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 am planning to post it in 26 installments, but that may change if I feel like a posting needs more. 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).

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!!

Dedication

As a kid I was fortunate enough to grow up at the dawn of the Internet. I felt like I was different than other kids, but in time I stumbled onto some websites that featured stories and information that led me to understand I was not alone. I had always been a voracious reader, but I found myself devouring anything of merit on these websites when I had any modicum of privacy.

I’ve always enjoyed the works of science fiction and stories that were beyond the realm of possibility, but somehow still managed to keep the reader engaged in the story. Authors like Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler have often stolen large portions of time from me! The work you are about to read has equally been inspired by a number of authors that I would be remiss to not mention. About a decade ago I read an incomplete story idea by Wanda Cunningham entitled ‘Incognito Parallel’ that really struck a chord with me. This is an entirely new and separate work, but when I re-read her story this past summer it shifted my imagination into overdrive. Similarly I would be remiss to not mention Karin Bishop’s many works that readers may draw a parallel to as well!

Thank you to those authors and so many others that have often provided rays of hope in what can be a very lonely life for most of us!

Similarly thank you once again to my amazing editor Carla Ann! She reached out to me when I posted my first book and has been the best big sister any girl could ever wish for!

 
 

Prologue

 
“DAMNIT RAY!!!” I heard my mom scream in the living room as I lay in bed.
“Well what do you expect Megan?!? How else am I supposed to make a living?” my dad shouted back.

“You don’t have to keep doing this!” My mom.

“Yes I do, there’s no choice Megan. I’m good at it, and it pays for all of this!” I heard him say back.

“But...” I heard mom.

“Shhh, we don’t want to wake up Tony.” Dad said getting softer.

Things grew quieter and I looked at my glowing alarm clock. It showed it was 1:30am and I knew I should try and go back to sleep. This was not the way I thought the first day of summer vacation should feel though. School had let out for the summer at my elementary school at noon yesterday and I had been really excited to be done for the year. Things like this though made me wish I were still at school now — or anywhere else but here. My parents had been fighting more and more over the last few months, and tonight’s fight was nothing new. I had no idea what my mom was trying to keep my dad from doing... All he did was the bookkeeping for my grandfather’s chain of discount dollar stores. ‘What could he be doing that would upset mom like this?’ I wondered to myself.

I had just about fallen asleep when I heard a loud fleshy sound. “There’s no way I’m getting out of here, and you better start getting that through that stupid brain of yours bitch! No one walks away!!! Ever!”

I heard whimpering and wanted to go and see if Mom was okay, but I was way too scared. I had my own bruised butt from the last time I tried to help. I feigned sleeping when I heard my door suddenly open. “Glad to see you’re still sleeping Tony,” my dad said menacingly. “Next time you or your mom gets out of line you’re really going to know pain.”

I kept pretending to sleep and was grateful when I heard the door shut. I quietly sobbed and hoped that Mom was okay.

Chapter 1: Flight

THE NEXT MORNING Mom woke me, “Tony, honey, it’s time to wake up.”

I rolled over and looked at her. My eyes filled with tears as I saw her left eye was blackened. “Mom!” I said and jumped up to hug her.

“Shhh baby, it’s okay.”

“No it’s not!” I told her.

“Yes it is, but I need you to be brave right now. Your daddy wants to have breakfast with you before he leaves on his trip.”

I glared at her for multiple reasons, but knew I couldn’t do anything for the moment. I got up instead and followed her out of the room and downstairs to the dining room table. Mom had woken up early apparently and made pancakes, eggs, sausage, and the works. Of course I was pretty sure it wasn’t entirely her idea. Dad probably made her do it since in his mind that was her job. I watched her bring the coffee pot over to refill his coffee before she began putting food on my plate.

“Thank you Mom,” I told her when she put it in front of me.

“You’re welcome Tiger,” she said to me with a smile that looked a little off due to the swelling. “Would you like some orange juice?”

“Please,” I told her.

I could feel my dad glaring at the two of us and looked up at him. His entire side of the family was second generation Italian-American. Raimondo Giuseppe Franchino was his full name, though my mom had called him Ray for years. My dad looked like a skinny, young Danny DeVito, completely down to his short height of an inch above five feet. My dad’s dark hair was something he took pride in keeping neat, along with a thin mustache, that all led to him being fairly handsome. I supposed that was why mom married him straight out of college.

I think he liked Mom because she was shorter than he was by three inches. Her blonde hair was a striking contrast to his black hair and Mediterranean features. While he looked his age of nearly forty, my mom didn’t look a day over twenty-five, even in the slovenly clothes she wore these days. She could have been a typical California girl the way she looked, but she’d mostly grown up in a small mountain town in Colorado. With her puffy cheek, and the bruise over her eye, now I feared she looked more like the poster child for abused wives.

I had just finished eating as much as I felt like of the gigantic breakfast when Dad spoke up, “Tony, I’m going to be gone until next Thursday. I’m going to be cleaning up a mess at one of our stores in Vermont, so make sure you behave for your mother.” He told me.

I swallowed and wondered when I ever misbehaved for her before answering, “Yes Father.”

After a while I cleaned up my plate and took it to the sink as he was coming back with a suitcase, “Tony that’s your mother’s job to do the dishes, leave it there for her.” He practically growled as he said it. He looked at my mother who was following down the stairs behind him, “Megan don’t let him be some sissy here, my son is going to be a Franchino man, and we don’t do women’s work.”

“Of course I won’t Ray,” mom said with her eyes lowered.

“And make damn sure he gets that haircut this week. I’m tired of seeing him with all that damn hair!”

“Okay,” she said.

He gave me a hug that felt cold and then gave my mother the same. “See you next Thursday Tiger!” he said and then walked to the garage. I could hear the garage door open and my mother anxiously watch him drive down the street.

I came up behind her and hugged her. “Oh Tony...” Mom said as she cried and I knew I was doing the same. We both silently held each other for a while before she squeezed me a little harder and wiped her face. She wiped mine then too, and said, “Tony, go get two suitcases out of the closet. Take one and pack as many of your clothes as you can in it. Leave the other one at the foot of the stairs.”

“Why?”

She looked like she was steeling herself before she answered, “We can’t stay here anymore Tiger.”

I was scared, but nodded. I ran upstairs to the closet that kept our suitcases and grabbed the two that remained in there like Mom said. She was coming upstairs just as I reached the landing and handed her one, before I ran into my bedroom. “Take only what you can’t live without,” Mom told me as she walked by.

I began going through my dresser drawers first and grabbed socks, underwear, shorts, and t-shirts - slamming them into the suitcase as quickly as I could. I looked around and found my journal, my iPad, a charger, and a couple other keepsakes I couldn’t live without. I was just about to close it when Mom came by with hers. “Tony, I know you love your iPad but leave it...”

“But why?” I asked.

“It can be tracked,” was all she said.

I swallowed... Then took it out of my bag and placed it back on my desk. There were so many other things I would probably bring if we had more space and time, but Mom made it seem like we needed to be gone quickly. I grabbed my favorite Detroit Tigers baseball cap as one last thing to take with me and closed the suitcase.

“Come on Tiger,” Mom said as she stood at the doorway.

She led me downstairs to the garage door and lifted my suitcase into the trunk next to hers. “Why don’t you go to the bathroom really quick before we go,” she told me.

“Do we have time?” I asked.

“We should have until next Thursday,” was her reply.

I hurried to the downstairs bathroom and went as quickly as I could before joining her in the car. I sat in the backseat and could see the tears streaming down her eyes through the mirror as she pressed the garage door opener button and drove down the street. I turned around as much as I could in my seat and watched our house fade away.

MEGAN STARED DOWN the highway at the signs that passed her by. Ohio left much to be desired in the way of scenery compared to the town she thought of as home. Though most of her childhood had been spent hopping from one place to another, her parents had finally settled down for her last years of school in Colorado.

‘There’s no way I can go there though…’ she thought sadly. ‘I have to get us far enough away before Ray starts looking for us…’

The bruise on her face didn’t hurt her nearly as bad as thinking about the extra bruises on her son. The sweet little boy that sat in the back of the car was nothing like his monster of a father; and she intended to keep it that way!

Megan had had been mentally planning this escape for months and hoped that she had enough plans for misdirection in place to avoid her husband ever finding them.

I SAT IN silence as Mom drove for an hour straight into Dayton. I was just thinking about the fact my rear was hurting when Mom said, “Sweetie, we need to switch cars here… While we do this I need you to do your best not to speak, okay?”

I stiffly nodded as I watched her turn off the road and park in a free commuter parking lot. Mom reached down and grabbed the pedal extenders from the pedals on the floor and stashed them in her large purse. She called for a taxi and we left our car in the lot and went to a residential address. I could see a slightly beat up Ford Focus sitting in the driveway with a for sale sign in the window, and a price of $4,000 on a card in the windshield. Mom rang the doorbell, “Hi, I called about the car?”

I could see an older lady in her seventies look out the door. “Yes, that was my granddaughter’s car...” she looked sad, “she died unexpectedly last month and I need to... I need to sell it.”

Mom nodded sadly, “You’re asking for four-thousand?”

“Yes ma’am, that’s what my friend said it should sell for. Still runs well and everything, just serviced...”

“Will you take cash?”

The lady looked surprised with how aggressively mom wanted the car, but smiled. “Sure.”

Mom and I went inside and I watched her pull an envelope out with forty crisp hundred-dollar bills. “Here is the title and the keys,” she told my mom. “Why don’t you mail me the plates once you get it registered, it’ll make it easier for you.”

“Oh thank you ma’am.” Mom said.

She walked us out the door and said, “I don’t know who you’re running from, I’m guessing a husband, but good luck to you.”

The color faded from Mom’s face, but she only said, “I just need a new car, that’s all. Thank you again.”

I opened the back door and sat down in what was a surprisingly clean car. I watched Mom lean in and attach her pedal extenders to the cars pedals as I buckled my seatbelt. Mom was so short that she used them all the time when she drove. Without them it was just about impossible for her to reach the pedals. Once she had adjusted everything else she waved at the lady and we drove back to the lot where we had parked before. Mom quickly transferred the suitcases from our old car into the new one, checked to make sure she hadn’t left anything, and we were driving off within two hours of coming into Dayton. We headed south through Cincinnati and into Kentucky.

“Mom, where are we going?” I asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” she answered with a shaky voice, “I’m hoping to get in touch with a friend of mine’s aunt. She has a ranch in New Mexico where I think we can lay low.”

“Do you think Dad will be looking for us?” I asked, trying to sound brave.

“I’m sure of it honey. We’re going to have several days of head start, but he’s going to be looking all over... And I’m pretty sure so is the family...”

“You mean Grandpa Jo?” I asked.

“Yes... And everyone he has working for him.”

I sat and stared for a moment and felt something go ‘click’ in my head for the first time. “Mom... Are they in the Mafia?”

She took a breath in and grimaced, “Your grandpa is the head of the family Tony, and I have no doubt they’re going to send everyone they can to find us.”

I suddenly understood what mom was concerned about now. “So Dad is doing illegal stuff?”

Mom just nodded and kept driving. I was shocked to realize that my Grandpa Jo, who’s real name was Giovanni, could possibly be a bad guy. I remembered watching a mob movie with Dad a few weeks back and at just how ruthless they could be. In that movie they had killed people for less than what we were doing! I remembered Dad laughing with glee through much of it, while I grimaced and wanted to do anything else but watch it!

I jumped slightly when the silence was broken, “Sweetie, I’m going to pull in here to get some gas,” Mom said at an exit that had a truck stop.

“Okay Mom,” I told her unenthusiastically. I did need to use the bathroom badly though!

I got out of the car after she came back from inside to pay the cash up front for the tank. I stood and watched her fill up the tank. Across from us in a parking space I noticed a girl about my age watching us. Her mother seemed to be just sitting in the driver’s seat staring off into space. “Probably just waiting for her husband…” I thought to myself.

“Come on Tiger, let’s go inside…” Mom said.

“Okay…”

MEGAN WAITED ANXIOUSLY for her son to come out of the restroom. She didn’t often beat him out and so she hoped all was okay. She couldn’t help but sigh with relief when he came out and whispered, “They were out of toilet paper in almost all of the stalls.”

She smiled at him and gave him a sideways hug. After getting her change from the gas she walked out and noticed that there was a lady sitting with her car door open and daughter in back. The lady seemed to be crying and, against her better judgment, she decided to see if she was okay.

“Hello?” She said politely and smiled. Part of that smile was due to the sudden shyness of her son trying unsuccessfully to hide behind her.

“Umm… Hi,” the lady said and looked up. It was then that Megan knew this lady and she probably had similar stories. A bruise was poorly hidden on her cheek, another was on her arm, and she was sure there were more hidden out of sight.

“I’m Megan…” she said and almost immediately smacked herself for telling the lady her real name.

“Becky,” she said nervously.

“Look… I couldn’t help but notice that you seem upset and wondered if you would like to join us for dinner?”

Megan breathed deeply and hoped she wasn’t making a mistake, but somehow she knew this woman had something in common with them. Having dinner with them at the diner that was attached to the truck stop might be good for all four of them. She couldn’t help but notice that they all looked like they were copies of each other in appearance. The little girl was shyly peering behind the seat and couldn’t have been much older than nine at most. She could almost appear to be Tony’s twin if they were stood side-by-side. The girl looked like she was quite the tomboy with her dingy clothes and hair pulled back into a low ponytail.

“Why?” Becky asked.

Megan shrugged, “I really don’t know, it just seems right.”

The lady stared at her for several moments before her daughter said, “Mommy, I’m hungry!”

She sighed and said, “Okay, sure.” Megan moved her car quickly to the parking space beside Becky’s. “This is my daughter Annie,” she introduced them as they began to walk in together.

“Hi, I’m Tony,” her son said politely.

The four of them walked up to a hostess stand and were soon seated. Megan smiled as the waitress deposited a kid’s menu in front of both Annie and Tony. She watched Tony make a face but he didn’t say anything. “How old are you?” Annie asked Tony.

He looked up at his mom and she nodded, “Ten.”

“Wow, I figured you were younger than me!”

“How old are you?”

“Eight-and-a-half!” She said proudly.

Megan watched her son with some trepidation and felt bad for him. “Small for her age?” Becky asked her.

“Umm…” she hesitated, “yeah, very much so.”

“I was that way as a kid too. Of course you must have been too, we’re about the same height.” She smiled at Megan.

“I still have people that think I’m in high school!” Megan laughed lightly, and Becky joined her.

A moment passed before Becky asked, “So what’s your story?”

Megan sighed and told her about Ray’s abuse and that leaving him was dangerous. She didn’t elaborate due to the kids being there. “It was time…”

Becky nodded, “I know that feeling… My husband Mark was getting the same way. Then…” Megan reached over and grabbed her hand to comfort her across the table. “Thanks…” she said and used a Kleenex on her face, unknowingly taking part of the makeup off that was hiding a bruise. “Last week Mark was busted for dealing cocaine and I decided we needed to get out of town. There were some people he was involved with that I feared would come after us. If we can make it to my parents house in Charleston I think they’ll be able to help us.”

Megan nodded, “So that’s where you’re heading?”

“Yeah… If we can get there.” She sniffled some more and said, “I’m almost out of gas now though, and I’m out of money, I can’t even pay for our half of this meal,” she said through tears.

“You don’t worry about that Becky,” Megan said with a smile, “I’ll take care of that… and I might have an idea on how to help you too.”

“I can’t accept…”

“You’re going to be helping us out too,” Megan reassured her.

Megan had been happy to see Tony and Annie mostly ignore the adult’s conversation… well, at least obviously. She knew Tony was smarter than anyone would possibly think looking at him. ‘Becky thinks Tony’s a girl too!’ she thought with a giggle. In this case she decided not to correct her like she had so many others.

They eventually finished the burgers and they all walked back out to the parking lot. “Tony, why don’t you say goodbye to Annie and then go wait in the car,” she told him and handed the keys to him.

“Okay Mom,” Tony said and she watched him hug Annie and then do as she asked, leaving her alone with Becky.

“Okay Becky, listen… My husband is seriously going to be looking for me... He’s not a good man, and he has a lot of people that will help him look for me. You look a lot like me… and I think you might be able to help throw him off of our trail.”

“How?”

“Well, I’ll give you my old drivers license that doesn’t expire until the end of this month and my debit card. You go ahead and fill up your car with it as you need to until you’re within two hundred miles of your parent’s house. Fill it up one more time and then throw the card and my license away somewhere no one will find it.”

She watched Becky look at her suspiciously, “Will he come after me?”

Megan shook her head, “At the final place you use it I want you to make sure you look every camera in the place head on. Try to avoid them before that.” She smiled, “Ray will know he’s been duped then, but we’ll all be long gone. He’ll be mad as hell at me, but he’ll know you were just part of the deception. Ray won’t worry about chasing after you.”

“Okay, I’ll do it!” She said.

“Thank you!” Megan said and reached into her purse and dug for a moment before carefully taking out an envelope and handing it to Becky. “Look, here is some money to help you out, hopefully it’ll help you get settled in down there a bit better until you can get a job.”

Becky started crying and hugged her, “You’re an Angel from God!”

Megan didn’t tell her that it was two thousand dollars in twenties, and she hoped she was gone before she realized that!

I WATCHED BECKY hug Mom through the window of my car door and noticed she was crying. I hoped that she and Annie would be okay as Mom came back to the car with some tears of her own in her eyes, but also a genuine smile — it wasn’t much of one, but it was more than I’d seen for a long time on her face.

It was close to ten in the evening before Mom stopped in the parking lot of an older looking Super 8 in a small town on the outskirts of Atlanta. I had slept a long time and was really tired of sitting. She pulled into the check-in lane and said, “Tony please stay in the car.”

I nodded and waited patiently while she went in and checked in. She came back out ten minutes later and drove around to a parking space in front of our room, 132. We grabbed our suitcases and went inside.

“Tiger I’m really tired, I’m going to go ahead and go to sleep,” she said. “Why don’t you do the same so we can get an early start tomorrow.”

“Okay Mom,” I said and gave her a big hug. I was so proud of her; she was an amazing mom to finally get us out of there! I walked into the bathroom and started brushing my teeth. She came in behind me and shared the sink as she began to take her earrings out. I was definitely her child, with my blonde hair that was down past my shoulders. She was short, and it was obvious that I was going to be as well. My eleventh birthday was next month and I had just barely passed four feet at my doctors’ visit last month. With my parents short statures though it was no surprise to me that I wasn’t going to be a tall basketball player. I took more of my bone structure from my mom, with very slender bones and a small nose. My hazel eyes being one of the few differences in our faces, hers were blue.

“Don’t forget to wash your face,” mom told me as she left the bathroom sink to go get something else. I did as she said and found myself in bed in my pajamas in no time.

“Mom do you think Annie and Becky will be okay?”

“I hope so sweetheart!” She said to me with a smile.

I began to worry about something else, “Mom you don’t have your cell phone, do you?”

She shook her head, “No, I left it at home.”

“And you didn’t pay for this hotel with a credit card?”

She smiled at me, “No, I used cash, that’s part of why we’re staying at a place like this.” Mom sighed and added, “I actually gave my debit card to Becky to use to fill up some gas.”

“Won’t that make her a target?!?” I asked, scared for Annie.

Mom shook her head, “No, I gave her instructions that should leave her safe. She’ll be rid of it by tomorrow, and by dropping it far enough away from where they’re going it’ll be fine.”

I gave her a nervous look but nodded.

“Okay...” I said. “How much cash do you have?”

“Enough,” she tried to answer simply.

“How much?”

Mom sighed and said, “Tony, I’ve known for a few months that we needed to get away... Your dad has been getting more and more abusive towards both of us. I started secretly putting away some cash over the last few months. It’s not been easy to keep it from your dad, he is after all an accountant, but he also didn’t know that I knew about some of his ‘other’ accounts.” Mom looked slightly ashamed, but breathed and said “I have about a hundred thousand after the car earlier to hopefully get us safely away.”

I gasped, “A hundred thousand?”

Mom nodded, “If this counts as a divorce though your dad is getting off cheap. Fifty percent of everything we had is a lot more than that!”

“Oh.” I said simply. She handed me the hairbrush she insisted I use with my longer hair and I began brushing it. I had been growing it longer the last couple years, even though my dad hated it with a passion. I told him it looked cool according to the kids at school and he mostly left it alone. Apparently this morning he had had enough with it though.

I found myself crying a few moments later while my mom went to the bathroom to change into her nightgown. I heard the door of the bathroom open and felt her arms go around me. “Shhh... It’s going to be okay,” she told me and I clung to her like I was much younger. I must have cried myself to sleep that night.

RAIMONDO LOOKED AT the TV angrily as he heard the phone ring for the seventh time before going to voicemail. This was the sixth time he had tried that night! Megan wasn’t answering either the home phone or her cell phone. “Where the fuck is that bitch?!?” He thought. “So help me God if she’s sleeping with another man right now...”

He threw his glass from beside his bed at the wall and watched the glass shatter.

THE NEXT MORNING the phone rang while it was still dark in the room. I heard Mom pick it up and place it back down before she got up. “Come on Tony, we need to keep moving today. I think today is the last day that no one will be looking for us...”

“What do you mean?” I asked nervously.

“I was thinking after you went to sleep last night that your dad probably tried calling last night...”

“Oh,” I said simply. One time a few years ago Mom and I had gone to a movie and missed his call. He came back the next day and beat her for not answering. He was sure she must have been sleeping with some other guy. As if!

“Yeah,” she said. “Come on, let’s get dressed and checked out of here, and then we’ll go get breakfast at the Waffle House I saw a few blocks from here.”

She prodded me out of bed the rest of the way and I quickly put on a pair of shorts and a purple shirt we’d bought at the zoo last summer that had a picture of a tiger on the front. Dad’s nickname for me had been ‘Tiger’ forever as in Tony the Tiger. I actually debated on taking it off with that thought, but we had no time. I pulled my hair into a low ponytail like I normally kept it and we were out the door in thirty minutes. Most of the time had been spent with mom trying to do makeup to cover her black eye. It wasn’t as obvious that she had a gigantic shiner now.

The Waffle House was still pretty empty as we walked in to take our seats. The waitress came up and said, “Welcome to Waffle House ladies, what can I get for you today?”

I stared at her and shook my head, but didn’t correct her. Becky and Annie had made the same mistake yesterday. Mom looked suddenly intense as the waitress walked away after taking our order.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her in a low voice.

She leaned across the table, “She gave me an idea... But I don’t think you’re going to like it. Well, I don’t really like it either, but I figure after today people are going to be looking for us.”

I looked at her, “What idea?”

“Well, when your dad’s family starts looking for us... They’re going to be looking for ‘us’, right?”

I looked at her like she was crazy as the waitress left my juice and mom’s coffee.

“Umm... Huh?”

“A thirty-seven year old mother and her almost eleven year old son...” She prompted.

“Oh... Yeah, I guess that will be part of the description.” I told her and thought about the rest. Mother is 4’10” tall with long blonde hair, Caucasian, name is Megan Franchino. She was last seen with her son, Antonio, or Tony, who is eleven, blonde hair, and about four feet tall. “So what can we do about it though?”

“Well, maybe we should change, ‘us...’” Mom suggested softly.

“You mean like a disguise?” I looked at her, almost afraid of where she was going with this. “You said she gave you the idea...”

Mom nodded.

“So what are you saying I should pretend to be... your...”

“Daughter,” she nodded and blushed.

I squirmed in my seat and felt all of my masculine feelings erupt. I’m a boy!!!! I shook my head, “That would be too weird... And with my hair... Wouldn’t it be an obvious idea?”

“What do you mean, your dad would never expect you to be willing to be a girl. He’ll expect me to shave your head or something.”

I thought for a moment and knew that she was right. “What if someone else thinks of it?” I asked.

“I don’t think anyone in the family will...” she said softly, “they won’t want to insult him. Maybe the police would, but they’re going to have to give a description and use photos.”

I stared blankly at her, “You think he’ll involve the police?”

“I don’t know... It would get ugly for him if they caught up with us since I’ve taken pictures of the last three months...” she couldn’t finish the last and I reached across the table and grabbed her shaking hand and squeezed it.

I thought for a moment, ‘Dad wouldn’t think of this... I know I wouldn’t... If anyone ever finds out though I am sooo dead!!!Pretending to be a girl won’t be easy… will it?’ I sat there for a moment and could just see the outline of mom’s bruise, and a bit of pain on my rear still... Meanwhile Mom stared at me quietly watching my brain work. ‘If it’s the only way we can get away safely.’

I took a deep breath in, “Okay, I’ll do it.”

Her eyes lit up a bit and she gently said, “Thank you Tony, I’ll make it up to you somehow...”

I sat quietly and thought through what else could go wrong in my head and finally spoke again. “Maybe you should be an older sister instead?” I suggested, “Then you could pretend to be younger too and get rid of the idea that you’re even old enough to be the lady they’re looking for. I bet you could look barely twenty...”

Mom nodded and said, “Yes, I’m sure I probably could get away with that…” She stared at me and added, “You know, you probably should pretend to be younger too then...”

“Huh?”

“Well sweetie we both know you look younger than you are because of your height, you could pull it off really easily. I mean Annie thought you were younger than her yesterday… Also, if this goes on long enough we’ll have to find a way to enroll you into school. You’re getting ready to go to middle school next year… that would mean changing in the locker room if you go into sixth grade.” I blushed, as much as it might be a dream come true for most boys I knew I would be beyond embarrassed in there. I also knew that I would be dead in thirty seconds if my girl classmates saw me naked. “If we aren’t the thirty-seven year old mother and eleven year old son, but something as opposite and far away from that as we can get, maybe we’ll have a chance.” I watched her eyes light up with something that could only be described as hope.

We both stopped talking as the lady dropped off our meal and we began quickly eating the waffles. “How old should I be?” I asked hesitantly as I finished all that I could.

“I don’t know... You’re really the height of a nine-year old?”

“More like eight according to the doctor, remember?”

“Oh yeah... He did say that didn’t he.” It had been a really embarrassing moment at my last checkup when he had said I was in the bottom two percent for height. He had actually said seven, but I was trying not to remember that. “Wait, didn’t he say seven, not eight?” Mom asked remembering as well.

I tried to glare at her, but as my face reddened I just nodded. I was so skinny too, barely fifty-three pounds. If my parents weren’t so short and my mom so petite he said he would have been worried. As it was he took a ton of blood samples that day anyway to be sure there was nothing wrong with me!

The waitress came back by a moment later and Mom pulled a fast one on me, “Miss, I’m having an argument here with my niece, how old do you think she is?”

I felt red and wanted to die of embarrassment. The lady was probably in her late twenties and smiled at us. She stared at me for a second and guessed, “You’re eight, right?”

I decided to just nod, not able to speak.

“See I told you,” Mom said to me. “Thank you miss.”

I shot laser beams with my eyes into Mom, but they didn’t seem to have any effect. This was really embarrassing!

“Okay then... Do you think you could handle pretending to be my eight-year old baby sister?”

I continued to stare at her in disbelief for a long moment, wondering if this was all one big joke at my expense. However, when I heard a familiar Italian accent from another table I felt a chill go down my spine. I doubted they were related to my dad’s family, but the Franchino’s owned this chain of dollar stores that were spread throughout the country. If they used all of their locations to run whatever illegal business they ran...

“I guess sis!” I told her. “And you’re what, twenty-two?” I asked.

She nodded, “I guess that will work.” The waitress returned, dropped the ticket off and said, “Have a nice day ladies.”

The waitress never once decided I was a boy... It might be able to work. As soon as Mom paid the check she led me into the ladies room by the hand. I grimaced, but went in there with her without arguing. “Sit down to pee,” she whispered in my ear and pointed me towards one stall while she took the other. I finished quickly and began washing my hands. Mom came up behind me and pulled out the rubber band in my hair and let my hair loose.

When we got out to the car she said, “I think we need to do something about our hair color too tonight...”

“What color would we go to?” I asked as she drove away.

She thought for a moment, “With your eyes and complexion adding a bit of red wouldn’t be a bad choice. And, I guess I could do the same too.”

I grimaced, but said, “That would be a lot different than we normally look.”

She didn’t even drive a block before pulling off into the parking lot of a Wal-mart.

“Let’s stop here and get some things before we keep driving.”

Mom opened my door for me and grabbed onto my hand like I was a little kid. “Why are you grabbing onto my hand?” I asked, embarrassed.

“You’re my eight-year old baby sister, it’s normal,” she told me matter-of-factly, “Little girls hold someone’s hands a lot!” We grabbed a cart and she immediately went to the hair products. Mom stared at the boxes for a few moments before grabbing two boxes of a red hair color that she thought was good enough. As she walked down the aisle she paused and quickly grabbed four cards of barrettes, bows, and other hair accessories that were obviously for me. My face reddened, but I didn’t say anything.

“I don’t want to buy everything here,” she told me, “But I think we need to just get enough clothes for a few days here and the major things.” She looked thoughtful and muttered, “Yeah, that too...”

“What too?” I asked.

She didn’t answer but instead pulled me along in her tracks. She walked to the girls department and I felt like I was going into the forbidden wastelands. Pink, purple, glitter, and all things girl leapt out at me as we entered the area. I felt like at any moment someone I knew would jump out from behind a rack of clothes and start making fun of me. Mom paid no attention to my nerves though, and started looking through shirts - she was obviously on a mission. She held one up next to me that was pink and had ruffles all over it. It made me want to gag, but I bit my tongue. “The girlier you dress, the more likely we’ll pull this off,” she whispered to me. “You’re a size seven, what do you like?”

I groaned because I didn’t want to pick out girls clothes. I stared at the top in the cart in disbelief for several moments before she tickled my side briefly to get my attention. “What do you want to look at?” She asked me again, and I reluctantly began helping her pick out some tops. Somehow it became a game of who could pick out the girlier tops. The only problem was that even when I won, I lost because they went into the cart!

“Here, hold these around your neck,” Mom said as she held up a pink set of denim shorts. I knew what she meant, it was her trick for quickly finding out if jeans or shorts fit me if I didn’t want to go into the room to try them on. It went around my neck fine and she nodded. “We’ll try on clothes more tomorrow,” she said in a whisper, “I want to keep moving though.

We continued piling in a few more pairs of shorts, and, to my embarrassment she threw in two skirts as well. Mom moved through the girls’ section quickly this whole time, probably only having spent ten minutes doing the shopping we’d done so far. ‘This is so not normal for her!’ I thought to myself. ‘Oh no!’ Was my next thought though, when she had stopped in front of a rack of dresses.

She immediately found two dresses that she held up in front of me. “Which color do you like?”

I felt like I was going to start hyperventilating, but knew we needed to do this quickly. I pointed at the bright neon green one and she smiled. It had Hello Kitty on the bottom of the skirt and two thin straps on top. She had just finished putting it in the basket, when she grabbed another dress that she saw that oozed little girl cuteness. It had some sort of lacy overlay to the skirt and featured Minnie Mouse on the front of it. We left the section then and I thought maybe we were done for now with the embarrassment.

I was wrong of course though as she quickly pushed the cart to the shoe section and picked out a pair of white sandals for me to try on. Keeping to the theme that we’d been looking for they were incredibly girly. They even came complete with pink and blue fake jewels on the top with fake diamonds around. I knew no girl my age would let them within a hundred feet of her closet! But, if I was going to pretend to be eight it was probably about right. Just at the moment when I thought it couldn’t get much worse, I saw a pair of pink Barbie tennis shoes complete with Velcro straps. Mom spotted them too, and she didn’t even hesitate when she saw my shoe size; she simply pulled them out of the box and I groaned.

“Ooh, aren’t these pretty? They even light up!” She said excitedly like she would if I was five. “Let’s try them on real quick,” she told me.

“Please tell me I can be closer to my age when we get settled down...” I whined quietly.

“Sure thing Princess.” Mom said with a big smile.

I looked at her in disbelief and pulled the shoe onto my foot. I was really hoping they wouldn’t fit since they were definitely for really little girls, but my feet were so tiny they even had room to grow! I hurriedly took off the shoe and hoped that no one ever caught us, because I was certain to die of humiliation without a single shot ever being fired. ‘I certainly hope Dad doesn’t recognize me if he ever finds us...’

Once mom had put the shoes back into the box, she pushed the cart over a few aisles and I knew that she was now looking for herself. She looked for a few minutes and picked out a pair of flip-flops, a pair of tennis shoes, and a pair of ballet flats. “Normally I know neither of us would shop here for shoes and clothes,” Mom whispered to me, “but we need something. We’ll buy some more things in a few days.”

She stood at the end of the shoe aisle for a few seconds thinking intently and I watched her smack herself in the head. “I can’t believe I forgot that...” she seemed to yell at herself. She immediately pushed off and headed back to the girls department.

My face grew even redder than it had before as she led me down to the girls’ underwear section. Without hesitation she looked at a pack of panties that had Disney Princesses on them and grabbed a pack of the size she was looking for. I followed her and watched as she went to the socks next, where she quickly grabbed a package of plain white and a package with a variety of colors. Mom looked around and decided she’d gotten everything for me, and headed to women’s. She found the junior’s section and grabbed four tops and four pairs of shorts that would fit her without much of a pause. She seemed to think for a moment and decided she must have covered almost everything.

“Oh yeah...” she said and began walking back to another part of the store which I soon realized was the baby section.

I tugged at her and whispered, “I’m supposed to be eight!?!”

“You are,” she whispered, “which means we need a car seat. We’ve been risking getting pulled over for it already as is. At age eleven you were fine... But at your height and age...”

I grimaced at the memory two months ago.

Mom had been pulling away from the elementary school and a cop had pulled us over. “Ma’am, how old is your child?” He asked suspiciously.

I beat her to the punch though and said, “I’m ten sir.”

“Is that true ma’am?” he had asked.

“Yes sir, my son is in fifth grade.”

The officer looked for a moment at me and said, “Okay, I’m just checking because he looked young enough - and definitely small enough - to need a booster seat instead of just that seatbelt. It might still be a good idea even though he’s above the legal age of having to ride with one.

“How old is that again?” My mom asked him with concern.

“Ohio law says anyone eight and under unless they’re above 4’9” tall.”

I blushed and tried to melt into my seat, “We’ll think about going back to one officer. We’re free to go though now?” She had asked and driven away. I had been so embarrassed then, but refused adamantly that as a ten-year old I would sit in a baby seat. Thankfully Dad had backed me up for once, as he never had to use one when he was older...

I sighed as I looked around at all of the car seats. I thought maybe she would just grab the little ones that were just a little riser seat, but she looked at everything. Mom looked at all of the labels looking for height/weight and I swore looking only at the ones that were obviously for a girl. ‘Well duh!’ I yelled at myself, ‘That’s the whole point of this!’ She decided on one that was decidedly more babyish than I wanted to sit in. It was an actual car seat style one! I saw on the box that it called it a three-in-one seat that I could see I fit in the normal weight range like a toddler would without moving to the booster seat part. She placed it in the cart and I felt all remaining dignity, the tiny amount I still possessed, instantly leave.

‘I hate my dad...’ I thought. If he weren’t such a jerk I wouldn’t have to do this.

Mom made one last stop in the toy department, quickly grabbing me a few Barbie’s, a baby doll, and a stuffed teddy bear. “We’ll get you more toys another time, but it would look weird for you not to have something...” she quietly told me. We were just getting to the checkouts when I noticed the book section and some coloring books.

“May I have a coloring book?” I suggested. I had always liked coloring, and at least it would be something to do.

“Sure thing,” Mom said and without giving me any choices she added two Disney Princess coloring books to the cart, found some crayons, and continued moving to the checkout. I wondered if they would say something about having so much stuff, but no one gave us a second look. Mom pushed the cart out to the car and had me help her take the car seat out of the box. She installed it in the passenger side on the back seat with a lot of grunting and said, “You know I didn’t miss dealing with these...”

She quickly pulled my toys from the packaging and put all of the trash inside the car seat box, which a nice employee offered to take to the trash for us. I thought we would just leave, but she grabbed the bright neon dress from the bag, a pair of the panties, the sandals, then a pair of the shorts and a top for herself. She looked thoughtful. “Here, let’s go over to that McDonald’s and change,” she said. “It’s just across the parking lot, you can sit next to your new seat for now.”

I grimaced and knew this would be short lived. Once she parked we walked in quickly to the girls bathroom before I had a chance to whine about it. She led me into the larger handicap stall at the back and closed the door. “Okay, pull off everything,” she told me. I wanted to drag this out, but I knew that time was not something in our favor right now. I could just imagine Dad having decided to fly back immediately this morning and that meant he could be back at our house at any time. I quickly pulled everything including my underwear off and blushed as my mom saw me totally naked.

“Here are your panties,” Mom told me. They were the ultimate in little girly-ness to me in that they had crisscrossing diamonds of leaves and flowers printed on the front with Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I mentally hit myself for knowing which princess it was! I pulled them on quickly and noticed they felt much different than boy underwear. The lace round the openings was kind of odd and felt weird. I blushed as I realized no other eleven-year-old boy would ever be caught dead in these!

“Here, arms up,” Mom told me a second later and pulled the dress over my head not giving me any time to really consider what she was doing. She then spent a moment fussing with it before handing me the sandals and helping me to buckle them. She played with my hair for a moment and smiled, “You look really pretty.” The way she said it was like a knife in the gut, it was like she thought I should be proud of it.

I just blushed and didn’t say anything.

“Why don’t you go potty while we’re here — you can use the next stall over while I change?”

“Okay,” I said. I went straight to the stall and wondered how to do this. The dress was long and I knew I needed to sit from earlier... I eventually figured out I just needed to pull my panties down and the dress up while I went.

“Don’t forget to wipe!” Mom said from the stall next to me. I blushed and wanted to cry, but figured out she didn’t mean my rear. I did so, flushed, and walked to the mirror to wash my hands.

I gasped.

‘I look like a girl!’ I felt my mind grind to a complete halt. I touched my dress just to make sure the reflection was me. I blinked and it still didn’t change. ‘Not to mention I think I’ll have to fight to convince people I’m eight...’ I looked like the farthest thing from the middle school student I was supposed to be at the end of the summer. The disturbing thing was that I knew I looked cute too...

I turned around and was shocked to see Mom looking less ‘mom’-like already. She had changed into a short pair of denim shorts and a yellow racer back tank top. She washed her hands and then wasted no time in getting us back out to the car. She opened my door with the new seat and unexpectedly helped me up into the seat. I blushed as she buckled the harness up for me. The middle strap made my dress bunch up weird in between my legs and I felt myself turn red again. Mom fussed with it a moment, to leave some modesty for me, kissed me on the forehead, and then closed the door.

“Let’s go,” she said as she began driving.

I looked down at myself and felt really self-conscious. I stared at my feet for a long while as Mom found her way to I-20 and began driving west. I knew my life would be over if any of the people at school back home saw me! ‘The only good thing is that I don’t think they would ever recognize me without a hint...’ I squirmed a bit mentally at the clothes. Absolutely everything felt different, especially the bottom of the dress where it touched my bare legs. The bizarre thing to me was that it wasn’t uncomfortable, just different. In some weird way it felt more comfortable than the clothes I had just been in.

“We need a different name for you Princess,” Mom said to me, interrupting my thinking.

“Huh?”

“Well Anthony, or Tony is probably a bad idea now.” She suggested.

“Oh...” I said. “Well, do you have something in mind?” I had a feeling she’d been thinking about this longer than I had.

“How about Tina, it would be kind of close to your old name...”

I shook my head, “Every Tina I’ve known has been mean.”

She looked thoughtful and stayed quiet for a long time, “How about Ashley?”

I looked at her and thought for a moment, “I guess I could do Ashley.”

She smiled, “Okay Ashley it is!”

“What about you?”

“Huh?”

“Well if you’re my big sister I’m not going to be able to call you Mom.”

“Oh...” She thought for a moment. “How about Amber?”

I thought for a moment, “So our mom liked ‘A’ names?”

She nodded, “And we have a brother that’s in between us that’s Anthony, so if we slip on a name that’ll at least be explainable.”

I nodded, “Okay Amber.”

She smiled back at me and hoped I wouldn’t have to be Ashley for all that long. Surprisingly the pink car seat was not as uncomfortable as I would have expected it to be, and I soon found myself drifting off to sleep.

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

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 2: Redheads
 
MOM WOKE ME up by undoing the harness buckle on the car seat and nudging me awake. "Come on Ashley, time for lunch." I heard.

`Who's Ashley?' I thought for a moment.

"Come on Princess," I heard again.

Suddenly I remembered where I was and nearly screamed when I looked down at the dress I was in. "Okay," I sheepishly said.

Mom had stopped at a Burger King. Before we went to order she grabbed me by the hand and led me to the bathroom. She pointed me to a stall and I pulled my dress up, panties down, and sat down. I didn't take long to go and pulled everything to where it should be. I washed my hands and stared at my reflection. Before I had woken up, Mom had put one of the new barrettes in my hair. It had a pink flower on it and coordinated well with the dress I was wearing.

"I really do look just like a little girl," I said quietly to myself.

Mom came up from behind me right then and said, "Princess you can't stare at your pretty face all day silly."

I giggled a little bit as she poked me and we walked out to order food to go. I ordered a kids chicken meal. Mom ate quickly in the car, tossed her trash, then pulled out of the parking lot while I continued to eat. "At least this seat has a cup holder," I said aloud.

"You actually look like you're more comfortable in that than you normally are," she told me.

I blushed, "Well... I fit in it... But I'm only doing this because we're pretending I'm little!" I told her.

She laughed at me and we talked a bit here and there about different things I needed to be careful of. It made me blush when she talked about needing to be careful of how to sit with my dress. I was well aware of how close I had already come a couple times to showing off my panties!

"Where are we stopping tonight?" I asked.

"Hopefully Dallas. I'd like to stay there tonight and tomorrow night. We can do some more shopping and hopefully I can get in touch with Gloria."

"Who is Gloria?" I asked.

Mom sighed, "Gloria is the aunt of one of my friends from high school. My friend Kaitlyn and I spent a summer there between our sophomore and junior years. We both needed to get away from our parents desperately "“ and Gloria was more than willing to take us in."

"What's she like?"

"Well, she's older now of course, this was twenty years ago... But she was probably only in her forties then. Picture a stereotypical cowgirl... She was tougher than nails and had to be to run the ranch her family had left her. Gloria still had her husband then to help out though. They had a really large tract of land and a ton of cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, you name it they had it!"

"Sounds weird," I admitted from having grown up in the city.

"For you it would be, but where I grew up I had friends with similar places. I had helped them with their farm chores often and done enough horseback riding that I fit in at the time."
"So you never went back after that?" I asked.

"Kaitlyn and I stopped being as close the next couple years... Boy problems," she said with a thin pained smile like she was communicating something I should understand. "We ended up getting a bit closer in college again when I came home one summer, but neither of us went back together to the ranch after that."

"Why are we going there?"

Mom sighed, "I know Gloria would be more than willing to help hide us there. It's rural and it's not an obvious place. Your dad has never met Kaitlyn or Gloria... and I'm pretty sure that I've never mentioned that summer to him. I also don't have any pictures from the two of us there anywhere..."

"What about Grandma and Grandpa?" I asked.

"They won't tell him anything Ashley, Mom never liked your dad and I should have listened to her."

I sat silently for a bit and realized I was quickly becoming bored. I couldn't reach the coloring books, but I could reach the baby doll and picked it up by the arm. Mom saw me and smiled while I blushed. I looked at it with curiosity, pulling up the dress and seeing that it had a realistic disposable diaper on underneath. I noticed that mom had put the little bag that came with her also just within reach and I managed to get the strap with my hand. Inside I found several more diapers, a bottle, some packets of `baby-food' and a bowl and spoon.

"She's neat, she's just like a real baby, she'll eat and everything," Mom said to me. "You can be a real mommy!" She said to me like she was talking to a four-year old.

I glared at her, but turned the doll on in back. I immediately wondered if that was a good idea because she was noisy. Somehow though I got totally engrossed in playing with her. "Do you have any water I can put in her bottle?" I asked, curious if it would really use the diaper.

"Next time we stop," she said with a smile as she looked back at me.

I felt self-conscious as she stopped at a gas station not long after. She helped me out of my seat and grabbed my hand. "Let's go potty while we're here," she told me. Just the way she did it embarrassed me. I swore she was treating me like I was much younger than even eight! When we were both done she grabbed a few couple bottles of water and told me to pick out some candy, which I did, and then she paid for all of that and gas. After she filled up the car, she went back for her change and helped me back into the car seat.

"Can you give me my coloring books and crayons?" I asked her.

She smiled at me and did so. "Where's your baby's bottle?" she asked me.

I grimaced, but I was curious. "In the bag," I told her.

She filled up the little fake bottle with water for me and placed my doll back into my arms and handed the bottle to me. "Hold her like this," she insisted to me as she showed me how to give the bottle to the baby properly.

She drove off as I fed the baby doll her bottle. I found myself actually pretending she was a real baby and talking to her for some reason.

"Don't worry, my Daddy won't find us..." I said to her softly. Mom had turned the radio on up front and I didn't think she could hear me.

I jumped a few moments later when I realized she had wet and she told me about it. I looked at Mom with embarrassment.

"Well aren't you going to change her diapee?" She asked with mock horror.

"I guess I should, shouldn't I," getting into the spirit of play a bit. I laid the doll across my lap on her back and undid the diaper. Sure enough it was actually wet! I reached into the bag that came with her and grabbed another diaper to put on her. Once I did that I pressed her bracelet and she said, "I love you Mommy," and I blushed.

Mom smiled back at me like I was the cutest thing in the world and I felt really self-conscious. I hid my face into the doll and tried to pretend Mom wasn't there!

I kept running through her sounds and watching her do things like close her eyes when I laid her down for a while before her batteries ran out.

"Those didn't last long, did they?" Mom said from up front.

"No..." I said, sort of sad. I mentally smacked myself though and sat her next to me and began coloring. It was almost painful to realize that my options for everything now were girly, girlier, or girliest. I found a picture of Merida from Brave and began coloring her. I still hadn't seen the movie yet because of Dad... I blushed as I thought about the fact I was about to have the same hair color tonight when Mom got around to it.

We seemed to drive forever before Mom pulled off the Interstate at dinnertime. "I need a break from driving, how about TGI Fridays?" Mom asked me.

"Okay..." I said, really not caring where if I could get out of the car!

I was attempting to undo the buckle and was still figuring out the trick on it when Mom came and helped me. She grabbed me under the arms and helped me get up while also handing me my doll. "Do I have to?" I whined quietly.

"Girly girl, remember?" She insisted with a whisper.

We walked into the restaurant and were quickly seated just before the dinner rush hit. "Don't forget to smooth your dress underneath you," she whispered to me as we took seats in a booth across from each other.

I held my doll in my lap and stared at the waitress as she left the menus and asked, "What would you like to drink sweetie?"

"Water please," I said politely.

"Same for me please," Mom told her.

I looked at the kids' menu that had been left in front of me and sighed again. The menu said ages ten and under, which I would have probably gotten anyways even before I was dressed like this, but it just seemed to emphasize my pretend age. I decided a hamburger and fries sounded as good as anything.

"What's your dolly's name?" the waitress asked as she returned with our drinks. Moms looked like she was afraid something was going to be wrong all of the sudden.

I just smiled and said, "Her name is Kaelye!" I held her up like a baby so she could see her.

"Well she's a very pretty baby," the waitress told me in that patronizing voice always used with young kids.

"Thank you," I said while mentally beating myself up. `This is sooooo wrong!' my mind screamed. `I can't risk us being found though!' I reminded myself.

"Well, what can I get for you ladies?" She asked Mom. I think she started with her because she wasn't sure I was old enough to order on my own or something. `Come to think of it, Mom may think that too...'

"I'll take the Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad, and she'll take..." She led off to me.

"The kids hamburger and fries please," I said while maintaining the little girl voice that seemed appropriate.

"Would you like cheese on that?" She asked.

"Yes please," I said with a smile.

"I'll have that right out." She told us.

"Mo... Amber I need to use the bathroom," I said. `I almost said Mom... I can't do that!'

"Okay Ashley, come on." She grabbed my hand and led me to the bathroom. I brought my doll under my other arm since I figured if I was attached enough to bring her into the restaurant I probably wouldn't want to leave her alone at the table. We took care of business with Mom holding Kaelye for me while I went, and then returned to the booth.

The waitress returned with our food and found me sitting with the doll and waving her arm around a bit. "They're so cute with their baby dolls, aren't they?" She said to my mom.

"Yes she is, but I figure she'll not want to play with them much longer..."

"You know my oldest is a bit older than her and we got her one of those American Girl dolls - and she loves it! She's eight and I think she and her friends will probably still play with them until she's into middle school."

I blushed as I listened, `She doesn't think I'm eight even...'

"You know I might think about getting one of those for her. There's a store in Dallas, right?" She asked.

"Yes there is, just be warned it's dangerous taking them in there! It's pure little girl heaven." She said with a smile. "Well, eat up sweetie."

I placed my doll down next to me, asleep, and began eating the hamburger. `If I ever see my dad again I may kill him...'

MOM AND I climbed into the car again after dinner and another trip to the bathroom. She once again insisted on helping with the harness and then we were off. She stared back at me for a moment in the rear view mirror, "Had you already named her Kaelye?"

My face burned red, but I answered truthfully, "Uh-huh, I figured a real girl would."

"You're right, they would." Mom said, "You definitely convinced the waitress you were real."

I snorted, "But she didn't think I was as old as her eight-year old daughter!" I felt like crying actually. I was supposed to be eleven in two weeks after all.

"No she didn't, which means I think we were right to do it this way," she told me.

I just sat and stared for a while. "Were you serious about that other doll type?" I asked.

"Well, she's right. At eight it's possible you would still play with baby dolls, a lot of girls do, but I know those other dolls are a lot more popular with older girls."

"Oh." I said simply.

"Are you okay?" Mom asked with concern.

I felt the tears going down my face and shook my head, "How can I be okay, my dad is an asshole and I have to pretend to be a little girl so we can get away from him... Because if he finds us..." I stopped speaking.

"Don't use that language Ashley... But if he finds us he'll probably kill me," Mom said without breaking eye contact with the road.

That just made the tears stream more.

"Do you need me to stop sweetheart?" She asked me.

"No, keep driving," I said through a rough voice. I picked up Kaelye and clutched her tight to my chest. I must have gone to sleep at some point because the next thing I knew she was waking me up.

"Wake up Ashley, we're going to try this hotel." She told me.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"In the suburbs just outside of Dallas," she said.

We walked into the hotel office of the Holiday Inn that she pulled into and I found myself standing next to her, holding my doll with one arm and leaning into her side on the other.

"Do you have any rooms available for two nights?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am we do," the man with a thick Indian accent answered. "We'll just need your drivers license and a credit card and we can get you all setup."

Mom looked sheepish and said, "We're traveling and I lost both of those a few days ago when I was mugged. I've got cash, could I just place a deposit instead?"

He looked at her skeptically, noticing the bruise under her eye makeup, and then looked at me. I gave him a shy smile and said, "Hi," before hiding back into her side. I'd seen some of my little cousins do the same and thought it might help if I was too cute to say no to.

"We're not really supposed to..." he said with a grimace, "if you'll put down an extra hundred dollars per night though we can do it."

Mom sighed in relief, "Thank you." She pre-paid the deposit and the room rate and he handed her a packet of key cards.

"Let me know if you need anything else." He said.

We parked and then went in through the lobby a few minutes later with her pulling our two suitcases behind her. I tried my best to keep up with my doll and a few of the bags from our shopping trip.

"I'll be right back," she told me as she left me in the room for a few minutes. I knew she had gone back downstairs to grab the other bags. I climbed onto the bed and turned on the TV. I was just channel surfing when she came back up and gave me a big hug.

"I'm so proud of you Tony," she said to me. "You've been amazing today, and I know it's not easy..."

I felt some tears and shook my head, "We need to get away from him, and I think it's just a matter of time before they're really looking for us." I sniffed lightly and said, "I'm Ashley though, don't forget."

She hugged me tighter, "How could I forget my little sister's name?"

All of the sudden she began tickling me, I couldn't breathe and I finally said, "I'm going to pee my pants if you don't stop."

I giggled but ran to the bathroom as soon as she stopped. I'd always had a problem as a little kid if I was tickled too much. One time when I was six one of my older cousins hadn't stopped and we'd both ended up wet. She'd just laughed about it though! I was going to miss her "“ she was who Kaelye was named after.

As I wiped and pulled my dress down Mom said, "Let's get our hair dyed, I really am worried about someone recognizing me especially now that it's likely they're looking for us."

"I don't think they would even without the dye Mo... Amber." I told her.

"Why do you say that?"

"You aren't dressed like you normally are. Dad had you dressing like you were an old lady."

She nodded numbly and said, "You're right, he didn't want me to look pretty for anyone but him."

I gave her a hug and we began looking through the directions. It was a pain, and I had to really control myself as my scalp felt weird.

"Hold still, baby, and close your eyes. I'm going to swab just a bit of color into your eyebrows," she said as she came at my face slowly with a Q-Tip. Before I knew it we were both rinsing out the dye and looked unrecognizable with our now red hair. Well, it was more of a strawberry blonde for me and a little more vivid red for her.

"Whoa..." was my first response.

"Yeah, you and I look a lot different now!" she said with a smile. "Actually you make a really cute redhead!"

"You do too," I told her. With her hair a different color and different clothes I wasn't sure Dad would recognize her if he saw her in front of him. She almost looked like a stranger to me. With my new appearance in my brightly colored dress I was certain he wouldn't recognize me at all! Mom had done a good job, as neither of our hair looked like the bad dye jobs like I remembered seeing on a couple of friends last year.

"What now?" I found myself asking her a little later.

"Well... I never bought pajamas for us."

"Do you want to go buy some now?" I asked. I looked at the clock and it was nine already.

"Yes, you know Kohl's is probably still open and we passed it not too far back. We could go there and get a few other things that we need too. Let me try and call Gloria first though..."

Mom reached into her purse and grabbed a post-it note that was wrinkled up like she had been grabbing onto it a lot. She took a deep breath and started dialing the number on the hotel phone.

"Hello, is Gloria there?" she asked.

"Umm... Gloria, this is Megan Dale," I was a little bit surprised to hear mom's maiden name spoken.

"It's good to hear your voice too," Mom said and she was on the verge of a breakdown. I sat down next to her and hugged her.

"Well... I hate to do this... But..." She stopped, "I'm sorry yes there is something wrong. I'm trying to run away from my husband right now with my son. He's been... abusing both of us for a couple years now..." she took a deep breath in and let it out; meanwhile tears were streaming down her face.

"Well it's not that simple Gloria... He's not a nice guy and I'm worried he's going to be looking for us. We've disguised ourselves and I've bought a new car, but we can't stay on the road forever..."

"You really mean that? I was hoping you'd say that. I'm really sorry, I..."

"Yes ma'am." Mom said looking like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Well we dyed both of our hair red just now, and Tony is pretending to be a younger girl named Ashley. We're saying I'm her older sister Amber."

"I know, I'm surprised too, but he's been making a big effort and no one has caught on so far. I think it's safe because his father would never consider it..."

I continued to listen to the one-sided conversation for a while, before Mom said, "Thank you so much Gloria. We're going to go shopping tomorrow and then we'll hopefully be able to drive all the way to your place the next day."

After another pause, "See you soon too," and she hung up the phone. Immediately my mom burst into tears and sobbed and the two of us held each other for several long moments.

I looked at the clock and saw it read 9:40 already. It was a Monday, but I didn't know how much later Kohl's would be open. "Mom if we're going to go..."

"Right..." she said. "Let me just fix my makeup really quick." Mom hurried and we managed to both clean our faces up and get into the car in a few minutes time. We would only have ten minutes inside the store, but Mom was on a mission. She went to the girls department and quickly picked out a purple Merida nightgown that featured a big picture of her on the front. She held it up to me and smiled, apparently sure that it would fit.

Mom grabbed a short-set and t-shirt on it that had Rapunzel on it too, and then grabbed my hand to walk to some sleepwear in her size. "We're going to have to come back tomorrow for some dresses," she told me quietly.

She had just picked out a ruffled baby doll short set of her own when the announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen the store is closing soon, please bring your purchases to the front and check out at this time."

Mom sighed, "Let's go then," she said. She paid quickly and soon we were back in the hotel, and I was in my new nightgown. It felt very much like the dress, but different all the same. I kept looking at myself in the mirror as I watched Mom take the makeup off her face.

"You like that one, don't you," she said to me.

I started bawling immediately. The truth is I loved it, and I had enjoyed pretending to be a girl more than I should. Mom held me as I cried, "Shh baby, it's okay."

"I'm not supposed to like this though..." I sobbed.

"I know baby, but it's okay, you're doing this so we can get away safely, it's all okay." I didn't remember going to sleep, but I must have eventually.

Chapter 3: Fooling No One

I WOKE UP gradually the next morning and tried to figure out why I felt so warm and comfortable. Safe, was as good of a term as any. It was then that I realized I was holding onto my new teddy bear, and someone else was holding onto me. I squirmed a little because I needed to go to the bathroom. I also noticed that my nightgown wasn't covering my panties anymore and then semi-screeched.

Nightgown.

Panties.

Mine.

I felt a gentle squeeze before I could get upset though and Mom said, "Good morning."

"Morning," I said back to her. I felt her move her arm and she pulled my nightgown back down before squeezing me one more time.

"I guess we should get going sweetie, we have a big day of shopping today."

"Shopping?" I asked dumbly.

"Remember?" She asked but looked concerned.

I nodded and looked down at my feet, but caught myself instead looking at the upside down picture of Merida on the front of my nightgown. She kissed the top of my forehead and said, "I'm going to take a shower and get dressed, and then I want you to do the same."

"Okay... can I go pee first?" I said.

"Sure!"

I hurried into the bathroom and came out quickly after taking care of my urgent need. Mom stood and looked at me before asking, "Do you want me to pick something out for you to wear, or can you do that?"

"Are eight-year old girls allowed to dress themselves?" I asked sarcastically.

"When they're not back-talking their mommies... I mean older sisters." She said back.

For my part I put on the most angelic face I could and she started giggling. "Pick something out then, I'll let you know if it's a bad choice."

I went through the sacks of clothes we had bought and really wanted to wear a pair of shorts and a normal t-shirt, or at least one of the more normal looking ones... But, I sighed and looked instead at a purple skirt with butterflies all over it and tried to figure out what shirt would go with it. Either I stared for a really long time at my choices, or Mom was really quick in the shower because she came up and asked, "Are you trying to decide what to wear with that?"

I nodded.

"How about this top?" She asked while holding up a light pink top with more butterflies on it.

"Okay, that was one of the ones I thought might go with it." I sheepishly admitted.

"Well this white top would probably work too... And this spaghetti strap top would work too..." She held the others up to me too.

"I think the pink one looks best." I admitted.

She smiled at me and pointed towards the bathroom, "Be quick please," she told me.

RAIMONDO DROVE UP to his house wondering why the hell his wife hadn't answered any of the phones. "I'm going to teach that bitch a lesson for good if she keeps this shit up," he grumbled as he pulled into the driveway and pressed the garage door opener.

`Her car isn't there...' He noticed, `well I'll just have to wait and teach her when she gets back. Dad's going to be pissed when he finds out I came home before everything was done up there... But I can take care of this shit and get back up there to finish figuring out what's going on tomorrow.'

Ray looked around the house and went up to their room to take a shower. Something wasn't right...

`Why the hell is the closet open?' he grumbled, `Probably that wussy son of mine was playing some weird game again. I really should send him to Greg's so he'll spend some time with his boys... Maybe they'll make him man up.'

As he closed the door it hit him that something was wrong. He opened it again and saw that the suitcases were missing.

"What the hell?" He said aloud.

He ran into their bedroom and found a chunk of his wife's closet had been cleaned out. Going down the hall he found the same out of his son's drawers.

"That BITCH can't do this to me!!!" He said angrily punching a hole in the hallway wall. Ray walked downstairs and walked to the fridge to get a beer. On the fridge though he saw a note with his name printed on it in his wife's handwriting. He angrily ripped it open and read,

Ray,
I have taken Tony and left, you have hit the two of us for the last time. I know you will try to find us, so I won't bother telling you where we are or where we are going. My hope is that neither of us ever sees you again. I used to love you, but there is no love anymore, only fear and hatred. The best thing for all of us is for you to let us go, but I'm sure you won't.. Don't worry, I'm not going to bother filing for a divorce anytime soon, not until at least we are somewhere safely away from you. If you leave us alone I probably won't even bother,

Megan

He couldn't believe it, "Nobody does this to me!!!!" He threw a handy kitchen knife across the room where it stuck satisfactorily in the door.

He grabbed the bottle of beer next, opened it, and sat down to think. He could call the cops and say she kidnapped their son... But that would probably cause more problems. She'd show him her bruises... Hell Tony probably still had some on him from last time still. Little brat just couldn't keep his mouth shut sometimes!

Without thinking much more on it he called, "Pops, I need to see you now, where ya at?"

I HAD JUST walked out of the bathroom having put my new panties, skirt, and top on with my hair wet when I looked at Mom. With her new red hair, and the clothes she was wearing, she was looking more like a teenager. I was amazed at how different she looked with just those few changes. She definitely looked like she was too young to be a mother, and I hoped people would buy the idea that she was my big sister.

"All done in there?" She asked me as she set a curling iron onto the counter.

"Uh-huh," I said. "Do we need to do something different with my hair?"

"Is it wet?"

"Yes," I said.

"Okay, first thing, come here," she told me. From somewhere she grabbed a towel and I soon had it wrapped around my hair like I had seen her do a million times with her own. "Okay, now just be a good girl and let me finish getting ready?"

I nodded and sat down on the bed and watched her. This hotel room had the bathtub and toilet in one room and the sink outside. I could watch her work from the bed and just sat down for a moment. After a second I decided though to go ahead and grab my doll and held her while I watched her.

Somehow though time got away from me and Mom said, "Come sit over here sweetie," and I sat down in a small uncomfortable wooden chair that had been by the desk, but she had moved it closer so she could use the hair dryer in the room. "Sit up so I can do this," she told me as she unwrapped my hair. Mom spent a few moments combing it through with a comb to get the tangles out. She stopped for a moment though and combed the front of my hair into my face. I started to move my hand to move it back, but she said, "Just hold on..."

I patiently waited and discovered she had a pair of scissors. Mom cut my hair in front to where the annoying hair felt just above my eyebrows. "What are you doing?" I asked. Panicked a little bit that she would start cutting my hair and ruining my disguise.

"Giving you bangs," she answered.

"Oh." I said. I was a boy, but of course I knew what bangs were. I had a feeling it was going to be weird to have them. Mom then grabbed a hairbrush and the blow dryer and started finishing my hair. When she pronounced it dry I thought maybe she was done, but she said, "Hold on..."

I felt her pull my hair to two sides and shortly after I wanted to scream, "That hurts," I complained.

"You're going to have to get used to this occasionally," She told me.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm braiding your hair into two pigtails," she said with a smile as she peeked around from behind to look at my face for a moment.

I grimaced and at the same time felt a little excitement to know what I was going to look like. What I saw wasn't as pleasing as I thought it might be with as much as mom was smiling. "I look even younger!!!" I complained.

"No, you look cute, there's a difference," she reassured me.

"This is going to be so embarrassing," I wanted to cry right then. She had tied the ends of the pigtails with some purple hair ties that had a plastic butterfly on each of them.

"No, it's going to be safe," she told me as she forced me into a hug and kissed my forehead. "I don't want to lose you..." she told me as I could feel her shake a little.

I returned the hug and sighed, "You won't lose me. Just promise me that when we get to where we're going I can be closer to my age?" I begged.

"Okay," she said, "I promise."

"No one at school would ever believe this one on a back to school writing assignment," I fairly muttered. Mom handed me a pair of white socks and the Barbie shoes. "I can't believe my feet are small enough to fit into these..." I griped as I closed the Velcro.

Mom squeezed my shoulder again and said, "Okay little sister, we have a nice big city and lots of shopping to do!" She held her hand out to me and I grasped it knowing that it would look even more normal for my hand to be held now. "Let's go get some breakfast and then we'll head off. Do you want to bring Kaelye?"

"I probably should?" I asked.

"Probably, and we'll get some new batteries for her while we're out today. Let me see her for a second." Mom picked her up and looked at the back to discover the Phillips screwdriver would be needed just like I had earlier. "Okay, we'll get both of those at a stop later."

I grabbed onto her hand again and held onto my doll. As the elevator door opened downstairs an older lady looked at me and smiled. "You're such a cute little girl, aren't you?" She asked me.

"What do you say Ash?" Mom asked.

"Thank you," I said coyly.

"She's going to be a heartbreaker when she grows up." She told Mom. "Is she... Yours?"

Mom blushed and shook her head, "She's my little sister. I'm taking a trip with her to spend some time with her. Our parents are on a cruise and needed someone to watch her while they're gone."

"Well she's adorable." She looked at me, "So are you going to be going into first grade this year or kindergarten?"

I looked at her and had to keep from screaming, I'm a boy!!!! And I'm going into middle school!!!!

Mom knew I must have been coming to a blowup because she answered, "Second grade actually."

"Wow, you're tiny for a second grader. I taught second grade for many years. I'm sure you'll have fun though. I'm sure you both need to be off, have a good day and it was nice meeting you!"

The lady walked off and I found myself leaning into my mom. "This is soooo not fair."

"I know sweetie," was her only response.

With that we turned into the room where the hotel had set up a Continental Breakfast. I had a bowl of cereal and a pastry while Mom had some toast. I noticed a teenage girl staring at me from where she was sitting with her parents. She looked to be not much older than my real age and I wanted to shrink underneath the table. She smiled sweetly at me and I buried my head back into my food.

Mom finished finally and we got up. "She's so cute!" the girl said to mom.

Mom poked me, "Thank you," I said.

She giggled and said, "You're welcome." Then she walked away and I was left feeling like I was less than my four feet in height! Mom led me out to the car and helped me into the seat.

"You know I could do this by myself..." I told her.

"I know, but you seem less likely to be an almost eleven year old boy this way." She muttered to me.

I sighed, "Sorry for being a pain."

"You're not being a pain sweetheart, this is just really really weird!" She told me with a warm smile and climbed into the drivers seat.

I watched from the back seat as she drove into the parking lot of Kohl's again. She walked in with me hand in hand again and we began looking through racks of clothes. "Would you rather be a Barbie girl or a Disney Princess kind of girl," Mom asked me quietly as we found tops and such for both.

That was a no brainer to me, "Princess" I told her without hesitating. I shamefully admit that I loved all of the Princess movies I had seen way more than the action movies that Dad would force me to watch with him. Well, at least the ones I had managed to see without Dad knowing about it...

"Oooookay," she told me. We began a whirlwind of collecting clothes, a lot of them with Disney stuff, and some just pretty little girls' clothes and taking them into the changing rooms. I was really embarrassed that Mom insisted on going in and out with me, but I didn't have a choice. The pile of `keepers' grew a lot before we walked over to the Juniors section where she was now shopping for herself.

I was pushing the basket along behind Mom while she went on her own spree of terror. I could tell she was actually having fun, so I didn't mind waiting patiently on a bench right outside the changing room.

A girl who looked to be in high school looked at me and smiled, "Hi, I'm Kelly," she said to me.

"Hi, I'm Ashley," I replied. This girl was gorgeous and I knew she had to be way older than me.

"I like your shoes," she said pointing at my Barbie shoes and making me blush.

"Thank you, I like yours too," I said. She had on some pretty sandals that really did look nice.

"Yeah, but yours are cooler because mine don't light up! How old are you?" She asked me as she decided to sat next to me for some reason.

"I'm eight," I told her.

"Really?" She asked, genuinely sounding surprised.

I sighed, "Really. How old did you think I was?"

"Six..." She said a little sheepishly. "You look a little smaller than my seven year old sister. Granted, she's taller than most of her friends."

Mom chose that time to come out. "Ash, I think I'm done here, are you ready?"

"Sure Sis," I told her with a smile. I hoped it conveyed the, please save me from this embarrassment!

"Thank you for keeping my little sister company," she told Kelly, "I think she got tired of waiting in the stall while I tried things on!"

She laughed. "I thought so, I just wanted to make sure she was okay since she was all alone. It makes a bit more sense now that I know she's a big eight year old, but I thought maybe she was younger."

Mom looked at me and said, "We both get that a lot. Our parents are both really short!"

After a couple moments we managed to get away and she led me to the shoe department. "Ooh, they have some Princess shoes in your size," she told me excitedly.

I wanted to groan, but I noticed Kelly was nearby again, "Ooh, really?" I said excitedly. Five more pairs of shoes made it into the basket somehow and we began making our way out of the store. Mom came to a halt again suddenly though and headed to the luggage. She picked out a new set of pink luggage and said softly, "You know, I don't think it should matter... But I want our old luggage gone just in case your dad thought of something with it."

I froze for a moment and wondered if he would have thought of that. `Anything is possible...' I thought to myself. Mom checked all of our stuff out and we headed back to the hotel.

"Sweetie, I think I want to go ahead and switch hotels today... And then we'll leave the luggage in the dumpster somewhere."

"Okay..." I said.

It took us an hour to take all of the tags off of our new clothes and Mom switched into something else then too. "Wal-Mart clothes are not cool at my age," she told me.

"They're not at mine either!" I griped at her, but I wasn't going to bother switching. We made sure everything we had brought, except for the paper bags of cash, went into the old suitcases and everything else went into the new ones. Not everything would fit in the back now so she just put the old suitcases next to my car seat and drove off. Mom had checked out and retrieved the deposit money, figuring we could easily check-in somewhere else. Mom found a dumpster outside of a Denny's that she quickly put the luggage into.

"We're going to need to stop at Wal-Mart again for things..." Mom said resignedly. "I didn't want to risk keeping anything, just in case," she said.

I sighed and held Kaelye tightly, trying not to want to strangle her.

"HI POPS," RAIMONDO said as he walked up to his father and greeted him in traditional Italian fashion.

"What's the problem? Why the hell aren't you in Vermont?" His dad asked accusingly. He was pissed, the operation there was beginning to finally pay off big, but there was something off up there. Giovanni was hearing of a possible leak and that was the last thing he wanted to deal with. His son was supposed to be working to make sure security was solid, and that all of the dividends were going to the family like they should.

"I called home the other night and couldn't get Megan to answer." He said.

"So...?" He asked, his eyes glaring.

"So I tried all night that night, and all day yesterday... I had a bad feelin' and decided to come home and check out what was going on. I was worried about them."

"So you came home, you've seen them, now get your ass back to Vermont."

"They're not there. They left." He tried to fake emotion in his eyes, like it was tearing him apart, but his dad knew better. While he would personally take care of any people that got in his way, he'd always seen his wife as someone to be kind and caring with. His son was never that way though - to him, his wife was an object and nothing more.

"Well maybe you should have treated her right," his father fairly spat at him.

"What the hell, you're going to take her side on this? What about blood?"

"What about it?" His dad asked.

"I want to find them."

"Then what do you want to do with them once you find them?"

"I just want to talk to her," his son lied.

"Riiigght," his father told him.

Raimondo was pissed, this wasn't the way this conversation was supposed to go. "Damnit! I need you to help me here!

His father looked thoughtful and sighed. "We'll find her, but if she doesn't want to come back I think you should let her go. This is only going to get ugly son."

Raimondo looked at his dad with a vindictive glare, but nodded. "Alright."

"I'll make some calls." Was his father's last statement before he said, "But get your ass back to Vermont, I have my own funny feelin' about that operation."

I FELT LIKE Mom and I had raided just about every Wal-Mart now between Columbus and Dallas. She had to buy curling irons, a blow dryer, and lots of other things to replace what she had in her toiletry case. She bought me a couple new hairbrushes as well before going back to the electronics and grabbing a GPS. I looked longingly at the iPads since I was desperately missing mine. Mom correctly interpreted my staring, and I watched her get the clerks' attention to pull a new one from the display, and a cover for it. She also grabbed a pre-paid cell phone too. Finally as we were checking out Mom grabbed one of the refillable credit cards at the checkout and had them put a thousand dollars onto it.

As we walked out of the store I gave her a questioning look, "Why did you buy that card?"

"I'm hoping it'll make it easier to get a hotel room." She told me.

"Oh." I said simply. "Where to now?" I asked as I reached in and handed her stuff out of the cart to put into the trunk. She went slowly though, because she started packing things straight into one of the new suitcases.

"Well, it's about lunch time?"

I nodded, "Lunch would be good..."

"Well, how about we hit a mall food court and then we can do a little bit more shopping afterwards."

"Then?" I asked. Shopping was beginning to get a bit old for me.

"Well, I figured we could check into the hotel and then go check out that American Girl store."

I blushed, "We don't have to do that..." I told her.

She helped me into the car seat, and gave me a slight tickle as she finished buckling it. "Yes we do. I want to go, even if you don't!" She smiled at me and closed the door.

I sighed and waited for her to come into the car. She had pulled the GPS out of the box and mounted it on the windshield after running the cord from the cigarette lighter. I watched as she programmed it to take us to the mall she mentioned. As we pulled away she asked, "Are you okay?"

I nodded, "I'm just tired of shopping."

"Well we've gone a little overboard this morning," she admitted.

"A little?" I asked.

"Is that all that's bothering you?"

I shrugged and said, "Well, it's not like my entire world didn't get knocked upside down in the last two days Mom. I thought I would be playing games and stuff on my iPad, or riding my bike, or I don't know... Not pretending to be a little girl I guess."

"We'll try and figure something else out when we get to Gloria's sweetie."

"I know we will, but the problem is this is probably the smartest plan." I hated saying it. "They're going to be looking for us, and honestly we were pretty easy to spot at first."

I sat there for a moment in silence and then asked, "Mom, are we going to go ahead and switch cars again today?"

"Why sweetie?"

"Well... I'm sure the lady we bought it from won't say anything - I think she could see your bruise on your eye - but what if they found video of us somewhere before we changed our clothes and hair?"

Mom gasped, and said, "You know you're right..." After a few more moments she pulled off the freeway we were on and stopped in a grocery store parking lot.

"Why are we stopping here?" I asked.

"I want to see if they have a circular with car ads," she said simply enough.

She unbuckled me and we walked quickly to the front of the store, found what she was looking for, and then back out to the car. Mom started scanning the listings and said, "This would work..."

Mom spent a few minutes undoing the packaging on the pre-paid phone she'd bought. It took a few minutes for the car charger that came with it to give it enough juice. She spent several minutes setting up the phone, and when she had it ready she called the number.

"Hi, I'm calling to see if you still have the Honda Civic you had listed for sale?" Mom paused and said, "Good, you do?" She took a breath and then asked, "Would it be possible for me to come by in two hours and check it out?" She paused, "Okay, three p.m. will work just fine. What's your address?" Mom wrote down something on her hand, "Thanks!"

"What year is this one?"

"2008, and they claim it's only got 70,000 miles on it. It should look like a good college kid car," Mom added the last part and I began to think some more.

"What are we going to do with this one?" I asked.

"Well... I was thinking we could go park in the airport long-term storage lot. It's in the same general area of town, and then take a taxi again."

I sighed, "I guess that will work. What about our stuff?"

"I thought we could go ahead and check into the hotel first and drop our stuff off."

"Won't that put our license plate back on the map on their cameras?" I knew paranoid was big here.

"Yeah, it could..." She thought for a moment and said, "We'll park at the airport and use the Taxi to take everything with us to the hotel, then go pickup the car."

"We're going to have to hurry, aren't we?" I suggested.

"Yeah, do you think you can live without food for a bit?" She asked me.

"Sure." I told her and sat back in my seat while she drove. I couldn't do much else with the harness keeping me in place. I watched the signs for the airport grow more common, and finally Mom pulled into the long-term lot.

"Are you flying out ma'am?" The man asked at the front.

"Yes sir," she told him with a smile.

"Well follow that cart on back, don't forget to take your ticket with you, but leave this on the dash."

"Thank you sir," Mom responded and drove off towards the cart as directed.

"Okay, let's get everything out of here, including your car seat sweetie," Mom told me. "Don't leave anything..."

The two of us scrambled then and packed her new GPS, phone, pedal extenders, and everything else away in the empty luggage cases. She unbuckled me and I helped her as much as I could outside the car, but to keep up appearances I decided I probably shouldn't be moving the car seat. Instead I held my baby doll like a good little girl and waved at the driver of the bus that pulled up to help us.

He loaded everything on the vehicle and asked Mom, "Which airline?"

"Southwest," she said.

"Okay, just a few minutes."

He drove us from the lot to the curb and helped us with our stuff. "Thank you!" I told him with a smile. He just patted me on the head before climbing back into the bus.

Mom found a cart to put our luggage on and began a trek to find a cab. She'd found another hotel not far from there that we were going to check into and jotted the address down really quick before going up to the taxi stand.

"Where are you ladies headed this afternoon?" The gentleman asked.

Mom gave him the address and he waved at a minivan cab. The driver helped load our stuff in the back; including my car seat that he said we wouldn't need right then. I clutched Mom's hand as he drove through traffic and dropped us off at the hotel.

"Okay Princess, almost done with this fun..." she said, clearly ready for this all to be over with.

The new hotel was a nicer one than we'd stayed in so far, and I hoped it would be a bit more comfortable for us. Mom told me later she picked the hotel because she thought it would be easier to get a cab from. She walked to the front desk holding my hand and asked, "Do you have any vacancies available for tonight?"

The lady looked at her and said, "Yes ma'am we do, we're running a special of one-hundred forty dollars tonight."

I was shocked at how much they wanted, but Mom said, "Okay, I'd like to pay in cash if possible."

"We can do that, but we'll need a credit card to authorize for incidentals..."

Mom handed over the Wal-Mart card and I think we both held our breath until she said we were all set. It didn't take her long to give us our keys and we went up to our room with all of our baggage.

"I should have gone with the smaller car seat," she grunted as she picked it up to move it off the cart we borrowed.

"We could have gone without it altogether..." I whined right back at her.

"No, it's been smart, if anyone sees us no one would believe that you're who they're looking for. Let's go call a cab and get the new car," she told me as I rolled my eyes in disbelief.

"Won't we need the car seat to come back here?" I asked.

"The law is under eight... Make sure you tell them you're nine if we get pulled over. But not ten, they'd never believe it right now."

I stuck my tongue out at her and waited for her to call the front desk. On a whim I decided to quickly switch from my tennis shoes to a pair of sandals. We went downstairs where she messed with my hair a little bit since the tie on my right hand braid was loose. As soon as our cab was there the front desk clerk pointed the driver towards us and we set off to the address we'd been given.

RAIMONDO COULDN'T BELIEVE it when his dad called him an hour into his drive back to Vermont. He'd driven all night to get home and now had an equally long drive ahead of him to get back there. `I'm going to have to stop and stay the night somewhere' had been the thought just before the phone call. Even though it was only about three in the afternoon he was having trouble keeping his eyes open.

"Raimondo, I have some news for you, but you ain't gonna like it kid."

He grunted, "Why am I not surprised?" He sighed, "What's the word?"

"Well we went ahead and traced your wife's car via the Onstar feature. Jay went and found it in a commuter lot near Dayton."

"She switched cars?!?" Raimondo couldn't believe she'd have the brains to do that.

"We think so. No idea what they're driving now. Since she left her cell phone at home that's not going to be much help either. I've got guys looking at airports, hotels, and the dollar stores for people with their description, but it's going to be a needle in a haystack. I think we may have a hit on her debit card being used though."

"Stupid bitch! That should help us find her easy then!"

"Maybe"¦" his dad hedged. "Say, did you ever put in those tracking chips into the luggage like you planned?"

"Shit, yeah I did. I got tired of those freakin' airlines losing my luggage. I'll have to get online and see if I can track it down. I'm guessing she wouldn't think to drop the luggage somewhere, and I hid that tracker really good inside the lining."

"Yeah, it would be a good way to check up on her," his father agreed. "Any ideas where she would have gone?"

"Well until you said she dropped the car I figured the worst she would do would be to run to her parents... But now I don't think so. I have no idea where she could go other than friends from college."

"Well, let's wait and see what you find out about the tracker. If you can get me the information on it I'll see if I can't get someone from the family nearby to check in on them. Hopefully with that and the fact she is still using her debit card we should be able to find her by tomorrow."

"Thanks dad."

"I need to go." His dad hung up and he knew they had said probably more over the phone than they should. Supposedly these new phones he and his dad were using were using an encrypted app, but you never knew. The FBI and others could just be too damn clever sometimes.

"Bitch left the car... How in the world could she just leave the Beamer there?!?!?"

He found a hotel and checked in so he could get online and check the trackers.

"I'll find you..."

I included an extra chapter today due to concerns about whether I'll have time to post another chapter on Thursday like I had originally planned. (Thursdays and Sundays are going to be the days for this to be posted) Some real life stuff may get in the way this week. Hopefully it just means an extra chapter will have been posted this week! I hope you enjoyed it!

What did you think? Comments and/or Kudos are always appreciated! If it pertains to later chapters, and contains a possible spoiler, please give people a "Spoiler Alert" warning. Thanks for reading!

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 4: Immersion
 
MEGAN PAID THE cab fare with the driver but also gave him an extra fifty to stay put for a while, just in case the car was a bust. She looked over at the car sitting in the driveway with a ‘For Sale’ sign on it. It looked like it was in decent shape on the blue exterior. She didn’t see any signs of hail damage and the windshield still looked pretty good too.

The door to the house opened and a Hispanic man who was about forty or so came out.

“Hi, are you Amber?” He asked politely.

“Yes sir, this is the car?”

“Si, it was my mother-in-laws car, she took real good care of it until she passed away last month.”

“Sorry to hear that,” she said.

“Well, it is what it is. She’s in a better place now. You want to look inside?” He asked.

Megan nodded and began looking through the car. It seemed clean, and to her amusement there was a very worn and faded pink booster seat in the back. Everything seemed to be in good condition and this guy seemed trustworthy.

“When was the oil changed last?”

“Today,” he answered with a smile. “When you called I did that and washed her up. You can never know for certain of course, but everything looks good under the hood. I think she’ll be a good car for you.”

It was a risk, she was terrible with cars, but there weren’t a lot of other options and the man seemed trustworthy. “You said you want thirteen?”

Megan had that much, but she wanted to pay less.

“That’s what the Blue Book asks for...” He looked at her for a moment. “I have a feeling I should sell it to you for less though. Something seems wrong with that amount. How about ten?”

“Deal,” she said and they shook hands. Ashley had watched quietly and the man asked, “Is this your daughter?”

Megan shook her head, “No, she’s my baby sister. Our parents are on vacation and I took her for the week to spend time with her.”

“That’s mighty sweet of you to do for them.”

“She’s a sweet kid, I love her to death, I don’t mind.” Megan said and gave Ashley a sideways hug.

The three of them went inside and Megan gave the man the cash. “That’s dangerous to be walking around with that much money,” he told her.

“It’s dangerous to go anywhere,” Megan told him back. “This isn’t normal though, I’ve been saving up for a new car from all of my part-time jobs the last few years.” It was a plausible lie.

“Well, I hope it does as well for you as it should. Tires are pretty new too, so you should have a couple years to go on them. When you get the new plates would you please turn in the old ones to the DMV?” He asked.

“Absolutely, no problem there!”

Megan walked outside and told the cab driver he could leave, and then helped Ashley into the back seat and the well-worn booster seat. It took her a few more minutes to get her pedals attached, and then they were off. “How is that booster seat?” She asked. It was a bit more age appropriate in appearance for her.

To her surprise Ashley said, “I like mine better... It’s a lot more comfortable.”

“Even though it’s more babyish?” Megan smiled at her and was rewarded with the tongue she knew to expect. “Better watch out or a birdie might just come and peck that tongue right off!”

Ashley giggled with that, and Megan realized she wasn’t thinking of her as Tony. She kept thinking of herself by her real name, but Ashley wasn’t the same thing. ‘This got out of hand on every level so quickly,’ she thought. ‘I know Ashley complains about the age thing every ten minutes, but she hasn’t complained about the girl thing nearly enough...” Megan sighed and noticed that Ashley was now watching the road pass by her window. ‘If it wasn’t for the fact I think this may be our only real hope for staying off of the family’s radar I would let her go back to being Tony in a heartbeat. I’m not sure when or if that’s going to ever be possible though,’ that broke her heart in a big way.

The only thing Megan could think of was, ‘Well I might as well make it special for her…’

MOM AND I headed to the nearby mall where we finally ate lunch. The extended break before we actually got to the shopping was really nice, and I was a little bit more relaxed as we shopped through some of the chain stores there. Mom seemed intent on getting anything I would need, now, rather than when we arrived wherever we did. Close to five we finally left the mall with bags hanging off of both of our arms.

“Where are we going now?” I asked.

“The American Girl store,” she told me.

I wanted to whine, but the more I thought about it I wouldn’t mind some more dolls. If I were going to be stuck playing with them for the foreseeable future at least I would have options. Mom had to dodge a nightmare of traffic, but finally pulled into the parking lot and I could see a huge red sign and building there.

“Whoa,” I said. Really I think I’d been expecting a toy store like Toys’R’Us or something.

Mom took my hand and gave it a squeeze before leading me in. “Let’s go find you a doll or two,” she told me with a smile.

The inside of the store was really neat! I found myself going down the aisles looking at all of the dolls, clothes, and accessories with a lot of interest. When we had finished looking through the store Mom asked, “So which ones?”

“How many can I get?” I asked, actually kind of excited by the dolls.

“Well, why don’t you pick two, and then I’ll pick one.”

My eyes opened a bit because I had seen the prices, but I said enthusiastically, “Okay!”

The girl of the year doll was named Saige and the signs said she was from New Mexico, so it seemed fitting I would get her. She even had red hair like me too... “How about this one?” I asked Mom excitedly.

Mom smiled at me, “She’s cute!”

I looked around and thought about some of the ones in the pretty old fashioned dresses, but I noticed the My American Girl Dolls had one that looked really close to me too, even more than Saige. Her hair was a bit lighter of a red than mine, but I picked out one of those and Mom gave me a sideways hug. She helped me pick out a few more outfits for both dolls, and grabbed a few accessories that would go with Saige. We both loved the hot air balloon, but it was just too big to keep anywhere.

Mom found a doll tote that was designed to carry two dolls and added it to our growing mountain of purchases. “Can I help you with that?” An employee asked.

“Please,” she answered.

“Are you ready to check out yet...?”

“No, we’re still looking for some things, could you hold it at the counter until we come up?”

“Sure thing!” The girl smiled at us and carried the pile over there for us. Mom and I somehow ended up over at the girls clothing part of the store and I ended up with a shirt that said American Girl on it, along with three outfits that matched the dolls.

“So which doll are you picking?” I asked Mom as we continued through the store.

She picked up one of the Bitty Baby sets, complete with starter accessory kit and said, “I think this will be more than enough for you to play with for a while.”

When we made our way up to the counter Mom said, “Those are ours too,” pointing at the stack.

“Wow, we must have a really lucky girl today,” the lady said to me. “Birthday?”

“Next week,” Mom said.

“How old are you going to be?” the lady asked.

Embarrassed for another time today I said, “Eight.”

“Well I hope you have a really great birthday!” She told me. “Would you like to have their ears pierced?” She pointed to the doll that looked like me and the Bitty Baby doll, “Saige’s are already pierced.”

Mom looked at me, and I asked, “Hers?” while pointing to the My American Girl doll.

Mom nodded, “Please just that one. I guess baby dolls don’t get their ears pierced?” Mom teased me. All of our purchases were soon rung up and she said, “Do you want to take her out of the box and you may walk over to the doll salon to get her ears pierced?”

I smiled and nodded, “Yes please!” All the while I wondered when someone was going to scream that I was a boy and shouldn’t be enjoying this!

The lady helped pull the doll out of her box and unwrapped a few spots they’d put protective wrap on. “Here you go sweetie,” she told me with a smile.

“Thank you,” I said.

Mom and I followed the signs to the hair salon and waited in line. “And what may I do for you today?” The lady behind the counter asked.

“We need to get her ears pierced,” Mom said pointing towards my doll that I was clutching.

“Alright then, did you pay up front already?” She asked and Mom showed her the receipt.

“Pass her over, and then I’ll be right back with her,” she told me with a smile. She disappeared out of sight for a moment and then handed her back to me. I smiled at the new addition of the star earrings.

“Thanks!” I said.

“You’re very welcome, and here are the other earrings that come with the package,” She said and handed Mom a small box that she added to the bag.

“Thank you so much,” Mom said and I added another thank you of my own. Finally with two huge bags apiece we headed to the car.

“Shall we go eat in the mall?” Mom suggested since it was well past dinnertime at this point.

“Sure...” I said, and added, “Can I take Kaitlyn with me?”

She smiled at me and asked, “Which one is Kaitlyn?”

“The one that looks like me!” I smiled at her as if she should have known this. “Obviously the other one is Saige, and the baby is...” I hesitated, I hadn’t come up with one for her.

“Kristin?” Mom suggested.

“Ooh, that works. Then I’ll have Kaelye, Kaitlyn, and Kristin! They’re all ‘K’ names.” I said proudly and then I giggled.

Mom helped me get her out of the box and handed her to me. “Don’t mess with her hair yet, okay?” She told me.

“Okay,” I told her. The two of us walked through the mall and I enjoyed the envious looks some of the girls showered on me. I could tell the dolls were popular because I wasn’t the only one carrying one. Mom found a restaurant inside and we settled down for a dinner that wasn’t fast food.

“Split something?” She asked me.

We hadn’t split something in a couple years... But I wasted half the food on an adult dish, and I didn’t really want anything on the kid’s menu. “Okay,” I said. We ended up with a seafood pasta dish that wasn’t too bad.

“I wish their pasta was as good as Grandma’s,” I complained quietly.

“No one makes pasta like your Grandma used to, no one,” Mom answered.

I think that whole thing made us both sadder. Grandma’s death was when I noticed Dad getting meaner and meaner. I guess losing your mom could do that to you. I silently hoped I wouldn’t lose my mom for a very long time.

It was a good thing we split the meal, because neither of us could eat another bite even with splitting it! Mom led me back into the mall and seemed to have one of her many inspirations.

“What now?” I asked, trying not to sound like I was whining.

“We need to both get our hair done better. Yours isn’t bad, but the back of it could use some work. Mine is too long... I need it to be shorter to help with everything. Can you trust me?” She asked this with a really deep hope in her eyes.

I sighed, “Of course I trust you Sis.”

The lady at the front asked, “May I help you?”

“Would you happen to be able to take my sister and I as walk-ins?”

She looked down at me and smiled. “We definitely can, you came at a good time!”

“Great!” My mom said.

“What do you want done?”

“Umm,” she looked at me and I held up Kaitlyn to her. “My sister wants her hair to match her doll if you can do it,” she said with a smile. The lady smiled too, “We get that a lot here, I think we can definitely get pretty close!”

I smiled back at her and said, “Cool!” I was a little embarrassed that it came out with a bit of a squeal.

“And I would like to cut mine to my shoulders... And both our nails done too.”

“Okay, we should be able to do all of that, follow me,” the lady led us back to an area and gave us two chairs side-by-side. Mine was decidedly smaller and definitely designed with little girls in mind.

“When did you dye your hair?” the stylist asked Mom.

“We did it yesterday...” She answered and I could tell a bit of concern there.

“You did a decent job, no roots visible really or anything, but I don’t want to do too much to burn your hair out more then.”

“No, pretty much just cut and curl it under here,” Mom said, “basically a longer bob.”

My stylist in the meantime said, “Your sister said you wanted to look like your doll?”

I nodded, “I want hair just like Kaitlyn if you can...”

“That’s her name?” She asked and I nodded, “Well I’ll do the best I can!”

“Yay!” I said.

“Would you be willing to let me put her up here on the counter so I can see her while I work?”

I nodded, “I guess.”

Once she’d been taken from me I was covered with the typical smock and she began pulling out the pigtails Mom had put in my hair that morning. She then began cutting at the ends of my hair. I knew it would be cute to have us both have the same haircut. Cute was the opposite of what Dad thought I was.

The stylist kept up a running conversation with me about my favorite dollies and I made up a lot of things. I hoped she wouldn’t think I had the wrong answers or anything. “What would you like on your nails sweetie?” The lady asked as she finished up with a curling iron on my hair.

“Umm... I don’t know?”

“Well we could do a few colors, I could paint some flowers, and I could put some little jewels on...?”

Flowers sounded kind of cool, “You can really paint flowers on my nails?” I asked.

“Watch me work!” She said with a smile and brought over a cart. I picked out a cotton candy pink as a base when she gave me a choice of that or purple and then watched her work some serious magic. How anyone could paint that tiny I didn’t understand! They were cute when she was done and had me dry them in a nail dryer. My feet were then done to match and I was done shortly before Mom. I was really glad I had switched to my sandals at the hotel so everyone could see my pretty toes!

“Here, you can hop down here and sit over there while you wait for your sister,” the lady said when she was done.

“Thank you,” I said sweetly, enjoying the fact that I seemed to be able to wrap people around my finger at least.

She smiled at me and I sat down with Kaitlyn and softly played with her while Mom was finishing up. It wasn’t too long before she was done and had some pretty nails too, but I didn’t notice right away. “Come on Princess, time to go,” she told me.

“What?” I said, startled, “Oh, okay.”

Mom paid at the front and we began the trek back to the car. “I don’t think there’s anything else we need for now...”

“Did you get makeup to replace yours?” I asked.

She stopped short, “I bought some cheap stuff... But I bet they have a Sephora here...” In another quick rush of shopping Mom was in and out of the store with some new makeup. I looked at all of the colorful displays and wondered if I was going to be pretending to be a girl long enough to need this stuff. “Mom won’t let you wear any of this until you’re thirteen.” She said with a smile as she caught me looking at eyeshadows.

I stuck my tongue out at her and we walked with her holding my hand out to the car. Mom helped me back into the seat again and she headed off to the hotel. I must have been tired, because I don’t remember the drive.

“HEY POPS, YEAH I have a tracking location for her on the luggage.”

“What did you find?” His father asked back.

“She’s in Dallas.”

“Hmm… That’s odd, her card says she’s in South Carolina.”

“What the hell?!?!”

“She’s probably not in both places son… give me the address and I’ll have someone check out Dallas. I already have someone going to check the gas station where her card was last used. Damn, she did make tracks to get out of here, huh?”

“Yeah, luckily we have the business in both places.”

“Go ahead and give me the info, I’m ready to write it down...”

Raimondo gave his dad the tracking information. He’d been lucky he was able to pay for another year of tracking and get access again. He’d let the initial year expire without renewing and he couldn’t track it for several hours.

“Kay, I’ll give you a call when I know something. Make sure that you are back up there by noon tomorrow, I don’t like what I’m hearing about stuff up there...”

“I’ll be there Pops, just find Megan.”

He hung up the phone and said softly, “Where the fuck are you bitch!?!” Ray couldn’t help but put his money on Dallas…

MOM WOKE ME up at the hotel and we took the elevator up to our room and took our bags up. It took us four trips with both of us fully loaded down to make it, so I guessed that we had bought enough stuff for now. Mom began taking tags off clothes and throwing hangers into the trash.

“Ashley, how about you take your other dolls out of the boxes?” Mom asked me, “Normally I would say we should keep those since they could be good for collectors value, but it would be weird at this point while we’re traveling... And they take up a lot of space!”

“Okay,” I said with a smile. I was kind of excited actually!

“Just be careful as you take them out. If you were really only eight I would be doing it for you.”

“Just get your story straight sis, earlier I wasn’t even eight!” I stuck my tongue out at her and she laughed.

“Well it was kind of a crazy amount of money to spend on a non-birthday girl.”

I didn’t say anything but began working through the wraps and ties in the box on my Saige doll. It took me probably an hour to make it all the way through the boxes and get the accessories put into the bags Mom bought for them. I had a lot of fun though, and strangely I was really looking forward to playing with my dolls. The Bitty Baby that I had named Kristin was cute too, but I liked her older sisters a lot more! I sat a book that came with Saige off to the side so I could read it in the car the next day.

“How about you wear these pajamas tonight?” Mom suggested, holding up a set from the store. “And you can put Kaitlyn in the matching set!”

“Okay!” I said.

“How about a bath first though? There’s a huge bath here, and I bought bubble bath!”

“Cool,” I said and helped her get the bath started. She was right - the tub was gigantic! I could tell it was going to take a few minutes to fill up, so I decided to go dress my dolls for bed while I was waiting. I had sets of pajamas for all of them and quickly dressed them all and left them on my bed.

I walked back into the bathroom and Mom said, “That should be full enough,” to me.

My eyes meanwhile felt like they were going to pop out of my head with the amount of bubbles that were in the tub. “Okay,” I said.

“Since they washed your hair and did all that work earlier let’s put your hair in this,” Mom held out a shower cap.

“Can you help me?” I asked. I’d never used one and didn’t really know how to get my hair all in there.

“Take off your top first then...”

Mom slid the cap on then and left the room, leaving the door open while I undressed the rest of the way and climbed into the water. I felt like I was in a swimming pool practically and it felt really really nice. Dad had told me I couldn’t have any more bubble baths when I was really eight, telling me, “Men in our family are strong, and they do not take bubble baths. You are not going to grow up and be some sissy on me!!!”

I giggled. I wanted to never ever see Dad again, he was a monster, and now that I knew about the family meaning more than just family... Well I wondered what dad was capable of. Had he killed people?

I shuddered at that, but I thought I knew the answer. The way he beat Mom and me told me he probably had. There was no doubt in my mind that he was an evil man. I would love to have him see me just to blow his mind though. He would be soooo mad to see his son dressed up and playing the part of a girl loving her dollies in a pretty dress.

I giggled hysterically at that.

Mom came in and asked, “Are you okay?”

I managed to stop giggling for a second, “I was just thinking of the expression on Dad’s face if he saw me in a dress playing with my dollies.” I smiled broadly.

“I hope that never happens...”

“Me too, but it would almost be worth blowing his small mind.”

Mom seemed to somewhat get the humor, but she wasn’t smiling.

I decided it was time to get out of the tub and grabbed the towel to wrap it around my waist like I usually did. Mom stopped me though and wrapped it higher up. “I’m sorry Mommy,” I told her. “I know this sucks, but I know you’re going to keep us safe,” I held onto her and she held onto me.

“Come on Princess, let’s get you into your pajamas,” she insisted a few moments later. She helped me with the shower cap, and then I pulled on another set of panties with Snow White and the pajamas. Mom handed me a new toothbrush and toothpaste set and I began brushing my teeth before heading back out to the room. I picked up Kaitlyn and hugged her, asking Mom, “So are we twins?”

Mom laughed and I stood up to give her a big hug. “Thank you for the dolls, and for getting us out of there, Mom.”

“You’re welcome... I just couldn’t chance you getting hurt anymore sweetie.”

“I love you,” I told her.

“I love you too.”

I climbed into bed not long after having left Saige and Kaitlyn on the dresser next to the TV to watch over me. Mom handed me Kristin though saying, “She’s one you can sleep with if you want.”

I took her from Mom and held her tight as I lay on my side and listened to her get ready for bed. I wasn’t sure why, but I had more fun when we went to the American Girl shop than I’d had in a long time. Oh, back home I thought I was having fun, but I remembered that I always had to be careful to be ‘manly’ around Dad. I even had different games on my iPad that I played around him versus when I played by myself or around Mom. I loved puzzles and other games that he would term, ‘sissy,’ and avoided those, always finding something with action and blowing up things when he was around.

‘Dad is an asshole.’ I thought as I squeezed Kristin a little tighter.

‘I wish I could stay like this though, this is so much better than being his manly boy.’

I felt myself shudder and jolt at that thought. ‘This is just until we get away from him. I’ll go back to being a boy at the ranch...’ I smacked myself in the head with the first thought. ‘Can I though? It’s not like Dad will stop looking next week... He’s probably going to stop looking when he dies — and not a moment before then. Well, unless he goes to prison... Though that may not stop him either since the family is still out there.’

‘Would it be so bad to be a girl?’ I asked myself.

As I fell asleep my last thought was, ‘I can’t believe I never pulled out the iPad…’

RAIMONDO HAD JUST climbed into his car to start driving the rest of the way after a few hours of sleep when his cell phone rang. “Hello?”

“Is this Ray?”

“Yes it is,” he thought he recognized the voice, but couldn’t place it, “who’s this?”

“This is Marco, down at the Dallas management office.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Well I just wanted to let you know we tracked that missing shipment you called about. Unfortunately somehow it ended up in the dump outside of town.”

“The dump?” He asked incredulously, “Away from the other packages?!?”

“Yes sir, we’ll try and find out what we can, but there’s no way we’re going to recover the items there, they’ve been buried in a pile who knows where. Just wanted to let you know. We’ll try and figure out an insurance plan in the meantime.”

“Thanks Marco.”

He punched the steering wheel as soon as he hung up, “I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT FUCKING BITCH!!!!”

It was too late to call his Dad tonight. Other people worked for him at these hours, so he decided to try and figure out another plan. ‘I can’t imagine her having managed to get the luggage to a separate place from them. I bet she either ‘lost the card’ or gave it to someone else… If I find that person…’ Megan must have had some idea that he would be doing everything he could to find her. “How in the hell did she figure out that tracker?!?” He couldn’t believe it, if she hadn’t he’d have been able to find her — even with the credit card trail.

‘Well, at least we can be pretty sure she was in Dallas... Maybe she is heading to her parents after all. I don’t know of any place she would go to in New Mexico or Arizona. But, she hasn’t been exactly following any of my guesses so far.’

He dialed his phone. “Hey...”

SOMEWHERE IN A room filled with computers, an FBI Technician noted the time of the conversation and typed up a report to send to his superiors. Something about this felt weird, and like it wasn’t just the case they were working on. They’d received a tip a year ago that a dollar store in Vermont seemed to be trafficking drugs and other illegal goods across the border. Just before they raided the operation though people figured out who owned the stores nationally. The Franchino Family had managed to keep their noses clean officially for fifty years, despite numerous investigations.

‘Maybe this call will help us start to unravel the rest of it...’

MEGAN WATCHED HER baby sleeping. Her child might have really been an almost eleven-year-old boy, but right now she would have guessed a six-year old little girl. She looked adorable laying there clutching her new doll. ‘‘He’ looked adorable clutching ‘his’ new doll,’ she corrected herself.

’He’s going to have to stay this way a while though,’ she admitted to herself. ‘I swear he seems happier though... What if he turns out to be one of those trans ladies all because of this...?’ Megan was worried about so many things, but she just couldn’t cry right then. There was just no energy left in her to cry. ‘We have to get out of Dallas now and to Gloria’s before they start looking around here too much. I just hope Ray doesn’t think to look there.’

Megan was about to climb into bed when she noticed one box that she’d bought for her son that he hadn’t even looked at. ‘He was more excited about the dolls than a new iPad!?!’ She was in total shock over that. Careful not to disturb him she took the iPad into the bathroom along with the gift cards she’d bought to load some games and stuff on. It took her a few minutes to set it up under her fake name and she used the Wal-Mart card again as a backup card to charge for billing. Once done with that she loaded the gift cards on it and decided to buy some apps via the hotel wi-fi before they left.

‘I don’t even know if Gloria will have internet out there...’ she thought to herself. ‘I don’t think I can afford to load the shooter games that he always plays when his dad is around though... Just in case someone gets hold of it.’

Megan spent the next hour picking out games that an eight-year old girl would love to play. Things like dress-up games, Disney games, and she even discovered a couple American Girl apps too. From there she found some e-books that would be good for that age too, even though she knew Ashley would fly through them. Tony might have an abusive father, but he was brilliant in school according to all of the teachers. The latest reading test he’d been given last year had indicated he was at about the twelfth grade level in comprehension. Megan also downloaded some Disney Princess movies that she knew her son would like. It was as she was waiting for these to download she realized how much trouble she had to keep it straight that she had a son, not a daughter.

‘Well, I hope he can survive this, one way or another,’ she admitted. ‘I know I’m dead if they find us, Ray will probably spare Tony’s life though... But I’m sure if he finds Tony like this there’ll be hell to pay too.’ She walked back out and left the iPad downloading, just now realizing how late it was. ‘Damn, and we have a long drive tomorrow!’

As she looked at her baby sleeping there she couldn’t help but think, ‘I wouldn’t mind if she wanted to stay like this. Maybe if I suggest she pretend to be closer to her age when we get there…’

What did you think? Comments and/or Kudos are always appreciated! If it pertains to later chapters, and contains a possible spoiler, please give people a "Spoiler Alert" warning. Thanks for reading!

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 5: Havens
 
THE WAKE-UP call came while I was still deep in slumber. I just rolled back over and closed my eyes again. Mom got up and moved around for a while before she came and said, “Ashley, time to get up.”

“Okay,” I said and moved towards the suitcase where we had put my clothes.

“Do you want to wear a dress today?” Mom asked me.

“I really hate sitting in that seat with a dress,” I told her honestly.

“Oh... Yeah, that is a bit awkward isn’t it.” She moved around me and dug around, coming up with another skirt.

“That’s the same problem...” I started to say before she pulled up the fabric and showed me there was a pair of shorts underneath. “What is that?” I asked. I didn’t remember trying it on yesterday.

“It’s a skort,” Mom said, “outside it’s like a skirt, but underneath it has a pair of shorts to keep you from having embarrassing moments with your panties.”

I blushed. “I guess that will work,” I told her. She found a top to match and sent me to the bathroom to get dressed and brush my teeth. We hurriedly began taking stuff downstairs to the car then. Mom put the booster seat from yesterday in the trunk and installed mine. We ran back upstairs a couple times, but soon I was carrying Kaitlyn and Saige down the elevator in the doll tote while holding Kristin.

“Let’s go get a big breakfast at Denny’s, and then we’ll head off,” she told me once we’d put my dolls down in the backseat. I was getting a little tired of her insisting to help me with the harness, but as I looked up I felt my heart stop.

A distant cousin of mine was walking out of the lobby towards a car and looked right at me with a smile. I had met him last year when my Dad brought us down on a business trip... Thankfully he smiled and looked away, walking on towards the car.

“What?” Mom asked me.

“Don’t turn around,” I whispered urgently.

I could tell she just caught herself, “What?”

“Eddie just walked by.”

I watched mom tense up, but she said, “Did he see you?”

“He looked right at me, smiled, and kept walking. You can go now I think.”

Mom quickly moved to the drivers seat, a little shakily, and drove away. Both of us were relieved when he got onto the freeway and drove away from us. “Mom, I hate pretending like this, but I have a feeling it just saved our lives...”

Mom didn’t speak from the front, but decided to go on to breakfast as planned. “Why don’t you bring Kristin in with you this time?” Mom suggested.

“Why not Kaitlyn or Saige?” I asked.

“Please, just bring in Kristin?”

I sighed, “Okay.”

Mom grabbed the backpack that came with her and held it over her shoulder as we walked to the hostess stand.

“Two please,” she said.

“Would you like a booster seat for your daughter?”

I felt my face redden up, “That won’t be necessary for my sister,” Mom said.

I smiled a bit then, glad that she didn’t take that offer, and we followed her to a booth. I sat Kristin in my lap and tried to hold her like a little girl would. “Here’s a menu for you sweetheart,” the lady said as she put a coloring menu in front of me. “And what would you like to drink?”

“Orange juice please,” I said.

“You’re sure Eddie didn’t recognize you, right?” Mom asked softly across the table when our order for food had been taken.

“I’m sure he would have said something. Let’s face it! I’m a cute little girl who was being buckled into her car seat... I’m about as far from Tony as I could be.”

Mom nodded and drank a few more sips from her coffee. “You know we might have to keep up this act for a while...”

I sighed, “I figured.” I didn’t want to cry, but I so needed to cry. Everything had changed in the last few days and the last thing I wanted to do was to stay like this... Or was it?

“Are you okay?”

I nodded, “I just would like to be a bit older,” I told her. “But, I’ll be eight as long as I have to be.”

Mom nodded, “Well, you’re only seven until next week though” and laughed a bit.

I giggled too and asked, “So can I be a princess on my birthday?!?”

“Of course! But, you’re a princess every day,” she reassured me with a smile.

The food was served pretty quickly and we spared no time in eating. A quick trip to the bathroom, a stop for gas, and Mom was driving again. I began brushing Kaitlyn’s hair out a little bit and changed her pajamas to another outfit. Saige soon had a new outfit too, and I was kind of regretting I didn’t want to wear a dress today since I had a dress just like hers I could have worn.

‘What am I saying?!?’ I asked myself. ‘It’s official, I must be the ‘queer’ that Dad was always trying to keep me from being...’ I should have been more upset, but the truth was I felt good about it. Not a single person had even guessed I was a boy, let alone that I was almost eleven, since we had changed my clothes. ‘Maybe I really am a girl, and this is how I’m supposed to be...’ I knew I had the boys plumbing, but other than that I’d never really been much of a manly boy.

“Whatcha thinking about back there?” Mom asked from the front.

“Nothing,” I lied.

“Yes you are, what’s wrong, talk to me.”

“Mom, I’m a boy... Right?”

“Well, normally, yes.”

“Then why am I able to fool everyone so easily, and why... And why do I like this?” I asked with tears now coming down my face.

“Do you need me to stop sweetie?”

‘Stop what? The car, dressing me like a girl?’ Instead of answering either of them with the ‘no’ that I know a normal boy would have, I said, “No, keep going, if we stop too much we won’t get to Gloria’s tonight.”

“I don’t mean just the car Tony.” Mom said, the name jolting me a bit.

“No, I don’t want to stop that either...” I wiped a tear from my eye, “I’m just worried because I don’t really want to ever stop it.”

With that I broke down into sobs and Mom pulled over to a gas station to give me a hug. “Sweetie, if that’s what you want that’s fine. Honestly I don’t know that we’ll ever find a way to be free of your Dad by being who you were. If this is who you want to be then I’m okay with that.”

“But doesn’t it make me a faggot?”

“Young lady don’t you ever use that word again!” Mom hissed with the look that meant I was in trouble, “It just means you’re being true to yourself then. And I’ll love you no matter what you are, little girl or boy,” she poked my nose, “or cat, or dog, or whatever. You’re my baby and that’s all that matters!”

“Well I definitely feel the baby part right now,” I laughed nervously between sobs.

“If you’re going to be a girl it’s okay to cry sweetie, it’s even okay to cry as a boy.”

“But Mom, Dad always...”

“Your Dad is not the kind of man to think of here Ashley, there are much better guys out there in the world.”

“You really believe that?” I asked her in surprise.

“Do you think we’re leaving a good person?”

I shook my head, “No.”

“Then hang in there.” She hugged me again and used a Kleenex to wipe my eyes. “Are you going to be okay for a while until we stop again?” Mom asked me since we were already at a gas station. “We’ve been in the car for a couple hours already you know.”

“Oh, I guess I could go to the bathroom then...”

“Come on then, and we can wash your face too.”

Mom led me into the gas station and we both took a turn in the one-person bathroom. When I was done Mom helped me wash my face off. I noticed she was going to have to redo her makeup too and waited outside the bathroom for her to finish.

“Is everything okay?” I looked up and saw a lady police officer.

I nodded, “I’m just waiting for my sister to get out of the bathroom.”

“Okay, I know how that is!” She told me. “What’s your name?”

“Ashley,” I said.

“How old are you?”

“I’m eight,” I said. I felt bad about lying to the cop about everything, but telling the truth here was just about as bad as running home to my Dad in a dress.

Mom came out of the restroom right then and I hoped the officer was satisfied everything was okay. “Bye,” I said to her as I took her hand and we walked back out to the car.

“I hate being scared all of the time,” I told Mom as she buckled the seat again. I saw the officer come out the store and look at us and wave.

“Maybe when we’re in one place it’ll be better.” Mom suggested.

“Maybe.”

With that she went around to the other side and started driving again — this time I was out like a light.

RAY WAS FURIOUS with his father for sending him back up to Vermont even though Megan and his son were missing. His fury showed on his face as he walked into the office in the back of the store. “Ray, you’re back.” His cousin Ryan said.

“Yes, and I’m not happy about it either. You figure out anything over the weekend?”

“No, but I noticed one of my crew behaving a little strange the other day.”

“Which one?”

“Craig over there,” he said pointing to a fairly athletic looking guy in his mid-twenties.

“Former military?”

“Maybe, not sure. He’s been working with us for about a year now. I let him into the shipping end of the business three months ago once I thought we could trust him.”

Ray looked at the guy and thought something did feel funny. He looked a bit too clean-cut for someone that would be down on his luck enough to work for them. “I’m going to go talk to some other guys around here, see if they’ve seen anything.”

“Sounds good boss.”

AGENT KLINE SAT in his office looking at some reports his field agents had sent him in the last week. All organized crime cases flew across his desk at some point or another and he made it a point to know what was going on with each of them. Giovanni Franchino looked to maybe be messing up on his security for once. An agent had managed to make it into a crew in Vermont that was smuggling drugs, weapons, and stolen goods back and forth across the border. His son had come up to take a look at the operation... ‘That’s odd, why is Raimondo up there...’ he looked at some other reports and noticed that a cell phone call had actually been intercepted unencrypted for once from his phone.

‘What the hell is going on?’ he asked himself and looked at things. He debated for a moment about the idea of pulling out his agent, but this was the first time in twenty years anyone in the agency had any luck cracking the business anywhere. They easily had enough to shut down the local operation, but tying in the family was a tougher sell with the courts.

‘Whatever has Raimondo upset might just do it though...’ He picked up his phone and dialed. “Hey Jake, yeah this is Bob... I’m looking at a report here from a phone call from Raimondo Franchino that looks kind of odd... Would you look into it to see if there’s anything going on back home with him? I know we haven’t been doing much other than tapping his line, but this is the kind of thing that might finally break the case open... Great, thanks!”

‘Not much else I can do for now but be patient. They’ll make a mistake somewhere…’

I WOKE UP as the car slowed down at the off ramp. “Where are we?” I sleepily asked.

“Amarillo, I thought we could stop to stretch our legs and get something to eat.” Mom said to me.

“Okay,” I said.

I looked down and saw that I had been cuddling Kaitlyn from whenever I fell asleep in the car. I brushed a strand of hair back and looked at the ears that they had pierced for me. ‘I’ll have to find another pair and switch them sometime...’ I thought to myself as mom pulled off and into yet another mall parking lot.

“Not more shopping...” I whined a bit.

“No, I just want to walk around somewhere and we can eat in the food court,” she insisted.

“Oh... Okay I guess.”

“Let’s put your dolls in the trunk sweetheart, I don’t want anyone to decide to break in the car...”

I nodded and set Kaitlyn and Saige back in the doll carrier, and helped Mom carry some of my stuff into the trunk. Inside a bag I saw the iPad out of the box. “When did you open the iPad?” I asked her softly.

“After you went to bed last night, I was really surprised you never asked about it.” She said to me as she leaned down and pushed the skirt of my skort back into place.

I blushed, “I was more excited about my dolls.”

She grabbed my hand and smiled at me, “I know.”

The two of us walked through the mall and settled on a piece of pizza apiece for lunch. As I filled up and couldn’t eat the rest of it I looked up to see a jewelry store not far from where we were sitting. ‘I wonder if she’ll go for it...’ I thought to myself. It was then I realized that Mom must have left almost all of her jewelry back home - she definitely wasn’t wearing a wedding ring now.

“Whatcha thinking Princess?” Mom asked timidly.

I smiled, “I was just thinking that Kaitlyn looks just like me except for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

It came out in a flurry before I could stop my mouth, “She has pierced ears and I don’t.”

“She does, doesn’t she...” Mom said thinking. “Well you know Mom said you couldn’t have your ears pierced until you were eight...” She wore a really big smile.

I giggled. “I’m almost eight” I said with my own smile.

“I know you are, and what Mom doesn’t know won’t hurt us, huh?” She smiled and said, “Come on, let’s go to Claire’s, it’s where I got my ears pierced back in the day. It’s tradition!”

Mom grabbed onto my hand and we walked to the store. In ten minutes we were out of there and I had a pretty pair of pretty crystal tanzanite colored studs that corresponded with my new birthday month. It stung, but didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. I was really surprised Mom went along with it! She’d also gone on one of her crazy shopping binges, and in ten minutes, had a selection of accessories she told me were mainly mine. Apparently a few things were for her though.

“I thought you didn’t want to go shopping,” Mom joked with me as we came out and headed to the car.

“I didn’t...” I said, “I just got my ears pierced, you’re the one who did the crazy shopping.”

“Uh-huh,” she said. With that she helped me again with the seat and closed the door, but quickly reopened it and handed me Kaitlyn and Saige, as well as the iPad.

“Thanks!” I told her.

“You’re welcome!” she told me.

With that I opened up the pink cover and blushed at the home screen background. A picture of me cuddled up with my doll sleeping greeted me. I looked really cute, but I quickly said, “That’s not nice.”

“Oh yes it is,” Mom said, “Do you know how much I would have loved to have had a camera yesterday? You were soooo cute in the American Girl store!”

I just sat there and said, “I’m not that cute,” and began looking to see what she had put on the iPad. I was a little bummed that everything I normally played wasn’t on there, but looking at my fingernails with flowers painted on them I decided I might as well try the girl games on there.

I didn’t even know we reached New Mexico until Mom pulled off the road at a gas station. “Come on Princess, potty time,” Mom told me as she opened the door. After I was out of the seat she hid the iPad underneath a seat and we walked into the store. It wasn’t a long stop though, and Mom had us back on the road in a short while.

“How much longer until we get there?” I asked.

“It should be just about three hours or so to her ranch. We have to drive through Santa Fe and a bit towards the mountains to get there.”

“Great! I’m so tired of being in the car!”

“I am too sweetie. I just hope we can stay there for a while and avoid having to move again anytime soon.”

“Again?” I asked. “You don’t think we’ll be able to stay?”

“Well sweetie, I can’t impose on Gloria too much here... I think after a week or so we’ll try and find somewhere else to settle down.”

I sighed, “We’ll see what happens I guess. I don’t know why I bother even hoping that we’ll plan something. I was supposed to go to Cedar Point with Frank today...”

I hadn’t thought much about life continuing at home, but my aunt and uncle were supposed to take Frank and me up overnight to the amusement park. This was to have been the first year I was tall enough for the next level of rides. All I had been able to ride were the little kids rides since I was less than four feet until last month.

“I know sweetheart. You definitely didn’t plan this.”

“Did you Mom?” I asked.

“Plan to run?”

“Yes.”

“Definitely, especially when Ray hit me that last night. He would have killed me, and probably either killed you when all was said and done, or managed to scar you for life and made you into a...”

“Monster like him?” I suggested softly.

Mom looked up at me in the mirror and nodded.

“The girl thing though, I didn’t ever even dream of sweetie.”

“Really?”

“Really, it was just that waitress saying you were my daughter... Well that’s happened a lot the last couple years since you grew your hair out.”

I nodded, maybe she’d heard some of it too, but I’d probably gotten that a lot more than her. Over Spring Break Dad had a convention in Las Vegas to go to and had brought both of us with him. I’d stayed with Mom and gone shopping and seen some of the sights the first few nights, but the last night Dad wanted to go out and have a night to themselves.

“Do I have to go there?” I asked indignantly. “I’m ten! I’m old enough to stay in the room by myself!”

Mom could tell I was getting ready to have a tantrum, and honestly it wasn’t helping my argument. “Look Tony, it’s not legal for us to leave you in the room by yourself here until you’re at least twelve. This isn’t back home where I can feel a little bit okay with you staying by yourself at home for a couple hours. Vegas isn’t exactly the safest city in the world...”

“Fine.” I griped as we walked in.

“Besides, at least this one is designed for older kids too,” she tried to reassure me.

“Good evening, may I help you?”

“Yes, I need to check him in here.” Mom spent ten minutes filling out forms and listening to the rules about when I had to be picked up then. There was a five-hour time limit apparently, but just that meant she didn’t have to come get me until after eleven.

“Okay Tony, go ahead and go on through that door...” I had tuned most of it out at that point, finding a place to sit down and stare at the room. One side did have a massive jungle gym thing that looked kind of fun, but I wasn’t happy that I had been abandoned.

“Are you okay?” I heard a girls voice and looked up.

“I guess,” I answered.

“Pissed your parents left you here?” I was amused to hear the language from her since she seemed like one of the rule following girls from school.

“You might say that. My dad insisted that he wanted dinner and a show with my mom only tonight. Sooo not fair.”

“I hear you, this is the fourth night my parents have dropped me off here, and I was here earlier today too.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, I’m Candice by the way.”

“Tony.”

“You want to do a puzzle or something?” She asked, “Or I guess we could climb up on the jungle gym for my gazillionth time.”

I laughed, “I’m sorry, I thought I had it bad. Whatever you want to do, I was just going to sit here all night and be miserable, but maybe you’ll at least make things fun.”

She smiled at me and we looked through the puzzles, finding the only one that seemed challenging enough to amuse us being a Disney one. “I hope you aren’t one of those anti-girly girls,” she said to me.

I flushed and wondered all of the sudden. “What do you mean?”

“Well you know I’ve got this one friend that hates everything that might at all make anyone think she’s a girl. Disney, Dolls, My Little Pony, anything pink!”

I laughed in terror, but didn’t correct her.

“No I’m not quite like that...” Had been all I could say.

“How old are you anyway?”

“Ten.”

“Wow, I thought you were farther from my age.”

“You?”

“Eleven, so why are you so short?”

“My parents are both really short.”

“How short?”

We had continued to talk and put the puzzle together for a couple hours before the staff forced interaction with us and some other kids on a board game. The whole time that night no one thought I meant Tony as in Anthony, they all thought it was the girls form, ‘Toni.’

“Are you okay back there?” I heard.

“Yes, I was just thinking about the trip to Vegas.”

“The daycare place where everyone they thought you were a girl?” She asked.

I looked up, startled, “How did you know about that?”

“Well the staff made some sort of comment about how well behaved my daughter had been all evening when I came to pick you up. Something about you had made friends with a girl that hadn’t talked to anyone else and then you helped a couple of other kids out too.”

“Well, she just thought I was a girl... And I never tried to change her mind. I was afraid she’d hate me otherwise. What do you mean she wouldn’t talk to anyone else though, she came right up to me and we started hanging out...?”

We talked about that for a few minutes and she told me a couple of other stories that I hadn’t heard in the last few years. “It’s why Ray was so insistent on you getting that haircut.”

I nodded, “Are you sure he’s not going to think about you hiding me like this?”

“I doubt it, he thinks of you as being too much like him. I don’t think he’d ever believe you would put on a dress...”

“I hope not...”

“That’s part of why it might be better for us to keep pretending you’re a little younger though,” Mom added.

“For how long?”

“I don’t know. If we get to the fall we’ll obviously have to figure out how to deal with you and school. I brought our birth certificates and social security cards, shot records, passports, and your school records - but I really don’t think we should use them if we can avoid it.”

“No, we shouldn’t, Dad will trace us through them. We have to have all of those things for you to get a job and me to go to school, though, don’t we?”

“Yes, that’s why I brought them...”

“I just wish we could change them I guess,” I said mostly to thin air.

“I’m hoping maybe we can get them changed somehow sweetie,” she told me.

“How?”

“Well, we’ll see... for now we just need to make it to Gloria’s...” Mom said as she made a turn past a place that looked like a bona fide tourist trap.

“What’s that?”

“Clines Corners,” Mom said. “I remember stopping there one time with my parents. It’s filled with junk for the tourists to buy!”

“So we’re not stopping?”

“Not unless you need to, I really want to keep moving here, it’s only another hour or so.”

“I can wait,” I told her.

With that I opened up the iPad again and decided to see if she had bought any movies. One about my doll’s character was on there and I decided to watch it. Apparently I must have been enjoying it, because Mom interrupted me, “Why don’t you pause that and you can finish it later sweetie,” she said as she made a turn down a dirt road, “we’re here.”

A sign for Rocky Ridge Ranch was made of cutout metal above a tall metal gateway that we passed under as Mom drove down a winding dirt road with pasture to either side. I could see some cattle grazing, and some horses, but not like I would have expected. “Mom, where are all the cows?”

“Probably up in the higher pastures for most of them... They have more to eat up there. She only keeps the dairy cows close by so she can milk them daily. Gloria’s family has owned this ranch for a very long time and they have pastures going right up the hillside onto the mountain. They graze the rest of them up there during the summer and bring them down here in the winter or to ship them off for slaughter.”

I jolted a little bit about that. I really was a pretty squeamish kid, the idea of eating meat wasn’t a problem, but killing the animal myself would be. I hoped there would be none of that while we stayed there!

Mom pulled up to a large house that looked like a house that time had forgotten. It really didn’t look appropriate to the Southwest. Two stories with a tall pitched roof, it was Victorian in style and had a wrap around porch. The outside was painted yellow with white trim and posts. It really could have been straight out of the old South.

Mom parked in the circular drive that lay in front of it, and then came around to my side and undid the harness buckle. I sat the iPad aside for the moment and stood up, ‘I really need to go to the bathroom!’ I thought to myself. As we were beginning to walk to the porch a screen door opened and a very tall lady walked out, “Hi Gloria.”

“Megan?!?” Was the reply, followed by a hug and squeals from both of them.

“And you must be Tony... Or no, your mom said another name...”

“Ashley,” I answered softly as I accepted the strangers hug.

“Which would you prefer I called you?”

I looked down at my skort and answered, “Ashley please.”

“Very good, well you can call me Aunt Gloria, okay sweetie?”

I nodded and asked, “Do you have a bathroom I may use?”

“Of course, go in there and down the hallway and there’s one on your right.”

“Thank you,” I said and hustled to find where it was. I immediately discovered that the house must be gigantic! I didn’t take time to take in the decorations or anything, just found the bathroom, closed the door, and hurriedly pulled down my skort and, panties to sit down and go.

As I washed my hands I looked around the bathroom and saw that it was a full bath. The décor reminded me of my grandmother’s house in Colorado. Lot’s of little cute knickknacks and such lined the room. I decided it would be rude to stay in there much longer though, and walked out to find my mom waiting to go in too. Gloria stood in the hallway and looked at me. I looked at her and tried to guess what kind of a lady she was. I guessed she was at least a couple inches over six-feet tall, not skinny, but not grossly overweight either. She had graying hair and well-worn skin, which led me to believe that she worked hard outside, and had done so a long time. There was something in her gaze though that told me she was a good lady.

“You’re very brave to do this,” she told me.

“If I didn’t he might find us...” I told her carefully. I wasn’t sure how much Mom had told her.

“Well, I’m going to do all I can to help you and your mom hide from him and get back on your feet!” She assured me and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Have you guys had supper yet?”

“No ma’am,” I told her.

“Definitely a polite young lady, aren’t you?” She asked me with a smile. “Well, let’s go see if we can’t get you two fed with something that’s not fast food!”

I smiled and said, “That would be great!”

GLORIA, MOM, AND I sat down long after dinner talking. “So what are you going to do now?” She asked Mom.

“I honestly don’t know. I haven’t worked the last ten years since Ash... Tony was born, but I do have my chemical engineering degree to fall back on. With the oil industry in this state I probably could find a job somewhere... Maybe.”

“You probably can, but there’s still going to be the whole issue of your identity.”

“I know... I really don’t know what to do about that.”

“Have you thought about going into the witness protection program or something? I’m sure the FBI would be willing to help you out for testimony.”

Mom sighed, “Testimony I don’t really want to give. Besides, half the time they still find people in those programs. I’m pretty sure that more than one witness has gone missing when they tried to testify against Joe or the others.”

Gloria nodded. “And you young lady?”

“What about me?”

“Well, for one you are one of the cutest little girls I’ve seen in a while, definitely polite, but school is going to be an issue for you unless you go as Tony.”

“I don’t know... I think if I go as Tony my dad is going to find us.”

“You could just change your name?”

I shook my head, “You don’t know my dad... I’m guessing he’s really mad right now. Probably the only way we can...” I sniffed a bit, “the only way Mom can be safe is for us to keep up the deception.”

“You know your vocabulary is the only way I can believe that you’re really not seven or eight,” Gloria told me. “Why don’t we all sleep on everything tonight, and we’ll see if we can’t come up with a plan in the morning.” She said, looking at Mom.

“You don’t mind us staying here for a week or so, do you?” Mom asked.

“Of course not honey! I don’t even mind you staying here longer than that if you need to, as long as you have a plan. That’s the important thing, I want you to get back on your feet and have a chance for both of you to live as normal of lives as possible!”

Mom gave her a tearful hug and said, “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem, I loved you as a teenager and I can see you’re still just as exceptional. Somehow we really should let Kaitlyn know you’re down here.”

“We can’t risk that... She might say something to my parents, or they might think to talk to her.”

Gloria nodded. “Well, if you’re here more than a week you’re going to have to tell her since she’s coming down with her two kids to see me.”

Mom smiled, “I guess we’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it... just like all of the others I’ve jumped off.”

Gloria hugged her and then said, “Well, let’s go get your stuff and take it up to your rooms.”

The three of us went down and Gloria insisted on helping to carry a couple bags upstairs. I grabbed the backpack that Kristin was in, the tote with Saige and Kaitlyn in it, and one suitcase somehow and followed my mom and Gloria up the stairs. “Why don’t you take this room Ashley,” Gloria told me as she opened up the door to a room obviously decorated with a little girl in mind. It was complete with a white daybed, pretty quilt, and white furniture everywhere else.

“This is pretty,” I said aloud.

“Well as long as you stay here it’s yours sweetheart,” she told me.

As soon as I sat my dolls down on the bed I turned around and hugged her, “Thank you for taking us in.”

“You’re very welcome sweetheart.”

“I’m going to go get some more things,” I told her and walked back down the staircase. It seemed like it was a very grand staircase for a house that was a ranch house. I guessed that whomever originally built the house was building their dream mansion. Everywhere I looked antiques were displayed and I felt like I was in a museum where I shouldn’t touch anything. I kept walking without looking around too much though because we needed to get settled in.

I found Mom at the top of the stairs as I climbed back up with another load. She pointed towards the room she was staying in across the hall so I could drop off the makeup case in my hand. After a few trips I decided I had everything and found myself plopped on the bed holding Kaitlyn.

Gloria walked in then and said, “Your dolls are very pretty, what are their names?”

“Well this one is Kaitlyn, she’s Saige, she’s Kristin, and she’s Kaelye.” I said somewhat proudly, and somewhat embarrassed.

“Are you embarrassed about liking dolls?”

“I don’t... Like them...” I tried to lie.

“You most certainly do sweetheart,” Mom came around Gloria and sat down on a chair in front of a mirrored dressing table.

I gritted my teeth and said, “Yes I do, you’re right.”

They both laughed at me, “It’s okay, I don’t have a problem with it,” Gloria said to me. “I’m happy to have you staying here as a little girl named Ashley, whom I fully expect to behave as such and like dollies.”

I blushed, “I’ll do my best.”

“I’m sure you will dear.” She came over and gave me a peck on the forehead. “For now you’ll have the bathroom there to yourself, but next week you’ll have to share it with Madison whose room connects to it on the other side.”

“Who’s Madison?” I asked.

“She’s Kaitlyn’s daughter, she’s a little bit older than you, thirteen.”

“Oh...” I thought for a second, “Didn’t you say there were two kids?”

Gloria nodded, “Mark is fifteen, he’ll be in another room down the hall.”

“Okay,” I said again and yawned.

“Well Princess, I think it’s about time for bed,” Mom said to me.

“I’m not that tired...” I tried to lie.

“Well I am, and you are definitely going to bed before me,” Mom told me as she unpacked my suitcase and hung things up in the white armoire that stood next to a closet. She gave me the pajamas I’d worn last night and I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth. Mom had pulled down the quilt on top of the bed and I looked at the bed hoping it was as comfortable as it looked.

“Well hop in there Princess,” Mom told me.

She covered me with the quilt and asked a little quietly, “Do you mind if I keep calling you that?”

My brain worked quickly and I knew my answer, “I would be upset if you didn’t call me that, after all I am a princess.” I said it with a lot of inflection and Mom giggled at me.

“Well Princess, here is your teddy bear, I hope you sleep well and I’ll see you in the morning!” She kissed my forehead and stood up.

“Night Mommy,” I said.

“Goodnight Princess,” she replied.

I looked over at the window and could hear lots of odd sounds that didn’t make sense for a long time that night. The house creaked, owls hooted, and I thought I might have even heard a coyote. Eventually though I went to sleep dreaming that maybe we could stop running for a while.

RAY LOOKED DOWN the street and could clearly see Craig leaving something behind a dumpster.

‘Something definitely smells rotten there’ he thought to himself.

“Go check it out,” he said to Carlos sitting next to him.

A few moments later, he could see Carlos carefully grab something and bring it back to the car.

“Let’s see what Craig is up to...” He said as he pulled on a pair of gloves to match the set that Carlos had used. Opening it up carefully he found an SD Card. “Well, what have we here?” He asked.

“You have a computer on you?” He asked Carlos.

“Of course, in my back pocket, what do you expect?”

“You should. Ah well, get mine from the trunk for me.”

“Why should I...?” He started and then saw Ray’s face, knowing this wasn’t a request.
A few moments later he handed Ray the bag and he pulled the computer out. His MacBook Air conveniently enough had the slot on the side and he quickly copied the contents. Placing the disk back into the envelope and sealing it back up he said, “Go put it back.”

“Why?”

“I want to see who comes for it. Get a crew out here to trade places with us. I want the guy who’s doing pickups and then we’ll pickup Craig. Then we’ll take a little trip with those two.”

Chapter 6: City Girl

I WAS DREAMING something about my dad finding me in a dress while holding Saige when all of the sudden I heard a scream, “HELP, HELP!!!!”

I jumped out of bed wanting to cry. Someone must have found us. I heard it again, it sounded like a woman — maybe Gloria was crying out. ‘I should get Mom!’ I thought and hurriedly opened my door and ran across to her door. I looked around but didn’t see her! I had just turned around and walked back into the hallway when I saw her.

“Mom, something’s wrong. They must have found us, they’re torturing Gloria or something!!! I can hear her screaming!”

Mom grabbed hold of my shoulders and said, “No she isn’t.”

“Well someone is!” I was sure of it.

“Looks like someone really is her mothers’ daughter.” I heard a laugh behind me.

“It’s not funny, someone’s being hurt!”

“No sweetheart that would be the peacocks outside.”

“Peacocks?” I asked, wanting to believe it, but I was so ramped up it was hard to calm down.

“Peacocks,” Gloria said as she came down the hallway and knelt down in front of me. Even kneeling I was shorter than her. “That’s the sound they make in the mornings, and it’s fooled a great many people over the years.” She paused and smiled, “including your mother.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling really embarrassed. I started crying then without any good reason why and felt Mom close her arms around me.

“It’s okay baby, I don’t think they’ll find us here - not for a while anyway.”

“It’s just I was dreaming that Dad found us... And then I heard that sound...”

“I know sweetheart, it’s okay.” Mom said gently to me.

I eventually sniffled and looked up at Gloria, “Do they make that sound every morning?”

“Unfortunately, but you do get used to them. We’ve had a flock of them here since before I was born and I just can’t convince myself to get rid of them. They do have really pretty feathers that fall out though, you might be able to find some later if you want.”

I just nodded, not wanting to go through that again each morning.

“Why don’t you throw some jeans on and you can help me feed the chickens?”

I gave her a look that probably said all I was thinking right then, You have birds that sound like people crying for help, it’s early in the morning too, and you want me to go feed chickens???

“Come on, it’ll be fun!”

“Really?” I asked.

“Well, the first time it probably will. My rule is that as long as someone stays as a guest here they help out with the chores. I think feeding chickens is a good start for you, and we’ll add some others later probably.”

I looked at Mom, “What’s she doing?”

“Well, I thought she could help me milk the cows this morning. I assume you remember how?”

I felt my Mom sigh, and she said, “I sure do. Think I can do it without being kicked the first time?”

“We’ll see. It’s not quite the same setup, since we’ve had to add some modern milking equipment the last few years, but it’s not too hard. We only have thirty dairy cows right now. I’ll show you how after I show this young lady how to feed the chickens and find eggs.”

I felt a light pat on my rear as Mom shooed me into my room to find jeans and a t-shirt. I had wondered at the time why she insisted on buying me three pairs of jeans, but now I knew. I liked the Princess shoes for the most part, so I put on the Barbie ones... figuring if I was going to get a pair ruined - that was the one to do!

I reappeared at the door to my room and found Mom ready to go as well. She looked down at my shoes, “Well I guess we’ll have to go buy a couple pairs of boots later, huh?”

“Might be a good idea,” I agreed. “But I won’t be sorry to see these go,” I told her with a smile.

“I wondered if you’d think about that!” She giggled.

Gloria was waiting downstairs and walked with me out to a yard they had setup with a big chicken coop. “How many chickens do you have?” I asked.

“Oh... Probably about fifty or so... We use the eggs around here and I have a guy who picks most of them up once a week to sell at the farmers market in town. We usually slaughter a few going into the winter for special meals. For the most part though the turkeys are what we’ll use for Thanksgiving and such.”

“You raise your own Thanksgiving turkey?” I asked in disbelief. “That’s kind of cool.”

“There are usually no qualms in killing them either... They get rather mean. You’ll need to watch yourself in their pens.” She showed me where to get the feed and how to throw it out. “While they’re eating go ahead and go into the coop like this and pick up eggs...” Gloria got me started pointed me towards the turkeys next, and then went off with my mom.

I managed to make it through the chickens pretty easily and left the cartoned eggs where Gloria told me. I was more than a bit nervous as I went in to feed the turkeys. I could see there were about a dozen of them and started throwing out the feed the same way. That’s when one of them charged me and I screamed!

Closing the pen right behind me I managed to get out just as it tried to peck me. “What was that?” I asked aloud.

I heard someone laughing behind me and found Gloria checking up on me.

“That would be George. He’s a major pain in the rear, and he is destined to be on the plate at Thanksgiving. Most of the time I go in the pen I carry a shovel, it gives you something to whack him with if he decides to charge you.”

The problem was I could barely hold the shovel and the feed, so she helped me find the handle from an old broom. “Go away George,” I said to him as he tried to come at me again. Having something to push him back helped a lot! While I was feeding the turkeys I also spied the peacocks for the first time. They were kind of pretty really, but I still had a major grudge against them for the way I woke up that morning!

Gloria had gone back to help my mom right after I finished so I took the feed buckets back to where they were kept and decided to go find Mom. I found her in a barn a little ways away attaching some weird gizmo to a cow. “That looks weird,” I said aloud.

“Yes it does,” Gloria said, surprising me again. “You finished with the poultry?”

I nodded, “What would you like me to do now?”

“Well, there’s a limit to how much I can have an eight year old girl do,” she told me.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, what should I do now then?”

“You can watch, or if you want to pet the cows or something that’s fine, but be careful. You are pretty tiny,” she told me.

I blushed and said, “Okay...”

I spent the next hour hanging out with them while the two of them finished rotating the cows through the milking process. I even managed to build up some courage to go up to the animals and pet them a little. They didn’t really seem to care about me one way or another though. When they finished up Mom and Gloria were just starting to wash down the milking shed when we heard, “Morning Gloria!”

Gloria just turned around briefly and kept working, “Hi Hank, how’s it going?”

“It goes well. Who are these two lovely ladies?” He asked.

“Well, this is Amber, and the cute princess over there is her little sister Ashley.”

“Pleased to meet you,” he said with a tip of his hat.

I giggled, it was so much like a bad cliché movie.

“Hi, nice to meet you too,” I said with a smile.

“What brings you ladies to the ranch?” He asked as he started helping to clean up.

“I’m working on finishing up a degree in agriculture, and my mom suggested we come stay with Aunt Gloria for a few weeks for some experience.”

“So Ashley’s your sister?”

“Yep,” she said and then stage whispered, “she was the oops child.”

“I heard that!” I said. I was laughing though, so everyone knew I thought it was funny too.
“And how old are you Ashley?” He asked.

I debated on my answer, but if Mom was sticking to the story I was too, “I’ll be eight next week!” I noticed Mom nod to me like that was the right story to say.

“Wow, you’re going to be all grown up before no time at all aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“Hank do you have the rest of this in hand?” Gloria asked.

“Yes ma’am, I’m guessing you’re going to go get ready for breakfast?”

“Yes sir, Consetta will have it on at eight, let the guys know please.”

I nearly froze for a second, ‘How many others work here?’

“Come on Ash,” Mom said as she tried to reach for my hand.

I saw hers though and said, “Uh-uh, not until you wash them!”

Gloria laughed, “You are such a city girl!”

RAY LOOKED AT his watch impatiently. He was at a safe house that no one from the organization in Vermont knew existed. It was a place that he and his father had bought through other people fifteen years ago and kept it supplied for anytime they needed to keep their heads down, or have a quiet place to take care of business. He watched the long dirt road for a long time before he finally saw the dust cloud flying down the road to him. The rumbling engine of a diesel truck grew louder as he waited. The cabin was in the hills and not easy to get to. The nearest neighbors were two miles away, and that made it ideal for business.

As the black truck came to a stop he opened the top of the bed cover and was satisfied to see two people gagged and bound. He wrinkled his nose at the smell though, one or both had soiled themselves on their two-hour trip out there. Trigger was the driver and he came around and shook his hand.

“You want some help getting them in there?” He asked, pointing towards the brick shed.

“Please,” Ray said. “You turned your cell phone off when you came out here, right?”

“Of course, I ain’t stupid — took the battery out too! These guys were also searched real carefully, those aren’t the clothes they were wearing when we grabbed them.”

“Good.”

Both men stayed unconscious all the way until Ray had them both chained to the wall in the basement of the shed. It was a pretty impressive trick of architecture in that you wouldn’t guess at there being a hiding hole underneath there. A good thousand square feet of space was available though for whatever they needed. All of it was covered in an easy to clean tile like in hospitals.

“Where am I?” Craig was the first to wake up and speak.

“In Hell,” Ray stated through his mask. Gloves and masks were the required attire for this kind of work to him.

“I didn’t do nothin,” he tried to say.

“You sure have a guilty conscience for someone that didn’t do nothin,” Ray responded. He held up the SD Card, “Remember this?” He had the satisfaction of watching Craig’s eyes grow wide in disbelief. Apparently he never had a clue he might be caught.

“So my only real question, is who you are working for. I’m guessing the FBI...?”

Ray had no doubt it was for the FBI. The SD Card had been encrypted, but one of his men was an expert on breaking encryption. They’d been fortunate in that the encryption hadn’t been the state of the art that should have been used. If it had been it would have been a different story right now... But as of right now he knew that he had been telling his supervisors about the next big drug shipment over the border, who was involved, where they stored everything, and enough details about the operation to get every man in Vermont’s operation in jail for years. Ray wasn’t mentioned, nor was his father, so he suspected they might not have known about those details.

“I don’t work for the FBI, what gave you that idea?” Craig laughed nervously.

“Well, your memos on this card to start with.”

“If I put that on there I’d be sure to make it to where no one could look at it, there’s no way there’s something like that you’ve found.”

“If you had been competent, yes. But you used too light of an encryption, idiot. Good for me though, now I know what you were doing of course.” For good measure he took the taser in hand and shot a barb the ten feet into him. It was a brief shock though, and it just caused Craig to cry out in pain.

“God, don’t do that, I can’t tell you anything!”

The other guy next to him started to wake up and Ray was certain it was going to be an interesting day.

ASHLEY PUT HER wet hair up into a towel like her mom had done for her the other day and went back into her room. She wasn’t sure what she was going to wear, but knew that she was supposed to be down for breakfast in ten minutes. The idea that she’d woken up at 6:15am on her own without an alarm clock just seemed really weird. The fact she had then spent an hour outside feeding chickens and turkeys was like science fiction.

‘I need to pick something to wear...’ Ashley thought to herself. Apparently all of the ranch hands would be downstairs for breakfast and would be meeting her. They had come to an unspoken consensus that they were sticking to the storyline no matter what... ‘So I need to look like a cute almost eight year old city girl...’ She smirked at that.

She found the pink and blue plaid dress, which she had a matching one for Kaitlyn, and matched it with her pair of white sandals. Kaitlyn was quickly changed into the same dress with a pair of sandals that weren’t quite the same, but close. She was just getting ready to try and figure out her hair when there was a knock at the door.

“Ashley?”

“Coming,” I said and opened the door.

Mom smiled brightly as she looked at me. “Good choice, it’ll help convince them you are who you say you are!” She paused and then added, “That and you look really adorable like that!”
I blushed. “Can you do my hair?”

“I thought you might need some help. Watch though, as I really want my sister to start doing her own hair!”

“Well I can do the same boy pony-tail if you want…” I told her with a smile.

She stuck her tongue out at me and motioned for me to follow her across to her room. Mom used her hair dryer to dry my hair and quickly combed it to match the new style I shared with Kaitlyn. Mom hugged me, “Come on, let’s go eat before the food is all gone!”

I saw why she was worried when we made it to the large dining room downstairs. Ten men and two ladies made up the rest of Gloria’s hands in addition to Hank. All were digging into food from a buffet that another lady, Consetta, had cooked up. I put a little bit of eggs, bacon, and potatoes on my plate before asking, “what’s this?”

“That’s green chile sauce,” Mom told me.

“Is it hot?” I asked.

“It’s not too bad,” Gloria said. I wasn’t sure I trusted her though with the smirk she had on her face. “Try a little on your eggs.”

I decided I was going to regret it, but I put a little bit on my eggs, not even a spoonful, and then sat down across from Hank and next to Gloria. When Mom sat down Gloria stood up.

“Everyone, we have two guests that are going to be staying with us for a few weeks. This is my great-niece Amber, she’s finishing up her agriculture degree. Her mom suggested she come out here for a few weeks on an internship and so she’s here!” She came and put both hands on my shoulders, “And this little princess is her sister Ashley. She’s going to be feeding the chickens for us while she’s here!”

I blushed a bit, but smiled and said, “Hi.”

They all introduced themselves, but I couldn’t keep track of their names. The two girls were Annie and Rachel. Both girls apparently had been working the ranch for years and I suddenly worried they would recognize Mom.

I wrinkled my nose a bit as I tried the eggs with the chile on it. I was pleasantly surprised that it tasted good! That was until my tongue started burning and I had to put it out with the Orange Juice. Gloria smirked at me and I gave her a dirty look back. I ate the rest of the eggs in answer to her unspoken challenge though.

Breakfast as a group was a pretty tame affair for the most part, and before I knew it everyone was done and heading off to do their jobs. “Would you like some help cleaning up?” I politely asked Consetta.

“Wow, you are a polite little lady aren’t you hija?”

“Mi-haw?” I asked.

“Well it means daughter, but we use it when we like sweet little girls,” she explained.

“Oh, thank you!” I said.

She handed me an apron, “We wouldn’t want to get that pretty dress messed up, would we?”

I shook my head, “Nope!”

“Why don’t you help by loading the dishes after I rinse them?” She suggested.

I showed her that I wasn’t a clueless little girl and was able to load the dishwasher as she handed me the things and started it going. “Ashley?” I heard from the other room.

“Coming!” I said and walked into the dining room. Mom was sitting there talking to Gloria.

“I think you’re being a little paranoid by keeping your story going, but I don’t blame you. Everything you told me last night freezes my blood! You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need to, but I would like you to talk to my friend Roger who’s a lawyer.”

“I don’t know...”

“One way or another you’re going to have to find some identification… maybe he can help you get your birth certificates changed?”

Mom sighed, “Yeah, I guess that’ll be a good first step. I’m just scared senseless.” I climbed onto the chair next to Mom.

“So what now?” I asked.

“Well, you two ladies probably should go get you some good work boots. Your sister here is especially going to be working her tail off here. I think I have enough riding gear in both of your sizes so you won’t need that. You might also want to go get some swimming suits to use in the swimming hole.”

“Swimming?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m sure next week you’re going to be spending a lot of time doing that too with Madison here. She loves the swimming hole.”

“Do you think...?” I asked Mom.

“We’ll figure something out sweetheart.”

“Okay. And you said riding?” I paused, “Like on horses?”

“Yep! I think this afternoon before dinner would be a great time for you to get your first riding lesson!”

I couldn’t deny that sounded really cool, “Cool!” I said

“Well, you two had better go if you’re going to get back for lunch and then to talk to Roger.”
“Are you sure you trust him?” Mom asked.

“I grew up with him and I’ve watched him over the years. He only takes cases on that are worthwhile, and I know he doesn’t have a crooked bone in his body.”

“I just hope you’re right,” Mom said quietly. We walked upstairs where Mom grabbed her purse and repeated the now familiar ritual of getting into the car.

“Let’s go to town!” Mom said with a smile to me.

“POPS, THIS IS Raimondo,” Ray said into the line, “are you secure?”

He knew his dad was checking his phone screen on the other line. “Secure.”

Just because it was secure though, didn’t mean this wouldn’t be in the open. “What we discussed as a possibility of happening is real. A yellow bird was in the shipment instead of a blue one. I’ve spoken with the manager and they claim it’ll be some time before they are able to ship a new one.”

“That’s too bad, well, you’ve done what you can. Did you find out why they shipped the wrong type?”

“A few excuses, nothing major.”

“Well, why don’t you head on back once you take care of your end there. We’ll talk tomorrow at dinner.”

“Sounds good Pops,” Ray shut the phone off and looked up at the two men. Both had broken way easier than he would have expected. He almost wondered if they’d lied to him, but it didn’t really matter. The area underneath them in the wall was going to have to be cleaned up, but he figured he’d get Trigger to do it. He could do that in exchange for the pleasure of finishing the two.

“Trigger, can you finish up with this mess?”

“Sure thing boss. You want me to use the enzymes like last time?”

“Yeah, I don’t like flesh and bones being available. It worked well last time.”

“Sounds good to me boss, it’s one time TV almost got it right… wrong type of chemicals though,” he said with a smirk. “They’re still kicking down there for now?”

“Barely, I figured since I’m asking you to cleanup I’d let you have the pleasure.”

“Mighty thoughtful of you.”

“I’m heading back into town to talk to Ryan. We’re going to need to clean things up for a while up here.”

“Sad to hear it, but I think that’s smart.”

“Yeah.”

Ray drove off a few minutes later unconcerned that two men were about to die from the lethal dose of drugs they had with them. He and Trigger both preferred to kill with as little blood as possible. It was just about impossible to clean up some spills.

AGENT KLINE PICKED up the noisy phone on his desk, “Agent Kline... Oh hey Jake... What did you find?” He began scribbling some notes, “No one has seen them for a couple days?” He wrote a few more notes. “You think they ran? Or do you think he took care of them?” He put the pen in his mouth and chewed on the cap for a moment while he listened. “No, I agree Giovanni probably wouldn’t let him hurt the boy either. The mom though...”

He talked to Jake for several minutes and decided that it would be in their best interests to quietly put out some feelers on her car, credit cards, and everything else. “Let me know what you find out.”

He had just hung up the phone when a knock on his door alerted him to one of his other Agents, Kelly O’Hare, walking through the door. “Good afternoon sir, I thought you would need to look at this report right away...”

She handed over the folder and he began looking through it. “Son of a bitch!” He said allowed, “The kid must have gotten sloppy. Just a couple of days of Raimondo being up there and they identified our agent and his supervisor...”

“Are you sure of that sir?” She asked him.

“You never got a chance to work with Elliot I’m guessing... Elliot never missed a report, ever. If he’s not reporting, and there’s no communication, he was compromised. I think we should probably go ahead with a raid on the operation in Vermont now. Even if we can’t get the family we can at least get some of their material.”

“Won’t they be closing up shop?”

“Probably, but maybe we can beat them to it.”

He immediately picked up the phone and dialed three agencies to assist in raiding the building in two hours. The toughest to get in place was the lead FBI SWAT team. They excelled at hits like this and he really wanted them there. Hopefully two more hours weren’t enough to clean up!

MOM HAD DRIVEN us to a western store that Gloria recommended, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was in some cliché novel the second we stepped inside. Mom seemed comfortable though as she walked amongst the racks of clothes, boots, and gear. We looked for a pair of boots for me first. She was sorely tempted by the pink ones that lit up like the shoes I had on earlier, but went for my preference of a pair that had brown leather on the bottom and pink up the top part. They had some pretty flowers tooled into the leather and a couple of glass rhinestones attached on the top that helped appease Mom’s need for them to be girly. She also found a pink cowboy hat that I would definitely die if anyone who really knew me saw me wearing!

The store sold jeans too, but Mom decided Wal-Mart would be a better choice for that. We began looking for a pair of boots for Mom and I was amused that we ended up finding a pair that looked like mine almost, without the rhinestones. “If anyone asks, I want you to say that you made me pick these because they were like yours.” Mom told me.

“Okay,” I said. She found socks to go with the boots and some other things she was sure we would need before driving to the mall.

I was a bit surprised that Santa Fe would have a mall, since it felt kind of too old and small for that. She made a point of driving through the old part of town and promised we’d come shopping there sometime too. At the mall we found all of the normal stores and she headed straight towards a directory.

“Okay, Penney’s will be first, but then I want to hit Children’s Place too...” she said mostly to herself.

She was walking pretty quickly so I had to almost run to keep up with her. Once in Penney’s she said, “Let’s look at jeans first, that’ll be the easiest thing. We each need three more pairs.”

Mom and I looked in the girls section first and found three pairs of blue jeans that were boot-cut style. She carried them with her while she searched for jeans in her sizes in the junior’s department. Within five minutes we were both sharing a changing room stall.

“Come on sweetheart, don’t be shy, I need you to try on all three pairs.”

I made a point of not looking at my mom while she changed and quickly changed into the first pair. I figured out I could leave my dress on and just pull them on underneath. “This okay?”

Mom did the thing with the thumb on the waist and said, “Those will work! Next!”

“Okay, now for the tougher mission. Let’s find you a swimsuit!”

I think she was just as nervous as I was about this one. I had been able to hide my extra part pretty well so far, but this was probably not going to work as well. Mom and I picked out two one-piece suits and two bikinis to try on.

“Well, let’s try this one first,” Mom said while holding out a pink one piece that had a shoulder strap only on one side with a ruffle flowing down. “Try pointing it down or something,” she whispered to me as I tried it on.

I blushed bright red then.

“Can you see it?” I asked her.

She frowned, “Not much, but a little. Madison is supposedly pretty smart too... I guess you could wear a tight pair of panties on underneath...”

She had me try the others on too and had similar problems. That was when she saw the shorts next to the racks and had me try on a pair over the bottoms. “That’ll work!”

“Won’t she think it’s weird though?”

Mom shook her head, “It’s a style right now. I really wish this were like a few years ago when all of the suits had skirt attachments that would have been even easier. Oh well.”

Mom ended up getting the two one-piece suits for me to emphasize I wasn’t ‘old enough’ yet for a bikini. Mom also found a couple bikinis for her to have just in case. It was a quick check out and then we were on down the hall.

“Let’s run by here really quick,” Mom said towards Children’s Place. She spent her frantic twenty minutes in there picking out outfits that were pretty cute, having me try them on, and then checking out.

“I think I have enough clothes now...?” I asked somewhat hopefully.

“Maybe...” Mom allowed.

“Maybe?!?”

The two of us headed out of the mall and into the car. “Leave the clothes other than the boots in the trunk for now,” Mom said as we pulled up later at the ranch.

“Why?”

“I want to make sure that people don’t see us carrying a bunch of bags inside like we had to buy new wardrobes. The hands all go home after six, and they won’t know then.”

“Oh,” was my only response. Mom and I carried our boot boxes upstairs.

“Why don’t you put on those socks and change into them?” Mom suggested.

“They don’t really go with the dress... Do they?” I said.

“Anywhere else, no, here, definitely!”

“Oh, okay...” I said.

I put them on and immediately noticed that the boots had that heel I remembered being odd when I was trying them on. Now that I was walking it was even weirder. The two of us found our way downstairs and found Consetta in the kitchen.

“Well look at you!” She said to me, “Such pretty new boots!”

She looked at Mom and said, “And you too! Glad to see you match your daughter.”

“Little sister,” Mom tried correcting, but there was something in Consetta’s gaze.

“I’m not going to say anything to anyone else, but even with your red hair I would recognize you Megan.”

Mom looked petrified, and I was pretty sure my own face reflected that a little too. “I really need you not to say anything to anyone else. No one but Gloria can know we’re here.” Mom insisted.

“I won’t say a word, but I wanted to let you know I knew so you could talk to me if you needed to.”

Mom’s eyes were wet and I could tell she was the same nervous wreck that I was.

Consetta moved in to her and said, “Hija, whatever you’re running from I guarantee you’re safe with us.”

While Mom was wiping her eyes Consetta looked at me. “So I’m assuming Ashley isn’t your real name?”

I shook my head, and terrified by what she would say I just said, “It’s Tony.”

“Well that is a bit of a switch of names, isn’t it. The jump to being a girl probably is more though?”

“Uhh...”

“How do you know about that one?” Mom asked in surprise.

“How could you forget the birth announcements you sent out?” She asked, “Gloria received one and she showed me. It took me a while to remember that though.”

I just nodded.

Mom said simply, “I’ll tell you more about it later, but we’re running from my husband.”

“He gave you that bruise that’s starting to peek through your makeup?” She interrupted.

Mom nodded, “He’s well... I didn’t realize until I was married to him... the whole family is Mafia.”

Consetta’s eyes showed surprise for the first time. “So you really are running.”

Mom nodded, “If he finds us he’ll probably kill me. Ashley might get away with being beaten, but he might very well kill her too if he sees her in a dress.”

Consetta shook her head at that and came over to give me a hug. “We aren’t going to let that happen at all. So as far as anyone is concerned you are my adorable little princess helper in the kitchen who has her birthday next week on Tuesday when she’ll be a big eight year-old, and you,” she said with a look towards Mom, “are a sweet grand-niece of Gloria’s, and her older sister.”

We both nodded.

“Now, you two get out of the kitchen before I put you to work.” She said with a smile.

I gave Mom a hug and said, “She’s awesome, and I know we can trust her!”

Then I turned back around and went back into the kitchen. “Can I help you with anything?” I asked and she smiled brightly back at me.

“HEY AGENT KLINE!” he heard as he walked up to the command post.

“Hey Jones, what’s the word?”

“Well I think we’re probably pushing this operation with being underpowered, but any longer and I’m sure you’ll lose whatever you’re raiding.”

“Definitely, if we haven’t already. We know the agents disappeared sometime within the last fourteen hours, but it may have been earlier than that.”

Agent Jones turned back towards his monitors and pressed on his radio. “All teams report!”

The five teams they had managed to crunch together all reported, including two snipers on the rooftops nearby. Agent Jones took a deep breath and said, “All teams go, all teams go for breach.”

With that both agents watched the monitors as the feeds came in from the lead SWAT team they were linked to. As it was a dollar store they were concerned about civilians. To try and mitigate casualties they had been counting for the last hour — making sure they knew how many were inside.

“We have all four civilians safe, and twenty-four suspects secured.” A team commander reported in a short while later.

The drug dogs entered next to go through the warehouse behind the store. They searched every square inch for five hours before coming back and reporting to Agent Kline. “We found a couple guys with outstanding warrants, but even though the dogs indicated that there had been stuff there, the place was clean.”

“Damnit! A year of hard work and we still don’t have anything on them.”

“Sorry sir,” the agent stated.

“Not your fault. We were really trying to take the longer approach on this, but that didn’t pay off this time. Any sign of our agents?”

“No sir, we are sending a team to triple check their apartments though.”

“They won’t find anything. Did you guys happen to have Raimondo Franchino or Ryan Franchino in there by chance?”

“No, neither of those suspects was present.”

“Probably taking care of the move...” He sighed, “Back to the drawing board. Tell your men good work, it was a well executed raid.”

“Thank you sir.”

With that Agent Kline had to head back to headquarters to see what damage control could be done there. ‘One thing is for sure, I doubt we ever find any signs of our two agents.’

TWO BLOCKS OVER Raimondo watched the takedown through a pair of binoculars from a hotel room. ‘Just in time,’ he thought to himself. An hour before the teams started showing up and forming up he had all of the material smuggled out the front as normal purchases by innocent looking people. The half-ton of cocaine that had been being prepared for various shipments across the country took a lot of such trips, but laundry detergent bottles, boxes of diapers, and boxes of small appliances had worked out well for them. He had always felt a certain irony in the idea of laundering the drugs so to speak in the detergent bottles.

He knew he needed to report to his dad, “Hey Pops, scramble,” with a confirmation that both phones were encrypted he said, “Just in time. I’m heading home.”

A shorter transmission on something like this was always better. All in all it had been a pretty good win for him; a mole, his supervisor, and no product loss. Yes, a few of his guys looked like they were being taken off somewhere for outstanding warrants, but they all understood Omerta. They wouldn’t talk.

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

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!!!!

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!

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 11: First Ride
 
MEGAN SMILED AS she remembered how cute Ashley had looked as they arrived home last night. There was no way she could carry her daughter though, so she undid her harness and managed to prod her into walking upstairs. Once there she’d helped her sleepy daughter brush her teeth and put her pajamas on, certain she probably wouldn’t even remember it.

“Amber?” She heard, as she was finishing spraying the milking shed’s floor down.

“Yes Ashley?”

“I’m done with the birds, are you coming in soon?”

“Uh-huh, I just need to put a couple things away. Why don’t you go upstairs and take a shower, make sure you wash your hair, and then I’ll help you with it?”

Ashley pounced on her leg all of a sudden, said, “Thanks, and I love you,” before hurrying back to the house.

‘That was weird...’ she thought to herself. ‘The truth is she’s been amazing at handling this nightmare. I should never have stuck around as long as I did with that asshole... I had to be smart though.’ She paused, ‘And I really need to stop thinking of myself as Megan...’ She mentally slapped herself. It had been a rough session for her with Dr. Reynolds. There was a reason she was considered good, and a large part of it was how well she got to the root of the problems. For Amber it had to do as much with her guilt for sticking around as long as she could. Dr. Reynolds though had tempered that for her, ‘Normally I would one-hundred percent agree with you in most abuse cases, saying hind-sight says you should have... But this wasn’t an ordinary case, yours was a true monster.’

And that, more than anything she knew was the truth. Whoever said otherwise in the future she knew would be wrong... He would have found her too easily if she hadn’t played it smart. As it was, her only option had been to wait and bide her time. She just hoped she’d waited long enough and played her cards right! Amber hung up the hose, made one last check of the floor, and headed inside.

MOM... AMBER HAD told me to go ahead and get a shower, so that’s what I was heading upstairs to do. I wasn’t sure what we were doing today since she didn’t have to do much else. The ranch was sort of on autopilot on the extra tasks on the weekend. Taking care of the animals was a huge task, but it was the only task everyone had that day. That meant she would be free to hang out with me I hoped.

As I walked up the stairs I could see new signs hung on Mo... Ambers, Madison’s, and Marks doors that I hadn’t seen the night before. I walked up to each and saw that it said their names and that it was their room. Amber’s old friend Kaitlyn even had one on the front of one of the two mystery doors I had never opened. Gloria apparently had the other door.

‘That was smart... Maybe it won’t look like they went through so much trouble just for me. It’ll be less obvious that we were already planning on staying.’

I went back to my room, opened up the door and walked straight into the bathroom. The shower felt great, but I kind of wished I could take a bath sometime. First thing in the morning though it would be weird, ‘bath’s should be before bedtime’ I thought to myself. I hadn’t been awake enough for one in the last few days to even think about it.

I finished showering and walked out to my room with a towel wrapped around me. Mom had simply left the new clothes from yesterday in the bags next to my armoire. On impulse I started to dig through them and settled on this blindingly bright green sleeveless top that had seven large horizontal ruffles that were aligned going down the top. At the very top around the neckline were a lot of rhinestones that were attached and made it ‘blingy.’ In the bag next to it I found a pair of jeans that I had fallen in love with yesterday. They were dark at the top and washed out as they went down. But my favorite thing about them was the glitter!

I had decided after ten minutes in that store that it was my favorite place we had been. All of the clothes in there... They just cheered me up! I looked at myself in the mirror a moment later and said, “Yep, I’m definitely a girly girl!”

I heard a giggle from the doorway. “Yes, you most certainly are Princess.”

I walked over to... Amber and gave her a hug. Remembering that we were in my room, I closed the door and said, “I love you Mom. Can we go back to this store sometime?”

“Did you just ask me to... uh... go shopping!?!?”

I smiled, “Uh-huh.” I added, “but just there!”

She laughed and said, “Okay, maybe next week sometime. For now sit down over here so I can sort out this wet mop you call hair.” I stuck my tongue out at her and sat down on the chair in front of my vanity table. “Any preferences today?”

I shook my head, “You’re doing my hair.”

“Okay then, how about just a braid?”

I thought about that for a moment and nodded.

“Or maybe...” She thought to herself. I could see the wheels working in her head. The fact she now had a daughter seemed to be something that made her happy, but it also confused her sometimes. When they redid my room they added a plastic set of bins on top of the vanity table that she started digging through. “This’ll be cute,” I heard her say with glee quietly. She cut a long strip of the thin pink polka dotted ribbon and said, “Okay, let’s see if I’m smart enough to do this. I haven’t tried this in a really long time,” She told me as she peeked over my shoulder.

I felt her brush my hair back and then the pain of her pulling my hair really tight as she began the braid. At some point I felt her tying something before she began again. Ten minutes later I looked at the back of my head with her help and another mirror. It was awesome!

“How did you do that?” I asked her. She had braided the ribbon in my hair and you could see it going back and forth through the middle of the braid. It looked cute!

“It’s just a normal braid, you just add it in like a section of hair,” she said modestly.

I gave her a big hug, “You are the best Mommy ever!”

“Only in here though Princess,” she said, “remember that.”

I nodded.

With that the two of us walked downstairs to make our own breakfast since Consetta wasn’t there on most Saturdays at all. Apparently that still wasn’t necessary though, because Gloria was already at the griddle making pancakes. “Ready for breakfast?” She asked.

“Uh-huh, look at my hair!” I told her and turned so she could see.

“Oh my gosh, that’s adorable!” She said with a smile. “You’ll have to show me how you did that later,” she added to Amber.

“Sure, it’s easy,” she told her.

The three of us sat down at the dinner table and ate our breakfasts. “So does she want to do it?” Gloria asked Amber.

“Do what?” I asked, looking at both of them.

“I haven’t had a chance to ask yet.”

“Do what?” I asked again.

“Well, we could always not ask her?” Gloria suggested.

“Do what?!?” I asked.

They both smiled at me, “This is not pick on Princess Ashley day!” I told them and crossed my arms.

They both laughed hysterically at that and I felt like they somehow missed the point...

“Well, I think you’re ready to try riding outside of the corral,” Gloria said.

“Really?!?” I said excitedly.

“Uh-huh, and I thought maybe we could go ahead and go ride to a meadow that’s not too far from here and have a picnic lunch.” Mom said.

“That would be fun!” I squealed. “Can we please?!?” I begged.

“I don’t know...” Gloria said.

I gave her my most sugary sweet expression... At least I hoped that’s what it was...

“Alright.” She said.

“Yay!!!” I exclaimed.

“Well, if we’re going to do this you’re going to have to help me pack a picnic lunch,” Gloria told me.

“Okay!”

With that the three of us began packing some food into a bag that Gloria said she would put on her horse. I watched her pack sandwiches, potato chips, cookies, and water bottles. “Ashley, there are some blankets in the storage room that’s through the laundry room downstairs, would you please go get one of the big plaid ones?”

“Okay, I know exactly where they’re at!”

I was so excited to ride today, and the picnic with M... Amber and Aunt Gloria was going to be so neat!

STELLA LOOKED THROUGH the peephole on the door and sighed. For the last week she had been certain Megan would be coming home to their house. Megan knew no matter what that her parents would take her in, and she just couldn’t understand why she hadn’t turned to them... Or at least called them! Something about the whole conversation with Ray still had her suspicious. She and Tom had both discussed that if they didn’t hear from her by Monday they were going to call the cops and report her as a missing person.

She opened the door and was surprised to see a deliveryman with a large box. “Stella Dale?”

“Yes sir,” she said.

“Please sign here.” He said.

She finished signing the electronic tablet and she managed to drag the box into the kitchen.

“Who was that?” Tom asked, coming through the doorway.

“Just a delivery guy.”

“What did you order?”

“I didn’t order anything...” She said, “I thought you had.”

“Umm... No...” He said suspiciously and took the box cutter from her hand to open the box himself. Inside was a pretty gift basket with no card obviously there. “Who...?” He started to ask before noticing an envelope taped to the bottom of a big box of candy.

He pulled the envelope off and opened it, finding two sheets of paper.

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…

Tom and Stella both quickly read through the letter several times before Stella pointed at a number seemingly innocent at the bottom of the page. “Good girl,” Stella said aloud.

“I’m proud of her!” Tom said and gave her a hug.

“But this means...” Stella said.

“Yes, this means we can’t trust our phones, and we probably shouldn’t talk here until I use dad’s equipment...”

They moved to the other letter and saw it was from Tony,

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

I’m sorry that we won’t be able to see you in August for the camping trip like we planned. I was looking forward to you finally letting me put the tent up by myself like you promised. Please don’t be mad at Mom, she’s right I think in what we’re doing. Dad has been hitting both of us for a while now, and I’m afraid that if he finds us he’ll kill Mom. I think my other grandfather may keep me alive, but Mom... Well, he can’t find us.

Someday when I grow up at least I’ll come find you guys so you can see me. I’m sure you won’t recognize me to see me, but I’ll be the one that gives you a big hug and says I’m Tony.

Maybe we’ll be able to see each other sooner than that, but I doubt it. Dad holds grudges and will probably chase us until he dies. I sort of hope that’s soon, because it’s not fair that we have to hide out from him. We’re in a good safe place, please don’t try and find us because he’ll probably expect us to let you know where we’re at. I love you and miss you,

Love,

Tony

Stella and Tom had tears streaming down their faces as they took both letters to the sink. Tom lit the letters and envelope on fire and the two of them watched them burn while Tom held onto his wife from behind. When all that remained were ashes he stirred them up with a spoon and turned the faucet on, watching all that remained of a communication from their daughter - maybe their last, go down the drain.

‘Smart girl,’ Stella thought to herself. ‘She still remembered the codes that her grandfather taught her to use. Megan didn’t say where she was, but I’m pretty certain I know where she went. Her codes were enough to tell us we’re being bugged and in danger. We’ll leave the next move up to her, but I’ll call Gary and have dinner at his house Sunday. I can let him know to ask for some eyes on our place. The agency still owes us that much.’

The doorbell rang again, and she looked at Tom in fear.

“Grab my gun and yours,” she told him. “We both carry twenty-four, seven, from now on.” She breathed, “I’ll get the door for now.”

“Mrs. Dale?” She heard when she opened the door.

“Yes?”

“I’m Agent Taylor, I’m with the FBI. May I come in for a moment?”

‘What the hell?’ she asked herself.

“May I see your identification?” She hedged. Stella examined it for a moment and was pretty certain of its authenticity. “Come on in,” she said.

Her husband came into the room and set her purse down on the table behind her. “Thanks dear,” she said and picked it up, pretending to get some lipstick out of it and used it, while placing the purse on her lap. She gestured towards a seat on the sofa to the agent, “Please have a seat.”

“Thank you ma’am. Sir, I’m Agent Taylor, I’m with the FBI.”

“Tom Dale,” her husband said graciously. She could just see the outline of his gun through the unzipped sweat jacket he had put on.

“Mr. and Mrs. Dale, I’m here because it seems like your daughter and grandson have left her husband. We’re... concerned for their well being and were wondering if you have heard from her by chance.”

Stella put on her worried face very easily at the moment, “No, we haven’t heard from her either. I keep expecting her to show up here... She knows she can, but other than her husband Ray telling me she left a note saying she was leaving him, I don’t know anything more than you do.”

“Did he say what the note said?”

Stella shook her head, “Just that she was leaving him and taking Tony. He sounded pretty mad, but didn’t say anything else.”

“Did Megan ever tell you anything that made you think something was going on?”

“No, but she was good at hiding things.” Tom said.

“And she hasn’t contacted you at all?”

“No, and that has me worried,” Stella lied. She was very good at lying though, and it was obvious that the Agent bought it and was disappointed.

“Well, if she does, would you mind giving me or this Agent a call?”

She looked at the card and saw an Agent Kline listed and his info. ‘I’ll have Gary look into this guy...’

“Oh, and do you by chance have a recent photo of Tony and Stella?”

She nodded, that was probably what this entire visit was about. Stella was sure that two groups were probably listening into their conversations over the phone - knowing full well they hadn’t talked to her. Thankfully her daughter had been smart enough to get that message through the gift basket. Stella walked over to the shelf next to their big screen TV and lifted off the picture frame that held a picture from their last Christmas when they had stayed with her daughter. It was a great picture of Megan sitting on a stair above Tony and she had her arms around her son. ‘Classic picture,’ she thought to herself, ‘And if Megan remembered anything her grandfather and us taught her she shouldn’t look anything like this now.’

Stella pulled it out of the frame and handed him the picture.

Just as he started to walk towards the door she asked, “Why are you already looking for them? I know we haven’t reported her missing and I’m sure the family hasn’t reported her missing.”

He turned and looked at her suspiciously. “I thought you said you hadn’t had contact with her?”

“We haven’t, we figured she was being smart because of her family. We’re not stupid Agent Taylor, my wife and I figured out what her husband was into years ago. Stella and I made a decision long ago not to step in where we’re not asked though.” Tom said gravely. “We planned to give her until Monday before contacting you guys.” He added.

“So?” Stella asked.

“Sounds like you’ve got it figured out. We’re hoping we find her before Raimondo does. If he finds her first...” Agent Taylor turned and walked out the door. “Call us please if you hear from her.”

They closed the door behind the agent and Stella found herself hugging her husband. “She’s alive honey,” Tom said to her soothingly as she cried.

I LOOKED UP from Beauty as Amber and Aunt Gloria began mounting their own horses. Aunt Gloria’s preferred horse, Tink, was a beautiful palomino that seemed very eager to go for a ride. Mom was riding Bella, the appaloosa she seemed to like a lot after having ridden her the other day.

“Okay,” Gloria said when she was seated comfortably. “I want you to follow me, and Amber will follow behind you.”

“Okay,” I said, a little nervously. I patted Beauty on the side and said, “we’re ready.”

“Here we go then!” I gave Beauty a little kick and she began following Tink without me doing much of anything. I tugged to go left and right as the trail twisted, but I had a feeling I didn’t need to do that. She was a smart horse, and it was obvious to me that she was well trained.

After a half hour of a slow walking pace, Gloria held up for and motioned for me to come beside her. Amber came up beside me, putting me in the middle of the two. “What do you think Amber?”

“I think my little sister is a natural!” She said with a smile and a squeeze of my shoulder.

“Think she can handle a slow trot?” She asked her.

“Probably, her seat is right – I think she can handle it.”

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure you agreed with me.”

“Ashley, I want to see if you can go faster, if you want to of course...”

“Please!!!” I said and was joined by Beauty neighing too. “See, she agrees,” I added with a smile.

“Okay, I’m going to go faster and Beauty will probably follow me without too much work from you. If you start getting scared pull back on her reins to slow her down and Amber will stay with you.”

“Okay,” I said a bit nervously. With that I followed as she started slowly, but then led into a comfortable trot that had us moving over the wide trail much quicker. She pulled her horse to a stop after a while later at a small creek. I pulled alongside her as Bella took a drink and let Beauty do the same.

I smiled, “This is fun!!!”

Amber came from behind us and said, “You’re doing great Princess!”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Shall we keep moving?” Mom suggested, “I’m starting to feel ready for that sandwich!”

“Okay,” Gloria said.

The trail went back and forth over the creek a few times before it ran parallel and eventually opened up at a large pond.

“Wow!” I said as I looked across a twenty foot pool of water that was surrounded by tall grass a few feet from the edge and trees ten feet out from that. “Is this natural?” I asked.

“Yep, it’s a natural hot spring,” Gloria said.

“Can you like... Go swimming in it?” I asked.

She laughed at me, “Yes you can, but don’t stay in too long if you ever do. It’s cool enough to be safe, but it’s also hot enough you can get dehydrated if you stay in too long. That means for you little girl no more than ten minutes at a time!”

It was so clear you could see to the bottom and it was really pretty. Gloria came and picked me up off of Beauty and showed me where and how to picket the horses in the grassy area. I patted Beauty affectionately before joining both of them on the blanket. I noticed for the first time the backpack Amber had brought with her. “You want to go swimming first?” She asked me with a smile.

“I didn’t bring...” I started to say, but she passed me one of the one-piece suits, but no shorts.

“But what if someone sees me changing...?” I asked nervously, thinking more about the bulge I thought would be there.

“It’s just us here,” She said with a laugh, “but I’ll hold this blanket around you while you change.” Mom held up another blanket and I changed underneath it out of my panties, jeans, and top. She fussed with my suit for a moment before pulling her pants and shirt off, revealing her bikini already underneath. Gloria was pulling her own outfit off, also having hers already on.

“Come here Ashley, let’s get some sunscreen on you first!” She told me. After spraying and rubbing me liberally down with the smelly stuff I timidly touched the water with my toe. It really was hot!

Mom decided to show me by example and hopped into the hot spring herself; splashing me a little. She held her arms out to me inviting me to jump in too. ‘Here goes nothing!’ I said to myself and hopped in. The water was just on the verge of being too hot, but I adjusted quickly enough and swam around a little in the pool. At its’ deepest point that I could see it only looked to be five feet deep. I stayed near the edges though, those were only about three and a half feet deep.

“This is so cool!” I said floating on my back.

My ten minutes that Gloria said I could be in flew by quickly and I joined both of them on the blanket to eat our lunch.

AGENT KLINE PICKED up his cell phone. “Kline,” he said a little annoyed. He was actually taking his wife out to lunch for once.

“Sir, this is Agent Taylor.”

“Did you get by the Dale’s place yet?”

“Yes sir, and I scanned and e-mailed a photo to you that should be helpful.”

“Did they seem to have talked to her?” He was pretty sure she hadn’t contacted them, but Megan Franchino was a lot slipperier than he expected. “No, not from what I could tell. They mentioned they were going to be calling her in as a missing person on Monday if they hadn’t heard from her. Now that we’re on the case though, they obviously believe it’s taken care of as much as it can be.”

He breathed a moment into the phone and said, “We’ll start circulating the photos to people tomorrow. Thanks Agent Taylor,” he said and hung up.

As the best seafood alfredo dish he knew of was set in front of him he couldn’t help but think about the case. His wife knew that look and left him alone with his thoughts, ‘I can’t believe the rotten luck we had with the parking lot footage at the airport... A power surge?’ He snorted a bit, ‘We know she was there, but no matter how many times I look at that footage at the drop-off area I don’t see her and her son coming and going anywhere!’

“So, what do you want to do after lunch?” His wife asked him with a smile and he forced himself to remember it was the weekend and he needed a break.

GLORIA, AMBER, AND I ate our sandwiches and sunbathed on the blanket for a while. I was watching the white clouds float above me and picking out shapes in them. I had just found a duck when Gloria asked, “Well, one more dip before we go back?”

The three of us climbed back into the hot springs and I floated on my back once again. It felt so nice and relaxing I could have gone to sleep. Fear of drowning kept me nice and awake though!

“Come on Princess,” I heard as Gloria suddenly sat me upright and put me her shoulders.

“What?!?” I said a little startled.

She just laughed at me though and carried me over to the blanket. “Ashley, just put your pants and shirt over your swimsuit sweetie,” Mom said next to me.

I was all too happy to do it too, because I felt so naked on my lower body. Boys always had their chests uncovered, but girls basically went around in less than their panties to swim! I noticed Mom put away her new camera slyly a few minutes later, ‘When was she taking pictures of me?’

The three of us finished packing up the blanket and picnic supplies onto Gloria’s saddle before she picked me up and helped me onto Beauty. Mom took the camera out again and took another picture, “Hey, I’m onto you!” I told her.

She just stuck her tongue out at me. “Okay, you caught me.”

The three of us started back at a walk and eventually I thought we were trotting along faster than we had gone earlier. We came to the ranch much faster than we had left, so I had a feeling I was right. “Let’s get these ladies put away,” Gloria said as she helped me down in front of the barn. The three of us led the horses in and began taking care of their needs. I was able to give Beauty an apple that Gloria slipped me and I swore she was beginning to like me as much as I liked her.

When all of them were taken care of I found myself being pulled along by the hand to the house. “Ashley, let’s get you in the bath,” Mom insisted.

“It’s too early for a bath?” I tried to hedge.

“No it’s not, we’re all stinky and dusty from the ride.” Gloria piped in behind me.

“But...” I tried to whine some more, but I knew it would be of no use. “Does that mean I have to go to bed soon?” I asked, worriedly at my doorway.

“Of course not!” Mom told me with a giggle and gave me a hug. “But I do want you in your pajamas when we’re done,” she added.

“But...”

“But nothing, we’re going to enjoy being in pajamas, making dinner, cookies, and then we’re all going to go downstairs and watch a movie and eat those cookies!” She told me with a smile.

“You’re not going to make me go to bed early?” I asked.

“Nope, you can stay up as late as you want tonight.”

“Really?” I asked incredulously.

“Really.”

“Okay.” I said. As I turned to find my nightgown I saw her walk to her room, open her door, and then return back to my room in a flash. She went to the bathtub and started the water before adding bubble bath. “A bubble bath?” I asked.

“Uh-huh, and you are to stay in said bubble bath until I get back over here!”

“Okay...?” I said.

“Good girl,” Mom said and went to her own bedroom.

‘God, Mom acts weirder and weirder every day I think...’

I was about to close the door and pull my clothes off when she came right back in with a Rubbermaid tub. “Umm... I bought you some bath toys that I thought you might enjoy.”

I gave her a look like she was nuts.

“You don’t have to play with them...” Mom said, “but if you do it’s fine.”

“Okay,” I said.

She left the room again and I nearly locked the door until I remembered she wanted to wash my hair. I sighed, undressed, and waited for the rest of the tub to fill.

RAY LOOKED AT his cousin and said, “What?!?”

“The feds went to Megan’s parents house today.”

“What the hell for?” Ray asked.

“I don’t know, but if I had to guess it had to be Megan.”

Ray gritted his teeth, ‘This is the last thing we need... If the feds get hold of her we’re going to be in a world of hurt.’

“In a way it’s good news though Ray.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, they don’t know where she is obviously...”

“Where do you get that?” Ray asked.

“I figure if they did, and they knew everything, they wouldn’t have just paid a social call on her parents. I think they would have taken them into the same witness protection system to keep loose ends tied up.”

Ray thought about that for a moment and nodded, “The bad news is that means the feds probably figure the best way to bust us is through Megan.” He stood silently for a few minutes, “Any idea where they’re looking?”

“Not really, there have been a few inquiries in Dallas though.”

“What?” He asked.

“Well, they must have found something that led them to the same place as us.”

“They maybe figure out which car she bought?”

“That’s possible.”

“Keep your ears open, if you hear anymore about the car she was driving let me know. Maybe we can still find her before them. I’m definitely going to kill that bitch when I find her though, she’s way too much of a liability.”

“Done.”

I SAT IN the bathtub with the tub next to it for all of about two minutes before my curiosity got the best of me. I leaned over the tub’s edge to look inside the box. Mom had bought me a set of Disney Princess dolls that were apparently meant for the bathtub, some squirter toys that I remembered having boy versions until a year ago, and some Crayola bath markers.

I grabbed the markers first and decided to draw on the wall. I wasn’t a great artist... but you could usually tell what I was drawing at least. I didn’t really know what I was doing until I was done basically. I had drawn a bunch of flowers and a few birds around the walls. Not too high since I didn’t want to get out of the warm water, but still noticeable. I stared at the wall another moment and decided to write, “Hi Madison,” on the wall above them.

I didn’t even realize Mom had come in. “That’s just the type of thing an eight year old girl might think of doing!” She told me with a smile.

“Umm... Of course it is, because I’m eight!”

“Not yet!” She said with a grin.

The bubbles were starting to fade a bit, but there was enough I rearranged them to cover my lower body. “Ready for your hair?” she asked.

I nodded.

She used a cup thing from the same bin to get my hair wet first, and then she shampooed and conditioned it with some kids stuff. It smelled like strawberries and I really liked it. When she was done she said, “Okay Princess, let’s get you out of here!”

Mom was behaving kind of weird, but it was kind of nice too. She wrapped a blue bathrobe that had white stars around me and tied the sash. I gave her a funny look but decided not to say anything. “Sit down here,” Mom said and pointed towards the chair in front of my vanity.

I felt her comb through the hair and start using the blow dryer on it. Once she felt like it was dry enough she brushed it with the brush and it felt really good.

“Okay, what do you want to do with your hair?” Mom asked.

“I don’t know?” I said.

“Well, we need to get you to start caring, or you might end up in braided pigtails for the rest of your life!”

I giggled.

“Umm... I remember hearing some girls talk about another girl having a French Braid sometime? I think I remember that it looked pretty...”

Mom smiled at me, “Okay, French Braid it is!”

I watched as she dug through the hair stuff for a moment and cut some ribbon sections and set some hair bands on the table. Then she said, “Okay, would you like to have ribbons in it like earlier?”

I nodded, “That was pretty.”

Mom smiled at me, “Well then we’ll do it with this too.”

I watched her work as much as I could in the mirror as she tugged and pulled on my hair, tied sections off, and redid things occasionally. She acted like she had been doing this my whole life though, and before I knew it she said, “Ta-da!”

“I can’t really see the back,” I said as I turned a bunch of ways trying to see.

“Here,” she said and handed me a hand mirror. I turned around and used it to see the back on in the bigger mirror.

“Wow!” I said. “It’s really pretty!”

I put down the mirror and gave her a hug. “I love you Mommy,” I said quietly.

“I love you too.” She said and it looked like her eyes were a little teary. It was then that I noticed she was wearing a robe over her pajamas. The top was a blue spaghetti strap shirt with white polka dots and some ruffles along the bottom of it. Her bottoms were what I had learned were called capris that fit loosely and matched. She looked comfy, and definitely younger than her normal nightgowns she wore.

“Ready for your pajamas?” She asked me.

I nodded and she helped me pick out a t-shirt and short set that had Rapunzel on it. “If I had my real hair color I could pretend to be Rapunzel,” I said aloud as I got dressed.

Mom laughed, “Yes you could, but trust me, you wouldn’t want hair that long!”

“Could we...”

“What?”

“Could we maybe watch Tangled tonight?”

“Whatever her royal highness would like to watch I’m sure will be fine...” Mom paused and I was sure she was thinking back to the last time we’d tried to watch it, “Plus, we never did actually ever finish it, did we...?”

“No, Dad ruined it like everything else.”

Mom sighed and gave me a big hug. “I won’t let him ruin anything else from here on out!”
I hugged her back but didn’t say anything. I had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be able to keep that promise.

“Okay, so are you hungry yet?”

“Uh-huh, what’s for dinner?”

“Well, how about spaghetti and meatballs?” She asked.

“When did you make that?” I asked with my eyes wide. That was one of my favorite meals.

“Well, we have to go downstairs and make it now. But, I’m guessing with a helper like you, we’ll be able to get it done in no time!”

“Okay,” I said.

The two of us headed downstairs and I was surprised to not see Gloria. “Where’s Aunt Gloria?”

“She went to the store for a few things, she’s going to be back for dinner.”

“Oh, okay.”

MEGAN WATCHED AS her daughter rolled the mixture up into balls and placed them on the pan. She was actually doing a pretty good job of keeping uniform using a measuring cup to measure them out. She was sure that she could have done it herself twice as fast, but it was good for Ashley to learn how to cook.

Megan hated her husband to the core, but she had loved his mom a whole lot. Francesca Franchino had been a moderating influence on her husband and her son while she had been alive. She had also been an amazing Italian cook. Megan had spent untold hours in the kitchen with her over the years she was still alive learning the family recipes. The recipe book was actually one of the few things back home that tore her apart to leave. Luckily for her though, she had memorized most of them.

She lucked out that Consetta had a pasta roller and began making the dough and pasta completely from scratch. The first time she had ever had fresh pasta from Francesca she thought she had died and gone to Heaven! It was easy to do too, just a bit more time consuming than opening a bag up and throwing it in the pot. Megan wasn’t opposed to doing that a lot of the times, but we wanted tonight to be special.

This meal was Ashley’s favorite, but she was also doing it for Gloria too. She had taken them in without a single complaint... even insisting they stay for a couple years. Megan knew there was a lot of safety in staying with her and appreciated that beyond anything she could have said. Dinner was to be an attempt at an inadequate thank you. Another day this week she would have to make some cannoli as well. ‘Tuesday on Ashley’s ‘Birthday’ would be a good day for it,’ she thought

“I’m done sis,” Ashley said.

A pain went through her figurative heart at that moment.

“Okay, let me put them in the oven. You watch the timer and let me know when it gets half-way.” She told Ashley. “Do you think you can stir the sauce, carefully?”

Before she had finished the sentence she watched Ashley push a step stool in front of the stove and she started stirring. She worriedly watched for a moment, but she was careful and stirred thoroughly.

She looked at the ribbon in her hair and smiled. Megan knew she was most definitely overdoing the little girl treatment, but it was cathartic for her, and Ashley didn’t seem to mind. The worst part about the way they were hiding was that it meant she wasn’t able to have Ashley call her ‘Mommy’ or ‘Mom’ in public. Even just downstairs in the kitchen Ashley had said ‘sis’ to keep in character. She sighed. Her daughter was doing much better at keeping up the act than she was.

She wished her grandfather could be here to meet his great-granddaughter actually. Megan didn’t officially know what her grandfather had done his entire career, but she knew it was work for a three-letter government agency. Her father had grown up moving from place to place and being taught to be suspicious of everyone. He had spent his own ten-year stint doing things he wasn’t allowed to talk about and dragged her along to a couple of countries with her mother. One of those was Italy and she’d learned fluent Italian while she lived there... That was how she’d attracted Ray in the beginning.

Her dad had finally had enough of the work when she was in her freshman year of high school. They had made a final move to Colorado when she was twelve and the commute as needed to other places became too much she thought. Growing up he’d taught her special codes that would be innocuous to anyone else, but would be clear as day to either of her parents.

Megan had finished rolling out and cutting the pasta and made a makeshift drying rack when Ashley said, “They’re half-way!”

“Okay, let me through here,” she said. She found an oven mitt and turned the two trays of meatballs around. It was a huge batch for three people, but she had never made a small one before. With everyone around she was sure someone would eat it too!

Megan looked at her daughter and chose that moment to stir the sauce herself and taste it. ‘A little more salt...’ she thought and added it.

Her parents should have gotten the package today she figured, and she hoped that the letter was un-intercepted. While she’d spoken in code about the important things, there were a few details there that wouldn’t be good to have out. She’d let her parents know in the codes that she was safe, it was her writing freely of her own will, not to tell Feds, not to try and reverse contact, she was disguised, and which state she was in. At some point she needed to teach Ashley a similar system, although she’d always just hoped her parents were being paranoid!

The buzzer went off on the kitchen timer and she pulled the meatballs out. The sauce seemed done too, so all they were doing was waiting for the pasta to cook. Just at that moment Gloria walked in, “Am I too late?” She asked.

“Nope! We’re just getting ready to put the pasta in. It’ll be done in about 2-3 minutes.”

“Great! It smells wonderful!” She said.

She smiled and said, “Thanks!”

GLORIA COULDN’T BELIEVE how good the food she was eating tasted. Whoever taught Megan to cook was phenomenal! When she’d suggested she would cook tonight she had said yes, simply because she was sure Megan felt like she owed her something. That was completely silly to her as far as she was concerned though. Megan was an adopted family member to her - and you help family.

Her dad taught her that from a small child, and she could remember many times when a cousin that was having trouble at school, or home, would come out to the ranch to stay for a while. Often times they would arrive with attitudes, but her dad had this amazing way of working with people... In the end they just felt like they wanted to please him. The few times people received the look of disappointments from him shook them to the core. Her husband had been much the same until he passed away. She knew without a doubt that they both would be proud of her, and she was proud of that.

Gloria watched Ashley hungrily eat the spaghetti like she was possessed. It was the most she’d seen the beautiful little girl eat since they’d arrived. She thought she knew what it was too, this was comfort food for her. Much like steaks, tamales, and green chile were for her! Tomorrow night she planned to pull out some of the beef from a cow they’d slaughtered last month for a barbecue of steaks to welcome her niece and kids.

‘I just hope Kaitlyn accepts all of this…’

I CONSIDERED ASKING for seconds but there was no room to put it. Instead I stood up and went over to mom and hugged her tight. “Thank you.”

“Why? You cooked too?”

I stared at her, “You know why, you made my favorite dinner.”

“You’re welcome Princess.”

With that Mom started cleaning up and Gloria insisted on helping. I watched mostly as the big batch of sauce was poured into several smaller storage containers. “Would you mind if we used this sauce on Monday for lunch?” Gloria asked.

“Not at all, if you want I’ll make pasta tomorrow night and Consetta can throw it in real quick to cook it. We should have enough meatballs already too.”

With that I was afraid my dreams of having spaghetti for lunch the next day were dashed. Mom was good at mind reading though because she said, “And there should still be more than enough you can have it for lunch tomorrow too,” to me. That earned her another great big hug.

“I love your hair Ashley,” Gloria said as I helped put dishes in the dishwasher.

“Thanks!” I said, and pointed to Mom, “She did it!”

Gloria laughed at that and I joined in. The mess wasn’t too insurmountable, so by seven-thirty we had all of it cleaned up and put away. “So what do you two ladies have planned for the rest of the night?” She asked, “Obviously it’s pajama night,” she added with a wink.

“Well, the princess here wants to watch Tangled since she hasn’t seen all of it before. Then I figured we might watch something else if she’s still awake - I promised her there was no bedtime tonight.”

“Maybe I’ll come join you in a bit, I’ve only seen it once and I liked it.”

I smiled and gave a hug to her, “Okay.”

“Oh, and one other thing,” Mom looked at me, “Someone’s nails need redone.”

I blushed, “Sorry...”

She held her own up, “I was talking about mine, but we’ll do yours too,” with a wink too. “Why don’t you go use the potty and get the movie started and I’ll be right down with some nail polish,” she told me.

‘What’s with telling me to use the ‘potty’ like I’m two?!?’ I grumbled to myself. ‘Oh well...’

“Okay,” was what came out of my mouth though.

I did as instructed and found the DVD in her shelves. I still couldn’t believe just how many DVDs Gloria had. She even took the time to organize them by category. This one was in a Disney section of its own and there was another children and family section next to that. I saw categories for action, sci-fi, comedy, etc. and each section had a lot of titles. After turning everything on, and putting the DVD into the player, I sat down on the couch and waited for Mom. She didn’t take long though and began taking the nail polish off her fingers and then mine.

“Your toes still look pretty, let’s leave those alone,” she insisted to me. I hated that the pretty flowers on my fingernails were gone, but over the last few days I had managed to chip every nail so badly she didn’t think she could just touch it up. As bad as mine were though, hers were a thousand times worse!

I sat still as the movie played and she put the first coat on. While both of our first coats were drying I leaned into Mom and felt comfortable. By the end of the movie she had put the topcoats on and I was feeling tired. ‘I am not going to bed yet!!!’ I yelled at myself.

“What do you want to watch now?” She asked me.

I had just put Tangled back on the shelf and noticed TinkerBell right next to it. I picked it up and showed it to her and she nodded. Gloria came down a few minutes into the second movie and joined us on the couch. I actually stayed up for the entire movie and enjoyed ice cream when Gloria offered it.

“What do you want to do now Ash?” Mom asked.

I wanted to stay up later, but I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. Being carried up to bed was an okay thing every now and then, but I really didn’t want to do it again this week. “Bed.” I said simply.

“Okay,” Mom said and the three of us turned off the home theater equipment and went upstairs.

That night Mom decided to tell me a story like Gloria had the other night. This time though it was a typical fairytale, Beauty and the Beast from a Disney Book she found on the shelf.

“Once upon a time,” Mom read to me with a smile after she had tucked me in. Though I knew the story well she had my attention for almost all of it. At some point though I fell asleep and dreamed of being in my own castle with dancing teacups and a massive library.

Chapter 12: Old Friends

THE NEXT MORNING I found myself woken up early. “Isn’t Sunday for sleeping in?” I whined. Mom had just laughed though, pushed me to get dressed, and out the door to feed the birds. As soon as the morning chores were done Mom walked with me upstairs.

“Okay, first thing you need to do is take a shower. Go ahead and use a shower cap on your hair though - I think it still looks fine and I don’t want to redo it yet.”

I nodded, ‘It still looks pretty.’

“Then put on this dress,” she told me, pointing to a cute flowery sundress we had picked up.

“Okay,” I sleepily responded.

As I took the shower I woke up a bit more and wondered why we were up earlier. It had actually been just barely past dark this morning and I’d needed the lights they had around the pens to even be able to see. George didn’t even attack me that morning - he seemed to think it was too early for such foolishness too.

I turned the shower off and made sure that my ‘Hi Madison’ still looked good before wrapping myself in a towel and going out to my room. ‘This is the last morning I won’t have to fight for the shower...’ I thought a little glumly. Really even if I was my real age I would have worried about Madison, but being the kid five years younger than her I figured that she would want nothing to do with me. ‘That’s the way boys are at least...’

The dress Mom had picked out was by far the dressiest dress I’d worn yet. I held it up by the two, inch-wide straps. There was a white base to the dress, but it was covered with watercolor style flowers in a shade of blue, a shade of aqua, and black. The many blue flowers almost made the dress seem blue at places. At the bottom there were some weird gathers to the skirt so that it became tiered with three layers of skirt at the bottom that ruffled a bit. I untied the ribbon that made a bow at the back, unzipped it, and then pulled over my head.

I fought for several minutes to try and get the zipper up, but I just couldn’t do it!!! I finally had enough and went across the hall, opening Mom’s bedroom door. She was putting a pair of earrings in her ears, “Mommy, can you help me?” I said and turned around to show her the zipper.

“The zipper monster got you, huh?” She asked me. I could tell there was a smile on her face without even looking at her.

“Something like that.”

I felt her reach down, pull the fabric together and zip up the dress. She messed around at the top for a moment and then I felt her hands tug on the ribbon.

“I never would have gotten the bow like that,” I told her, as I turned sideways to see the bow that she tied in back.

“You will someday with practice,” she told me with a smile. “Turn back around for a moment,” she told me. I felt her tug a little on my hair.

“What are you doing?”

“Well your hair mostly stayed perfectly last night, but the bow in the back I tied at the end was lopsided.” She paused for a moment, “It was bugging me.”

I gave her a hug when she was done, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Why are we dressed up?” I asked her.

“Church,” was her answer.

“But we usually do mass on Saturdays…”

“We’re going to Gloria’s church.”

“Oh,” I said, “what kind of church is it?”

“Non-denominational.”

“What’s that?”

Mom proceeded to try and explain Gloria’s church, “I went there with her each week when I was here that summer. She kind of expects it,” she added.

“Oh.”

“Besides, I didn’t grow up Catholic, I became one when your Dad asked me to marry him.”

“I didn’t know that,” I told her honestly.

The two of us talked a bit more while she finished getting ready. “You haven’t put your shoes on yet!” Mom said with mock horror when she was done.”

“I didn’t know which ones I was supposed to wear,” I told her honestly.

While I didn’t have a full shoe collection yet, there were quite a few choices. In the end I ended up in a pair of sandals that buckled at the back with a little bit of Velcro and grabbed onto my toes in the front with some white bands that had leather flowers that I just kind of wanted to sit and play with.

Gloria had breakfast waiting for us downstairs when we arrived. “Good morning Princess,” she told me with a hug. “I love that dress!”

“Thanks!” I said. I felt in that moment like I should turn around and let her see the back too, so I went in a circle so she could see the whole thing.

“She is such a girl,” Mom giggled.

“Of course!” I said.

As I approached the table Mom said, “Don’t forget to smooth your dress underneath you!”

I sat carefully and began eating the bacon, eggs, and toast that Gloria had made that morning. All throughout the meal Mom and Gloria kept up a running conversation, but I just ate quietly trying to make sure I didn’t get food on my dress. After I finished Gloria cleared the dishes.

“You ready?” She asked us.

“I guess,” I said. I was nervous. Church was something that was obligatory back home with our family, but I had never liked the services. We attended a church that did the whole mass in Italian each week, which meant that while I understood a lot of it... I would have moments of not having a clue. I also seemed to always run into trouble with the other kids. If they were related to us they left me alone, but the other kids didn’t feel any sense of fear from me. I guess if I’d known that I had the family behind me I might have been able to be a little scarier. Nobody ever explained that to me though for some reason.

Mom grabbed her purse where she had left it on the counter and we all walked out to Gloria’s car. I was about to climb in the seat, but Gloria said, “Let me help you sweetie, that way we avoid messing up that pretty dress of yours.”

I smiled, “Okay.”

Once again demonstrating the strength that comes from working on a ranch she picked me up and sat me in the seat carefully. I managed to smooth my dress out as she did so and then she buckled me in. The harness still crushed the dress, but it wasn’t as bad as if I had tried to get in on my own. I kicked my feet back and forth lightly as Gloria drove for about twenty minutes. She pulled into a parking lot that was outside a metal building and Mom got out to help me out of the seat. Each of them took a hand as we went inside.

“Okay Ashley, we’re going to drop you off at your Sunday School room and they’ll bring you to the main hall afterwards.”

“Umm... Okay,” I said.

I was nervous as Gloria walked me into the room. “Hi Susan,” she said to the lady who apparently was teaching the class. I looked around and saw fifteen kids who looked to be from five to eight or so. “This is my niece Ashley.”

“Hi,” I said.

“It’s good to meet you!” She said happily to me and shook my hand. “That’s a very pretty dress you have on!”

“Thank you.” I said shyly.

“Why don’t you join Emma and Sarah over there,” she said pointing to two girls who looked to be closer to my new age.

“Okay,” I said.

I walked over to the two girls sitting in metal folding chairs and facing the front of the room.

“Hi, I’m Ashley,” I said nervously.

“I’m Emma!” A blonde girl four or five inches taller than me said first.

“And I’m Sarah,” the other girl with brown hair said. She was also an inch taller than me.

“So did you move here or something?” Emma asked.

“We’re staying with my aunt for a few weeks,” I kept to actual story and hoped I wasn’t going to have confession later to have to tell the priest.

“Who all are we?” Sarah asked.

“Oh, my older sister and I.”

“How old is your sister?” She asked me.

I smiled, “Old! She’s twenty-three.”

“Wow, that is old. How old are you?” Emma asked.

“Seven, I’ll be eight on Tuesday!”

“That’s so cool! We’re both eight too!” Sarah said.

The three of us were soon talking about everything they could think to ask me until Ms. Susan, as everyone called her, went to the front of the room. She had us pray to begin with and then introduced me. I blushed bright red when she asked me to stand, but that was the only time I was picked out of the class. The class sang a few songs that I didn’t know, but she held up a poster with the words so I was able to figure it out on the second verse of each song. After a while Ms. Susan told us a bible story about Jesus and Lazarus that day. She did a really great job with the story and I was enthralled the whole time.

When she was done we played a couple of games, sang another song, and then it was already time to go back to meet my Mom and Aunt. They were waiting in the lobby to go into the chapel. I took Mom’s hand and we sat in a pew mid-way from the front. The pastor, as I learned he was called in this church, began the service, there was some singing, some more scripture, some more singing, and before I knew it that was over too. I had understood every word of the language too for once!

We were walking out and I heard, “Mom, come meet the new girl!”

I blushed and knew they were referring to me. I turned around and saw Emma and a lady who I assumed had to be her mom. “Mom this is Ashley!” She said, “My new friend from Sunday School.”

“Pleased to meet you,” she said to me.

“Nice to meet you too.” I paused and said, “Umm... This is my big sister Amber, and I’m guessing you know my Aunt?”

“Yes I do,” she said. “Amber, have we met before?”

I froze, wondering if they had.

“This is the first time I’ve been here before, so I doubt it?” She said in response.

“Must just be a family resemblance thing I guess then.” She turned to Gloria, “Your niece and my daughter seem to have hit it off, maybe we could get them together sometime this next week?”

“I bet we could work something out,” she agreed. “Amber brought her out here while she does an internship with me. It lets her parents get a break from her too.”

I made it look like I was slightly hurt by that, but didn’t say anything.

“Well that’s neat, so she’ll be here a few weeks?”

“Two more.” Mom said.

“Okay then, we’ll make sure they get together. It’ll be good for Ashley to have someone her age to play with I’m guessing!”

I spent the next few minutes talking with Emma since the adults ignored us. She was excited when she found out I got to ride horses out there. I told her about the chickens I had to feed, as well as mean George the turkey. Before long we were being tugged away to go home and eat lunch at our houses.

MEGAN WATCHED AS Gloria picked her daughter up again to put her into the car seat. She was still little enough that most adults could have done that. Being as short as Megan was though she didn’t get that joy. Since about age five it had been too much for Megan to pick up her child. It really was one of the few things that she hated about being so short.

Seeing Ashley with her new friend had made her happy. She worried about how she would end up socializing with girls that were her ‘own age.’ Pretending to be a younger kid than she was had to be tough on her, but she couldn’t tell at all. She just wished she could proudly stand up and say that Ashley was her beautiful daughter! Back at the ranch she heated up leftovers for the three of them and enjoyed seeing Ashley happy. Once clean up was done she sent Ashley to go play and enjoy the afternoon. She in the meantime decided to go out for a ride.

Bella seemed to be bonding to her quickly, and she had a fun ride going through the countryside. She felt a bit guilty about not bringing Ashley with her, but she needed some time to think. ‘I hope Kaitlyn takes this okay...’ she thought for the hundredth time that day. ‘If we have to I’ll take Ashley and pack up the car tonight... We can go find another place to stay.’

Since middle school the two of them had been the best of friends. Neither went hardly anywhere without the other, and they had both planned out their weddings by the age of thirteen and having each other be the others maid of honor. Up through when they were sixteen, and they’d spent an amazing summer up here, she was certain that nothing could break their friendship apart.

The truth was that it only took one boy, Allen, to do that.

He was a new student to their school their junior year, and both immediately had a crush on him. Allen was muscular, but not too heavy or jock like. One day at school Allen asked Kaitlyn out and she agreed. Megan had been devastated, but happy for her friend at the same time. The two of them had a cry session one night and were right back to being best friends for a few months. That was until Megan noticed the bruises on Kaitlyn one day when they were trying on clothes in a store. She tried to shrug it off, but Megan had been adamant to figure out who it was.

When she told her it was Allen she went off the handle and told her to dump him! At that point she went right back off on Megan and said she was just jealous that he’d picked her instead of Megan...

And World War III began essentially. The two became catty towards each other anytime they were in the same room. Even on graduation day, a day when everyone hugs everyone else, she and Kaitlyn had actively avoided each other.

It wasn’t until after her sophomore year in college that the two of them ran into each other at a friends wedding that they’d finally talked. After an hour of talking, most of the hurts and such seemed to heal, especially as Kaitlyn admitted that Megan was right about Allen. They had dated up until the first break from college when she learned Allen had been cheating on her. The two of them had spent quite a bit of time together that summer, the last time she returned home on her own, and she told Kaitlyn about her new boyfriend Raimondo. They’d giggled endlessly about how romantic it was that she’d found her Italian boy-toy...

Megan did not miss the irony that she saw the abusive nature of the boy that broke up their friendship, but missed it on the monster she married. A look at her watch and she realized she needed to head back if she was going to get a shower before dealing with the coming evening. Kaitlyn was supposed to get there about five...

I WAS PLAYING downstairs after Mom sent me off. I’d brought Kaitlyn, Saige, and Kristin down with some of their other outfits. We were having a tea party at a small kids table that I’d found in the room. Well, I was trying to have a tea party. I knew little girls played tea parties... But I didn’t really know how. I had found a plastic tea set that I had set out and had all of my dolls setup around the corner. There had even been a toy highchair that I was able to fit Kristin into.

I was just making it up as I went along though.

There was a camera flash and I looked up to see a smiling mom. I jumped up and hugged her, “Where did you go?” I had gone looking for her to ask her how you play like this but couldn’t find her.

“I went for a ride to clear my head,” was all she said.

“Oh.”

“Did you need me?” She asked.

“Well, I was going to ask how you play this,” I said with a blush.

“It seemed to me you were having a great tea party without me!”

I blushed even more, “I don’t really know what I’m doing though...” I admitted.

Mom smiled at me, “Okay, tea party lesson number one...” She proceeded to teach me how to properly drink tea like a lady and we had fun playing together for a while. She looked at her watch after a while and sighed, “We need to get all of this put up sweetie, Kaitlyn will be here with Madison and Mark soon.”

“Okay,” I said and the two of us cleaned up everything I had brought out. Mom grabbed Kristin and her bag for me while I carried all of Kaitlyn (the doll) and Saige’s stuff upstairs with them in their tote.

“We’re going to have major problems seeing who you’re talking about this week!” Mom told me with a smile as I put my dolls back away.

I gave her a big hug, “Thank you for playing with me.”

“You’re very welcome Ashley.”

After a while she said, “Come on, let’s go sit in Gloria’s office and wait for Kaitlyn.”

STELLA WATCHED THE driveway approach as her husband parked the car at Gary’s. Gary Lancer was an old friend of Tom’s dad’s, coming into the agency at the middle of his dad’s career. He’d become like a favorite uncle of hers over the years and had doted on Megan when she was little.

“Hi Stella!” He said as he opened the door. The two of them hugged and he shook Tom’s hand. “Tom!” They walked in and repeated the hugs with Annette, Gary’s wife.

“Glad you guys made it, I just put the steaks on!” Gary said with a smile.

Stella watched Tom and Gary go out to the grill to hangout and sat down at the table to talk to Annette. The topic of Megan came up at one point, but she shifted to something else in a hurry. Gary was the one they needed to talk to and Annette definitely wasn’t cleared for some of their conversation.

She bided her time for the moment, hoping to get a chance for she, Tom, and Gary to talk after dinner. Annette would inevitably tell Stella she didn’t want help with the dishes, she was always forceful about it, and that would be a good thing that evening.

MOM AND I sat in Gloria’s office as we heard the front doors open and Gloria said, “I’ve moved your room Madison so I could make it a little more mature for you, you’re in Mark’s old room now.” I could hear running footsteps as she pounded upstairs in glee to see what her aunt had done. I hoped she liked the posters of the bands that Gloria had put up for her!

“Kaitlyn come to my office first, I need to talk to you about something,” she said nearing the door.

She opened the door and a lady that looked to be a little bit older than Mom normally looked came in. “Oh, hi, I didn’t realize you had someone in here already Aunt Gloria...”

Gloria closed the door and waited for the fireworks to start it seemed. “Hi Kaitlyn,” Mom said simply.

I watched her eyes seem to compute what she saw for several moments. “Megan?” She asked tentatively.

“Yes,” Mom said simply and nodded.

“It’s great to see you!!!” Kaitlyn said and hugged Mom.

At that I watched my mom burst into tears the like I had never seen. Kaitlyn actually held onto mom and soothed her for a long while, “What’s going on Gloria?”

“I’ll let her tell you all of it Kaitlyn, but they ran away from her husband... And are hiding from him.”

“What?” She asked and then looked at me with her eyes narrowing a bit. I thought maybe she would get mad, but she just said, “Sounds like quite a story.”

Mom sniffled at that point and managed to get her voice back. “It is that.”

Gloria handed my mom a tissue and she took a few moments to get herself under control. “Sorry abut that... I don’t know why it suddenly came out.”

“Umm... Duh!” Kaitlyn said. “You’re running away from your husband? That could be why!” She had a small smile in her face and I suddenly realized they had been really good friends at one point, because Mom smiled back.

She gave Mom another squeeze and came over to me, “I’m guessing this is part of the story... but I’m guessing you’re not going by Tony anymore?”

I nervously said, “No... Ashley.”

“Well come here and give me a hug, I haven’t seen you but once before!”

I went over and hugged her and she said, “So, what’s going on...?”

THEY HAD JUST finished eating a fantastic early evening dinner. Gary was the best person she knew at grilling steaks, and his wife Annette cooked everything else about as well. The two of them said they were retiring to the office and Annette shooed her off with them too.

Once inside the door of the home office Gary shut the door and said, “We can talk in here.” He sat down in a chair opposite a couch in the large room. “What’s going on?”

Stella filled Gary in with all of the details she knew, including where she figured her daughter was hiding out. “Damn, I always knew that little girl was smart!” Gary said with a smile.

“Thank God for that... When I saw her letter I wanted to go find him immediately and beat the shit out of him myself. I didn’t realize that things had deteriorated so bad,” Tom said sadly.

“I wondered...” Stella said.

Gary nodded, “Well, I told you what I thought of him when I met him at the wedding. Totally in love though, couldn’t have told Megan any different unless you wanted to drive her away.”

They both nodded.

“So what is it you’re looking for?”

“Well... First of all can you keep an eye on her? See if she is where we think she is? I’m pretty sure she ran to Kaitlyn’s aunt... It’s the only place in New Mexico I can think of she’d go to. I’m pretty sure she never talked about Kaitlyn or her time in New Mexico to Ray either. It was kind of opposite of the things he expected from her.”

Gary nodded, “I’ll do that. I’ll also see if I can get someone to keep a general eye out for anything suspicious from the Franchino’s. I’d be willing to bet their New Mexico stores are a front for Mexican drug traffic, so it’ll serve my friends interests as well.”

“Just don’t let the FBI find her yet,” Stella said.

“Is she afraid of the program or something?”

“She must be, otherwise she wouldn’t have coded the message the way she did. Megan is in a better position than us to know if the FBI has been compromised.”

Gary nodded, “We’ll also have a protection detail called in for you two.”

“You don’t have...”

“Yes I do, you both know more than enough state secrets to justify it. For all you know you very well may have a hit out on you! I’ll also see if I can’t get into Raimondo’s information and keep track of him. If he suddenly decides to go to New Mexico or something we may want to consider moving more in then too.”

They both nodded and the three of them talked for a while until Annette knocked and came in, “Dessert?”

“SO YOU ARE really hiding out from him?” Kaitlyn asked.

I watched Mom nod, “I have new identity information and everything. I’m one of your distant cousins staying here with my baby sister for a few weeks on an internship.”

“So you’re not pretending to be your age, are you?” She asked. Mom hadn’t included that part in the story. “No, I’m going by Amber, I’m only twenty-three, and Ashley here is seven, she’ll be eight on Tuesday.”

I watched Kaitlyn stare at both of us for a few minutes. “Well, you both should be able to pull that off without any problems. You always did look younger than you were. I know you hated it when we were teenagers, but now you look that age easily. I don’t think Ashley will have any problem for now either... At least until she hits puberty.”

Mom nodded, “We’ve taken care of that though, she’s on some pills to stop block her hormones from starting that.”

She looked a little bit stunned by that, “Is this why you’re running?”

“No, I’d never even thought about this with Tony...” Mom said honestly.

The conversation carried on for a long while before Gloria said, “I’m guessing your two kids are going to want something to eat, I’m going to go get the steaks on the grill. Ashley, why don’t you come help me sweetie.”

I gave Mom a quick hug and followed Gloria out. The two of them remained in the office to talk. Gloria and I had just gotten into the kitchen when I heard, “Oh, hi, are you Ashley?”

I looked up into the face of a girl who was significantly taller than me, ‘She’s only thirteen?’ She had long brown hair and a pretty face. Her ears had some cute little music note earrings in them. I guessed she had to be about six-feet tall, and I felt like I definitely was a little kid compared to her. “Umm... Yes, are you Madison?”

“Uh-huh,” she said with a smile. “So you got my old room?”

“I guess so.” I said timidly.

She looked up at Gloria and gave her a big hug, “I love what you did with my room!!! You didn’t have to do that for just two weeks though,” she said.

“I know I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. Besides, I’m hoping I can convince your mother to come out here for Thanksgiving this year.”

Madison smiled at that. “So where are you from Ashley?” She asked me.

“Near Dallas,” I said.

“Her older sister is doing an internship with me. She’s one of your cousins on my husband’s side of the family,” she told her. “They’ll be here for another two weeks too.”

“Cool! I finally have another girl to play with here!” She said with a smile. “How old are you?”

I bit my lip, this was a bit more embarrassing with her for some reason, “I’m seven, my birthday’s Tuesday though and I’ll be eight!”

Madison kept asking me questions, and I asked plenty back, as we watched the steaks cook on Gloria’s huge barbecue outside. She told me she hated gas, so she only used charcoal to cook with. By the time Gloria pronounced the steaks done, I had pronounced Madison as a friend in my mind.

MEGAN GAVE KAITLYN another hug, “Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome, but this is something that I’m more proud of you Megan! The fact you got away is amazing. I’ll play along with this and help you out any way I can for the next two weeks before I take the kids back home.”

“Thanks Kate.” Was her response. “Now please don’t forget I’m Amber from here on out. We just met each other for the first time since I was a baby at a family reunion and you were babysitting me.”

Kaitlyn laughed, “Are you trying to make me feel old?!?”

They walked out of the office together and into the kitchen where most of the food was already on the informal dining table. Ashley was taking an apron off then moved to take a chair next to where Madison had already sat down. Somehow she could sense the two of them were already friends. She just hoped that not filling Madison in didn’t end up being a problem... If she found out Ashley had boy parts for instance she was a little worried about how she would react. Kate seemed to think that it would be okay if she did, and that she would accept it even though it was a bit weird.

“Mark,” Kaitlyn said to her son as he walked in the door, “come sit down and eat.” Mark had his cell phone out and looked a little bit frustrated. “Honey, these are your cousins Amber and Ashley.” She introduced them.

“Nice to meet you,” he said politely.

Megan suspected he was having issues with his cell phone working, “Can’t get a message to your girlfriend?” She asked slyly as she passed him the mashed potatoes.

He stared at her incredulously but nodded, “The reception is terrible. She’s going to think I’m just blowing her off and dump me.”

Madison looked at Ashley and the two of them giggled for a moment. Megan looked at them a little reprovingly but said, “I’m sure we’ll go into town at some point this week Mark, you can always text her then and tell her you have no service where you’re at.”

“Or,” Gloria said, “you could ask me politely to borrow the landline and you could actually talk to her over the phone.”

Megan just about wanted to die laughing as she watched Mark’s reaction to actually talking on the phone. “Aunt Gloria, you don’t use phones for talking anymore,” Megan said seriously.

That made Madison laugh and Kaitlyn did as well. Dinner went well and she was grateful that Ashley and Madison seemed to bond more over it. She could see that Madison would be playing the big sister role, and watched as she insisted on helping her with some little things every now and then. Megan wasn’t sure that Ashley even noticed when it happened.

By the time dinner was over she was stuffed and happy to have her best friend back.

I FINISHED EATING and started to help out with the dishes like I normally did, but Kaitlyn said, “Amber and I will take care of those sweetie. You helped cook, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“Then we do dishes. Why don’t you and Madison go play,” she suggested.

“Okay,” I said and looked at Madison.

“Well come on Ashley!” She said with a smile. “You want to play with dolls?” She asked.

“You play with dolls still?” I asked nervously.

“Of course I do!” She laughed, “Most of my friends still do too, even if they lie and say they don’t.”

I smiled at her, “Cool.”

“Why don’t you show me who you brought and I’ll go grab mine then too?” She suggested.

I nodded.

The two of us went up the stairs and opened my bedroom door. “Wow, Aunt Gloria was up to her tricks in here too, wasn’t she?”

She looked at the bedspread, “I take it you must be into Princesses?”

I nodded bashfully, afraid that would be something to make fun of me for. “Cool, I was when I was your age too! I still love all of those movies though! They’re my favorites! Especially Tangled!”

I laughed and introduced her to my dolls.

“Wow! You have three American Girl dolls already?”

“Uh-huh,” I said more proudly.

“That’s just one less than I have, and I’m older than you. That’s not fair,” she said with a wink to let me know she wasn’t serious. “I love their dolls. Mom and Dad actually let me have my tenth birthday party there!”

“Cool!” I said.

“It was,” she told me all about it as she held Saige for a moment. “So what are their names?”

“That’s Saige that you’re holding, I didn’t rename her, the baby is Kristin, and this is Kaitlyn,” I said as I held her up.

She smiled, “That’s my mom’s name.”

“I heard at dinner, it might get a bit confusing this week, I take Kaitlyn almost everywhere!”

Madison laughed and said, “Hold on, let me go get mine and we can play downstairs!”

She ran through the bathroom to her room and came back carrying two totes like I had for Saige and Kaitlyn. Inside she had a doll that looked like her, the same kind as Kaitlyn, a girl with brown hair, a historical doll that I thought was named Kitt, and another one I didn’t know. We walked downstairs together carrying our dolls and ran into Mark in the hallway in the basement.

“I take it you two are going to the playroom?” He asked a little insultingly.

“Of course! Ashley here is cool, I’m looking forward to not having to be around only my lame brother all week!” I got the feeling the two of them couldn’t stand each other.

“Whatever,” he said. I watched him go past the playroom into the arcade and just shook my head. ‘I think my dad would actually like him...’

“Come on,” Madison said as she moved forward but I stayed frozen. The two of us sat down on the floor in the playroom and I carefully spread my skirt around.

“That’s a really pretty dress!”

“Thanks, we went to church earlier and M... Amber and Aunt Gloria wanted me to dress up.” ‘Oh no, I haven’t known her for two hours and I almost messed up!!!!’ I thought angrily. Madison’s eyes looked confused for a moment but brushed past it.

“It goes really well with your hair too, who did that?”

“Amber did it.” I said.

“Can I see,” She asked and indicated for me to turn my head down. She looked at for a moment and said, “That’s really cool, I had a friend show up with a ribbon in her hair once like that, but yours is prettier.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Think she would do mine like that sometime?”

I gaped, but said, “I’m sure she would if you asked her to.”

“Why do you look so surprised?” She smiled at me, “Just cause I’m a really tall thirteen year old doesn’t mean I’m not a little girl at heart. I’m a girly girl too, I love dresses and everything girl.”

I laughed, “You’re way cooler than I thought you would be! What are your dolls names?”

“Well, this is Mackenzie,” she said holding up the one like her, “This is Kitt, I didn’t rename her either. This is Chrissa, she’s an older girl of the year doll who you may not remember... I got her for my eighth birthday, and this is Caroline.”

“They’re all pretty,” I told her.

With that the two of us played with dolls for the next hour or so before Mom came down and said, “Ashley, it’s time for your bath and bedtime.”

“Do I have to?” I whined. “We’re playing...”

“Uh-uh, I let you stay up way too late last night. If Mom knew how late you were up last night she’d probably spank me.” She said with a smile. ‘I’m impressed with her acting,’ I admitted to myself.

“Okay...” I pouted. “Sorry Madison.”

“It’s okay Ashley, I probably should go to bed here soon too. Aunt Gloria will have us all up doing chores before any human being should be awake!” All three of us giggled about that and Mom helped me carry Kristin up the stairs.

“Okay, bath time Princess,” she ordered me. I noticed she went into the bathroom and locked the other side’s door before turning the water on. “Come sit down here,” she told me and began pulling out the braids from my hair.

“I wish I could keep it...” I whined a little.

“If you really want I’ll do it for you again tomorrow after breakfast.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Really.”

“Umm... Would you mind doing Madison’s too...? She seemed to want her hair like that.”

Mom smiled at me, “You have made a friend, haven’t you?”

I nodded, “I don’t know why she wants to be friends with a little kid like me, but we had fun tonight.”

Mom hugged me, “Probably because you’re the most adorable little kid on the ranch!”

“But I’m the only one...” I said.

“Duh!” She said as she was pulling the last ribbon out of my hair. She began tickling me without warning a second later. “What’s not to love about the little princess?”

“Stop...” I cried out and she finally let up.

“Come on, in the bath!”

“Do you think Madison has seen this yet?” I asked as I pointed to my drawing and the ‘Hi Madison.’

Mom shook her head, “Probably not, you’ve had her downstairs most of the time talking her ear off.”

I stuck my tongue out at her.

Quietly she said, “While Madison is here I’m going to wash your hair out in the bath each night. That’s pretty normal for a seven-year old. If she asks I’ll just say you haven’t figured out how to get all of the soap out of your hair.”

I nodded. She handed a loofa with some body soap on it that I used everywhere myself before she began washing my hair. It felt good as she washed it, but it seemed to take forever. Finally she said, “Okay Ash, bedtime.”

“I don’t get time to play?” I asked.

“Maybe tomorrow if we get an earlier start to bed, right now it’s time for bed.”

“Alright,” I said. “Can I at least get a bedtime story?” I asked as Mom unlocked the door to Madison’s room after I had put on a nightgown and panties.

“I guess,” she said in mock exasperation.

She picked out a version of Rapunzel from a classic storybook and began the tale. Mom had barely reached the third page of the story when I noticed movement from the corner of my eye and saw Madison in a cute short set and tank top. “May I join you?” She asked with a smile.

“Sure!” I said. Madison sat down on the floor next to the bed and Mom continued.

When mom reached the end of the story I was basically asleep, but I remember hearing, “She’s so cute, and it’s neat that you tell your little sister bedtime stories!”

I grinned to myself.

They talked quietly as they left the room and I fell asleep.

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

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 13: Mountain Rains
 
THE NEXT MORNING I faced the wakeup call from Mom and then dragged myself along through the feeding of all the animals. ‘I think I’m sort of getting used to this...’ I thought to myself as I finished putting the feed bucket back on the shelf. ‘I wonder what Madison had to do?’

I wondered if maybe she’d been pressed into helping mom with the cows. I walked into the milking shed and found Mom and Kaitlyn, but no Madison. “Good morning,” Kaitlyn said to me pleasantly.

“Good morning Aunt Kaitlyn,” I said.

“Aunt, huh?” She said looking at Mom. “I can go with that.” She smiled. “Good morning to you too then,” said.

“Where is Madison?” I asked curiously.

“I think Gloria has her and Mark mucking horse stalls.” I wrinkled my nose up at that right as Gloria walked up.

“Don’t worry, when you turn ten you’ll be doing that with them.” She said with a smile and a wink.

“Good thing I’m only seven then!” I said with a smile back.

She laughed and Mom said, “Why don’t you go ahead and go shower for breakfast Ash.”

“Okay,” I said and walked to the house noticing there were some really dark clouds beginning to roll in. ‘I wonder if they get tornadoes here?’ I thought somewhat nervously. We had a couple close calls a few years back and I wasn’t a fan of them at all!

‘At least they have a basement here!’

I walked upstairs and quickly took a shower, hoping to not get in the way of Madison... Who I hoped wanted to take a shower. Mucking stalls did not sound like fun at all. ‘If I was Tony I’d be mucking them right alongside them!’ I thought. ‘I wonder if Madison would have liked Tony...?’ I had used a shower cap to keep my hair dry since I didn’t need to wash my hair. As a result I was in and out of the shower pretty quickly. I made sure I unlocked the door for Madison to get in and then started digging through my clothes for something to wear. I started with a pair of panties that I pulled on and then started digging through my armoire.

‘Madison said she likes dresses... And Mom is going to put our hair up in the French Braid... Well if Madison wants it. I don’t know if she just said that yesterday to humor the little girl or not. But, she might wear a dress... Which means I want to wear a dress.’

That narrowed things down to only ten choices. I’d worn a couple other dresses already, so they were out. I settled on a plaid dress that was made of pink and white plaid seersucker fabric. I thought it felt really light and airy and liked the way it had a cute bow on the front of it that was attached to the belt tie in the back. I managed to pull it over my head when I heard, “you need help zipping that up?”

I nearly wet my panties at that point. She could have easily tumbled onto my secret right there and then!

I managed to not shout out, but said, “If you could please... I can’t reach it I don’t think.”

Madison came from behind me barefoot and in the jeans she must have been mucking in still. I knew she would have had boots over everything though, so she was probably just dusty. “Actually, let me wash my hands again real quick...” She was back a moment later and I felt her zip the back up for me. “Would you like me to tie the bow too?”

“Please,” I said.

“There you go. Now turn around so I can see your dress!”

“Thank you,” I said and turned for her.

She sighed, “I miss being able to fit in cute dresses like that.”

“But it’s got to be cool to be older and able to fit in older dresses too?” I asked.

“Maybe... I started growing fast when I was about eight and I haven’t worn clothes from the girls section since I was nine.”

“That does kind of stink,” I said.

She nodded and then looked down at herself, “And... I kind of stink too right now!”

I laughed.

“I’m going to go take a shower, do you need in the bathroom anymore before I use it?”

“No, I’m done.”

“Okay then, see you at breakfast,” she told me with a smile.

Knowing Mom was going to do my hair after breakfast I just brushed it and put it up into a high ponytail. It took me four attempts to get that right, but I managed it. I looked in the mirror and brushed my bangs a little bit but knew that I didn’t have them great. ‘Okay, downstairs and help Consetta?’ I thought to myself.

I walked out my door and ran into Mom. “I love that dress on you!” She said to me with a smile. “I’ll do your hair back in the braid after breakfast?” She asked.

“Please.”

“Okay, let me get showered...”

I walked downstairs and found Consetta working hard on frying eggs. “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“Well hello Princess,” she said with a big smile and gave me a hug. “Would you make the toast?”

“Sure!” I said. Consetta pointed out the bread and I toasted enough pieces for everyone but me to have two, and just one for me.

“I hear your sister made a batch of spaghetti and meatballs Saturday?”

I nodded, “It’s really really good!”

“I guess I’ll have to trust you on it until lunch. Gloria showed me where she’d put the fresh pasta she made last night, and the sauce, but I’ll have to see what the best way to heat it all back up for the hands is.”

“Trust me, everyone will love it!”

“So I hear a certain little princess has her birthday tomorrow...?”

I blushed, she knew as well as I did that it wasn’t really my birthday tomorrow. “Uh-huh.”

“So any ideas what you’re getting?”

I shook my head, “I asked for some toys and clothes... But I don’t know. I’m not even sure if... Amber has had time to go shopping.” I added a second later, “I don’t know if Mom and Dad are sending anything either.”

“Oh I’m sure none of them are going to miss the opportunity to spoil you!”

Before long all of the toast was done and I took it out to the serving table. She had this insane eight-slice toaster so it was pretty quick to do it in four batches. I sat down after it was all out and saw Madison come down.

I smiled, ‘She did wear a dress!’ Her dress was pink and sleeveless like a thick tank top. As she got closer I could see there were little white hearts that I thought were polka dots at first. I waved back at her when she waved to me and joined her in getting food. She was soo tall that when I was talking to her I constantly seemed to have to crane my neck back.

“Madison, how tall are you?” I asked conversationally as we both sat down next to each other with our food.

“I’m only five foot ten right now.”

“Wow, that’s really tall!” I said.

“I’m probably going to get to six foot three or so according the doctors. Well, my older brother is six foot two right now and he’s still growing too.”

“I won’t ever hit five feet, so that just seems really tall to me... I only just passed four feet.” I said.

“Believe me, I would trade you in a second!”

“Why?”

“Well... Okay, so girls grow faster than guys, right?”

“I guess so...”

“Well, when you get to my age they do. So almost every guy that’s my age is at least six inches shorter than me! If I really get that tall I’m going to be taller than most guys even when they’re grown... I’d much rather be shorter than my boyfriend,” she told me. “Besides, boys are really intimidated by tall girls. Trust me, I know!”

I giggled at that.

“Plus, take your sister for instance. She’s so short and petite she could easily still shop from the girls department if she wants. The juniors department still works great for her probably too, and the misses and women’s are all options for her. If I get that tall I’m going to have a hard time shopping for clothes in any of those places.” She took a bite of eggs and a drink, “Plus...” she pointed towards her chest, “I’m still sooo flat that the juniors clothes don’t really fit me that well if they’re made for me to be tall enough.” She groaned, “It’s no fun. That’s part of why I make a lot of my clothes.”

“You make your own clothes?” I asked, startled.

“Uh-huh,” she said with a smile. “I started making doll clothes when I was your age and by the time I was ten I was making several dresses and outfits a month for fun. Now... Well it’s easier to fit in if you can wear the style of your friends.”

“You are so cool!” I told her.

She smiled at me, “So what do you like to do for fun?”

“Well, I like coloring... and playing with my dolls... and cooking... and riding horses now too!”

“I like riding too,” she told me with a smile. Right about then the hands started filing in and saying ‘hi’ to both of us. Madison stood up and gave Hank and Annie hugs, along with a couple of other guys I still didn’t know that well.

Everyone had been sitting for just a few minutes when I heard the rain start falling and watched it in the windows. It grew in strength and continued to pour on a heavy downpour. “This is weird for here,” Madison said.

“Oh?”

“Normally rains here start in the afternoon and they’re done in ten minutes.”

“Oh...” I said.

She kept me talking about myself for a while and I tried to come back with answers from when I was really seven turning eight. I liked Madison even more as we finished taking plates back to the sink and she helped Consetta do dishes with me. We had just finished putting the last plate in when I heard Mom come in. “Ashley would you like me to do your hair now?”

“Sure!” I said and then looked at Madison, “Amber is going to do my hair in that French Braid with the ribbon again, do you want to watch?”

“Sure!” She said with a smile.

“I’ll do yours too if you want,” Mom said.

“Yes, please!!!” She said excitedly.

We went up to my room and she dug through the ribbon box for some pink that actually matched both of our dresses pretty closely. Mom had me sit down in the chair and brushed through my hair first. “Okay, start off like this...”

Mom worked on my hair for the next fifteen minutes or so and explained each step to Madison as she went along. She was enthralled with it and my mom enjoyed that. When I was done she said, “Okay, next!”

I laughed and watched as she did Madison’s hair. She did the same explaining to me to teach me how to do it too. I wasn’t sure I would be able to get it on myself, but I thought I could probably just about do it on a friend. The two of us looked cute when she was done and Madison hugged Mom saying, “Thanks!”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’ll be right back,” I said then and went into the bathroom. When I was coming out I heard, “Sure I don’t mind staying with her today, she’s fun!”

I pretended to open the door slowly and not hear that. “Hey Ashley, how would you like to sew something together today?”

“Really?”

“Really! I don’t know if we could finish today or not, but we could probably sew you a really pretty princess dress?”

“Can I Amber?” I asked.

“May, not can,” she reminded me, “and sure you may. Actually why don’t you go ahead and just play with Madison today. I’m going to go into town to take care of a few things, I’ll be back for lunch.”

“Did you tell Consetta how to heat everything up?”

“Yes I did,” she smiled at me, “I’m sure she’ll have it covered!”

Madison looked lost so I said, “We made spaghetti and meatballs Saturday night and we’re having the leftovers for lunch.”

“Oh... Good,” she said skeptically.

“You haven’t had our family recipe obviously, it’s better than good!”

“I guess we’ll have to see later, won’t we,” Madison said. “Now let’s go downstairs and see what Aunt Gloria has in her sewing room to work with.”

“Wait, she has a sewing room?” I asked. I thought back to the exploring I’d done and I hadn’t come across any sewing room.

“You haven’t been upstairs in the barn yet?”

“There’s an upstairs?”

“Come on and I’ll show you,” she said with a smile. When we got to the door to go outside though it was still raining really heavily.

Madison and I found a pair of tennis shoes first before we left and she oohed and awed about my Disney Princess shoes. “They even light up!” She said with amusement as she watched them do it while I walked down the hall next to her.

‘I really want to say something, this one hurts...’ I admitted to myself.

“Here,” she told me and passed me an umbrella.

“Thanks!” I said as I walked through the door and waited to open it outside under the patio. “Wow,” I said as I watched it come down heavily and could see the ditches on the side of the road going. I watched as Mom drove off with someone else in the car - it looked like Kaitlyn - and splashed the water up behind them.

“Come on,” Madison said to me after a second of watching them.

I had a guess, but as an eight year old I figured I probably should be denser than this, “I wonder where they’re going?”

“Probably just to the store, my Mom mentioned some things we left at home that she needs.”

‘Good lie Madison!’ I thought with an internal smirk. ‘I hope she doesn’t find out about me and gets angry about the lie down the road,’ I thought and frowned a little bit. Madison missed that though as we walked in the open barn door and we shook our umbrellas out. She said, “See the stairs?” They were literally just to my right! How I ever missed it I never knew.

“I feel stupid... I guess I was too excited to see Beauty each time that I never noticed.”

She giggled, “She is a sweetheart isn’t she?”

I nodded, “Do you normally ride her?”

She shook her head, “Not for a few years, I’m too tall to ride her comfortably. She’s a pretty short horse... Not quite a pony, but pretty short.”

I thought about that and felt even shorter. I couldn’t pull myself onto her like Gloria in a million years. Mom did it though somehow with her horse being a bit taller, she did some sort of crazy acrobatics to do it though I remembered. “I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right.”

“I normally ride Jewel, she’s the painted horse on the end.”

“Cool,” I said. “Does your brother ride?”

“He can, but he’s been a jerk about it the last few years. I wish our Uncle was still alive, he would have sorted him out in a hurry.” We had finished climbing the stairs and she opened a heavy-duty weatherproof door at the top. “After you!”

“Thanks,” I said and found my jaw drop. There was a huge upstairs area here that I didn’t know existed. I figured the room must extend above the tack room downstairs and the feed storage areas and made up probably a thousand square feet or so. Large modern windows faced the valley below the mountain and went from floor to a ceiling that extended fifteen feet. We had a really pretty view of the rain pouring down in the valley below.

I noticed a couple of side doors off the main room which I quickly peeked in and discovered two full bathrooms with showers in each room. In the middle of the room were several sewing machines and some large sewing machines. “What is all this?” I finally asked.

Madison laughed and took me on a tour. “These two are regular sewing machines... Well, sort of regular. They’re really high end sewing machines.” She walked down the wide bench that they sat on and said, “This is a serger, it’s great for a lot of things, but mainly clothing.” Madison moved down the line and said, “These two are embroidery machines, they’re a lot of fun to use I think. Actually we could probably make a lot of really cute things just with these for you!” She giggled. “Those dummy looking things are dress forms. She has a few sizes to choose from depending on what she’s working on.” Madison moved her hand and pointed out the contraption in the middle, “Now, this monstrosity in the middle is a long arm quilter. It lets you get a large quilt in there pretty easy. See, you load the top part on this roller, and the batting and the backing on the other two, and then the machine travels on these rollers so as you sew it all together you can make pretty designs as you go. When you’re finished it all ends up on that roller in the middle. Aunt Gloria spends a lot of time using this one during the wintertime. She even finishes quilts for other women who don’t have one of these.”

I looked at her in disbelief that all of this was up here, but also that she knew what everything was! “Do you know how to use all of this?”

She nodded, “I’ve been working with Aunt Gloria up here since I was like three or four. Mom finally bought me my own sewing machine when I was seven. I keep hoping to convince her to get me a nicer one... But I doubt it ever happens.”

I noticed that along the walls were banks of filing cabinets on one wall, and the other two that didn’t have the windows had bolt after bolt of fabric. I was in disbelief that anyone would possibly have this much stuff... “This is unbelievable,” I finally said.

Madison giggled, “Aunt Gloria has been sewing her whole life and it’s not like she just bought all of this one day. Plus, ranching at times pays really well. It just depends on how much it costs to feed the cattle. Most years she’s better off than the average rancher since she’s higher up in altitude where she grazes them and they have greener pastures. If she doesn’t have to supplement the feed she makes a nice profit.”

“Cool,” I said again.

“So, ready to make a dress?”

“You’re serious?”

“Uh-huh, you can think of it as my birthday present to you... Even if we don’t get it done today,” she said with a smile.

“You don’t have to...”

“I want to though, I love sewing! I know Gloria has some really cute dress patterns in your size here.”

“Okay,” I said. “But I think I’ll just watch you most of the time probably, I’ve never sewn anything before.”

She smiled at me, “Okay, but these next two weeks I’m going to teach you how!”

I gaped at her, but was enjoying the attention. “Cool,” I finally said.

“First thing’s first, I need to know exactly how tiny you really are!”

I blushed, “I’m not that tiny...”

I watched her grab a clipboard from a table and a piece of paper. She then picked up a cloth tape measure, put her arms up and said, “Arms up!” She measured my chest, then my waist, my hips, and something between my neck and my rear on my back. I looked down at her numbers.

Chest: 26

Waist: 22

Hips: 27

BWL: 11

“How tall are you again?” She asked.

“Four feet,” I told her.

She looked at me and said, “Let’s measure and make sure...”

With my shoes off she measured me against a height check chart that Gloria had taped to the wall. ‘Please don’t let me shrink another inch on this measurement...’

“Forty-eight inches exactly I think. You might be getting a quarter inch more out of your hair,” she smiled at me.

“I’ll take everything I can get...” I said with a smile.

“Okay, shoes back on before you step on a stray pin...”

I velcroed my shoes back onto my feet and joined her at a table at the edge the room where she was sitting. “Okay, so the first thing we need to do is figure out kind of what size we’re looking for, right?”

I nodded, “My mom usually buys me sevens.” I said. I was glad that there was no way that could be connected to Mom.

“Well, depending on the pattern you may be a Six X or a Seven. It all depends on the company. You’re kind of at a break between the pre-school size clothes and big girl clothes.” I made a weird face at her, “It’s not that big of a deal. And, don’t worry, I’m pretty sure we’re not looking at the little girls sizes for anything. You could definitely fit into them though.”

I gave her the stare, “Hey, you never know when there might be some really cute shirt out there they don’t carry in the big girls sizes... You could fit in it still! Picture me shopping for cute clothes like the other girls my age in Justice, not possible!”

I thought about that for a moment and could see her point, “I guess I can see that. You’re like adult height, but you’re just a kid...”

She nodded with a smile, “See?” She stood up and said, “Gloria has all of this arranged by brand and type of clothing. If you are ever searching for patterns in a store, they’ll organize them by catalog numbers there. The cool thing with Gloria’s collection here is that it has tons of patterns that aren’t even available now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, there are a lot of people that would sell their souls to have her catalog!”

“Now, these three cabinets are girls size dresses, let’s see what we can find!”

The two of us spent a half-hour searching, occasionally finding one to consider, before she said, “This is perfect!!!”

I stood up and looked at the package she was holding, ‘It is really pretty! Like a dress from Beauty and Beast or something...’ The picture showed a dress that had poofy sleeves and a tea length skirt that went down to several inches above the ankle. The top part was a dark purple and had a lighter purple band at the bust line that tied in back. At the top of the bodice was a large purple bow in the same lighter color. Below the bust line band it returned to the darker purple until just above the knees it switched to a wide four inch or so band of the lighter purple, and then had the same size of band below it of white. On the lighter purple band at the bottom of the skirt it tied into a purple bow at the bottom left, and then two bows in back equidistance from the center.

“It’s pretty!” I said. “But... Can you really make that?” I asked.

“You like it?”

“I think it’s the prettiest we’ve seen.” I said with a nod.

“Then watch, and I’m going to make it a little different to add my own little style to it!”

“Cool,” I said and helped her put the other patterns we’d set aside back into the filing cabinets where they belonged.

We moved over to a large cabinet area that had a cutting mat on it from edge to edge. I watched as Madison carefully took the pattern out and smiled, “I love it when it’s not been used before...”

Over the next hour and a half I watched her as she transferred the pattern onto muslin and she explained what she was doing. Before I could believe it she had the muslin sewn together. “I don’t have to wear that... Right?” I asked. The fabric wasn’t very soft when I had touched it to feel it.

She laughed, “No dummy, this is why we have dummies!”

I laughed with her and watched as she took a child sized dress making form and adjusted it. She checked the measurements with the same tape measure several times and then pulled it over the top. “See where it’s not fitting quite right?” She asked me, pulling a couple edges here and there, “Doing it this way I can go ahead and adjust it before we do it out of the real fabric.”

She was working on correcting that when Gloria came in, “So this is where you two are hiding,” she said with a smile. “Whatcha making?”

Madison slid over the envelope cover and Gloria smiled, “I love that pattern. She’s going to look adorable in it, just like a princess,” she told me and I blushed.

“Why don’t you go ahead and take a break and come eat lunch though, okay?”

“Oh, okay,” Madison said. Neither of us had realized how long we’d been at it.

The two of us followed Gloria back to the house and I noticed for the first time it had stopped raining. It looked like it might still do more though as black as the clouds were.

MEGAN REALIZED AN hour ago that there was no way they were going to be getting back to the ranch anytime soon. The arroyos and ditches had been filling when they headed to town, but now everything was pretty much underwater from the flash flooding. “This is crazy,” she said while looking up in the sky for signs of funnel clouds. She knew Albuquerque got tornadoes occasionally.

“Yeah, hopefully it’ll pass soon. I’m guessing we can make it back to Santa Fe if we go slow, but getting out to the ranch may be tricky.” Kaitlyn replied.

“Well, I guess we could stop for lunch first?”

“Sure, where are you thinking?”

“Umm... I haven’t been here in a long time, what do you recommend?”

“How about Twisters?”

“What do they have?”

“Typical Mexican food plus burgers. Pretty good green chile, it’s a local Albuquerque chain, they have lots of locations.”

“Sure, why not?”

The two of them carefully made their way to the nearest one that Kaitlyn knew about and soon after had their food. “Ashley is so cute,” Kaitlyn told her.

“I know, isn’t she?”

“Madison is so jealous of her.”

“Huh?”

“Madison didn’t have much time as a ‘little’ girl. She was over five-feet by the time she was in fourth grade, and I think she’s going to be at least Mark’s height. Maybe taller... She hasn’t been able to fit in anything cute in forever and it kills her. The only thing we can find in her size is juniors clothing that emphasizes breasts she doesn’t really have yet... And I wouldn’t be really comfortable having her show them off even if she did have them at thirteen...”

Megan nodded, that’s something she’d never had to consider. “I bet she probably gets seen as being older too... Your husband probably has the shotgun ready?”

“Both barrels loaded and ready to go,” she laughed. “She’s a great kid though. She’s really smart - I’m guessing she’ll have a full ride to whatever college she wants.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that, I think Ashley is in absolute hero worship of her.”

“That’s kind of funny since she’s not really that much younger.”

“You know she’s not... But since last Saturday when we left... Well I guess Sunday – she’s been acting her age. Ashley’s been pretty clingy and I think excited to do kids things.”

“Well... After everything she’s been through that kind of makes sense.”

Megan nodded, “You don’t think it’ll do any permanent harm though?”

Kaitlyn shook her head, “If you were forcing her to act like that and stuff I’d be concerned, but she’s been willing the whole time you said?” Megan nodded, “Then I’d just be happy that your soon to be eight year old baby sister is so well behaved!” She smiled.

“I hope she’s okay with her presents.”

“She’s going to be eight tomorrow, she’s going to love them. Consetta is doing the cake, right?”

Megan nodded, “I’m going to make cannoli tonight after I put her in bed too.”

“Well, at least you learned how to properly cook Italian out of that nightmare!”

She nodded, “So what am I missing...?”

GLORIA HAD FOUND Madison and I just in time before the hands came back in for lunch. They’d been spending most of the morning when it was raining doing some repairs in the barn and the milking shed. In a storm like that it wasn’t worth risking someone breaking their necks or hurting a horse to go out and work on the other things they needed to do. Those would easily wait till the next day anyway.

“Where’s Amber?” I asked nervously as Consetta dished up a plate of spaghetti for me.

Gloria answered behind me though and said, “She called a few minutes ago sweetie, they’re stuck in Albuquerque for the time being because of some flooding. They’re going to try and get back here this afternoon.”

“Oh,” I said.

“They’ll be fine,” she reassured me and gave me a hug. “Now eat up!”

I sat down next to Madison and talked to her about all sorts of things. I had learned that morning that she was a lot of fun and we clicked really well together. It was kind of embarrassing to think of her as my babysitter though... I knew Mom had basically asked her to do that. ‘Seven year olds don’t stay by themselves though’ I admitted to myself. Really even eight year olds didn’t, so I knew I was doomed with a couple years of always having an adult hanging around me.

“This is really good Consetta!” Hank said.

“It is, but I didn’t make it,” she told him.

“Gloria?”

“Nope,” she replied, “Amber made the sauce and meatballs Saturday night for dinner. She made the pasta from scratch last night.”

“She’s not married?” One of the younger hands that I didn’t really know well asked. I think his name was Collin.

“Nope, but she is my niece, so careful where you go putting those eyes mister!” Gloria told him with a smile.

“No ma’am, I would never take advantage... But man a woman who can cook like that is a prize beyond belief... And she’s pretty too!” Collin said.

I sat in my chair blushing and giggling. I finally stopped and looked up at Madison, which was a mistake because we both started giggling again. It took us ten minutes to get ourselves under control and then another fifteen to finish. We placed our plates in the sink and left after Consetta assured us she had it under control.

Back in the barn I watched as Madison finished altering the muslin and put it back together, then put it back on the dummy. This time it was a perfect fit! Or so I thought... She actually went back and redid one more thing before seeming satisfied.

“Okay, now let’s see what fabric we want to use.” She said with a smile.

“Aunt Gloria has this section organized for clothing fabrics,” She showed me. “I think satin would probably be perfect for this, although we could use velvet.”

I ran my hands through one of the bolts of fabric and shivered. It felt so smooth! I didn’t really know though so I said, “I don’t know...”

“Do you trust me?”

“Well duh!” I told her with a smile.

“Any aversions to any colors, allergies to pink, purple, etc.?”

“Not that I know of,” I told her with a smile.

She then turned and faced the fabrics and in the end settled with colors that were pretty close to the original picture. She showed me one bolt, “This would look really pretty on the dress, but it would be dry clean only... I have a feeling you’ll want to wear it enough that’ll be a pain.”

I smiled at her and said, “You’re the boss!”

She laughed and got to work rolling out the bolts of fabric on the long counter area. I watched her use the muslin and the patterns to cut out the pieces and soon a pile of fabric in different colors sat next to one of the sewing machines. “Oh, I need to get that too...”

I decided not to follow her, but she came back with another bolt of this weird coarse fabric. “Tulle,” she told me like I obviously knew what it was, “you know, the stuff that poofs out your skirt?”

“Oh!” I said without much of a clue for real, “That’s what that’s called?”

“Yep!”

I watched her mess around with that bolt for a while and then she finally sat down at one of the sewing machines to sew. I watched as she followed the directions from the pattern, but occasionally say things like, “That’s weird, that doesn’t work as well...” about the directions. For her part Madison sort of talked me through what she was doing, but she was really in a sort of zone.

I was as quiet as a mouse most of the time and sometimes I think she forgot I was there. Other times she looked at me and I imagined she must have been thinking about how it would look on me. Close to dinnertime the dress was... Well it was looking like a dress! It had the sleeves and everything sewn on. She’d made several trips to the serger off and on to finish edges off before returning back to the machine she was using.

Gloria came in, “Girls, it’s about time for dinner...”

Madison sighed, “Already?”

“Yep!” Gloria said.

“Let me hang this on the form real quick and I’ll finish after dinner.”

When Madison hung it on the form I felt my heart stop. She didn’t think it was done... Yet it was already going to be the most beautiful dress I had ever seen, let alone gotten to wear! Gloria seemed to agree, “Madison that’s lovely dear, I don’t think I’ve seen you ever do anything better. Ashley you’re really lucky your cousin here likes you.”

With that I gave Madison a big hug, “Thank you Madison!”

“Aww, your welcome Ash, but I’m not done yet...”

“Come on Madison, it’ll wait until after dinner.”

“Coming,” she said.

The three of us walked back to the house and I was glad to see Mom had made it back. Remembering myself, “Amber!” I said and ran to give Mom a hug. “You aren’t going to believe the amazing dress that Madison is making me!!!”

“You’re not going to too much trouble are you?” Mom asked her.

“No,” she said with a giggle, “this is my idea of fun. Ashley’s been great all day too hanging around and learning how to do it. I think maybe Thursday or Friday I’ll try and teach her how to make a pillowcase first, and then a pillowcase dress!”

“Cool!” I said. But looked over at Mom knowing I wouldn’t be there that day. Thursday morning we were supposed to have a voicemail on Mom’s phone that was going to announce our parent’s deaths. I wasn’t exactly sure of how it was going to work out, but I thought we were going to end up going to Dallas for the ‘funeral.’ I didn’t know how long we were going to make that process take. I also didn’t know if we’d have to actually see a judge or not to have custody ‘awarded’ to my sister. Mom had been pretty tight lipped about how that was going to work.

Dinner that night was just a simple grilled cheese sandwich and soup. I had noticed that it was getting pretty cool outside when we walked in from the barn. “Do you want to come with me to finish your dress, or leave it as a surprise in the morning?” Madison asked me.

“May I come with you?” I asked.

“Is that okay with you Amber?” Kaitlyn asked.

“That’s fine with me, but if it gets to be too late I’m going to come get you for bed Ashley.”

“Okay,” I told her. The two of us headed back to the barn and froze all the way over. “It’s cold!!!” I complained.

“It does that in the mountains at night during the summer,” she told me. “I’ve been here at Christmas before and it was unbelievably cold that year! The fishing hole actually froze over enough that year we went ice skating on it.”

“Where is that anyway? I haven’t seen it yet.” I said.

“You’ve been here a week and haven’t been swimming yet?”

“Well we went to the hot spring on Saturday,” I said.

“That is a neat spot!” She said, “I don’t know what they have planned for you tomorrow... But maybe Wednesday we could go swimming if the weather’s better.”

“That would be fun.” I told her. “So what’s left? I mean it looks like the picture already?”

“Well I want to play with the tulle a little bit more, I think it’ll look prettier if it poufs out a bit more. Also they had a bow up top that was really big, remember?”

I nodded.

“I think you would really hate it always running into your neck after about ten minutes!”

“Oh...” I thought, “So what’s next?”

“Well, first I do want you to go ahead and try it on...”

I squealed! “Yay!”

She smiled at me. “Let me undo your bow and zipper here,” she said and I turned around so she could get to it.

All of the sudden I got scared... If I wasn’t careful she could see everything...

“Umm... Madison...” I said.

“Yes Ash?”

“I’m kind of shy, can you turn around while I pull the dress on?”

“It’ll be a lot easier for me to help you Ashley.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have anything I haven’t seen before.” She said with a smile. I was terrified, thinking, ‘Oh yes I do!’ But decided to bite the bullet. Madison had me put my arms up in the air and pulled the dress I’d been wearing all day off and set it to the side. I faced away from her as much as possible and quickly tried to rearrange the bulge a little bit. I turned my back to her as she lifted the new dress over my head and onto my arms and body.

‘Well she didn’t say anything yet...’ I thought.

“Why are you shaking Ashley,” she asked a moment later.

“No reason,” I lied. She turned me around gently with my shoulders while the dress was still unzipped.

“Is it about what I just saw?”

“Umm... Depending on what you just saw... Yes.”

“Ashley, don’t worry about it - you’re a girl.”

“But,” I started.

“Seriously Ashley, it’s fine. I’m not going to tell anyone, and I still think you’re the coolest little girl I’ve ever gotten to hang out with.”

And then I burst into tears.

“It’s okay Ashley,” Madison soothed and handed me a Kleenex. She rubbed my back and repeated, “It’s okay,” for a long while before I finally managed to get control of my sobbing.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m such...” I hiccupped, “a” hiccup, “baby.”

“No you’re not,” she said and tilted my chin up, “you’re amazing and I think you’re incredible for being yourself.”

“You really don’t hate me?” I asked.

“No silly, like I said, you are most definitely a girl, no matter what some part you might have says otherwise.”

With that I flung my arms around her and said, “Thank you.”

“It’s okay Ashley.” She said. “Now, why don’t you blow your nose, let me wipe your face off, and then we’ll finish trying this on. After that maybe you can tell me the story?”

I just nodded, not knowing which story to tell her.

She grabbed the used Kleenex from me, threw it in the trash, washed her hands, and then zipped up my dress.

“It’s a little loose,” she told me, “but I wanted you to be able to wear it for a while if you start growing. It’s still a good fit though,” she said as she eyed the dress. I wondered the whole time if she was looking to see what she’d missed with signs before. She jotted a few notes to herself on her notepad and then said, “Okay, arms up again,” after she had untied and unzipped the back. As soon as she had the dress and was moving towards putting it back on the form I quickly pulled my other dress back on.

“Here, let me zip you back up,” she told me and gently tied the bow back.

“So, what’s the story?” She asked as she dug into some plastic storage organizer bins.

I bit my lip... “Madison, I’m really not supposed to tell the whole story.” She looked at me and I decided to say, “You can’t tell anyone...”

About that time I heard, “You can’t tell anyone what?” from the door. It was Mom and Kaitlyn.

I ran to Mom and hugged her, “I know I’m not supposed to tell anyone... But can I just tell Madison the truth?”

Mom whispered in my ear, “Are you sure?”

I nodded.

She sighed, “Too many people know already...”

Mom stared at me for a moment before turning to look at Madison, “Go ahead Ashley, but before you do... Madison, you have to promise me that you will never, ever, say anything to anyone about what Ashley tells you. That includes your brother, dad, and anyone who’s not your mother, Ashley, or your Aunt Gloria.”

Madison looked shocked but, “I can keep a secret, I promise.”

Kaitlyn looked at her daughter, “Madison, when they say they need it kept, they’re serious. It could be deadly to them if the wrong people find out.”

Madison turned white, “Serious?”

I sighed, “Serious.” I thought for a second, “Mom, could you let us have a little privacy here?”

“Mom?!?” Madison said. Mom nodded and the two of them left.

“Who are you guys?!?” She asked.

“Madison, first of all please understand that I really like you... And I hope you can stick to what you were saying about this not changing anything. Up until a week and a half ago I was a ten year old boy going on eleven up in Columbus, Ohio.”

She looked at me in surprise, “You’re really ten?”

I nodded, “I’m short to your tallness.” I said with a smile. “My dad used to be a decent dad up until just after my sixth birthday. My grandmother died then and he changed... When he realized that I wasn’t going to be a muscular short guy like him, he started getting onto me. I hated doing the typical guy things like sports because... Well, I’m so short for one. Two... I just didn’t enjoy them. Over the last few years he’s gotten worse and worse to the point that he was beating Mom and I.”
“Is that where that bruise on your back came from?”

“It’s still there, huh?” I sighed, “Yeah, that one and many others. He’s always been pretty smart to only leave bruises on me where they can’t be seen. Dad was even worse to Mom.”

“Why didn’t she leave sooner?” She asked.

“Well, that’s the problem, we left as soon as she could manage it. See my real name was Antonio Franchino.”

“Italian, right?”

I smiled, “Yep. My dad is second generation American and my grandfather came off the boat.”

“So...?”

“So all of my family is family.”

“Huh?”

“Like as in mafia?”

“Really?”

“Apparently. Of course no one ever bothered to share this with me until we left. Saturday before last we watched Dad drive away to go deal with some sort of business in Vermont, probably smuggling from what Mom said, and as soon as he was gone we packed a bag each and left home.”

“Wow...”

“Wow isn’t even beginning... I don’t know how Mom knows some stuff, but we left everything electronic behind at home. She drove without talking much to Dayton where she bought a car from this old lady, switched out our stuff, and drove to Atlanta that night.”

“This sounds like some sort of movie...”

“Tell me about it!” I smiled. “That night we were talking and I realized that we really did have to disappear if we were going to have any chance at all. Dad’s family members will kill Mom... Well, actually I think Dad wants to do it himself if I had to guess. I’ll probably just get dragged back and beaten if I’m lucky. In fact, I’m sure my dad won’t be happy unless I grow up to be just like him… I can’t even think about that.”

Madison gasped at this and gave me a hug, “I’m so sorry...”

“Thanks...” I told her.

“So like, what’s with being a girl then. A disguise?”

I smiled, “The next morning at breakfast the waitress called me a girl several times and never figured out I was a boy... Even though I was in boy clothes. Mom and I talked and decided the best way to disappear was to make our appearances really far away from normal. And, instead of just being a girl I would be a few years younger. Instead of Mom being... Mom, she became my older sister Amber and back from being your mom’s age to twenty-three.”

“So that’s why Mom knows her...”

“Our moms were best friends up until high school when they got stupid over some boy... They sort of made up during a summer vacation in college when my mom came home, but she was terrified of meeting her.”

“So why come here?”

“Well my mom’s parents house is too obvious of a place to go. She stayed here as a kid with your mom and she decided Gloria would probably help us.”

“So you’re not really my cousin?” She asked.

“Well... Not by blood. I think my mom basically considers your mom a sister though.”

“So why don’t you guys go into that witness protection program thing?”

“I think Mom knows a lot more about the family business than she’s let onto... I think there’s someone working there that would tell my dad how or where to find us.”

“This is all really scary, how are you not going out of your mind all of the time?”

“Well last week was tough... but Gloria had both of us doing stuff pretty much all of the time. And then you showed up last night and I had more fun than I’ve ever had with a friend...”

“Me too,” she told me. “Though I have to confess I think of you less as a friend and more of a baby sister...”

I laughed, “If I have to be anyone’s baby sister I’m okay with it being you and my mom.”

“That’s got to be so hard.” She said.

“The mom thing is the toughest part,” I agreed.

“So what are you guys going to do now?”

“Well we are officially who we say we are on paper. Mom has all of the paperwork and a new drivers license. Later this week ‘our parents’ are going to have a tragic accident somewhere...” I sighed, “I don’t know how the rest of that is going to work, but I think we’re going to have to go somewhere this weekend like we’re going to the funeral.”

“So you’re going to keep being a seven year old girl?” She asked me.

“It’s that or my mom dies,” I told her.

“And you don’t mind that?”

I looked at her, “Honestly... I love it. I wouldn’t mind being more my age,” I said with a smile, “But I’ve been happier the last week and a half than I’ve ever been. I went to a doctor on Friday and I think she thinks I might have a gender issue... One way or another I’m planning on staying Ashley - even if my dad goes away.”

“Well, at least in a few more hours you’ll actually be eight.”

I laughed, “Definitely.” I looked at her, “So... You don’t hate me right?” My voice was still a little shaky.

“Of course not,” she said and gave me a hug, “I think you may have told me a little soon though, how can you be sure you can trust me?”

“Because you’re my big sister,” I told her with a smile.

“Well, your big sister needs to finish up her baby sisters’ dress for her birthday tomorrow...”

“Thank you again so much for it,” I told her with another hug.

“So you really do like it?”

“I don’t like it, I love it!” I told her.

“Good.”

“Umm Madison... I’m going to need you to pretend you never heard this stuff... Treat me like I really am eight. It’s annoying sometimes, but Mom was smart about a lot of things and I don’t want to blow it all.”

“No problem! In fact, until a few minutes ago I had no clue.” She said to me. “Just remember you said that though,” she told me.

I watched her begin to work again for ten minutes before Mom came back in, “Are you both alright?” She asked.

“Uh-huh,” I told her, “I was right I think.”

At that Madison came over to my mom, and gave Mom a big hug, “You’re the bravest woman I’ve ever met,” she told her.

I watched the tears form in mom’s eyes and she said, “No, I’m just protecting my baby, just like a mother is supposed to do.”

“It doesn’t matter Mom, she’s right. You are awesome,” I said and gave her my own hug.

After a few moments Madison returned to work and Mom finally looked at the dress. “Oh my God. Madison, you made that today???”

“Yes I did,” she said with a smile. “I’m not done yet though and I’m guessing a certain little princess should probably be going to bed right now?”

Mom laughed, “You’re right, it is waaay past this little girl’s bedtime.”

“I’m not that little,” I said with a pout as I followed Mom downstairs. I stopped though and ran back into the sewing room and up to Madison.

“Thank you again Madison, good night!” I told her.

“Good night Princess,” she said with a smile.

Mom debriefed me a little after I had my pajamas on. She wasn’t happy about the secret coming out to a girl my age, but I explained what had happened and she eventually agreed I’d made the right decision. Mom told me another bedtime story that night, but I don’t remember much past ‘Once Upon a Time.’

MEGAN HAD WATCHED Ashley’s eyes shut before the story had even began, but continued to read about halfway into the story. ‘She’s definitely out!’ She said as she closed the book, set it back on the shelf, and left the room. Megan went downstairs and saw Gloria, “Hey,” she said softly.

“How are you doing?”

Megan shrugged, “I really wasn’t wanting to tell Madison about everything...”

“So Ashley told her everything?”

She nodded, “Yeah she did... Hopefully Madison is smart enough to keep up the act. The last thing I need is for her to drag Ashley into the teenage view of things!”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that, I’m more worried about the fact that Madison doesn’t seem to be willing to accept she’s growing up,” Gloria said with a smile.

“Kaitlyn explained that one to me earlier, I think she’ll be okay... Her body is just growing faster than she can deal with it right now. Once she hits high school I’m guessing she’ll be fine.”

Gloria nodded.

“Did you see what she’s sewing?”

“Not since before dinner, but I’m sure it’s going to be amazing. I’ve taught a lot of little girls and big girls,” she said and squeezed Megan’s arm, “how to sew... But she is a natural, and she loves to do it. I have a feeling that Ashley will pick that up somewhat too.”

They sat talking for a while before she said, “Tomorrow let Ashley sleep in since she is the birthday girl after all! And since you and Madison are going to have to get her Royal Highness all dressed up for lunch and probably dinner tomorrow you’re both off the hook as well.”

“Are you sure...?” Megan asked.

“Of course I’m sure. Mark will enjoy a day off from mucking stalls and he can take care of the poultry and help Kaitlyn and I in the milk shed. I’ll get some of the hands to muck out stalls after breakfast. They’re the ones who normally do it when I don’t have my free slave labor,” she smiled at her.

“Okay, thanks Gloria!”

“You’re welcome sweetie.”

MADISON STOOD STARING at the dress and all of the details she had been adding. Along the top of the bodice she had added alternating little flowers that matched the bows at the bottom, and tiny white bows to match the bottom part of the skirt. It was pretty small detail work that had taken her two hours to get done. She still wasn’t satisfied though.

“Still working?” She heard and was startled.

“Maybe...?” She said to Aunt Gloria who walked up.

“I think it looks lovely dear,” she said as she examined the dress on the form. “Your stitches all look professionally done.”

“I know... I just feel like it needs one more level of detail and I can’t figure out what. The top just seems a little bit too plain.”

“It would be tough to do it now, but you could add some embroidery?”

“That’s it!” she said, “But you’re right... It’s too late now. I should have done that before I sewed the dress together.”

“Have you looked at my new embroidery machine yet?” Gloria said with a twinkle.

“Will you help me?”

“Of course, it’ll be nice to be needed for once!”

Madison gave her a hug, “You’re always needed.”

They chose a pretty scroll design to run and knew it was going to take a while. Madison looked at one of the many clocks that Gloria had around the room to help her not lose her track of time and was dismayed that it was already ten o’clock. “Guess chores are going to really hurt tomorrow...” She sighed.

“They will, but not for you dear,” Gloria told her, “You’re off the hook tomorrow. Be at breakfast in your pajamas if you want at eight. Then you’re going to help get the princess dressed in this fine gown you made her.”

Madison hugged her again, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“It’s only one day!” She said with a laugh.

“So... Ashley said you know about everything?”

Gloria nodded.

“Everything she said is true... Like her dad will kill her mom if he finds them?”

“Unfortunately... And I’m sorry to see it happen to her. She was a great kid and I loved her to death the summer she stayed here with your mom.”

“And... Ashley, you think...?”

“Think what?”

“Think she really is a girl... Just maybe born wrong?”

Gloria sighed, “I don’t think it matters at this point to be honest. Their best hope is in their new identities... But I’ve not yet seen one thing that said she was really a ten year old boy.” Madison pointed down, “Well, other than that.” she said with a laugh. “That’s how you found out?”

Madison nodded, “I feel really bad too, she kept trying to convince me to let her change elsewhere...”

“You had to help her with this though,” she said as she watched the progress of the machine.

“Yeah.”

“Well, you know what you have to do now, right?”

“What?”

“You have a new baby sister, and you need to treat her just like she’s the eight year old little girl that you love to death. If you see something that’s going to give her away to her friends... Help her correct it.”

“They did her a big favor by saying she’s only eight though,” Madison mused.

“Yes, and she’s pretty convincing.”

“I wouldn’t have ever guessed if it wasn’t for her having something there that shouldn’t have been there. Is there anything we can do to help her with that?” She asked.

“I don’t think scissors are going to help here,” Gloria laughed. She thought for a moment, “well there is something...”

Chapter 14: Birthday Girl

“GOOD MORNING PRINCESS, time to wake up!” I heard Mom say as she gently shook my shoulder. As I looked out the window I panicked.

“I missed my chores!”

“I know,” Mom said, “So did I.”

“But...”

“But Gloria gave you, Madison, and me the day off from chores and working.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Really!”

“Now, let’s go see if Madison is awake and then we’ll go down to breakfast together in our pajamas.”

I looked down at the short set I was wearing and hoped it wouldn’t be too embarrassing to be in my pajamas in front of the hands. “Okay,” I said.

“Hold up real quick,” she said when I stood up. I felt her fiddling with my hair and realized she was redoing the bow in back.

“Did it stay?”

“Sort of, I’ll redo it after breakfast. Come on, let’s check on Madison,” Mom walked through the two doors and I shyly followed her. “Madison, are you up yet?” She asked.

I looked at her and saw her sitting on the chair in front of her vanity. “Sort of,” she said, “so we really are having a pajama party for breakfast?”

Mom nodded.

“Awesome!”

I saw Mom look at Madison’s hair and before I knew it she was fussing with it just like she had mine. “Oh, I forgot one thing,” she said as she opened her door real quick. She handed me a square box that wasn’t too tall, but fairly wide. “You get to open just a couple presents this morning. We’ll open the rest at lunch,” okay?

“Okay,” I said, excitedly. I tore at the wrapping paper, getting to a box, and then opened it to discover, ‘a tiara?’ I smiled. I hugged Mom, “Thank you!”

I didn’t want her to feel left out so I hugged Madison too. “Let me see that,” Madison said with a smile and she took it out of the box. “Well, your highness, let’s put this on your head.” She smiled at me and set it down.

“Now it’s official, you’re a real princess for today.” Mom said with a smile.

The three of us went downstairs and found that Consetta actually had setup the informal table for us for breakfast. “What would you like for breakfast, anything you want!” She told me.

“Umm... Pancakes?”

“Chocolate chips?”

“Please!”

Consetta had already made the batter up, thinking I probably would want them, and quickly made pancakes for all of us. Madison got chocolate chips too, but Mom, Gloria, and Kaitlyn all had plain. “Where’s Mark?” I asked.

“Oh, he’s hanging out with Annie and Hank,” Kaitlyn answered.

“Thank you Aunt Gloria for letting us sleep in,” I told her at the end of breakfast.

“Why you’re welcome Princess,” she said with a smile.

When the dishes were cleared they placed a long rectangular box in front of me and a smaller long box. “Okay, why don’t you open this box first,” Mom suggested and gestured towards the smaller box.

“Okay,” I said.

I opened the wrapper and discovered a white leather box inside of it. When I opened it up I found a beautiful necklace with a sort of blue stone in it, it I thought I could see purple in it as well. The stone was surrounded by a swirl of silver. “Oh my God, this is really pretty!” I said and held it up so Madison could see it.

“It’s tanzanite, your birth stone,” Mom told me.

“Thank you!” I said and hugged her.

“I’ll help you put it on later,” Mom said and put it back into the box and shut the lid.

“And this is my present to you,” Madison said with a smile.

I opened the box since she hadn’t wrapped it, expecting to basically see the dress I saw when I went to bed last night. Instead my breath disappeared. “Oh my God, it’s even prettier than it was last night!!!” I said, immediately hugging her.

On the bodice through the entire dark purple areas she had somehow sewn flowers and scroll work in the lighter color purple thread. I couldn’t believe the level of detail there. Then on the white at the bottom of the skirt she had sewn the exact same details around it, but in a darker purple.
“How late did you work on this last night?!?” I asked incredulously.

“Umm... Don’t ask that,” Madison said with a smile. “Happy Birthday,” she added and hugged me.

“Thank you,” I said and started crying.

“You’re welcome,” she told me with a smile as she pushed me back a moment later. Mom gave her a big hug too, and I hugged Gloria and Kaitlyn just so they didn’t feel left out.

“Okay, now I think it is time for the princess to get ready for her big day!” Mom said to me. “Madison, you want to help?”

“Of course!” She said with a smile.

“First thing,” she said pointing at me, “bath time!”

“Now?” I asked.

“Uh-huh, come on.” She said, “Madison do you want to find a hanger in her room and hang the dress up. While she’s taking her bath you can use my shower if you want.”

The three of us headed upstairs and I felt excited, this was already a better birthday than I’d ever had before!

AGENT KLINE WAS ready to bash in a wall somewhere. He had stared at the picture the Dale’s had given the agent for hours alongside the footage from the cameras at the airport. He just didn’t see that blonde haired lady and son anywhere! She should have been really recognizable too...

He heard a knock at the door, “Sir?”

“Come on in,” He said to the agent. “What have you got for me?”

“Well I have footage of them staying at a hotel in Atlanta two Saturdays ago.”

“Really?” He said, and plopped the USB drive the agent offered into his computer. Sure enough there she was registering at the motel that looked kind of lower end. Her son hadn’t come in with her. “Nothing much to see here though, is there?”

“Not really. They checked the records, she paid in cash under a different name.”

“What name?”

“Jessica Jones,” he said.

“Well, it looked like she passed enough cash to keep questions from coming up.”

“Yes she did. The guy at the hotel didn’t really want to talk about it and took some persuasion according to the agent down there.”

“Good for him.” Kline said with a smile.

“Okay, so we know they were in Atlanta that day, and Dallas by...?”

“Car was parked in the lot Monday afternoon,” he said.

“We’re checking hotels in Dallas, right?”

“Yes sir, hopefully the license plate question will find it, but she seems to be pretty smart sir. I wouldn’t be surprised if she lied there. It’s not common that the hotel will actually tow someone...”

He sighed, “This case is going nowhere fast, is it?”

“No sir.”

“See if you can’t find footage at the nearest Wal-Mart... They left in a hurry and might have needed some things there.”

“Gotcha, I’ll have the agent pull their tapes for...?” He asked, “that Sunday morning. Odds are good she left Atlanta as soon as she could.”

Kline thought for a second, “Actually, run this directly through another agent. With as nervous as Megan seems to be about approaching us I worry she knows something we don’t. We should be able to protect better against any potential leaks if we keep the information compartmentalized.”

“I hope you’re wrong about the leaks boss, I’ll do it though.”

The agent left and Agent Kline spent more time watching the footage. There were plenty of short ladies with daughters, but he’d yet to see one short lady with a son. ‘Maybe they split up before then?’ He thought and began looking for them individually.

I SAT IN the bath for long enough that Mom felt I smelled like the special bubble bath she had found. It was in a bar that she crumbled up as the bath started and smelled just like cotton candy. It smelled so sweet! The water felt really good as I soaked in it too. Mom had me stand up as the tub drained and handed me a pair of panties and my robe. She opened the door to my room and I saw the dress hanging on the door to the armoire.

‘It’s sooooo pretty, I can’t wait to wear it!!!!’ I thought to myself with a really big smile. Madison came in right then with another box that was wrapped. She was wearing a pretty yellow dress that had two thick straps holding it on. The dress was overlaid with a layer of lace that covered all of the fabric.

“Your dress is really pretty,” I told her.

“Thanks,” she said with a smile. “Umm...” she looked at Mom and me and blushed, “I was talking to Aunt Gloria last night about how I found out... Anyway, I asked her if she knew anything that could help with that... Apparently it’s a problem in ballet for guys, so she actually had a pattern for something to help.”

“Huh?” Mom asked.

“Here, open it Ashley,” she said.

I opened the box and found several flesh colored things... “It goes on underneath your panties and my Aunt said that you just kind of use it to...” she blushed, “push it down and keep it out of sight.”

I was just as embarrassed, probably more so than her, but I said, “Thank you Madison.”

“Why don’t you go try it in the bathroom...?” Mom suggested.

“Umm... Okay.” I said.

I pulled my panties off and the thing up. It took me several long minutes before I kind of guessed how to use it and then pulled my own panties on top of it. ‘Wow!!! I can’t see it anymore!’

I ran back out in the robe and said, “Thank you!” To Madison and gave her another hug.

“Well let’s see.” Mom said, mortifying me. “Oh don’t get shy on me now, you’re the one who paraded last night!”

I blushed and opened my robe.

“That does work really well, thanks Madison,” Mom said.

“You’re welcome, I need to take care of my baby cousin after all!”

I smiled and Mom said, “Okay, time to get to work on you,” she told me with a smile and had me take my normal seat. “I’ve always wanted to have a little girl to try this on...” she told me with a smile. “So, you get to be my guinea pig. If we like it I’ll do Madison too!”

Madison smiled at that. I noticed she’d left her hair from yesterday still. Mom had taken mine out as soon as she’d gotten upstairs and brushed it out.

“I just hope you have enough hair to do this one...” She said.

I sat still for what seemed like an eternity as Mom had my back turned to the mirror. I could tell she was making some pretty tiny braids because only small sections of my head would hurt at a time. After a while she said, “Madison, would you mind taking the polish off her nails?”

“Sure!” She said, “I can paint them too if you want?” She asked kind of excitedly.

“Would you mind?”

“Of course not!”

Soon Mom was working my hair and Madison was doing my hands, “I feel like I’m in that salon again,” I said with a smile.

“You’re a princess so the salon comes to you!” Madison said with a smile. She had cleaned off my nails and looked through the polishes on my desk. “Do you mind if I use some polish I have?” She asked Mom.

“Sure!” Mom said.

With that Madison was off in a flash and brought back a small crate of nail polish. “Wow!” I said. “That’s a lot of nail polish!!!”

She smiled at me, “I love nail art.”

“Nail art?” I asked while Mom pulled my head back upright.

“It’s where you make pictures on your nails?”

“Oh, I had some of that when we came out here... It didn’t last very long though,” I said sadly.

“Well, on a ranch it doesn’t” Madison laughed. “But if you can do it yourself it’s not as depressing!” She smiled at me.

“Do whatever you want to,” Mom told her.

She giggled and it sounded a little evil, “Umm...” I said and Mom tugged my hair back again. “Ow!” I complained.

MADISON LOOKED UP at Ashley and smiled. With all that had happened to her and her mom they were still easily the sweetest two people she had ever met. Her talk with Aunt Gloria the night before had really made her understand what was going on... At least as much as anything could. Madison had decided that she was going to be the most awesome big sister that Ashley could have while she was visiting. She also knew she could vicariously enjoy the things that Ashley could do that she couldn’t anymore.

It helped that Amber seemed to enjoy treating Madison similarly. When she had done her hair the day before it had been so incredibly neat, she’d had goosebumps while Amber worked on her hair. She wasn’t sure that she would really have the time to do her hair like this today too though; what Amber was doing was pretty intricate!

She continued to dig through her nail polishes and grabbed some other odds and ends she had. Like her sewing, Ashley took nails seriously! She always loved going to school with cute nails that were painted with things like flowers, stars, hearts, dots, and anything else she could dream up. Her friends for the longest time didn’t believe she was doing it herself until she did theirs just like it. It was one spot in her life where she could make things utterly sugary sweet in her appearance and no one would think it was weird. Even if people always thought she was seventeen!

Madison looked through the colors and settled on a light purple that matched the bows for the base coat. ‘What should I do for the rest...?’ She thought quickly, ‘Well, even though I know better... This is her eighth birthday... Let’s go with that idea...’ She thought back to something she’d done on her friend McKenzie’s nails back home one time.‘Ooh, that would be cute!’ She looked up at Ashley and thought, ‘And I know she’ll love it!’

If there was one thing Madison was certain of, Ashley wasn’t acting that she was enjoying this. She’d heard of transvestites and crossdressers before... Who hasn’t? But she’d never met someone before that was like that. If there was anyone who was really born to be a girl it was the one sitting in front of her.

‘Ashley is going to absolutely freak when she sees this!’ She thought. ‘Ooh, I should grab my nail dryer real quick!’

She ran off again and then came back to start working on Ashley’s nails. Madison knew she would be able to do as well as most professionals would do. And, because she knew the little girl in front of her well enough she knew what would be perfect!

I SAT STILL while my hair continued to be attacked and Madison began working on my fingernails and toenails. I was impressed as she brought out all of those nail polishes and wondered just what she was going to do. I had a feeling it was going to be cute though. I’d worried in the bath this morning that maybe she would be different towards me... But she seemed to be happy to treat me as her favorite baby sister still!

Mom kept my head straight back so all I could really do was feel Madison turn my hands and feet back and forth, occasionally using that nail dryer she had, before she went back and did something else and repeated.

I was slowly reaching the point of being bored enough to sleep or something when Mom said, “Almost done!” She used hairspray liberally on some sections and then said, “Madison, can you throw that towel over there onto the mirror. I don’t want our Princess to see herself until she’s dressed.”

Madison smiled at me as she stood up and said, “Sounds good to me. “And no peeking at your nails until I’m done either!”

I just smiled at her. I had goosebumps running down my body as I thought about how much they both were spoiling me. Ten minutes later Madison was done and Mom finished with a last detail then too. “Madison, you made the dress... You want to dress her in it?”

She smiled, “Sure!” Madison looked at Mom, “Did you get tights like I asked?”

“Oh yes I did, they’re in my room.” She said, but as she got to the door, “Ashley do you need to go potty before we put those on?”

I nodded, “Yes please.”

Madison ran into the bathroom and fiddled with a towel on the mirror there for a moment before saying, “All yours!”

As I sat down to go to the bathroom I sneaked my first peek at my nails. I had to control my shriek since she told me not to look... But I couldn’t resist. All of my nails were that same color as the bows on the dress... But each nail had a different design and picture on it. My thumbs both had birthday cakes painted on them, complete with eight candles! Over the top of that she had painted a white ‘8’ on both of them. On the next nails out from my thumbs she painted some hearts, eight I counted, then stars, a tiara, and finally just some dots on my pinkies. They were really colorful and popped out from the nails. Some of the colors were neon and... It was cool!

On my toes she’d painted tiaras on my big toes, and then little details on the rest. I didn’t have very big nails so I didn’t know how she did the detail like that! I finished going to the bathroom, wiped, returned the weird panty up to my waist along with my panties and walked back out.

“You peeked, didn’t you?” Madison scolded.

“Just my nails...” I admitted, looking guilty. Then I pounced on her with a hug that I realized was really awkward since I was mostly naked and let go.

She laughed at me, “Here, sit down on the chair. You haven’t worn tights before, have you?”

I shook my head, “No?”

“Aunt Amber, do you want to put these on her?” She asked, “I don’t want to ruin any firsts for you...?”

Mom smiled at her, “Go ahead and help her. Like I said, you made the dress!”

Madison helped show me how to roll up the tights and pulled them up to my waist. All of the sudden my legs and lower body looked sort of white because of the not quite opaque tights. They felt kind of good too. “There you go!” She said with a smile.

With that she walked over to the door of my armoire where they had hung the dress and fussed with it for a moment before unzipping the back of it and undoing the bow. I couldn’t believe how much the stitching she’d done on top changed the way it looked. While they had both been working she told Mom that it was all done with the expensive embroidery machine that Gloria had.

“Out of the robe,” Madison said to me.

I let it slide from my shoulders and was grateful for her other present... As awkward as that was!

“Arms up like a ballerina!” She told me with a smile. I blushed but did as she said and she brought the dress over the top of my head. Inside the dress had a built-in slip so everything was in one garment. I was glad because when I had felt the tulle stuff it had felt kind of itchy. I swore the skirt poofed out more now than it had the night before when I first tried it on. I felt her do the zip up, catch the clasp up top, and then tied the bow.

Madison fussed with the dress for several minutes and at one point grabbed a pair of scissors to cut a stray thread she’d missed. She dug around through my shoes and found a pair of white Mary Jane’s and buckled them onto my feet. When she was happy she looked at Mom, “What do you think?”

I looked up at Mom myself and saw tears streaming from her eyes.

“I think it’s beautiful Madison, I don’t know how you ever made that dress, but to do it in one day means you’re really incredible.”

Madison blushed, “Thanks.”

“Now, let’s finish off your hair young lady, and then we’ll let you decide what you think!”

“My hair isn’t done...?” I asked with despair.

Mom laughed, “this is easy,” she said. The tiara that she had given me went back on my head and then she grabbed my new necklace and clasped it to my neck. She tucked it in underneath the dress though as it would have hung out a ways. Mom used my shoulders to have me stand in front of the mirror, after a count of three she pulled the towel off.

I was speechless.

The girl in the mirror looked like something off of one of those toddler and tiaras shows... just a little bit older. Mom had taken my hair and braided it onto the top of my head and made sort of a crown up there that held my tiara up. All of my hair was off of my neck and I knew I looked pretty sophisticated. There was also no doubt though that I was a little girl with the dress, I most definitely was not older than my eight years I was supposed to be.

“What do you think?” Mom asked again.

“I look like a princess?”

Madison laughed, “You most certainly do!”

Mom had her camera out and took a few pictures of me from all sides of the dress. “We’ll get some better pictures here in a bit,” she told me. I raised my eyebrow at her, but she said nothing else.

“I think you should go show Aunt Kaitlyn, don’t you think?” Mom said to me.

“And Aunt Gloria,” I added.

“But no going to the dining room or the kitchen!” Mom warned me.

“Why?” I asked, kind of excited to break that one.

“If you go in there I’ll take back all of your presents!”

I made a sad face, “Okay, I’ll be a good girl.”

“What are you and Madison doing now then?”

“Well I promised her I’d do her hair like yours didn’t I?”

Madison’s face lit up like it was her birthday too. “You don’t have to...”

“I want to though, come on, have a seat.”

I left them to it and walked downstairs to Gloria’s office. As I hoped she was sitting at her desk typing on her computer. “Aunt Gloria, look!” I said to her.

“Wow, aren’t you precious?!?” She said to me.

Gloria stood up and walked over to look closer. “This really did come out perfect for your birthday,” she said. She leaned down and gave me a hug, “You look beautiful sweetie!”

“Is this the same dress?” Kaitlyn asked behind me.

“Uh-huh Aunt Kaitlyn,” I said.

She did her own fussing and then said, “Why don’t you call me Aunt Kate,” she told me with a smile. “It’s less of a mouthful for little nieces.”

I smiled, “Okay Aunt Kate.”

“Where’s my daughter at?”

“She’s upstairs, Amber is spoiling her,” I said with a smile.

“Uh-oh, we’d better go keep both of them out of trouble!” She said. I carefully climbed up the stairs and the two of us joined Mom while she worked on Madison’s hair.

RAY LOOKED AT the photo he’d been given. “The feds turned this up this weekend,” Robert said. Another cousin of his, he was their main link to some of their sources in places that needed sources.

“That’s that bitch alright, but where’s Tony?”

“Everyone assumes he’s with her… but there’s nothing more to go off of, maybe she left him somewhere?”

“Damn... I doubt it, more likely he stayed in the car while she checked in. Let’s keep checking out the Dallas connection some more...” He looked at it more, “How did they find her at this hotel?”

“He doesn’t know... He’s not an agent per se, more of an office clerk for them. He sees a lot of stuff like that, but doesn’t know the way they get it. I can have him check?”

Ray had to think for a moment, the wrong move here could ruin a prime source of great information. “Only if he sees it normally. Don’t have him ask questions, I don’t want him getting caught.”

“Got it boss.” He said. “By the way, with your trip to Albuquerque in a couple weeks, you want me to go down with you to speak with this guy?”

He sighed, this guy was Juan Renaldo Sanchez and was the biggest fish out there in getting cocaine across the border undetected. “Yeah, might as well meet him for yourself. The guy is a snake from all I’ve heard, but competent. He at least knows how to do business from what I’ve heard.”

“Yeah, but some of those that have done business seem to disappear.”

“Well, some that do business with us disappear as well.”

“True,” he laughed, “very true.”

“We’ll just be careful.”

ASHLEY WATCHED HER mom put the final piece in place on Madison’s hair and felt a pang of jealousy. Her hair was so much longer than hers that it looked way prettier on her. “Wow!” Madison said when she got to look at it. The hug and squeal she gave to Mom were priceless. The camera came out on just her, and then on the two of us.

“Are these the pictures you warned me about?” I asked.

Mom giggled, “Nope, those will be after lunch. Which means you need to be really careful at lunch today young lady!”

I gaped at her and looked at my dress, “Can I put something over it...?”

“We’ll use a cloth napkin or something sweetie,” Madison said.

“Okay...”

At that it was already almost noon and Mom had us go ahead downstairs and I had a seat where Madison and I had been sitting the last couple of days in the dining room. That was when I noticed an extra table filled with presents. “Are those all for... Me?” I asked incredulously.

Mom nodded, “Of course!”

I smiled at her and asked, “Who are they from?”

Gloria answered though as she came through the kitchen door. “They’re from the hands, your sister, your aunt and cousin there, me, and of course your parents sent some too,” she said with a wink.

“Whoa...” I said. More about that hands giving me presents, they didn’t even really know me!

Then I did the normal kid thing, “When do I get to open them?”

They all laughed, “After lunch you can open them before cake is served.”

I smiled and felt giddy for everyone to come in.

I saw Consetta walk out of the kitchen to start bringing food out and she said, “Wow!!! Come here hija!” She said with a flourish of her arms. Consetta had me stand about arms length away and turn. “You look like a beautiful princess!” She told me with a smile.

“Thank you,” I said, “but Madison is the one who made my dress!” I said while pulling at the edges of the skirt with my fingers on either side.

“Madison this is amazing!” She said and looked closer at the details she had added. “You could do this for a living you know!”

Madison blushed. “Anyway Princess,” Consetta said with her gaze back on me, “Happy birthday!” She gave me a hug and then shooed me away so she could get back to bringing food out.

Lunch that day was fried chicken strips and French fries. I was grateful for that since it was easier to keep my dress clean! Annie came in the door and looked at me saying, “Oh my God, you are just too beautiful! What a pretty princess!” She said. I gave her a hug and twirled for her as requested.

“Madison made the dress for me yesterday!” I told her proudly.

“You made this Madison?” She asked and started looking at it closer.

“Yep!” She said with a smile and bounced over to by my side.

“It’s amazing!” She said. “You would spend a fortune for something like this in a store!”

Madison just grinned.

“Your nails too!!!” She said.

“Also Madison!” I told her with a smile.

“Hair Madison?” She asked.

Madison shook her head, “That’s all Amber! She does amazing things with braids! She even did mine too!” She was smiling broadly by that point.

I was doted on by most of the hands and given hugs before finally sitting down and eating. Mom appeared with two thick cloth napkins she’d found somewhere. After I sat down very carefully she tucked one into the neckline like a bib and another on my lap. Normally I would have been furious at being treated like a baby, but I didn’t want anything happening to my beautiful new dress!

I ate daintily throughout the meal until I was pretty full... Well, really until my patience for waiting to open presents left me!

“I’m finished with lunch... May I open presents now?”

“Not quite yet sis,” Mom told me. “We have one more thing to do.” She gave Consetta nod and she disappeared into the kitchen.

I sighed, “What?”

Just then Consetta walked out with the best cake ever! It was rectangular with two tiers and was covered in white, pink, and purple frosting, but the four corners actually had turrets like a castle! On top of the cake were plastic figurines of Merida, Belle, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. ‘Happy Birthday Ashley’ was piped on there with pink icing, and an eight was there for the year.

“Happy Birthday...” they began singing to me. At the end I blew out the candles in one breath and everyone clapped.

“So who’s giving her the eight spankings?” Hank asked.

I looked horrified, “No spankings! I haven’t done anything!”

“Well you grew up a year, isn’t that enough?” He asked with a smile.

“Uh-uh!”

“Just teasing Princess,” he said and came and gave me a hug.

“You can open up presents while everyone else eats cake if you want now,” Mom said.

“Umm... Consetta made such a pretty cake, I should eat some cake first,” I said with a smile.

Consetta also smiled at me and I gave her a hug as she brought me a slice. It was vanilla cake, which seemed to fit more than chocolate would have. It tasted wonderful and she even put the little Merida topper on my piece when she brought it to me. The icing was by far the best part though!

I finished and Mom said, “Do you want to go ahead and open presents?”

“Okay!” She didn’t have to ask me twice! I walked over to the pile and began opening the boxes.

I started with the ones from the hands. They gave me all sorts of things from several Barbie Dolls, to a few teddy bears, one stuffed horse, all the way to Hank who gave me a pair of purple riding gloves. Annie gave me a pretty jewelry box that she had painted. I gave her a big hug for that! It was amazing what she could do!

“Thank you,” I told each person and even borrowed a piece of paper to keep track of who gave me what so I could write thank you notes later. I had quite the haul of toys actually when I looked around at it.

I continued opening presents and reached Gloria’s next. She gave me a new riding helmet of my own and a couple of doll outfits that she made. One of them looked like the outfit from Brave, and looked really cute! “They’ll all fit on your A.G. Dolls,” she told me with a smile. I of course had to give her a big hug for that! She also gave me a couple of shirts that had embroidered Disney Princess characters on them. Just to make it overkill she made some really cute towels just the same so I could have them in the bathroom! That deserved another hug and I retuned back to my piles.

I was coming down the wire to the last part of the table and found a present that was from ‘Aunt Kate’ on the package. Inside I found a set of nail polishes and some nail art stickers. “Cool!” I said about that before going on.

Consetta gave me a really cute and cuddly stuffed lion and an apron she made for me that said ‘Princess Ashley’ on the front of it. She admitted having my aunt Gloria do the embroidery there. That of course earned both of them hugs.

My ‘sister’ gave me a few sets of earrings, a couple games, a set of puzzles, a coloring book, and an outfit for my dolls. I was quickly running out of space to put those! There was one more box from her to open and I squealed a bit with it. Inside was a pretend dress for Merida that looked very much like the one for my doll. It even included a toy bow and arrow and a wig! I gave her a hug like it was the end of her gifts.

Finally we reached my ‘parents’ gifts! The first box I opened contained a crude doll that looked to be from Chile. That was where our parents were currently supposed to be. I looked at Mom quizzically, but didn’t say anything. I didn’t know how she had gotten something that looked like it was so authentic. Inside was a card from them saying they were sorry for missing my birthday, but they hoped that their presents would make my day more special! I didn’t even have to fake the tears for some reason!

I opened the next box, which contained a dress that looked to be from the right region too and set it aside. Finally I opened one more package that had a very suspicious size and shape to me. I opened up the wrapping and found another A.G. Doll, my own Caroline Doll. Mom smiled at me, “Mom and Dad didn’t realize your cousin would have one of her up here too.”

“I miss them,” I said sadly.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get to see them in a week and a half!” She gave me a hug and then said, "Okay, let's get all of this paper cleaned up and then all of your presents upstairs to your room," she told me with a smile.

"Okay," I said simply. I was kind of in a daze right then, this was already the best birthday I’d ever had! The only way it would have been better would have been to have more friends... ‘Maybe next year?’

Madison, Mom, Kaitlyn, and Gloria all had to help me carry my presents upstairs. There was no way that I could get them all in one load myself. The toys slowly got placed away on shelves in the room and I wondered a question Madison asked, “What’s next?”

Gloria smiled, “Time to get some pictures of that gorgeous dress and the young lady inside of it!”

“Amber took some already...” She started to say.

“Professional ones.”

I kind of blushed and grew nervous. “Pictures, like real pictures?”

She nodded, “I called my friend up who has a studio in town earlier. We’re going to drive into town and get your pictures taken in the dress alone, and then we’re going to get everyone in on the fun.” She said with a smile and looking at Madison.

“Really?” She asked.

“Uh-huh” Kaitlyn said, “It’s been too long since we’ve done something other than school pictures for you!”

“Cool!” She said. I gave her a look like she should be confined to an asylum, but she just grinned, “Pictures are fun!!!”

“You’re a little scary sometimes...” I said.

“First time you’ve noticed, huh?” She smiled back at me.

“Madison, go grab a few outfits from your room to change into for different pictures. We’re just going to do Ashley in this dress today I think.”

I wore a very grateful expression on my face then!

Madison bounded down the hall and before I knew it we were heading to the car. Gloria insisted that all of us would fit in her car. Madison looked a little surprised to see the car seat in the back and I found myself just blushing. “I guess at eight...?” She asked quietly.

I blushed and nodded, “I’m nowhere near 4’9” either,” I added.

I wasn’t expecting her to pick me up a second later though! She placed me in the seat with as much ease as Gloria and Mom helped out with the harness. She sat in the seat next to me, and Mom sat on the outside. Kaitlyn sat in front with Gloria. If we all were the ages we were claiming to be it made sense. Madison talked to me the whole trip and it seemed no different because of the embarrassing car seat! I worried it would wrinkle the dress, but when I was helped out there weren’t any obvious wrinkles that anyone could see.

Madison grabbed my hand on the way into the mall that housed the photo studio. I felt comforted by that as we made our way through the afternoon crowds. I attracted a lot of stares in my pretty dress, and just as we were getting to where I could see the studio a lady came up to us. “Pardon me, but do you mind if I ask where you bought that dress for your daughter?” She asked Kaitlyn.

We all giggled and the lady looked a little offended. “She’s actually my aunt!” I said. I leaned into my cousin, “My cousin made it for me!”

The lady looked shocked and looked closely at it. “Young lady that’s amazing... Do you take on dressmaking work?”

“Not just yet,” Kaitlyn spoke up for her daughter who was a bit shell-shocked. “Maybe in a few more years, she’s just thirteen.”

“Thirteen and sewing like this?”

“I know, she shot up like a weed and you can’t tell, but yes, she’s just my little thirteen year old girl right now. I might let her start doing it for a side-business when she turns fifteen. Not just yet though.”

“Well, I’ll just have to wait and hope my daughter is still into pretty dresses then!” She said with a smile. “Nice meeting you all,” she said with a smile and headed off.

Madison looked a little annoyed with her mom. “Mom, I might have been able to make some money?”

“When you turn fifteen sweetheart I’ll let you start your own business doing it if you want... But until then you’re too young. If something goes wrong it’s not going to be easy for you to deal with. We’ll talk more later, okay?”

She sighed and nodded.

“Hi Gloria!” We heard from behind the counter.

“Hi Monica! How are you doing?”

“I’m doing great. I’m guessing this must be the famous birthday girl you wanted to get pictures of?”

“Yes ma’am, and I’m wanting you to do some with my other niece Madison here too, and maybe one of the five of us. Madison actually made Ashley’s dress yesterday,” she added with a smile.

“Wow!” The bubbly lady said as she came around and bent down to look at the dress some. “I’m guessing you want some pictures for both of their scrapbooks then!” She said with a smile.

“Something like that,” Madison said.

“We also brought a few outfits for Madison since she needs some new photos.”

“Sounds great, come on back to the studio!”

She started with me and took pictures in front of a variety of backgrounds. One of the pictures she had me lean against a number eight prop. There were pictures of me in front of an elegant staircase, garden landscapes, and several others with Madison in them occasionally with me. After a while she took several pictures with all five of us, and I was finally declared done.

I watched for a while as Madison had pictures taken in her other outfits. It was boring and Mom and I went to the restroom once. Finally Madison was back to wearing the dress she had arrived in and they were done with the picture taking. Mom, Gloria, Kaitlyn, and Madison then spent twenty minutes picking out pictures on the screen to be printed. Once they had chosen, finally, Kaitlyn looked at me with a smile and said, “We have one more place to stop in here.”

I gave her a look, “Where?”

“You’ll see!” she said grinned.

It turned out the place was Build-A-Bear. “My treat,” Kaitlyn said to me. “Pick out a bear and an outfit, okay?” she said.

I smiled and decided to enjoy having fun with it. I looked around at the bears and one popped out immediately. I heard Mom groan slightly and Madison giggle. They had a Disney Princess bear that had the princesses embroidered on the left leg paw and ‘Princess’ scrolled out on the right one over and over again. It even came with a tiara like I was wearing!

“She seems like the perfect bear for you young lady,” the girl manning the filling machine told me.

“Uh-huh!” I said with a smile. They had put the heart in there and before I knew it they were sealing the bear up. I found a Rapunzel costume on the shelf and she was soon dressed and boxed up.

“Thank you Aunt Kate!” I told her with a hug.

“You’re beary welcome Ashley.” She said with a giggle.

“Mom!!!” Madison said, “That was a beary bad pun!”

“Everyone’s a comedian.” Mom laughed.

The five of us headed back to the car. “Where to now?” I asked.

“Well, we thought maybe you would like food?”

“Is it dinnertime already?” I asked with a start.

“It’s a little early, but not much,” Gloria said as she held the door as Madison helped me into my seat.

“Oh, okay.” I said. “Where are we going?”

“Well, I know we don’t have any great Italian food here, but we could do Bucca di Beppo or Olive Garden? Or Mexican food? Or a steakhouse?” Gloria suggested.

I bit my lower lip and said, “Bucca di Beppo would be okay...?”

She smiled at me through the rearview mirror, and said, “Okay.”

“I am paying for this one,” Mom said though, insisting.

She nodded, “Okay.”

With that I got the joy of sitting in the car for a while longer as we drove through the city. I just kind of tuned out the conversation in the car right then and wondered what the next few months were going to bring. Dad wasn’t going to stop looking for us anytime soon, I was sure of that. This week we had the joys of faking ‘our parents’ deaths... That was not going to be fun. That was supposed to be back in the Dallas area... But I didn’t know how smart that would be to return there. We had no way of knowing, but I was pretty sure that we had been tracked that far. It wasn’t until the second day there that I thought we probably were finally turning our trail around enough to throw people off.

“Eeep!!!” I was screaming suddenly.

“Well come on sleepy head, it’s time to go inside.” Madison said with a smile at me.

“Huh?”

“Restaurant?”

“Oh.” I said.

“Here, let me get the straps undone for you,” She told me. When I was finally free, Kaitlyn helped me out since she was on that side of the car.

“You know, I don’t miss having to mess with car seats,” she told my mom.

“I don’t think we did either!” Mom said to her with a wink to me.

I just groaned.

“Table for five please?” Gloria told the host.

“Give us just a moment,” he said.

While we waited a couple ladies fussed over my dress some more. One girl who was probably a few years older than Madison told her, “Your little sister is soooo cute! I love her tiara!”

For my part I clung to Madison like a shy sister. “She is, isn’t she?” She said to me.

“So is it your birthday today?” The tall brown haired girl asked me.

I nodded, “Uh-huh.”

“How old are you?”

“Eight!” I said happily, like I knew a normal eight year old would feel. Actually, after all of this week I was feeling pretty happy about it myself! I was done pretending to be seven!!!

The girl smiled at me. “That’s cool!”

Eventually the host seated us and I found myself sitting next to Madison with our parents and Aunt Gloria sitting opposite of us. The waiter came by and attempted to welcome us in really poor Italian... I had a hard time not laughing. “What, you think you could say it better?” He asked with a smile.

Before I could control myself I had. Mom gave me a look and I shrank down... I wasn’t supposed to know Italian now.

“Wow, the Princess has out done me!” He said with a smile. “Just for that I think you’ll have a special birthday dessert on the house tonight.” He winked at me.

“Thank you,” I said. I had to fight myself to not say ‘grazie.’

No harm seemed to have been done in the end. After talking for a few minutes over the menu Mom and Gloria just ordered several family size dishes to split amongst us. “How mad is Mark going to be for missing this?” I asked, suddenly realizing he wasn’t with us.

“I offered,” Kaitlyn said, “he didn’t want to come to the pictures and build-a-bear. Food apparently wasn’t worth that to him,” she shrugged.

“I feel like I should at least get to know him a little better...” I said to Madison more than anyone.

She shrugged, “He kind of does his own thing. As long as he’s not getting in trouble at school no one minds.”

“Oh,” I said.

“So what are we going to do tomorrow?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, your sister and my mom will be out doing work with Gloria and the hands all day tomorrow. What are we going to do?”

I shrugged, “I kind of wanted to ride tomorrow, but I can’t do that without Gloria or Amber I don’t think.”

“No, I don’t want her riding alone yet,” Gloria joined in for a second. “If you two want to go for a ride before dinner though we could probably do it. Amber and Kaitlyn could come too,” she said with a smile to them.

“Okay,” I said, wondering if tomorrow was the day we found out or not. I thought it was Thursday though, so the day after.

“So before that?” She asked me.

“Well... We could play with our dolls, I have my brand new one - she’s probably pretty lonely! Plus that weird doll my parents sent me.” I shot Mom a look but she gave me the look that said she wouldn’t tell me how that one happened, especially not there.

“That would be fun,” Madison told me. “How about after lunch we go swimming for a bit too?”

“Okay...” I said, “you’ll have to show me where it is though, I still haven’t seen this swimming hole that you mentioned.”

Madison hugged me, “We’re going to have so much fun!”

I smiled back at her, “I hope so!”

Our starters arrived, then the main course, and finally we were sitting there when a large piece of tiramisu appeared on a plate with a birthday candle. A few of the waiters sang and I blew out the candle. “Umm...” I said, already really full, “anyone want to help me with this?” I smiled.

Madison especially seemed to enjoy helping me and the plate was soon clear. It still wasn’t as good as the family recipe for it, but pretty good none-the-less. I would never tell Consetta this, but I liked this dessert better than the cake! Although the cake won serious cuteness points!

“Well, come on Princess,” Madison said while we were waiting for Mom’s change.

“Huh?”

“Need the bathroom?”

“Oh... Sure,” I said and followed her. It was embarrassing but the dress was full enough that I had her help hold it up for me. I tried to keep a little bit of the dress between her and I though. I remembered them mention it was possible to do something and get rid of it down the road... I hoped I would be able to do it! Once my panties, tights, and dress were all back in order she went and then we washed our hands and found the others ready to go.

Madison helped with car seat duty again and we were soon back on the road. “Why are we going back here?” I asked a while later when we pulled back into the mall parking lot.

“To pick up our photos, it won’t take long,” Gloria said.

“Oh,” I said.

“Actually, why don’t you all stay in the car, I’ll go grab them real quick.” She suggested. I sat there holding onto my new bear and must have fallen asleep again.

MADISON WATCHED ASHLEY’S chest rise and fall with sleep. She looked so adorable in her dress and tiara! She was sure out of all of the gifts that had been given, that the dress was the one to make her smile the most. She knew intellectually that Ashley wasn’t really... Ashley, but either the kid was that impressive of an actor... Or more likely this was who she really was. Madison would give almost anything to trade places with her and be able to pretend to be a few years younger again. She knew that was never going to happen though.

Her mom, Aunt Gloria, and Amber were all talking about the day and the prints Gloria had picked up. She was looking forward to using them to add to her scrapbook. Madison had made every outfit she wore that day, and she was very proud of it!

‘I can’t believe anyone could be so mean to Amber and Ashley...’ she thought to herself as she looked at both of them. Ashley probably looked cuter with her natural hair color, but she made a cute redhead too. ‘I wonder how they’ll handle it at school when her roots start showing...?’ She sighed, ‘I wish we lived closer to them, Ashley would be fun to have around.’

She stared at the new bear in Ashley’s hands and felt she had very good taste!

The dirt road that led up to Aunt Gloria’s place did nothing to wake Ashley up, so she found herself unbuckling the harness of a very asleep little girl. “Should I wake her up?” She asked the others.

“She’s going to have to wake up a bit to get out of her dress if nothing else,” Amber said, “but it basically is her bedtime.”

“I’ll carry her upstairs, if she wakes up on the way she can walk up,” Aunt Gloria said.

“I can get her,” Madison found herself saying and picking her up herself. She positioned Ashley like she had seen her aunt once before and was surprised by how light she was.

“How much does she weigh?” she asked quietly of Amber on the way upstairs.

“She was over fifty at one point, but last Friday at the doctors she was only forty-seven.”

“And she’s really ten?” Madison asked, more to herself than anything.

“I think the stress caused her to lose some weight. She’s also pretty tiny anyway,” Amber said. “I guess it’s normal though, I’m only ninety-three pounds myself.”

Madison just stared at her in disbelief. “You don’t look too skinny though...?”

“I’m not, I’m right where my size should be. They’ve checked my body fat percentage over the years and I’m right on target. Before I had Ashley I was actually about five pounds lighter.” She giggled.

“That is so not fair,” she said as they opened the door to Ashley’s room.

“You just have to live with the cards you’re given Madison. Sometimes I would do anything to have a few inches of height more. I always have to find a step-stool to get things out of cupboards!”

“I guess that’s true,” Madison allowed.

“Here, set her down on the bed. I can’t believe she hasn’t woken up!” Amber looked at her daughter and shrugged poking her shoulder a little. “Princess, we need to get you dressed for bed, come on wake up just a little bit.”

Madison watched as Ashley’s mom managed to get her undressed, in her pajamas, and tucked into bed before she went right back into deep sleep. As they walked back into the hallway, “Hot chocolate?” She asked Madison.

“Huh?”

“You want some hot chocolate? You seem like you have a lot on your mind.”

“Oh, okay.”

The two of them made their way downstairs and said goodnight to her mom and Aunt Gloria who were going to bed. She watched as Amber turned on a teakettle with water and waited for it to boil. In no time at all she was handed a cup of hot chocolate and they sat down in the living room on a couch.

“So what is bothering you about growing so tall?” She heard.

Madison sighed, “I don’t mind growing up... It’s just I don’t like being hit on all of the time. If I put on even the slightest bit of makeup everyone assumes I’m seventeen or eighteen... I just wished I had more time to have fun as a thirteen-year old I guess... Or maybe had that when I was ten like Ashley.”

Mom nodded, “I remember your mom saying the same things.”

“Really?” Madison was a little surprised by that.

“Oh yeah, as long as I didn’t need to be old enough to see a movie I would still get in for the children’s price all through high school.”

Madison giggled, “Ashley’s going to be the same way.”

“Probably.” She agreed.

“So what changed my mom?”

“She met a guy she liked,” Amber said.

“There’s more?”

She sighed, “There is, but if you want that story I want your mom to be the one to tell it, okay?”

Madison nodded, “Is this why you both stopped being friends?”

“A lot of it,” Amber said and she could see some moisture in her eyes that she blinked out. “Madison the thing to remember, and I used to tell your mom, is just because you grow taller doesn’t mean you have to grow up. The two of us used to be utterly silly! We enjoyed doing stupid things in toy aisles at stores, pulling silly pranks at school, and all sorts of other things. Just because you grow taller doesn’t mean you have to mature... I mean my husband did neither of course, but you can’t judge everyone by him!”

Madison smiled, “So... What happens with you guys now?”

“This week we have to fake our parents deaths... I’m planning on taking Ashley and flying to Dallas at the very least. We’re also going to run an obituary that says no services to be held. It’s hopefully going to be the last thing we have to do for our cover.”

“Then?”

“Then... I don’t know. Gloria has offered to let us stay here for a couple years. She has some things that I could probably do for her that would save her spending money to an outside company... I wouldn’t mind doing it actually. I think Ashley is pretty happy here too, so I think maybe...”

“But?”

“But I hate the fact seeing my parents is unlikely ever again at this rate.”

“I can’t imagine not ever seeing my mom and dad again...” Madison agreed.

“I can’t risk endangering them though. I let them know we’re still alive and hiding, and they probably know where we’re at actually... But I know my husband’s family has to be watching them, and probably the FBI.”

“You really don’t want to go to them, huh?”

She shook her head, “I remember hearing my husband at a party last year bragging how he had some source in the agency somewhere. They gave him all sorts of information on when raids were coming and such. There probably are some trustworthy people there, but I don’t know who they are. As long as I don’t either there’s no way I can chance it.”

Madison found herself giving Amber a hug. “Well, if you need anything you know where to find us! I’m guessing at age eight you won’t want to leave Ashley without a sitter for a while, so you know where to find her favorite babysitter, right?” She asked with a smile.

“I know where to find her favorite big sister more like,” she replied with a smile. “I’m pretty sure that’s what she sees you as. If for some reason something happens to me I’m hoping she can at least go with you guys somewhere safe...” and with that Amber was sobbing and Madison found herself consoling a lady who was essentially her aunt.

“Don’t worry, it’s all going to work out fine,” she soothed. “Nothing is going to happen to Ashley.”

Eventually they found some Kleenex and Madison had a feeling Amber got the emotion out of her system. “Thanks... Sorry for that,” she said.

“Everyone breaks at some point,” Madison said, “besides, I was just returning the favor. Thanks for the hot chocolate,” she said.

Amber laughed, “You’re welcome.”

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

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 15: Summertime Girls
 
I FELT A hand tickling me, “Come on silly girl, it’s time to wake up!”

“Ah!!!” I screamed.

I looked up and glared at Mom. “Can’t you wake me up nicer?”

“Well you weren’t waking up at all!” She said with a smile.

She gave me a hug and said, “Come on, up and at ‘em, you have chores to do today.”

I groaned but looked around, “Hey, how did I end up in bed last night?”

Mom laughed, “You know, if you were seven or so years older I’d swear you’d been out partying and drinking. I don’t know what wore you out yesterday, but none of us could get you to wake up when we got home. Madison seemed to enjoy carrying you up here though.”

I turned beet red.

“Oh don’t be so embarrassed, it happens. You’ve been under a lot of stress and yesterday was a pretty long day.”

I nodded, “Umm... So when do we hear?” I asked softly.

“Tomorrow I’ll get a phone call at three or so. I’ll break it to you just before the hands go home.”

I nodded, “So I guess we get to win our Oscar awards tomorrow?”

Mom nodded, “sorry about this sweetheart.”

“It’s okay, you’re not the problem, that’s Dad.”

I found a pair of jeans and a pink Princess shirt before heading off to feed the birds. I was done pretty quickly and went through with my now nearly ritual shower. My hair was still up from the night before and I began to realize it hurt at that point. I stood in my robe in front of the mirror trying to take the braids out, but couldn’t seem to manage at all!

After several frustrating moments I went into my room to get dressed. I dug through my clothes for a moment and settled on a simple pink romper with some flowers printed on the front of it. I knew it was comfortable and that sounded good after being in my dressy dress all day yesterday. I loved how pretty it was, and it was fairly comfortable... But after a while the tulle in between the lining skirt and the outer skirt grew a bit annoying. On second thought I hung the romper back up and settled on the t-shirt I had worn that morning and a pair of denim shorts that had little flowers embroidered in pink and green.

I went to my underwear drawer and saw several more of the magical panties I’d been given the day before. ‘I’ll need it for swimming...’ I thought to myself and grabbed one. Soon I was totally dressed and glad I had used one of the new dance belts as she had called them. I couldn’t see anything that looked like a boy in the mirror and that made me smile.

‘I just need to get my hair out of these braids,’ I thought with a grimace. “Need some help with your hair?” I heard from behind me and saw Madison. I blushed a bit knowing she had carried me upstairs last night.

“Please?”

She had me sit down in the chair and pulled the braids out one by one until my hair hung by my shoulders all wavy. Without saying anything she grabbed my brush and began brushing it out gently until it was nice. “How do you want your hair today?” she asked.

“Not braided...” I said a little grumpily.

She laughed, “Your mom and I should have taken that out last night... Sorry.”

“It’s okay, I’m just glad it’s out now. I don’t remember the other braids hurting my head like that before.”

“Those were really tight braids!” She told me with a smile, “I spent an hour pulling them out myself last night.”

“Oh, I don’t feel so bad then...” I admitted.

“How about pigtails? I’ll do mine the same way then?” She suggested.

I shrugged, “Okay.”

Before long she had found some pink ribbon and tied off both sides in some really pretty bows. “How did you make those bows?” I asked, even as I had watched her do it.

“Lots of practice!” She smiled, “I use them for sewing sometimes on dresses.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Come on, let’s go to my room. Bring your new doll with you!” She said.

“Not the ugly one, right?” I asked with a smile.

“No dolls are really ugly...” She started to say. When I held up the doll though she said, “Okay, maybe that one is. Just don’t tell your parents, they were probably really proud of it!” She winked at me.

I groaned.

I grabbed my new doll that I had decided I couldn’t call by the same name as her actual name of Caroline... Madison’s doll had claim to that name. Madison had me sit on her bed as she sat in front of the mirror herself. I thought of other names and finally though, “Karen!”

“Huh?” Madison said as she sat in front of her mirror.

“Well I can’t call her Caroline, you have her name already... So her name is Karen!” I smiled, “And I get to keep my ‘K’ name streak!”

Madison giggled and said, “Cute!”

The two of us soon set off when she was done and ran into Mom coming up to check on me. “Oh good, you already took care of her hair. Thank you!” Mom said to Madison.

“No problem! It was fun!” She said with a smile towards me.

“Will you two be okay looking out for yourselves today?” Mom asked.

‘Gee Mom, just come out and ask if she’s okay babysitting me all day...’ I thought a little annoyed. ‘If we ever do move somewhere else and we keep this up I bet she actually hires sitters again...’ I mentally hit myself in the head for thinking this plan so grand. ‘You know, actually, if I just killed Dad... Maybe...’ I couldn’t smile at that thought though. As much as I hated him, the idea of killing him was not something I could be comfortable with. ‘Although if it’s him or Mom... Yeah, that I could live with.’

“I’m sure we’ll have a blast today Amber.” Madison said with a smile and a sideways hug.

“Good, we’re going to be busy doing stuff until late tonight, so mind your Aunt Gloria and Madison, okay?” Mom said to me.

‘Well, that is basically coming out and saying it...’

“Okay,” I said simply. I don’t know if the lasers made any impact from my eyes to her head, but from past experience I expected they never made it past Mom’s shields.

The two of us made it downstairs and into the dining room before the hands arrived. “You want to see if Consetta needs help?” I asked Madison.

“Sure!” She said with a smile. The two of us walked into the kitchen.

“Good morning Consetta, do you need any help?” I asked.

“Why both of the princesses are helping today?” She asked with a smile, “Sure, why don’t you cut up the melons over there Madison. Ashley you can help me scramble eggs!”

“Okay...” I said nervously.

“Hija, come put on your new apron first,” she said to me. I put on the apron and she tied the back for me.

Whether it was built originally or added in later I didn’t know, but the kitchen really was equal to most restaurants. Included next to the two stovetops was a gas griddle top. Consetta put a stool in front of the griddle and I ended up stirring the eggs as they cooked. She scooped them off when they were done into a platter. I stirred eggs on the griddle for about ten minutes before they were done and she covered up the eggs.

I then watched as she scrubbed the griddle down – it looked like a lot of work! Before long everything was in the dining room and I sat next to Madison to eat breakfast.

RAY LOOKED AT his father’s house and wasn’t looking forward to what was waiting inside. He sighed and went on in.

“Hey Pops,” he said to his dad who was in his office as usual.

“Don’t hey me!” He said, “I thought you were looking for Megan?”

“We’re looking Pops, but she seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet.”

“I don’t give a rats ass, you need to find her!”

“You weren’t the one this passionate about it last week, what the Hell changed?”

“This!” He said as he passed over a typed note.

Just to let you know the agency is actively trying to find Megan. Word is the deputy director of O.C. is losing sleep over it and bound and determined to find her before you do. You might want to patch that leak soon!

Ray fought the urge to just crumple the paper up and throw it at his dad. “I’ve got guys looking everywhere Pops. As far as I can tell they made it to Dallas, after that we don’t have a clue.”

“How did the Feds figure out she’d been to Dallas?”

“I don’t know, do you?”

His father nodded, “They figured out which car they bought and followed it through all of the plate scanner databases.”

“Where did the car end up?”

“The airport in Dallas.”

“You don’t think she flew...?”

His father shrugged. “That’s your job to find out!”

“How come you didn’t tell me all this before?”

“Because you’re an idiot!!! Honestly neither of them deserves an asshole like you...” He said.

“What the...?” Ray started to rise.

“But now, it’s business. Plain and simple business. If the feds get their hands on her we’re done for. I’ll give you everything I know from here on out in a timely fashion.”

Ray sat back down and fumed. “What else do you know?” He asked.

“Well the feds have come up empty after the night in Dallas. She may have stayed in the area, or she may have kept moving. She was heading west last we knew, so she could have made it to Colorado, Phoenix, or anywhere on the West Coast! It’s a big area to search. If you could find the video from Dallas it might help you. No way has Megan evaded both the feds and us without a change of appearance. That might help you out... Also finding where she went would be smart.”

“Her parents house, any activity?”

He shook his head, “No, not since the feds went there. You might want to go talk to them though... You never know?”

Ray nodded, “If we don’t find anything by the time I head down to New Mexico I’ll go up there before heading home.”

“I don’t care what gets done, but find her. Tony is off limits still, but I don’t care about what you do to that bitch. We can’t afford for her to talk to the feds... And contrary to whatever you have her believing, once she’s in witness protection I don’t think we’ll ever be able to touch her.”

MADISON LOOKED OVER at Ashley helping put the dishes into the dishwasher and shook her head. She was beyond cute, but she also liked helping people out. She severely doubted Ashley would ever get the prima donna attitude some of the pretty girls at her school had. It was amazing that someone so hurt and abused could still be so sweet.

“Gracias niñas,” Consetta said to us and gave us both hugs. “Now get lost! Go play and have fun!”

“Okay Consetta, bye!” Ashley said as she pulled Madison up the staircase.

“What do you want to do now?” Madison asked.

“Let’s play with our dolls!”

Madison smiled, this was what she had said they would do, but she was still surprised that Ashley was so enthusiastic about it. If she didn’t know any better she could easily continue to believe she was really eight. Mark was coming down the hall upstairs when they reached Ashley’s door.

“Hey Mark!” Madison called.

“What?” He asked gruffly.

“I just thought I’d let you know we were thinking about going swimming after lunch... If you wanted to come?”

He looked thoughtfully at her, “Maybe I will... Let me see where I’m at when we get there. I’m working on some things for all of that summer homework they gave us.”

She shook her head, “It’ll wait! You have like two months still!!!”

“We’ll see.”

Madison shook her head and finally followed Ashley into her room, “Boys!” she said annoyed.

Ashley looked nervously up at her. “Oh, no nothing to do with you Ashley, just my annoying nerd brother. It would be nice if he at least pretended to do something with us sometime!”

Ashley giggled and said, “I don’t think he wants to play with our dolls.”

Madison smiled, “Not anymore at least.”

“Huh?”

“I used to make him when we were little,” she said with a smile.

“Really?!?”

I SAT AND listened as Madison told me about how she had forced her brother to play with her and dolls here at Gloria’s for several summers, “I even made him dress up one time,” she told me with a wink.

I giggled, “was he cute?”

“No, definitely not!” The two of us giggled for several minutes. “So let’s see what all clothes you have for all of your dolls now!” She told me with a smile.

“Okay!” I said and we made a little bit of a show of putting everything out.

“You should soooo put Kaitlyn into that Merida dress that Aunt Gloria made!”

“Okay!” I began taking her out of the cute outfit she was wearing and put her into the even cuter princess dress. “What do you think?” I asked her.

“If you put on your dress like her you would make an adorable pair!”

I smiled, “Maybe later?”

We spent the next hour playing and basically reenacting the movie with our dolls. She pretended that her doll, Mackenzie was Merida’s mother. We sort of had to improvise for the other dolls, but I even had a teddy bear to stand in for the old mad king! We had fun and I don’t think either of us realized it was lunchtime until Consetta popped her head in.

“Hey girls, lunch is ready?”

“Oh... Wow, I didn’t realize it was that late already!” Madison said.

“Time flies when you’re having fun, huh?” she asked.

“Uh-huh,” I said, “I wish Madison was around all the time.”

Madison smiled at me, “Obviously I haven’t been mean enough yet!” She held her two pointer fingers out.

“Umm... You don’t have to be me...” I never got the rest of the sentence out before she started tickling me for a few minutes.

“Am I mean enough yet?” She asked giggling herself.

“Terrifying, waaay meaner than anyone else I know... You can stop tickling me now...”

I managed to get free and ran to the bathroom, then the two of us quickly finished putting our dolls away. Downstairs we enjoyed the soup and fresh bread that Consetta had made. “Where is everyone else?” I asked.

“They’re all working up in the high pastures today. So it’s just us three right now,” Consetta said with a smile.

“Thanks for making us lunch still,” Madison said.

“Well, I have to make sure the two princesses don’t starve!”

I giggled, “Thank you,” I said.

“You’re very welcome hija,” she said with a smile. “What are you two up to next?”

Mark chose that moment to walk in, “Decided to join us?” Consetta asked.

“Umm... Yeah, sorry, I got carried away upstairs and didn’t realize it had already been ten minutes since you told me to come down...”

“That’s okay, here you go,” Consetta said as she handed him a bowl of soup she drew up from the pot she’d sat on the table.

“Thanks,” he said.

“You were going to tell me your plans?” She asked turning her attention back to us.

“Well, I thought maybe we’d go swimming. Ashley hasn’t seen the swimming hole yet.”

Consetta nodded, “That would be good, it’s certainly hot enough outside for it today!”

She made small talk for a while and I finally asked, “Mark, are you going to come with us?”

He looked at me, almost startled for some reason, “I guess... If you want me to.”

“Please?”

He nodded and I felt Madison give my knee a squeeze in thanks. I was pretty sure she hated how distant her brother had grown. The four of us ate with Consetta dragging conversation out of each of us in turn until we all had finished the great soup.

“So, everyone go change into their swimming suits and then we’ll go?” Madison asked.

“Sure sis,” Mark said.

“Okay,” I said.

I started to help with the dishes, but Consetta shooed me away, “Go play child, enjoy having them here!”

I hugged her, “Thanks,” and ran upstairs.

I pulled off my shorts, t-shirt, and panties before thinking about hitting the bathroom. I had just gotten in and sat down when Madison opened her door. “Oops, sorry Ashley, didn’t realize you were in here...” She said embarrassed and closing the door.

I sighed, the fact was it didn’t bother me like I would have expected. I finished up and hollered, “I’m done,” before heading into my room and closing the door. I left the gaff on and then found one of my swimsuits. I picked a pink and white one-piece I couldn’t even remember buying and pulled it on. Just then Madison opened the door to my room.

“How you doing?” She asked.

“I’ve got my swimsuit on... Let me just find the shorts that go with it...”

I dug for a moment and found them near where the swimsuit had been in the drawer. “That’s cute!” She told me. “Here, put this top over it until we get to the swimming hole,” she said handing me my shirt I’d been wearing all morning.

“Okay,” I said and slipped it on over my head.

“Make sure you put your tennis shoes on, we have to walk a ways and you don’t want to wear sandals,” she warned. I could see she was already dressed and I had no idea how she had done it that fast!

“How do you change so fast?!?” I asked her.

She laughed at me, “I’ve had practice... And I thought you might need some help - though you did pretty well on your own!”

I smiled at her, “I’ve done this a couple times now.”

“Good, now that you have your shoes sit down here. It’ll be easier to deal with our hair if it’s braided.” I wrinkled my nose up, but she said, “I’ll even put it back in pigtails when we get back! I promise!”

“You’d better...” I told her. She didn’t take much time before tying off the end of my hair with an elastic band. “There,” she said with a smile.

“Let’s grab some towels from Gloria’s linen closet downstairs and then I think we’re ready to go!”

“Umm... Sun screen?” I asked.

“It’s in my bag!” She said and pointed to her bag on my bed, which she picked up on our way out the door.

The two of us walked down the hallway to Mark’s room where Madison knocked, “You ready yet?”

“Yeah,” an out of breath Mark said as he came to the door. “Sorry, just going to the bathroom.” I looked and saw that he was wearing a shirt that had his high school mascot and long colorful swimming shorts. He too had tennis shoes on. “Did you grab her some shoes to use in the swimming hole?” He asked her.

“Yep, I still had an old pair of mine that’ll work. I didn’t see any in her closet.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“Beach shoes basically. The swimming hole is probably safe enough to walk in barefoot... But you never know.”

“Oh,” I said.

I looked accusingly at Madison, “So just how old were you when you fit into these shoes?”

“You don’t want to know the answer to that,” Mark said with a laugh.

“How old?”

“I don’t know... Maybe four?”

I groaned, “I guess you were a giant even then?”

“She’s been taller than everyone else around her since she was three,” Mark said. “I’m just lucky I finally hit my growth spurt! Last year there were three months that she was taller than me!!!”

I giggled at that, “Well, you don’t have to worry about that from me.”

He looked at me and said, “No, I don’t think we do.” He looked embarrassed for a moment, “By the way, I’m sorry I didn’t go last night, I just didn’t feel like being in a photo studio and shopping all day just to get great food yesterday.”

I nodded, “I can understand!”

Madison tickled me momentarily when we reached the linen closet. She grabbed three old towels for us and put them in her large tote. “Okay, anything I’m forgetting?” She asked Mark more than me.

“I don’t think so,” he answered.

“Okay, let’s go then.”

The two of them led me down to past the barns where the trees and brush started getting thicker. I could see there was a footpath though that was pretty well worn, even complete with a set of steps. It switched back and forth a few times, even leading to a clearing with a campfire pit. “Cool, does this ever get used?” I asked.

“Uh-huh, at least when the fire restrictions aren’t as heavy.” Mark said, “Right now though it’s too dry. In a few weeks maybe they’ll lift them… but right now it’s illegal to burn.”

“Too bad,” I said sadly.

“Yeah it is, if that wasn’t the case I’d say we should go camping this weekend.”

The trail wasn’t but another quarter mile or so before we went up one last mini-hill and then down into, “Wow!” I said.

“It is, isn’t it?” Madison giggled next to me.

In front of me was a big area of the small stream that ran through Gloria’s property. A beaver had constructed a damn at one end and the water formed a deep pool with a little sand and pebbly beach that surrounded it. “This is all natural?” I asked.

“Basically,” Mark said. “It’s been deep enough to swim since my mom was a little girl, but a few years ago a beaver moved in and he really went to town.”

“Umm... Is he still in there?” I asked.

“I think he may be...” he grinned. “But don’t worry, he won’t eat much of you!”

I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Come on, let’s go swimming,” he said with a smile. I watched him switch out his shoes for beach shoes and then he just jumped in shirt and all into the water. Madison and I meanwhile pulled our shirts off first. I debated about leaving on the cover-up shorts... but the truth was I was pretty sure you couldn’t see anything with the gaff, so I pulled them off too. I pulled my tennis shoes off and put the offered shoes on. These were actually a little bit tight, but not too bad. Apparently Madison had been a princess fiend as a kid too because they were featured. The shoes seemed to have been well worn too.

“Come on, sunscreen and then we get in!” She told me with a smile. She sprayed me down with a container of spray on sunscreen and rubbed a few spots in for me. She did her front and legs, but had me do her back and neck where she couldn’t reach. Soon we were both in the water and I was enjoying swimming.

“You’re like a fish!” Mark said to me lightly as I swam around.

To that I just smiled and kept swimming around.

He could touch the bottom all the way around the natural pool and keep his head above the water. Madison could almost do it on her tippy-toes. Me... Well if I was at the edge I could stand up, towards the middle there was no way! The pool had very little current in it, so it was fun to swim in. Soon I decided to join Madison on the bank though.

“You looked like you were having fun?” She asked me as we watched Mark standing at the front edge of the pool at the mouth of the creek.

I nodded, “It’s a little cold at first, but it’s fun to swim!”

We watched all of a sudden as Mark leaned down quickly and came up with a... A fish?

“How did you do that?!?” Madison cried out.

“Very carefully,” he said with a smile. He walked over to me and showed me the fish. “It’s a Cutthroat Trout,” he said, “they’re native in New Mexico but you don’t see them a lot in most places.” A few seconds later he turned around, and placed the fish back into the water.

“You just let it go?” I asked him.

“We’re not going to eat him tonight, no reason to keep him. This way maybe some day when I’m out here fishing I can catch him again.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.

“Wow... My dad wouldn’t do that.” I said matter-of-factly, “But I already knew you were way cooler than him,” I added. I felt my insides freeze though as I realized that I was talking about my real dad and he didn’t know the real story. But I smiled at him when I thought about it; nothing should seem strange about what I said to him.

He grinned at me.

“So are we done then?” Madison asked.

I nodded, I was pretty tired of swimming myself.

“Yeah, I think so,” Mark said aloud.

We used the towels to finish drying off and switched back to tennis shoes. I noticed Mark smile at the Barbie shoes, “Hey, I didn’t want to ruin my Princess ones,” I said with a glare.

“Not judging,” he said with a smile.

“You’re eight, you can wear whatever cute girly stuff you want! Actually it’s kind of expected.” Madison added with her own smile.

We made it all the way back to the house before I realized I had never put my shorts and shirt back on. Neither had Madison for that matter. Madison led the way back upstairs and said, “Thanks for going with us Mark.”

“Thanks for asking me Sis,” he said with his own smile and with a, “See you later Ashley,” he disappeared back into his room.

“What now?” I asked Madison.

“Shower,” she said. “Keep your swimsuit on and we’ll just take one together. I can help you with washing your hair that way.”

I looked at her incredulously for a moment but nodded. Before jumping in she started the water and pulled out the elastic keeping my braid and then her own braids together. “By the way, thanks for the message on Sunday,” she said with a smile.

“I wasn’t sure you had seen it,” I admitted. It had pretty much faded off the side of the shower by yesterday morning.

“I did, I couldn’t find the markers to leave you a message back though!” She said with a smile.

“I’ll ask Mom where she put them and have her leave them in here.” I said.

“Okay, let me get your hair,” she said. I turned around and felt her rub shampoo all over my hair and massaged my head, it felt really good. She had me turn so she could rinse my hair out and then added conditioner like Mom had been doing for me since we began running. Once that was washed out I just kind of waited for her to finish her own showering. She had me rinse one more time and put a towel around me, and a smaller one around my hair.

“Go find a pair of jeans and another top to wear, Gloria should be back soon and we can go riding,” she said with a smile.

“Cool!” I said.

I changed quickly into a new outfit and decided to walk over to Madison’s room to ask her about my hair. I knocked, “May I come in?”

“Sure!” She said. I watched as she pulled a shirt over her bra and looked at me. “You want help with your hair?”

I nodded, “Please?”

“Go grab your brush and that pick comb.”

I walked back in and grabbed both of them and sat down on her bed to watch her blow dry her own hair first. When it was dry enough she put her hair up into two pigtail bunches and tied them off with two purple ribbons.

“Come here Princess,” she said with a smile and directed me into the chair she had. I felt her basically repeat what she had just done on me and smiled when she did in fact keep her promise of putting my hair back into pigtails.

I gave her a hug, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, “let’s go see if Gloria is back.”

We clambered down the stairs and she was in her office. “There you two are!” She said with a smile. “What are you up to?”

“Well, we were wondering if we could go for a ride?” I asked.

She smiled at us, “Madison, you know how to saddle up the horses, right?”

She nodded.

“Why don’t you go get your horses saddled up, and I’ll be there in a few minutes? Make sure Ashley has her helmet on before you enter the pens, and neither of you get on until I get there please.”

“Okay Aunt Gloria!” She said with a smile. As we were walking out the door she said, “This is the first time she’s ever let me put the saddles on by myself!” She grabbed my hand, “Come on, let’s skip over there,” she said with a smile.

It honestly took me several tries before I was skipping along with her the short distance to the barn. I couldn’t remember ever skipping, and the sad thing was it wasn’t easy!

She began by going in to see her favorite horse, Jewel, with an apple in hand. Madison stroked her affectionately for a moment before attempting to saddle her up. I watched her do as good of a job as Gloria had done when I watched her. “Okay, now that we’ve got Jewel done let’s take care of your Beauty!” she said to me.

“Okay,” I said and pretty much just stood out of the way as she saddled Beauty up for me. For whatever reason I got goosebumps as she helped me out by saddling her up. I had Beauty nuzzle my hand a bit after I offered her an apple and shortly after then Madison was done.

“Okay, I think we’re good to go,” she said with a smile to me.

Gloria walked in right at that moment and said, “Look at you two, you look all ready to go!”

We both smiled, “Let’s see how you did Madison.”

Gloria walked around both horses and tugged on the leather straps and buckles, making sure the saddles were tight enough. I watched her check a few other things here and there before she said, “Nice job Madison. Next summer I’ll probably just let you ride whenever you want to. If Ashley’s here then I’ll probably let you take her out with you too, you’re almost ready.” She said with a smile.

“Give me just a second to get my horse ready, why don’t you two go ahead and lead them outside.”

“Okay,” Madison and I said in unison.

“That’s so exciting!!!” Madison said outside. “I’ve been waiting to go out on my own since I was four!”

I smiled at her, “So you’ll be fourteen... Just six more years to go for me.”

“Maybe she’ll go for it after four,” she suggested kindly to me.

I nodded, “Maybe, but I doubt it. Of course we’ll have to see if we’re still in these identities. Who knows, maybe tomorrow Amber and I have to leave, and I have to shave hair off my head and become a boy again,” I said gloomily.

“She would never do that to you Ashley, I’m pretty sure you’re going to be a girl from here on out as long as you want to be.”

I smiled at her and saw that Gloria was finally making her way out. “Okay Madison, watch how I help Ashley mount up. I’ll have you help her like this next week just to see if you can do it.” Gloria helped me climb into the saddle and made sure I was sitting right. “Good girl,” she told me with a smile. Madison looked my way and giggled.

“What?”

“Those stirrups are just so short!”

“You’re just jealous,” I said, then stuck my tongue out at Madison.

“Madison go ahead and get on,” Gloria said as she began climbing on her own horse.

The three of us were all mounted a few minutes later and Gloria asked, “Where to?”

I shrugged and looked at Madison. “How about up to the springs and back?”

Gloria looked at her watch, “...I think we can do that. Are you okay with riding fairly fast Ashley?”

I nodded with a smile, “Uh-huh.”

“Okay then,” she said and we followed her up the trail at a pretty brisk pace. Madison followed behind me with Gloria directly in front. I was having a blast as Beauty followed adeptly and seemed to enjoy the exercise. Gloria pulled to a stop halfway up the trail to check on us.

“How are you doing Ashley?” She asked.

“She’s doing great! Oh my God, how long have you ridden?” Madison asked.

I gave her a weird look, “I think this is one week, right?” I asked Gloria.

“Never before?” She asked incredulously.

“Uh-uh,” I said.

Gloria smiled at Madison, “I wouldn’t normally even take a ride like this with someone that fresh on a horse, but she’s a natural like her mother. I’ve seen very few young girls get on a horse and have as easy of a time learning.”

“Did you ever do ballet or anything?” Madison asked me, suspiciously.

I shook my head, “A year of Tae Kwon Do that my dad forced me to take, but nothing else.”

She shook her head in disbelief.

“How are you doing Madison?” Gloria asked.

“I’ll be sore tomorrow, but this is worth it,” she said with a smile.

“Okay then, shall we keep going?”

We both nodded and she started off again. Eventually we came right to the hot spring and Gloria looked at her watch. “Why don’t we take a five minute stop here, and then we’ll have to head back?”

We both nodded and Gloria helped me down. I started walking to the edge of the meadow. I picked up an old bottle cap and was looking at it when all of the sudden I heard something and froze. In front of me about eight feet away was a coiled rattlesnake... And it was rattling at me!

AGENT KLINE LOOKED up from his report as his phone rang. “Kline,” he said. “He’s willing to talk?!?” He asked, “Go ahead and bring him out to the office here, maybe we’ll get something we can use finally!”

He hung up the phone and smiled. It wasn’t a break in the Franchino case he desperately wanted, but it was a possible chink in another family in Wyoming. They were closely affiliated with a cartel in Mexico. The family was a big source in bringing drugs that were sold to the oilfield workers there. Kline also suspected they did other things, but had never been able to get any proof one way or another. Maybe this new witness would change things.

He’d been at a dead end still while waiting for his agents in Atlanta to gather up the footage he had asked for. In the meantime he had been doing his best to try and track down the hotel Megan Franchino used in Dallas the next night. At least he hoped it was in Dallas, if it was anywhere outside of there it was going to be nearly impossible to locate. As it was he was afraid he probably was endangering Megan’s life if they didn’t find her and the boy soon. If there was a leak, the Franchinos were probably well aware by now that the FBI wanted to find her. He would just throw that possibility completely out since he trusted his agents… but…

‘God damn it, why couldn’t she just come to us?!?’ He thought to himself. With that and the fact that Raimondo seemed to have killed his other two agents...

He picked up the phone, “Jake, I need you in my office pronto.”

Kline had been acting under the idea that maybe Raimondo had just randomly got lucky and discovered their agent. A knock a few minutes later came and he said, “Come in and shut the door Jake.”

“What’s up Boss?”

“Why was Raimondo in Vermont?”

“Just checking things out? Wasn’t he?”

Kline shook his head, “What if he knew there was a leak and was trying to find it?”

“How the Hell would he know that?” Jake asked across from his desk.

“There’s only one way I can think of...”

“Bob, no way in Hell... That would mean someone in our office is passing along information.”

“Yeah, and I don’t think it’s our agents.”

“Who else could it be?”

“Jake, our agents aren’t the only ones to see our communications at times.”

“What do you mean?”

He held up the original fax of the information on the Atlanta hotel. “This came in via fax machine, it was handed to me by a secretary who probably had it handed to her by another person.”

“Shit man, are you serious?”

“Look into it for me. Start with tracing back anyone who could have seen this information. I specifically had other people being used in the Atlanta office for the footage, but if the lines of communication are being hit somewhere, we could be in trouble.”

“Could we shuffle personnel around for awhile?”

Bob gave his friend Jake a stare, “If I can’t prove it beyond a reasonable doubt in court it’s not good enough. The director will have me out on my ass if I suggest this without proof. Find it for me.”

“Got it boss,” he said and turned before leaving the door, “I really hope you’re wrong.”

“ASHLEY, DON’T MAKE any sudden moves,” Gloria said from behind me.
“Okay,” I whispered.

A second later I heard a loud bang next to me and screamed, ignoring common sense and ran away as fast as I could, expecting the bite. I found myself running to behind Gloria who I realized then was holding a small rifle. From behind her I peeked and could see the snake was twitching a little, but looked to be dead.

I hugged her and cried, “I was soooo scared!!!!!!!”

“It’s okay baby,” she said soothingly, “I wouldn’t let it get you.”

I was hysterical for a while but finally calmed down. Gloria passed me over to Madison who had been hugging me tightly too by then and walked over to the snake. “Good sized one,” I heard her say. Just ate in the last day too, probably not too happy to have its nap interrupted.”

She took a knife and I saw her slice the head off. “Come here Ashley, you need to see this.” She said.

I walked up to the snake and felt like I wanted to run some more, “It’s dead, it can’t hurt you anymore,” she told me. She had strung it out and I could see it was not quite as tall as me.

“It’s like three feet long!” Madison said.

“I’d say a bit more. Good sized snake. Anyone want it for dinner?”

I gave her a look like she was crazy, “It’s actually pretty good,” she said with a smile.

I shook my head, “I’ll umm... Take your word for it.”

“Madison would you grab the small collapsing shovel I have on my saddle?”

Madison gave me a smile and left me standing by myself holding myself tightly. ‘Great, I’m running from Dad who wants to kill Mom, and for all I know me... And I almost die from a rattlesnake... This won’t give me nightmares...’

She returned a moment later with the small shovel and I watched as Gloria dug a couple feet down and then threw the head and body carefully in before recovering it. “We don’t want someone to accidentally step on the fangs,” Gloria explained to me.

“Oh,” I said.

She found a heavy rock and added it to the top of the dirt in the hopes that it wouldn’t be dug up by a raccoon or something looking for a meal.

“Are you good to ride home?” She asked me.

I nodded.

“Okay then, let’s go!”

She helped me get onto my horse after giving me a quick hug. We rode away and I was grateful to be leaving the area. I hoped I could convince myself to come back for a swim again at some point, but I had my doubts. I shivered.

The three of us rode a bit quicker than before down the path and came to a last clearing before getting to the last wooded area to the ranch. I looked up and realized Mom and the hands were coming back then. Gloria stopped and we waited for them to cross the large meadow. I expected Mom to follow the others around a log fence but instead found my mouth drop as she went faster and went... Over the fence!

“Oh my God, that was so cool!” Madison said next to me.

“How did she do that?” I asked Gloria in the two moments before she reached us.

“A lot of practice!” She said with a smile. I watched as Mom jumped over a ditch too and pulled up to us.

“Where have you ladies been?” She asked with a smile.

“Trying not to get bitten by rattlesnakes,” I said.

“Rattlesnakes?” She asked Gloria.

“She had a close encounter before I shot it. Ashley’s fine though,” she assured Mom.
I watched Mom and I couldn’t believe she didn’t start doing the Mom thing and freaking out over it. All she said was, “Ashley be really careful when you walk around the edges of places around here, or in tall grass. It probably won’t be the last one you’ll see if you hang around here a while.”

I felt my jaw drop and was too stunned to cry.

“Come on, let’s get home,” Gloria said. With the three of us now joined by thirteen other horse riders we created quite a bit of dust as we approached the barn. It was a bit chaotic dismounting and taking care of the horses, but after a while it was done and the hands all left for home having accomplished their jobs for the day.

It was only then that Mom gave me a big hug and said, “I’m soo glad you’re okay sweetie.”

I dissolved into tears then.

STELLA PICKED UP the phone and answered, “Hello, this is the Dale residence...”

“Hi Stella, this is Gary.”

“Hi Gary, what’s up?”

“Well I just wanted to invite you and Tom over for dinner tonight since Annette has made enough fried chicken to feed a small army.”

Stella laughed, “I’m sure Tom and I would love to come over there. We’ll be there in about half-an-hour?”

“Sounds great Stella,” he said, “see you soon.”

Stella was a bit shocked to hear back from Gary so soon, she hoped things weren’t worse than she already knew they were...

MOM LED ME upstairs to my bedroom and calmed me down after awhile. “Are you better now?” She asked me after I finally could breathe again without sobbing and gasping for air.

I nodded, “Sorry about that.”

“You had reason sweetheart. Although I have to say I hope you won’t do this every time you see a snake...”

“You and Gloria act like this is normal?!?” I asked incredulously.

“Sweetie the snakes have been here long before we got here. They keep down the mouse and small rodent population.” She paused and moved a stray hair out of my eyes - my pigtails had been totally decimated over the last couple hours. “And, it’s a good thing that it’s just rattlesnakes around here.”

“How is that a good thing?” I asked in disbelief.

“Did the rattlesnake bite you?”

I stared at her like she was stupid, “No, I wouldn’t be here if it did...”

“You’re right, now what did the rattlesnake do?”

“He coiled up and rattled his tail... That’s why it’s called a rattlesnake.” I looked at her like she was stupid.

“Exactly!” She said, “Rattlesnakes are actually the kind of snakes I prefer to run into! At least if they see you coming they’ll warn you off. They’ll say ‘hey, I’m here, I don’t like you, how about you just back off.’”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. You probably could have slowly backed up from the snake and it wouldn’t have done anything more than turned and slithered away as soon as it thought you were gone. It wouldn’t have chased you down or anything like that. Now, if we were down in the South that would be a different story.”

“Huh?”

“They have snakes that don’t warn you; they bite first and ask questions later.”

“Oh.” I said.

“So see, rattlesnakes aren’t that bad.”

“Why did Gloria shoot it then?” I asked.

“I shot it because I couldn’t be absolutely sure you would back away slowly enough,” Gloria said as she came in. “When it comes to you, Madison, or a hand I will shoot first and ask questions later.” She gave me a hug. “So... Do you think you’re up to eating some supper?”

“Umm... I guess so,” I said.

“Here, let’s get you switched into something else though first,” Mom said. She handed me a romper and had me go change in the bathroom.

The two of them looked guilty about something as I came back out. Mom wasted no time in grabbing the ties that were sort of still in my hair and then put it all in one tall ponytail. I grabbed my doll Kaitlyn and the three of us went downstairs. I saw the real Kaitlyn sitting at the table with Mark and Madison already. She got up and gave me a hug, followed closely by Madison and Mark.

I did my best not to breakdown again and asked, “So... Umm... What’s for dinner?”

“Roast,” Gloria said and brought a plate of sliced roast over, “and mashed potatoes, broccoli, asparagus, and if you eat enough to convince me you’ve tried your best to eat, I’ll even throw in the leftover cake from yesterday for dessert.”

I smiled, almost not forced. “Thanks Aunt Gloria,” I told her.

“You’re welcome Princess,” she said.

Dinner was a livelier affair than I remembered in the nights before they had arrived. It actually did feel like we were all extended family. Slowly as I ate a lot of mashed potatoes I felt better about myself. The roast was pretty good too and Gloria told me it was from the ranch.

“Madison? Ashley?” Kaitlyn said, “Why don’t you two help me with the dishes.”

“Okay Aunt Kate,” I said.

I helped the two of them put dishes in the dishwasher and was sure things were as safe as they could be then.

STELLA AND TOM both hugged Annette and followed her into the dining room where a monstrous bowl of fried chicken awaited them. “This looks great!” Tom said as they sat down.

“Thank you Tom,” Annette beamed.

The end of dinner led to a near repeat of the weekend, “Go on Stella, go join Tom and Gary!”

She smiled, “If you insist...”

“I do! I love cooking and I don’t mind cleaning up afterwards either. I don’t believe in guests helping with that, so shoo!”

Stella smiled, glad that Annette was so predictable! She found her husband and Gary just getting glasses of scotch when she got there. “Would you like some?” Gary asked her.

“No thank you, I’ll be driving tonight.” She said.

“Suit yourself!” He said and passed behind her to close the door.

“What’s going on?” Tom asked.

“Well, I wanted to let you know about your daughter. I’m not going to lie – things are pretty hot for her right now. The Franchino’s have decided she’s a risk they can’t afford, and the FBI wants her to close them down. Meanwhile I think the FBI must have a leak... No clue on how to help them get it plugged though. I think Megan’s right not to go to them,” He told them.

Tom sighed, “I was afraid of that...”

“Yeah, if she hadn’t gone through such crazy measures I think they all would have found her by now.”

“So you found them?” Stella asked excitedly.

“Well no, you did. You told me where they would be and I just backtracked from there.”

“So they are at Gloria’s?”

“Yes they are, and oddly enough you mentioned her childhood friend Kaitlyn? She’s there right now with her two kids. Apparently that’s been planned for a long while, so it’s just a coincidence that they’re all there.”

“They’re there under different identities?” Tom asked, hopeful.

“Yes, only a few of their staff seem to know who she is. Most of the ranch hands are clueless. It wasn’t easy to find out, but I’m pretty sure it’s her. She dyed her hair, cut it, and is pretending to be younger as well.”

“Well that works for her probably pretty well,” Stella said with a proud smile.

“Yes you guys taught her well.” He said with a smile.

“And our grandson?” Tom asked apprehensively.

“Well... If Raimondo recognizes him without a hint I’ll be surprised. Congratulations, you have yourself the most adorable eight-year old princess I’ve ever seen!”

“What?!?” Stella asked.

“She just turned eight actually,” Gary said with a smile.

“You mean he’s pretending to be a girl?” Stella asked, more stunned than outraged, “And he went along with it?”

“I’m not surprised actually,” Tom said, “he’s always been more inclined to play with girls whenever we’ve been around. It actually makes sense as a disguise since he has his mothers build and height. He’s always looked like he was four years younger than he actually was so disguising him like that is smart. Adding the girl thing on top of it... Well, good luck to Ray on finding them.”

“Do you think he’s okay with that?” Stella asked, concerned.

“It’s definitely better than the alternative honey.” Tom said.

“Actually, from what I can tell she looks very happy with everything,” Gary said. He passed over some photos his men had managed to get off of the photo shop they had used the previous day, along with some others from the restaurant, the ranch, and a few shopping the day before.

“She’s beautiful!” Stella said with pride.

“I don’t believe that can really be a grandson...” Tom added.

“Well, if her doctors notes are any indication I think she likes being her new self. If for some reason they can come out of hiding I’m pretty sure she’s going to want to stay this way.”

“How did you get all of this?” Tom asked, “Methods?”

“Two agents I trust helped out. I explained the possible national security implications to an old friend and he set them up. He’s got them keeping a discreet watch for us for the next few weeks.”

“And they have new identity papers?” He asked.

“On their own they managed somehow. Megan is now Amber Marie Caffrey, age 23 and older sister to her daughter who is now Ashley Marie Caffrey age 8. Somehow they even have a judge’s order granting her custody of Ashley next week due to the death of their parents. Ashley just celebrated her eighth birthday yesterday, which is when those pictures were taken.”

Tom and Stella sat their stunned.

“You, and your father Tom, taught her really well guys! If you hadn’t guessed where she was, I’m pretty sure I would never have found them.”

MADISON AND I had just placed the final dishes into the dishwasher, she started it, and then I asked, “umm... What now?”

“How about a board game?” She suggested.

“Umm... Okay.”

We walked over to where everyone was sitting. “Amber, can we play a board game with everyone?”

Mom looked at me for a moment. “I’ll make you a deal Ashley, you go take your bath now and then we can play a game.”

“Really?” I asked, it was already seven, by the time I got out of my bath it would be like seven-thirty.

“Really, I’ll even let you stay up till eight-thirty tonight... Just don’t tell Mom and Dad,” she stage whispered the last part to me.

“Okay!” I said and hopped upstairs.

I was just getting the bath water running when Mom came in. “Umm... Could you get those markers? Madison wanted to use them too.” I said with a smile.

“Sure thing sweetheart!” She told me. She came back in a moment with the markers and the rest of my toys, “Madison said she washed your hair earlier?”

I nodded.

“Okay then, just wash up and then come put these on,” she said pointing to a stack of underwear and pajamas. I noticed she had included another of my gaffs. “Mark still doesn’t know sweetie, I don’t want you to accidentally give anything away.” She said at my look.

“Oh.”

With that she left and I took a quick bath. I made sure I washed everything though, because I didn’t want to be told to do it again. I also quickly left a smiley face drawing on the wall for Madison. After that I was out of the water and getting dressed. As if to underscore it was good I had washed, Mom checked me over before leading me over to my vanity. The ponytail I had from earlier was high enough it had kept most of my hair dry. She went ahead and put it in a loose braid then and tied it off with a blue ribbon that matched my pajamas.

“This isn’t going to hurt like last nights, is it?” I asked.

“No, this one is much looser. Sorry I didn’t get those out before you went to bed.” She added.

“It’s okay,” I said, “I learned something...” I gave her a hug, “Why are you letting me stay up late

?”
“I need you tired tomorrow.” She said simply.

“Huh?”

“The more tired you are, the crankier you’ll be... And the more I think I can depend on you to cry and throw the appropriate tantrum we need it tomorrow.”

“Oh,” I said.

She gave me a hug, “It’s going to be okay sweetie, you’ll see.”

“I hope so.”

“Okay, let’s go downstairs, Madison thought she knew the perfect game for us to play!”

I arrived downstairs wondering what this magical game would be. We found everyone in the dining area we ate dinner and took spots next to the others. On the table was a box of a game called Apples to Apples. I read the box and noticed it said ages 12+ and hoped I could play without looking too smart. Madison wasn’t much past that age either though, so I figured I’d be okay.

Mark explained it to me, “Okay, we’re going to deal you these cards that have adjectives on them... Umm... Do you know what an adjective is?”

I rolled my eyes, “It’s a word that describes a noun. I learned that in kindergarten!” I smiled at him.

“Well then... So you have all of these cards. Each player pulls a card out of their hand that they think best describes the word. The person that drew the noun card gets to decide which one wins.”

“Okay,” I said with a smile.

I had to remind myself to be eight and not ten though... Well, that would have been a problem at ten too; my reading comprehension was waaay higher than his probably was.

We played the game for well over the time I was supposed to be allowed to stay up that night. In fact we played three games of it and it was close to ten when Gloria said, “It is waaaaaay past the princesses’ bedtime. Given the fact she’ll just beat us in another game I think we should call it a night!” She said with a wink at me.

I’d only won two of the games... And I was pretty sure the second one was a gimme so that Mark wouldn’t win!

Mom and Madison went upstairs with me and Madison asked, “Can I read a bedtime story tonight?”

“Sure!” Mom said with a smile.

She went over and picked out an old favorite of mine from when I really was little, Goodnight Moon, and started to tell it... But she didn’t tell it; she sang it! Between the story and the lullaby of her singing it I was out long before the end.

Chapter 16: Stormy Times

THE NEXT MORNING Mom practically had to pick me up out of bed. “Come on Princess, chore time.”

I spit a stray hair out of my mouth and looked at her bleary eyed. “Clothes?” I asked.

She sighed, “Well, I did ask for you to be cranky today.” Mom dug through my drawers and came out with a purple pair of jeans and a pink t-shirt that she thrust into my hands. I slowly stood up and dressed. Once I had my shirt over my head she pulled my hair into a quick ponytail and said, “Come on, let’s go sis.”

I groaned but found my feet moving one in front of the other. Madison was on her way out to the horse barn and gave me a quick hug, “I love that shirt!” She said to me before she left me.

I looked at the chickens and wanted to skip today. Mom had been so insistent on me getting an early bedtime the last couple weeks that ten-thirty when she finally had me in bed seemed really late! ‘No,’ I said in my mind, ‘Six in the morning is too early!’

I managed to get the chickens fed and then almost got bit by George before I smacked him across the head. He looked dazed but got up and ran away so I was pretty sure I didn’t do any permanent damage, ‘Unfortunately...’ I thought to myself. As if to add to the day I heard “Help Me!” from the stupid peacocks!

I was moving slower apparently because Madison was getting upstairs right when I was too. “You okay Ashley?”

I nodded, “Just tired.” I thought for a moment, “That was a really pretty song last night by the way. Did you make it up?”

She laughed, “No, there’s this composer that my choir teacher at school likes. His name is Eric Whitacre and he’s like really really cool.” She smiled, “My teacher has such a crush on him too, because he is really hot!”

“Madison?” I asked.

“I’m not boy crazy, but I have to say he is cute!”

I shook my head, “Anyway...?

“Well anyway she played the whole album for us at one point and this song came on. He wrote it as a lullaby for his little boy that he and his wife could sing - she’s like an amazing singer!” She smiled, “Anyway, I couldn’t help but think how lucky that kid was at the time and, well, I learned it so maybe I could sing it some day.”

I gave her a hug, “You sang it really pretty last night!”

“You should hear the original, maybe I’ll play it for you later, I have it on my phone.”

I smiled at that. “Now, what took you so long to do your chores today?”

“George came at me again,” I said.

“George?” She asked.

“Haven’t you met him yet?”

“No...?”

“He’s this turkey that has it in for me!”

Madison laughed, “Okay, I think I remember Gloria telling me about him over the phone. Just take a shovel and whack him!”

I blushed, “The shovels are all too heavy... I just normally take a broom handle I found, but I forgot it at first today.”

She gave me a sideways hug and said, “I’m sure today will get better.”

“Do you want to shower first?” I offered her.

“You don’t mind?”

“No, go ahead.”

“Thanks!” She said and I watched her walk quickly to her door and our bathroom door was closed soon after.

I sighed, ‘Today is going to suck...’ I thought in a decidedly un-eight-year-old girl like manner.

I looked at Kaitlyn and wished today was a day when we could just play with dolls. I had a bad feeling that until this afternoon I was going to find it really hard to concentrate on anything. I wondered what Madison might actually want to do today since it had been all about me so far.

“I’m out,” Madison said a moment later with a bathrobe on and a towel wrapped around her hair.

“Kay,” I said. ‘I’ll figure out what I want to wear after I shower...’ I thought to myself. Just as I got to the bathroom I saw the shirt Mom had given me had Snow White on the front and said, ‘Animals Are Our Friends.’ I snorted at that, ‘Not George!!!!’

MADISON FINISHED DRYING her hair about the time she heard the shower turn off. She gave Ashley what she figured would be a good ten minute start on getting dressed and was surprised she hadn’t come in to get her hair done yet. ‘Maybe Amber is doing it?’ She thought to herself. It was funny, but even though she knew her real name she just couldn’t use it... Amber seemed more right.

She decided to check on Ashley and found her hugging her new bear tightly in her bathrobe with signs of fresh tears going down her face. “What’s wrong Ash?”

“Today.” Was all she got out of her.

“Huh?”

“You’ll see later, I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you yet.”

Madison looked surprised at that and a little worried, “I hope you’re not leaving...?” She said and was suddenly enveloped in a hug.

She stroked the girls hair for a few minutes before saying, “No matter what it’ll be okay Ashley, I’ll always be here for you.”

After a little while she sat her up and said, “Okay, now what do you want to wear today?”

“I don’t know... That’s kind of why I started crying,” Ashley looked even more embarrassed then.

Madison gave her a big hug, “That’s why we girls pick clothes out the night before silly!”

Ashley gave her a strange look, “huh?”

“You think you’re the first little girl to start crying because she didn’t know what to wear?”

Ashley shrugged her shoulders, “No...?”

“Right, I did it a month ago!” She said with a smile. “Want me to pick?”

“Sure...” was the hesitant response.

Madison looked through her clothes to find something that looked like it screamed comfort to her. She saw a couple dresses that might work, but with as down as she was Madison thought Ashley would be better off without a dress. But still be dressy... ‘This could work, she seems to like the rompers...’ She thought as she saw a cute denim romper. It was almost to the point of being too cute for an eight year old, but not too bad. It looked comfy to her, and that seemed perfect.

“How about this?” She asked Ashley as she held it up.

She watched her think about it and said, “Okay.”

“Okay, here you go, why don’t you get dressed and then I’ll do your hair.”

Ashley surprised her by just taking the robe off right then and pulling the romper on in front of her. She’d already put on panties so that didn’t take long. ‘I can’t believe she did that in front of me...?’ She was puzzled, but the more she thought about it she had done that a couple other times by now with the dress. ‘I guess she really has gotten comfortable around me,’ She thought to herself.

Once Ashley was satisfied with the straps on top she sat down in her chair expectantly and Madison asked, “What do you want to do with your hair today?”

Ashley shrugged again, “Whatever you feel like.”

Madison thought for a moment and tried to think of something that hadn’t been done on Ashley’s hair yet while she had been there. She played with her hair for a few minutes before settling on making two small braids from the front of her hair back and tying them around the back of her head in the middle. They held her hair back and Madison brushed her bangs down.

“Hmm...” She said, “Come here Ashley, we need my curling irons.”

She led her to her room and sat her down in the chair and waited a couple minutes for the curling irons to warm-up. “What are you doing?” Ashley asked her.

“I thought we’d curl your hair a little bit today,” she said while poking her head into her view.

“Umm... Okay.” she said uncertainly.

“Trust me!” Madison said. ‘I just hope I can do this...’ she sprayed her hair down with some stuff she’d been told to use before and then set about adding a number of curls going down the back of Ashley’s hair. It tightened it up quite a bit and Madison was surprised at how long her hair was. ‘How in the world did she get away with this hair as a boy?!?’ She wondered. ‘Actually, how in the world did she ever pretend to be a boy...?’ There was no doubt in Madison’s mind that Ashley was really a girl.

The last thing she did for her hair was to curl her bangs and used some hairspray to make them stay up a little bit more. She sat the curling iron down and unplugged it. “Are you done?” Ashley asked her.

“Not quite, hold on just a moment, I want to go grab some hair stuff from your desk. No peeking!” Madison warned her with a finger.

She had a feeling halfway through the bathroom and said, “I mean it, no peeking!”

From the ‘aww’ from the room next door she figured she’d been right and giggled. She found the little barrette card she had seen earlier and grabbed it. On the card were six cute butterfly barrettes that had glitter on them. They seemed like the perfect thing to add around the hair braids to either side and she added a total of four before she announced, “Okay, now you can look!”

Madison enjoyed watching Ashley look happy for the first time that morning. She hugged her and said, “Thank you, sorry for being grouchy.”

“It’s okay, I get grouchy sometimes too,” she said with a big smile. ‘Why do we have to live in the very town where I don’t think she and Amber will ever be able to go?!?’ She knew she would love to have this sweet little girl around all of the time back home. Madison also worried that Ashley was going to have to leave for at least a while if she remembered what she had told her at one point. No one deserved to have the pain those two had dealt with.

She found herself giving Ashley an extra sideways hug on the way down to breakfast.

MEGAN LOOKED AT her daughter sitting there at breakfast and felt bad with how depressed she looked. At the same time she looked adorable between the romper and her hair. She’ll have to make sure that she doesn’t wear that around school or friends though, she was pretty sure some of the girls would pick on her for it being babyish. ‘I shouldn’t have bought that one...’ she thought to herself, ‘but it is adorable!’ She practically squealed inside her head.

‘This whole thing sucks completely. The fact that Tony had to give up a great house, great...’ she paused for a moment and sighed inside her head, ‘The truth is the only thing that Tony has given up is being a boy and a few years of age on paper. Truthfully I haven’t seen anything that makes me think he hates either. I guess that might change in the fall though... Being back in third grade is going to be really embarrassing I would think.’

She paused and had to admit, ‘No one will think anything of it though. That’s the bad thing about his height... Well one of them.’

The rest of breakfast was pretty subdued with the people she now considered her extended family. Gloria and Kaitlyn were in on the setup, but neither Ashley nor Madison knew what was going on to finish their story. She looked over at Mark and wondered if they should just let him in on it too. He definitely had a good head on his shoulders and seemed to like Ashley from what she could tell last night. That was a little contrary to the initial impression she’d gotten from him, but he was a teenager after all.

Megan couldn’t help but wonder if she was doing the right things here. For the hands sake, and for the sake of her cover story, they had to do something like this. Roger was even coming through in a big way for her and helping make some extra things happen that she’d never dreamed of. If she could only be sure it would be worth it.

‘If I decide he’s getting close I’ll send Ashley home with Kaitlyn. We can change her hair color to match theirs better and say she’s their niece they took in. I know Kaitlyn would do it, Ashley would be happy to have Madison, and she’d probably be safe... Safer than with my ex-husband at least.’

Megan had no illusions about her life if her husband found her. The main thing was making sure that Ashley survived. Her father-in-law wouldn’t willingly let Ray kill Tony, but she was pretty sure no one would understand Ashley on that side of the family. The very idea of it would probably convince him to let Ray just go ahead and kill her too.

I GOT UP from breakfast and helped Consetta around the kitchen. Madison seemed to be watching me and worried about me. Well... I was really tired from the previous night and really stressed about whatever Mom was stressed about. Between all of it I didn’t know what to do with myself.

“Ashley,” Madison asked, “how about I teach you how to sew today?”

I looked up, “You really think I can sew?”

She nodded, “We’ll start off simple. How about a pillowcase?”

“Umm... Okay...” I said.

She ran into Gloria just getting ready to leave the house, “Aunt Gloria, would you mind if we used the sewing room today to teach Ashley how to sew?”

Gloria looked guilty about something for some reason and said, “In just a few minutes... Umm... Give me some time to clear up a project I started last night.”

“Okay,” Madison said. “We’ll sit on the porch until you’re done?”

“Thank you!” She said.

She left and I asked Madison, “Is she sewing something for me?”

“Who knows, Gloria is one of the sneakiest people I know! My birthday is in three weeks, she could be working on something for me too.”

“Oh,” I said, “I hope she is... I mean you were nice enough to make me that beautiful dress and there’s no way I could ever catch up to you there!”

She smiled, “If you start sewing now I guarantee that when you’re is thirteen you’ll be doing just as well!”

I smiled at her, “Maybe... I don’t know if I’ll be around that long.” I kicked my feet a bit and pushed the swing forward.

“What do you mean?”

“That’s five years... My dad is probably going to find us by then.”

“I hope not,” Madison said and then scooted over closer to me on the swing and put her arm around my shoulder.

I leaned into her, “Madison?”

“Yes Ashley?”

“Thanks... I don’t know what I would do this week without you. It’s going to suck when you have to go home.”

Madison giggled, “I agree, and don’t say ‘suck’ anymore young lady. You’re an eight-year old little girl, it is most certainly not appropriate language!” She chided with a giggle.

“When can girls say it?”

“Seventh grade!” She said with a smile.

Gloria waved at us about that time and we got up and headed over to the barn. “Have fun girls,” she said as she headed off to do her work.

“Thanks!” I heard Madison say in stereo with me. The two of us giggled all the way upstairs to the room.

“Okay, first things first, let me find you some scraps to teach you some of the basics!” She told me with a smile. From a corner of the room she appeared with some odd shaped bits and pieces of different fabrics and had me sit down at the machine.

Madison taught me first of all how to thread the machine, then how to choose the different stitches. After a half-hour she had me stitching some of the junk fabric pieces together. Another half hour later she’d taught me how to switch the feet to do different stitches and we had fun playing with the gazillion stitching options Aunt Gloria’s machine had!

“Okay, let’s start with something simple now,” she said with a smile to me, “Let’s make a pillowcase!”

“Umm... Okay,” I said, not having the slightest clue how to start. From somewhere in Gloria’s stash she found a pillowcase pattern.. Very simple since it was just two rectangles to cut out!

“Okay, fabric!” She said to me and walked over with me to some that she thought would do well, “Let’s stick with something basic cotton wise right now...” she suggested, “one of these solid colors will work great! Which one do you want?”

I looked and there was yellow, purple, red, orange, green, white, and pink in the section she was pointing to. I sighed in my head and said, “Pink?”

She smiled at me, “You made the right choice!”

I just giggled and she carried the bolt of fabric to the cutting section. “Okay, so the first thing is let’s lay this pattern on top of here like this,” she said with the fabric doubled over and the pattern horizontally on the edge that was folded. “By cutting it here it’s one less spot where we have to sew it, and by doing two at once anywhere you save yourself time and make it easier to keep things consistent,” she instructed.

“Okay, now let’s pin it down,” she told me and handed me a red apple stuck with pins after showing me how to pin one first. I probably went overkill with them, but the fabric and the pattern weren’t going anywhere when I was done!

“Now, you have to be really really really really really careful with this rotary cutter. It will go right through your fingers without blinking. First though, put on this glove – it’s called a klutz glove,” She told me as she handed me a rotary cutter after I put on the glove.

I eyed it nervously, “are you sure it’s safe for me to use it then?”

She gave me a hug, “You just have to be careful and move slowly through the cuts. I know you can do it!”

Madison pushed the blade down and locked it in place and I carefully maneuvered the blade through the three sides and then asked, “How’d I do?”

“Great!” She said with a smile. She grabbed the cutter from me then and quickly sliced off the junk fabric from the rest of the bolt, wrapped it back up the rest of the way, and took it back. Madison was back over before I could even think of climbing down from the counter. I was short enough there had been no way for me to comfortably reach the counter and had to do it from on top.

‘I bet Gloria had this adjusted for her height!’ I thought semi-amused. ‘It seems taller than normal...’

“Okay, now there aren’t any markings on this pattern, but let’s go ahead and mark the seam allowance so it’ll be easier for you to sew it! Use that blue pencil, it has chalk instead of lead.”

From somewhere she grabbed a large yardstick and held it for me 3/8” inside the edges that needed to be sewn while I carefully marked along the edge. Once those two lines were done she said, “Okay, let’s go give this a shot?”

“Okay!” I said and we started to head to the sewing machine.

Just as we were about to get started though Gloria appeared in the doorway and asked, “Are you two ladies coming to lunch?”

I looked up at the clock and couldn’t believe it was already Noon! “Umm... We’re coming Aunt Gloria,” I said.

We followed her to the dining room and grabbed a bowl of the chili that Consetta had made. Madison and I put almost as many crackers in as there was chili by the time all was said and done. Along with plenty of cheese!

I noticed right then that Mom dug around in the pocket of the overalls she was wearing for her phone. ‘Here it begins...’ I thought to myself. I watched her do a great job of acting, but keeping it together.

“Umm... Aunt Gloria?” I heard her say.

“Yes Amber?”

“I need to go to town and make a phone call... Would you keep an eye on Ashley this afternoon?”

“Sure thing hon,” she said.

I sighed and tried to act normal.

When Madison and I had finished lunch we went back up to the sewing room. “Here, let’s just start by putting a stitch along the edges here, just move it up and down with the motor a few times,” she said with the insides facing out. I carefully started the stitch for about seven cycles and stopped it. “Okay, press this and reverse it for about five stitches,” I watched it slowly do that before she said, “Okay, and now just sew it almost all the way to the end!”

I had a few moments where it went faster than I was comfortable but quickly released the pedal and started again. Madison had found a stool for me to put the pedal on so I could reach it from the chair I was sitting in. As I neared the end of the line I asked, “What now?”

“Keep going a little bit farther... There!” She said and I released the pedal. “Now use the back button again,” she said, “and go ahead and finish it off!”

I watched the last fabric go past the needle and waited for her to saying something. “Good job!” She praised, “Let’s cut these strings off and then do the next side...” Madison walked me through the other side and then finally the entrance edge of the pillowcase.

“Wow, it looks like a real pillow case!” I said a few minutes later.

“Uh-huh, I told you it wasn’t hard!”

“I guess not...”

“Now, so we can make it last a little bit longer go ahead and turn it inside out and let’s go play with one of Aunt Gloria’s toys.”

She led me over to the machine that she called a serger. “This will let you put a really nice edge on those inner seams and keep them from unraveling.” Madison did one edge and I did the other, but we stopped at the entrance part for some reason.

“Wow,” Gloria said from behind me, “look at you!”

“See what we made?” I said.

“For a first time sewing, that is excellent Ashley! Your stitches are pretty straight!” She said with a smile. “You want to add some other things to it?”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Well, I have these fun embroidery machines, I bet we could add a pretty picture in the middle of it and maybe even put your name in!”

“Really?”

“Really,” she said.

Madison seemed just as excited as I was about getting to play with the embroidery machine. Gloria showed us all of the built-in images that she had and of course I wanted a Princess one. We picked out a design that had several princesses and then set the case in the hoop. “Now this will take a awhile,” she told me, “so you’ll have to be patient!”

I smiled, if I was really eight that would have been a problem! “Okay.”

We all watched as it stitched out the design and Gloria switched out some thread every now and then. When it was finished I couldn’t believe that it had been made before my eyes, it looked like something from the store! I thought she would pull it out when it was done, but she adjusted some programming on it and started it again. She’d moved so fast I hadn’t been able to see what she was doing. Soon enough I got it though, it said, “Princess Ashley” underneath it.

I gave her a hug, “You are the coolest Aunt ever!”

She smiled, “And you are the cutest two princesses I’ve ever had here!”

Madison blushed amusingly enough at that too as she was drug into a hug.

“Now, why don’t you two go throw that in the wash and then go play with your dolls till supper, that’s just a couple more hours at this point.”

I looked at the clock and was once again amazed at how it seemed to run faster when we were in there. “Okay,” I said.

Madison and I walked past the house as I saw Mom drive up the driveway. I just waved though and kept going.

MEGAN DROVE UP and watched her daughter and Madison walk upstairs without a care in the world. At least that’s how it seemed. She knew very well that her daughter was looking forward to this like a visit to the dentist!

Some of the hands were just walking up to the house to get something to drink when Gloria stopped at the porch and waved at her. Starting the water works up she ran up to Gloria and sobbed into her shoulder. After all they’d been through the last few weeks it really wasn’t that hard to genuinely sob!

“Oh Gloria, how can I possibly tell Ashley?!?” She sobbed a moderately coherent sentence and knew the hands had to have heard that. It wasn’t Hank and Annie, which was even better.

“Calm down sweetie, it’s okay, tell her what?”

“That...” she sobbed, “that... Our parents are dead!” She broke down into tears again and felt Gloria consoling her.

‘Oddly enough this feels pretty real even to me...’

Right then she felt another set of arms surround her and looked up to see Kaitlyn, crying too.

MADISON AND I sat on the floor of my room playing with the Barbie’s and the dollhouse for the first time together. Madison had claimed it was a crime if I didn’t occasionally use such a pretty dollhouse! She also wanted me to know how to play with it in case my friends came over. If there was one thing she was sure of, it was that my friends would love to play with it!

We were just finishing putting the ‘dinner’ onto the table in the dining room when Mom came in with her face red. Kaitlyn and Gloria came with her like I knew they would if it was real. “Umm... Ashley, I need to talk to you.”

“Okay?” I said.

“Why don’t we go downstairs to the living room?” Gloria suggested, “It’ll be more comfortable there.”

“Okay?” I said continuing the act. On a whim I grabbed my Kaitlyn doll and went downstairs with them. Mom directed me to sit next to her on the couch and I couldn’t help but notice there were a few hands in the next room quietly talking to one another.

“Ashley,” Mom said with a sniffle, “I really don’t know how to say this...” She sniffed again but took a deep breath in. Mom could have earned a Tony Award that day! “I got a phone call this afternoon... Mom and Dad...” she sobbed, “Mom and Dad died yesterday sweetie.”

“No!” I shouted.

“Sweetie it’s true, I’m sorry,” Mom said.

“Mom and Dad can’t...”

She reached over to me and grabbed me in a hug and I began to sob. Staying up too late and suffering from so much stress the last several weeks made it easy to cry like a baby. There were other arms around us. Kaitlyn, Gloria, and Madison all made their own great supporting roles.

By the time we had ‘gotten it together’ I could see that the hands were gathered in the dining room. Hank and Annie came up to us, “Ladies, we’re real sorry to hear about your folks... If there’s anything we can do, you just let us know.”

Mom and I sobbed a thanks and accepted similar sentiments from all of the hands until it was only the six of us in the house. Mark had come down to find out about the commotion and started to offer his own condolences. Mom shook her head though, “Mark, can you keep a secret?”

He almost looked affronted by that.

“Yes, of course I can.”

“This isn’t a play secret,” Kaitlyn told him, “this is a ‘these two will die’ secret.”

He looked oddly at her and said, “You know I can keep a secret Mom.” Mark looked suspiciously at us, “What’s going on?”

“Mark, let me apologize up front for not telling you this sooner... But I didn’t want anyone else to know. Madison finding out didn’t make me very happy with my child.”

“Okay, I’ll accept that...?” He said questioningly.

Gloria stood up and made sure everyone was in fact gone and locked the doors just in case.

“Mark, we’re not really sisters...” she looked at me for permission and I nodded, “Until a couple weeks ago we were living in Columbus with my husband, and my daughter was actually my son Tony.”

Cue lead balloon!

“What?” he said, looking over at me.

“Mark, my son and I were being badly abused by my husband. I don’t ever want to think about the bruises Tony had when we ran, or think about how much pain I was in as well. About two weeks ago, and I can’t believe that’s all it’s been, we left home shortly after my husband left to go somewhere for work. We drove to Dayton, switched cars, and then drove to Atlanta. Down there we started talking and decided we needed a disguise... A waitress kept calling Tony my daughter and we decided that maybe it would be better to go ahead and disguise ourselves as a big sister taking care of her baby sister while her parents were on a vacation.”

“No way?!?” He said, “This is something like out of a spy movie. Why in the world would you need to do all of this?”

“This like everything doesn’t leave the room Mark, but my husband’s family is a pretty powerful mafia family. They have a major ‘front’ business that operates all over the country letting them smuggle just about whatever they want. Dressed as we were, or being ourselves would have let them find us pretty quick,” Mom said quietly.

“Wow...” he said, “so why come here?”

“Your mom was my best friend growing up, and I came here one summer with her. I figured if there was anyone we could turn to it would be your Aunt Gloria. Coming here was our best hope...”

“And... Tony...? You’re okay with this?” He looked at me.

I nodded, “It’s Ashley now... Even if we could guarantee my dad would never find us I want to stay Ashley. It would be nice to be older again though...” I added with a smile.

“How old are you really?”

“I’ll be eleven next month,” I answered.

“So that wasn’t a real birthday party?”

“Oh, it was most definitely a real birthday party for Ashley,” Gloria said with a smile.
“The truth is Mark, we’re probably going to have to stick with our new identification and stories until we die. Odds are my husband will never give up.”

“Why don’t you just go to the FBI?”

I looked at Mom, “I’m so tired of getting asked that question...”

She laughed and said, “My husband has a source there. He’d find us through them and eliminate me and take Ashley back home...”

He nodded, “And the extreme waterworks just now?”

“Have to keep up our story that Ashley and I are orphans. We’re going to head to Dallas tomorrow to take care of the estate. Our story though is that we’re just waiting for the ashes and we’ll spread them around here somewhere. It’s not worth shipping a set of bodies up from Chile where they were supposedly skiing. Both of them died together in an avalanche.”

“Wow... This doesn’t seem real,” he said. “So what should I call you?” He asked me

“Please call me Ashley,” I told him with a smile.

“So I just treat you like an eight year old princess and life is good?” He asked with a smile.

I nodded.

“Good!” He surprised me by coming over and picking me up and giving me a hug, “You are awesome, to do this.”

“Thanks,” I said, “and thanks for keeping our secret.”

“You’re welcome.” He said and gave Mom a hug too.

“So what now?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Well, Gloria is going to drop us off at the airport tomorrow...”

“And you’re just going to bum around Dallas for a week?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Something like that Kate, I’ll tell you later.”

Mom looked at Kaitlyn, “Madison, there are going to be some times where I need Ashley to have a babysitter available, you want to come with us?” Mom asked with a smile.

I frowned, “Babysitter?!?” ‘I knew this was coming!!!!’

“Not as a babysitter,” Madison said, “I’d love to come as her big cousin who is hanging out with her while you do things.”

I smiled at her, she understood me…

“Okay with you Kaitlyn?”

“Definitely, I do not want to have her moping around here because Ashley isn’t here!” She smiled.

“Okay you two need to go pack enough clothes for a week. Once you’re done I want you to put them outside in the hallway so I can make sure they’re packed with the right things.” Mom said. “Both of you bring one doll each and one stuffed animal each,” she added.

“They have to go into the suitcase?” I asked sadly.

“We’ll keep our dolls out,” Madison said with a smile.

“That’ll work,” Mom agreed.

The rest of the evening was spent in planning and Mom putting me to bed early. She made arrangements for a compassionate last minute set of plane tickets to Dallas before I went to bed. I hoped it wasn’t a mistake to fly back there.

MEGAN AND KAITLYN talked downstairs in Gloria’s office. “I think this will work and make it to where Ashley can have a stress break.”

“What’s this Ashley business Megan? You need one too!” She said with a smile. “I wish I could go with you, but I don’t know how to make that look right.”

“I do too!” She said with her own smile. Megan suddenly gave Kaitlyn a hug, “I’m so glad we’re friends again!”

“Me too,” she said, “Even better that our daughters are getting close too!”

“Do you think Madison will be okay with this?”

“Oh, I’m sure she’s going to love it. They’re both going to be ecstatic...” she giggled, “and probably both are going to beat up on you a bit too! They’re not going to believe that you lied to them about that.”

“I never really lied Kaitlyn, I just didn’t tell them everything...”

They both laughed then and kept talking for a long while before Megan knew she had to go to bed.

STELLA AND TOM drove back to their house in silence. Once home they made their way to their own home office and Tom turned on a new gadget Gary had just palmed to him. With a few minutes effort he found and eliminated three listening devices, putting them inside a solid lead and copper shielded firebox, rendering them harmless. It was sound proof and would stop signals from transmitting. He did leave the phone one in place. “Is that all of them?” Stella asked.

“I hope so,” Tom replied.

“I’m so glad they’re alive...” Stella said.

“I know hon, I just wished I knew how to help them out more...”

“I know. Do you think Tony is okay with everything?”

“Yeah, I would be willing to bet this is for the better for him,” he said as he hugged his wife. They had an unspoken agreement that their cover identities wouldn’t be spoken, nor would their location. But, with the bugs taken care of they should be able to speak without too many problems.

“How long do you think before they get desperate and come after us?”

“I give it two months,” Tom said. “At that point he’ll be so furious he’ll do anything. Actually Giovanni may decide at that point they have to because he’ll be worried they went to Witness Protection...”

“They’ve done as much as they would have done for them...” Stella noted.

“Yeah, I don’t know how the hell Megan pulled that off, but it was slick work. I wish I could give her a hug and tell her how proud I am of her.”

“I’m sure she knows honey, I’m sure she knows.”

“Don’t forget, don’t go anywhere unarmed from here on out,” he reminded her.

“Tom, I haven’t left the house without a gun since we were recruited,” she reminded him with a smile.

“I know... I just worry,” he said.

The two of them re-planted the bugs for the moment since they knew where they were. The sensor got placed in a safe place near and dear to their guns. With the security system armed, and a separate security system armed as well they called it a night and slept holding each other tight.

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

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 17: Deceptions
 
I WOKE UP to the sound of the obnoxious peacocks joining in the sounds of my nightmare and found tears streaming down my face. It was a half-hour before I was supposed to wake up, but I couldn’t take being alone anymore. I opened my door and walked across the hallway to my mom’s room. It was open and so I walked in. Mom was still lying in bed sleeping, so I pulled the covers up and slid next to her.

I must have fallen back to sleep because I felt a hug and Mom asked, “And when did you come in here Princess?”

I felt some tears start back up in my eyes. I was really embarrassed about feeling the need to come sleep with my mom. “I had a nightmare...”

“Oh, sweetie, it’s okay,” She told me and stroked my hair. The alarm started going off and she said, “You ready to get started?”

I nodded.

“Okay then, why don’t you go get dressed in one of the outfits you have that’s the same as a doll outfit, and dress Kaitlyn in the same one.”

I looked at her, but nodded without any questioning. Today was going to be a serious day all day with finishing establishing our cover story. I wasn’t looking forward to whatever fake stuff we had to do in Dallas though. I was also kind of nervous about going back there since I had a feeling people were kind of looking for us there.

Mom gave me a hug and I walked back to my room. I settled on my white, pink, and blue plaid dress and found the matching outfit for Kaitlyn. Because I knew we would be walking all over the place today, I chose some white sandals with a back-strap over the blue ones that matched Kaitlyn’s. Mom gave me a pink Disney Princess backpack last night before bed that I packed with a few outfits for Kaitlyn, a couple coloring books, and a couple Barbie’s just because I thought a normal eight-year old would probably bring them.

Madison came in and saw how I was dressed and smiled. “Want me to do your hair?”

I nodded, “Please.”

She directed me to the chair and worked on my hair for a while before pronouncing I was done. I looked in the mirror and saw the pretty French Braiding and asked her, “Can you do dolls like that too?”

Madison smiled, “When we get to the airport we’ll do it together, both of our dolls, okay?”

“Okay,” I said. It would add to our disguise so I was sure it was a good plan. Mom met us down at breakfast and we had our suitcases sitting in the entranceway. Madison had Mackenzie in her arms most of breakfast too. The whole meal was subdued and both Mom and I received sympathy cards from just about everyone. I noticed some of Mom’s had money, which she tried to give back but they wouldn’t hear of it.

I knew she must have felt guilty about that.

“You heading home then?” Hank asked.

“Yeah, Mom and Dad...” She sniffled, “were very smart about things. The estate should be taken care of by their lawyer. He said that me getting custody of Ashley is a given in the will, so it’s just a matter of appearing in front of a judge...” She sniffled again.

“What are you going to do after this week?” Annie asked kindly.

Mom had a few tears that she wiped away and I didn’t hide the ones forming in my eyes either. “Well, last night Aunt Gloria offered to let me stay on for a couple years... Let me get some experience here before moving on.” Mom looked at Gloria and said, “I think we’re going to take her up on it. At least for a year or so...”

“What about school?” Annie asked her.

“I already have two degrees, the agricultural degree was more of an extra. I’m sure I can find plenty of work out there with my engineering degree.”

I watched one guy cough, Collin I think, “You have an engineering degree?”

Mom smiled thinly, “two actually.”

“How...?”

“I graduated early, I was bored at school and my parents let me.” I knew that was actually the truth for her - it wasn’t even a lie.

“Well we’ll be happy to have you around and happy to help you out with Ashley...” Annie said.

“That’s a large part of why we’re going to come back here... Aunt Gloria can help out with Ashley, and we can work on getting her into a stable situation for a while.”

It felt odd being talked about like this, but I was only supposed to be a barely eight-year old. The old ‘children should be seen and not heard’ line popped into my head. Mom had actually always been good about never doing that to me... Well, at least the last few years.

“Well, are you about finished?” Gloria asked, “It’s time to be getting to the airport for your flight.”

“Yeah, Madison? Ashley?” We nodded and stood up.

There were more hugs given and the several of the guys insisted on carrying our bags into Gloria’s car. Once it was packed up Gloria lifted me into the car seat and buckled me in while Mom climbed into the front seat and Madison sat next to me.

“Be good Madison, listen to Amber and keep an eye on Ashley for her,” Kaitlyn said.

“I will Mom,” she said with a smile.

And with that, we were off!

I watched the landscape go by from my seat and held Kaitlyn tight in my arms. I couldn’t help but notice Madison doing the same next to me. At the airport they took the car seat out of the car and wrapped it up at the counter. I watched from the distance with Madison as Mom got us checked in. Madison had her arms around me and soon Mom had the tickets and was waving at us to meet her.

“Ready girls?” Mom asked.

We nodded and followed her through the security lines. Mom handed over our tickets to the agents for us and we walked through the line. “Ladies, would you please put your dolls in these bins?” A lady asked, “I promise they’ll be just fine.” She winked at Madison. I gave mine a quick squeeze and put her in the box. It was a quick jog through and we caught up with our stuff and I soon had Kaitlyn back in hand. I saw the signs for a Dallas flight and sure enough Mom led us to the seats in the area.

“You want to go ahead and braid Kaitlyn and Mackenzie’s hair?” Madison asked with a smile.

“Okay,” I said in a subdued voice.

Mom looked at us and said, “Madison, why don’t you two sit in front of me and I’ll do your hair like Ashley’s. I’m guessing you’re doing the same with the dolls?”

We nodded and so we both sat on the floor. Madison showed me how to grab the hair and separate the strands. It was really hard, even though she made it look pretty easy. By the time all was said and done, hers looked great and mine looked pretty good. Mom in the meantime had made Madison’s hair match mine perfectly.

A lady sitting next to us smiled and asked Mom, “Daughters?”

Mom laughed, “This one,” she said pointing to Madison, “is waaaay too old to be mine... And this one,” she said pointing to me, “would have resulted in my death by my parents.” She froze a bit there, “She is... was Mom and Dad’s surprise blessing.”

I sniffled too and hugged Mom. We were acting... sort of. I think we both understood losing the parents since we’d both basically done it.

“I’m their cousin,” Madison explained... “I’m flying with them to help them out back home for a week or so.”

The lady seemed to cue in on something not being right, “Is everything alright dear?” She asked Mom.

She shook her head, “I found out yesterday that our parents died...” She wiped a few tears and sniffled, “we’re going home to take care of things and then I’m going to bring Ashley back here and stay with our aunt for a while.”

“You poor dears,” the lady said and I could see she was misting up too, “I’m terribly sorry for your loss...”

“Thanks,” Mom said.

We were left alone from then on though by most people because they couldn’t help but hearing. With Madison’s hair done she jumped back into a chair next to Mom and I found myself sitting in her lap when they called the first boarding groups. They reached our group and Mom had us in line ready to go.

“Wow, I love that your doll and you are wearing the same thing, that’s soo cute!” the lady taking tickets said.

“Thanks,” I said.

It was a quick glance, but I swore I saw a second set of tickets in Mom’s ticket sleeve. I wasn’t sure though. I just figured they must be our return tickets.

We boarded the plane and I placed my backpack under the seat in front of me. I couldn’t even come close to reaching the floor with my feet so I wasn’t worried about legroom! I let Madison put her backpack there too since it wasn’t going to cramp me. Mom was able to stuff her purse and another bag down in front of her too. I sat in the middle between them as the stewardesses prepared the plane to leave.

“Well hello, aren’t you cute?” One of them said to me.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Flying back home from vacation?” She asked.

I started crying then and felt like I deserved a major acting award. I leaned into Mom and heard her say, “Sorry... We’re flying back home... But it’s early, our parents were killed in an accident the other day.”

“Oh my God I’m so sorry!” She said.

“It’s okay, we’re both pretty frazzled right now.” Mom said.

“If I can get you anything don’t hesitate,” she told us.

“Thanks.”

Mom squeezed my hand after a few more minutes of crying and I sat back up in my seat for take off. Eventually I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew was the plane touching down at the airport.

“Okay, Princess, wake up,” Mom said.

“Ugh... We’re here already?”

“Uh-huh.” She said. Mom then whispered into my ear, “We’re going to go to the bathroom, be ready to change quickly.”

“Huh?” I started to say but nodded. She whispered to Madison too at that point and we headed towards the bathroom stalls. Just before I got into mine she handed me a small cheap backpack with ropes for straps. I knew better than to ask questions so I quickly changed into the pink Princess shirt and the white skort that she had placed in there. I folded my dress and put it inside and noticed the other outfit for Kaitlyn in there. I switched her clothes as well and found Mom waiting for me outside the stall door. She pushed her way in with me and closed the door again. I felt embarrassed as she quickly pulled my hair out of the French Braid and up into two loose pigtails instead.

When I got a look at myself in the mirror a few minutes later I could see I looked a year or two younger and different than I had a moment ago. Mom had added a pair of glasses to her face and changed her hair as well. Madison now sported two pigtails too and was wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top.

Mom reached for my hand and pulled me along. She led us along quite the stretch of corridors before pulling up to a flight that said Orlando as the destination.

“Where are we going?” I asked in a whisper.

“To see the Princesses,” Mom whispered back with a smile.

It was loud enough that Madison could hear too and she squealed. “Really?”

Mom nodded, “I’ll explain when we get there.”

I played with Madison while we waited. She showed me a couple clapping game things that I had seen girls play before but had no idea how to do them. We waited for a while then stopped at the restroom one more time before getting on the flight to Orlando. As the plane’s wheels left the ground I couldn’t contain my excitement and squealed quietly. This was going to be fun!!!!!

MEGAN COULDN’T HELP but smile as she looked at her daughter and Madison. The idea of disappearing to have a vacation rather than faking funeral arrangements in Dallas had been a good one. Gloria had liked it the second she’d told her about it! Kaitlyn thought her daughter would enjoy it too, so they were sure it was going to be a nice break. The main thing is that it kept them away from Dallas, which was far more important to her.

Megan had a strong gut feeling that Ray and the FBI had probably tracked her to Dallas. The FBI probably would have found the car by now and, if that was the case, she figured they probably had current pictures of them. It seemed only a matter of time before people found them if they stuck around there. By hopping over to Orlando it would put them in a new place that would hopefully be safe.

‘I hope Madison likes her surprises...’ she thought to herself. Since she had made Ashley the dress on Monday, Gloria had come up with a neat way to say thank you to her.

Megan smiled, this was going to be a safe break from reality that they all needed!

“We are now approaching Orlando and will be landing in about fifteen minutes. We hope you have enjoyed your flight...” The captain said the typical landing spiel and she tuned it out. When she was planning the trip she discovered a big downside to having set her age at twenty-three... Car rental companies weren’t overly accommodating until age twenty-five. She had found one company that would rent to her, but it was a higher price. It was just a necessary evil for her though.

‘There’s no way that Ray would expect us to take a vacation amidst all of this... Disney World is probably the safest place we’ll be for a long time!’ She thought to herself reassuringly. Roger helped her set up a fake obituary to run in the paper and online at a mortuary in McKinney and Dallas. The obituary made it clear that the funeral would be a private affair held at a later date. An address, supposedly their home, had been listed where cards and flowers might be sent.

At the same time Roger was spending some time helping her make it look like the money she was withdrawing on this trip was legitimately from a quick house sale. Besides having fun they were also going to be making a short jaunt down to Miami to pick up the cashiers check from one bank and deposit into another. This was going to be her last step in clearing the rest of the money she had taken from Ray. The check she was picking up was going to show as being from a title company, which would make it look like the house sale. It was also going to be a pretty secure setup because of the way she was doing it. She hoped it would be enough! Miami was a convenient location to do the final transfer onshore from the Swiss banks where she had moved the rest of the money.

‘Ray is going to be so pissed some day when he figures out I know about those accounts too,’ she thought with a giggle.

They unloaded from the plane and began heading for the baggage claim. Once she’d claimed all of their bags with Madison and Ashley they loaded it all with the car seat onto a luggage cart. They then headed out to find the rental car company. ‘I don’t miss that about having a baby... I don’t want us to get pulled over though.’ Even though she’d looked up Florida’s laws and found it to be pretty lenient, only up till age five, she didn’t want to deal with any unwanted attention from law enforcement.

Besides, she was certain that Ashley was probably going to be acting more like her identities age than her real age on this trip. Madison would probably act even more like a kid she figured as well. Megan was looking forward to that with both of them though!

“May I help you?” the man at the counter asked.

“Yes, I have a reservation for Amber Caffrey?”

The man typed at his computer for a few moments. “Yes Miss, I see you have one right here. How will you be paying for this?”

“Debit card,” she said. One thing she’d been able to do the previous week was to establish a bank account and deposited an initial eight thousand into it. Gloria had the rest of her cash in a safe and she was going to slowly deposit that money over a year or so. IRS flags were a big thing she was leery of, the last thing she wanted was to get caught because of them! The title company check would raise flags, but she was certain the IRS would be satisfied with everything as a quick inheritance property sale.

Roger had someone he trusted going through garage sales that week in Dallas and was going to ship a truckload of personal items to them at Gloria’s house. Things that were antiques that they obviously wouldn’t want to part with, old dolls for Ashley, a bunch of size 6 and 6X clothes that an eight-year old wouldn’t wear, but she could still fit into, could go in the back of her closet type things... It was overkill she hoped, but she didn’t want the killing to begin for real either.

“Okay Miss Caffrey, if I could just get you to sign here...?”

She signed in the appropriate places and they were led to the row of cars and they did the typical inspection. The employee helped them load the suitcases in the trunk and she began working on getting Ashley’s car seat in. “Madison, why don’t you ride up front...?”

“Umm.... Okay?” She said and climbed up front while Mom attached her pedal extensions to the pedals. As they pulled out of the airport Madison asked, “Why did you want me to sit up front?”

“It looks normal,” Mom said simply.

I SAT IN the backseat strapped in and felt a little bit annoyed that Mom had Madison sit in the front seat. I wasn’t really that lonely in the back, but I felt even more like a little kid then.

“So are we still just cousins?” Madison asked.

Mom nodded, “Same story basically, but I wanted to treat my baby sister to a great eighth birthday present so we came out here.”

“But no dead parents?” I asked.

“Our parents are still dead, but I’m raising you,” Mom answered.

“Oh,” I said simply.

“This is going to be fun!” Madison said as she saw the first sign for Disney World.

“Have you been here before Madison?”

“Once... My parents took me here when I was really little. You guys?”

“Not too long ago, a year or so,” Mom said, “although I think it’ll be a bit more fun this time!”

“It couldn’t be less...” I mentioned. The last trip with my dad had been a disaster. Mom and I would try and have fun and my dad was uptight about it. Neither of us had that much fun in the end compared to what we could have. One day he had gone on his own to do some work stuff and that day had been a blast! Mom had bought me Mickey ears that day and we’d actually enjoyed the day without him there.

Mom just said, “It’ll be fun,” to end that line of thinking.

I watched the signs go by and the entrance grow into view as Mom drove through the streets and eventually pulled up to our hotel. Checking in was cool with all of the themed stuff around, and I was really looking forward to going to the park. “Amber, when are we going to the park?” I asked Mom.

“Tomorrow,” she answered.

“What are we doing today then?” I asked a little hesitantly.

“Well, first things first, I’m going to need you both to get changed, do your hair for you, and then we’re going to go to a dinner with the Princesses tonight!” She said with a smile.

“Did you say both of us?” Madison asked nervously.

“Uh-huh,” Mom said as she swiped the keycard into our room.

She took one of the two suitcases she had brought and opened it up to reveal my Merida costume that she’d given me before, and a beautiful Belle costume that had to be for Madison. “Oh my God!!!” She said as Mom handed it to her.

“Today and tomorrow I’m going to enjoy walking around with royalty,” she said with a smile.

“But... Aren’t I too old...?” Madison started.

“No, you most definitely are not!” Mom told her. “And I guarantee in that dress there will be a lot of jealous little girls!” She said with a smile.

We both hugged her and Madison asked, “Where did you get this?”

“Your Aunt Gloria made it for you in the last three days after we decided we were doing this. Now go get changed, if anyone asks today or tomorrow though you’re just twelve, okay?” Mom asked her.

Madison smiled, “Okay!”

AGENT KLINE LOOKED at the envelope that had been hand delivered to him directly at his request. Inside he found several DVD’s that supposedly had the footage from the different Wal-Mart’s near the hotel that Megan Franchino had stayed at.

A quick look at his watch though led to a shout of, “Oh shit!” his wife was going to kill him if he didn’t make it home quickly. He took a moment to lock the DVD’s into his safe. They would have to wait until Monday.

MADISON AND I soon changed into our costumes and Mom worked on our hair. She put the tiara on I had received for my birthday onto my head, and had another one for Madison. I was really glad Mom hadn’t left Madison out of this... and I loved how happy she seemed to be. Downstairs we walked to a restaurant that was apparently in our hotel.

“Good evening your highnesses,” a nicely dressed host said to us. “Do you have a reservation?” he asked Mom.

“Caffrey?”

“Ah yes, I see you’re right here...” Mom had apparently pre-paid so he said, “Would you please step over here and we’ll take your picture with Prince Charming in just a moment.”

The three of us all giggled at that and sure enough had a picture with him soon after that. I caught a lot of bemused glances from other people in the restaurant, but there were lots of little girls dressed up as princesses so we didn’t stand out. Madison was by far the tallest, but she didn’t look too old to be doing it. The meal was a buffet and we each filled a plate and returned to our table. Mom broke out the camera and took pictures with us, and all of the princesses that came by, as well as some other characters.

By the time we returned to our hotel we were both smiling. Madison hugged Mom, “Thank you so much, I haven’t had that much fun ever!”

“Well just wait till tomorrow,” She said with a smile. “Remember, you’re twelve!” she reminded her sternly.

I giggled at that and she rewarded me by tickling me.

“Okay, we’re going to be making an early start of it, so both of you need to hang your dresses up and put on your nightgowns.”

“I didn’t bring a nightgown...?” Madison said.

“Of course you didn’t, we took care of that for you,” she said with a smile.

It turned out that Mom and Gloria had planned this little vacation and decided Madison could use it as well. Neither of them had missed the fact that Madison hated literally growing up so fast! So, they had set things up for her to have some fun too. I saw her come out of the bathroom after I had changed and we were wearing identical nightgowns that were a little over the top in frilliness. I slept with Mom that night in her bed and felt safe and loved.

THE NEXT MORNING Mom had us up early, showered, and then said, “I tried to get you two into the Princess Boutique... But they were booked up for like six months in advance. So instead I thought I would take care of you this morning,” she said with a smile. “So go ahead and change into your dresses,” she told us both.

Once we were dressed Mom spent time making my hair curly like Merida. She spent time with Madison’s and it soon looked like the hair from the ballroom scene where her yellow dress came from. I couldn’t help but notice though that while the dress was as long as a gown, it wasn’t gynormously full like the real dress. She should be able to walk around and ride rides in it.

“Is this actually the dress you bought?” I asked Mom while she was painting my nails.

She smiled, “No, Gloria decided you should have something a little bit better made for this week. She made another one with better fabrics based off the play one we gave you.” She hesitated, “I think the original is in pieces in her sewing room…”

I didn’t know if I should be upset or not by that, but just asked, “Oh, when did she do all of this?”

“Last week and this week,” Mom said.

I was a little shocked that they had thought this far ahead and I didn’t have a clue. After a while Mom pronounced us done and we had pictures taken. “How are we going to explain these pictures later?” I asked her.

“Not sure, I don’t care right now. We’re just going to have fun the next few days without thinking about anything else!” She told me.

“You look like the odd one out,” Madison said with a smile.

“Well someone has to be the grown-up,” she said with a wink. The three of us made our way to the monorail and rode into the Magic Kingdom Park. Throughout the day we rode rides, had fun, and enjoyed being treated like princesses by all of the cast members. I laughed when one little girl thought Madison was actually a real Belle because of her height. We managed to find both of our characters and took pictures with them that day. They both stayed in character, but they noted our clothes appeared “more royal than many of the princesses they hang out with.” That resulted in giggles from us!

By the time fireworks came that night I think all three of us were exhausted, and I was falling asleep on my feet. Mom had us both get cleaned up and in bed by about eleven.

THE NEXT DAY we wore our regular clothes to Epcot, but we still wore our tiaras. I was growing quite fond of mine! We had a great time and Mom was going overboard on princess souvenirs for both of us. Madison tried to object at one point but she wouldn’t hear anything of it. By the time we walked to the monorail after the fireworks there we were once again exhausted and barely able to hold all of the bags we had!

“What are we doing tomorrow?” I asked her as we set our bags in the room.

“Tomorrow we have to make a short trip actually... I need to take care of some last things cover wise.” Mom said to me.

“Where are we going?” Madison asked.

“Well we’re going to head to Miami early.”

I groaned, “Miami?” I’d been to Miami once before and it hadn’t been a very fun trip in my memory.

“I think you’ll like most of this trip,” she assured me. “But that means sleep soon!” She told me.

“Okay,” I said.

“Good night Amber,” Madison said as she sat down on her bed. Suddenly she hugged me and said, “Good night to you too Ashley!”

“Good night,” I said as I lay back down and was out!

AGENT KLINE PULLED into his parking space Monday morning. The weekend had been busy with family chores around the house and he had enjoyed not thinking about his active cases every second of the day. He walked through the front doors and immediately had an agent come up to him, “Agent Kline, you’re needed in the bosses office right away!”

“What for?”

“I don’t know, something big going down.”

He shook his head, “So much for getting my own cases taken care of?”

Agent Kline took the elevator up to his supervisor’s office and sat down in the offered chair. “Bob you’re never going to believe what just turned up?”

“What?”

“Well we’ve been searching for Renaldo Escobar for what... Twenty years now?”

He nodded; it was an early case that the two of them had worked on as rookies. One of the mafia families in Chicago was believed to have killed him, but no one had proof or knew anything. “Something new pop up?”

“Yeah, his body!” He said excitedly.

“Where?” And from that point forward he knew he was going to be occupied with this old cold case for the next few days.

MEGAN LOOKED BACK in her rearview mirror at her daughter sleeping soundly in her car seat. On her right Madison was sleeping with her head against the window too. Both of them had their dolls in hand and princess shirts on. Megan had made sure to find plenty of cute Disney stuff for Madison in the shops in addition to going a little bit wild buying for her own daughter. Ashley was the perfect size for almost all of it, because she could choose to have something that fit her perfectly in the little girls sizes, or was a bit long in the regular girls sizes. She had let Madison know to try and keep that discreet from her daughter a much as possible though, she didn’t want her to feel like she was being ‘babied’ anymore than she already knew she was.

All in all the last two-and-a-half days since they had arrived had been a blast for them. She hoped that the two of them would have fun this morning as well before she dropped Madison and Ashley off at a mall while she went to the banks. She’d come prepared with a blonde wig that was closer to her natural hair color. Megan was going to put it on while she did the initial transaction. The second bank would be done as her new identity, so she would lose the wig for that one. She hated that there would be yet one more paper trail of a check leading to the new bank, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. Cash amounts of $10k plus raised eyebrows and flags. You couldn’t even do it in small amounts in a week because it would raise the same suspicions. The simple fact of the matter was that she had just barely skirted under those flags for six months leading up to their escape.

Megan felt relatively certain that this transaction would be safe though. The money had originated from Ray’s Swiss accounts and she had transferred it in varying amounts through twenty different spots before sending it over to the Cayman Islands. Once there she did the same over another twenty banks before sending it back to Swiss Banks. Eventually she brought it over to two on the mainland and into this title company. They were definitely a bit on the shady side because they were so accommodating... But she also knew she was safe in dealing with them. The bank had ties to a rival group to Ray’s family!

She followed the signs and the GPS information until she pulled into their first destination. Madison woke up right then and squealed, “American Girl!?!?!?”

I WOKE UP to a loud squeal by Madison and looked up to see what she was squealing about, making my own similar noises. “Settle down girls,” Mom told us.

“But it’s the greatest store ever,” Madison said with a smile.

“Okay, before we go in there some ground rules. I think you both have enough dolls for now...” We both groaned a little bit, “but I will let you both pick out two new outfits for your dolls, one play item with that, and we’re going to have lunch here with your dolls.”

“Okay!” I said with a smile.

“Thanks Amber,” Madison said with a smile of her own.

The three of us walked through the store and oohed and awed at dolls, outfits, and everything there. I loved that all of the store staff treated our dolls like they were real girls too! It made me giggle a little, and smile a lot! Madison and I ended up picking one outfit for the dolls that was the same, and we both found a different outfit after that. I picked out an equestrian outfit that I thought was kind of cool. I also found a horse that looked like Beauty for my play item.

Mom didn’t say she couldn’t pick something out for us, and in fact she found another shirt for me, and one she thought Madison might be able to squeeze into. She was tall, but she was skinny, so they thought she might be able to wear it. We strolled around the store and eventually checked out and went to the bistro for lunch. It was fun with the dolls and I was sad when it ended. We left for the car and sat down, having placed our bags and dolls in the trunk at her request. Mom started the car but didn’t go anywhere.

“Madison,” Mom said, “this morning, and the last few days, I’ve wanted to give you a chance to just enjoy being a kid. After today it’s going to be the same until we go home on Thursday... But for right now I need you to pretend you’re more like fifteen or sixteen.”

Madison and I both gave her puzzled looks.

“I’m going to drop you two off at the mall, I’ll give you both some spending money for whatever you want. I’ll be gone about two to three hours and need you two to be very careful...”

“Okay Mom,” I said and Madison mixed in Amber’s name in stereo.

“Right... Madison, can you turn towards me?” she asked.

“Huh?” Madison said but complied.

Mom dug into a small bag in her purse and began quickly applying makeup to Madison. I was amazed as I watched her work on Madison’s face and how much more mature she looked. Mom kept it minimal in retrospect, but gone was a young but tall girl, and in her place a young woman who looked to be probably closer to eighteen really. The only thing that made her look younger at all was the shirt and her lack of much of a chest yet.

“Okay, put this bag of makeup in your purse Madison so you can touch up if you need to. I know you don’t wear much makeup, but your mom has taught you how?”

Madison nodded gloomily, “I just hate wearing it, and I get hit on all the time...”

“You have your baby sister with you, you shouldn’t have it happen nearly as much,” Mom reassured her. “Usually they’re a real downer if you’re trying to pick up boys,” she said with a wink at me.

“Hey!!!” I complained while Madison giggled.

“Madison, if anyone should ask, tell them that you’re sixteen. If they ask for a license say that your Dad doesn’t want you to get it for a few more months.”

“Umm... Okay,” Madison said nervously.

Mom drove to a mall and gave Madison three hundred dollars in cash and twenty to me.

“How come she gets more?” I complained.

“Because no Mom in her right mind would give an eight-year old girl three-hundred dollars!” Mom said sternly to me, “If you’re good I’m sure it’ll be an even split for both of you. We need to make sure you don’t stand out.”

“Oh,” I said embarrassed, “sorry...”

“It’s okay sweetheart, now have fun and I’ll see you after a bit. Madison, this is my cell number... I have yours already, it’s charged, right?”

“Yes ma’am,” she said.

“Okay, there should be absolutely no need for you to call me, but if you do I’ll try and answer. Be at this entrance at four, no later. If you don’t hear from me open this envelope... Wait until six before you do so though.”

“Okay,” Madison said nervously taking the envelope.

“I’ll see you then,” she said and watched through the rearview mirror as Madison helped me out of the seat and held her hand out to me next to the car. I took it and the two of us walked inside.

MEGAN NERVOUSLY DROVE away from the girls, hoping it was the right decision to split up. She stopped a few blocks away from the bank downtown that she was going to and reached into the trunk. Inside she dug out the blonde wig that Megan hoped would be enough to confuse her husband or the FBI if they got that far.

She sat back down in the car and put her hair up before putting it on. Her grandfather and parents at an early age had taught her how to use wigs. Whatever her parents had done while she was growing up was very much classified, so she never really knew, but she was certain they had been spies. With concern for her safety if they had ever been picked up they had taught her how to disappear if needed. She’d never been more grateful for their lessons than in the last few weeks!

Megan took a large purse with her down the street and briefly stopped in a Starbucks on the corner and went into their restroom. She had stashed a skirted suit neatly inside the large bag and switched shoes and clothes in two minutes, changed her makeup to a more mature look, and headed on down the street to her destination.

“May I help you?” A young receptionist asked when she stepped in the door.

“Yes, I need to speak to Miles Walden please, I have an appointment to see him.”

“Ms...?”

“Megan,” she said.

“Okay then hold on just a moment.” The receptionist made a phone call and said, “Right, just go on up to his office through those elevator doors, fifth floor, turn to your right and he’s the second office on your left.”

“Thanks,” she said and walked to the elevator doors. She’d debated about the name to use outside of Miles’ office and hoped she’d made the right choice.

“Good afternoon,” the gentlemen said a few minutes later after closing the door, “I’m glad to see you were able to come. Over the phone it sounded like this transaction had some... interesting moments.”

Megan laughed, “You might say that.” She passed over an envelope to him containing ten thousand dollars cash, “I assume you’ll find everything in that letter is in order,” she said with a smile.

He hefted it and smiled, “I’m sure I will. Here is your check for the sale of your family’s house Ms. Caffrey, I’m terribly sorry about the loss of your parents.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate your discretion.”

“Absolutely, always happy to help stick it to other parties.” He said with a wide smile.

Megan smiled, “Glad we can be mutual in that way. All of the relevant fees have been paid on this transaction, correct?”

“Yes ma’am, and all your state and local property taxes are paid up in Texas.”

“Glad we could do business,” Megan said with a shake of his hand and walked out back to the street. She hadn’t checked the check because she knew Miles would be honest... Well to a point. Ten thousand dollars plus the chance to stick it to her ex-husbands family was more than enough to make him happy. She was also quite certain he probably took an additional commission out of the funds - but she didn’t care.

Megan walked down the street and stopped quickly in the McDonalds that lay on her way to her destination. There she lost the wig and switched back to the shorts and t-shirt she had started the day in. She left and walked next door to a national banking chains large branch office and walked inside.

MADISON LOOKED DOWN at Ashley and couldn’t help but smile. They were having a lot of fun shopping together and she was a little goofball at times. “Hey,” a high school boy with three of his friends said to her. She groaned inside her head.

“Hi,” she said simply.

“I’m Joey,” he said.

She sighed, “Madison.”

“So… babysitting the little sister?” He asked.

“Umm... Yeah, something like that.”

“Your voice, you’re not from around here are you?”

She looked down at Ashley and shared with her a look that said I want this to end. Ashley for her part looked just as annoyed, ‘probably with the babysitting comment’ she thought.

Just as she was trying to think of a way to get away from them, Ashley pulled on her hand, “Maddy I need to go potty!!!”

She smiled at the boys apologetically, “Sorry, have to go. If she has an accident our Mom will kill me!”

With that Ashley pulled them towards the nearest JC Penney store and out of sight from the boys. She started giggling when she was sure they were clear, “Am I good or what?”

Madison giggled too, “I just hope you make it to the potty on time,” she said with a smile.

“I had to think of something...” Ashley said blushing.

“It was brilliant,” She reassured her. “Maddy, huh?” She said with a wider smile.

“You know I normally kill people for calling me that.”

“Why? It’s cute.”

“I don’t know... But the funny thing is I actually didn’t mind you calling me that.”

“Well, it sounded more like something a baby sister would call you,” Ashley said nervously.

“It is, and you should call me that,” she said with a smile. “Now, you mentioned the potty and I actually think that’s a great idea!”

The two of them walked towards the ladies room and she found herself giving Ashley a sideways hug as they walked in.

MEGAN LOOKED UP at the man behind the desk and gave him all of the information that would be legitimate for her new ID. A quick glance at the check had shown it was made out to her correctly and for the amount she had expected... Well minus another twenty thousand. Really she didn’t even mind that, it was just a business expense at that point.

“Okay Ms. Caffrey, I think I have all of your information set here. And you have a deposit today?”

“Yes sir I do,” She said, signing the back of the check with her new signature. Normally Megan signed with her right hand, but since she was ambidextrous, she had started signing all of Amber’s stuff with her left hand. It wasn’t necessarily a guaranteed way of keeping herself safe from handwriting analysis, but it was at least a small hurdle for someone to jump.

She handed over the check for nine hundred thirty-two thousand dollars and forty-two cents to the man.

He looked a little surprised, “Wow...” he said, “this is going to take a few days to clear...?”

She smiled, “I understand, it’s a the check from my parents house... We sold it today,” she added with a pained look in her face.

“I’m sorry to hear that Miss,” he said with a polite expression.

“I’m just glad we were able to take a cash offer on the sale of the house so quickly. It makes it easier for me to move on and take care of my little sister.”

He gave her a kind squeeze of the hand and said, “Here is the information on your online banking access. Your debit card will be mailed to the address you gave me in a week, as well as the checks you requested.”

“Thank you,” she said and took the proffered receipt of deposit from him.

“You’re welcome, and I wish you good luck.”

“Thanks sir,” she said with a smile and walked out. ‘I just hope there were enough steps covering my tracks. This is the only thing that would really lead to us if things weren’t covered enough...’

WE WERE HAVING a lot of fun, and time was flying by faster than I would have expected! We’d shopped in Justice for me and picked up a couple more tops and shorts that were cute. At another store we found some cute tops for her as well. “I don’t know how we’re going to get all of this in our suitcases!” Madison said with a groan.

“I have a feeling Amber will buy a couple of spares to get us home.” I told her.

“Oh,” she said.

She gave me an odd look, “Have you done that before or something?”

I nodded, “Several times on trips. Well, one time wasn’t a choice. The airline lost all of Dad’s luggage...”

I shuddered as I remembered again why I was so glad we had left the suitcases in Dallas.

“What’s wrong?” Madison asked.

“Umm... Nothing... I’m just really glad Amber and I did something, that’s all.”

She gave me a look but I shook my head. It was getting close to four, but she insisted we stop at Claire’s for a few minutes and I wasn’t going to argue! It was fun going through the store because I picked out things that would work for her and she picked out things to make me look cute as an eight year old. By the time we finished there though it was time to be outside. We walked up to the curb right as Mom drove up.

I climbed into my seat, “Good girls, right on time,” she said with a smile. Madison buckled me in and we sat our bags next to me on the seat while Madison returned to the front seat again.

Mom laughed hysterically when Madison told her about my potty statement. “That was perfect Ashley!” Mom told me.

I just blushed.

“What are we doing for dinner?” I asked. The food from the bistro had been good but I was hungry again already.

“We’ll stop in just a bit sweetie,” Mom said.

“Do you have any wipes to take off this makeup?” Madison asked.

“Why don’t you just leave it on until tonight?” Mom suggested.

She sighed and said, “Alright.”

“What’s so bad about makeup?” I asked Madison.

“You haven’t worn any yet?” She asked me.

“Not really...?” I said.

“Hmm... Well it just feels weird,” she said.

“I would think it would be nice, it makes you look even prettier,” I told her.

She wanted to frown, I could tell, but instead she said, “Thank you Ashley.”

The drive continued in silence for a while before we pulled over at an Olive Garden for dinner. “Three please?” Mom said to the hostess.

“That’ll be about ten minutes?” She said in reply.

“That’s fine.” Mom replied and took the electronic beeper.

“I’m going to the restroom,” I told Mom.

“We’ll go with you,” Mom said with a smile.

The three of us went quickly and I waited by the sink for Mom to finish. Madison looked at herself in the mirror, sighed, and grabbed a couple of things from her purse of makeup and touched up some things. She gave me a look and said, “You think you like this stuff until you have to do it all the time.”

I giggled.

She glared at me, put things up, and then started tickling me. “Girls,” Mom said condescendingly from next to us where she was finally washing her hands. She checked her own makeup and we walked back outside to wait. It wasn’t long and we were seated. I groaned slightly because without asking one way or another I was given the kids menu and crayons. I ordered a fettuccine alfredo meal with grilled chicken off of it. The plastic cup with the lid was the only thing that truly embarrassed me about it. Madison just giggled.

Before long we were back on the road and at our hotel. Mom let Madison and I play with our dolls for a while and she made a few phone calls. It was suddenly nine and Mom said, “Madison, Ashley, why don’t you go ahead and go to bed so we can get another early start tomorrow?”

“Okay,” Madison said. The two of us cleaned up, and Madison asked, “Can Ashley share with me tonight?”

Mom looked at her and said, “You want her moving around?”

She laughed, “I’ve never had a little sister before...”

“It’s up to you Ashley...”

“Okay,” I said with a smile. I grabbed my bear and climbed over next to her instead. The next morning I woke up cuddled next to her with her arms around me like a teddy bear.

TUESDAY MORNING AS promised was an early day. Mom had us start off at Animal Kingdom, and then we spent the afternoon at Blizzard Beach enjoying the water park in the heat! We enjoyed ourselves, and I was happy that not a single person noticed anything odd about me! I was treated as a little girl completely without hesitation!

For dinner Mom had us go back to the hotel and shower. From out of nowhere she pulled out two new princess gowns. “Where did you get those?!?” Madison asked, she was as shocked as I was. I could tell they were the high quality Gloria creations again. Madison’s was a blue Cinderella Gown, and mine was a pink Ariel Gown. Gowns were the proper way to refer to these too! The others felt more like play costumes, these felt like something that came directly from the movies!

“Gloria sent them yesterday,” She said with a smile. “She wanted to make sure you both liked the others before she sent them out,” I noticed she was looking mainly at Madison.

“So...?” I asked.

“So...?” Mom echoed.

“When do we get to wear them!?!”

Mom and Madison giggled, “Tonight for dinner. I made reservations for us at a nice restaurant in the park.”

“What are you wearing?” I asked, feeling a little like she shouldn’t be left out.

“Yes, what are you wearing?” Madison said with a gleam in her own eye. She added after a second, “I would be willing to bet ours weren’t the only ones Aunt Gloria sent?”

Mom blushed this time and I said, “She did, didn’t she!?!”

“I’m too old...”

“Uh-uh, this is Disney World, no one is too old to be a princess!” Madison said with a smile, throwing Mom’s statement from a couple of days ago back at her.

She sighed and opened another box that had a Merida costume similar to the one I’d worn the first day, but fuller like ours.

“So I guess we should start getting ready?” Madison said with a smile.

It was a frantic hour and in the end I knew a bit of what Madison was complaining about with makeup. She’d convinced Mom to let her put some on me using a mix of hers and Mom’s makeup since Mom was identical pretty much in skin tone. She’d used a bunch of glittery touches on mine though, including some eye shadow that I really did like. “Don’t touch your face!” Mom caught me a few minutes later.

I sighed. The three of us walked down to the elevator and a Mom with her teenage daughter were already in there. “Oh my God, you all look gorgeous!” The mother exclaimed.

“Wow, I didn’t think anyone as old as me would dress up...” The girl said a little disappointed.

I giggled and Madison said, “Our aunt made these for us, and surprised her big sister with one too. We’re going out for dinner,” she added.

“That is so cool!” the girl said. “If we come back here next year, can I dress up?” She asked her mom.

Her mom groaned, “I thought we’d gotten you past the princess stage?”

“We never grow past the princess stage,” Mom said with a giggle. The funny thing was that with our costumes and the makeup we had on I was pretty certain that she looked to be the same age as Madison. Madison for her part looked closer to being done with high school. I knew I just looked little girl adorable, and that was okay.

The highness comments made to Mom were amusing to both Madison and I. We both fully enjoyed the attention ourselves too as we made our way into the park and found our restaurant. “Caffrey, for three,” Mom told the host. He smiled at us, “Give me just a moment princess, we should have your table ready but I want to check on it.”

When we were escorted back a few minutes later I was amused that some of the waiters bowed for us and we had our chairs pulled out for each of us and pushed back in. I just about gagged at the prices in the menu, but the food was really good. Our waiter took a picture of us together and I knew it would be amazing! Mom actually led us then to a place where we could get our photos taken for a price and also picked up some that had been taken of us walking through the park by their photographers. We meandered through the shops that night after that and returned to our room pretty early.

“Girls, tomorrow is our last day in the park,” Mom told us as we climbed into bed. “We’re going home on Thursday.”

“We’re not going to go to the park before the airport?” I asked, a little disappointed.

“No, our flight is pretty early,” Mom said, “I wanted to make sure our flight back from Dallas is at a believable time. Tomorrow I’m going to have you pack all of your souvenirs into a box and we’ll ship that off through the hotel back home.”

“All of them?” I asked, a little disappointed.

“Yes, except the American Girl stuff, you both can keep that out since there’s the store in Dallas that we went to,” she told me.

“Okay!” I said a little happier.

By the time I hit the pillow I was out that night, swimming always does that to me.

WEDNESDAY I WOKE up from Mom gently shaking my shoulder and decided I wanted to re-wear my Merida costume. Madison and Mom passed on dressing up, but I had fun with it again all day. She curled my hair for me quickly before we left and I had a blast all day long. We spent the day at Hollywood Studios and took in several shows there. The light show at the end of the night was truly spectacular too!

Thursday morning came much to soon and we headed back to the airport to return the car. Everything was done in reverse getting through the process, but after a while we were down to just our carry-on bags again and sitting at the gate waiting for our airplane.

I leaned over to Mom and hugged her, “Thank you.”

“For?”

“For this trip.”

“You’re welcome sweetie, we’ll try and do this again once a year or so if you want.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Uh-huh, I mean you’re eight... I definitely want to come back a couple times before you turn thirteen and grow to old for this stuff.” She said with a wink at Madison who just shook her head. Madison and I both slept most of the way to Dallas and made the frantic gate change there. I realized then that we were using two different airlines and wondered if that was intentional or if it just happened...

MEGAN LOOKED AROUND the gate as casually as she could. She hated the fact that they had to fly through Dallas at all, let alone the way they were doing it. The girls had helped her last night with packing, but she had planted some of her own additions to Madison and Ashley’s bags as well. She knew that there would be a large moving truck arriving at Gloria’s the next afternoon and hoped she didn’t mind storing the supposed ‘family’ stuff until they moved out.

‘I still don’t know when or if we should move on...’

She smiled as she watched Madison and Ashley sitting on the floor playing with their dolls. Unbeknownst to Madison, she had been getting a lot of compliments for being so good with her younger sister. Megan smiled at that, because that was how Madison viewed Ashley, and how she really viewed Madison too. ‘I’m going to get that girl to liking being a teenager in the next week...’ she thought. She’d been planning a few ideas and was looking forward to talking to Kaitlyn about them.

“Now boarding Flight 232 to Albuquerque!” She heard and stood up. They had enough time to go to the restroom once more before boarding.

“Come on girls, let’s go use the restroom real quick before we get on.” She told them.

“Okay,” she heard in stereo and both of them stood up and led the way to the bathroom across the corridor.

She was washing her hands and checking her face when a lady said to her, “Your daughters?” She asked looking over at the two girls standing politely by the door waiting for her.

“Baby sister and cousin,” she answered.

“They’re adorable, especially your sister,” she told her with a smile. “It’s so neat to see a teenager not acting like she’s too old for dolls.”

Megan laughed, “it’s more the other way we have to worry about. She’s had no interest in growing out of them!”

She smiled back at her, “She will eventually! She’ll meet a boy at school and it’ll be over. Enjoy having her sweet and innocent time, no need to corrupt her!”

Megan smiled, “I think you’re right,” she said. ‘Maybe she’s right...’ she added to herself. Feeling a little bit guilty about thinking about pushing her forward.

Chapter 18: Cracks in the Wall

AGENT KLINE FINALLY sat down at a clear desk. The last three days had been very successful for his division, and he had no doubt they were going to finally get a conviction on a major case! Now that he finally had finished his last report he looked at the clock and saw it was only three. ‘I should be able to finally look at those videos from the Wal-Mart’s...’ he thought to himself. He double checked the address of the hotel and chose the Wal-Mart closest to first. The agent had sent over the videos of five that were closest to the hotel, and outwards towards Dallas.

He clicked through the video and saw they had done as he requested, just giving him the morning tapes. He was pretty sure Megan had made it to Dallas that night, so she wouldn’t have dawdled long. Bob wasn’t even so sure why he was looking at these... But he had a feeling that it was going to give him a lead. He decided to focus on the two entrance cameras first. He put the video on at ten times normal speed and focused his eyes for watching.

“There!” He found himself saying aloud in glee!

He had spotted them entering. He reversed it down to see if he could see any detail as they came up to the camera. She had parked out of view of the camera though, and it was impossible to tell anything more than it was Megan and her son!

He quickly pulled up a map of that store off of a PDF that had been left on the disc for him. He quickly printed it, and mapped out the camera views, so he could map out their trip through the store.

Once done, he went to the store view from the side they had entered. He drew a line denoting their path and found the next camera view. Kline watched her pickup some hair dye and other hair items. ‘Well no surprise there... I kind of figured she had to do something like that since we haven’t found her yet. I wish I could tell what color she bought.’ He paused the video and tried zooming in but there was no easy way to tell. He could probably print off a sheet and get an agent to look at the aisle for him. If they hadn’t restocked differently they could probably figure it out... He jotted a note down and then followed her out of view of that camera too.

‘Definitely in a hurry...’ he thought to himself. He found himself a bit confused as they went to the girls department and started shopping there. ‘That is them...right?’ he asked himself. A couple of the looks that Tony gave his mom though made him think it had to be... ‘They were probably that desperate...’ he thought to himself. They spent a really long time in the section and seemed, at least to him, to get an inordinate amount of clothes before they moved out of frame. He jotted down some notes and moved cameras until they stopped next in the shoes.

He almost laughed aloud as Tony tried on shoes that came complete with lights. Even with the poor angle and video distance he could tell they were exceptionally pink too. It was so absurd that he couldn’t help but laugh a little. He watched Megan find some new shoes for herself too before they hustled back out of view. He chased them through camera views until he saw them stop at the girl’s underwear section. The walk to the junior’s section was next he noticed, and wondered if Megan was doing her own disguise differently too. ‘She’s not even five feet tall, and she looks pretty young in the face too... We may be going all wrong looking for someone her real age...’

The pair of them walked to, of all places, the baby section and he noticed Tony putting up the first real argument with his mother. She seemed to say just a couple words though and he stopped. They spent a good ten minutes with her looking at car seats, eventually settling on a pink one that looked like a regular car seat and not even a booster style seat. He went back to his notes and saw that while Tony turned eleven next week, but his height was still listed at 4’1”. He looked back at the date of the doctor’s information and saw that his last appointment was only a month or so before they left and assumed he hadn’t grown more.

‘Well, I remember my wife being pulled over with our daughter when she was about nine and the officer checking to see if she was really old enough to not be in a car seat... She was soo embarrassed. She was probably about the same height then too... I bet Megan didn’t want to attract that kind of attention...’ that made sense to him at least. Of course why they had gone for girls stuff was still a little confusing to him.

He finished watching them shop. ‘Megan was thorough...’ he had to admit to himself as she bought toys that would be normal for a little girl too. Tony seemed to ask something at the books area and they grabbed a couple of coloring books before checking out with cash. He found the right time code for the parking lot and watched them leave.

The phone on his desk rang. “Bob, are you coming home?”

‘Shit!!!’ he thought to himself as he realized it was already six-thirty. “Umm... Yeah, I’m really sorry babe, I just made a break in the case I’m working on and lost track of time. I’ll be there in thirty minutes?”

“Just meet us at Fridays,” she told him.

“Okay, I can do that, see you in a bit.” He was grateful that his wife understood, and even more glad that she hadn’t cooked that night! He would have felt really bad in that case. With a quick sweep of his desk he ejected the disc from the computer and placed all of his notes and the discs back into his safe for the night.

MADISON RAN UP to her mother in the area just past the security checkpoint and hugged her. “Hi Mommy,” I heard her say, “I missed you!”

“I missed you too!” She said.

Kaitlyn led us back to the garage after collecting our luggage and we climbed into her car after Mom installed my car seat. “Lugging that thing around sure gets old, doesn’t it?” Kaitlyn said to my mom after we got in.

“Yes it does. But, I figure for six more months we’re going to keep using it... After that maybe we’ll go to one of the just simple booster seats.”

“This one’s more comfy though,” I said semi-sleepily.

That made Madison giggle, “It must be! You seem to go to sleep almost instantly in it!”

I stuck my tongue out at her. “Well, you can’t exactly move around in it...”

She squeezed my hand and I knew she was just joking with me. Funnily enough though it was like an instant sleep pill, because the next thing I knew Madison was undoing the harness and saying, “Ashley, come on sleepy head, time to wake up!”

“Huh?” I said sleepily. “Oh...” I said.

“I told you that you instantly seem to go to sleep!”

I stuck my tongue out at her, “Watch out or a little birdie might come and peck that right off!”

I groaned and she giggled.

She gave me a hand getting down and we carried our suitcases up to the house. Mom and Kaitlyn stayed behind to take my car seat back into Gloria’s car. “Maybe I need to at least start keeping one of the little boosters around,” I heard Kaitlyn quietly say and which prompted me to groan.

‘Being short sucks!!!’ I thought in a very unlady like way.

“Actually, remind me, I have the one that was in this car when I bought it...”

“Okay!”

I was still grumbling in my head when I heard, “How are you holding up?” One of the hands, Collin, asked just inside the house.

I shrugged sadly and answered, “I don’t know.”

He gave my shoulder a squeeze and said, “Hang in there, and remember them and they’ll always be in here...” He said pointing to my heart.

I gave a grim smile, “Thanks, I know you’re right... It’s just...”

“Too soon,” he said. “I lost my parents when I was just a bit older than you... If you ever need anyone to talk to, let me know.”

“Thanks,” I answered and then politely added, “I’m sorry to hear that you had that happen too.”

He gave me a smile and then headed off to his truck to go home. I discovered we had just arrived at the end of the workday. Consetta had made plenty of the green chile chicken enchiladas and the five of us were joined by Gloria to eat dinner. My mom made conversation with Gloria about the non-existent memorial service and our plans to dump our parent’s ashes up near the spring. The idea of having them close would make us happy... She said. Mom was such an incredible actress that I didn’t know how she pulled it off. I later realized that a few of the hands were still around for her performance.

After dinner Madison helped me unload my suitcase and put things in the hamper. In addition to cooking, Consetta did laundry, so it was just a matter of putting it into my hamper in the bathroom. Madison had one for herself too... I really liked sharing with her. We had just finished when I said, “I’m going to miss you when you go home on Sunday...”

“I know! I’ve had more fun having you around than I can say.” She said to me.

“You make an awesome big sister,” I told her with a smile.

“And you make an awesome baby sister,” she said with a grin and I unfortunately had no time to run, even though I knew the tickling was about to begin. I finally managed to get her to stop when I couldn’t breathe anymore.

“That is sooo not fair!” I told her.

She just grinned.

“So what do you want to do now?” I asked her.

“Sleeeeeeep!!!” She said with a tired smile. “I’ll hold off till bed though, I won’t go to sleep then if I do now. Umm... It’s still light out, go see the horses?”

“Okay!” I said.

We stopped by and saw Gloria and got her permission before taking an apple to each of horses. Beauty seemed to affectionately welcome me home and I was glad to see her. I told her all about the toy horse I bought that looked like her. She didn’t seem to be really impressed though... Since I had her right there, what was the point?

I just smiled at her though.

Madison eventually dragged me away to go inside and Mom insisted I go ahead and take a bath and go to bed. ‘If only she was just an older sister sometimes!’ I thought to myself.

AGENT KLINE LAY in bed that night thinking about the footage he had found. He had no doubt that he had just made a major break in their case. There seemed little possibility that the Franchino’s would get hold of that footage too. They should have been just at the end of the cycle of keeping the footage in the store’s computers. By now it should have been transferred to the companies offsite backup, and wouldn’t be easy for someone else to get access to. With the way he had the materials delivered he felt confident that whatever leak they had wouldn’t have caught it.

His wife stirred beside him and he was glad she was there. Many of his friends hadn’t been fortunate enough to have a marriage last. Bob and his wife had been happily married for twenty-nine years and she’d never stopped supporting him.

He sighed, attempted to close his eyes again and hoped sleep would come soon.

RAY LOOKED AROUND the house that seemed so weird to him now. The dishes had piled up in the sink, laundry was everywhere in the bathroom, and more than anything it didn’t feel like it was real. The glass of whiskey in his hand was the only thing that felt normal. He walked to Tony’s room and sat down on his bed.

‘That bitch stole my son from me!!!’ He thought angrily, ‘She’s probably been filling his head with lies about me since they left.’

He looked around the room and couldn’t help but notice that Tony hadn’t taken or even moved the baseball and custom baseball glove that he’d given him at Christmas. The iPad still sat next to his bed charging. On a whim he picked it up, turned it on and looked around. He saw the games that he always saw his son playing on the first couple of screens. He flicked to the screen next to it and saw one icon of an app he used for school. While he meant to go back to the home screen he accidentally swiped over one more and felt a bit of shock.

On this screen were a bunch of games he would have boxed Tony upside the head if he’d seen him playing them. Some Disney based games and things that were decidedly unlike something a middle school Franchino boy should be playing! “What the fuck is this shit Tony?” He said in a rage.

He began nosing through his room and found some things here and there he swore he told him to get rid of years ago. Stuffed animals and things of the like that he said he had to throw away when he was five. “When I find you I am going to make damn sure you harden up boy...”

Ray downed the remaining amount of whiskey in his glass and walked back downstairs to get another drink. “That bitch...”

I FOUND MYSELF suddenly waking in my room.

‘What’s going on?’ I groggily asked myself.

I forced myself up out of my bed and knew something was wrong somehow. I opened my door, hoping to go make sure Mom was okay when I heard the screams... Mom was being beaten, just like so many times. The thud of a fist striking a face, and I threw her door open...

On the ground Mom was bloody from the gashes in her face and her chest was pouring blood. I looked up to see my Dad.

“Just what the hell are you wearing?!?!?” He screamed at me.

“You killed my Mom!” I screamed at him.

“I don’t give a rats ass about that bitch. Now get that ridiculous girly nightgown off right now!!!”

“NO!!!!”

All of the sudden he cut away at my nightgown with the bloody knife and began squeezing on my throat!

I woke up for real, and was sobbing uncontrollably.

The door next to me opened up and I felt arms around me, “Shhh...” Madison said, “It’s okay Ash,” she said to me over and over again.

After awhile I finally managed to stop heaving and looked at her through my tear-stung eyes, “Thanks...”

“You’re welcome Ash... Would it help to talk about it?”

I shook my head and felt her give me another squeeze before saying, “It was about my dad... He found us.” Was all I said.

She squeezed me even tighter and said, “It’s going to be okay Ashley – I promise you!”

“I just want the nightmares to stop... Living with him was a nightmare and I still get these...”

“Why don’t you come sleep in my room tonight? I have a bigger bed. I’ll keep the monsters away, I promise.” She told me with a smile.

I didn’t think about it long. I grabbed my teddy bear and followed her in there. Along the way I saw a clock and saw it was two in the morning. In her room she pulled the covers down and had me jump in before joining me and hugging me. I felt my tears start coming again and she just said, “Shh... It’s okay...”

After a few minutes she began singing the lullaby that went with the book from the previous week. It must have done the trick, because I didn’t remember the end of it.

AGENT KLINE DROVE into work with nothing but Megan Franchino on his mind. He was certain that their disguise involved changing their blonde hair to something else and having Tony pretend to be a girl. ‘Actually, it’s pretty smart...’ he had to admit to himself. He didn’t think most boys would be willing to go that route, and he was certain his dad would probably never ever in a million years expect his son would do that.

He also knew from his experience hunting suspects that something as simple as changing the color of a woman’s hair made it much harder to find them. There were some facial recognition programs he had at his disposal though, and now that he knew more of what he was looking for he was thinking of using them. The biggest problem with that is that he would need to involve one of his techs in the process since he rarely dealt with the software... And that was risky given the likely scenario that they were compromised in some way. Agent Kline sighed, it was going to be a long day working the old fashioned way...

Parking in his reserved parking space he went up to his office and spent a few moments looking at the notes that had piled up on his desk from a shared secretary. Nothing looked immediately pressing so he opened his safe and brought out the videos again. He found one of the two of them at the checkout and really ingrained that into his brain.

“Okay, what colors would she think of going to?” He said aloud to himself. He wrote the main colors down on a paper: blonde, brown, black, and red. He immediately crossed off blonde, she’d bought hair dye and he was certain she wasn’t going to stay in the same color. Black was possible, but not real likely given her light skin complexion, so he crossed that off. That left red and brown... The obvious choice would be brown... Red would make you stand out more in a crowd. He circled red as his guess... ‘Sometimes it’s the obvious that distracts you...’ He thought to himself.

He switched the disc out and brought up the video of the airport cameras from within thirty minutes of the parking stub. ‘Let’s see if I can find them...‘ he thought to himself.

I WOKE UP with a gentle hug from Madison, “Come on Princess; time to go do our chores.”

I was really lost and disoriented for a moment. “This isn’t my room...?”

That earned me another squeeze, “You slept with me last night, remember?”

I shook my head, “Why?”

She sighed and said, “You had a really bad nightmare. I’m actually happier if you don’t remember.”

I tried to think back and couldn’t seem to remember it at all. “You helped?”

“I held you while you cried,” she confirmed.

I blushed, “Sorry...”

“I’m not, you’ve been through a lot. I’d have nightmares too!” She told me. “Now we’ve got to move though, go get that pretty behind of yours dressed in some jeans and go do your daily battle with George.”

I grimaced but got up out of her bed. I really was embarrassed by it and even more so when Mom frantically came through the door adjoining the bathroom, “There you are!”

I grimaced, “Sorry...”

“She had a nightmare last night Amber... I calmed her down and then just had her come sleep with me.”

Mom looked at the two of us for a moment and then said to Madison, “Thank you...”

She looked at Mom and said, “That’s okay, I don’t mind watching out for her. I’m just glad I heard her.”

“What was your nightmare about?” Mom asked.

I kept trying to remember but for the life of me couldn’t… so I shook my head, “I don’t remember...”

Mom looked at Madison, “I’ll tell you later, if she really doesn’t remember I don’t want her to.”

She nodded toward us then and said, “Okay... You two need to get moving on your chores.”

I groaned and moved to my room. It was like I was zombie as I put on my pants and a t-shirt. I kept racking my brain trying to remember the dream but I guess I really was glad I didn’t remember. I climbed down the stairs and walked outside to begin the chores.

By now things had become routine, even with us being gone for a week. I was glad that it had been such a fun week though! It almost killed me to not be able to tell anyone about it!!! I found myself oddly humming the lullaby that Madison had sung to me a week before with the story and wondered why I remembered it. Unfortunately that lullaby led right to the memory of what I had dreamed last night. All at once it came flooding into my brain and I found myself tearing up again.

I grabbed the fence post of the turkey area hard and tried to not cry. I felt so weak in that moment, but I knew it was just a dream. I had to keep moving on in the real world. With any luck Dad would never find us...

Somehow I went on autopilot then and the next thing I knew I was in the shower. With last nights dream back in my mind front and center I began washing and scrubbing my body quite harshly. I only stopped when I realized my skin was becoming raw. I managed to put my bathrobe on, and a towel around my head before sitting on the floor in my room and bawling.

MEGAN WALKED UP the stairs and decided she needed to first check on her daughter. She’d caught Madison and asked her about the dream and shuddered to think about it herself... Especially since it might as well have been one of her own nightmares. She knocked and didn’t hear anything, then opened up the door and gasped. “Oh baby...” She said.

Her daughter was wrapped only in a towel, and she was clutching her teddy bear for dear life, sobbing. She threw her arms around her and began reassuring her, “It’s okay, it’s okay...” for a long time. After a while she sensed her daughters breathing slow down and knew that she had cried herself to sleep.

Madison chose that moment to walk in herself. Megan managed to get one finger up to her lips to warn her to be quiet and then carefully picked her daughter up and sat her on the bed. ‘I guess the farm work is building the muscles back up...‘ she noted. ‘At least I hope it’s the case... I hope she hasn’t lost even more weight...’

She covered her with a blanket and motioned Madison to come out to the hallway with her. “Would you go let Gloria know I’m going to have to take Ashley into town?”

“What’s wrong with her?” she asked, very concerned.

Megan sighed, “I’m guessing things seemed really distant while we were enjoying ourselves in Orlando, and we were too busy moving before then... Now that we’re home though it all came roaring back like a freight train to her. I know... Because that’s basically what happened to me yesterday too.”

Madison nodded, “What do you need me to do besides that?” She asked.

“Just that for now... Maybe bring me a cup of coffee if you don’t mind. I’m guessing she’ll be out for a couple of hours. I’m going to call her psychiatrist and let her know we need an appointment today.”

“Can I go in with you guys?” She asked.

Megan knew how concerned Madison was and it made her feel goosebumps go up and down her spine, “If your mom is okay with it.”

She watched Madison go down the stairs then went back into Ashley’s room and picked up her Kaitlyn doll. ‘It’s so ironic that she gave this doll my best friends name... And she definitely prefers this one to her others...’ she thought. She found herself hugging the doll as she watched her daughter sleep from the not so comfortable chair. She had done the same with her son sometimes when he was a baby and at the moment missed the comfy rocking chair she had in his room then. That thought made her sigh, ‘I guess in theory I am getting an extra few years with my baby... That is if my husband doesn’t find us...‘

Megan sat there unmoving for a while before Madison reappeared with coffee and whispered to her that Gloria said only Ashley mattered today. Ironically enough, she knew this would seem understandable to everyone else on the ranch with the supposed death of her parents...

GLORIA WAS DEEPLY worried about Ashley and Megan. Ashley seemed to have been coping so well… but she had a feeling the young girl had finally hit the wall. ‘It was bound to happen sometime...’ she thought to herself.

“Hey boss, how are the girls doing?” Collin asked.

She sighed, “As well as can be expected, Ashley had a meltdown a little bit ago, Amber’s up there with her. I got them an appointment with a friend of mine who’s a psychiatrist to see if she can help out some.”

“That’s rough... I mean Amber is old enough at least she can take care of herself and is through college, but Ashley’s practically a baby still.”

Gloria smiled, “Don’t let Ashley hear you say that.”

He smiled back at her, “So what are they going to do?”

“Well... Their parents were at least practical and smart. They wrote in the will that as soon as Amber turned eighteen she would be Ashley’s legal guardian if anything should happen to them. One of the things they did this past week was go before a judge to make that official...”

“And now...?” He asked.

“And now it’s just like a certain little boy I knew,” she said with a smile, “I’m going to let them stay as long as they need to. Their parent’s estate and insurance left more than enough money for them to live for a while... Amber could probably afford to basically be a stay at home mom the next ten years if she needed to, but I think this might be the best place for them to heal.”

Collin nodded, “There’s no place like it.” He paused and added, “Uncle Kenneth would have been proud of you.”

She smiled and gave him a hug, “He would have been proud of you too.”

He smiled, “So what’s the plan for today...?” He asked and they set off to get some work done.

I WOKE UP for the second time today and felt really groggy. “You awake now sweetie?” I heard Mom ask me. I opened my eyes more and felt her sit down on the bed next to me and brush my hair back.

“I guess so...” I said. “What’s wrong with me...?” I felt tears begin to trickle down my face a little, but not like they had before.

“Nothing is wrong with you Princess, it’s just that I think everything caught up to you all at once.” She kissed my forehead. “I would like you to talk to Dr. Reynolds about it though.”

“I thought Dr. Reynolds was for my being a girl...?”

Mom smiled at me, “She’s a pretty smart doctor, she’ll be able to help you with the other too. Do you feel up to getting dressed, getting some breakfast, and then getting going?”

I nodded, but asked, “Can you just pick something out for me, I don’t really feel up to picking anything.”

“Of course,” she told me.

I saw her stop and think for a few moments before picking out a pair of bright blue nylon capris I had yet to wear and the American Girl shirts we’d bought in Miami. She found a pair of panties and socks and handed them all to me. When I was dressed she had me go to the sink in the bathroom and wash my face off. I couldn’t believe how red and puffy my eyes were... And my hair was an absolute wreck.

“Here, let’s take care of your hair,” she told me.

It was painful and tough going for a while through parts of it. Luckily it hadn’t completely dried inside the towel yet. “What time is it?” I asked as she pulled on a section with the brush.

“Almost eleven,” she said calmly.

“Am I going to be okay?” I asked, quite terrified.

Mom stopped brushing, hugged me, “You are definitely going to be alright! With the amount of stress you’ve been under I’m surprised this hasn’t happened before now. It’s okay,” she squeezed me again and got back to work.

Mom never asked me what I wanted done with my hair that day. She just chose to put it into two loose pigtails on her own and found some ribbon to match my capris. I grimaced a little at my reflection, “I look like I’m less than eight...?”

Mom laughed, “No, you look perfect.”

I sighed and followed her downstairs. She handed me Kaitlyn before we walked downstairs, but I shook my head and grabbed my teddy bear instead. I’d named her Kari the other day and I wanted something much more cuddly than my doll at the moment. Mom led me to the informal dining area and I found Madison and Consetta already sitting there with some enchiladas on their plate. “You up for some lunch hija?” She asked me.

I nodded and sat down next to Madison. She gave me a hug and it took all I had not to break down again. I ate quietly around my bear throughout the meal and everyone else seemed to oblige my silence. A couple of the hands came in for lunch and Consetta went to set their food out.

‘Well, I’m probably sure convincing them I’m a girl with problems now that her parents are dead...’ I thought. ‘My life would be a lot easier though if my dad was dead.’ I recoiled a bit at that thought but knew it was true. My dad was a bad person who didn’t deserve to have me as a child, or my mom as a wife. The fact that he would probably do what I dreamed of made me certain he was a monster.

I must have been hungry because the food on my plate was gone before I realized I’d eaten it. “Do you want more?” Mom asked me.

I shook my head, “No thank you.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and use the bathroom down here and then we’ll go...?” She suggested.

I shrugged, “Okay,” and walked down the hallway to the downstairs restroom. When I was done I picked my bear back off the counter where I had left her for safety and rejoined Mom.

“You ready Madison?” She asked.

“Sure,” she said.

I looked at her, “You’re coming too?”

“Of course!” She told me with a hug.

We walked out to where our car was, and Madison helped me get in and settled, before climbing in next to me. I held my bear but didn’t fall asleep. Instead I just watched the scenery pass me by.

We reached Dr. Reynolds office about one. I was feeling more than slightly uneasy, even with Mom and Madison there... For some reason when I was holding Kari I felt better though. Mom must have noticed the conflict in my eyes as she helped me climb out. “You can bring Kari with you if you want...”

I blushed.

“It’s really okay,” Madison said with a smile.

I answered by way of hugging her tightly and walking alongside my mom. I eventually shifted her to my right side and grabbed mom’s hand with my left. There were a couple of nurses that traveled in the elevator with us that gave me those, ‘you’re cute!’ smiles.

Mom signed me in and I waited for about ten minutes before she came in for me, “Ashley?”

She smiled at me and said, “Hi Ashley, come on back here.”

“Can my mom and Madison come too?” I asked nervously.

“Absolutely,” she said to me with a smile.

The three of us sat down in the couch and Dr. Reynolds started talking to me. “Your mom said you have had a few bad nightmares?”

I nodded.

“Would you mind telling me about them...?

MADISON HAD BEEN given the heads up by Amber that Ashley would probably not want to leave their sides today. ‘I wonder why with nightmares like that?!?’ she thought facetiously. She had instructed her that if that happened it was okay to go in, but try not to interfere at all with comments. Dr. Reynolds had said hand squeezes, shoulder hugs, were fine, but not to interrupt or add information.

After telling Dr. Reynolds about the nightmares she started talking more about what her dad had done to them. She had tears in her eyes most of the session and none of it had even happened to her! How in the world these two were still alive, and relatively unharmed, she didn’t know. The idea of everything that had been done to them was disgusting.

The fact that she knew them made it even more so.

Ashley was clearly running into some serious issues from the abuse. That was in addition to the fact they were still hiding from her psychopath father, pretending to be several years younger than she was, and the whole gender identity thing. Last week before the trip she’d used her laptop late at night to look up stuff on the Internet about others like Ashley. It struck her that it might be for the best that they caught it so early in her... But it also seemed to be a really painful road if a person went all the way down it. The idea of having surgery like that gave her the creeps… and she wasn’t even a guy!

What Madison knew more than anything though was that Ashley was most definitely a girl. She was one of the sweetest girls she’d ever met, and would kill to have her living around her all of the time. She could only hope that any daughters she had someday would be half as great as she was!

“Ashley, I think that’s enough for today,” Dr. Reynolds said. “I want you to call me if you have anymore breakdowns like that. If they keep happening we might see if we can find some medication to help... But I’d really prefer not to go that route. I don’t like giving drugs to kids.”

Madison agreed in her mind, she knew a few kids on them and one of them had gone way off the deep end for a while before they sorted it out with them. Two others she knew had some major weight problems from them too.

“Now Madison would you mind waiting with Ashley in the lobby? I need to talk with Amber for a moment.”

“Okay, come on Princess,” Madison told her and guided her with her arm around her shoulder. Out in the lobby she sat down first and patted her lap, “Want to sit on my lap?” She asked.

Ashley just nodded and sat down.

With everything that she had been through Madison wanted her to know that she really did love her as a little sister. She just held her quietly and watched the clock on the wall tick its way around. They had walked into the session at about one-fifteen she figured, and it was already three-thirty! Madison watched as four-fifteen rolled around and finally Amber walked out.

By that time she figured out they had a problem - someone had gone to sleep!

AGENT KLINE HAD spent every moment since he had arrived in the office looking at tapes over and over again from the airport. Thankfully due to the time they had come to the parking lot he knew roughly a three-hour window he could look at. Unfortunately that only limited the video he had to watch so much with as large of an airport as DFW was. Even just limiting his search to the shuttles pulling up to the curb there were thousands of people he had to watch pass by. After too much time he had limited it down to ten mothers with a single daughter with them. Four of them struck him as being too young to be the right ones. Two of them struck him as probably being too old and they seemed too tall. The other four had seemed likely, but he had followed them into the airport with the video and discovered all of them were legitimately innocent people.

He sighed and went back to the list he’d made of the things Megan had bought for their disguise. Bob found his pencil tapping on the car seat. He found the four candidates that he had eliminated as two young and found each of them were carrying a seat of some sort. Two of them though were just simple booster seats unlike what Megan had bought. The other two were... Identical...?

“What rotten luck!” he said aloud.

He was just about to rewind and see if there was a good view of either of the faces on those four when the phone rang. “Kline...”

“Oh shit sweetheart, I’m sorry... I’ll be home in thirty minutes or less...” He looked at his watch and discovered that time had gotten away from him again. Not wanting to risk a leak he carefully locked everything back up and logged out of his computer in the hopes that he could keep his progress a secret for now from whatever leak they might have.

“YOU DON’T HAVE to carry her,” Amber said quietly to Madison.

“It’s no big deal Amber, she’s so light I could probably carry her all day.” Madison smiled at her as they waited for the elevator to open. Ashley was out like a light right then, and nothing was going to wake her up as far as she could tell. It was really hard to see her daughter as actually being ten years old right then. She hesitated a moment and asked, “Has she always been like this?”

“Not for a while... I think her father would probably have just...”

Madison wished she had a spare hand free but had to settle with a, “I know... I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, hopefully it’s all in the past now. Unfortunately I think Ashley’s going to be dealing with this for years...”

They both pretty much sighed in unison as the doors opened and they walked through the lobby out to the car. Madison wasn’t kidding about Ashley being light. She was pretty strong too, but with Ashley being under a third of her body weight she didn’t think she was too bad. By the time they reached the car and sat her down though she was finally beginning to have her arms quiver a bit. She strapped her in and had to admit she was very amazed that Ashley never woke up once!

“Madison, why don’t you sit up with me?” Amber asked her.

She shrugged, “Okay, it’s not like she’s awake to talk to anyway!”

MEGAN STARTED THE car and found herself nearly trembling knowing what her daughter had dreamed. Not only that, but what Ashley didn’t realize was she had her own nightmare that night that wasn’t too dissimilar. She looked up at her rear view mirror and took comfort in her daughter sitting there. The car seat that annoyed her daughter so much was a comfort to her as well... It reassured her that at least she was a little safer in some way.

Megan knew one thing; Ashley definitely wasn’t safe in her own mind. For her ten year old brain to have dreamt up something so vivid and gruesome was tough to imagine... all the more difficult due to their ploy of Ashley only being eight. She pulled off being eight so flawlessly that she found herself forgetting sometimes that she really was ten... Well, would be eleven next Wednesday.

More than anything she just hoped her daughter would be okay from the stress. Dr. Reynolds had explained that most of it was just due to the stress building and building, like a volcano, until it all erupted last night. Fairly unsurprising to her in a way, even though she hoped it wouldn’t continue.

The worst part for her was that nothing either of them dreamed was out of the realm of possibility.

She shook her head, “What do you want for dinner Madison?”

“What are you thinking of?”

“Well, Ashley’s pretty conked out... I’ll be surprised if she wakes up in the next hour it takes to drive home actually... I was kind of thinking of just picking up some pizzas in Santa Fe and taking them back with us... Sound good to you?”

“Sure!” Madison said.

“You are way too easy to please,” Megan said with a smile.

She shrugged, “It’s just food to me.”

“I guess...” She shook her head. No one in her family would ever go along with that! “You want to call the house and let your Mom or Gloria know what’s going on? Ask them if they want pizza too and what they want on them...?”

“Sure,” Madison said and began dialing.

“Aunt Gloria?” She said a moment later. “Yes, we’re just now leaving... She’s out like a light right now...” Megan heard her give her a little bit more information before she said, “We’re planning on stopping to pick up some pizzas on the way back through Santa Fe, would you guys like some too?”

She pulled the phone away from her mouth and made some notes on it before saying, “Okay, I got that. Do you have their phone number?” She put it down in the phone and said, “Okay, we’ll see you in a bit, love you!”

“Okay, I’ve got what they want... Want me to order?” She asked Megan.

Megan was a little surprised by her sudden maturity on it, but said, “Sure, put my name down on it. Ashley will just want pepperoni.”

She smiled at her, “Me too!” She giggled quietly, “Mark wants everything though!”

They talked quietly after Madison placed the order all the way to Santa Fe. Ashley never stirred, not even when Madison took the cash Megan gave her to pick up the pizzas and place them in the back.

“Will she wake up at home?” Madison asked her.

Megan bit her lip... “I’ll wake her up there, one way or another, she needs to eat.”

Madison just nodded and after about thirty minutes they were back at the ranch.

I FELT A set of hands undoing the buckles on my seat and I realized I had been drooling in my sleep. I turned red and was embarrassed as I looked up at Mom and asked the stupid question, “Where are we?”

“Back home sweetheart.”

“How? We were just in the waiting room waiting for you...”

Mom sighed and then gave me a big hug, “Ashley, sometimes things happen that make your brain decide to turn off. You’ve been under an unbelievable amount of stress and so I’m not surprised you fell asleep in Madison’s lap.”

“How did I get here?” I asked as I saw Madison grabbing several boxes of pizza.

“Madison carried you down.” Mom said with a smile, “Honestly she carried you easier than I used to be able to carry you as a baby!”

I blushed.

“Okay... Now what?”

“Now we go eat pizza before it gets cold. Then we’ll see what happens.”

I realized I was still clutching Kari in one hand and blushed some more. I wriggled down out of the seat and followed Mom into the house. “What time is it?” I asked as we walked down the hallway.

“About six-thirty,” she answered and put an arm around my shoulder.

“Oh,” I said simply in reply. The day had literally disappeared on me!

I sat down and ate two slices of pepperoni pizza and then realized my eyes were closing on me again. “Come on Princess, let’s give you a bath and then get you into your pajamas.”

I started shaking a little, “I’m not ready for bed yet!”

Mom looked worried, but said, “We’ll watch a movie once you’re dressed. I’m sure Madison will change into a set of pajamas too and we can have a pajama party!” She told me with a smile.
I caught Mark’s eye across the table and he smiled, “Can I join you girls?”

“Why would you want to join a girly slumber party,” his sister teased him.

“Because I want him to!” I said with my own smile.

“Okay then, I’ll join you gals then too,” he said and stuck his tongue out at his sister. Somehow that seemed sillier than any of the rest of us doing it and I giggled out loud.

Mom came upstairs with me a few moments later and sat in my room with the door open while I took my bath. She eventually came and washed my hair for me, insisting that every once in a while she wanted to really make sure it was clean! From out of nowhere she came out with a pretty dress looking nightgown that had a Disney princess emblem in the middle of the collar.

“Ooh!!!” I said with a mild squeal attached, “When did you get that?”

Mom smiled at me, “I bought it a couple weeks ago online and was saving it for a night I thought you needed something special.”

I gave her a hug and said, “Thank you!”

I put it on and was amused that it looked like a gown but was a satin nightgown that felt sooo smooth and soft. It gave me goosebumps as I felt it rub against me and I finally felt a bit better. I thought about taking Kaitlyn downstairs with me, but I decided Kari had been loyal all day long and she should see the movie instead!

We walked downstairs and I asked, “What are we watching?” Mom and Madison were in there already so I was talking to both of them.

“Well... We could watch a Disney movie,” she said as we looked through the bookcase. “Ooh... This one would be good!” She held up a movie called, The Princess Bride, to Mom and I.

“I haven’t seen it before...” I said while looking at Mom. It had ‘princess’ in the title though, so I figured it would be something I would like.

Mom smiled, “She’s right about the right age to enjoy seeing that for the first time.”

I took that for a yes and took the case over to the TV and put it in the DVD player underneath it. Mark appeared in a pair of plaid pajama bottoms and a t-shirt then, “What are we watching?”

“Princess Bride?” Madison said with a smile.

I expected him to groan, but instead he smiled, “Okay, it’s fun!”

Madison had already grabbed the end of one of the couches, Mark had grabbed the other, and Mom took a recliner. I thought about climbing into her lap, but instead climbed in between Madison and Mark. During the movie I wasn’t really paying attention, but I ended up cuddling up into Madison’s side and felt really safe. The movie ended and I was still wide-awake.

“Okay Princess, bedtime,” Mom said.

“Please Mom... I don’t want to go to bed...” I pleaded. I recognized in myself that I didn’t want to go to sleep again by myself and have those nightmares again.

She sighed and looked at me, somehow I felt like she was looking right through me, “Okay, one more movie...”

“Thank you!!!” I said and jumped up and gave her a hug before climbing back onto the couch.

“Well, what are we watching now?” I asked.

“How about Wreck-it-Ralph?” Mark suggested. I gave him kind of an odd look that he would want to watch a kids movie, “What? I like kids movies,” he said with a smile.

I looked at him strangely for a moment but decided, ‘why not?’ in my head. I had seen this one once and my dad had mostly been okay with it until the end. At that point he had grown obnoxious and macho again and said I shouldn’t be watching that “babyish shit” anymore. I felt my stomach twist at the thought of him and decided to keep moving with getting the movie going. When it was done Gloria popped up with some popcorn and I ended up getting squished closer to Mark on the couch. Eventually I ended up with my head on his side... But once again, I was wide-awake through the end.

Mom looked a bit worried at me, but said, “Come on Ashley, time for bed.”

I wanted to protest, but it was almost eleven, I knew there was going to be no more negotiating. I shook a little thinking about the dreams and Madison said, “You want to sleep with me for tonight?” She smiled and said, “I’ll keep the bad dreams away...?”

I nodded and looked at Mom for permission. “Okay... Thanks Madison,” she added.

I went upstairs still clutching Kari and joined Madison under the covers of her bed. “Are you sure you want me to sleep with you?” I asked.

She gave me a hug in response and said, “You’re the little sister I never had before! Of course I do!”

Mom came in and kissed me goodnight and turned the light off for us. I found myself hugging Kari tightly on my side of the bed and soon had Madison hugging me too, “I’ll keep you safe Ashley, just go to sleep.”

“It’s hard though...” I admitted through tears. She hugged me tighter and began to sing the lullaby that was becoming very familiar. I was soon fast asleep.

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

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!!

 
Due to my evening tomorrow including a late evening at work I'm posting a day earlier than normal, I'll post again Sunday as I regularly do for the next installment!

 
Chapter 19: Aha!
 
AGENT KLINE WOKE up at six in the morning out of habit on Saturday morning. As he aged he found himself facing the fact he could rarely sleep in anymore... Even with the kids no longer kids, he just couldn’t do it. His wife rolled over and noticed him awake, “Go ahead and go do whatever it is,” she told him, kissed him, and then rolled over and went back to sleep.

‘Gee thanks honey,’ he thought with a smile. She knew him, and though she never pried much, she had some of the details out of him on the case. He had long ago learned that she was a confidant to whom he could vent as needed. Life was too short to keep secrets from his wonderful wife... she knew not to ask too much though.

That decided, he rolled out of bed, shaved, and then threw on a pair of slacks and a polo shirt since he was technically off-duty on the weekends. He drove into work and found his parking space before heading upstairs to the office.

‘Okay, she most definitely disguised Tony as a girl... But even with that I haven’t seen any sets of ladies with daughters that look right...’ he thought to himself. ‘She’s not buying things for an eleven-year old,’ he thought a moment later. He looked at the details from the file and on a whim looked at the height and weight information again. A few minutes later he thought, ‘Okay, Tony is exceptionally small for his age... Not surprising with the short mother and the midget asshole he has for a father...’ He stared at the list of things that he had been able to see her buy from the screen and thought, ‘Okay how young could he be by his size...’ Their own children had been a little bit off the beaten path with their growth spurts and he remembered growth charts being something the doctors discussed with them.

He pulled up Google and soon found the CDC had a handy set of growth charts. He clicked on the ‘Boys 2-20’ and immediately backed out and found the girls one. ‘Okay... He’s four feet and an inch according to his medical records...’ he looked at the chart and thought, ‘Okay, so at forty-nine inches he’s anywhere from being a six year old to a really tiny ten year old... But the average size of a seven and a half year old…’

He looked at the chart again and checked the boys chart just on a whim, ‘Worse for the poor kid,’ he thought, ‘six to being less than ten...’ You had to really feel for the kid being so short, but with his parents as short as they were it wasn’t much of a surprise. He’d definitely drawn the genetic short straw. ‘Okay, so the kid would absolutely be embarrassed and hate it... But they could pretend he was around seven or eight and no one would probably be the wiser...’

He went back and looked at the latest picture of Megan that they had. She looked haggard and tired in the picture. While she was smiling he could see the signs of abuse in her face even in the photo. ‘Okay... Besides that, what is there in her face...?’ he asked himself. ‘Maybe she would look younger too?’

It was like a jigsaw puzzle of pieces coming into play and he suddenly moved back to the airport footage. He practically jumped up and down in his seat as he saw it. A lady he had dismissed as being too young, with a daughter too young, and the right car seat, it had to be her!!!

‘Okay, now where did you go?’ he asked. Now that he knew which one she was, he followed her out to a taxi where they piled their suitcases in and climbed in. ‘Nothing about them would have given them away...’ he thought to himself. ‘They’re probably pretty safe from recognition,’ he admitted. The footage didn’t give him any high-resolution stills of their faces, but he got something halfway decent on their new hair color. The dye must have been red as Megan’s was full blown beautiful red and Tony’s looked almost like a strawberry blonde. He made a pretty cute looking girl and his hair was more than long enough to be convincing. His mother looked like she was ten or more years younger as well.

“Okay, now I know what you look like,” he said and printed off a copy on his color LaserJet in his office, “now where did you go next...?”

I WOKE UP the next morning as groggy as when I had gone to sleep the first time last night. Despite sleeping while clutching Kari in a death grip, and having Madison next to me, I had woken up at least twice that I remembered in the middle of the night. My brain seemed to only get more creative with each dream and I realized even now that I was drenched in sweat. I also realized Madison wasn’t in bed with me at that point and wondered where she was. A quick look at the clock in the room and I realized it was lighter outside than it should be.

“Oh no, I didn’t do my chores!!!” I exclaimed.

“It’s okay, I did them for you,” I heard from the bathroom. I didn’t think Madison was in there because the door was open. She came out with a towel around her.

“I’m sorry...” I said sadly.

She gave me a hug, “Save the ‘sorrys’ for things you can control Ash, this is just because your dad did way too many bad things to you guys...”

I felt some tears in my eyes, but I was bound and determined not to cry all day long. I just nodded, hugged her, and said, “Whenever you’re done I guess I’ll take a shower... I feel like I ran or something...”

She smiled at me and said, “Just give me two minutes and I’ll be out. Why don’t you go grab a pair of jeans and a t-shirt? I think Aunt Gloria mentioned going for a ride today.”

I smiled a little with that, hugged her, and then walked into my room to look for something appropriate. Before too long I had found a pink tank top with some ruffling on the bottom and silver butterflies printed all over it. I wasn’t sure what it was made of, but it was a really lightweight fabric. I’d yet to wear it, but it seemed perfect for today.

“I’m out Ashley,” Madison told me.

I took a quick shower, skipping my hair, and put on my clothes and brushed my teeth. I decided to try my own hand at braiding my hair then without saying anything to Madison. I kept trying for probably twenty minutes until Mom walked into the door. I heard her try and hold back a giggle and sighed, “Why can’t I do this?!?!?” I felt a few tears trying to leak out of my face.

“Because you haven’t had years of practice,” Mom told me with a hug.

“But I’m almost eleven! Don’t most eleven year old girls do their own hair...?”

Mom turned my face towards her, “Some do, but I know a lot of girls who still have their mom’s do their hair at that age even. At least with braiding... That’s the reason you see a lot of short hair on little girls, it’s a lot easier to manage.”

I sighed and looked in the mirror. ‘It’s lopsided, uneven, and looks terrible.’

“How do I do this?” I asked.

“Well, here, hand me the brush,” Mom said. She proceeded to help me do it right.

As I tied off the bottom of the braid I felt much better and pounced on her for a hug. “Thank you Mommy!”

She squeezed me back and said, “I let you do it today, but I still have first dibs on it!” She pushed me away a bit, “I just got this pretty little girl, and I do not want her to grow up yet!”

I giggled and said, “Well... As long as I’m eight I guess you can do it... But I want to learn how so when I get to middle school finally I won’t look like I’m stupid.”

I heard a knock on the partially open door, “Knock, knock,” Kaitlyn said at the same time.

“Come in,” Mom told her.

“So did you ask Ashley yet?”

“No not yet, she decided she wanted to learn how to braid her hair today... It was a bit of a mess when I walked in,” she teased me.

Kaitlyn giggled, “I remember when Madison started wanting me to let her do her hair...” she giggled some more, “some mornings she would be in tears, others she would have this terribly done hair and be soo proud of it!”

Madison chose that embarrassing moment about herself to walk in, “Mom don’t be making fun of me! It’s not nice!” She winked at me though so I knew she wasn’t too mad.

“So what were you supposed to ask me?” I asked Mom.

“If you wanted to go on a ride and a picnic like we did a few weeks ago.”

“Sure...” I said and added, “does it have to be the hot springs though?”

“Nope! In fact there’s another place I want you to see,” she told me with a smile.

“Okay,” I said, finally feeling a little better. “When do we leave?”

“When you get your boots on downstairs?” She suggested.

I just stuck my tongue out at her and ran downstairs with the others laughing and following. It wasn’t actually that simple, Mom insisted on putting sunscreen on me too! Consetta also insisted I eat something for breakfast too. Before long though I had my helmet on and sat astride Beauty. She seemed happy to see me... That may have just been because of the apple I had in my hand, but she seemed to like me either way.

Gloria wasn’t joining us that day as she had other ranch business to take care of. She had helped us pack the saddlebags with everything we might need though before we left. Soon I was following Mom down the trail with Madison, Mark, and then Kaitlyn behind him. For some reason I think the adults didn’t trust us to keep up or something... It was about nine when we left and we rode for several hours up different trails that Mom seemed to know like the streets back home. A couple hours into the ride we came across a meadow and a ton of cows. This was apparently where most of Gloria’s herd was grazing. We kept going past there and my stomach was beginning to rumble a bit. I took occasional drinks from the water bottle Mom had given me, but we didn’t really take any breaks. Finally we were riding through the mass of trees and I could see a break ahead. We came out into a beautiful meadow, complete with wildflowers and a stream running down the middle of it. The mountain rose around it into high rock formations that seemed to frame it like a picture.

“This is beautiful!” I exclaimed.

“Yes it is, isn’t it?” Madison said next to me where she was riding now.

“Is this part of her ranch?” I asked, astounded.

“Yes, though it’s also technically National Forest land too,” Mom said, “It’s kind of complicated.”

We rode through the meadow and came up to one lone pine tree that was about twenty yards from the small stream. Its trunk was massive and it created a large circle of shade around it. Mom pulled to a stop there and climbed down like it was nothing. She wasn’t that much taller than me and she made it seem so easy. I was tempted to do the same, but was patient and waited for someone to help me... Breaking a leg up here seemed like a bad idea! Mark beat anyone else to me and he picked me up even easier than Madison or Gloria did. I blushed a bit at that, but gave him a hug to say thanks.

The five of us picketed our horses after giving them a drink in the stream and they seemed grateful for the meadow grass. The supplies of cold-cut sandwiches and lemonade disappeared quickly, and I found myself walking through the field towards the stream. I watched some tadpoles swim around and a water strider soon followed too. Butterflies and moths were landing on various wildflowers all around me. Mark appeared by my side then and pointed downstream a couple hundred yards away.

“See them?” he asked me quietly.

“Cool!” I said! There were several deer that were drinking from the stream! As I kept watching it looked like a few others might have been lying down nearby too. “Can we get closer?” I asked him.

He smiled, “Maybe, but we’d probably just scare them off. Better to just to let them enjoy the scenery too, don’t you think?”

I thought about it and nodded and settled for watching from afar. I grew bored of it after awhile though and started walking back to the tree. Along the way I picked some really pretty purple wildflowers, some yellow flowers, and then finally some of these weird tall stalks with little red flowers all up and down it. I got back to Mom and showed her the flowers, suggesting we give them to Gloria, something she smiled about. “She’ll love the Indian Paintbrush especially,” she told me.

“What?”

“The red one,” she said, “She’s always liked those and uses them for other things sometimes.”

“Like what?”

“Well, sometimes she gets really motivated and dyes her own wool for weaving,” Kaitlyn said.

“Really?”

“Really, does the whole spinning process first too. It’s really cool.” Madison said.

“Wow,” I simply stated.

“Well Princess, ready to head back?” Mom asked.

I looked around and nodded, “I’d love to come back here sometime though.”

“We could come up here and go camping in a couple weeks if you want Ashley,” Mom told me.

“But they’ll be gone...?” I said, pointing towards Madison, Kaitlyn, and Mark.

“Well, about that...” Madison said with a smile.

I looked at her expectantly, “What?”

“I’m going to stay two more weeks past when I was supposed to. You guys are going to drive me back home then.”

“You live where our moms grew up, right?” I said looking at everyone.

“Uh-huh,” Mom said, “We’re going to have to be careful not to run into your grandparents or anyone else I know... But I figured you’d want to have Madison with you a little longer?”

I smiled and hugged Mom, “Of course!” I then walked over and gave Madison a hug, which turned somehow into her picking me up and putting my leg in Beauty’s stirrup and pulling myself on her. Before long we were heading back down the trail to go home to the ranch.

IT WAS THREE in the afternoon and Agent Kline felt his elation from earlier in the day fading away. He knew what Megan and Tony looked like now, but he couldn’t figure out where they went to after the airport. He was pretty sure they had left Dallas, but ‘how’ was the million-dollar question he was trying to solve. ‘Could they have decided someone could have picked out the car they were driving...?’

The truth was he had figured out their vehicle pretty easily. Finding that out had been trivial at the time, and following them around via the plate scanner databases had been child’s play. He had watched the film and seen them leave the airport in a taxi, but a call to the taxi company hadn’t led him anywhere. He decided to call some hotels in a ten-mile radius of the airport and see if they had footage from their lobbies from that day. The ultimate problem was that if there was a leak, he couldn’t trust anyone else to look for them.

He thought about it for a second and then reached for his cell phone, “Hey boss, this is Bob...”

“What’s going on? Any new leads on your cases?”

“Naw... Well maybe. What, the Trenaldo family bust wasn’t enough for you?”

“Hey, just cause you bust one family doesn’t mean you get to sit on your ass Bob.”

The two of them had been friends for a long time, so things worked well with them. He laughed, “Don’t I know it.”

“So what’s up?”

“Can you clear me for a trip to Dallas?”

“Why?”

He proceeded to tell him about the leak concerns and the fact he wanted to keep anything he found to himself. It was a long conversation and his boss was not happy about the implications. Eventually he said, “Okay Bob, go for it. Try to be back by Thursday if you can though. And touch base with the office there so they know you’re in town.”

“Sounds great!”

“I’m sure your wife is going to love you leaving on this one?”

“She understands,” he said with a chuckle, “I’ll see you Thursday then, I’m going to fly out Monday morning.”

And with that Agent Kline looked around his desk, put his notes up, made a reservation for a flight, and left the office. He would have to spend Sunday with his wife to make up for not taking her with him!

I COULDN’T BELIEVE how sore I was as I walked around after getting off of Beauty. I’d been riding every day since we had arrived at the ranch, but six hours was apparently a little much. Madison and I took turns in the bathtub when we got back around four. She let me have my long soak first before she got in. I kept my hair dry and figured I would wash it in the morning. Mom found me brushing it out in my room, “Feel better after the soak?” She asked knowingly.

I nodded, “Will you do something with my hair?” I asked with a smile.

I might have made her day from the smile she gave back to me! She began pulling at my hair and I was certain it was probably going to end up being a cute set of braided pigtails. When she let me look that was confirmed. After her well-earned hug, I grabbed my Kaitlyn doll and asked, “What now?”

“Gloria suggested we go out for supper?”

“Okay,” I said. I didn’t ask if I needed to change since I was already in a pretty purple sundress.

“I take it you’re happy with that dress then?” she said with a smile.

I nodded, “Let me get some sandals though...” I told her and began digging through what had become a massive shoe collection, “Hey, did our boxes arrive yesterday?” I asked.

“They got held up in Albuquerque yesterday with another delivery,” Mom answered, “They’ll be here Monday.”

“Oh, okay,” I told her. I was looking forward to the new things we bought on our trip, and also I was curious to see our ‘old’ things that would be arriving.

“We’re not unpacking all of that stuff... Most of it is going into an empty horse stall for now,” she told me with a smile.

“Won’t it smell after awhile?” I asked a bit nervously. Not that I cared, none of it was really ours.

“Some, but that’ll mostly be books and furniture. The stuff from your old room will be brought up here. Gloria figures the hands can help out with that. I think there are about eight boxes on the truck you need to go through.” She looked at me seriously for a moment, “Make sure you occasionally pick something out that you missed and love dearly, ‘kay?” She asked.

“Umm... Okay,” I said.

“And don’t hate me for some of the outfits that are in there...” She told me with a smile.

I raised my eyebrow, “Well, you were crying too much so I just packed all of your closet up. Given your size there are still some things in there that are Size 6 and 6X that you can still fit into.”

I glared at her, “I am not pretending to be less than eight anymore!”

She smiled and said, “No, you wouldn’t be caught dead in most of them back home either, but Mom picked them out for you, so you are somewhat attached still.”

“Oh,” I said. I gave her a big hug and said, “I’m really glad I haven’t really lost my mom. I don’t know what I’d do...”

She hugged me back and said, “Nope, no crying, not tonight. Let’s go get dinner!” she said.

I felt a little cheated, but agreed. The sandals I put on were white and had a back strap and some pretty fake jewels on them. “Ready?” Gloria asked as we met her downstairs. The others were already there.

“I think so,” Mom told her.

“We’ll take two cars I think,” Gloria said.

“That’s fine, I’ll drive,” Mom told her.

“Okay, we’ll take our two cars then,” Gloria agreed.

“Can I go with Ashley?” Madison asked.

“Sure,” Kaitlyn said, “I’ll go with Amber too, Mark, do you want to ride with your Aunt Gloria?”

“Sure Mom,” he said and the six of us split into the two cars.

We drove to a local brewery restaurant that was about a half-hour from the ranch. “Hank loves this place,” Gloria said as we waited for a seat. “They have some really good food here,” she said as her own additional endorsement.

“Your doll is really pretty,” a pretty teenaged girl, about Marks age, said to me while we waited.

I looked up at her and smiled, “Thanks!”

“What’s her name?” She asked.

“Kaitlyn!” I smiled back.

“I used to play with those dolls all of the time,” she said with a smile. She spoke to me a few more minutes before asking, “Who is he?” She motioned towards Mark.

I giggled, “That’s my cousin Mark.”

Upon hearing his name he turned towards us and I had to control my laughter as the two of them started flirting. “Gloria party of six!” We heard a moment later though and he had to end his attempts.

The hostess pulled my chair out for me and pushed it in, but I was alone in that help. She passed out some large menus to everyone and gave me a coloring mat in addition to the menu. “Can I have one of those too?” Madison asked with a smile.

“Sure!” She said and brought her one and an extra set of crayons.

I looked through the menu for something good but couldn’t seem to find anything that wasn’t Mexican or a burger. Finally I settled on the fish and chips that they made with their own beer. Gloria explained to us that the bread was made with the remnants of their brewing process. It was really amazing, so I guessed the fish and chips would be great too!

“What would you like, young lady?” An older waiter asked a little bit later.

“The fish and chips please?”

“You got it little lady,” he said with a smile and kept moving. The meal passed by quickly and I laughed at some of the jokes that came up. Kaitlyn and Mom had an easy rapport going now and it was just nice to smile at their stories. Of course they were still in character for Mom, but that didn’t seem to change things too much. None of the adults had ordered beer, so it was just a nice meal out. The food was really good though!

As we were finishing I heard, “Well, look who they let in?” from a familiar voice. Hank was walking by with a lady who I figured must be his wife. I was surprised that he wasn’t married to Annie with their friendship, but his wife seemed nice too. He talked to Mom quietly for a few moments and she nodded. “Well, we’ll see you all around,” he said with a smile and gave me a hug.

With that we began the exit to the car.

“BOB YOU’RE GOING where?” Sheila asked.

He sighed, “Dallas until Thursday.”

“Why not just send someone else to do the investigating?”

He bit his tongue and said, “I can’t discuss that one honey.”

The look in his eyes answered the question more than anything else. “This isn’t a dangerous assignment, is it?”

He shook his head, “No, this one is about as safe as it gets. I just need to be the one doing the investigating.”

“Well, I guess I’m a single lady the next week,” she told him with a wry smile.

“And what would that mean...?” He asked playfully...

I WALKED UP to the house and went upstairs to my room. I didn’t really tell anyone where I was going and just went. I gathered my dolls together and started playing with them on the floor of my room. “Can I play too?” Madison asked.

“Sure,” I told her with a smile. It really was more fun with two people, but I had been enjoying the opportunity to think. I was pretty sure I was slowly going out of my mind! The simple fact was that I felt like I was losing who I really was in a lot of ways... And the thing that bothered me was that it didn’t bother me. Playing with dolls on the floor felt like the most natural thing to do in the world. I didn’t miss playing on my iPad or computer all of the time at all.

“Penny for them?” Madison said.

“Huh?”

“It’s an old saying, what are you thinking?” She asked.

I sighed, “I just don’t know who I am anymore Madison...”

She nodded, “Well, I guess I can see that being a problem for you.”

“No... The bigger problem is that I’m not bothered by it,” I told her honestly.

She smiled, “Well, I think that’s because you really are a girl Ashley.”

I nodded.

“Seriously Ashley, I know you are acting in a way, but there is no way I could ever imagine Tony acted much differently.”

My old name sort of stung with that, “What do you mean?”

“Well, tell me about what you used to do? What kind of games did you play? Sports?”

“Well... I’ve never really liked sports.” I told her, “You know, being short means that I can’t run as fast as the other kids my age. My dad tried to teach me baseball... Even had this expensive fancy glove made for me last Christmas,” I giggled a bit at that.

“What’s so funny?”

“Oh my dad tried to teach me to catch and throw. He used to yell at me all of the time then that I threw like a girl. I can’t throw to save my life!” I told her with a smile.

She smiled, “So, what did you do?”

“Well... I read a lot.”

“Like what?”

“Well... It used to be things like Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and such, but then I started getting bored because I finished those books in less than two hours every time... The librarian at school started recommending more books to me then. I had all of the Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and Twilight books at home.” I blushed a bit at the last one, “And those were all too easy too... So I read the Game of Thrones book series last year and actually found something I couldn’t just breeze through. My teacher mentioned that they reminded her of a modern War and Peace so I read that next...”

“You read War and Peace?!?!” She asked incredulously.

“Uh-huh, and it was... Well... Not boring, but really hard to keep track of. There are waaaay too many characters. I think that’s what my teacher meant.”

“So you’re like some kind of genius then?” She asked.

I blushed and felt embarrassed, “I guess I’m kind of smart.”

“You are going to be so bored in third grade...” she told me.

I shook my head, “I figure at least I get to learn how to be friends with girls and not be in middle school sorting it out.”

She nodded, “Maybe that is a good thing, the girls I go to school with can be really mean.” I sensed something there, but she went back to me, “So what else did you do?”

“Well, I used to play on my iPad quite a bit. Of course I had two sets of games on there...”

“Huh?”

“Games that I wanted to play, and games that Dad would be okay with.”

“So violent ones on your own and unicorns for your dad?” She asked seriously.

I laughed, “Something like that... Or rather the opposite of it.”

“You know you’re not saying anything that didn’t sound like something I would have done growing up.” She told me, “Like I said, I think you really are a girl.”

I sighed and said, “I hope so...” Then grinned, “Because if not I really am losing my mind!”

“Girls,” I heard behind us and jumped, “it’s time for bed Ashley.”

I thought about putting up a fight, but I was tired and knew it. “Okay,” said, adding a sigh because I knew I should!

“Do you want to stay with me again tonight?” Madison asked.

I shook my head, “I want to try on my own...”

“I’ll keep the door open?” She suggested.

I nodded, “Okay, thanks,” I told her and gave her a hug. I changed into the nightgown I’d worn the night before and climbed into bed and Mom tucked me in. She found another children’s book on the bookshelf and told me the tale of Strega Nona and I felt much calmer before going to sleep that night.

MEGAN WATCHED HER daughter’s breathing even out and knew she was asleep. She closed up the book and turned off the light. She decided to leave the door cracked open so that maybe she could hear her across the hallway. ‘I almost wish I had a baby monitor or something’ she admitted to herself. ‘Don’t let Ashley hear that thought!’ she told herself.

Megan knew that the whole situation was really beginning to wear her daughter down. Today at least seemed to have helped her like she’d hoped. There was something about riding a horse up in the mountains that she thought was just good for the soul. The fact that her daughter was a total natural at riding made her enjoy it even more. She had many friends growing up who wouldn’t ever have been able to go with them today!

She went downstairs to go have a cup of tea before going to bed. Megan found Gloria sitting at the table talking with Kaitlyn.

“Princess in bed?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Yep, and didn’t even put up a fight tonight...”

“Well, you did more than enough to wear her out today,” Gloria said.

“I hope so...”

“Did she want to sleep with Madison tonight?” Kaitlyn asked.

She shook her head, “No, I think she’s getting stubborn and doesn’t want to feel as weak as unfortunately I think she is right now.”

“It’s not like she doesn’t have reason to,” Gloria said with an uncontrollable shudder.

Kaitlyn looked at Gloria for a moment and then looked at her, “How are you holding up Megan. We know that Ashley is having these nightmares, but what about you?”

“Well... I have them too,” she admitted and fought to keep the tears from escaping, “but there’s nothing I can do about them. It’s PTSD I have no doubt. That and battered woman’s issues... It’s going to be a long road for both of us,” she admitted.

“So what are you doing about it?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Seeing Dr. Reynolds, just like Ashley is and trying to move on with life here. Maybe in a couple years I’ll be well enough that I can find someone else to fall in love with that isn’t a total jerk.”

Gloria smiled, “I’m pretty sure there will be no end to the numbers of boys lined up for you.”

Megan laughed nervously, “Yeah, but I don’t really want to get married under the false pretenses that I’m fifteen years younger than I really am. Ashley’s got it bad enough with the three years, which means more at her age... But still...”

“Yeah, the cover is going to be tough to deal with on a long term basis,” Gloria acknowledged.

The three of them talked for a long time that night and Megan felt herself feeling a little better after the third cup of chamomile tea. She decided it was bedtime and started heading upstairs to her room. Megan had just turned the handle when she heard a scream from behind her in her daughter’s room and turned around into there. She beat Madison by a moment and had her daughter wrapped into her arms to calm her down. Megan used her eyes to let Madison know she had this one.

At some point she fell asleep holding her daughter.

SUNDAY MORNING WAS normally a great day for sleeping in as far as Ray was concerned. Instead he was on his way to an uncle’s for a family get together. His second cousin Addison was having her tenth birthday party and it was expected for him to be there. He was not in the mood for it though.

“Where’s Tony?” Addison asked almost as soon as she saw him.

“Umm... He went away for the summer,” he lied.

“Oh, that’s too bad, I was hoping to play with him.”

Ray fumed a little, his son would most definitely not be allowed to only play with his girl cousins in the future. For years he’d overlooked the fact that his son was playing more with the girls than the boys, but that would most definitely stop when he got him back. Well, once he got him back from his father then. Truthfully Tony didn’t matter much to Ray, he just didn’t want his bitch of a wife to win.

“Hey Ray!” he heard from the other side of the yard.

“Hey Pops,” he said and walked over to where his dad was sitting.

“How are you holding up?” His cousin Greg asked.

He shrugged, “House isn’t as clean as it used to be,” was as much as he was going to say.

Greg just nodded at him, but there was something in his body language that lacked sympathy. “Any luck on tracking Megan down?” He asked quietly.

“No, she’s disappeared off the face of the earth.” He said.

“Well, we’re keeping an eye on the agent in charge of the case, maybe we’ll get lucky and catch the information from him,” Giovanni said.

“Aren’t we going to lose our source then?” Ray asked.

“Maybe, maybe not... I’ve been seeing less and less from him the last two weeks anyways, I’m not entirely certain they don’t suspect him already.”

“Yeah,” Greg added. “Well, at least the feds took out the Trenaldos. They’ve been a major pain in the ass the last couple of years.”

“Just remember that if you do anything else stupid we could be next,” his father added while looking at his son.

“Why the fuck do you keep blaming me?!? She’s the one that left!!!” He said a little too loudly and he knew some others had heard. He got a glare from Greg’s wife then... He knew she wouldn’t appreciate having Addison hear that language.

“Keep your fucking voice down,” Greg said quietly.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“It’s okay, I understand Ray. At the same time don’t swear around my daughter please.”

“Okay,” he said.

“So what are you doing about Megan?” his father asked.

“Same thing we’re doing now, looking for her. I have this gut feeling that maybe she’s in New Mexico, but no one seems to know where.”

“Why New Mexico?” Greg asked.

“We have the least number of stores there, and it’s on the same path as she would have gone to get to Dallas.”

“I would have thought California myself...” he said.

“Too obvious... I know Megan, and she’s too damned smart for her own good. Her parents are like that too.”

“You still don’t think they know where she is?” his father asked him.

He shook his head, “They were pissed at me that day they called and there’s been no communication to them since then. We’ve had people watching them since day one.”

“How do you know there’s been no communication?” Greg asked.

“What do you think? I’m stupid?” Ray asked, before continuing, “We’ve got them bugged, we’re keeping an eye on their mail and house, and there’s no way.”

“Have they called again?” his father asked.

“Well no, why the Hell would they?”

“Because if they haven’t heard from her they should be absolutely sick with worry by now.” Giovanni said.

“You think they do know?” He asked.

“Most definitely if they haven’t hounded you every day.”

“See, I’m not so sure about that...” He said.

“Why not?” his father pried.

“Her parents aren’t ordinary Pops, you know that, you’ve met them a couple of times…” He paused, “I mean you’ve mentioned her grandfather being a mystery before, but I still don’t know what the hell her parents did while she was growing up either. She’s given me a line about traveling Europe with a company he worked for, but it’s always smelled a little funny...”

“Like cop funny?” Greg asked, alarmed.

He shook his head, “Like spy novel funny.”

“You think they are?”

“Were,” Ray said, “they have been doing legitimate business work since Megan was in high school. Before that though... Who knows?”

“If you haven’t found Megan by the time you finish with the New Mexico distributers you definitely need to go find them.” His cousin said.

He nodded, “Already in my plans, remember Pops?”

“Yeah, I just want this mess taken care of. Be careful when you go to New Mexico. When are you leaving?”

“Thursday,” he answered.

I LOOKED THROUGH my wardrobe to find something to wear and settled on a pink t-shirt and some yoga pants that looked comfortable before hurrying downstairs for lunch. We had been to church again that morning and I had hung out with Emma and Sarah again. Madison had obviously gone to the Sunday School class for the teenagers, while I remained with the five through eight year olds. All in all it had been fun in a way, but I was still tired from having woken up in the middle of the night again.

I’d woken up for chores when Mom stirred beside me in my bed. She looked like she’d slept wrong and I felt really bad about that. The part of me that had broken… still wasn’t better. I had woken up twice more after that and cried myself to sleep both times. In the end I felt like a zombie and almost took up Gloria’s offer to skip church that morning!

We didn’t stick around long after the service though, just getting home in time to have some soup that Gloria had left in a crock-pot to cook that morning. I was just finishing my bowl when Hank walked in. “Hi Hank,” I said with a smile.

“Hi,” he said to us. He seemed to examine how far we were into our meal and then asked, “Megan, Ashley, would you come here for a few minutes?”

I looked at Mom and she nodded and we followed him to the library. “Have you asked her yet?” He asked Mom.

“It wasn’t a good time to ask last night,” she told him.

“You’re okay with it though?”

“Definitely.”

“What are you two talking about?” I asked, more than slightly annoyed.

“Ashley, would you like to learn how to shoot?” he asked me.

I looked at him a little oddly, “Girls don’t shoot... Do they?”

Mom laughed and Hank was right there too. “Yes they do sweetheart... and it might make you feel better to be able to protect yourself.”

I looked at her for a moment, “You can shoot?”

“I’m a little rusty, but yes, my father and grandfather taught me how to shoot when I was five.”

I looked incredulously at her, there were all sorts of things I was learning about Mom it seemed. “Okay, I guess, sure.”

“Great,” Hank said. “Umm... Why don’t you go put on a pair of tennis shoes, otherwise what you’re wearing will work fine,” he told me.

“Okay...” I said. I ran down the hallway to the mudroom where I knew I had my Barbie shoes.

“Umm... Amber?” I asked as we went out the door.

“Yes?”

“Can we go buy me some other tennis shoes before school starts?”

Mom laughed, “I think we can do that. You don’t want to wear baby shoes?” She asked with a wink.

I stuck my tongue out at her. I’d always had to go to smaller sizes of shoes, even as a boy, but the logos on these were going to probably be a bit much for a third grader. Hank led Mom and I to his large Dodge Ram truck and gave me both a boost up into the backseat of.

“How far are we going?” I asked.

“Not far, the ranch has a shooting range,” he told me.

“Really?”

He laughed, “Gloria’s husband Ken made sure that it had everything, just like her grandparents did.”

“Oh,” I said simply.

I watched as he drove down some roads I hadn’t been on before and eventually came to a hill side and a little roofed patio thing with several counters to set guns on. I looked down from there and saw a number of places that targets could be attached and even some sort of weird metal target downrange that had the shape of an elk.

“Here Ashley, help me carry this,” he said and handed me a plastic case that obviously held a rifle. Mom carried a bag too and he brought a couple of other things too.

“Okay Ashley, before we even begin handling guns we’re going to talk about safety, okay?”

I nodded.

“You never ever handle a gun without your Mom’s, Aunt’s, or my permission. Someday if it’s an emergency that might be different, but right now I just care about teaching you the basics.”

I nodded, “yes sir.”

He smiled at me, “Now, the first thing I want you to know is that you never ever ever ever treat a gun like it’s unloaded. There is no such thing as an unloaded gun! More people die from mishandling of guns than any other way. Never point a gun at anything living unless you mean to kill it. For today you always point the gun down towards the ground when you’re not using it, and always use the safety.”

He proceeded to pull out a rifle without a scope from the case I had carried. Hank explained the sights to me, taught me how to put the safety on an off, and finally how to load it. We made sure it had the safety on, set it down, and then we walked down to the nearest target stand with a target. It was made of cardboard and he stapled it down to the stand.

We returned to the building thing and he had me sit down on a tall stool he’d brought. “This is only a .22 caliber rifle, so it’s really not loud, but I want you to get into good habits. Here are a pair of safety glasses and a pair of ear protectors I want you to put on,” he said and handed me a pair of pink earmuffs and a small set of glasses. I put both of them on and giggled, I was sure I looked silly!

“Okay Ashley, point it down towards the target,” he said. “Now, take it off of safety once you have the target in sight.”

“Okay,” I said, using my thumb to push the safety.

“Aim carefully and line up the sights on the center ring,” he told me.

“Okay...?” I said.

“Now I want you to breathe out...” I did, “Now breathe in and squeeze the trigger.”

It took less effort than I would have believed and I heard a noise even as the gun seemed to move a little. I watched the target though and was certain I had missed it by several feet because of a cloud of dust. “How come I missed?” I asked.

“You jumped when the noise happened. Try it again, concentrate.”

I did try again, and was rewarded that time by a hole I could barely see landing on the paper. Unfortunately it was still a long ways off of the bull’s-eye!!!!! I finished the remaining six rounds in the rifle and safed the rifle as instructed.

“Let’s go see how you did?” He suggested. He brought another target with him though and placed it at fifteen feet away from another of the windows before following me the next twenty feet to the target.

“I hit it!!!!” I said with a squeal. I’d managed to hit the ring outside of the bull’s-eye twice! Of course I’d missed the target all together four times... But I was impressed.

“Yes you did young lady.” He said and used a highlighter to mark the holes.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“This is how we can tell when you make new holes,” he answered simply.

We went back to the little stand and he had Mom begin to shoot the pistol he handed her at the same time as he worked with me on the rifle. We reloaded the rifle this time fully with the ten rounds it could handle. He chambered one for me and then set it back down on the counter. I was a little surprised that he didn’t seem concerned with helping Mom until we had both gone through that round of bullets. With both guns safed we walked up to mom’s target first.

“How did you do that!?!?” I asked her. Her eleven rounds from her pistol were almost all in the middle of the bull’s-eye.

“My dad made me practice a lot,” she said. “He wouldn’t have liked that one!” She said pointing towards her first shot that was just outside of the bull’s-eye by two inches.

I was stunned and we walked to my target. I had done much better that time, all but two of the bullets had landed on the target, and six of them were close to the bull’s-eye. I’d yet to actually hit the actual bull’s-eye though! We repeated the shooting for an hour on that rifle before I was doing decently and he had me try a .22 caliber pistol he had. “What’s the difference between mine and mom’s?” I had asked.

“Look,” he said and simply showed me two bullets. “Hers is a .45 caliber, bigger bullet and a bigger punch.”

“Will I be able to shoot that sometime?” I asked nervously.

“By the weekend I’m sure,” he said with a smile. “Pistols kick more, and I want you to learn how to handle the easier gun first.”

I trusted him and soon I’d shot a hundred rounds out of the handgun. I found it was a lot harder at first to hit the target, even with it being closer! Eventually though by about the seventh clip I was hitting the target with all of the bullets. By the tenth I was inside the second ring out from the bull’s-eye most of the time.

“You’re a really good teacher,” I told him with a hug as we finished up.

“You’re a really quick learner!” He told me with a smile.

“Why are you teaching me this?” I asked eventually as he showed me how to clean the gun.

“Well, I don’t want to clean your gun all the time,” he jested.

“No, not this specifically, but shooting in general?”

“Well... With everything going on with you I thought maybe you would feel better if you didn’t feel so helpless.”

“Oh,” I said.

As we drove back I wondered if I would ever be able to really shoot anyone... Let alone my own dad.

STELLA LOOKED AT the aisles of toys and thought about things for a moment before deciding, ‘Why not?!?’ inside her head. She went down the aisle and looked for something that would make a good gift based on what Gary had told them the other night. She was glad that Megan and Tony... ‘Ashley!’ She corrected in her head again, had been able to get away for some fun. As far as they could tell her cover was as solid as it could ever get.

The visit to the banks had also let her know that her daughter was probably set financially... And probably had a very angry husband about that one! Ex-husband, she reminded herself. She wasn’t sure how that divorce would work out though, talk about a tough thing to do legally. She was actually a little nervous that at some point Ray would get smart enough to go to the authorities. If he asked for the divorce and custody of Tony in the event they were found it could be a problem. Stella didn’t think that would be very likely to happen though!

She looked through the aisles and pretending that she was for a friend’s daughter. She was eight like Ashley supposedly was... “Well, he did mention Ashley is a princess fanatic,” she thought for a moment... Gary’s contacts had flown with Megan and Ashley without them knowing. They had followed them carefully through the park and had taken some pictures for her and sent them back. She had long since decided her granddaughter was adorable!

On the shelf were some dolls that probably wouldn’t get played with much by Ashley, but that didn’t matter. This was more of a package about sending a message to Megan and Ashley. She added a couple of My Little Pony toys too and found the wrapping paper aisle. She caught sight of the man that was following her then and smiled to herself. There were five of them that she knew were with her right then. Three from Raimondo’s family and two from the FBI she believed. All of them were hoping to find some clue, but they wouldn’t get it her buying a present for Gary’s granddaughter. She would have him send it through his contacts to make the connection go away. Stella found a card and a few other things she wanted and headed up to the checkouts.

On the way home she watched the drivers of the chase cars try and be casual about following her... Quite frankly neither of the groups had much of a chance of being unnoticed though. They were all amateurs as far as she could tell. Obviously no one on the FBI’s varsity team was here! At home she carefully wrote her message,

Happy Birthday Ashley!

I know you’ve had a long trip and a lot of things happen to you, but know that we love you a lot!!!! Your parents are looking down on you both from Heaven, keeping you safe. Hopefully we’ll get to see you soon Princess!

Love,

Aunt Stella

She found Tom and had him sign too and though he raised his eyebrows, he trusted her. She wrapped them up and knew that Gary would be able to get them into a box to ship. “I’m going to run Gary’s granddaughters presents over to his house since we’re going to miss the party.”

“Okay honey,” he said with a smile.

It was just a quick trip and Gary made all of the appropriate remarks at the door before she went back to the car.

“DAMNIT,” LUKE THOUGHT for the second time. ‘I really was hoping she was getting something to send to Tony... But she’d never buy that girlie stuff for her grandson, and then drop it off at that friends of theirs house.’ He shook his head. Ray had told him to keep watching them, sure that a mistake would happen. They were all pretty certain contact had been made somehow, but no one knew when or how!!!

It was frustrating beyond all hell and he really just wanted to barge into the house and stick a gun in the wife’s face until the husband talked. He sighed and began carefully following her behind again. ‘Thank Jesus she’s so freaking easy to follow! And clueless!’ he mused to himself.

STELLA LOOKED BACK at her mirror and just shook her head. ‘These guys are stupid...’ she thought to herself. She was half-tempted to lose them just for the practice, but it made more sense to keep them stupid. Not that it was hard to do so!

Chapter 20: Motion

MONDAY MORNING CAME early for Agent Kline. He had to get to the airport by seven and fought traffic all the way there. Passing four wrecks on the way there had left him at his wits end by the time he arrived. There he got to the zoo that was security, and realized he’d forgotten to fill out one form for his firearm, and hoped they didn’t give him too much grief about it. He stepped into the line that was designated for people such as himself and thankfully got waved through with just a check of his badge.

He sighed in relief as he boarded the airplane to Dallas. The whole trip there he spent time going over what he thought were possibilities to track Megan Franchino down. He was certain his best hope was figuring out which hotel she stayed in. With the best photo he had printed out and in his briefcase to show around, he hoped he would have some luck. He’d already picked out twelve hotels he thought were likely candidates. One of them felt more right than the others so he decided to stay there himself when he set up the reservation.

Once in Dallas he rented a car and headed to the hotel, hoping that all of the ones he wished to check would still have their videos from the day in question...

MONDAY AFTERNOON AFTER lunch the truck arrived with the contents of our supposed house. The hands all pitched in to unload it and I found six large boxes and two wardrobe boxes sitting in my room. “Where am I going to put all of this?!?” I asked myself when the hands were gone. I just sighed and began working on getting through the boxes. One of the first boxes I got to had more stuffed animals than I had ever seen. I immediately picked two that I would say were my favorites. Well, who wouldn’t love the cute white tiger and the purple bunny!?!

Both toys earned a spot on my pillow after Mom whispered to me that they had been washed already. She and I were a bit on the germaphobic side of things on stuff like that. The last thing I wanted was some other kids slobber on the toy that was on my pillow... That’s just nasty!

Dolls, a dollhouse, Polly Pocket toys, and just about anything that might have been bought for a girl as a toy from her fourth birthday to her eighth birthday were there. “Need some help?” Madison asked close to dinner.

“Please!” I asked.

She smiled and whispered, “Whoever your mom knows sure was thorough...”

I nodded. She opened the top of the box for me and giggled, “Ooh, you’re going to look so cute in this!!!!” She exclaimed and held up a pink leotard and a tutu.

I turned bright red... “Umm... I’m guessing I did when I was FOUR!”

She smiled and said, “Well... We’ll see later...”

We started hanging up my clothes in the closet and the wardrobe before also using part of her closet, “I don’t live here,” she reminded me with a smile. There were a number of outfits in there that I’m embarrassed to say would fit...

There were a couple of knit dresses that had heart embroidery on them that I saw were by a clothing company I knew only made pre-school and younger clothes. Madison had held one up to me and smiled, saying, “It still fits!”

I just stuck my tongue out at her and kept unloading boxes. In the end we managed to find places for almost everything, except a few things that we decided to get rid of. Why the person had included a few toys that were waaay too young for me I didn’t understand!

Mom had similarly unloaded some of her stuff in her room, but as she was supposedly a college kid there wasn’t as much. The stall of the barn that we’d unloaded furniture into included a canopied bed frame set for me, but since we had nowhere to put it, and I liked my current bed it had been put away. There were also a number of ‘family’ photographs that had appeared out of nowhere with Mom and I with our fictional parents. Whoever created them did an amazing job of finding two people that looked like they could be our parents and putting us in them. My baby picture book was particularly embarrassing.

When I eventually got around to asking how that one had been done she said she’d given him my real baby picture book. “Oh,” had been my response.

The rest of the week began to get into a rhythm after that. The morning was chores, followed by playing with Madison whether with dolls, sewing, or both! After lunch I had a shooting lesson with Hank, riding lessons with Gloria, and finally more playtime. Wednesday after my riding lesson I came back in and was surprised to find a package addressed to me in the foyer.

“What’s this?!?” I asked.

Consetta walked by on her way out to go home, “Oh, UPS dropped that off for you an hour ago.”

Mom was called on the walkie-talkie and they carefully opened it. At the top of the package when it was opened there was a card addressed to me.

Happy Birthday Ashley!

I know you’ve had a long trip and a lot of things happen to you, but know that we love you a lot!!!! Your parents are looking down on you both from Heaven, keeping you safe. Hopefully we’ll get to see you soon Princess!

Love,

Aunt Stella and Uncle Tom

“Ashley, let’s open the rest in your room,” Mom told me quietly.

“Okay...” I said and she carried the box upstairs with her.

We both broke down once the door was shut. “How did they find us?” I asked Mom.

“Well, I did give them enough information.”

“How?” I asked.

She told me about the code her parents and grandfather had taught her long ago. “So they should have known where I was quickly.”

“Why send this now?” I asked.

“Well, it is Tony’s birthday today,” she mentioned to me.

I felt like I had been punched in the gut.

“It is, isn’t it...” I nodded. I hugged her and she quietly sang Happy Birthday to me. It seemed unreal that today was really my eleventh birthday and I had forgotten. I guess my ‘eighth’ birthday had been so cool I didn’t even think about it.

Mom watched as I opened the presents and we both smiled. I loved the Disney Princess doll grandma had sent, and I didn’t even have that one! The My Little Ponies weren’t really my thing, but I still appreciated the addition to my gigantic toy collection. Mom and I were going to have a heck of a time moving out!

Eventually she took the stuff quietly downstairs and went back to work while I held the doll tightly. ‘Grandma and Grandpa must be okay with me being like this!’ I thought as my eyes filled with tears of happiness. I couldn’t help but hope that we might be able to see them again someday.

AGENT KLINE HAD gone through the videos at eleven hotels before finally finding the right one. He watched Megan check into the hotel with the car seat and their luggage on the luggage cart and then they went upstairs. The hotel only had cameras in stairwells, hallways, and out directly in front, so he couldn’t tell anything once they were in their room. They didn’t stick around long before taking a second taxi away from there. He couldn’t see anything else in that time at all, except they seemed to be in a hurry.

‘I bet she figured out the car was a weak link in her escape...’ he thought to himself. ‘Smart lady!’ he had to admit. He carefully forwarded the video farther on until he saw her enter the hotel later that night. At least he thought it was Megan, the hair had been changed again for both of them! The video angle still wasn’t great, but he made out the American Girl bags that his granddaughter went nuts over.

‘Okay,’ he said and looked through everything else. He eventually said to the manager, “I’m going to take these, would you like me to get a warrant for them?”

“No sir, go ahead and take them. That’s a set I would have been throwing away this weekend anyway.” He said. Agent Kline took the DVDs and looked at his watch...

He carefully put the discs in his briefcase, then sighed and used his phone to search for the local American Girl shop. In addition to asking them to see the tapes he knew he would have to buy something for Allison’s daughter Kelly, or he would never hear the end of it! He drove into the parking lot structure nearby and got out of his car to follow the gazillion young girls and their moms into the store. He went to one of the store workers and asked, “May I please speak to a manager?”

“Sure,” she said nervously.

He followed her to the back and a manager came out of an office. “Can I help you sir?” She asked.

He flashed his badge discreetly and asked, “May we speak privately?”

“Absolutely,” she said.

“What can I do for you...?” She asked when the door was shut and they were in a back office area.

“First of all I’m Agent Kline, I’m with the FBI. I’m working on a case right now to find a missing mother and her child... I believe they visited here on June 17th.”

“You said child?” she asked, “Boy?”

“Complicated,” he said, a little nervous that he had messed up so bad.

She just nodded, “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. It’s company policy not to say anything anyway, but is everything okay with this family?”

“The family...” he chuckled, “Sorry, inside joke, yes with them. I just am hoping that maybe you have a better camera angle than I have and I can also figure out when they were here.” He told her.

She smiled, “We still have that video on the computer back here, if you’d like you can take a look? I’ll get my assistant Shannon to get it set up.”

“Thank you so much ma’am.”

“You’re welcome sir, I hope they’re safe and sound after all is said and done.”

“Me too,” he answered her.

He went through the recordings and found them pretty easily a couple hours after they left the hotel. The store was attached to a mall and he was hoping now that he knew when they arrived he might be able to get a look at the car through the malls cameras next. Their visit was before the hair changes though, so while the close-up he got was better than what he had before, it still wasn’t current. He sighed just as the manager entered the office, “Is that her?” She asked.

He nodded, “Please don’t answer any questions about this to anyone else without talking to me first. They’re in a really dangerous situation.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Thanks... Is there any way you can help me figure out which dolls they purchased from this video?”

“Sure!” she said and he played back their visit for her. “Looks like a number thirty-eight doll, a bitty baby doll, can’t tell which but I’d guess one of the red-headed ones given her hair color, and then Saige.”

He thought for a moment and remembered something niggling in his brain. “She’s the one that’s from New Mexico, right?”

She looked at him in a bit of shock.

He laughed, “I have a granddaughter that is obsessed with every doll you make.”

She laughed too, “I’m sure you’ll have to get something for her while you’re here too?”

He nodded.

“Yes, she is the one from New Mexico, is that important?”

He shook his head, “Don’t know, just getting every fact I can right now.”

She helped him pick out a couple of high priced new outfits for Kelly’s doll that had just been released and she shouldn’t have yet. Once those were bagged up he placed them in his trunk and walked into the mall. Finding the security office wasn’t difficult and he managed to get access pretty easily. Here he made an effort to look for them without looking for them. He spotted another lady that looked Megan like and followed her around the mall while the security guard looked on. It was hard to do this discreetly with the attention of the guard. Finally he asked for disc versions of all of the tapes and moved on.

Back at his hotel he used the time codes from the doll store to narrow the search of the mall footage, then looked to see he could now tell what kind of car she had. Unfortunately the license plate was completely obscured though. “Damn,” he had said. At least the current pictures off the mall video were much better! He would just have to have one of his analysts he trusted work directly on zooming in and enhancing the photo for him. He’d have to get some sleep before he got on the plane in the morning to fly back home. He called Sheila before he went to bed though to let her know they needed to get together with Allison’s family so she could give Kelly the outfits. He had duly impressed Sheila with that!

Of course then she wanted to know what he bought her... ‘I can’t win!’ was his thought as he went to bed that night.

MEGAN LOOKED IN on Ashley hugging her new stuffed animals and sleeping. Actually it was more like the stuffed animals surrounded her! If she needed to join her to sleep tonight she didn’t know where she would sleep. Ashley had woken up screaming her head off each of the last few nights and she worried it was going to continue for a while. Dr. Reynolds was supposed to see her on Friday and she hoped that over time things would improve.

She was glad her parents had sent her that message, but also a little nervous about it too. Megan knew that her parents were smart enough though that it wouldn’t have been figured out by anyone else looking for her. One thing she was pretty certain of, her gut told her that the longer they stayed there, the more likely they would be found. The idea of moving again was tempting. The problem was that she believed this would be the safest place if they did come for them. The security system at night, the hands by day, and everything else meant this was definitely the safest place she knew of. Going somewhere no one knew her might work... But it might just as well get them killed. She took out the baby monitor she had hidden in her room and placed it discreetly on a shelf where Ashley wouldn’t easily see it.

‘I’ll get it in the morning,’ she thought to herself. ‘Or when I have to come and help her again...’

The one thing she knew was that these nightmares were something she couldn’t protect her baby from, and all she wanted to do was comfort her when she woke up from them. She quietly closed the door and walked down the staircase with the monitor in hand. “Is that a baby monitor?” she was startled to hear Madison ask.

She sighed, “Yes, please don’t tell Ashley...”

“Makes sense,” she said, “I feel so bad for her.”

“Me too.”

Madison continued up the stairs presumably to bed and Megan sat down in the library to quietly read on her iPad. Funnily enough Ashley had never really challenged her for it or asked for one of her own. Tony had been literally addicted to his, he never went anywhere without it! She was currently researching the various things that her daughter was going to eventually deal with and it sent her anywhere from laughing, to crying, to twisting in discomfort. ‘Maybe we shouldn’t have disguised her this way...’ she thought to herself.

Dr. Reynolds was pretty certain it would have come out someday though... Before she had time to think much more she heard Ashley’s breathing shift and she knew she was beginning to have another nightmare. She grabbed her iPad, and everything else and scrambled upstairs, arriving at the door just as the sobbing began.

“It’s okay,” she said, “it’s okay...” as she hugged her daughter and tried to let her know how very much she was loved.

I WOKE UP Thursday morning and found Mom had joined me again in bed. She’d had to knock most of my stuffed animals off of it and I felt really bad. “Come on baby, chore time,” she said.

I reddened, “I’m sorry I’m such a baby...” I said and felt the tears start again.

She just hugged me and said, “Sweetie, you’re not a baby... That’s just my way of thinking of you... When you have your own children some day and feed them, change their diapers, soothe them when they cry... Well, you’ll understand that you’ll never be anything else but my baby. You’re a lovely big girl though,” she told me and smiled at me.

I sighed, “Sorry.”

“Stop using that word,” she said and mimed shaking me and hugged me. “I love you Ashley more than anything else on earth, don’t ever be sorry.”

After a good cry for the both of us we finally got in gear and I went out for my daily battle with George. I say daily, but it was more like two or three times a week he would forget that coming after me was painful to him. ‘I swear, one of these days I’m going to accidentally kill him and not feel bad about it...’ A while later with my chores done I went back upstairs and took a shower. I washed my hair carefully trying to make sure that I got all of the soap out before drying off and going into my room.

I found a purple t-shirt we had bought at Disney World that had Merida on it, along with a pair of bright blue capris that matched part of the background of the shirt. It was a cute look I thought, but then I had to sort out what I was doing with my hair. I started by brushing it out and drying it, like I knew Mom would do for me and then was at a loss. She came in and I handed her the hairbrush.

“What?” She said.

“Would you please do my hair for me?”

“Okay,” she said with a smile. “What do you want?”

“I don’t care... Something that will get me through today?”

“Pigtails it is then!” She said with a smile.

I giggled and said, “I feel like that’s all I ever wear it in...”

“That’s because you look cute in them and I figure after this summer it’s going to be a fight to get you to let me put your hair in pigtails again until you’re in high school.”

“Huh?”

She just smiled at me, “You’ll understand later.”

I sighed, “How old do I have to be to understand?”

“Ooh... About sixteen.”

“Until then?” I asked.

“Until then I have a cute daughter at my mercy for her hair,” she said with a cackle that made me giggle.

Mom actually did a little bit more than just regular pigtails, using some purple ribbon in my hair that matched my shirt that added to the braid. It was cute and I hugged her when I was done and we went downstairs. Breakfast was always fairly subdued compared to lunch with the hands.

After everyone finished eating, Madison and I lent a hand to Consetta with the dishes before going out to the barn. She was going to help me make my own dress that day and I was really excited!!!

We began by cutting out the pattern together on the counter, something I was finding easier with more practice! Madison continued to watch me like a hawk though as I did the cutting and several times reminded me to keep my fingers out of the way. The two of us had found a bolt of knit fabric that looked shiny and had some large glitter and bead chunks glued onto it somehow. It was a light, bright blue and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it! Madison helped me pin the fabric down to the pattern and supervised me cutting it out. This pattern was about as simple as it could get and only had six pieces to cut out.

By lunchtime I had finished cutting and was ready to sew. The two of us headed back into the house and ate lunch before Hank took both of us to the shooting range with my mom. I was getting better and better with both .22 caliber guns and that day he told me he’d let me try my new skills on the .45 caliber pistol mom was shooting the next time we were out. As we were cleaning up he asked Mom, “When are you going to fill out the concealed handgun permit?”

“Well... We’re going in tomorrow,” she said.

“Take this then,” he said and handed Mom a paper.

“What’s this?”

“It’s your certification that you completed the class with me.”

She looked at him and said, “Are you sure? I can go take the classes…”

“I’m quite sure. There’s an online course that Ashley needs to do and then she’ll have her hunters safety permit done. I figure we’ll see if she can’t get herself something in the fall if she wants.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“See if you draw a deer or an elk license?”

“What do I do with that?” I asked stupidly.

“That allows you to go hunt one.”

“Oh... Eew.” I added.

“Tell you what, you go hunting with Annie and I and we’ll take care of cleaning the animal for you this time.”

I made another face but didn’t say anything. I knew that if we stayed here I was eventually going to have to deal with animals being slaughtered and such... I just didn’t really want to think about it. I was most definitely a city girl at heart!

We drove back to the ranch and Mom and Hank headed off somewhere to do actual work. In the meantime I found Gloria and Madison and I had my daily horse lesson. When we were done I made it a point to try the hop down that Mom used. I managed to drop down and not hurt myself!

“I did it!!!!” I said a little too noisily for Beauty. She glared at me and told me to behave myself. “Sorry,” I said and gave her a scratch on her head that she offered me. I swore she said to just not do it again. Maybe being around all of the horses was slowly rotting my brain?

“Nice job today,” Gloria said as she came up and gave me a hug. “Be careful getting off though if you did by yourself. That is still a long jump for you. We probably could have you on a pony instead if you want to be able to get on easier...?”

I shook my head, “Beauty is just fine!”

“I think she definitely likes you too,” she told me as she nudged my hand looking for a treat. I walked her back to the stall and Madison helped me get her brushed down and ready for a nice night. They let them out in the pasture every morning while they were mucking stalls, and then the hands usually brought them back in before lunch. I was sure Beauty would probably like to have a bit more freedom than that, but she seemed happy enough.

I went upstairs and changed out of my capris, since they were kind of dirty, and switched into a skirt that was the same color. Afterwards I joined Madison back in the sewing room. It was almost four when we finally made it in there, but I was able to get the two yoke pieces at the top sewn together and the front and back sides of the dress sewn together before we were called to eat.

Dinner went by quickly and we enjoyed a roast that Consetta had placed in the crock-pot that morning and let cook all day. It was literally falling apart and tasted great. We didn’t even make a dent in it though, and I learned that the rest of it was for lunch the next day.

“Mom may we go finish my dress?”

She looked at me and smiled, “Sure, but at seven-thirty you have to come in and take your bath.”

I gave her a hug then grabbed Madison’s hand and tugged her over to the barn. It took me another hour to put the yoke onto the long skirt of the dress, and then do the sleeves. I had just finished putting a band of material around the edge of the last sleeve when Mom came in. “So what are you making?”

I turned it right side out again and showed her, “See?!?” I said proudly.

She looked at Madison, “She did this?”

“Every cut, stitch, and mistake is hers,” she smiled at me. I poked her for the mistake comment. It was true though. I had a few times where I didn’t grab the fabric quite right with the machine... It was annoying.

“Cool,” Mom said, “It looks like it’s almost finished too!”

“Almost, but not quite!” I said. I remembered the stuff that was possible with Gloria’s embroidery machine and I had some ideas to do to it even after I was done. I showed her the ruffle I had to add at the bottom of the skirt still, and said, “I have some other things I want to do with it too, but I’ll have to have Gloria help me with them.”

“Well, it’ll have to wait till tomorrow,” Mom said, “Bath time,” she insisted.

I sighed and hung my dress on the dress form that was still set for my size. It seemed to fit pretty well, just maybe a bit too big. ‘I’ll grow though,’ I thought with a smile, then frowned, ‘maybe...’

Mom insisted on washing my hair for me in the bath that night, dried it, and brushed it for me after I had put on my princess nightgown. It had easily become my most favorite thing to wear at night!

By the time she brushed it I was feeling drowsy, and she finished off my drowsiness with a story.

RAY LOOKED AT his suitcases for a third time, making sure he had everything he needed for the trip the next day. He was going to be leaving for New Mexico on an early flight and didn’t want to deal with the hassle of forgetting stuff. His laptop would go on the plane with him and he would check everything else. When he was sure he had everything he would need he went downstairs for one more drink.

As he poured the scotch into his glass he looked again at the photo of his wife and son. “I don’t know where you are, but I’m going to find you soon!” He said with a toast of his glass.

When he finished the glass he looked around the kitchen one more time to see the piles of dishes and the moldy fruit that was on the table. He’d never really had to learn how to take care of himself and it showed badly. Raimondo was also so pissed off still that he refused to think about doing it.

‘Maybe I’ll just force Megan to come back here and clean the house one last time before I kill her,’ he thought with a smile.

He poured one more glass and realized he’d have to buy another bottle when he got back. There was just a little bit left in the bottle so he drank it straight out of the bottle. Ray climbed the stairs to their room and went to sleep dreaming of Megan’s torture.

MEGAN WENT TO sleep that night wondering when Ashley was going to have a nightmare. As she was washing her hair she had come clean to Ashley about the baby monitor and had been willing to say forget it if she had a fit about it. To her surprise though Ashley had said it was okay… and apologized endlessly for interrupting her sleep.

Well, nothing she could do about that! As it was Megan was beginning to feel the effects of not sleeping for the last six nights and really hoped maybe her daughter would make it through this night. Until she heard something happen though, she knew she needed to try and get some sleep. She turned the monitor on fairly loud until her breathing was like she was sitting next to her and crawled into bed.

Three hours later she heard Ashley scream and ran over to her room to find the shivering little girl crying her eyes out. She sighed and continued to do what she’d been doing the last week - hugging her and promising it would be all right.

‘Will it ever really be?’ she asked herself.

AGENT KLINE WOKE up and headed into the office to try and put this case to bed. He was tired of thinking about this one all of the time and hoped that somehow he could figure out where Megan was soon.

“Hey Boss, you have a moment?” Jake asked as he walked by.

“Sure, come on in.”

They closed the door and he asked, “What’s up?”

“Well I just wanted to pass along that Raimondo is heading to New Mexico today.”

“Do we know why?”

“Some of my guys think it has to do with firming up their supply lines after the Vermont raid.”

Bob sighed, “You know they could have at least had the decency to make us think that raid did some good, but they seem to have just shifted their line somewhere else.”

“We’re thinking Minnesota maybe...”

“But maybe a switch to New Mexico is coming?” Kline suggested.

“Makes sense, Arizona and Texas are getting pretty secure at the border now. New Mexico is the weakest link of the whole thing. It doesn’t help that they have a very limited desire to enforce immigration law there either.”

“Well, do remember that the title of our southern neighbor is in the name of their state! It would make sense they would be sympathetic.”

“Yeah...”

“Anyway, so he’s probably just going down there to get their backup line going?” he asked.

“Maybe... I’m thinking they want this to be the main line though, especially if Raimondo is going.”

Kline nodded, “You don’t think this has anything to do with Megan?”

“You think she’s in New Mexico?”

Kline bit his tongue but he was pretty sure Jake wasn’t the mole. “That’s what my gut is telling me.”

“Any idea where?”

“Not a clue. She’s good, she’s completely changed her appearance and her sons appearance,” he said, but held back how much.

“Well, we kind of figured that had to happen.”

“Yeah... Anyway, I have a few new leads I’m going to run down this week. I’m hoping that in a couple weeks at the latest we’ll find her... Or at least where she’s been hiding at since she left Dallas.”

“You don’t think she’ll stay put?”

“Depends...”

“On...?”

“How safe she feels where she’s at. If she feels it’s secure enough she may risk sticking around, if she feels she’s in danger she may very well move on. She might have done so several times by now.”

“I take it you’re hoping she stayed around?”

“Hoping...”

“Well good luck boss, I’ll see you later.”

“Thanks for the information about Raimondo, have our office in Albuquerque tail him if they can.”

“It’s not that big of an office, but I’ll see if they can get someone on it.”

As Jake left Bob had to think back and about his conversations with him. While he hoped he wasn’t the mole, he definitely didn’t want any information getting to him for now anyway. With that he opened up his bag and made sure he had the discs he needed and called out on his phone, “Hey Agent Serna, do you have some time to go over some things with me on your fancy computer...?”

RAIMONDO LOOKED AT the display of departure times and swore. The flight he was leaving on was delayed by a half-hour and he would be cutting his next flight awfully close.

I WOKE UP the next morning and realized I was once again being prodded up by Mom who was in my bed too. “I’m sorry,” I told her.

She held up her finger, “No sorries... I’m the one who should be apologizing to you, it’s my fault we stuck around long enough for you to be traumatized this badly.” She gave me a hug and helped me get moving after that.

The morning chores felt routine and George was still apparently smarting from his last beating and just glared at me from across the pen. I glared right back though and threatened him with the broom handle. I nearly wanted to do the same thing with the stupid peacock that started screaming next to me on the way back to the barn too.

“I hate birds,” I said aloud after putting everything away.

I heard a laugh from behind me and Gloria put her arm around my shoulder, “You’d be amazed at how many people have said that over the years.”

I shook my head. “Actually it’s more just the peacocks… they’re just disturbing when they cry out...”

I felt a few tears in my eyes but held them at bay. She gave me a hug and said, “They’re harmless though,” she reassured me.

I sighed, “I know.”

“Come on, go upstairs, take a shower, and then Madison said you wanted help with some embroidery?”

“Would you help me with that this morning? I think I have an appointment with Dr. Reynolds this afternoon...”

“You do, and I’d be glad to help you out until then,” she told me with a smile.

I hugged her and went upstairs to take care of myself. Since I was going to see Dr. Reynolds that day I decided I wanted to wear a dress for some reason... Not that I really ever had to be coerced into a dress anytime other than that very first time. I smiled at that – I really did love wearing dresses - boys missed out by not being able to wear them!

I showered and then looked through the wardrobe where Madison had put all of my dresses and organized them by occasion and color. There was one that had been ‘mine,’ from the boxes, that I thought was kind of funky and cute. Most of the dress from the top down was pink with a small turquoise ruffle around the neckline. The bottom of the dress flared out into three tiers of ruffles, with zebra print tier and then a lime green with blue polka dots for the last one. All three tiers had that same turquoise ruffle along the edges. I later learned the term was scalloped... It was cute and adorable, and I decided I wanted to wear it!

From somewhere in the massive box of shoes that had come from Dallas, I found a pair of flats that had a similar color to the lime green on the lowest tier, and the polka dots were identical too. Whether or not it was meant as a set I didn’t know, but I was pretty sure it worked!

I pulled my robe off and tugged the dress over my hair, which was still dry thanks to a shower cap. I struggled for a few moments to get the clasp that shut it in the back closed, but managed and looked at myself in the mirror. Barring the messed up hair I looked cute!

“Cute!!!” Mom said echoing my thoughts as she came in.

“Isn’t it?” I asked her.

“You look adorable!” she confirmed. “The shoes too!”

I smiled and gave her a hug, “So... Hair?”

She tickled my side briefly and motioned for me to sit down. Mom considered everything for a moment and smiled. I felt as she brushed my hair out quickly and then she began working a small braid on both sides of my head towards the back. When she was done with that she started pulling a bit on my hair in the back and then the two braids a bit more. She added a bow somewhere and then said, “Okay!”

I looked at my hair and saw she had done two small braids to the back to make it look like it was holding my hair back. She’d added a bow that matched the turquoise on my dress. It looked pretty and I gave her a hug, “Thank you Mommy,” I said quietly.

“You’re welcome Ashley.”

I looked at my ears and asked, “Mommy when can I start wearing other earrings?”

“If we go by what Claire’s said it’ll be a couple more weeks sweetie,” she told me. “Your earrings go well with your dress though.”

I fingered them and nodded, “I know, but I want to start wearing cuter earrings too!”

She smiled, hugged me and said, “You are such a girl!”

I giggled and the two of us went downstairs for breakfast. The hands were already digging in and smiled at me. Annie said, “That dress is adorable Ashley!”

I blushed but said, “Thank you.”

Mom reminded me about my appointment after lunch and as soon as Madison and I had helped Consetta out with dishes we headed out to the barn. I still had to sew on a ruffle, but that was the last thing I needed to actually sew. We used a sheer organza fabric instead of the main fabric on the ruffle. It involved sewing three bands of fabric together and then adding a gather stitch that Madison showed me how to do. She also helped me out a lot with getting it to sew onto the dress evenly after I pulled the thread tight to ruffle it. It was slow and frustrating because I messed up twice on catching part of the skirt instead of just the edge, but eventually after an hour we were done. I shook out the dress and smiled, “It looks like a dress!!!”

“Well duh,” Madison said to me with a smile.

Gloria walked in right then and asked, “How’s it going girls?”

“Great!” Madison said, “Ashley just finished the dress!”

“Well let me see it then,” Gloria said and I held it up.

“See?!?” I said excitedly.

“That’s not how I can see it, go put it on you silly girl,” she smiled at me.

“Oh, I’ll be right back!” I said and went into the restroom and changed out of my dress and into my new one. It was a little big for me, but not enough to make it wrong to wear.

I walked out and Gloria walked around me back and forth giving me her appraisal, “For a first dress I’m really impressed!”

“I had a good teacher!” I said and gave Madison a hug.

“Are you ready to do some embroidery?”

“Yeah...” I explained what I wanted and changed back into my dress. We spent the rest of the morning adding the scroll along the bottom edge of the skirt above the ruffle that I had imagined, and a design that looked pretty and sort of Victorian like at the top in the middle of the yoke. After all was said and done I had to leave her with the promise we’d finish that night when I got back from my appointment with Dr. Reynolds.

As soon as lunch was done I ran upstairs and grabbed Kaitlyn before meeting Mom at the car. I climbed into my seat and she buckled me in.

AGENT KLINE LOOKED at the screen and said “Serna, you are a fucking magician.”

The young agent blew on his fingers and said, “I know,” with a smile. “Who are they?”

“Two ladies you are to forget,” he told him seriously. “Print off three copies of this for me, along with the car, burn it to a CD, and then erase it from your computer. I don’t want anyone to be able to get to it.”

The young agent looked at him, “You serious boss?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Fair enough,” he said and got to work. A few minutes later Agent Kline watched him erase the images in front of him and walked back to his office. Thanks to Agent Serna’s magician like abilities they now had a very good set of pictures of Megan and Tony. ‘I wonder what they’re calling her...?’ he wondered to himself.

He got back to his office and looked at the pictures of the car. It was definitely a different car. Unfortunately there just wasn’t a good view of the license plate. All he could tell was that it was a 2008 Blue Honda Civic. He could tell that she had a different booster seat in there for Ashley and realized it must have come with the car. ‘She still has the other one though... I remember her hauling it back out the next day...’

He sighed and tried to think of his next move. When he looked at the clock though he realized his next move had to be to get his rear home before his wife killed him. Allison was coming over, with Kelly, for dinner tonight so he could give her the presents.

With that he sighed and locked everything back away. ‘I’m taking this weekend off from this...’ he thought to himself. He’d long ago learned when he was young and stupid that sometimes you had to take a break from work for a weekend... If you didn’t, it would eat you alive.

MY APPOINTMENT WITH Dr. Reynolds was scheduled for three that afternoon and we arrived with a few minutes to spare, even after Mom had dropped by a place to submit her concealed handgun permit request. I was a little worried when they wanted her fingerprints but she just smiled and let them do it. When we left they told her that her license should get to her in about four weeks or so.

At Dr. Reynolds office I quietly played with Kaitlyn in my lap while Mom checked me in. It wasn’t long after that she came to get us, “Amber, Ashley?”

“Hi,” I said.

“Good to see you,” she said to me, “I love that dress!”

“Thank you!” I said to her and we followed her back to her office.

“So how are you two doing this week?” She asked openly.

“Tired,” Mom responded and I nodded.

“Any reason?” She asked.

“I keep waking her up with nightmares,” I said while cuddling Kaitlyn closer to me.

“More of the same ones?” She asked me.

I nodded, “Almost exactly the same...”

“Almost?” She asked.

“Well... In the ones last night I shot him,” I confessed.

“Do you know how to shoot?” She asked without skipping a beat.

“Hank is teaching me,” I told her.

“Does it make you feel safer?” She asked.

I shrugged, “I don’t know... Maybe?”

“Why only maybe, wouldn’t you be safer being able to shoot an attacker?” She asked.

“If I could actually shoot them... I don’t know that I could actually use a gun like that.” I told her.

“I hope you never have to Ashley,” she told me.

“Does she have easy access to the guns?” Dr. Reynolds asked Mom.

She shook her head, “No, everything is locked up and all of the guns have trigger locks installed just in case someone gets into the cases.”

I hadn’t even realized that... I knew Gloria had a large gun safe in her office and I had heard Madison talk about another one in her room too.

“I’m glad to hear that,” she told her.

I felt a little embarrassed as I think she was mainly concerned with keeping me from getting hold of a gun and shooting myself. Talk about a depressing thought...

“So tell me about these nightmares other than that Ashley...”

The session seemed to go on forever and I cried most of the hour. I felt like my throat was totally dry and the snot coming out of my nose by the end was just gross! Dr. Reynolds sent me to go wash my face off and then come back. I was quick about it though and returned.

“Ashley, I really don’t want to put you on medication, but I think we may need to start thinking about it. I’d like to go one more week before doing it though...”

I sighed, “Is there anything I can do so I don’t keep waking Mom up?”

“Well, yes there is – at least something to try. Amber, what time is her bedtime right now?”

“Eight unless something odd comes up.”

“That’s very good normally... I want to see if Ashley is more tired if it will help her sleep better though. Don’t let her go to bed until ten this week.”

My eyes lit up, ‘I’ll be able to stay up as late as Madison!’

“Don’t get too excited yet Ashley,” she told me with a smile. “The last hour before bed I want her to read something... Keep it sweet and innocent, nothing violent. Maybe something such as The Babysitters club or some of those American Girl books.”

“I’ll finish one of those in that time...” I complained slightly.

“Well... I don’t want you to read anything more violent so it’ll be tougher to find longer books. It may mean you read through them quicker but I want you thinking of fairy tales when you go to bed, not of your father.”

“Oh...” I said, “but I usually have been getting a bedtime story like that anyway the last couple weeks.”

Dr. Reynolds raised her eyebrow at Mom who shrugged, “As long as we’re saying she’s eight it seemed appropriate, especially since it was seven until a few weeks ago.”

She nodded, “Okay, try it anyway... You never know, it might help. Also I’d like for you to see if you can’t get Ashley doing something very physical like jogging, swimming, dancing, riding a bike... Anything. The goal for this week is for her to climb into bed and be completely tired out.”

“And if this doesn’t work?” I asked quietly.

“Then I have a couple of sleep medications we may try... Ultimately if we have to, I’ll consider something else... But I really hate using medication if it can be avoided.”

I nodded, “me too!”

I went out to her playroom and played with Kaitlyn while I waited for Mom. Kaitlyn and I had a quiet conversation about her idea to help me sleep. I just hoped that maybe it would work...

Mom came for me not long after and said, “Okay, I guess it’s time to go shopping for some books!”

I looked at her and smiled before walking with her outside. She found a local Barnes and Noble and pulled into the parking lot just as some jerk honked at her for taking too long to turn. He sped by us before either one of us could get a look at him.

RAIMONDO WAS IN a bad mood and screamed several obscenities at the blue Honda that he’d almost rear-ended. “Stupid bitch mother driving carefully with her baby daughter...” he shook his head. She hadn’t been a baby, but still in a car seat, and that was close enough for most women. Ray had checked into the hotel and been directed down that road to go to the restaurant he was meeting his cousin Carp there. The name was short for Carpathia and was a mouthful for anyone to say!

He pulled into the parking lot and walked into the restaurant. Carp waved at him from a corner table in the bar and he went to join him. Raimondo hugged and kissed him the traditional Italian way and felt the looks around them. He didn’t care, Carp was family and this was how you greeted them.

“How are you doing man?” He asked Ray.

“I’ve been better,” he answered honestly.

“I heard... Sorry about it,” Carp told him.

“Not your fault, just the bitches fault,” he told him.

“Well if you need anything on that front let me know.”

“Thanks,” he said and began looking at the menu, “what is all of this stuff?”

“Mexican food Ray, the Italian food of New Mexico!” he said with a smile. “Best get used to it, our partners love it!”

MOM AND I got out of the car in the parking lot and I carried Kaitlyn in with me. ‘I wonder if I’ll be labeled weird for doing this?’ Mom grabbed my other hand and walked with me back to the children’s section. She purposefully steered me to the younger books and I sighed.

“What looks good?” She asked me.

I glanced down the titles quickly and found a bunch of titles by American Girl that I pulled out with my free hand. “How many do you want me to pick out?” I asked her.

She sighed, “Knowing you?”

I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Make it fifteen?”

“Okay,” I said with a smile. I picked out ten American Girl books since I figured I’d like them with my dolls... Then I looked through the stacks and came across some Disney books about the different princesses and picked out five of those. “Do these work?” I asked her.

“Looks good to me,” she told me with a smile and we walked up front to the checkouts.

“Well, you have to have the prettiest dress on, and, the prettiest doll I’ve seen in a while!” The lady at the register said to me. I blushed and said, “Thank you,” to her shyly.

“What’s your doll’s name?” She asked while multi-tasking and scanning books.

“Kaitlyn,” I told her and waved Kaitlyn’s hand at her.

“That’s a pretty name for her,” she told me and winked at Mom. I wondered if I had ever been really clueless enough as a kid to miss these things that adults did. “Looks like you’re certainly getting a lot of reading done on your summer break!” She told me.

“Uh-huh,” I told her.

“Are you guys part of the reading program yet?” She asked Mom.

“No, my sister and I haven’t been near a store in a while,” she told her.

“Here, take this information then,” she said, “you can register online and keep track of her books there too!”

“Neat,” Mom said.

She finished paying and we walked back outside to the car. Mom buckled me into my seat and upon my begging handed me one of the new books. By the time we reached home though, we both knew that had been a mistake, I’d already read it! It was 125 pages long and I’d breezed through it like most girls would if it was ten...

“No more reading until bedtime,” Mom told me when we got home.

“You’re the one who gave me the book...” I tried to reason with her as we walked into the house with her carrying the bag of books.

“Amber?” Gloria called out.

“Yes it’s us,” she answered.

“Dinner’s almost ready if you two will go wash up.”

“Okay,” I said and headed upstairs. Mom followed and took the books into her room. I felt a little hurt that she didn’t trust me... But it was more that she knew me too well. When I was nine my parents had grounded me after I got in trouble at school. I was sentenced to a week of staying in my room after school with no iPad or any other electronics. Since no one had said anything about books it really didn’t bother me!

‘It wasn’t like I had friends back home to make me miss out on something...’ I thought sadly.

Downstairs a few minutes later I had Kaitlyn in my lap and ate the fried chicken that Consetta had made for dinner. She had to make it since it was Mark’s favorite. He was going home with Kaitlyn on Sunday, but Madison was still supposed to be staying though! The chicken was really good I thought.

After dinner Gloria took me out to the sewing room to help me finish the last bit of embroidery. “This turned out really pretty Ashley,” she told me.

“I know!” I said.

“You should wear it to dinner tomorrow!” She told me.

“Are we doing something special?” I asked.

“Yes, since Kaitlyn and Mark are going home Sunday morning we’re going to go out to a nice restaurant.” She told me.

“Cool,” I said.

She handed me the dress on a hanger and used a cheap, clear plastic garment bag she had handy to wrap it. “Careful not to drag it in the dirt sweetie,” she told me. We walked back to the house and I saw it wasn’t quite eight yet. “Shouldn’t you be going to bed?” She asked me as I walked back downstairs from hanging it in my closet. I didn’t show Mom or Madison yet what it looked like finished. Madison of course had a good idea, but Mom hadn’t seen the embroidery yet.

I shook my head, “No, Dr. Reynolds wants me to stay up later this next week and see if it helps my nightmares,” I told her.

She looked at me quizzically but Mom was right there, “I thought it was weird too... But she also has to read a book in bed for an hour before bed too,” she added.

“That makes more sense,” Gloria said.

I spent a half-hour downstairs playing in the playroom before Mom showed up and shooed me to the bath. I played in the bath for thirty minutes and then put on a pair of pajamas that had a thin halter-top and a pair of matching shorts. It came from the boxes that had been shipped there and were pretty comfortable. I had noticed the 6X on the tag but ignored it. The scary thing that I had realized over the last few weeks was that my boy clothes were always the same size seven, but they were always baggy and never really fit right. Mom came in with the pile of books and said, “Pick one...”

“Actually, I have that one about Saige that I never read?” I suggested.

“Okay, that one will work,” she said. We both looked on the bookcase to find it and couldn’t. She finally remembered the princess backpack that she’d gotten me for the trip and we found it still inside. I climbed into bed and began reading the book. The only problem with it was that I was done with several minutes to spare. Mom came in and found me not reading.

“Why aren’t you reading?”

“Umm... I finished it already?” I said guiltily.

For some reason the glare she gave me made me giggle for a long while. When I calmed down she tucked me in, turned out the light, and we both hoped for the best.

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