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 9: Home
 
THE NEXT MORNING when Mom woke me up I was startled. “How did I get here?” I asked.

“Huh?” Mom asked.

“We were in the car...?”

Mom laughed, “Gloria ended up carrying you upstairs and I dressed you in your pajamas. You sort of woke up, but I think you must have been too tired to remember.”

“I guess so...” I told her. I blushed a little when I thought about what a little kid thing that was.

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about Ashley, I’m surprised you made it to the car. Yesterday was a really long day after a lot of other long stressful days.” She gave me a hug, “Come on, let’s get you dressed for the chickens.”

I sighed and managed to climb out of the bed. Mom handed me another pair of jeans, and gave me a bright blue shirt that had Minnie Mouse peeking over the top of a pile of candy. I remembered her telling me she wanted to get me that one because I was ‘sooo sweet!’ I managed to get my legs into my jeans, the shirt over my head, and socks on my feet. Mom had apparently pulled the bows out of my hair last night.

“Sit here for a few minutes,” Mom told me.

I sat down as she suggested and felt her braid two-pig tails on either side. “You really like giving me pigtails, don’t you?” I asked her.

“I loved having pigtails as a little girl... And all the way through high school occasionally,” She smiled at me. “You get to an age where it’s cute cause it’s silly. Since you’re almost eight you’re still at the it’s cute ‘cause it’s cute stage!”

I looked at myself in the mirror a few minutes later and had to agree. She’d used some polka dotted ribbon for the bows that looked like Minnie’s bow almost. I gave her a hug and said, “Thank you for doing my hair.”

“You’re welcome, now come on, we have work to do!”

I found my boots in the mudroom and began the task for the third day. George tried to run at me again when I was feeding the turkeys, but I whacked him with a stick and he decided it wasn’t worth it. He looked at me like, ‘Meanie!’ And I laughed. Served him right! If we were still there for Thanksgiving I was definitely going to enjoy eating him!

I sat the eggs down where Gloria wanted them left and headed back inside, dropping my boots off in the mudroom. “Good morning Consetta,” I said to her as I came up behind her and gave her a hug.

“Good morning to you too,” She said as she returned the hug, “And how is our little princess doing this morning?”

“Pretty good,” I said with a yawn. “Can I help you with anything?”

“Why don’t you wash your hands and then you can help me finish making waffles?”

“Okay!” I said to her.

I saw that she was using three waffle makers to make Belgian Waffles. I walked over to the sink and washed my hands, coming over to the counter. She set a step stool in front for me so I could reach better, “Okay, take this cup and fill it to the line, then put it in the maker like this, then turn it upside down like this.” She showed me as she went along, “Then flip it back over, and when it beeps open it up, and put the waffle on this plate!”

I saw she had already made nine, “How many more do you need?” I asked.

“We usually use about thirty on a day like today,” She told me.

I felt my mouth drop, but said, “Okay!” I spent the next twenty-five minutes making waffles one after another in each maker. I had just poured the last one when I ran out of batter. “You planned that just right!” I told her, impressed.

She smiled at me, “Of course I did!” She gave me a hug and said, “Now go wash your hands again.”

I had just finished when she said, “Come here.”

Apparently I had gotten batter on my face and she had to do the mother thing with scrubbing it off. It was embarrassing, but with her I didn’t mind too much. “There you go. Now let’s take these out and put them on the buffet, I’m pretty sure I hear them coming in!”

Mom came in as I put down the last plate. “Yum, waffles!” She said.

“And I made them!” I told her with a smile.

She gave me a hug and I began putting a plate with a waffle together for myself. There was a big bowl of strawberries and whipped cream that I put a lot of on my waffle! I topped it with a little syrup and I was pretty sure I would be hyper for the rest of the morning! “So what are you doing today?” Mom asked me.

“I don’t know...?” I said. I looked at Gloria and Consetta too.

“Well I think we need to do your riding lesson first thing this morning since it’s supposed to storm later,” Gloria said. “Then I need to run some errands in town, you’d be welcome to come with me.”

I wrinkled my nose a bit at errands, but she added, “We could get ice cream on our way back.”

“Okay,” I said. “I probably should do something other than just sit here I guess.”

“Are you okay with that Amber?” I asked Mom.

She nodded, “We’re doing a bunch of different chores today, so it’ll work out just right.”

“Okay then.”

I finished breakfast not long after and helped Consetta for a few minutes in the kitchen when she said, “It looks like Gloria is ready,” to me.

I gave her a hug, put on my boots, and headed out to the barn. I had brought an apple with me to Beauty’s stall and gave it to her while I helped Gloria saddle her up. Mostly that involved me holding something for her for a moment. There was no way I could really get the saddle onto her by myself since she was a lot taller than I was! I was curious though so I asked, “How could I do this by myself?”

“Well, you’d probably need to get a stool over here,” Gloria started, “and then you could probably reach around and get it eventually. Really you’d need a shorter horse or a pony probably to be the absolute right size. The good thing is you’re still growing and if you catch up to Amber she seems to manage on just about anything.”

I looked at her and said, “So with a stool I could probably manage?”

“One track mind, huh?”

“Sort of,” I admitted.

“Okay, tell you what. You watch me or your... sister do this for the next two months. Once we get through that I’ll let you try it, fair enough?”

I nodded, “Okay!” An end was in sight where I might be able to do something for myself! I immediately began to wonder how I was going to manage that heavy saddle! ‘Maybe I’ll have some muscles like they do by then…’

We led Beauty to the corral and Gloria had me lead her back and forth on my own, going, stopping, turning, and even getting her to go backwards. I was feeling pretty confident and having a lot of fun really. The time flew by before Gloria said, “Okay Ashley, that’s enough for today.”

“Aww...” I whined a little.

“You’re doing really well. I think tomorrow we’ll let you out of the corral and we’ll go ride around the ranch some.”

“Really???” I asked.

“Unless you don’t want to of course,” Gloria said coyly.

“Of course I want to! And so does Beauty, huh?”” I asked her. She whinnied at me in affirmation.

Gloria just laughed, “Yep, you’re going to be one of those ‘horses are people too’ girls.”

I giggled, “Aren’t they?”

I helped her unsaddle and put Beauty away before we headed up to the house. “Go ahead and shower and put something else on,” Gloria told me, “and then in a little bit we’ll go run those errands.”

“Okay,” I told her. She turned around at the front door though to go do something else.

I thought about just putting on the same clothes when I was done, but realized Gloria had a point when I looked at myself in the mirror. I had managed to spill strawberries on me, and I looked like my pants were dirty too. ‘I’m going through two or three sets of clothes a day!’ I thought to myself.

I walked over to my closet and looked for something that looked comfortable yet cute. ‘Of course I don’t think there’s anything not cute in here...’ I smiled. Finally after looking for several minutes I spotted this really neat top that looked sort of like a short dress. I vaguely remembered my mom calling it a tunic when we picked it out. There was this really pretty big heart, surrounded by a few smaller hearts, in lace on the back of the neck. It was a bright blue that was really pretty I thought. A pair of shorts that had come with a bright blue matching belt seemed to go well with it.

I grabbed a pair of panties and hopped into the bathroom. As far as I could tell my hair was still okay, so I decided to put it in a shower cap so we wouldn’t have to mess with it. Both pigtails wrapped in there pretty easily and I began the warm shower that felt really good. I knew I couldn’t stay in there long though, so once I washed with the body wash Mom bought me I dried off and got dressed.

I smiled when I pulled my hair out of the shower cap, happy that the ribbons Mom used earlier still matched my new outfit! I heard a knock on the door then, “May I come in?”

“Yes,” I said to Gloria’s voice.

“You look very cute!” She said, “I love that top!”

I blushed slightly but said, “Thanks!”

“So are you ready to go?” She asked.

“I think so,” I told her.

I grabbed Kaitlyn on my way out to take her with us. “Can she come too?”

“Of course!” Gloria told me.

Downstairs she led me to her car, which was a green Toyota Land Cruiser. I was surprised by how tall it was as she opened the back door for me. I climbed up awkwardly and could see she had installed the new car seat. I sighed a bit as she did the buckles and messed with the lengths of the straps for a few minutes until it was comfortably tight.

“Ready?” She asked me a few minutes later.

“Sure,” I said. I wasn’t really looking forward to grocery shopping and her errands, but I got the feeling no one really wanted me by myself either. ‘I guess you don’t normally leave seven year olds alone,’ I admitted to myself, ‘Mom only started letting me stay by myself this year as a ten year old...’ I sighed, ‘It’s worth it to be safe, but this is beginning to get old…’

AGENT KLINE SAT at his desk looking over some reports he was proofreading for his boss about the Vermont disaster. With no evidence of any wrongdoing, the store had opened up again and the lawsuit about defamation had been filed in court. The dogs had clued in on places where they were sure drugs had been stored, but there was no way to prove it. He also had the terrible duty of talking to both agents’ families yesterday whom were presumed dead. Benefits wouldn’t start for some time if they couldn’t find the bodies, but he felt their families should have a little bit of closure at least.

‘I am going to catch you bastards,’ he said to himself. ‘If only Megan Franchino had come to us...’ he thought.

A friend of his was keeping track of any requests by empowered judges for new identities just in case she managed to make the right connections. It was possible to get a new identity and he knew plenty of judges that would be willing to help out a woman in her situation. So far though nothing had come even remotely close in their watch. Yesterday a twenty-three year old woman and a seven-year-old daughter were the only ones they’d seen. ‘Almost as far away as you can get...’ he griped to himself as he looked at the useless information and filed it away.

His phone rang then, “Yes I have a moment, come on up!” He told Dave. A few minutes later a younger agent that should have been on their recruiting posters came in. “Hey Bob, I wanted to let you know we had a hit!”

“How so?” He asked excitedly.

“Well you said to check for the cars, right?” He nodded, “I finally found a lady in Dayton that I could tell wasn’t comfortable talking about her car being sold. Something about it just didn’t ring true... So I had Mark Coppell, a friend of mine from the academy, head over there with his badge to talk to her.” Kline shifted a little uncomfortably in his seat; he didn’t like agents outside his department dealing with this stuff... He knew he could trust these guys against the corruption, he wasn’t so sure about unknowns. “Relax, I know he’s trustworthy.”

“Go on,” Kline insisted.

“Well she played like forty questions before she believed the badge was real. She said that she had sold her car to a woman and a son of about nine who seemed really scared. She didn’t haggle over the price or anything, paid and left.”

“That could be them... Did he show her a picture?”

“We still don’t have a current one.” He said.

“What???”

“All we have is a drivers photo that doesn’t look that great. She wasn’t sure if it was that lady or not.”

“Get someone to the kids elementary school and get a current photo. Or, if you have to, talk to the grandparents. We know they’re worried about them. I want a current photo of them by Monday at the latest.”

‘How the hell do we not have a photo yet... I swore we had some from stakeouts...’ Kline mentally hit himself, ‘Of course they were more concerned with the husband...’

“Did she keep the license plates?” He asked. “And what kind of car was it?”

“It’s a white 2003 Ford Focus with Ohio plates,” he listed the plate number, “it’s something.”

“It’s more than the Franchino’s have for now I hope...” Kline said. “Run it through the system and see if there have been any hits at checkpoints with it. Some of the airport scanners or toll roads for instance might have got it...”

“I’m on it,” Dave said and got up to leave, “Oh, had anyone else talked to the lady?” He asked.

“Actually... Yes, she said another guy tried to get the same information out of her. He was nicely dressed but seemed a bit like a goon to her. Fortunately for us he didn’t have a badge either, so she said she sold it to some old man.”

“Finally something goes right.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about Vermont, boss, it was the right set of decisions all around. We all know the risks we take each day.”

Kline just nodded and watched as Dave walked through the door. Not one to sit still he decided to start his own checking into the license plates. “We know her suitcases made it to Dallas...” he said in a low murmur.

I PUSHED THE release on the buckle of the harness to try and get it loose but couldn’t seem to manage to get it to fully unbuckle. “Does she let you do that?” Gloria asked.

“I haven’t tried before,” I admitted.

“Why don’t you let us do it for a while then,” she said with a smile. “Besides you seem to be having issues there.”

I fought back the tears of embarrassment, as she was able to easily get it to release. “Why couldn’t I get it?” I said aloud.

“Probably designed that way, you won’t want kids unbuckling while the car is moving, do you?”

I nodded, she was probably right.

‘What does it say about me though that I can’t get a baby seat buckle undone...?’

I followed Gloria into our first stop, the bank, a few moments later. “Hey Gloria, who’s the beautiful young lady helping you today?” The teller asked.

“This is Ashley,” she thought for a second, “she’s my niece.”

“You are cute, aren’t you?” The man said. “Would you like a sucker?” He asked, handing one to me.

“Thank you,” I said, feeling my cheeks redden.

“You’re very welcome.” He said and then began typing up some things on his computer after looking at some checks and slips Gloria had handed him. Ashley watched as he handed Gloria a number of bills and she said, “Thanks Billy.”

Just like that we were done and back to the car where Gloria buckled me back in again. She had to stop at a pharmacy, but she just went through the drive-thru. “Okay, now let’s hit the grocery store.”

It wasn’t too far to the store where she helped me out of the seat again. As tall as the vehicle was it was a jump for me to get down. She stopped for a moment and grabbed some reusable grocery bags from the back of the car, grabbed my hand, and then we walked inside together. Gloria grabbed a cart and pushed the seat section of it down. My eyes went wide for a moment, wondering if she was going to ask me to sit in the seat, but she put her purse and the bags down in it.

She opened up the purse and we began the long trek to find the groceries she was looking for. “Are we buying groceries for all the meals?” I asked.

Gloria laughed, “No, just a few things for the weekend when I make Consetta and the hands take time off. They only come in to help me feed and then are gone after that. That means I usually cook a meal or two on the weekend.”

“Oh,” I said following beside the cart. She grabbed some fruit, but very little else from the produce department. Likewise there wasn’t anything she needed from the meat counter, but she did grab some lunchmeats and cheese. I followed her around as she added some other odds and ends, but it felt very different than my mother’s trips to the grocery store.

Finally she went down the frozen food aisle where so many of my meals during the summer usually came from! Gloria didn’t really stop for anything though until she got to the area with ice cream. “We’ll stop at Dairy Queen on the way home too, but how about some ice cream for after dinner tonight? We never did get that movie last night! What flavor do you like?”

I don’t know if it said anything about me, but there was no hesitation from me at all. “Strawberry!” I said. Blushing, I wondered if me liking a pink ice cream flavor meant anything else weird about me.

Gloria dug through the brands until she found a tub of ice cream that she thought would work. “Anything else you want?” She asked me.

I shook my head, “No thank you.”

“Okay then, let’s check out!”

“Hey Gloria!” I heard from behind us as we waited in line.

“Hi Linda,” she said, “how are you doing?”

I turned around and saw a girl who was really probably a bit younger than my mom, trailed by a girl who looked to be about my new official age. “I’m doing great, we just got back from a trip to Disney World last night so we’re a bit tired.”

“I remember the last time I was there with my kids... It was a while ago,” Gloria said with a laugh, “but they had a lot of fun.”

“And who’s this?” Linda asked her, pointing towards me. I had grown shy in that moment and sort of hid beside her.

“This is my niece Ashley, she and her older sister are staying here for a few weeks while her sister works on an internship with me.”

“Nice to meet you Ashley, I’m Linda, and this is my daughter Kendra.”

“Nice to meet you two,” I told her.

“How old are you honey?” She asked me.

“I’ll be eight next week!” I said, actually genuinely excited not to be technically a seven year old on paper!

“That means you’re the same age as Kendra,” she said.

I was spared too much forced interaction as Gloria was up to the register. “If you’re bored and looking for someone to play with have your auntie give me a call sweetie, I know it can be a bit lonely on a ranch if you’re the only kid.”

I kind of laughed inside at that. I hadn’t ever been less lonely than the last few days! “Okay,” I said politely. “Nice to meet you.” I watched as the boy bagging Aunt Gloria’s groceries left for a moment and returned with a small bag of dry ice.

Gloria led off to the car where she placed the ice cream in a cooler along with the dry ice. I noticed as she dumped it in the cooler she was really careful not to touch them.

“Sweetie, don’t touch those blocks, they’re dry ice and they’re so cold you’ll get hurt,” she said to me. I didn’t tell her that I already knew what dry ice was!

After that she helped me finish buckling the harness saying, “You really are a shy princess, aren’t you?”

I blushed and said, “Something like that.”

She closed my door and walked around to drive off.

“YES!” HE SAID elatedly as he stared at a stream of hits on the license plate. Mrs. Franchino had run past no less than eight plate readers on her trip to Dallas. It was very easy to see that she must have stayed overnight in Atlanta, then driven to Dallas. She’d ran through two toll road readers there and then... Nothing.

“What the hell?” he asked aloud.

Dave walked in right then, “Hey Bob, I just found out she left the car in a DFW Airport long term spot.”

“What?” He asked, he had searched for any flights they might have made and came up short. “They didn’t show up on any flights...?”

“I don’t know. I have a TSA agent sending us the surveillance footage around the airport for two hours after she left to see if that helps.”

“Damn, if she left that car we may not be able to pick her tracks back up again as easily.”

“Yeah, it’s not looking good.”

“Well, if it’s tough for us hopefully it’s even harder for the Franchino’s. The last thing we want is for him to find them first.

RAIMONDO LOOKED AT the message one of his men had gotten him about looking for his wife. She’d seemingly dropped off the face of the planet and he didn’t know how to pick up her trail. Obviously she’d somehow gotten to Dallas with the luggage, but she’d dropped that and there was nothing left to trace. Because he hadn’t paid up the annual fee to the tracking company they didn’t have anything prior to that for him.

Similarly they had followed up on the debit card lead just to be certain, but it was a total dead end. Megan had found someone that looked enough like her to fool them at the first three stations, but at the last one she had filled up at the surveillance camera showed clearly it wasn’t her. It hadn’t fooled them for long at all, but it did make him angry that she had even tried! If he knew where the woman was that had been laying the false trail he would have disposed of her… but no one was able to find anything else about her either. Besides, it was obvious she was part of Megan’s plan and not worth the risk of tracking her down. She probably knew nothing about where Megan and Tony were going.

His men were preparing to tap into his in-laws phones on Saturday night. There was a storm forecast that seemed an ideal cover for the crew to get in there and place the tap. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t risk going there though. He had made sure Megan knew he would kill her and that they couldn’t keep her safe. Dallas didn’t make sense as a place to stop over either though, since it was too filled with connections to his family. He was pretty sure she’d moved on, but just not where.

New Mexico seemed unlikely since as far as he knew she had no connections there. He couldn’t remember her having even said she visited there before, ‘That means she might think about there as a good place actually,’ he thought. It was a big state though, so no way to just go and find her. ‘She could also go to Phoenix, or even LA.’

“She’ll mess up eventually,” he thought with frustration. He needed to get back to planning the new shipping routes for material from down south. His father wanted him to have all of his ducks in a row before he met with their new partner in Albuquerque. With a groan he got back to working through the mess.

I LOOKED AT the menu and tried to decide what to get. Kaitlyn was in my arms, but she wasn’t being any help. Finally I said, “Umm... The chicken strips meal,” I told Gloria as we stood waiting for the next person to be available.

“Fries?”

“Uh-huh,” I said. “And milk,” I decided for the drink.

“The small cone will be enough ice cream for you?”

I nodded, “I don’t eat that much.”

“I know! I’m not surprised you’re so tiny!” She said with a smile.

“Can I help the next person?” A lady asked.

“Yes, I would like one of your hamburger combos, with fries, and a large drink,” she started, “and my niece would like the chicken strip kids meal, with fries, milk, and the small cone.”

“Do you want to come back for the cone or have it delivered with your food?” She asked.

“We’ll come back for it.”

“Okay...” she rang off the total and Gloria paid for it. “I love your doll!” the lady said, making me smile as we walked away with a number.

Most of the tables were full except some tall two-person tables with tall stools in front of them. I was just about to climb up there when Gloria picked me up and sat me down. “I could have made it,” I told her.

“I know, but I wanted to help!” She said with a smile. No matter how annoyed I was with that, I couldn’t be annoyed with her. She was quite literally my second biggest hero for saving our lives.

The first of course was my mom!

“So what do you want to do next week for your birthday?” Gloria asked.

I shrugged, “We used to go over to my grandparent’s house and my grandma would throw a party...” I remembered those just barely, as I had been pretty little at the last one on my fifth birthday. Grandma had died the next week.

“But?”

“But when she died we stopped doing that. I think my dad thought it was too painful or something. The last few years Mom made a cake and the three of us had dinner, I got my presents, and that was it.”

“You miss your grandma?” She asked me.

I nodded, “And my grandfather too actually.”

She looked shocked by that.

“I guess I know now that my grandfather isn’t a good person... But he always showed me he loved me. I remember a few months ago Dad was yelling at me, and my grandfather told him to... Umm... Shut up.” I decided to leave it at that.

“I guess he didn’t use those words?”

“Umm... No.”

“So, what do you want to do then?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know, I mean I guess we should do something since you only turn eight once, right?” I winked at her and she laughed. “I don’t know though, Madison is going to be here...”

“And?”

“Well, I don’t know her, I don’t want to ruin her visit with her actual aunt because some silly little girl is here...” I said.

Gloria laughed, “Madison is going to love you to death sweetheart. She’s always been very much into playing with dolls and everything. I know you’ll get along just fine.”

“I just don’t want to mess up,” I told her honestly. “What happens if she figures out...” in my head I heard two things, ‘that I’m a boy... And that I’m really almost eleven…’

“A, she wouldn’t say anything to you if she did, and B, I know it’s going to be fine.”

“What about her mom and my mom?” I asked.

“Well, that’s going to be a little bit delicate. I have no doubt she’s going to recognize your mom in less than five minutes. I’m going to pull her into the office and then have your mom come in I think... I’ll tell her to keep it all a secret from Madison and Mark though, neither of them will know who you are unless you tell them.”

“Okay,” I said while lazily munching on the last fry. I took a drink of my milk and realized it was now empty too.

“I guess you were hungry?” She asked.

I nodded, “I must have been.”

Gloria looked at me, and then her watch, and then said, “Why don’t you go get your ice cream cone, I’ll wait here with Kaitlyn.” She patted Kaitlyn’s hand, she was carefully sitting down on top of the table in between us.

“Okay,” I said and awkwardly slipped off the chair. I always avoided chairs like that around my friends from school since I didn’t want to seem like well... a little kid. I knew there was no hope in me ever growing that tall though. Even both sets of my grandparents were pretty short. My mom’s dad was the tallest of any of them at 5’5”. Of course when you’re just over 4’ that seems tall!

I went up to the counter, “Umm... I had the kids meal, may I please have my ice cream cone.” I asked the lady.

“Why yes you may sweetie,” she said as she turned around, grabbed a cone, and made the ice cream higher than I ever would have dreamed a kid’s cone should be! “Here you go!”

“Thank you,” I said and went back to the table. I was able to place the cone carefully on the table and climbed up on the chair before Gloria could get up to help me. I felt better having done it myself!

I managed to finish all of the ice cream and saw Gloria staring at me with a smile on her face.

“What?”

“Hold on just a sec before you get up,” she said. Somewhere in her purse she found a small package of Wet Ones wipes. Before I had a chance to groan about it she was attacking my face to get the ice cream off of it.

She looked at her watch one last time and said, “Okay, let’s get back home.”

‘I wonder why she’s been so intent on her watch the last hour…?’

Gloria threw our food trash into the trashcan and left our baskets on top. I carried Kaitlyn in my arms and waved back as the lady that served us waved, “Bye!”

At the car, I didn’t get a chance to climb in before she picked me up and sat me down in there. ‘I hope Madison doesn’t make fun of me for riding in a car seat.’

“When is Madison getting here?” I asked.

“They’re supposed to drive in on Sunday, then they’re going to stay two weeks.”

“Cool.” I said.

Something about the way the car seat held my body in place and her car driving down the road quickly put me to sleep.

“Wake up Princess,” was the next thing I knew. I looked up to see Gloria smiling at me. “Did you have a nice nap?”

I didn’t see any point in denying it and nodded. She proceeded to get the buckle of the harness undone and helped me down. I helped her carry in the bags of groceries to the kitchen and decided to go back up to my room with Kaitlyn. “I’m going up to my room,” I told her.

“Okay,” she told me as she continued to separate out the groceries.

I walked up the back staircase to my room and froze. On the outside of the door to my room someone had put up a wooden sign with letters that had been cut out and painted. It said, “Princess Ashley” on it.

I felt both embarrassed and thrilled that someone had done that for me! The rectangular back of the sign was painted mainly pink, with alternating white and purple polka dots. The letters on top alternated a darker pink and bright green. A little tiara had even been cut out and painted with some sort of glittery paint and placed in the corner.

I couldn’t help the gasp when I opened the door, and the squeal of glee. “It’s so pretty!!!!”

I looked behind me and saw both Mom and Gloria grinning. I ran up to Mom first and hugged her, before giving Gloria a big hug too. I could smell the fresh paint that they had used on the wall to make it a light lavender. They had rearranged my furniture and placed an enormous dollhouse on the floor underneath the window. A new white bookcase had been added with books and toys placed on the shelves. Before I even made it over there though I looked at my bedspread. They had put a new Disney Princess bedspread on and I could see the sheets beneath it too. Cute pillows were on top of the day bed, along with some other stuffed animals.

I moved next to the window that had curtains to match the bedding, then to the dollhouse that was the perfect size for Barbie’s, but didn’t look new. “Where did you get all this?” I asked.

“Well, the sheets and window curtains are new,” Mom said.

I nodded, “The dollhouse?”

“The dollhouse was one of my daughters when she was a little girl, and it’s been sitting all alone up in the attic for a long while now,” Gloria said. She pointed out a few tubs of Barbie’s and accessories too that had been hers. “Why did you do all of this if there’s the playroom downstairs?” I asked.

“This gives you your own place if you need it,” Gloria said simply. “Besides, I don’t think it’s right for a little girl to not have her own dollhouse!” She smiled at me. I finished looking at the room and was amused that they had even put new socket covers with princesses on, and a new light switch panel. The bathroom had some new towels hung up on my side of it, and a few other new touches.

“How did you do all of this?” I asked Mom incredulously, “I didn’t think we were gone that long...”

Consetta, Hank, and Annie walked up right then and laughed. “I had a little bit of help,” Mom said with a smile.

I gave each of them a hug and just stared at the room. If I was to be a little girl for the foreseeable future this was the perfect room for me, “I love it!” I said aloud.

MEGAN LOOKED DOWN at her daughter and smiled. Hearing her say that she loved it made the whole frantic and insane morning worthwhile! Gloria had told her she wanted them to redo her room the night before, after Ashley had gone to bed. That meant that Megan had left for the store and hadn’t returned until after one that night. Luckily for her she had been able to find everything she needed at Wal-Mart. Hank had been told the night before what Gloria wanted for the door and had managed to use his tools at home to cut out the letters and the tiara. He’d dropped that off unpainted to Annie who had done the painting. Gloria knew they both were great at things like that, so she’d been confident it would be done in time.

Meanwhile after breakfast they had staged everything in Megan’s room until the rest of the hands were working, and Ashley and Gloria were gone. They’d gone through and painted quickly, with Annie even having a chance to stencil some random ‘Princess’ lettering and some lines like, ‘Once Upon a Time,’ on the walls. She couldn’t believe how it came together, and the wall-stick-on decals she’d found at Wal-Mart with the various Princesses on it made it look even more amazing.

‘It’s going to be a little hard to explain to Madison and Mark though...’ She thought to herself. It was a lot of trouble to go through for someone to only be there three weeks. ‘Oh well, Ashley looks like she’s about to explode with happiness. We’ll figure it out next week.’

The other hands wouldn’t be a problem since they wouldn’t be coming upstairs in the next week or so, she was pretty sure of that. Gloria seemed to be happy with everything too, but Megan was certain she saw something click inside her head about something still being needed. She shook her head, even when she’d been here before as a teenager Gloria had been a force that couldn’t be stopped. It was what made her so certain they would be safe there. The fact that Gloria was all but insisting she stick around for a couple years wasn’t something she necessarily had a problem with either. It would give Ashley some stability.

She felt a little guilty, as she realized just last week she had been making last minute plans for their getaway. Megan feared deeply for her future and asked herself a hundred times an hour if she’d made the right choice about running... And if she’d made a huge mistake by suggesting Tony become Ashley... And if she’d made an even bigger mistake by taking her suggestion that they both be younger...

‘So many doubts,’ she thought worriedly.

At that moment her little bundle of joy hugged her tight though. “I love you Mommy,” she heard and she couldn’t help but cry a bit as she hugged her precious daughter.

I SPENT THE hours until dinner playing with the tub of Barbie’s that Gloria had given me for my room. I liked my American Girl dolls better, but it was fun to have a dollhouse to play with. Mom even came in after awhile and sat down to play with me. That was the first time I could ever remember her sitting down to play with me! As an only child I’d always been pretty lonely in that regard.

I cleaned up just before dinner and enjoyed eating some stew that Consetta had made for lunch that we’d missed out on. Mom didn’t seem to mind having it for a second meal because it was really good! “So you made appointments for both doctors tomorrow?”

Mom nodded, “We’re going to see Dr. Boteo first, and then Dr. Reynolds had a spot an hour later.”

I looked at both of them a little bit nervously. I didn’t really like doctors... And the idea of going to a ‘shrink’ as my dad referred to them made me nervous. ‘What if she decides I’m totally crazy for doing this... What if she commits me to the mental ward...?’ I played with the last two peas at the bottom of my bowl, not really feeling up to eating them.

“I think it’s smart to get into both of them,” Gloria said. She then grabbed all of our bowls and went to the sink with them. Mom started to object but she shooed her away. “We never got a chance to watch that movie last night,” Gloria said.

I nodded.

“Why don’t you go change into your pajamas and we’ll go watch it and eat some of that ice cream we bought at the store,” Gloria said with a smile.

“Ice cream?” Mom looked at us like we were guilty of a dad-sized conspiracy.

“You know, that frozen stuff,” I told her with a smile.

“Why you little smarty pants,” she said and started to come after me. I made a hasty retreat upstairs trying to run away, but Mom caught me at my door and started tickling me. “Come on, let’s find some pajamas!”

Mom went through my drawer and found one of my princess nightgowns and handed it to me. As soon as I had changed I grabbed Kaitlyn, changed her into pajamas, and then went downstairs with Mom. She had grabbed my hairbrush and some ribbon for some reason.

As soon as Gloria saw me she gave me that smile that said I was sweeter than pure sugar, and said, “I love that nightgown!”

“Thank you,” I said. I sat down in the middle of the couch next to Mom and began eating the scoop of ice cream that Gloria handed me in the bowl. She and Mom had an extra scoop, but I didn’t mind. The single scoop was gone though before Merida had even run to the forest in frustration with her Mom. Gloria took our bowls at some point and Mom said, “Sit in front of me here,” at a lull in the movie.

I barely noticed her brushing my hair out of the pigtails or anything else while the movie went on. I loved the whole thing and hated my dad for having forbidden me to watch it before. I definitely enjoyed the idea of sticking it completely to him by being this cute little girl! I had little doubt that if he saw me without Mom he probably wouldn’t have a chance in the world of recognizing me. I think Mom and Gloria had expected me to go to fall asleep by the end of the movie, but I hadn’t.

“Bedtime Princess,” Mom said then though.

“Aww...” I whined.

“Don’t aww me young lady. You know your bedtime’s at eight, and it’s already eight-ten.”

I griped for another moment out of principal and Gloria came up with a solution, “Tell you what, if you are a good girl and go to bed without any more whining I’ll tell you a bedtime story.”

My brain twitched a bit at that. Why would I want to hear a bedtime story when I could read better than she could? Another part of my brain though took over and moved my mouth, “Okay... I guess I like bedtime stories...”

“Good, let’s go!” She said and before I knew it she picked me up again.

“You know I can walk,” I told her.

“I know, but I wasn’t ever able to carry my own kids after they were about five... They got too big!”

I blushed and felt like melting then. I was ten and she was telling me I was smaller than her kids had been at five!

Mom pulled the bed covers down so Gloria could set me down, and then pulled them back up to my chin. From somewhere on the new bookshelf Gloria dug out a book off of it. “Do you mind if I do this?” She asked Mom with some concern.

“Not if you don’t mind me staying to listen too,” She said with a smile.

I expected a normal fairytale of princesses, knights, and dragons, but Gloria surprised me by reading a different kind of fairytale, one that was Native American inspired. It was called, Coyote: A Trickster, and told the story about Coyote running afoul of some Crows. It was a cute story, but I must confess I missed the very end since I was asleep.

Chapter 10: Shrunken Heads

I LOOKED OUT the window of the car as the landscape passed by. Mom and I had taken care of the morning chores, had breakfast, and then hurriedly showered and left. I was wearing another romper that Mom had purchased in the initial rush of clothes shopping. This was made to look like it was a two-piece outfit, with a pair of sort of jean shorts on the bottom and this kind of weird asymmetrical top. Its top was pink with thin white stripes in between the big pink stripes. At the bottom the shorts looked to have been washed out from pink with splotches of white. The asymmetrical part had this ruffle running from my right shoulder across the top of my chest and over, while my left shoulder just had an inch strap.

I liked how it fit me and I knew I looked cute. It was a pain to go the bathroom though, since I had to slide the straps off my shoulders and push it all down. The thing I liked most about it though was that it was comfortable for the hour-long drive to Albuquerque, and the hospital where both doctors had offices. I started off the trip pretty sleepy, but there were so many neat new things to see as we drove that I couldn’t help but stare off into the distance as we drove. Unfortunately the Sandia Mountains were on Mom’s side... Which meant I had a hard time seeing them from my car seat.

I was amused that there seemed to be constant references to red and green chile throughout the city. The only thing that seemed more prevalent were the signs for the Isleta, Sandia, and Santa Ana Indian Tribes. There were also other ‘Native American’ art and jewelry advertisements too. Lots of casinos seemed to be around on their reservations! As we drove down the freeway I felt my heart stop for a moment when I saw one of the family stores.

“Are you okay sweetheart?” Mom asked from in the front.

“Yes, but they have stores here too, don’t they?”

Mom bit her lip and said, “Sweetie they have stores in all forty-eight mainland states. Unless we move to Alaska there’s always going to be one somewhere. Maybe... Maybe if we get that desperate we’ll think about that. I’m hoping New Mexico is rural enough though that we can hide here just fine.”

I nodded.

“Besides, you like Gloria, don’t you?” she asked.

“Of course, she’s like Grandma,” I told her, but then added, “Don’t tell her I said that though!”

Mom laughed. “I won’t, but she’s old enough to be your grandmother,” she admitted.

As the GPS said that we were approaching our destination she said, “Umm... Tony, Ashley, however you feel today with these doctors I want you to be honest... Don’t lie just because you think it’s what they or I want to hear, or because you don’t want to risk being found.”

I looked up at her in surprise - she hadn’t called me Tony since the initial meeting with Roger. I found myself hating that name more and more. “Okay...” I said, but added, “Please don’t call me Tony anymore though.”

She looked like she might burst into tears, “Okay,” she said and put the car into park. Mom was at my door a moment later and undid my harness.

“Can I take Kaitlyn in with me?” I asked.

“Sure sweetheart,” she told me, “I’m sure no one will mind one bit.”

RAY LOOKED AT his bank account listings for the fifth time in an hour and wanted to scream. She took only five thousand dollars from their actual savings account, leaving him twenty in there. The fund that was to have been for Tony to go to college had been totally wiped out – all one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Then there were the overseas accounts. How she ever found out about the Cayman Island accounts he didn’t know, but out of twenty he had, she had hit fifteen of them. All told those accounts had yielded another three hundred thousand for her.

He sighed.

“Hey Pops...” He said when his dad picked up.

“Ray, what do you need?” He asked gruffly. There was no doubt that his dad was seriously pissed at him.

“You wanted a total of what I know Megan has, right?”

“How come I have a feeling I’m about to find out just how much you’ve been putting away for yourself.”

“Because you’re smart.” He said curtly. “She didn’t get all of it, but I have counted four hundred twenty five thousand I know of.”

“HOLY FUCK BOY!!!!” His father screamed in his ear. “YOU LEAVE THAT GODDAMN MONEY JUST LAYING AROUND?!?!?”

He listened to his father rail at him for another ten minutes straight before he said in a calmer voice, “You may never find her you know. That’s some serious protection money.”

“I know. You wanted to know though.”

“We’re going to talk about how you’re going to pay that money back to the family after this mess is sorted.” And with that he hung up.

“Shit!” He said aloud. It was good that he was sure Megan had no way to know about the Swiss accounts. Even he had to look that information up on his computer.

MEGAN FILLED OUT the paperwork as if she had no insurance. She had the cash to pay for this in her purse. In fact she had more even than she let Tony... Ashley know about. Megan had spent a full year keeping an eye out for a chance to get out. One night her husband left his computer open and she got just a glimpse of how much money he had. The four hundred thousand she had brought with them couldn’t even begin to put a dent in that amount. She obviously hadn’t been able to bring it all in cash! Instead she created her own accounts and transferred the funds a dozen or more times before they ended up in three places.

From there she’d put together some bonds, investments, and other fronts for the four-hundred and fifty thousand she hadn’t brought with them. Her plan was to get a hold of that in the next two weeks if possible. She just needed to get to a bank... Or better yet get Roger to act as an intermediary. She’d have to call him next week.

Megan almost screwed up the date on Ashley’s birthday, reminding herself it was no longer in July! She almost messed up on age too, nearly forgetting her daughter was supposed to be seven until Tuesday. ‘I’m going to screw this up royally one of these days,’ Megan admitted to herself. At least the rest of the sheet was the normal stuff like allergies that wouldn’t change. She turned the form into the receptionist and paid the fee. “They’ll be right with you guys,” she told her.

Her heart nearly leapt into her throat as she turned around. Ashley was playing with another girl who had also brought a doll with her. She recognized it as one of the historical dolls she’d seen at the American Girl store, but couldn’t for the life of her remember her name. Megan watched the two of them play together for about ten minutes when another lady said, “Your daughter and mine seem to be getting along really well.” She paused, “I’m Angela.”

“Amber,” she said. “She’s actually my younger sister though.”

“I thought you looked too young for her to be yours, but I’ve learned not to judge over the years.” Megan could see that she was probably really about two years younger than she actually was. She smiled, “I completely understand. My parents love Ashley dearly, but she was definitely the ‘oops’ kid.”

Angela laughed. “How old is she?”

“Seven, she’ll be eight on Tuesday.” She smiled, “And your daughter?”

“She’s just turned nine a month ago.”

The two of them talked normally for a few more minutes until she heard, “Ashley Caffrey?!?” She almost forgot to jump up at that name, but Ashley reminded her by standing up and walking over towards her.

“It was nice talking to you,” she said to Angela.

Ashley ran up to her and clung to her like she was younger than she was even portraying. ‘I wonder why Miss Social Butterfly is nervous now…?’

AS MUCH AS I had worked myself up today, I just about died when Rebecca came over to me and suggested we play together since we both had AG dolls. She didn’t even care that I was supposed to be younger than her since I had to be cool to have one. She made up a play scenario about our dolls having to have a checkup with the doctor, but playing outside in the lobby. I know... Weird.

I went along with it though because I didn’t want to look weird. I was also smart enough to realize I needed to learn how to play with ‘other’ little girls. I blushed several times while we were playing and she asked me what I liked. When I told her I really liked Disney Princesses I thought she was going to call me a baby or something, but she had said, “So do I!” with a big smile. Actually I had been having fun with her and temporarily forgotten about the impending doom of the doctor.

“Sweetie let’s get your height and weight,” the nurse who had introduced herself as Tammy said. She insisted I take off my sandals and be absolutely flat footed. She moved the weights around and said, “Forty seven pounds.” I looked at Mom, I couldn’t believe I was back below fifty!!! When she measured my height I was just as glum when she read it as being four foot even.

“Are you sure?” I asked her.

“Yep, finally into four feet, huh?” She asked like that would excite me.

“You had your shoes on the last time you were measured,” Mom decided to remind me.

‘Not fair!!!’ I screamed inside of my head. The height I guess made sense, with my tennis shoes on it was possible it added an inch... But the weight loss surprised me. I had finally made it to fifty-two pounds the last time we measured me. That was a pretty significant drop for my size.

Tammy led Mom and I to a room and left us, saying, “Doctor Boteo will be with you in a moment.”

“Thanks,” Mom told her.

I didn’t feel like sitting on the exam table, so I went and sat in her lap while we waited. “You really are too big for this sweetie,” she told me as she stroked my hair. This morning she had brushed it out completely and used a hair band to pull my hair back a bit, but leaving the rest of my hair free to fly around.

“Am I getting younger?” I asked her nervously.

“Only on paper sweetheart.”

“Then why did I shrink and weigh less?!?” I asked, trying to not panic.

“Well, like I said before, you had your tennis shoes on before... And I think the nurse at your old doctor was being generous and rounded you up an inch.”

“Why would she do that?” I asked her.

“To make you feel better about your height. People have lied for years about their height to make themselves taller, it’s normal.”

“Oh.” I said.

She kept stroking my hair, “And the weight is pretty understandable. Since you were weighed your dad got worse and hit you more. You were stressed, I was stressed, and that meant you probably didn’t eat as much, right?”

I nodded.

“Then we took off on this crazy trip across the country... And you haven’t been sitting still the last few days either... Well, you probably weigh more than I would expect.”

I didn’t say anything, but continued to enjoy her stroking my hair. The doctor chose that moment to come in. “Good morning, I’m Doctor Boteo,” she said warmly after she closed the door.

“I’m...” Mom stopped for a moment and I could understand. “I guess first how much did Roger tell you?”

Dr. Boteo gave mom a look that was thoughtful, and then sat down on the other chair in the room looking towards us. “He told me that you had an abusive husband that you’re running away from. He also said that your life depended on me helping you in any and every way possible, but nothing more than that.”

Mom took a deep breath in and asked, “How long do you have to see us?”

“I blocked out an hour here since Roger told me to. They won’t interrupt us,” she added.

“Okay... I guess let’s start from the beginning, which you sort of know. Last Saturday we left our house in Ohio as soon as my husband left on a business trip...” Mom proceeded to give her a few details on our crazy run down to Atlanta.

“Why did you have to do all of that?” She asked. I could see the look in her eyes of wondering if Mom was sane.

“My husband’s family is all mafia.” She said.

Dr. Boteo’s eyes opened wide, “Seriously?”

Mom nodded, “He has resources to find us that I’m sure I only know half of, and if he finds us he will kill me.”

“Okay, I guess I can’t say that I blame you then for being careful with the cars. You said you made it to Atlanta?”

“Well, that’s where part of this story is going to need help from you. My daughter here... Was actually born my son.”

That sent ripples of shock across Dr. Boteo’s face. “I don’t believe that for a second...”

“It’s true Dr. Boteo.”

“Have you been dressing as a girl for a while then?”

“Since Sunday,” I told her.

“Never before that?”

“No.”

“Are you sure this is wise Misses...” I could tell the doctor was at a loss.

“Call me my real name of Megan for the moment. It was Franchino, but I won’t be using that ever again.” Mom went into where the idea came from and how I’d been more than willing to go along with it. She also explained the age disparity in our documentation and story, and finally how we planned to continue.

“Megan could I see... Ashley alone for five minutes?” She asked.

Mom nodded and left the room.

“Okay, first things first, would you like me to call you Tony or Ashley, I won’t tell your mom either way.”

“Ashley.”

“Ashley, what you both are doing is going to be really hard for you to grow up. I’m worried that you’re doing this to please her...”

I interrupted, “Please, don’t talk down to me. I’m portraying being younger, but my reading and comprehension skills are above the high school level. I understand that you’re worried that Mom is making me do this... Or that I feel I have to do this. Well, in a way I do, because if my dad finds us he is going to kill Mom. She’s not kidding on that. If he can find a way to not have my grandfather kill him I’m guessing he’ll beat me senseless or kill me too. The safest way for us to stay under the radar is for me to be a girl.”

“But...”

“But here’s the other thing... I feel better like this. I never fit in before as Tony. Quite frankly I’ve always been girly and it’s driven my dad nuts! I don’t want to grow up a boy, even if my dad and all of my idiot relatives go to prison and are far away from harming us.”

“You’re sure?” She asked.

“I’m sure.” I replied.

“Because...”

“I’m sure,” I said again.

“Okay then,” she allowed. She smiled at the door before opening it, “I will say you make a very cute girl.”

I blushed and waited for her to find Mom. It didn’t take long for her to return.

“I must say this is really unusual... And I’m not completely sure what you’re wanting from me.”

“Well, the first thing is can you check on Ashley, and just make sure everything is okay with her for now.”

She gave Mom a look, but said, “Okay.”

“Up on the table young lady,” she said to me.

She asked for me to pull my romper down off my shoulders to my waist, which led to a gasp. “What...?”

“What?” I asked. “Oh yeah...” I said. She could suddenly see some of the bruising at the bottom of my back that I thought was fading. I couldn’t remember seeing it last.

“That’s from your dad?” She asked.

I nodded.

“I know this is going to be a bit uncomfortable, we can ask your mom to leave if you want, but would you please go ahead and take off your clothes?”

I sighed. I was naked a second later and lying on my stomach on the table. Dr. Boteo had insisted on photos even though Mom already had plenty. “How long ago was this?” She asked with concern.

“A week and a half?” I said.

“Two nights before we left, so that would be about a week actually, just a little over a week.” Mom said.

I hadn’t been able to see it, but apparently my butt to the lower part of my back was engulfed in a large bruise. Dr. Boteo softly manipulated my flesh to make sure there wasn’t anything seriously injured below the skin. “Okay, sit up again,” She told me.

She then put me through several embarrassing moments as she manipulated my genitals to make sure they were normal. “Okay, put your clothes back on.” She told me. From a drawer she picked up a syringe, “I need to take a blood sample here Ashley, it won’t hurt that much.”

I gritted my teeth and said, “Okay.”

I watched her fill up three vials of my blood and then held my arm up in the air like she asked. Once she threw away all but the vials she came back to me with a Barbie Band-Aid and put it over the spot.

“You did very well!” She told me. “I’ll be right back,” she said. In a minute she was out and back in again.

“Okay, now your turn Megan,” She told Mom.

“We’re here for Ashley...”

Dr. Boteo gave her a look that would have made me confess every wrong I’d ever done and Mom relented. “Would you like Ashley to leave?” She asked Mom.

“No, she knows...” Mom said.

Dr. Boteo had several moments where I didn’t think she would breathe after looking at Mom. She was badly bruised on both her front and back as I remembered seeing that first night. Mom let her know about the bruising on her face too and she insisted she remove the makeup so she could see it. Mom grimaced a bit as she touched the bones there.

“You may have some fractures here,” She told her. “If it’s still tender and swollen next week I want you back in here for some x-rays.”

Mom nodded.

“Okay, put your clothes back on too.” I ended up scooting off the chair and sitting back on Mom’s lap a few minutes later.

“If you weren’t gone from that situation I would be reporting it,” She told Mom coldly. “But, I’m proud of you for getting out of there. I don’t know many women, and young ladies,” she said nodding to me, “who would be able to do what you two have done.”

She looked at her watch and saw that we had almost used the full hour. “Okay, you came in here for what?”

“Well, Roger suggested first that you could get us new shot records with our correct information.” Mom handed her our old ones.

“Okay, that’s simple. I can get that done pretty quickly.”

“The next thing is a little more delicate...”

“You want me to do something about Ashley?”

Mom nodded.

“Well, I’m not going to prescribe estrogen or anything like that. That would be bad for an eight-year old to start growing breasts...” Mom laughed a bit, “But, we can do a treatment of hormone blockers. That will keep her from going into puberty for now. She should still be a couple years out from it would be my guess, but with these blockers we can keep her from it indefinitely.”

“Forever?” I asked, nervous.

“No, just until you hit age eleven would be my thought.” She smiled, “Age eleven I guess for you in the current identity. Are you really okay with all of that?” She asked me.

“No, but it’s the safest thing. It’s not like it’s the end of the world though. I’ll have plenty of time to be old later.”

Dr. Boteo cracked a smile. “Okay then, with the height you’re going to be and everything I don’t think you’ll have a problem keeping that part of things going. When you get older, changing for PE in middle school becomes an issue, we’ll talk about what we can do then.”

I nodded.

“Give me five minutes, I’m going to run and get this prescription for you. You said you don’t have an ID yet, right?”

Mom nodded, “I’m hoping we’ll be able to get to that today.”

“Fair enough. I’m also prescribing you a prescription for inflammation. I really don’t like the way your eye or some of those other bruises look.” She looked at me, “If you feel like you’re hurting more at some point I want to see you too. In fact, I want to see both of you in four weeks anyway.”

“Okay,” we said.

Dr. Boteo left for a few minutes and returned with two bottles. “This is a forty day supply of her medicine. I want to check her hormone levels again when you come back. If for some reason I need to call you to tell you to take her off or something I will. I shouldn’t, but after I see the initial results I may need to. I figure time is of the essence though for your safety... Here are some of those inflammation pills. Take one at bedtime each night for the next week. Make sure you have eight hours before you operate machinery or drive.”

Mom nodded.

Dr. Boteo pulled out two brand new shot record cards and quickly copied the information from our old ones. “I can’t think of anything else you’ll need, but if you do please call me...”

She paused.

“I’ve met a lot of patients in my career and you’re two of the most amazing people I’ve come across. I hope you can stay safe.”

“Thanks,” Mom said simply.

I gave Dr. Boteo a hug and Mom followed suit as we left to go down the hallway. “Where to next?”

“We need to hurry up to the next floor to see Dr. Reynolds, I didn’t expect this appointment to run over...”

With that Mom hurried me over to the elevator and pressed the button to go up a floor. She walked up to the receptionist and said, “Hi, sorry we’re a little late, my sister and I are supposed to see Dr. Reynolds?”

“Amber Caffrey?” She asked.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Here, start filling out...”

“Are you my next appointment?” A lady with graying hair asked.

“Yes,” Mom said.

“Come on in then, the paperwork can wait.”

“Are you sure Doctor?” The receptionist asked.

“Quite.” She said curtly. “Follow me.”

“Have a seat,” she told us, motioning towards a comfy couch and she took a seat in a chair across from it.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You said Dr. Boteo and Roger told you to call me?” She started, “I don’t normally do appointments directly, this is a bit unusual.”

“Well... You’re going to find a number of things are unusual about us.”

“So you said.” Dr. Reynolds looked at me closely before saying, “Well, I don’t know you, so let’s start there.”

“Before we start, I know you wouldn’t because of professional ethics, but please don’t ever tell anyone about this,” Mom pleaded.

Dr. Reynolds raised an eyebrow, but nodded, “I would never breach a patients’ confidentiality. Ever.”

“Thank you,” Mom said. “Well...” and I sort of half-listened half-tuned out to the story as she told it all again. When Mom got to the part where she explained I was really a ten-year-old boy I saw something click in her head. Dr. Reynolds occasionally asked for clarification on parts of the story, but mostly just listened.

“Wow.” Was all she said at the end and stared at the notes she’d been taking.

“Okay, what do you want from me?” I felt a little annoyed at hearing the question for the second time. I swore the whole thing had felt like déjà vu as it was!

Mom took a deep breath in, “I’m intelligent enough to know that the abuse we’ve gone through has messed up both of us. We need counseling for that.”

Dr. Reynolds nodded, “I agree.”

“And, well, Ashley here has her own sets of issues. She’s told me she would rather stay a girl, even if we could suddenly magic things back. I think she may be transgendered, but we need your help to decide if that’s true or not.”

I wanted to interrupt, but decided to bide my time.

“You’re very wise for twenty-three,” Dr. Reynolds laughed. “Okay, in that case what I want to do is have three parts to all of our future sessions. One is going to be with you over the abuse, the next is going to be with Ashley similarly, and also dealing with her identity. I’m not overly comfortable about the age thing...” She put a finger up as Mom started to interrupt, “but I do understand your fears! I get the feeling they’re justified too from what you’ve told me.”

Mom nodded.

Dr. Reynolds looked at her clock. “I have another appointment in ten minutes. Could you come back at four though?”

“That should be fine,” Mom said.

“Okay then. I’m going to take as much time then as we need to, it could be a while,” she warned Mom.

“That’s fine.”

“And because Roger is a good friend of mine, I’m only going to charge you a hundred dollars for today total. We’re going to make fifty dollars the normal fee after that.”

“But that’s way too low...” Mom started to argue.

“Don’t argue with me here, I might go lower!” She said with a smile. “You’re probably two of the most remarkable people to walk into my office in years. But, I want to do this right. Give the check to my receptionist after you fill out the forms...” She thought for a second, “Actually... Ashley, are you good at reading?” She asked me.

“Very good,” I told her.

“Above high school level,” Mom added.

“Okay then, come back at three, I have a survey I want Ashley to go through and answer.”

“We’ll be here!” Mom said.

And with that we were leaving the hospital for a few hours. I saw on the clock that it was noon. “Well, we have three hours...” Mom said. “Why don’t we get something fast food wise and then go to the MVD. I want to get a drivers license.”

“Okay,” I said. I didn’t really say much for the next hour while Mom drove through the drive-through at McDonalds, and then began the long wait in line for the MVD. Mom managed to somehow convince them with some papers Roger had given that she had a license before, so thankfully there was no need for her to take another drivers test. She was told if she did that she’d have had to come back later!

I just sat quietly though and had a silent conversation with Kaitlyn the whole time. She didn’t say much more than I did that whole time either. At two o’clock we walked out of the building and Mom smiled having happily gotten her last form of identification. The fact that the car was now registered and she had brand new, New Mexican license plates made her even happier. She buckled me into the seat and walked back around to her side.

“Everything okay Ashley?” Mom asked me, “You’re being awful quiet.”

“Just thinking,” I told her.

“About?”

“Stuff,” I said.

“Uh-huh,” She said. I think she understood I wasn’t feeling up to talking about it, because her next words were, “I love you very much Ashley.”

“I love you too Mommy,” I said.

An hour wasn’t much time to play with, but she decided to go to the mall to walk around at least. We window-shopped mostly, though both of us enjoyed the store Justice when we walked in. I tried on some outfits and she ended up buying several for me there before we had to head back to the hospital.

“Hi, we’re back...” Mom said nervously to the receptionist.

She looked up from her work and said, “Dr. Reynolds would like your sister to fill out this survey.”

“Okay,” I said to her and reached a hand up for the clipboard.

Her eyes narrowed as if realizing something didn’t seem right, but she shook her head. She handed me a pen and I sat in a chair with my knees brought up to my chin and started to read through it. The instructions said to be honest and read through the questions giving my best answer. I needed to be honest it said. ‘That’s kind of tough right now with my whole life turning into a lie...’ I thought somewhat bitterly.

I flipped through the pages and felt like crying when I realized there were a hundred questions!

Mom squeezed my shoulder and I started working.

MEGAN WATCHED HER daughter worriedly as she circled answers, filled in numbers, and wrote the occasional sentence or two. Ashley had been quiet since they had left earlier and she was a little worried about her. She’d been a little happier when they were finding a few of those outfits, but something was bothering her. ‘Of course I can’t imagine which of the million things it might be, either’ she admitted to herself.

She sighed – at least they were in the right place. Dr. Reynolds hadn’t really seemed the least bit phased about a boy believing himself to really be a girl. Megan was certain that there had been more than one patient move through this office like that. She was also certain that was part of the look when the receptionist had handed Ashley the survey. She didn’t think she hated her or anything, but she seemed to be in disbelief about it. ‘Probably has a hard time seeing her as a boy... Or,’ she giggled in her head, ‘maybe she thinks my daughter thinks she should be a boy?’ Wouldn’t that be ironic!

As Ashley worked Megan had a hard time not wanting to peek over her shoulder. Academically she knew that could mess up the study, but she was really curious none-the-less. ‘Maybe Dr. Reynolds will let me see later...’ She might not though she knew!

Megan sighed. ‘I hate not knowing what’s going on in my baby’s head.’

She absentmindedly began digging through her purse and found her new drivers license. Megan was thrilled beyond belief to have it. Amber Caffrey was thrilling to see in real form there. She also wanted to get passports for them too. ‘I need to do that for both of us Monday... Just to keep our options open.’ Megan actually had their old passports too, she could always use them in a pinch, but she was certain that it would be a bad idea to do so.

Her daughter paused to turn the page again and she couldn’t help but be torn. She looked adorable there in her romper, but she also looked so stressed and sad. Next week wasn’t going to be a lot easier unfortunately. ‘We still have to plan to leave for our parents funeral...’ She thought. ‘I really hope my real parents don’t have one for a while, there’s no way I could be there for it.’ She almost cried at that, but she was beginning to get tired of crying. Megan had done far too much of that.

‘You know, Ashley’s birthday is next week... I wonder if I could pull that off...’ She thought with an idea. ‘I won’t be able to tell her, or let her tell anyone else other than those that know... But it would be perfect!’

‘I do need to figure out what do for her birthday. I’m hoping Madison will help there... as long as Kaitlyn doesn’t go crazy on me. I think she’ll be okay though - we patched up our issues a long time ago.’

“Umm... Amber, I’m done,” Ashley said next to her and she felt the little jolt in her heart. The simple fact of the matter was that Ashley was sacrificing her gender and a lot of things by being a currently seven-year-old girl. But, Megan was certain she was making an even harder sacrifice in a smaller way. Having her daughter having to behave like she was her sister instead of her mother was heart wrenching.

“Let’s take it...” she started to say when the door opened up and Dr. Reynolds walked a patient out. She looked up at them and smiled, “Ready?”

I LOOKED UP at Dr. Reynolds and felt my nerves making their presence known. She scared me for some reason and I didn’t really understand why. It was like I realized she had the power to make my dreams come true in the future, or make them come crashing down. I worried she might decide I was doing this for the wrong reasons and tell Mom to stop. I was terrified of that, because as terrifying as the last seven days had been, I was finally me!

“Did you finish with that?” Dr. Reynolds asked.

“Yes ma’am,” I said and handed her the survey. She didn’t even look at it though and encouraged us through the hallway.

“Ashley, would you please go in this room while your Mom and I have her part of the session? I don’t see any reason that you’ll be bored this way,” she encouraged. I walked into a room that was filled with every toy I could think of. It looked like there was even a TV with the current game consoles all hooked up to it in one corner.

“Okay,” I said. I walked in and Dr. Reynolds closed the door behind me. There were two cameras that I could see in the corners of the room.

‘This is probably one of her methods,’ I thought to myself. ‘She’ll either be watching with Mom right now or be recording it to watch later.’ I sighed, knowing I was like an animal in the zoo in that manner. ‘I guess we should give her a show,’ I thought. I found two dolls that were about Kaitlyn’s size and decided we should have a tea party. I decided to speak out loud too, so she could know what was going on.

Actually the truth was that I had fun doing it, and I was surprised when the door opened up and Dr. Reynolds said, “Would you come with me please?”

I nodded, putting up the dolls where I had found them and brought Kaitlyn with me. She led me back to her office and I sat back down at the couch. “Your doll is very pretty, what’s her name?”

“Kaitlyn,” I said.

“Do you have other dolls?” She asked me.

“Uh-huh,” I said.

“What are their names?”

“Well there’s Saige, but that’s her name from the books and movie,” I said, “And then there’s Kaelye, she’s just a baby though, and Kristin who’s also a baby and a little bit older than Kaelye.”

She smiled at me for a moment and continued on with her questions. We talked about horses and how I was beginning to really like them, what I thought about school, and a million other questions, but never really touching on me being a girl or what had happened. “Ashley, I don’t want to talk about what you’ve been through too much right now... I’d rather you get to know me and trust me a bit. But, would you tell me what you were thinking over this past week?”

I bit my lip, knowing that she knew everything already from Mom. I thought about her question a little more and said, “Well... Last Friday night Dad was yelling at Mom. I wanted to go down and try and stop him from hitting her, but there,” I sobbed, “there was no way.” I felt some tears going down my face. I told her about him coming in and threatening me and… everything else. I talked about how proud I was of my mom for getting us out of there.

She didn’t ask how I felt about being a girl, but I told her flat out, “As hard as everything has been this week, being Ashley has been the best thing to ever happen to me!” I went on, and there was no doubt about me needing a box of Kleenex of my own in the end. Dr. Reynolds came over to the couch and gave me a hug.

“I’ve known a lot of patients over the years, but you are one of the two bravest I’ve ever known. You’ve got a rough road ahead of you, one you don’t deserve, but if you’ll let me help you I want to. Would you like to come back again?”

I nodded, “I think so...” I said honestly.

“I’m going out to get your Mom so I can talk to you both for a bit and then we’ll get you out of here so you can go eat dinner. I looked in shock at a clock that said it was six-thirty already!

Mom came in, gave me a big hug, and sat down next to me. “Okay, Megan, this is the last time I probably will call you Megan. I think if you’re going to do this you need to fully think of yourself as Amber.” Mom nodded.

“Ashley, your mom is going to be your big sister from now on... And that’s going to be tough on both of you. I think the only time you should allow yourselves to drop the act is in the privacy of your bedrooms - I really don’t want to see you end up in the hands of your father.”

I nodded.

“That includes the car sweetie,” Mom said with a sniffle. I reached over and hugged her.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t call a ‘time out’ at some point, but I think for the sake of your safety you have to own your new identities. On that front, Ashley, I think you are a remarkable young lady. You’re a little on the young side, and it’s too early for me to say you’re transgendered... But I suspect you are. The other young lady I mentioned to you earlier wasn’t much older than you when I first met her.” She looked to be thinking back, “I think we made the right decision by helping her along with hormones fairly early. In your case I don’t think we’ll need to even consider that for a few more years. I’m thinking about your eleventh birthday we’ll start looking at it.” She smiled at me, “And I do mean Ashley’s eleventh birthday.”

I nodded, it was basically what Dr. Boteo had said.

“For now I think Dr. Boteo has made a very good decision for you with the blockers. It will help you fit in better with this identity.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Amber, I want you to get your sister involved in some sort of activity with other girls her age. Something at a community center or the YMCA if it’s not too late to sign up. If it is, maybe you can send her to daycare a few days a week or something. It’s summer so there will be a lot of six to ten year olds in those programs. You may also want to start figuring out where she’s going to go to school. Some schools are better than others out that way.”

Dr. Reynolds ran her finger down a list of notes she had taken through both of our sessions. “Do you two have any questions for me?”

I shook my head and looked over at... Amber. She also shook her head. “Okay then, I will see you two sisters next week?”

Mom... Amber, nodded and took my hand to lead me off. Dr. Reynolds secretary was gone and the hospital felt a bit like a ghost town as we left. “What do you want for dinner?”

“Umm...” I thought for a moment. Italian was the truth, it was comfort food, and it was what said I was Tony... “Chinese?”

Amber smiled at me and said, “Okay, I think I saw a P.F. Changs...”

We drove in silence until we got to the restaurant and she helped me out of my car seat. I brought Kaitlyn in, quickly realizing I hadn’t been much of anywhere without her the last few days! Mom and I enjoyed the meal as something different. Amber ordered us a set of wontons to begin with and then we split an order of sweet and sour chicken. Our fortune cookies were our dessert, and we headed back to Santa Fe.

As soon as she hit the freeway I was asleep.

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