized Megan was behind her she smiled, “She’s a natural.”

“It looks like it.” Megan agreed. With that Gloria went over to her daughter and picked her up off the horse like she was nothing and Ashley led Beauty to where she was standing.

“Did you see me?” Ashley asked excitedly.

“I did, you were doing very good!” she told her daughter with a smile.

“Roger is supposed to come by in an hour,” Gloria said, “why don’t you two get these horses taken care of, take a shower, and then we can see what he has to say?”

“Sounds good!” Megan said. It took her about ten minutes to get her horse, Bella, unsaddled. She brushed the appaloosa down just as she saw Gloria was helping Ashley to do the same a few stalls over. After a half-hour she had Bella eating and made sure she had plenty of water after the ride. She walked up right as Gloria told Ashley, “Good job, I think you’re doing a great job of taking care of her.”

Ashley quickly came up to her mom and gave her a big hug. They put Ashley’s helmet back on a spot in the tack room and headed off to the house. “Go take a shower Ash, and make sure you wash your hair with shampoo and conditioner like I showed you.”

“Yes ma’am,” she said and split from her mother while she went to her own room.

The shower was a welcome reward to a day spent working hard. Knowing she was going to have to help Ashley do her hair she hurried through shaving her legs, her hair, and everything else as quickly as she could. Her makeup had been a mess when she came in and she had to wonder if Hank and the others had seen the now fading black eye. None of the hands were stupid, so she wouldn’t put it past them to figure out something wasn’t quite right with her story. The only person she recognized from when she had visited all those years ago though was Consetta.

Megan knew she was basically done with chores for the day. She’d get to the four-wheelers after meeting with Roger, but that wouldn’t take too long. They had a fuel tank with gasoline for the farm vehicles and an electric pump to fill the tanks. She quickly dressed and sighed, ‘You know boys don’t have to have quite so much upkeep on getting ready...’

She went across the hall and saw that Ashley had picked out one of the flower-covered rompers she’d picked out at Kohl’s. ‘Of course boys don’t look nearly as adorable as my princess either though…’ She had to seriously contain the cute comments that she wanted to make. ‘I really don’t want to influence her into wanting to stay like this if she doesn’t want to…’

She spent a few minutes with her daughter’s hair and decided to put her hair into two loose pigtails. She quickly scrunched the hair up on each side with a hair band and then found some ribbon she’d bought that matched the pink in her romper, then tied a bow around each. Now she couldn’t resist, “You look so cute!”

She watched her child look in the mirror and turn her head side to side. Megan wondered if she’d gone too far, but her face opened up into a wide smile and she said, “Thank you Mommy!”

“You’re welcome sweetheart!”

She gave her a hug and said, “Come on, let’s go down and see if Roger is here yet.”

Ashley was being pretty clingy, so she grabbed onto her hand. ‘If I didn’t know better I might think she really is only seven... I wonder why she’s acting like this...? Besides the obvious!’ She sighed, ‘I need to find a doctor to take her to. Therapy for both of us is probably smart. I wonder if Roger knows anyone we can trust?’

They had just reached the first floor when she heard a doorbell. Gloria was already ahead of her to get it though, so she just waited with Ashley next to Gloria’s office door. “Perfect timing Roger,” Gloria greeted. “We all just finished cleaning up, so you don’t have to smell a bunch of cowgirls.”

“I don’t know what you mean Gloria, you always smell like roses,” he told her.

‘This all feels like a bad western at times, doesn’t it?’ She found herself giggling out loud and wasn’t alone. Ashley was almost rolling on the floor.

“Hello again,” he said to them as he greeted them. “May we go ahead and speak in your office again Gloria?”

“That sounds great,” she said and led them in.

She expected Ashley to take a seat in the chair next to her again, but she found her sitting in her lap a few moments later, “You are getting to be much too big of a girl for me to do this with you,” she whispered in her ear. She just smiled though and leaned into her. Megan gave her a hug and waited for Roger to start.

“Well I have some good news for you, and some bad news.”

“What’s the bad news?” Ashley asked.

“Well, I wasn’t able to figure out a good way to make you ten years old again on paper.” Ashley sighed, “How bad is it?”

“Seven, you’ll be eight next week.” He smiled at me.

“So does that mean you were able to get a new identity for us?!?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes, and you’re going to owe me a favor sometime,” he said with a smile. “My friend was able to get these for you.” He reached into his briefcase and handed her two birth certificates. One said Amber Marie Caffrey and the other said Ashley Marie Caffrey. Both had the birthdates that they had suggested and looked like they were the right ages even.

“How did you...?” Megan started to ask.

“I’m going to call that favor in right now, don’t ever ask me that question. These are real and registered in the State of Texas. You were both born in McKinney.”

“Wow,” she said. She also noticed that Ashley had an ‘F’ for sex, something that wouldn’t be easy to do for real.

“Here are your social security cards. Again, they’re legitimately in the system. Uncle Sam will be expecting to see taxes from you.” He smirked.

“Okay... Any luck with school records?”

“Here you go, Ashley is apparently quite the student, and I hope she can keep up her grades like she did before all of this.” He said with a twinkle. Ashley looked at the report card that she’d been handed and blushed. Her grades from kindergarten through second grade were all Excellents or A’s for the grades. “I talked with my friend about having her be younger and still being in fourth grade next year... He seemed to think your best chances of laying low would be to keep her in the lower grade. If for some reason you’re able to stop hiding we should be able to get her back into sixth grade like she should be.”

Ashley looked a bit down about it, but said, “That’s okay, I get to be a little kid longer that way!”

He laughed, “Don’t we all wish we could have done that,” he said to Mom and Gloria. He sobered up though and said, “Okay, this next part is going to be trickier. You have full custody of Ashley according to this court order. The official record will state that your parents died in an accident next week.”

That hit Megan like a ton of bricks. “Not my real parents though...?”

“No, no, no. These are your and Ashley’s parents. Rachel and Paul Caffrey, they only exist on paper.”

“Okay,” she sighed relieved. “Sorry, I’m just a little bit scared for my parents right now.”

Roger looked at her seriously, “I think you probably should be too. We’ll talk what we might do about them in a moment though.”

Megan nodded, “Okay.”

“With all of that documentation you should go down to the DMV and get yourself a New Mexico drivers license. If you want to wait and get an apartment and do it then you can, or I’m sure Gloria would be willing to let you stay here for a little longer too. Try and pick an address you’ll plan to be at for a while.” He suggested.

“Here is a new transcript for you,” he said and handed her a piece of paper from her alma mater that was correct with all of her degree credits through her master’s degree. “How...?”

“That would be easy, the current president of the university and I are old golfing buddies. I told him a brief snapshot of what was going on and he arranged it. If anyone requests a transcript from the university it will reflect what you had earned before. Well, plus a couple extra things to try and make it less likely they could somehow search the records for you.”

“Wow.” Was all Megan could say. “Here also is your other transcript so far for your degree that you’ve been working on at Texas A&M on Agricultural Systems Management. It’s a masters degree that you felt would go well with your chemical engineering masters.”

“So I could technically show up and finish this degree?”

“You could. You have two semesters to go in theory.” He smiled, “You can always skip it too because you’re taking care of your little sister. There’s a lot of options open to you with those.”

“I also took the liberty of setting up an appointment for you Friday morning at ten with a friend of mine,” he handed her a card, “Dr. Angie Boteo. She’s someone I trust completely and should be able to take a look at Ashley from a medical side. She suggested you call another lady,” he handed her another business card, “Dr. Reynolds for some therapy appointments. She’s dealt with several transgendered patients in the past apparently as well.”

If Ashley looked confused or surprised by that she didn’t show it as far as she could tell. She was certainly getting heavy on her lap though! “I’ll give her a call in a few minutes and see if we can get an appointment for her too. Are they both in Albuquerque?” She looked at the cards.

“Yes, it’s a bit of a drive, but maybe it’ll also give you a little bit of distance from here.” He said. “Angie is going to get you both setup with shot records. Take what you do have already to her so she can fill out a card.”

He handed her one last stack with everything she’d given him.

“How much do I owe you for this?” Megan asked.

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing? I can’t take this kind of help for free!”

“Yes you can. I’m doing this because I want to, not for the money. Plus, if there’s no money it’s easier to say this never happened.”

Megan pushed Ashley off her lap and hugged Roger. “Thank you so much!”

“I thought I told you I wasn’t going to accept payment,” he jested. “Well, I guess I was wrong. The hug makes you paid in full.”

Megan watched Ashley give him a big hug too. “Now, about your parents. You said you’d been thinking about them?”

She nodded, “I want to get them a message so at least they’ll know to keep an eye out for goons. Well, and I want them to know we’re okay.”

Roger nodded. “I think your best bet might be to mail a note to them. But I don’t think it would be good for it to come from this zip code. I have another friend who owns a gift company in New York City, if you’ll write something up I’ll overnight it to her, and get her to then overnight it back to your parents.”

“That would work,” Megan nodded.

“Okay then, why don’t you go ahead and write it right now. Ashley if you’d like to write your own message to your grandparents you may,” he said. “Don’t say anything about where you’re at or your current identities. Make sure you sign it Tony,” he said.

Megan noticed that Ashley looked like she’d been zapped by something when he said that, but she didn’t say anything else. Gloria lent both of them some yellow lined paper pads and they both went to work. It was beyond tough to write, but she managed to write enough,

Dear Mom and Dad,
By this point I figure you’re really freaked out by our disappearance. Please know that we are safe at the moment, but we can’t really contact you. Also there’s no safe way for us to let you know where we’re staying. Ray was just as bad as you always said Mom... and so much worse. Suffice it to say that over the last few years the verbal and physical abuse has been increasing daily.

Last week was the last straw and I needed to get Tony safe from him. I believe it would only have been a matter of time before he would have killed me, and probably permanently scarred Tony. I really don’t know how someone so sweet and gentle could possibly have come from such a monster.

I do say monster, and I need you guys to watch out for monsters. Grandpa might have known more about what to do about this family, but I’m personally at a loss. For our safety he must never find us! If I am killed, I’m reasonably certain you won’t be able to bury me, and maybe not Tony either. Tony’s real protection comes from his grandfather though – I doubt he would approve of Ray hurting him. I’m personally just a problem to be solved though. Unfortunately I know too much about monsters.

I hope that in a year or two we will be able to see you again, and maybe we’ll be able to get notes to you now and then. Please burn this letter once you both have read it - if it’s discovered how it got to you others may be in danger as well. I love you so very much I can’t tell you, and I miss talking to you, but I have to save my child.

With all my love,

Megan

Megan watched two drops of tears fall onto the paper and decided it was okay - her mom would be able to tell it was real that way. She quickly scribbled a line of numbers at the bottom right of the letter before folding up her letter. Ashley was just finishing her own letter and the two of them were placed in an envelope that Roger sealed and took with him. Just before he opened the door of the office he said, “I’m going to have my friend keep an ear out for anything towards you, I’ll let you know if anything comes up. If we missed something and you need anything, holler at me.”

“Thank you again,” Megan said as she walked him down towards the exit with Gloria. It was only as he left that she realized Gloria hadn’t said anything through it all.

“Are you okay with what we’ve done?” Megan asked her.

“I’m ecstatic for you two,” she told her and gave her a hug. “I just felt like you had everything under control and you didn’t need another person butting in.”

“We just have to figure out that living situation now.” Megan said.

“Well, about that...”

“Huh?”

“Now I’m not going to say you have to or anything, but there’s an advantage to being out here with me. You’ve got a lot more people protecting you if and when your husband comes looking for you. If he’s stupid enough to do it when all of the hands are around he’s going to be dead quicker than anything. At night this place has a very secure alarm system that I arm each evening when I go to bed. You’d be welcome to stay here for a couple years if you want.”

“Really?” Megan felt tears stream down her face.

“Really.”

“But why...?”

“Well, I think you can help me out with some things with that handy chemical engineering degree you have. You’re great with animals and most importantly... I like you.” She looked down at Ashley who had been just staying silent the whole time, “And I LOVE Princess Ashley,” she said with a smile.

“I love you too,” Ashley said and gave her a big hug.

“So...?”

“Well, let’s play it by ear. For now I’ll plan on us sticking around for a bit.” Megan told her and received her own big hug from both Gloria and Ashley.

‘And great, I have to go do my makeup again...’ Megan thought to herself. Just as she did so she looked up to see Hank and Annie walk in. They both stared at the three of them and gave them the look of, ‘What’s going on?’

“Are you okay?” Annie asked tentatively.

“Great!” Megan tried to not sob.

“What happened to your eye?” Hank asked.

“Umm...” her mind went blank. At one point she’d come to a great story in her mind for that question if these guys asked, but it was gone.

Gloria sighed. “Hank, why don’t you and Annie go ahead and join Megan and I in my office for a few minutes. Ashley, why don’t you go downstairs and pick out a movie that we can all watch tonight after dinner.”

Ashley looked up and gave Megan a questioning stare, but she just shook her head and said, “Go ahead Ash, I’m sure she’s got lots of things to pick from down there.”

“Okay,” Ashley said, not in a happy voice.

The four adults went down to her office again and Hank asked again, “What’s going on?”

Annie added, “I don’t think Amber is your real name either...?”

“Can I trust them?” She asked Gloria.

The two of them stiffened like they were insulted, but Gloria said, “With your life.”

They looked angry, but she said, “When she says with my life she means it!” They both looked a little confused. “I don’t think either of you worked here, but I came here a long time ago with Kaitlyn for the summer.” They both shook their heads that they didn’t recognize her and she continued, “My real name is Megan Franchino, it was Megan Dale.”

“Oh my God, I didn’t recognize you at all!” Annie said. “Why did you dye your hair red? And what’s with pretending to be younger than me?”

Megan sighed, “I left my husband a few days ago. He had been abusing Ashley and I,” she couldn’t call him Tony, she didn’t see any reason to out her son like that, “and I was afraid one or both of us was going to be dead in the next six months.” She felt a little bit of morbid satisfaction at seeing their faces pale a bit.

“But if it’s just an abuse thing why didn’t you just call the cops and leave?”

Megan laughed, “I know Franchino doesn’t mean anything around here, hell, I didn’t realize what it meant until I was married. My husband is the son of one of the bigger mafia dons in the Midwest.” They both nodded, “To say that he would kill me and no one would ever find out about it would be accurate. If we went to the cops I know the family would have shut both of us up too. Our only hope was to run away on a week when my husband was supposed to take a trip...” She proceeded to give them the basics of their escape across country. “So anyway... Here we are. I’m Amber and my little sister is Ashley. Next Thursday our ‘parents’ are going to die in a tragic car crash in Chile and I’m going to get custody of Ashley.”

Annie had tears in her eyes and Hank looked livid. “How the hell can anyone treat a woman like that? And that little girl? You’re telling me he hit her?!?”

She nodded.

“Well, if he ever shows his face on this property he’s going to learn what happens out West!”

Megan cracked a smile briefly. “What I need most is for you to pretend we never had this conversation...”

“We can do that hon, but if you need help you need to let us know. No good for nothing ‘eyetalian’ asshole is going to beat up on one of us!”

The four of them talked for a while until Hank said, “Well we’d better get going. My wife is expecting me home and I’m guessing your daughter would like to see you tonight too!” He told Annie.

“You’re right Hank,” she said. As they stood up though both of them gave Megan a hug. “You can count on us honey.”

“Thank you guys.” She said.

She watched them go out the door outside and noticed a certain little girl hiding behind the wall next to the stairs. “Well, come here Princess.”

I HELD ONTO my mom for a long moment. We had both reached the breaking point this afternoon. Writing Grandma and Grandpa had been one of the hardest things I had done this week, and that was saying something! I was legally now an almost eight-year-old girl with an older sister who was about to adopt me when our parents died. Talk about the most tragic of weeks possible!

I was a good girl and had gone downstairs to pick out a movie to watch. Gloria had ‘Brave’ down there, a movie I had yet to actually see. I had made the mistake of saying I wanted to see it one day in front of my dad… that had been one of my bruises. Mom had many more for sticking up for me that day.

“Well, what do you want to do for dinner?” Gloria asked.

I shrugged and Mom did the same.

“How about we go out to eat and celebrate a new beginning for you two?” She suggested. “It’s about time we introduced Ashley to proper New Mexican food!”

I must have looked like a deer in the headlights, because she laughed at me. “Go freshen up, and change if you want to, we’ll leave in fifteen minutes.”

I grabbed Mom’s hand and pulled her upstairs, “Come on sis,” I said.

That was enough to make her giggle a little and I hoped she’d feel a little bit better. I followed her to her room and watched as she washed her face off and pushed me to the sink to do so too. When I had finished I sat on her bed and watched her in front of her mirror put on her makeup. Slowly after a few minutes of work you couldn’t see the bruise on her eye anymore.

I watched her dig around in her bag for something and she said, “aha!” She checked it and said, “Come here Ash.”

I walked over and she said, “Open up your lips like this.” I did as she showed me and she took some sort of weird lip stuff and put it on my lips.

“What is that?” I asked, noticing it tasted like strawberries. I looked in the mirror and saw my lips were glossy now.

“It’s lip gloss!” She said with a smile. “I thought you might enjoy it tonight since we’re going out for something special. It’s not something I’m going to let you do everyday though. No makeup for you until you’re thirteen!” She said and put a finger on my nose. With that she gathered me up and gave me a big hug, “I love you Princess.” She looked up and said, “Come on, let’s go downstairs, Gloria is probably getting tired of waiting for us!”

Downstairs we found Gloria waiting for us by the front door.

“We can go ahead and take my car since it’s got Ashley’s car seat in it.” Mom told her.

“Does she still need one?” She asked, somewhat surprised.

“Yes, it’s not as strict here... Most states it’s less than eight years old now, but I looked up New Mexico’s laws and it says until they’re over sixty pounds. Princess Ashley here is only fifty pounds after a big meal!”

I blushed. I guessed that meant I was going to be in a car seat for a few more years. “The one I bought is a good one that gets her to sixty pounds without converting it to the booster seat. I think we’ll stick with that too until she gets to the right height.”

“Maybe it is a good thing I’ll be in third grade this year,” I muttered.

Both of them laughed at me, and Gloria surprised me by picking me up. “What are you doing?”

“What I felt like doing, carrying the princess!”

I laughed and resigned myself to being carried to the car by her. At her height I might as well have been a three year old, I sat on her hip just as comfortably. The door was locked up, alarm was set, and she sat me down in the seat. “I guess I’ll have to get one of these for my car too, huh?” She asked.

I blushed and Mom said, “You don’t have to do that...”

“At some point I’m going to be driving her around with me. If we’re going to keep this up for a while I might as well get one for her.”

Mom sighed and said, “Thank you for everything,” to Gloria as she sat down.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For thinking highly enough of me to come here. Thank you for taking your child out of that situation! And, thank you for coming back - I always hoped you would!”

As Gloria directed Mom to the restaurant she thought we should go to I couldn’t help but think there must have been more to the story there. For a ten year old I was very perceptive, and something wasn’t completely adding up there yet. ‘I’m sure I’ll get the story eventually’ I thought.

RAY DIALED THE phone and wondered for the millionth time how wise this plan was. He decided he should sound at least a bit broken up, “Stella? This is Ray.”

“Ray!!! Is Megan there?”

“No, no she’s not Stella.”

“What do you mean she’s not there?” Tom, his father-in-law asked.

“She left me. I have the note here. I don’t know where she went, she didn’t tell me, but she’s not here.” He made his voice sound hoarse, which was actually surprisingly easy. Who the hell was going to cook for him now?

There was silence on the other line, and Ray wasn’t sure that there was any sympathy that was going to come there. “I’m sorry to hear that son,” Tom finally said.

“I figure she’ll contact you sooner or later... Would you please ask her to call me? I just want to try and talk to her.”

Stella had never had much tact, “If she left you I’ll give her the message, but I’ll also tell her not to.” And with that both of Megan’s parents hung up.

Ray chose that moment to throw the glass he was holding against the floor. “Fucking bitch!!!!”

I SAT DOWN at the table in-between my mom and Gloria. I looked at the menu and didn’t understand what half of the food was. Tacos I could understand, burritos okay, but what was a chile relleno? “What is this?” I asked, pointing to it.

“A chile relleno is a green chile stuffed with cheese inside, battered on the outside, and deep fried – they’re my favorite!” Gloria told me.

“Is it really hot?” I asked.

“Sometimes, I would say it’s about medium here.” She paused, “Now that is me eating green chile all the time.”

“I’ll tell you what Ashley, why don’t I order the combination plate and you can sample a few things off of it?” Mom suggested. I saw it came with one of those, a taco, and a cheese enchilada, along with rice and beans.

“Okay.”

“Will that be enough for you?” Gloria asked Mom.

“Oh sure, I don’t eat all that much myself. We used to split plates a lot!”

Gloria shrugged and said, “Okay, just wanted to make sure.”

“So what was it you were thinking I could help you out with?” Mom asked Gloria.

“Well, I have some future plans in mind for the ranch. There’s a lot of waste created by a ranch...” I found myself tuning out the conversation as it went on. This restaurant was like many that had a menu designed for coloring by kids. I decided to start coloring the chile peppers that were on the vine.

“And what can I get for you to drink young lady?” A man’s voice asked.

“What?” I said, I had completely tuned out everyone apparently. “Umm... Do you have sprite?”

“Sure do,” he said. “Is that okay with you mom?” He said looking towards Gloria. We all laughed then.

“Actually it’s Aunt, and that’s fine.” She laughed.

“That’s your one for the week,” Mom said after he left.

“Okay,” I said.

“One coke per week?” Gloria asked.

Mom nodded, “She can drink tea, milk, juice, or water other than that. I don’t want her developing bad habits.”

“That’s smart!” Gloria said.

The waiter returned with our drinks and asked for our orders, he started with Gloria. “I’ll have the chile relleno plate.”

“Red or Green?”

“Christmas please,” she told him.

Mom was next, “We’re going to split this combination plate.”

“Would you like red or green?”

“Green on the side please.”

“We’ll have that right out for you.”

“Why did you say Christmas?” I asked Gloria.

“New Mexico’s state question is Red or Green,” she smiled, “the state answer is Christmas to where you get both!”

“That’s weird,” I said. Mom and Gloria laughed.

“She’s definitely not a New Mexican,” Gloria laughed. “We’ll see what we can do to convince her though!”

Gloria spent a couple minutes telling me about how the green chilies turn red later in the season. If they’re harvested green you roast them and freeze them. With the red chile later on in the season you dry the pods and rehydrate them when you want to cook them. She also explained that New Mexicans were ferociously in love with their chile. To insult it was pretty dangerous with some of them. She smiled brightly as she explained it all.

“So what do you want for your birthday?” Gloria asked me.

“But my...” I thought for a moment, “I don’t know. That’s next week isn’t it?” I said looking at Mom.

“Umm...” I had four brand new dolls, plus some Barbie’s I still hadn’t played with... I had one stuffed animal... I could use the iPad when I wanted to... Gloria had every movie I could possibly think of downstairs... “I don’t know?” I said honestly. “Maybe some more doll clothes?”

“Hmm... We’ll have to think about that one, won’t we?” Gloria said.

Mom looked at her, “You don’t...”

“I know I don’t have to! But I will because I want to!” She said with a smile.

I eventually drifted away from the conversation again and kept coloring. Now that I knew there were red and green chilies I decided to start at the bottom with green chilies and work my way up to red at the top. I had just finished the last one when the waiter sat a plate down in front of me. “Wow, what a pretty coloring!” He said to me.

“Thank you,” I said.

I sipped a bit of my Sprite before trying the food Mom put on my plate. She’d put about a quarter of everything on there, knowing that would be more than I could eat. At Gloria’s advice I poured some of the green chile sauce on top of it and watched Mom use the rest of it. I gritted my teeth and tried it.

It was really tasty, but it was also really hot!!! I took another drink of Sprite and it cooled the burn. I made it through dinner like that and was very full at the end.

“So what did you think?” Gloria asked me.

“I like the beans and rice the best!” I told her. She had suggested I mix them together and she was right - it tasted good!

“What did you think about the relleno?” She asked.

“I liked the cheese and the bread... But the chile was too hot!”

She laughed at me, “You’ll get used to it. The more you eat the mellower it feels.”

“You mean I’m going to have to eat more chile?” I asked, a little nervous.

“Chile is our marinara down here sweetie.”

I guess I could see her point. The three of us left after some bickering over the bill. Gloria tried to take it, but Mom insisted on it since she hadn’t let her pay any rent yet.

“Where to next?” Mom asked.

“Well... Wal-Mart real quick?” Gloria suggested.

I groaned, “Might as well, I think we’ve missed a few.” I looked at Mom and saw her laugh.
I wasn’t really sure what she needed there, but we headed off. It turned out she had a few things in the pharmacy she needed to get. Apparently they were running low on some first aid supplies like band-aids and Neosporin. She looked at me and threw in some Disney Princess band-aids with a smile.

“I hope I don’t need those...” I said.

“I’m sure you will Ashley, if I don’t see that you have a cut, scrape, or bruise each week at the ranch I’m going to check and see if you’re really still alive!”

We walked down an aisle with nail polish and Mom grabbed ten colors, some remover, and a bag of cotton balls. “That many?” I asked her.

“Oh, this is just a start, sometime we’ll go somewhere I can get more,” She told me with a smile. As she said it I looked down at my nails and could feel my disappointment that my pretty nails were already chipped on two nails. We were soon walking into the baby section there.

I groaned, “We’re not going to make me even younger?” I asked.

“Of course not sweetie,” Mom said. “You’re already three, right?”

I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Ashley I want to get you a seat for my car,” Gloria said. “This is the same one you got her, right?”

Gloria was pointing to the same one. Mom said, “Yes, it is the same... But you don’t have to, I’ll pay for it.”

“My car, my money,” she insisted.

For my part I was tired. I hated to admit that it was getting close to eight and I was realizing a bedtime for me of that made sense out on the ranch. Gloria nudged Mom towards the toy aisle next. “Start making your birthday list!” Gloria said.

“But...” I tried to argue, but Mom seemed to agree.

I walked down the aisle and told them the toys I thought I might play with. Some of the horses kind of interested me now too. I was glad they didn’t buy anything for me then, if they were insisting on my birthday being next week I would hate for the surprise to be ruined!

As we went by the electronics department Mom stopped to look at cameras. She used to have a really nice one, but she left that at home with everything else. As far as I could tell she had two necklaces that she couldn’t part with from her grandmother, and everything else was gone. After looking for a few minutes she picked out one of the cameras, a memory stick, and a bunch of batteries. I didn’t bother asking what it was for; she always used the camera on me!

Mom made one more stop in the craft aisle for some different color ribbons. “What’s that for?” I asked her.

“I want more choices for your hair!” She told me with a smile.

I smiled tiredly at that and felt up to my two pigtails that I hoped weren’t lopsided. By the time we reached the checkout I was seriously dragging. I put my fingers into the mesh of the cart and let Gloria pull me along as she pushed it. Mom helped me into my seat and buckled me in. She hadn’t even driven out of the parking lot before I was asleep.

What did you think? Comments and/or Kudos are always appreciated! Thanks for reading!

I know the previous four parts have some corrupted characters in the content. I will go back through and re-upload them this weekend. Thank you to the BC team for making everything else come back to life!!!!