Jessie wakes up to the sound of a crying baby. He slowly moves as he unwraps himself from under the tattered blanket under which he had been sleeping. His whole body hurts from the bruising and fresh wounds he had gotten from his alcoholic father, before he had left them again to ride with his gang. Jessie walks slowly over towards the baby crib where his baby sister sleeps. It has been his responsibility to take care of her, since their mother disappeared. He really misses her, but no one knew what happened to her. She had gone to work and never returned home. He reaches to turn on the lights, but nothing happens. He tries the switch again, but the light doesn’t come on. He knows his father is going to blame him for the lights not working. His father seems to blame him for everything. He is wearing his mother’s sweat pants and pulls tighter, the ends of the cord that holds them up on his slim waist

Jessie walks into the room where his baby sister is and picks her up out of the crib.

“Sssshhhhh. Everything is going to be alright Maggie.” He holds her close to his battered body as he checks her diaper and noticed that she is wet.

“No wonder you’re crying, I would be crying too if my diaper was wet.” He takes Maggie over towards the makeshift changing table and lays her down on it. Jessie picks up the diaper bag his mother had gotten from her co-workers and looks inside for everything he needs to change her diaper.

Jessie sees that Maggie has only two diapers left inside, along with enough formula for one more feeding. He wonders from where he is going to get the money to buy more formula and diapers for her. All the money he took from his father when he was passed out on the sofa was spent. He had used it to buy more diapers, wipes, baby powder and formula for her. Jessie had bought a container of oatmeal for himself to eat.

He takes off the soiled diaper wipes, her bottom and puts baby powder on it after he had put the clean diaper under her, like his mother had taught him before she had disappeared. He puts on her last clean jumper, picks her up off the changing table and walks into the living room where he had been sleeping and sits down on the broken sofa holding her. Tears stream down his cheeks as he wishes his mother were here to help him. He really misses her and looks down at the clothes he was wearing. They were his mother’s clothes. They were all he could find, because all his were either dirty or were falling apart.

His dad hated the fact that he looked like his mother and took after her. His dad never did like him, because he wasn’t what he had hoped for. He wanted a boy that was interested in sports and would be more like him, rather than the sissy Jessie was. He had been mistaken several times for being a girl. His dad didn’t like that. His mother loved him and always tried to protect him when his father got upset about him.

He looks down into his baby sister’s green eyes and could see the innocence in them. He loves his baby sister very much and would do anything to protect her. He sits there and wonders how he is going to get the things he needs for her. Also, he starts thinking about maybe running away from here, but where would he go? Where could he and Maggie go and be safe from their father? He gets up with her in his arms and heads into his parent’s bedroom and starts going through what was left of his mother’s things. He lays her down in her crib. She had fallen back to sleep, which for him was good. It would allow him to search through the room and see what he could find to help Maggie and him.

Even though his wounds and bruises hurt, he looks around the room for anything to help him and Maggie. Continues his search of his mother’s bedroom, he finds a gym bag in which he could put some clothes for Maggie and himself. He grabs some of his mother’s clothes that would fit him and put them in the bag. He resembles his mother when she was his age, so it wouldn’t be too hard to pass as her daughter. He was about to give up; when he finds a metal, box hidden in the back corner of the closet in which he was looking. He pulls it out and opens it up. Inside he finds his birth certificate along with Maggie’s and his mother’s marriage license. He also finds a few pictures and some other things. One of them was a letter from a Miss. Mary Elisabeth Harthworth, 2345 Cherry Lane, Fort Davis, Texas.

He opens the letter and reading it:

Dear Sis,

I’m happy to hear that everything is going well for you and Charlie. I really didn’t think he was the right choice for you, but you are my little sister, so I’ll trust your judgment about him. I hope your marriage is as rewarding as our parents was. I hope that the two of you stay together for as long as our parents did and that you have the big family you have always wanted. I would be honored to be Jessie’s godmother. From the pictures you sent me, he has your looks and looks like you did when you were born. If you need anything little sister feel free to call me or write me. Here’s my cell phone number if you need to call 432-460-4500.

Jessie looks at a picture of his mother, sitting on the dresser as tears stream from his eyes. He didn’t know his mother had a sister and that she was his godmother. He takes the letter, folds it up and finishes packing the gym bag with some of his mother’s undergarments and such. He figures, he might as well look like his mother’s daughter, it would make it harder for his father to find him. He finishes dressing and looks at himself, he looks like a young girl who has had a hard time. Jessie goes and gets his little sister and wraps her up, it was going to be cold tonight. He makes sure she is comfortable and that he has a few bottles for her in the diaper bag. They head out of the house and make the long walk to the nearest store.

The cold wind blows as he walks down the street with his sister tightly pressed against him for shelter against the wind. He trudges through the snow shivering from it as it falls into his boots. He had on four layers of socks and two pairs of his mother’s nylons. The snow was knee deep for him and made walking through it difficult, he shivers as he takes each step. A few cars pass him by, not stopping to offer their help. As he was about to cross a busy street, a cab stops before him.

The passenger side window lowers down “get in young lady.”

“But I have no money to pay you sir.” Jessie would love to ride in the cab, but he had no money. He heard that the cab driver called him “young lady”.

“It doesn’t matter miss. It’s too cold for a mother and her child to be out in this. Please get in and I’ll take you where you would like to go, free of charge.” Dave really meant what he said. This weather was no place for a mother and her child. He notices how young this girl looks as she held her baby close to her. She looks to be no more than a teenager.

“Thank you, sir.” Jessie opens the door and climbs into the back of the cab. The warm environment felt nice against his cold body. He shuts the door and felt his sister stir some, but she goes back to sleep.

“Where are you heading miss?” Dave looks at the young girl in the back seat of his cab, cuddling her daughter.

“I was heading to the diner, to use their phone to call my Aunt.” Jessie brushes some of his long brown hair out of his eyes. He had his mother’s facial looks and her hair well, his hair was curly and wavy like hers.

“That’s good, because I was on my way there as well to get a cup of coffee and something to eat. Do you have enough money to make the phone call sweetie?” Dave was concerned about the little girl in his back seat.

“I think so sir. I need to call my aunt in Fort Davis, Texas.” Jessie adjusts the way his sister was sleeping his arms.

“Well if you need any more change, let me know sweetie.” He puts the cab into gear and drives down the slush-covered road carefully towards the diner.

Jessie sits back and watches as they head down the street. It would have taken him at least an hour to walk this route with how deep the snow was, the walk would have been even more difficult with trying to protect his sister from the wind as well. He knew she was wrapped up warmly, he had wrapped her up in the warmest blanket he could find. Jessie closes his eyes and hopes his Aunt could help them. He was tired of being abused by his father and living like he had been living. He wonders what happened to his mother.

“Sir? Have you ever seen a woman with my type of hair, wearing gold-color wire glasses and carrying a light brown leather handbag?” Jessie looks towards Dave.

“I might have. Did she work at the convenience store over on Shell Street?” Dave thought about the lady. If it is the one the little girl is talking about, he guesses no one told her that she had been killed during a robbery.

“Yes sir. She was a cashier over there.” Jessie was getting excited now. He found someone that knew his mother.

Dave looks at the little girl and could see that she was excited “I am sorry sweetie, but she was killed three weeks ago during a robbery. Was she related to you?”

“Yes sir, she was my mother.” Tears start to stream down his face as the news of his mother being killed sinks in. Why didn’t his father say anything to him or tell him?

He pulls his little sister closer to him and just cries.

Dave watches as the little girl cries. He wishes he could comfort her, but he needed to drive.

They drive in silence as Jessie cries and holds onto his little sister. His father never told him about his mother’s death. When he feels the car taking a left turn, he looks up and wipes his eyes to clear away the tears. Jessie watches as Dave parks the taxi and turns off the engine.

Dave turns around in his seat and looks back at Jessie and the baby.

“Miss, after you make your phone call, why don’t you and your daughter join me at my table. I know you said that you have no money and from looking at you, you don’t seem to have eaten very well.” Dave gives Jessie a friendly smile, hoping the little girl and her baby would join him.

“Thank you, sir.” Jessie returns the smile.

Dave gets out of the cab first and opens the driver side for Jessie, she slides across the seat and exists the taxi, protecting his sister from the wind blowing. Dave shuts the car door and follows the little girl inside. They walk till they find a booth to sit at. One of the waitresses on duty comes over to them.

“Nasty weather we’re having today sir. What would you and your daughter like today?” She glances at Jessie holding his little sister.

Dave just gives the waitress a smile “I’ll have a cup of coffee and she’ll have “Dave looks over towards Jessie to see what she would like.

Jessie looks up at the waitress “Do you have whipped cream Ma’am?”

“Sure, do sweetie.” She gives Jessie a wink.

“I would like some hot chocolate with whipped cream please.” Jessie balances his little sister in his arms as he looks up at the waitress.

The waitress writes down the order and just before she leaves.

“Ma’am, do you have a pay phone here?” Jessie looks at her hoping she does.

“Sure, do sweetie, back near the bathrooms.” She turns around and walks away to place their order.
Jessie looks towards Dave “sir? Would you mind my stuff till I get back please?”

“Go make your phone call.”

“Thank you.” Jessie slides out and heads towards the rest room.

He spots the pay phone just before he gets to the restrooms. He walks over towards it and supports his baby sister with one arm and empty’s the money he had scraped together from the little purse he had found in his mother’s stuff. After depositing the coins into the phone, he dials the number he had found for his Aunt.

Jessie stands there with his sister and listens as the phone tries connecting.

A woman sounding like his mother answers the phone after the third ring “Hello?”

“Hello? Aunt Mary. This is your nephew and godson, Jessie Ridgewood. I need your help Aunt Mary.” Jessie holds the phone with his head against his shoulder.

“What’s wrong Jessie?” Mary couldn’t believe her nephew was calling her. The last time she had heard from her little sister was three months ago when she called to let her know that her and Charlie were having marital problems. She had inquired about Jessie and her niece Maggie, but her sister only said that they were all right for now.

“Dad left me and Maggie, Aunt Mary; we don’t have any money, power or food. Also, I just found out today that mom died three weeks ago Aunt Mary. Dad never told me she died.” Jessie was trying to hold back his tears.

“Where are you now Jessie?” Mary grabs a pad she keeps on her desk and a pen which write down his location.

“Maggie and I are at the diner down from where we live Aunt Mary.”

“How did you make it down there Jessie? Isn’t there a snow storm going on right now?” Mary was concerned about her niece and nephew.

“Yes ma’am. A nice taxi driver gave us a lift. He saw me walking and asked me if I needed a lift. He brought me and Maggie here to the diner so I could call you.” Jessie shifts his placement of his sister on his arm.

“Well that was nice of him. All right Jessie, I’m going to plan for you to stay at a hotel for a couple of nights. Do you think that cab driver might be nice enough to take you there?” Mary taps the location of her nephew into her computer and locates a nice hotel at which they can stay.

“Yes ma’am, I think he will do it.” Jessie was sure Dave would drive them there.

“Okay! Ask him to take you to The Knights Inn down the street from where you are. I’ll make sure that some money is waiting for him there. Have you and Maggie eaten anything lately?”

“I fed Maggie a bottle before I left the house and have two bottles left with formula in them. I haven’t eaten anything for two days. Dave is buying me a hot chocolate with whipped cream right now Aunt Mary.” Jessie was extremely hungry. He had been drinking water and doing what he could without thinking about food.

“Okay, go and get your waitress and ask her to come to the phone please.” Mary digs her credit card out of her purse.

Jessie lets the phone hang down, while he goes and gets his waitress. He finds her and asks her to come over to the phone. The waitress walks over to the phone and picks it up.

“Hello?” She listens to Mary.

Jessie stands there and watches as she listens to his Aunt.

“It will be no problem. Just give me your credit card number and I’ll make arrangements for your niece.” The waitress pulls her pad out and writes down a number. Afterwards she hands the phone back to Jessie.

“Here you go sweetie. Your Aunt wants to talk to you.” She hands Jessie the phone.

“Jessie?” Mary says through the phone.

“Yes, Aunt Mary?” Jessie holds the phone to his ear.

“I made arrangements with Dolores for you to get whatever you want to eat sweetie. She’s also going to give you some money to take with you to buy whatever you need for Maggie and yourself on the way to the hotel. She going to speak with your cab driver and explain things to him. You call me when you get to the hotel, so I know your safe okay?”

“Okay Aunt Mary and thank you.” Jessie was happy his aunt was looking for him.

“You’re welcome sweetie. I’m going to try and drive down there to pick up you and your sister. You go ahead and watch out for her and I’ll see you in two days.”

“Okay Aunt Mary and thank you again.” Jessie couldn’t wait to see his Aunt.

After Jessie, finishes talking to his aunt, he heads back to the table where Dave was waiting for him. Also, his hot chocolate with whipped cream.

Dave just smiles at the young girl. He drinks his coffee and watches as she girl drinks her hot chocolate.

“Dolores has asked me to drive you to the nearest store to buy some supplies and then down the street to the Inn. Is everything alright little lady?” Dave could sense something wasn’t right.

Jessie looks at Dave “No sir. My father abandoned me and my little sister two days ago. He never told me my mother had died. I haven’t eaten for two days straight and I have been doing everything I can to care for my little sister.” Tears leak from his eyes.

Dave couldn’t believe someone would do such a thing to two young girls.

“Did your dad molest you in any way?” Dave had two grown children of his own and loved them very much.

“No sir. He just beat and whipped me. He also abused me verbally as well.” Jessie holds his sister to his chest. He wanted so much to be a normal teenager.

“Well, whatever you need to do sweet heart, I’ll do. I told Dolores to bring you a large cheeseburger with everything on it and a large order of fries. How is your little sister doing?” Dave looks towards the sleeping baby.

“She is doing okay for now. I’ve used what formula we had left to make her three bottles. She drunk one before coming here and I have two bottles left. I just need to get what I need for her after we leave here.” Jessie takes a sip of his hot chocolate and his tummy feels better as it felt the warm liquid hit it.

“Don’t worry. I’ll stop at the store down the street, so you can go get what you need for your sister.” Dave takes a sip of his coffee.

After a few minutes, Dolores arrives with a large plate for Jessie, loaded up with fries and a huge cheeseburger with everything on it. She also hands him an envelope with some cash in it.

Jessie looks at Dolores “thank you.”

“You’re welcome sweetie. You just take care of that baby of yours.” She ruffles Jessie’s unwashed hair.

She walks off to tend to some more customers.

Jessie wasted no time in eating his meal. He ate slowly and enjoyed the food, it felt good going down into his stomach. It quieted the growling his stomach had been making. He offers Dave some of his fries, but he turns them down. When Jessie is finished eating the cheeseburger, Dolores brings him a slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream on it.

Jessie looks up at her “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. It’s on the house kiddo.” Dolores gives him a wink and then walks off.

Jessie enjoys the warm apple pie and vanilla ice cream. When he is done, they sit and talk for a while. Jessie learns a lot about Dave from their conversion.

After a while Dave helps Jessie carry his little sister outside, Jessie carries his sister, while Dave carries the diaper bag. His tummy felt a lot better now that he had food in it. He figures that he might have to pick up a few items to eat till his Aunt came to pick him up. Dave drives carefully to the grocery store nearby and helps Jessie inside the store. Dave follows Jessie as he goes down certain aisles looking for things.

“You seem to know what you are doing little lady. Do you normally shop here?” Dave was impressed on how Jessie seemed to know his way around the store.

“Yes sir. I normally took money from my father while he was asleep from drinking too much to buy food and supplies for my sister. I always put her needs before my own.” Jessie grabs a few more cans of formula and a package of pampers for his sister along with baby oil and baby powder. He had enough money to buy what he needed for her and then he bought a few instant soups and a box of instant grits packages for himself, along with peanut butter, jelly and bread. He also purchases some soap, shampoo and conditioner for himself. He had twenty dollars left after getting his change back from the cashier.

Dave helps Jessie carry the groceries out to the cab, before getting in, Jessie looks towards Dave.

“Thank you for helping me. I don’t know if I would have ever made it to the diner to call my Aunt.” Jessie sniffles from the cold.

“How could I leave a little girl and her baby out in this mess? Now get in, before you catch a cold.” Dave holds the door open and closes it after she gets in.

Jessie gets in and watches as Dave closes the cab door, then goes the driver’s side and gets in.

Dave starts up the cab, backs out of the parking spot and then heads down the street towards the Inn where Jessie’s Aunt arranged for them to stay. Dave pulls in under the over the overhang for Jessie to get out and get the key to his room.

“I’ll be right here waiting for you Jessie.” Dave gives him a fatherly smile.

Jessie slides out and heads inside the office and up to the counter, where a middle age woman was working on some paperwork. She looks up at him.

“Can I help you miss.?” A smile appears on her face.

“Yes Ma’am. My aunt said she made a reservation down here for me.” Jessie looked at the woman and hope he was at the right place.

“What is your name sweetie?” The lady picks up a pencil with which to write.

“It’s Jessie Ridgewood, ma’am.” He moves his arm some, to better support his sleeping sister.

“Ah! Yes. I remember talking with her. She reserved a single economy room for three days and three nights with a crib. She also asked us to give you some money to pay for your taxi fare. I just need you to fill this card out for us, honey.” She slides a card forward along with a pen.

Jessie adjusts the way he is holding his sister and starts filling out the registration card. He puts his aunt’s address and phone number down, since he figures he’ll never be going back to his home again. When he is done, he slides the card back to the lady.

“The lady takes it and looks it over. Your aunt asked us to allow you to make long distance phone calls to her, so your phone has been turned on Miss. Ridgewood. You’re in room 202 on the second floor. One of our maids will come by and check on you throughout the day, to make sure you are all right. Here’s your key.” She hands Jessie a key with the room number on it.

Jessie takes it.

“This is for your cab driver.” She hands her a sealed hotel envelope with Dave’s name on it.

Jessie accepts the envelope “Thank you Ma’am.”

“You’re welcome sweetie. If you need anything, just call down here to the front desk and we’ll make sure you get it.” She gives her a motherly smile.

“I will.” Jessie heads out of the office and back over towards Dave’s cab and gets in.

Once he is in, Jessie looks towards Dave “This is for you Dave.” He hands him the envelope that had his name on it.

Dave takes it.

“So, what’s your room number?”

“It’s room 202, sir.” Jessie couldn’t wait to get to his room and take a nice hot bath. He knew his sister would sleep most of the day.
“202 it is then.” Dave drives the cab around to where the rooms were and parks in a parking space, once they spot the room number. He gets out and opens the door for Jessie.

“You go ahead and take your sister to the room Jessie. I’ll bring everything else to you.”

“Thank you.” She holds his sister to his chest to keep the snow from falling on her face and heads up to the second floor, where he and Dave had spotted the room.

Jessie uses the key he was given, opens the door and heads into the room. The room was already lit for him and the heating was on. There was a baby crib set-up for his sister. He walks over and places his sister in the crib. He turns around to go and help Dave with his things.

Dave comes walking in with Jessie’s purchases and set them on the bed.

Jessie looks at Dave “Thank you.”

“It was nothing sweetie. Here take my card just in case you need to go anywhere.” Dave digs into his pockets to retrieve one of his business cards.

“But I won’t be able to pay you.” Jessie accepts the card.

“Don’t worry about that sweetie. It’s free of charge. You just take care of your sister and be careful.” He walks over and places a fatherly kiss on Jessie’s forehead, before walking out and closing the door behind him.

Jessie walks over and looks out the window and watches as Dave backs out of the parking space then pulls out of the parking lot. Jessie steps away from the window and starts putting away the things he bought, then calls his Aunt and talks with her for a while. When he gets off the phone, he unbundles his sister and makes her comfortable.

He grabs the shampoo, conditioner and soap and heads into the bathroom, fills the tub with hot water and undresses as it fills. His petite, slim body shows the scars and bruises that covered every inch of that his father gave him. He looked so thin and feminine, which was another reason his father hated him. He was born with a very tiny penis and hadn’t developed any of the secondary characteristics of a boy. He was twelve years old and looked more like a girl, than a boy. He lowers himself down into the tub and washes his hair and body. He empties the tub and refills it with hot water, leans back against the tub rim and enjoys the heat, as it keeps his body warm. He falls asleep and is woken about thirty minutes later by his sister crying.

He gets out of the tub, dries himself off and slips on one of his mother’s nightgowns, which he had taken. It was big on him and came down to his feet, but at least he had something on with which to cover himself. He heads over towards his sister and checks her, her diaper was wet again. He was so happy that his Aunt had given him some money to buy supplies for his sister. He changes her wet diaper and warms up a bottle for her, since it was near her feeding time. He was careful not to warm the bottle too much in the microwave in his room. He sits down on the bed, rests his back against the headboard and feeds her. He turns the television on and watches a movie that was playing on a channel he found. He watches his sister as she drinks down her bottle and then he burps her afterwards with a washcloth over his shoulder. Once she had burped, he holds her till she falls asleep and lays her down in the crib. He gets back onto the bed and lays down himself. In no time, he is fast asleep.

He tosses and turns throughout the night. He sits up in a cold sweat as he hugs himself. He had a nightmare of his father finding them and beating him till he died. He gets out of bed and grabs his mother’s jacket he had worn and the ice bucket and places his room key in its pocket. He checks on his sister and then heads out to get some ice, so he could pour himself some soda with ice in it. He finds the ice machine and fills up the ice bucket. On his way, back to his room he stops and looks out into the night.

The snow was still falling, but it was slower. He used to love going out with his mother, having snowball fights and making snow angels with her. He knew his father used to abuse her as well, but when his father was gone, they had fun. His mother made him feel special and loved. They would spend all day long outside and later in the evening, roast marshmallows in the grill and drink hot chocolate with whipped cream on top of it. Tears start to slide down from his eyes as he wishes she were here right now with him. He was only twelve years old and didn’t know what to do. He hopes the choices he is making right now for him and his little sister are the right. He also hopes his father doesn’t find them.

He wipes the tears away and heads back to his hotel room. His sister was still asleep, so he moved quietly around the room in the dark, so as not to wake her. He slips off his coat off and hangs it up. He grabs the Pepsi he had bought and pours himself a cup of soda. He closes the bottle up, heads over to the bed and sits back down on it. He flips through the channels and finds a movie that was playing and falls back asleep after drinking his soda.

The sounds knocking and a woman’s voice announcing room service wakes up Jessie as the door opens. Jessie sits up and through sleepy eyes looks towards the door, as a middle-age Hispanic woman pokes her head in.

“Ah! You’re awake, Miss” She comes inside the room, closing the door behind her.

Jessie rubs his eyes and looks at her “who are you?”

“My name is Lela Alvaro; I’m the maid here at the hotel. You must be Miss. Jessie Ridgewood., Miss. Williams asked me to check on you to make sure you were all right.” Lela looks at Jessie and could see why Miss. Williams had been so concerned. The poor thing had bruises all up and down her arms. She could see one at the base of her neck as well.

Jessie gives Lela a puzzled looked.

“I take it you haven’t met Miss. Williams yet?” she sits down on the corner of the bed.

“No ma’am. Who is she?” Jessie sits up straighter, resting his back against the headboard.

“She’s the day time office manager. She asked me and several of the other housekeepers to check in on you and your little sister during our shift to make sure you were all right. I guess it had something to do with that letter Miss. Burns the night time auditor left for her.” Lela glances over towards the crib, where she notices a baby looking at her and Jessie.

“How old is she?” Lela gets up and walks over towards the crib.

“She’s eight months old and her name is Maggie.” Jessie gets up out of bed and walks over towards the crib as well and picks his sister up into his arms.

He turns to Lela “Maggie, this is Ms. Lela.”

Lela just smiles at Jessie and his little sister. You could see the family resemble in their facial features. Where Jessie had long auburn colored wavy hair that came down to her shoulders and green eyes, her little sister had straight chestnut colored hair and hazel eyes.

“You two look cute together.” A smile forms on her face as Lela continues to look at them.

“Thank you.” Jessie returns her smile with one of his own.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Jessie where are your parents?”

Jessie takes a deep breath before speaking. He looks directly at Lela “My father abandoned us two days ago and my mother died three weeks ago, my father never told me what happened to my mother. He just said that she had run off, leaving him stuck with us.” Jessie recalls the conversion he had with his father and the backhand he had received when he called his father a liar.

“Oh, you poor thing.” Lela caresses Jessie’s right cheek. She sees that Jessie has bruises on his face and a split lip.

“Did your father abuse you Jessie?” She kneels to look into Jessie’s eyes.

“Yes ma’am. He was always drunk and took his anger out on me, when my mother wasn’t around. It got worse these past three weeks.” Jessie adjusts the way he is holding his sister.

Now he rather understood why his father had been abusing him more lately. When his mother was at home, she always got in between him and his father. Now, that his mother is dead. His father could do whatever he wanted to him. He shivers slightly just from the thought.

Lela had held her finger out for Maggie to grab. She could see how curious she was. She reminded her of her own little girls. She plays with her for a while.

She stops and looks at Jessie “I better go back to work. If you need anything Jessie, just ring the front desk and we'll get it for you. Did you bring any food to eat for you and your sister?”

“Yes ma’am. I stopped by the store on my way here yesterday.” He was fully prepared for Maggie, he had formula and baby food for her.” Jessie adjusts his posture, his arms were getting heavy.

“Well, if you get hungry, there’s a Subway shop down the street that will deliver here. You’ll have to make an order of ten dollars or more, but they are worth it. The food is nice.” She turns around and starts to head out of the room.

“Thank you.” Jessie lays his sister down and checks her.

“Phew! Maggie, what have you been eating?” He steps back to get the diaper bag and starts cleaning his sister. He puts on a clean diaper and jumpsuit he had packed. He tosses the diaper in the trashcan and ties it close. He hand washed the jumpsuit and hangs it to dry in the bathroom.

He looks down at his sister as he changes out of his mother’s nightgown and into a pair of her jeans and one of her T-shirts. He brushes his hair so it was nice and neat. The bath he took last night, really felt good and after he had washed his hair and let it dry, it was soft to the touch and looked a lot fuller than it normally did.

Once Jessie was fully dressed, he looks at the mirror and couldn’t believe how much he looked like a teenage girl, dressed in his mother’s clothes. All he needed was his ears pierced and he would fit in with a group of girls. He smiles and looks over towards his little sister in the crib, he walks over and picks her up and holds her.

“So, are you hungry little sister?” He tickles her and she just smiles at him.

He fixes some baby food for his sister and feeds her first. Once she is fed, he fixes himself some instant grits and eats it. He had bought some milk to drink, so he has two cups. It felt nice to be able to eat some food. Once he is done, he cleans up the mess he made and picks up his little sister and plays with her. He coos to her and puts her on her tummy, after folding the covers down and lets her play on the sheets of the bed. He watches her carefully and enjoys spending time with her.

Jessie couldn’t believe how big she had gotten since his mother first brought her home. He was excited for his mother having another baby, but worried at the same time about his father abusing his sibling the same way he abused him. His father had commented about having too many girls at home, and had hoped that his mother was having a boy, instead of a girl. He said that he already had a girl and wanted a boy. He keeps playing with Maggie and later in the afternoon, after he fed Maggie her lunch and gave her a bottle, he laid her down for a nap.

Jessie spends time while Maggie is sleeping, straightening up their clothes he had shoved into the gym bag. He reorganizes the diaper bag, cleans the dirty bottles and sterilizes them with the help of the microwave. When he is done with that, he pulls out a school book he had hidden from his father. It was his math book, so it gave him something to do, while his sister slept. Most of the problems in the book he could do from the examples in it. He had been moved up a grade before his father had taken him out of school to care for his sister. As much as he would like to watch television, he wanted at least to keep up his math skills.

He finds a good stopping point and closes his book. His sister was still asleep, so he grabs his jacket, gloves, slips his room key into a pocket on his jacket and steps outside his room. He stands against the railing watching the cars and people as they went about their way. He could tell the plough trucks had been by, because the roads were clear. He inhales the cool air, it felt nice and clean. He closes his eyes and wonders what it will be like to live in Texas. He was born here in Dunbar, West Virginia and has only left a few times with his mother, When he was little.

He had visited his grandmother before she had died. He couldn’t remember ever meeting his aunt before, he couldn’t remember if she was married or single either. He wonders what she looks like. He knew she rather sounded like his mother, their voices were similar. Jessie hears the roar of a group of motorcycles and a few seconds later he spots them passing by the entrance to the Inn. He tries to see if he could spot his father’s motorcycle. He knew what it looked like and what his helmet looked like, he spots his father’s motorcycle about halfway back in the group of motorcycles. He doubts he would recognize him, as he is dressed right now. He watches as the motorcycle gang rides further down the street.

“Excuse me Ms., would you happen to know where the motel’s ice machine is located?” An older gentleman walks up to where Jessie is standing.

“It’s the other way sir. You have to go all the way down past the last room and it’s in the room, where the snack machines are.” Jessie had turned around to face the gentleman. He points back behind him, towards the other direction.

“Thank you” He turns around and heads in the opposite direction.

Just as the older gentleman does that, the phone in Jessie’s room starts ringing. Jessie fishes the key out of his pocket and runs into the room to answer it.

He picks the phone up “Hello?”

“Jessie? It’s your aunt Mary. I’m calling to tell you, that I should be there tomorrow evening around seven or so. How are you holding up?” Mary was sitting next to her husband and watching as they drove down the highway. They had left early this morning and were driving till around midnight or so.

“I’m doing fine Aunt Mary. Maggie should be waking up from her nap soon. I just saw my father and his motorcycle buddies ride past the motel.” Jessie glances over towards his little sister.

“Don’t worry about your father Jessie. Your Uncle has a friend that lives nearby and he is going to come by and take care of you. Is there anything you need sweetie?” Mary was concerned about her nephew and niece.

“I’m alright Aunt Mary, I have twenty dollars left over after buying the supplies I needed for Maggie. I bought some shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrush, instant soup, milk, soda and instant grits for myself Aunt Mary.” Jessie felt proud of himself for buying those things.

“I’ll have Charlie bring you some dinner sweetie. How are you for clothes?” Mary had her pad and pen out to write down what she needed to get for Jessie and Maggie.

“I’m okay Aunt Mary. I’m wearing some of mom’s clothes. Some of her clothes fit me, but are either too long in the legs or too loose on me. All mine were either dirty, stunk or were too worn for me to wear. I managed to find a few of Maggie’s jumpsuits and brought them with me. They are clean and when she has an accident in them, I wash them by hand and hang them out to dry just like mom taught me.” Jessie had helped his mother with the laundry and she had taught him how to do laundry just in case she wasn’t home and Maggie needed a clean jumpsuit.

“Well that explains why everyone I spoke to yesterday, kept calling you my niece. Okay, is there anything special you want Jessie?” Mary knew that Jessie took after his mother, she had seen the pictures her sister had sent to her, he looked like the way she did when she was about his age. If he was wearing his mother’s clothes, she could see why people would mistake him for a girl.

Jessie wanted his mother back, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“No ma’am, I just can’t wait to see you Aunt Mary.” He was ready to cry, but he didn’t.

“You’ll see me tomorrow night sweetie. Just take care of your sister and don’t let anyone you don’t know into your room. Your Uncle’s friend's name is Charlie Bonds, he goes by CB sweetie. So, he’ll tell you that to identify himself to you, okay?” Mary and Charlie had set this up, so that Jessie would know he was safe to let in.

“Okay Aunt Mary.” He writes the guy’s name down on a piece of paper.

“Alright sweetie, I’m going to let you go. I’ll call you first thing tomorrow morning to let you know we are on our way to you. You take care and protect your sister. Bye sweetie.” Mary ends the call.

Jessie hangs-up the phone, just in time, as Maggie wakes up and starts crying. Jessie checks his little sister and changes her dirty diaper and plays with her for a while. She’s pretty much become the center of his world. He watches her carefully as she tries to flip over on to her tummy. He kept the bed the way he had it before, so she would have a place to lay and try things out, without smothering herself.

Jessie turns on the radio and finds a station he likes. He gets in front of his sister, so she can see him and grabs one of her rattles and starts singing along with the song Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson. He dances as he had seen some of the female singers and his mom do. He tries matching his voice to the right pitch as Gretchen’s on the radio. He picks up his teddy bear and holds it to his hips.

Jessie watches as his silly dancing and singing makes her smile. When another song comes over the air, he dances and sings to that one, he entertains his little sister for a while. He felt free right now and was enjoying his little vocation. He walks over when the song is has ended and on her tummy and blows on it, like his mother used to do to him. He gets a battered beat-up story time book his mother had gotten when he was little and read bedtime stories to him from which she read bed time stories to him. He walks over and sits his sister on his lap and starts reading Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs to her. He tries to duplicate the voices his mother had used when she read it to him. When the song Concrete Angel starts playing, he listens to it and thinks about the words. It describes how his life has been and how lucky he is, that he is lucky to still be alive and with his sister.

Edited By: Dave

Around six o’clock pm, there is a knock at his door. He lays Maggie down on the bed and walks over to the window to see who was at his door. He notices a man in a business suit holding a pizza and a Wal-mart bag in his hand. The man spots him, looking at him from the window. Jessie walks over to the door.

“Who is it?” He had his hand on the door handle.

“It’s CB Jessie. I’m a friend of your Aunt and Uncle.” Charlie had spotted a young girl looking at him from the bedroom window. He had been told it was supposed to be a young teenage boy. He listens as the locks on the door are unlocked and the door opens slightly. He watches as a teenage girl looks up at him. She had bruises around her neck and a split lip. He could see she had a fading black-eye as well.

“What does CB stand for?” Jessie still had the chain on the door.

“It stands for Charlie Bond.” He liked the fact that the girl was being careful.

Jessie looks at him and then shuts the door.

Charlie could hear the chain being removed. He watches as the door is open and a young teenage girl with long auburn color wavy hair and green eyes stood before him.

“Your nothing like your aunt describe kiddo. I was expecting a teenage boy, not a teenage girl.” He had to admit that Mary’s niece was cute.

“I get that a lot. I am a boy, but for some reason. I look like a girl.” He steps aside to let Charlie in “Won’t you please come in?”

Charlie walks in and notices a baby in a baby blue jump suit looking at him. He sets the pizza box and the Wal-Mart bag on the table.

‘That must be your baby sister Maggie.” He stands near the bed and looks down at her. He had to admit she was adorable.

“Yes sir.” Jessie shuts and locks the door, like he has been doing.

“Jessie, would you mind if I took a few pictures of you and your sister, to send to your Aunt and Uncle please? Because they don’t know what you currently look like.” He pulls his cell phone out of his pocket.

“I don’t mind.” He walks over and stands near the bed.

Charlie takes a picture of Maggie first. He then takes a picture of Jessie as he is dress now.

“Now Jessie, would you hold your sister in your lap, so I can send her a picture of both of you together?” He steps back to get a better shot.

Jessie sits down on the bed and picks up his sister and holds her, so Charlie can get a good picture.

Charlie takes three pictures and sends everything he has taken to Mary and Joe.

“Your Aunt told me to buy something special for dinner tonight, but she didn’t say what I should get for you. I was going to get Chinese food, but I didn’t know what you like or if you even liked Chinese food. So, I got a large supreme pizza instead. I figure most people love pizza.

“Oh! I love pizza and Chinese food. I haven’t had pizza since my mother brought one home with her.” Jessie could smell the delicious aroma coming from the pizza.

“That’s good. I wasn’t sure if you had any drinks, so I brought a case of Pepsi as well. If you hand me the ice bucket, I’ll go and get us some ice.” Charlie could tell Jessie was interested in the pizza. He could see the sparkle in Jessie’s green eyes.

“Here you go.” Jessie gets the bucket for the ice and hands it to him. “The ice machine is at the end of the building on the left-hand side, in a room with the soda and snack machines.”

“Thanks.” Charlie accepts the ice bucket and heads back out the door.

Jessie looks at Maggie “well little sister, it looks like you’re going to miss out on some pizza tonight.”
He smiles and carries her around the room.
Charlie’s phone starts beeping as he is heading back to the room with the bucket filled with ice. He notices it was Mary.

“Hi Mary, I take it you looked at the pictures?” Charlie knew she did.

“Yes. I can’t believe how much of a girl Jessie looks. He looks just like his mother did, when she was a teenager. The same hair, eyes and body build. How does he look to you?”

“Like he’s been abused Mary, the poor kid has bruises around his neck and his lip is split. There was light bruising around his eye, where it looked like he had a black-eye. If you take a closer look at the photos, you’ll notice he has bruising all up and down his arms and hands. Your brother in-law is a real piece of work, abusing a sweet kid like that.” Charlie wouldn’t mind getting his hands on him and teaching him a lesson.

“I agree with you Charlie. I was hoping things weren’t as bad as I thought they were, but when Jessie said that his father never told him his mother was dead. I knew something was up. My sister loved her children. They were her world. She would have made sure they were taken care of. The only reason she stayed with her husband was because he had threatened to kill Jessie if she left him. Her husband knew how much Jessie meant to her.” Mary had spoken to her sister about a month ago and knew how things were around her household.

“Well, I’ll tell you this. If I didn’t know your nephew was a boy. I would mistake him for a girl. His voice, hair style, the way his body is and even the clothes he is wearing, makes him look like a teenage girl.” Charlie had to admit he looked cute as a girl.

“I’ll have to see if he prefers to be treated like a girl or if he would rather be a boy. If you could Charlie, just stay with them till tomorrow night. I’ll pay you for doing this for me.” Mary was sure Charlie wouldn’t accept the money; she still felt obligated to offer.

“Keep your money Mary. I don’t mind spending time with your nephew and niece. I’ll watch after them, till you and Joe get here. I got my laptop with me. I can work on my work here at the motel room and we’ll watch a few movies tomorrow or go for a walk or something. Charlie didn’t mind watching the kids. He could access his Netflix account and let them watch a movie or something.

“Thanks again Charlie. Bye.” Mary hangs up.

“Bye.” Charlie puts his cell phone away and knocks on the door.

He watches as the curtain is moved as Jessie looks at him. The door opens for him.

He walks in and notice Jessie had set-up the paper plates he had asked for and got some plastic cups out to use with the soda’s He saw two of them sitting on the table and figured Jessie must had put the rest in the little refrigerator he saw earlier.

“You were busy while I was gone.” A pleasing smile appears on his face as he looks at Jessie.

“I figure the soda could get cold in the frig. So, I put the bottles in the refrigerator over there.” Jessie had picked Maggie up and was feeding her, her bottle.

Maggie was watching the strange man, while she sucked on her bottle.

Charlie walks over and puts ice in the plastic cups and pours soda from the cans into each cup.

Jessie watches him as he feeds his sister.

“CB, do you have any pictures of my Aunt and Uncle with you, because I don’t remember what they look like?” Jessie figures if he was their friend, he would have some.

“I sure do kiddo. I vacationed with them last year. We went fishing, hunting and horseback riding.” Charlie pulls his cell phone out and locates the pictures he took of his friends.

He hands the phone to Jessie “just use your finger to slide the pictures.”

Jessie looks at the pictures. The first one was just of the three of them. He then moves on to the next one and it was of his Aunt and Uncle standing together. Jessie looked closely at his aunt. She was a little taller than his mother, but had his hair. She was also dress in cowboy clothes and looked a little like him. Jessie knew he took after his mother in looks, but he could easily pass as being his aunt’s child. His Uncle was a tall muscular man and looked to be Native American.

Jessie looks at Charlie “Is my Uncle Native American?”

“Actually, your Uncle is only part Native American. He’s part Irish and part Apache. He also is a famous bull rider. Your Uncle is an old fashion cowboy Jessie. Your aunt, she used to ride in the rodeo circuit as well. That’s where they meet. She was a rising star barrel racer and met your Uncle and me at an event. Both of us had just gotten out of the military and were looking for some excitement and joined the Rodeo circuit. We both saw your Aunt and fought for her. Your Uncle won, of course. They are both my best friends and we have kept in touch with each other. I travel the country as a cyber-security consultant and your Aunt and Uncle run a ranch along with some relatives of his. You look a lot like your aunt. Your shorter then she is, but you and your sister share some of her features. You’re more like your mother. I met her once, when you were just this high.” He holds his hand about three feet off the floor.

“You were very shy and clung to your mother. The only other person you let pick you up was your Aunt. “Charlie remembers that day, as if it was just yesterday.

“So, you met my father?” Jessie shifts Maggie some on his hip as she drunk her bottle.

“No, your father wasn’t with your mother that day. He never bothered to show-up for your grandmother’s funeral. It was just you and your mother. I think there was some bad blood between your grandmother and him. I know your Aunt didn’t like him very much, but she held her tongue, because she loved her little sister. Enough of the past for now, I’ll tell you more about your Aunt and Uncle tonight. We have a pizza here to devour and I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.” He flips open the pizza box and takes out a few slices for him.

Jessie walks up and picks up a few slices for himself as well and closes the pizza box back up.

“So, why don’t you tell me about yourself and your sister?” Charlie sits down in the chair near the bed and watches Jessie.

Jessie starts telling Charlie about himself and Maggie. He tells him everything about his life, what he likes and doesn’t like. What his favorite school subjects are and that he wants to work with computers like his mother did, before she was forced to quit her job and pawn her computer to pay the rent. His dad had forced her to quit when he was working and after he had quit his job and they had no money coming in, his mother had taken a job as a cashier at a local convince store to pay the bills, where his father drunk all the time and worked on his motorcycle and hung out with his biker buddies.

He tells Charlie about the time when his mother was five months pregnant with Maggie and she had come home and found out that his father had been making out with another woman in their bed. His mother had tossed the girl out and started throwing things at his father and the next thing he heard was his mother hitting the wall and his father yelling at her, telling her he’ll do whatever he wants, whenever he wants and that if she didn’t go along with the program, he’ll kill him.

“Hmmm, that would explain why your Aunt was madder than a rattlesnake last September. She had gotten a phone call from your mother. I know that after she had gotten off the phone with her, she was madder than a rattlesnake and went outside to the barn and took it out on your Uncle’s punching bag.” Charlie grabs another two slices of pizza.

Jessie grabs another one. It has been awhile since he has had fresh hot pizza.

“After that night, mom started sleeping with me. She would always lock the bedroom door to keep dad out. She said she wasn’t going to allow anything to happen to me. Unfortunately, he just waited till she went to work and then start abusing me. When mom came home and found the bruises, she threatened him with calling the police on his motorcycle clubs and their illegal activities.” Jessie takes a bite of his pizza.

“What type of illegal activities did your mother know about?” Charlie was thinking he might be able to use it as leverage to get Jessie and Maggie assign into Mary’s custody. The abuse on Jessie was enough to warrant it, but if they could prove he was responsible for Rachel’s death, then they could put him and the whole gang in jail.

“Mom knew the location of their meth labs, the prostitution and the chop shops the gang operated. She took pictures of the location and people involve and stored them on a micro-sd card and asked me to keep it secret.” Jessie reaches for his soda.

“Do you still have the micro-sd card?” Charlie looks at Jessie.

“Yes sir. I keep it hidden nearby. In a place, no one would ever look.” Jessie knew where it was. He had stash it in an inside pocket in Maggie’s diaper bag.

“When your Aunt arrives give her that card because she can use it as leverage to get permanent custody of you and Maggie. Also, she can prove that your mother’s death was the work of your father’s motorcycle club.” Charlie was sure they were related.

“But Dave said that a robber was responsible for the death of my mother.” Jessie was wondering what was going on.

“Jessie, it all sounds too suspicious. Normally robbers don’t shoot their victims. It’s not their way. Most of the time robbers just want the money and then they’re on their way. In this case, why would a robber stay and shoot everyone, when he has the money already? I’m betting that your father informed his gang leader about your mother’s treat and wanted to take her out of the picture. I had a chance to see the police report from that night and the officer who responded to the 911 call showed me his notes.” Charlie had examined the notes carefully. He was a security specialist consultant and knew what to look for and everything listed pointed the investigation in a different direction.

“So, you’re saying my father might be responsible for my mother’s death?” Jessie could almost believe it. After the fight his mother and father had that night. She had stopped sleeping with him. His mother even burned the sheets he had slept on with the other woman she had tossed out of the house.

“Yes.” Charlie could see Jessie thinking about what he just said. He had to admit that the boy was bright.

“So? Would you and Maggie like to watch a movie tonight?” Charlie figures the kids deserve a treat.

“Yes sir. They’re showing Pirates of the Caribbean part two tonight.” Jessie hadn’t had a chance to see any of the Pirates movies, except the first one.

“You haven’t seen Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead man’s Chest?” Charlie couldn’t believe it. Most people have already seen it and the third one and the fourth one.

“No sir. Dad broke the DVD player. He threw it at me while he was drunk and it was destroyed when it hit the wall.” Jessie remembered the night it happened. He was watching one of his favorite movies, when his dad came in and asked him to do something and he was looking for the remote to pause the movie, when his dad accused him of not moving fast enough. He had picked the DVD player up and yanked it out of the wall and threw it at him. If he hadn’t been sitting down on the sofa, it would have hit him. The DVD player exploded from the impact.

“Alright” Charlie picks the phone up and calls the front office and orders a showing of Pirates and the next movie after it.

He turns his chair so he can watch the movie with Jessie and Maggie. Jessie places Maggie on the bed and cleans up their dinner mess.

Charlie turns the television to the proper channel for the movie and turns off the lights to watch the movie with Jessie. Jessie sits on the bed with his back against the head broad and with Maggie on his lap. The movie starts and Jessie sits and enjoys it.

About midway through the movie “thank you Charlie.” Jessie turns to look at Charlie.

“You’re welcome kiddo.” Charlie just smiles at Jessie. He props his feet up on the other chair for support and make himself comfortable.

By the time the second movie had started, Maggie had fallen asleep in Jessie’s arms. He carefully gets up and puts her in the crib and covers her up with her blanket.

Charlie watches as Jessie lays his baby sister down in the crib. He couldn’t believe how mature this child was. Everything he did was just like what most girls did and move. The way he brushed his hair out of his eyes and the way he sat and walked. He moved just like a girl, maybe not as graceful, but he had their movements down. He’ll have to talk to Mary tomorrow evening when she arrives.
After putting his little sister in her crib and covering her with a blanket. Jessie crawls back in bed and settles before the second movie started. He couldn’t remember the last time he has ever had this much fun or enjoyment. His father had never done any of this with him. Jessie never knew why his father did like him. Why did his father hate him so much?

Charlie looks over towards Jesse and could see he was thinking about something instead of watching the movie. He had seen the same type of faraway look on Mary’s face before. Jessie reminded him so much of his aunt.

“Enjoying the movie so far?”

“Yes, sir. I’ve been wanting to see this movie for a while. I like Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.”

Jessie loved his quirkiness and goofiness.

“He’s alright. I prefer John Wayne or Clint Eastwood myself.”

Jessie looks at Charlie with a questionable look on his face “Who’s John Wayne and Clint Eastwood?”

Charlie looks shock “you don’t know who John Wayne or Clint Eastwood are?”

“No sir. Dad destroyed our television when he went after mom.”

“I’m sorry to hear this. Why don’t you go ahead and lay down and go to sleep?”

Charlie gets up and tucks Jessie in.

“But, where are you going to sleep?”

“I’ll be okay. You get some sleep and tomorrow we’ll go out and get some breakfast.”

"Okay and Charlie, thank you." Jessie hugs Charlie as tears fill his eyes.

"You're welcome kiddo."

Charlie returns the hug.

Sometime during the night, it started snowing again. When Jessie and Charlie wake-up and outside, they see that the snow was coming down heavily, and the parking lot was covered in snow. Charlie checks the weather for the area and a snow advisory has been issued, they were telling people to stay off the streets and allow the snow ploughs and salt trucks to do their job.

Charlie pulls out his cell phone and sees there is a message from Mary.

Forced to stay at hotel. Stuck for a while. Snowed in, won’t be able to get there tonight.
Mary
Charlie sends a return text.

Same conditions here. Advised to stay off roads. Truck snowed in.
CB

Will you be okay?

Mary
Your daughter was thoughtful enough to buy some food before I got here. Also, the hotel lobby has a continental breakfast set-up for the guest. So, we should be fine.

CB
Thank you, Charlie.

Mary
Charlie looks over towards Jessie. He looks as he takes care of Maggie, he’s never seen such a devoted brother before.

“Jessie, I’m going to go down and get us some breakfast from the hotel lobby. You stay here and watch after your baby sister.”

“Okay Charlie.” Jessie watches as Charlie leaves the hotel room.

Jessie walks over and makes sure the door is locked. He looks out the window and notices how bad the snow is coming down. Tears stream down his cheek as memories of a time him and his mother had gone out and made snow angels and a snowman. He wipes the tears away as he walks away and over towards the bed to wait for Charlie to return. He feels sorry for Maggie, because she will never experience what he had with their mother.

Twenty minutes later there is a knock on his door, Jessie checks to make sure it was Charlie before letting him in. As he comes in, his arms were full of lunch boxes some plastic cups with lids.

“Sorry for taking so long Jessie. The manager wanted to make sure you had enough breakfast, she made you a breakfast box. I think you’re going to enjoy what she put in it.” Charlie puts them down on the table.

Jessie opens his and sees it was filled with pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausages. Jessie looks up at Charlie, with tears in his eyes. He hasn’t had this type of food since his mother made it for him one day while his father was gone. The two of them had gone to the store and she used her last ten dollars to buy the material to make pancakes, egg and sausage patties.

Charlie sees the tears run down Jessie’s cheek.

“Is everything alright Jessie?”

“Yes sir.” Jessie wipes the tears away.

“Do you want to tell me why you were crying?” Charlie sits down at the table with his lunch box.

Jessie sits down at the table as well and takes a bite of the eggs.

“Before my mother disappeared, she made a similar breakfast for me. We went to the store and she used the last of her money to buy the items to make the same breakfast. She let me cook the pancakes while she cooked the eggs and sausage patties while my father was gone.” The tears had started again. Jessie wipes them away and picks up a napkin to blow his nose.

“It sounds like you and your mother were close.” Charlie takes another bite of his breakfast.

“We were. She said one time that Maggie and I were the reason for her living. That without us, she didn’t think she could go on. She wanted to leave my father, but every time she threatened to do so. He would grab me and hold a knife to my throat. I have a scar where he cut me to remind my mother of his promise.” Jessie takes a bite of the pancakes and mixes them with some eggs and sausage.

“Well, when your aunt gets here, you’ll be safe, you won’t have to worry about your father anymore.” Charlie was going to make sure of that.

“Jessie, when your father isn’t home. Where does he go?”

“He normally spends time either at the club’s bar or at his girlfriend’s house, I don’t know where she lives, because he never took me. He would say I was too much of an embarrassment to him and that he didn’t want others to know that.” Jessie takes a bite of his breakfast.

The two eat in quiet. When they are done, Charlie tosses their boxes into the trash. Jessie gets up and checks on his sister. She’s been quiet while Charlie and he ate their breakfast.

“Charlie, do you have any children of your own?”

“At one time, I did. I used to have a daughter I didn’t know anything about, her mother hid her birth from me. I didn’t find out till a police officer came to inform me that she and her mother had died in a car accident. I wouldn’t ever know I had a daughter unless she tracked me down and let me know. I regret that I wasn’t there when she was born or when she spoke her first word or took her first steps. I managed to get a picture of her and I keep it in my wallet to remind me of her.” Charlie pulls his wallet out and shows Jessie his daughter.

“She’s cute.” Jessie liked her looks. He could see some of Charlie in her.

“I guess my sister is like you, she’ll never know what mom was like. She’ll never be able to speak her first words to her or let her see her take her first steps. I’m happy I had my mom with me, but I miss her.” Jessie just looks at his sister.

“Jessie, I know your aunt can never replace your mother and it should be that way. However, I do know, your aunt and if there’s one thing I know she was extremely jealous of her sister having you too. Your aunt can’t have children of her own, during her youth, she used to be a daredevil type of person. She would never turn down a dare or let some smart remark be said about women can’t do this or women shouldn’t do that.

Well, one day she let her ego get the better of her and she accepted a challenge from a cowboy new to the circuit. He pushed her so far that she accepted his offer to ride a bull. Now, your aunt wasn’t trained as a bull rider. She could ride a bucking bronco and stay in the saddle, but she had never ridden a bull. Not only had she never ridden a bull, but the bull she got on had a reputation for seriously injuring the most experience riders.

She got on that bull and stayed on it longer then the cowboy who challenged her, but when she got thrown, that bull charged her and got her with his horns. He damaged her so badly, that we weren’t sure she was going to make it. The damage he did to her, made it so she can never have children, unless they implant them into her. The bull damaged her ovaries so severely, that they had to be taken out. Not only that, but he damaged her hip as well. She doesn’t do any more broncos and such, she has a scar going across her abdomen that is a constant reminder from that day. Does she regret it, yes? However, there’s no cowboy on the circuit that will ever say she isn’t the best or talk bad about a woman around her.”

“Wow! I didn’t know that about my aunt.” Jessie was impress hearing a story about his aunt.

Charlie could see the pride Jessie felt about hearing something about his aunt.

“I can tell you right now for sure, that as soon as she gets you home and settled in, you and Maggie are going to be the most spoiled kids there are. Like your mother your aunt will love you and care or you as if she gave birth to you. Your uncle will be the father that your real one should have been to you and won’t care if you choose to be a girl.” Charlie hopes he didn’t just say something wrong to Jessie.

Jessie thinks about Charlie’s words and wonders if he was a girl inside. Everyone that has seen him has called him miss, he didn’t know what to feel about it.

“Charlie, is it wrong if I decided I would like to be treated as a girl?” Jessie watches Charlie’s face.

“Is it wrong that you feel and want to be treated that way, no? During my time on the rodeo circuit, I have met a lot of different people. Some have been gay, some have been lesbians, I’ve met a few female to male people and I have met a person that didn’t identify with either gender. All I can tell you is it doesn’t matter what other people think of you, it’s what you think of yourself. All the rest can go F themselves and if they don’t like it, so be it. You are the only one that matters and how you want to live your life is your decision. When I first saw, you look at me through the window; I thought I was looking at a little abused girl. Even knowing you are a boy, I still see a girl in front of me. Your looks add to what I saw and what others saw, but the rest is mannerism, you move like a girl, you sound like a girl and your expressions are female like. Everything about you screams female.”

“Do you think my aunt and uncle will be upset about me wanting to be a girl?” Jessie was afraid of they might think.

A smile appears on Charlie’s face “I can tell you with one hundred percent honesty, that not only will they be happy about having you and Maggie, but they will not have any problems treating you the way you want to be treated. Don’t be surprised if your uncle is more protective than normal about you, he had a sister that was forced into prostitution by an old boyfriend. She had fallen onto hard times and her boyfriend took advantage of her situation. Once your uncle found out about what she was being forced to do. He took matters into his own hands.

Let’s just say the boyfriend won’t be walking for years to come.”

“You mean my uncle broke his legs?” Jessie looked amazed.

“No, he did more than that. He made sure the person was going to take years to get some mobility back so he could walk again. Your uncle is very protective of his family and his wife. Just as I am protective of your aunt.” Charlie still loved Mary and would do anything for her, he didn’t fault her for choosing his best friend.

“Since we’re stuck inside today, is there anything special you would like to do or see? I have a Netflix account if you would like to watch a movie or if you want to play a game or something.”

“Why don’t you play some of your favorites songs for me, please? I like music and couldn’t listen to anything after my father found my mp3 player my mother gave me for a birthday gift. We did have a radio in the house, not that it mattered, we didn’t have power most of the time.”
Jessie remembers the mp3 player his mother had brought for him. It wasn’t anything fancy, but she had loaded it up with music she liked and music he liked and shared it with him.

“Sure, thing kiddo.” Charlie loads a collection of music he had saved on his laptop and played it for Jessie.

Edited By: Dave

Most of the day Charlie and Jessie listens to music on his laptop. Jessie dances a little for the entertainment for Charlie and his baby sister to some of the music Charlie played for him. He can’t remember the last time he has had so much fun. The snow had slowed down outside.
Charlie looks over towards Jessie “why don’t you get bundled up and we’ll go and get some dinner?”

“Okay!” Jessie puts his mother’s coat on and bundle up Maggie so she would be warm. Charlie checks the steps to make sure they were safe to walk down. They could tell the parking lot had been plowed.

“Come on, we can take the truck over to the diner.” Charlie makes his way to his truck and open the truck for Jessie to get in.

Once Jessie was in the truck. Charlie gets in and slowly back the truck out its parking spot and slowly drive out of the parking lot. He makes his way down the street to the diner Jessie had called his mother from.

“You’ll like this place Charlie. The waitress here was nice to me.”

“You think so Jessie?” Charlie pulls into an empty parking spot.

“Yes sir.” Charlie shuts the engine down and climbs out.

Jessie climbs out of the truck with Maggie in his arms. The three of them walks into the diner and shown a seat. Menus are given to them to look over.

“Order whatever you want Jessie.”

Jessie looks over the menu and reads the description of the different dishes. The last time he had come with Dave and had a cheeseburger.
This time he wanted something different. He spots what he wanted for dinner and to drink. When the waitress comes to get their order.
Charlie orders a steak, baked potato and green beans. Jessie orders the meatloaf with mash potatoes with brown gravy and carrots to go with it. They both have ice tea to drink.

Jessie checks his sister and notice she was sound asleep. As Jessie is looking around, he notices his father’s motorcycle with him and some woman riding on it. He watches as they ride right past the diner. They looked like they were heading towards one of the bars.

Charlie spots Jessie looking out the window and follows his gazed to a man riding a motorcycle with a woman on the back of the motorcycle holding close to his back. They were heading towards a bar where several other motorcycles were.

“I take it that’s your father Jessie?” Charlie couldn’t believe people would be stupid enough to drive out on the streets with snow on the ground on a motorcycle.

“Yes sir, that’s my father and probably his new girlfriend.” Jessie sounded sad. He had done what he could to please his father, but it wasn’t good enough for him.

Charlie could see that Jessie was sadden about something.

“You know something Jessie, your father has to be a real dumb person for not loving a child like you. You are kind, caring and a wonderful person. I don’t see why your father can’t see that in you.”

Jessie looks at Charlie “thank you Charlie.”

“No problem kiddo.”

Their waitress shows up with their meal. She places everyone’s meal in front of them and then go off to help a customer of hers. Jessie savors the first bite of his dinner. He hasn’t had homemade meatloaf for a while now. The last time he had it was when his mother took him out for dinner. His father had gone on a trip with his motorcycle buddies. His mother had hidden some money and the two of them ate out a few times and cooked at home. That week had been the best with his father gone. When his father came back from his trip, he was in a bad mood.

Jessie takes his time with his meal enjoying every bite. By the time he was done, he felt full. He had enjoyed every bite.

“Would you like some desert Jessie?”

Jessie thinks about it. It’s been awhile since he has had any except the pecan pie a couple of days ago.

“Yes sir.”

“Do you know what you would like?” Charlie already knew what he wanted.

“I would like a slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream if that’s okay?”

“I think we can do something Jessie.” Charlie waits till their waitress comes back and place their order for desert.

She comes back and places their order on the table along with some coffee for Charlie. Jessie couldn’t believe how quiet Maggie has been and checks her to make sure things were okay. He didn’t want to wake her, because once she is woken up, it was hard to get her back to sleep.

Once they were done with dinner and paid the bill. Charlie takes Jessie for a ride to look around town. He hasn’t been to this town in a while. They do stop at a park and look at Jessie.

“Hey, I know you and your mom use to make snow angels. Why don’t you and me make one real quick why Maggie asleep.”

A smile appears on Jessie’s face and tears run down his cheeks. He gets out of the truck and run over to an area and lay down and starts making a snow angel. Charlie walks over with him and makes one right next to Jessie.

“Jessie do that again for me please.” Charlies takes his cellphone out and snaps a video for Mary and her husband of Jessie making a snow angel.

“Got it, thanks. This is for your aunt and uncle.” He helps angel up off the ground and the two of them walk back towards the truck.

Off in the distance a figure watches as Jessie and a man he didn’t walks back to a Ford pick-up truck. He was driving by when he spotted the two making snow angels. He had stopped at a distance and used a pair of binoculars to see who they were and notice his son right away. He knew his wife had information on the MC, but he doesn’t know where she hid the information. The only person who might know would be his son. He knows his dead wife didn’t have it on her when one of the MC members killed her that day. He needs to get to his son, but who was this guy with him? He copies down the guys licenses plate and makes a phone call.

Charles was meeting with the president, vice president and sergeant of arms of the MC. He was still waiting on information about the person he saw with his son. He knows he has seen him around before, but couldn’t place his finger on where he has seen this man before.

“So, what have found out? You called all of us here.” Jerry Pike hadn’t even had his first beer this morning when he got a call from Charles about knowing where his deceased wife might have hidden the micro SD card of pictures she took.

“I saw my son last night with some guy I have never seen before. He hasn’t left town yet, so we can get my son and he’ll know where his mother hid the sd card from her cellphone.”

“Are you sure about this Charles? You said your former wife had the sd card on her the night we killed her. Why would your son know where the card is?” Oz didn’t want another wild goose chase.

“Because her and the brat was close. He was her world and if there is anyone other than her sister she would trust it would be our sissy ass son.” Charles had wish his wife never gave birth to the boy. He knew from the moment he had been born that the child was a sissy.

“Do you know where they are currently staying at?” Jerry wanted to end this as soon as possible.

“Not yet, plus I’m waiting for my contact in the police department to get back with me on what he found out about that guy. I know, I know him from somewhere, but I can’t remember where I have seen him.” Charles knew he knew that person, but why or how he couldn’t remember.

Mary and Joe
Mary had woken her husband as soon as the snow had slowed down. She wanted to get to her nephew and niece right away. Something wasn’t feeling right and she has always trusted her feelings about things.

Joe looks to his wife and knew something was bothering her. He had seen the signs before with her. They had left in the middle of the night and took their time traversing the snow-covered highway. The state trucks were doing their best to try and clear them, but they had a heavy snowfall. They had stopped around twenty miles outside the town his nephew/niece were and was refueling and grabbing coffee to keep going.
He figures by the time Charlie and Jessie was up they would be there by then.

Mary was beside herself as she grabbed a few supplies from inside the circle K they had stopped at to refuel. She just couldn’t get over the feeling she was having. It has been getting worse since yesterday morning. She had this same feeling the day her little sister had died. Mary has learned to pay attention to it. On many occasions, it had saved her life several times while in the rodeo and while traveling by herself.

Once she pays for the supplies she had shopped for. Mary heads back out to her husband and their truck.

“I got everything you asked for and a few items for us to munch on to keep us awake. I know you hate the store-bought biscuits and such, but it will give us something warm to eat.” Mary climbs into the passenger seat of their Ford F-350. They had driven this vehicle because it was a 4x4 and had a powerful Diesel engine in it.

Joe gets in and grabs a coffee first before starting the engine.

“Thanks, hun.” Joe leans over and place a kiss on his wife’s cheek.

The coffee tasted good to him. He wasn’t impress with many gas station coffee, but this one wasn’t that bad.

Mary had watched her husband drink his coffee. She was pulling pieces off a French Croissant she had brought inside the store. She had been a little impress with the coffee as well.

“Good coffee?” Mary was taking a sip of hers.

“Yep, it must have been recently brewed and its different then what you normally get.” Joe takes another swig of his.

“We should make a stop here on our way back home and find out what coffee blend they use.” Mary takes a bite of her croissant.
After a few more minutes, Joe starts the truck up and start heading into the town. He follows the GPS unit till he finds the hotel that Mary had set Jessie up at. He spots his best friend Charlies truck and parks right next to it.

Charlie had woken up first and was in the process of making coffee. They had stopped at the store on the way back to the hotel after leaving the park last night and picked up a few more items. Coffee was one of them. He needed his coffee fixed every morning. He was moving quietly around the room so not to wake Jessie up.

As he was going through some emails, he heard a knock on the room door. He moves the curtain aside to look out and notice it was Mary and Joe standing on the other side. He opens the door and points to Jessie and Maggie still asleep.

Mary had basically jumped out of the truck before her husband had a chance to put it in park and raced upstairs to the room. She had stopped and waited for Joe to catch up with her. When she knocked on the door, she saw the curtain in the window next to the door move and saw Charlies face looking them. The next thing she knew the door was being unlocked and as she walked in, Charlie points to two sleeping forms.
One was Jessie who was wearing his mother’s nightshirt and Maggie who was covered up in the crib.

Both her and Joe walk in quietly so not to wake the kids. She gives Charlie a hug as Joe shakes his hand.

“How have they been?” Mary sits down gently next to Jessie and brushes some of his hair out of his eyes.

“They have been fine. You would be proud of Jessie, Mary. He is tentative to his sister’s needs. He bathes her, feeds her and changes her diapers and even entertain her. If I didn’t know any better I would say Maggie was his baby.”

Mary looks down at her sleeping nephew and just smiles.

Charles had gotten the information from his contact at the police station. Once Charles heard the name, he knew who he was, he was a friend of his sister-in-law and now he knew why he was here. His son must have found the letter his sister-in-law sent agreeing to be his godmother. If that were the case, it would mean his son knew where the micro-SD card was. If he was here then it meant his sister-in-law was on her way, they needed to find him quickly.

Charles pulls his cell phone out of his pocket “Jordan, I need you to get four other people we can trust and meet me at the clubhouse.”

“You do know the weather is bad outside Charles.”

“I know, but this is club business and it needs to be taken care of straight away.”

“Alright, I’ll get four brothers I can trust and meet you within the hour.”

“Thanks” he hangs up and goes out to his motorcycle.

Before he rides to the clubhouse, he starts looking around on his own, he starts with the hotels near his home, since he knew Jessie would be walking. After driving through the parking lots of several hotels, he spots the truck he saw last night at the park and there was another one parked next to it with Texas license plates.

“Shit” It had to belong to his sister-in-law, he leaves by the rear entrance. They were going to have to strike them before they left or while on the road.

Jessie heard voices and slowly opened his eyes to see who it was, the woman sitting next to him, he recognized from the pictures Charlie showed him.

Mary saw that Jessie’s eyes had opened.

“Well, good morning sunshine.” Mary smiles at her nephew/niece.

“Aunt Mary, you came!” Jessie sits up suddenly and throws his arms around his aunt.

Mary wraps her arms around Jessie and holds him tight to her. She felt his body shake as all the tears and emotions he has been holding back burst out, he had his head buried against her shoulder and clung to her as if he was drowning.

“Shhh, everything is going to be okay now.” She rubs his back carefully, she had seen the pictures Charlie sent to her.

Charlie and Joe just watch as Jessie finally let everything he has been holding back come forth. Charlie especially knew how hard life has been for him, he had woken-up in the middle of the night from nightmares. Mary just holds her nephew in her arms and let his tears come.

She couldn’t image the things through which his father had put this poor child.

Jessie just holds onto his aunt, he could finally let everything he has been holding back let lose. He cries till he has no more tears and finally leans back to look up at his aunt and then over to his uncle.

“You’ve been a very good brother taking care of your sister, Jessie.” Mary brushes aside an unruly lock of his hair.

“I only did what mom taught me to do Aunt Mary. Mom told me it was my responsibility to care for my sister should anything happen to her, since I was first-born. She also told me to hold onto this.” Jessie reaches into Maggie’s diaper bag and pulls out the micro-SD card he has been holding onto.

“Here, let me see that Jessie.” Charlie held out his hands so he could give to him.

Jessie places the card in Charlie’s hand and watches as Charlie gets an adapter out of his computer bag and inserts the card into his laptop.

Charlie tries accessing the information and a password request pops up, he tries Maggie and it didn’t work, next he tries Jessie and it doesn’t work. Charlie thinks about what he knew about Jessie’s mother and then it hit him. He types in My Children Maggie and Jessie, it works and all the files and pictures Jessie’s mother has been displayed. An evil smile appears on his face. He backs all the information up to his cloud account and then sent a delivery date and time to a friend of his in the FBI to receive the information if something happens to them. He erases the card and puts a nasty virus on it that will seize control of their computers.

“This little virus should play nicely with their system.” Charlie ejects the SD card and hands it to Mary.

“We got to make sure they get this card, but we can’t make it easy for them.” Charlie figures this could be their bargaining chip.

“How are we going to do that?” Mary was still holding Jessie when she looks at Charlie.

“We won’t have to do anything. I bet Charles is going to go looking for Jessie and Maggie since he isn’t where he is supposed to be. We let them find us.” Joe smiles at his wife.

“So, in other words, we use the children as bait then.” Mary didn’t like that plan.

“Don’t worry Mary, the kids will be protected, he going to want this information more than anything else.” Joe hopes he can talk them out of doing anything to them, if not, well he never leaves home without his trusted .50 caliber Desert Eagle and he knew Charlie carried his twin Colt .45 semi-automatic pistols with him. He knew Mary had her 3006 rifle down in the truck along with his lever action 3030 rifle, she carried a M1911A1 pistol as well.

They may outnumber them, but at least they could put up a good fight.

“Why don’t we all go and get some breakfast and come back and pack up to go home or do you and Joe want to catch some sleep?” Charlie looks at Mary and Joe.

“We’ll be all alright Charlie, we got some sleep last night.” Mary watches as Maggie started stirring.

“Well look who just woke-up.” Mary nods her head over to the crib for Joe and Charlie.

Jessie stops crying and turns to look at the crib, he releases his arms from around his aunt and wipes the tears form his eyes as walks over and picks up his sister up and checks her diaper to see if it needs to be changed.

“Here, let me change her Jessie.” Mary had gotten up and walked over to see Maggie.

“Okay, Aunt Mary.” He hands her to his aunt so she could change her diaper.

“Why don’t you go and get dressed Jessie.” Joe had watched everything.

“Okay, Uncle Joe.” He goes and hugs his Uncle.

Joe returns the boys hug and smile, he remembers when Jessie was a shy little boy holding tight to his mother’s leg.

Jessie lets go and grabs some clothes into which to change, he goes into the bathroom, while Maggie is taken care of by his aunt.

Edited By:Dave

Jessie had gotten dressed in a pair of his mother’s clean jeans and slipped on one of her t-shirts because that was all he had with him. When he comes out of the bathroom, his Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe look at him, they couldn’t believe how much he looked like a teenage girl.

Especially his mother when she was his age.

“Jessie, don’t take this wrong, but do you like dressing as a girl?” Mary couldn’t believe how her nephew looked.

Jessie looks at his Aunt and Uncle. He already told Charlie how he felt.

“I don’t mind Aunt Mary, because most people mistake me for a girl. I think I would rather be a girl than be a boy. I don’t know why I feel this way, but inside me it feels right. When I was treated as a boy it felt wrong to me somehow. I tried to be what my father wanted, but I couldn’t.”
Tears were streaming down his face.

“It’s alright Jessie.” Joe holds him and lets him get the tears out of his system. The poor boy has been under a lot of stress and abuse.
Charlie leans over to whisper into Mary’s ear “I think you should let the boy dress as a girl for a while to see how he feels.”

“I plan to.” Mary still had Maggie in her arms.

Jessie finally stops crying and goes back into the bathroom to wash his face. Mary had Maggie all bundled up. She was looking for a carrier or something to put her in.

“Jessie, where’s Maggie’s carrier?” Mary looks at her nephew.

“Dad broke it by throwing it against the wall one day when he stubbed his toes on it.” Jessie had tried to fix it, but it was too damage to be used safely.

Mary just rolls her eyes and couldn’t believe how stupid the man was.

“Well, we’re going to need to go and buy one for her. We can’t legally drive with her like this.”

“Okay, why don’t we take your truck and leave my SUV here, let me grab my laptop and put it in my SUV.” Charlie grabs his laptop and purposely leaves the micro-SD card in the diaper bag so it could be found if someone looks for it in their room while they are gone.

They all go downstairs to the truck, load up to leave.

Hotel:
Unbeknownst to them, a lone motorcycle rider had been parked across the street watching the hotel to see from which room they came: Charlie had sent one of the guys that agreed to help him to watch the hotel for any sign of his son. He had an old picture of him and a picture of his sister-in-law and her husband he had found at the house. He made copies of them and gave one to each of his friends. Eddie takes out his cell out and dials Charles cell phone. He had been enjoying a game of pool at their clubhouse when his phone rang.

He sees the number and answers it.

“Hey Charles, they have left their hotel room, do you want me to search it or do you want to?”

“I’ll search it, I think I know where she might have hidden the card I am looking for.”

“Okay, man. I’ll delay them.”

Eddie hangs up and just watches the hotel. After twenty minutes, Charles pulls up on to him motorcycle.

“Hey, which room did they come out of?”

“Second floor, second door down from the main building.” Eddie had recorded the room number. “Here’s the room number.” Eddie hands the slip of paper to Charles.

“Thanks, let me know if they come back.” Charles goes across the street and picks the lock on the door and goes in.

He notices the gym bag that use to belong to his wife was stuffed with her clothes it. He also notices a bunch of odds and ends that his son brought with him, one of those was a picture of his mother. He sees a few baby bottles, formula and diapers. He finds the diaper bag, empties the contents out on the bed and digs through it to see if the card had been hidden in the one place he didn’t think to look when he searched the house. She could have hidden it in the formula canister and he wouldn’t have thought of looking there.

As he is digging through the contents, he finds the card.

“Yes!” He pockets the card and smashes the picture frame of his wife holding Maggie and her arm around Jessie.

He trashes the room and leaves when he hears his cell phone chirp letting him know he needs to get out of there now. He leaves the hotel by going out the rear entrance. Eddie across the street had already left after spotting the truck coming back.

Mary, Joe, Charlie and Jessie:
Joe drive his truck back into the parking space he had left. They had bought Maggie a car carrier, they had forgotten Maggie’s diaper bag and bought a new one for her while they were out. It was nice and Mary liked it. They had also brought Jessie some new clothes that fitted him better and a new weather coat. He looked cute in the coat, new clothes and shoes. As they were walking back up to the room, Charlie saw that the hotel room had been opened, he stops everyone from going in and peeks in with his gun drawn, Joe had his drawn.

“Looks like he took the bait.” Charles puts his handgun away.

“We better call the police and inform the front desk so we don’t get charged.” Charles pulls out his cell phone and calls the police.

Joe walks down to the front desk to report what happened while they were gone. Charles goes in and removes the hidden camera he had placed when he first arrived at the hotel to watch their stuff when they went out of the room.

“I really hope he was stupid enough to be Charles himself.” Charlie brings the video up from the cloud account he had set-up for the camera.

As he is watching the footage: “and the dumbass of the year award goes to Charles Ridgewood.” He couldn’t believe how stupid Charles was.
He could have worn a mask or something just in case someone saw him.

Joe returns with the manager to show her and sirens could be heard in the distance coming closer.

Miss. Williams couldn’t believe someone would have tried to break into one of the rooms in her hotel, good thing she had cameras installed to cover the balcony. When the police arrive Miss. Williams gave them footage she had and the footage Charlie had.

The police take statements and the video footage. Everyone goes inside and start cleaning up the place and repacking everything.

Edited by: Dave

Jessie watches the land scape as they drove down the interstate. After the police had shown up and took everyone’s statement. Charlie showed them the security footage he had of them breaking into the room and the hotels footage. There was more than enough security footage there to put Charles behind bars. Plus, they had the other information Jessie’s mother died for. He was sending that footage to a FBI agent he knew. Charlie trusted this agent and works with him when he is hired to track down hackers by companies.

Jessie couldn’t believe the clothes his aunt had brought him to wear. His underwear was girls’ panties with little butterflies on them. His shoes came from the girl section at the store. He couldn’t believe how much of a girl he looks now. His aunt had brought him a complete outfit.
While they were out shopping, his aunt had his ears pierce and his hair cut and styled. He was still too thin for his aunt and uncle taste, but they knew once Jessie was eating regularly. He would start getting some meat on his bones.

Charlie had found a Doctor in Texas for Mary and Joe that dealt with gender dysphoria and passed that info along to Mary. Charlie decided he would spend a few days with his friends to make sure Jessie adapted to his new life. He’s come to care for the kid. He doesn’t know of many kids Jessie’s age that would had done what he did for his sister. He saw how Jessie always made sure his sister needs came first before he did anything for himself.

Jessie leans over and checks on his sister. She had fallen asleep as soon as they started moving.

“Aunt Mary, how big is yours and Uncle Joe’s ranch?”

“We own along with some of your uncle’s relatives 18,000 acres. So, you will have plenty of space to play, go horseback riding, fishing and hunting if you want too. You have six cousins and two aunts and uncles that live on the ranch with us.”

“Do you think they will like me?” Jessie was a little worry.

“They are going to spoil you rotten. Among the Native American cultures, you’re special. You’re considered to be two natures. Which means you balance the male and female side of your nature, even though you consider yourself a girl. In the olden days two nature people were shamans among the tribes.”

Jessie thinks about that. He had never really considered the history of other cultures like that. All he learned in school were minor things about Native Americans. How they lived and where different tribes were located and what they did. Some of their cultures and how they help the colonist and what happened to them because the white man became greedy and took their land.

“Aunt Mary, do you think the police will catch my father?”

“Don’t worry Jessie. If the police don’t get him, we’ll get him if he comes to the ranch.” Joe had answered for his wife.

Jessie looks at his Uncle Joe and wonders if he was right. He hopes the police does get his father. Jessie leans his head against the door jam and curls up on the seat. The music that his aunt and uncle was listening to was country. He just listens and enjoys the music and his aunt and uncles company.

They stop for lunch at a mom and pops diner. Jessie orders a barbeque sandwich with fries. He feels sorry for his sister missing out. He watches as his aunt feeds Maggie. Her diaper needed to be changed when they stopped. Jessie had watched his aunt change Maggie’s diaper before they came in to eat.

“Enjoying your lunch Jessie?”

Mary had seen the look on Jessie’s face when he saw the size of the sandwich and how it tasted when he bit into it.

“Yes ma’am.”

It had been served with coleslaw inside the sandwich itself. He had sauce from the sandwich leaking from the corner of his mouth.

“Wipe the corner of your mouth dear.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Jessie wipes the corner of his mouth.

“Looks like the kid is becoming a natural.” Joe looks at his niece.

“I say. Jessie took a big bite out of that sandwich.” Charlie smiles at Jessie.

“Remember Jessie to take smaller bites.” Mary wanted to make sure Jessie could pass as a normal teenage girl.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Come on Mary. The poor kid hasn’t had a decent sandwich before.”

“I know, I just want my niece to have proper manners for a girl.”

Mary just wanted Jessie to be able to pass as a girl, so she doesn’t have any problems.

“Why? You never act like a proper girl. If I remember correctly, you tore into a side of ribs like the Tasmanian devil from Looney Toons.”

Charlie smiles as he teases Mary.

“What, little ole me? If I remember correctly it was you and Joe that made a pig of yourselves at the last pig pickin’”

“What’s a pig pickin’?”

Jessie looks at Charlie and Joe.

“Well is basically a barbeque party. You take a whole pig and roast it either in a hole with coals or on a grill. You cook the meat on inside first and then you flip it and you can make crackling with the skin.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It is Jessie and when we get home I know your aunts and uncle are going to want to throw one for you.”

Joe had a smile on his face.

“Hopefully, he can survive his aunt’s cooking.”

Charlie winks at him.

“Hey, my cooking is pretty good. Jessie only needs to worry about yours and Joe’s cooking.”

Mary looks over at her niece “don’t listen to those two morons, Jessie. You’ll love my cooking.”

“Would you mind if I help? Mom, use to let me help her in the kitchen.”

“You bet young lady. I have no problem with you being my helper in the kitchen. You can replace your Uncle Joe.”

The rest of the meal goes quietly and Joe pays for the meal. As they are leaving, Charlie buys Jessie a T-shirt that says, “This is what an
awesome CHEF looks like!”

“Thanks Charlie.”

“You’re welcome Jessie.”

Charles was at his girlfriend’s house feeling smug about himself and finding that micro-SD card his ex-wife had made. He wasn’t a computer genius like she was, but he knew someone who was, the son of the vice-president of the motorcycle gang. If anyone could crack the password protecting the card he could, he had dropped off the card with him and was just waiting for him to call back.

Charles cellphone rings, “Hello?”

“You need to get out of there now Charles, the police are on their way to you. They have footage of you breaking into that hotel room and searching it.”

“How did they get footage of me searching the room?”

“One of the occupants had a hidden camera in the room.”

“Thanks Jerry.”

Charles gets up and goes down to his motorcycle as fast as he could. He could hear sirens coming towards him, he hops onto his motorcycle and leaves the area; he had another place he could hideout till he found out what was on that video card.

He heads towards his second hideout, when he arrives, his cellphone rings.

He checks the number, it was Axel’s number.

“What’s up Axel?”

“My fucking computer is ruined! That’s what is up you, dumbass, you brought me a card that had a virus on it, there was nothing else on that card, as soon as I cracked the password, it infected my system and caused my CPU and hard drives to overheat and melt down. They must already have the pictures. My father wants your head on a silver platter.”

“Great, that means they have the pictures already and probably gave them to the authorities.”

“Well, if you don’t want your head taken off. You better do something to make this good or you’re a dead man.” Axel hangs up on him.

Charles dials the numbers of a few people he can trust to go after his son and ex-sister-in-law. He remembered where they lived and guessed
that was where they were heading with his children. He packs up a few weapons; refuels his motorcycle and heads out on the road.

Mary and Joe’s truck:

Jessie had fallen asleep during the drive and was surprised when they stopped, Maggie was throwing a fit. He looks around and sees Joe was still in the truck with him. His aunt was opening the driver side passenger door to get Maggie from behind Joe.

Mary saw Jessie was awake and smiled at him.

“Her diaper needs to be changed and I didn’t want to wake you sweetie.”

“Okay, Aunt Mary.” Jessie watches as his aunt carries his sister into the women’s restroom.

“Did you enjoy your nap, Jessie?”

Joe turns around to look at his niece.

“Was I snoring Uncle Joe?”

“Like a lumberjack, kiddo, you were passed out five minutes after leaving the restaurant.”

“I guess it was all that good food, Uncle.”

Charlie had pulled up next to Joe and Mary’s pickup truck, he watched as Mary carried Maggie into the women’s restroom. He rolls his window
down and to speak with Joe.

“Diaper change?”

“Diaper change.”

“Better get used to it good buddy. You’re going to be a father to two little girls with one still in diapers.”

“You forget Charlie, I helped my mother change my sister and brother’s diapers.”

“You never told me about your family before.”

“You never asked before my friend.”

Charlie just shakes his head as the two wait for Mary to come out of the restroom. After a few minutes, she comes out with a happy baby girl in her arms. Mary puts her back in her car seat and buckles her in.

“Was everything okay Aunt Mary?”

“Everything was fine Jessie. She had a wet diaper and just needed it changed”

Mary just smiled and winked at her niece. She knew Jessie was going to have to get used to someone else taking care of her little sister.
“Well, let’s get this show on the road, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to get out of this truck and stretch my legs.”

“I agree with Charlie.”

“Alright, I’m coming. Jessie, do you need to use the bathroom before we leave?”

“No ma’am, I’m fine.”

Jessie had used the restroom at the restaurant before they had left, he would be okay till they stopped again.

“Okay, let’s go then.”

Joe and Mary head out first, followed by Charlie in his truck. They drive throughout the afternoon and into the evening.

Jessie watches as they drive through the entrance to the ranch and couldn’t believe how big it is; she has never been to anything this big before. They stopped in front of a two-car garage.

Charlie pulls up alongside Joe and Mary’s truck.

“Home Sweet Home.” Joe turns off the truck and gets out.

“Come on Jessie, your home.” Mary gets out and opens the door for him.

“Thank you, Aunt Mary.” Jessie grabs his bags and Maggie’s diaper bag.

She follows her aunt into the house; she leads her upstairs to a bedroom.

“This will be your bedroom Jessie, the bathroom is at the end of the hallway.”

“Where will Maggie’s room be?”

“She’s going to be sleeping in our bedroom till we set a room up for her Jessie.”

“She could stay in here with me and I’ll take care of her.”

Mary wraps her arms around Jessie and pulls her close to her.

“You sweet child, always thinking about your sister, It’s time you let me and your uncle help you and start thinking about yourself sweetie.”
Mary hugs her niece, of whom she couldn’t be prouder.

“I’ll try Aunt Mary.”

Jessie wraps his arms around her body, buries her face against her and cries.

Mary rubs his back as she holds him against her body him.

They stay like that for a few minutes until Mary relaxes her hold on Jessie.

“Now, why don’t you go ahead and get ready for bed, then, why don’t you come to my bedroom and say goodnight to your sister.”

“Okay Aunt Mary.” He hugs her one more time.

Mary kisses his forehead and goes to her bedroom to see if she can help her husband with the crib they bought for Maggie.

Jessie changes into nightshirt he has been wearing in bed and goes to his aunt and uncle’s bedroom to see how Maggie is doing. When he
walks in, he sees his uncle and Charlie putting together a crib for her. Her Aunt Mary was holding Maggie in her arms, he walks over and sits on the bed, watching his uncle, and now his godfather.

After half-n-hour they finally get the crib put together. Maggie had already fallen asleep in Mary’s arms, before Mary lays Maggie down, she looks at Jessie.

“Do you want to say goodnight to your sister Jessie?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Jessie goes and kisses Maggie’s forehead.

“Goodnight little sister.”

She watches as her aunt lays Maggie down in the crib.

“Time for you, little lady to go to bed as well.”

Mary takes Jessie back to her room, tuck her in, kisses her forehead.

“Sweet dreams, Jessie.”

“Night, Aunt Mary.”

Edited By: Dave

Jessie woke-up early the next day, she didn’t hear Maggie crying so she pulls on her mother’s robe and slips on the slippers that had been bought for her, and goes downstairs. She remembers that her aunt and uncle had a patio out back, she unlocks the sliding doors and steps out on the patio. She walks around the backyard for a while then heads back to the patio and sits in one of the dew laden lawn chairs. She watches the sunraise.

Jessie looks up at the sky “mom, did I do the right thing?”

“I think your mom would say you did, Jessie.”

Mary goes and sits next to her niece.

Jessie was startled when she heard her aunt’s voice.

“Sorry, for sneaking up on you Jessie. I woke-up when I saw you peek into the bedroom. I’ve always been a light sleeper and now that you and
Maggie are staying with me, I need to be able to get up and help Maggie if she wakes up in the middle of the night.”

“Sorry for waking you Aunt Mary.”

Mary just smiles at her sweet, caring niece.

“You didn’t sweetie and even if you did, it would be okay. Come here.”

Jessie scoots closer to her aunt.

Mary puts her arm around her and holds her to her body.

“You never have anything to apologies for here, Jessie. I know your father mistreated you and your mom. I want you to feel you can be who
you are. I never want you to feel you can’t be yourself. Uncle Joe and I will love you no matter what, we will try to protect you and give you and your sister the life you deserve. You have my promise on that my sweet niece.”

Mary kisses Jessie’s forehead.

Jessie wraps her arms around her aunt, buries her face against her and cries. She lets out all the tears she had been holding back come to the
surface and just cries against her aunt. She holds onto her and let every pain and hurt she has been holding back come to the surface. All the loneliness she has been feeling and the loss of her mother.

Mary just holds Jessie and let her cry. The poor child has been holding back so much and now was the time for her to let it all come out before
it poisons her soul. Mary rubs her back as she cries.

“Let it all out Jessie. Let everything you have been holding back come to the surface.”

After a good fifteen minutes of Jessie crying, she stops. She looks up at her aunt with red eyes.

“Feel better?”

Jessie nods her head as she wipes away the tears that were still sliding down her cheek.

Mary reaches into her robe pocket and pulls out a tissue, she places it on Jessies nose.

“Blow.”

Jessie does what her aunt says.

Mary wipes Jessies nose and balls up the used tissue and stuffs it into her pocket. She smiles down at Jessie and kisses on her forehead.

“Come on, let’s go inside and get you cleaned up then you can help me in the kitchen fixing breakfast for everyone. Your other uncles and
cousins will be here this morning to work the herd and feed the horses.”

Mary and Jessie in the house.

Mary takes Jessie to the downstairs bathroom, clean her face and brushes her hair.

“Alright let’s go check on your sister and get dresses, we’ll come back down to get breakfast ready for everyone, okay?”

Mary and Jessie head upstairs and check on Maggie, who was still asleep. Joe was in the shower and Charlie was just walking out of the
guest bedroom when he sees Jessie and Mary heading towards Jessie’s room, he smiles as he walks into the bathroom.

Mary helps Jessie dress for the day, she had bought her a nice sundress and white sandals to wear with it. Mary brushes Jessie’s hair and ties
it into a ponytail, she puts nail polish on her fingernails and checks the starter studs in her ears. She had her ears pierced before they left West Virginia.

“There, you look just like your mother when she was your age.”

Mary shows Jessie what she looks like in the full-length mirror on the back of her bedroom door.

Jessie couldn’t believe how she looks; she couldn’t believe the little girl in the mirror was her. You could see some of her bruises and her
healing split lip, but she did look cute. A smile appears on her reflection.

Mary just watches Jessie as she stood in front of the mirror and examined herself, she could tell just from watching her that she had never
realized how cute she looked.

“Come on Jessie, let’s go and get breakfast ready for everyone.”

They head downstairs into the kitchen, Mary puts an apron on her so she doesn’t mess up her pretty dress. She gets the breakfast dishes
down and sets the table. Jessie makes the coffee, she learned how to do that from watching her mother; Mary was impressed with her.
Mary lets Jessie cook the bacon while she scrambled some eggs, she sautéed some onions, green peppers and mushrooms. Jessie was cooking the hash browns under his aunt’s watchful eyes. By the time breakfast was ready, Joe and Charlie comes walked in, Charles was carrying Maggie in his arms.

“Look who woke-up.”

“You guys are just in time. Jessie and I just finished cooking breakfast.”

“You mean we’re not going to be poisoned by your cooking?”

“Watch it Charlie or you’ll never be allowed to come back.” Mary was pointing a wooden spoon at him.

“Then I might live a little longer.” He smiles at her as he sits down with Maggie in his arms.

Joe comes over with a warm bottle already made up for Maggie.

“Here you go Uncle Charlie. You can feed her.”

Mary fills everyone’s coffee cups.

“Alright Jessie, take your seat, please.”

“Yes ma’am.” Jessie goes and sits between her uncles.

They all sit around the dining room table talking about things they still needed to do for Jessie and Maggie. Mary, Jessie and Charlie were
going to go into town and buy what they still need, Joe had things around the ranch that required his attention.

When breakfast was done, Jessie helps clean up the dirty dishes and the kitchen before they leave. Mary makes sure Jessie has her purse
and puts a few dollars in it.

“While we’re out. Why don’t you get yourself somethings young lady?”

“Thank you, Aunt Mary.”

“You’re welcome pumpkin.”

Maggie, Jessie and Charlie go out to the truck Joe and Mary had gone to get the children because the child’s safety seat was still in the truck.
They drive into town to do some shopping.

Edited By: Dave

Charles spotted his sister-in-law, a little girl and the man he saw at the hotel, pull out of the long driveway where his sister-in-law lives. He follows them for a while and after a few minutes he knows what he is going to do. He calls some guys he knows that live in the area and told them he had a job for which he needed their help and for them to bring some heavy firepower. He keeps track of his ex-family as they do some shopping. Most of the places where they stopped were to get things for the young girl, he couldn’t believe how much of a girl his sissy son really looked, dressed the way his sister-in-law had him dressed.

Charles tracks them most of the morning until he gets a call from the people he called, to meet up with them.

As Charles pulls up at the meeting, place he sees them waiting for him.

“Who’s the target?” This was coming from a guy who had a scar running from his forehead down over his right eye and down his cheek. He was older and Charles knew he was the perfect guy for the job along with two of his buddies.

“My sister-in-law. She needs to be eliminated along with her children.”

“Dam! You’re one cold hearted bastard.”

“Trust me, she deserves this. She gave information about our club and our operations to the FBI.”

“Dam, you’re right. Do you know where she is right now?”

“They’re in town doing some shopping right now. I know where she lives and the perfect spot to ambush her.”

“Lead on then.”

One of the other bald-headed guys looks towards Charles.

Charles starts his motorcycle and leads them to the place he had picked for a good ambush. He knew his sister-in-law was going to have to
come back this way. They went about setting the various explosions they brought with them and once they were done. They waited for Mary to show up.

Mary’s SUV:
Mary had fun shopping with Jessie and Maggie. She knew Charlie wished he was doing other things, instead of shopping with them. Still, she noticed that Charlie had enjoyed carrying Maggie with him, she knew at one time he had a daughter of his own, who he didn’t know anything about till she died with her mother in a car accident.

“You didn’t have to go overboard buying everything you did Mary.”

Charlie glances towards his friend, while he drove.

“Yes, I did. A girl has to have nice things.”

She was smiling because she had fun spending money on Jessie and Maggie. They would be able to properly outfit the bedrooms for each girl, not that Maggie needed her own bedroom right now, but she did need a changing table and a few other things that they didn’t have or bought for her when they were in West Virginia.

Mary was going to have to contact Jessie’s old school and get his school records sent to her. That was one thing she should have done when
they were still up in West Virginia.

A song comes over the radio that Jessie likes and she starts singing to it. It is Shake it Off by Taylor Smith.

“I stay out too late, got nothing in my brain
That's what people say, that's what people say
I go on too many dates, but I can't make them stay
At least that's what people say, that's what people say
But I keep cruising
Can't stop, won't stop moving
It's like I got this music in my mind
Saying it's gonna be alright
Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate
Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
I shake it off, I shake it off
Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break
And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake
Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
I shake it off, I shake it off”

Jessie was getting into the song and her voice was matching Taylor Swifts pitch.

The next thing they know, there is an explosion and the SUV flips over and slides along the road upside down. Jessie was using her body to protect her sister Maggie, while Mary and Charlie were trying to figure out what had happened. The SUV comes to a stop as gunfire erupts from the side of the road. Charlie gets hit several times as does Mary, the explosion that flipped them over had caused shrapnel to fly into
Mary’s leg.

Jessie’s body jerks as several bullets hit her back and legs as she protects Maggie with her body.

Jessie could hear sirens getting closer to their location and more gun fire eruption. She finally blacks out.

Officer Arnold Everton was on his way to work when he hears an explosion and gunfire directly ahead of him. He requests back-up to be sent to his location right away. As he gets closer to the scene he sees a black Ford SUV upside down in the middle of the road with smoke coming from the engine. It was being riddled with gunfire from the side of the road by four individuals. One of them turns his gun towards his car and riddles the front of it, blowing the engine and flattening the tires.

He turns the car sideways blocking the road and ducks as the shooter riddles the side of his car. He manages to get out of the car and uses it as a barrier fire to block the gunfire. He manages to fire off several shots at the shooter, who he kills the shooter and aims for the other shooter. Sirens could be heard coming towards his location from the other side of the upside-down SUV.

Two more police cruisers show up and they block the other side of the road as they get riddled by bullets. One of the officers gets hit in the side, while the other managed to get down in time. Officer Everton fires at the second shooter and he drops, Charles is shot by Officer Conrad, who makes his way to check on the other officer and finds him unconscious, officer Everton calls for a medical helicopter. Officer Conrad and he check the people inside the SUV. They couldn’t find a pulse on Charlie. When he checked Mary’s pulse it was barely there and she was unconscious. He could barely pick- up a pulse on the girl, she had used her body to protect the little girl who was crying.

The paramedics showed up and went to work to trying to stabilize the girl. Charlie was pronounced dead along with the men that shot them. Mary had taken a few bullets to her chest that had gone straight through Charlie’s Body, the paramedics try to stabilize her. Officer Knight, Mary, Jessie and Maggie are rushed to the hospital right away. They were in critical condition and it wasn’t known if they would make it through the night.

Joe’s and Mary’s Ranch:
Joe was out with his cousins and brothers herding cattle when his cellphone ring. He checks the number which he didn’t recognize.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Harthworth, this is Detective Booth with the Texas Highway Patrol. Your wife and children have been in a fire fight and have been taken to
Big Bend Regional Medical Center. they are in critical condition.”

Joe was already heading back towards the house while on the cellphone, he was pushing his horse hard as he raced back to the house. When he gets there, he doesn’t bother with unsaddling his horse as he hops off and races towards his truck.

“Thank you, Detective. I’m on my way right now.”

Joe hangs up as he races to the hospital, thirty minutes later, he pulls up at the hospital, hops out and runs inside. He stops at the reception desk, tells them who he is and asks where his wife and children are. He is taken to the emergency room and is told that the doctors were trying to save his wife and daughter. He is told that the gentleman who had been with them was DOA and his baby girl is fine. He is told by a nurse that his older daughter had used her body as a shield to protect her little sister. They weren’t sure if his teenage daughter was going to make it, she had already died four times, twice on the way to the hospital and twice on the operating table. His baby girl was with a nurse right now in pediatrics being looked after and that she was fine, her big sister had protected her. Hours go by as Joe paces back and forth waiting to hear from the head doctor working on his wife and Jessie, he comes out after four hours.

“Mr. Harthworth, you have one stubborn wife, she is a fighter and refuses to die. We’ve managed to stabilize her condition and repair some of the damage caused during the fire fight. There was some shrapnel from the engine in her left leg we had to remove. She is going to need physical therapy, but overall, she should make a complete recovery. We’re going to have to keep her in ICU for a few days before we can move her to her own room.

As for your daughter, they are still operating on her, she took several bullets to her back and legs. There are two bullets lodged in her spine, we might be able to remove the first one, but the second one is a little more difficult. We’ve sent for a specialist to see if they can remove it, but first we need to stabilize her. As it is, your daughter is going to be paralyzed from the waist down. We might be able to restore some use of her legs, but she’ll still need to use a wheel chair some of time. The second bullet is the one we are really worried about, it might cause her to lose control of her bowels and bladder, if we can get the bullet out in time, we might be able to stop the damage.”

“Do what you can for her Doctor. I have faith in you.”

Joe couldn’t believe that after all the good Jessie has done for her sister, that she might lose control of her bowels and bladder. He watches as
the doctor leaves and heads back in to see what he could do for Jessie.

Edited By: Dave

Joe and several family members watch Jessie and Mary as they slept in ICU. The specialist managed to remove the second bullet from Jessie’s spine, but felt that she was going to be crippled for the rest of her life, the first bullet damaged the nerves that allowed her to control her legs. Joe felt helpless watching his wife and their niece. Maggie had gone home with his sister. Joe had stayed to watch over Mary And Jessie.

The Captain of the State Police had shown up to a statement about who was responsible for the incident and why they had been targeted. Joe told him everything and who was responsible for the killing of his best friend, the State Police Officer and the injuries sustained by his wife and niece. Joe never left their side. They kept Mary in ICU for three days and on the fourth day moved her to a private room. Joe asked that when Jessie can be moved from ICU, that she be moved to her aunt’s room.

Mary wakes-up and finds her husband asleep in a chair next to her. She had all sorts of machines hooked-up to her. She was hurting all over and starts to cry. She had seen the light go out in Charlie’s eyes, she was going to miss her best friend.

“Joe!”

Joe wakes instantly and looks at Mary, he sees she is crying. He takes a tissue and cleans away the tears away from her cheek.

“Joe, how are the children?”

Joe looks at Mary with sadness in his eyes.

“Mary, I have good news and bad news. The good news is, Maggie is fine, she’s with my sister. She was protected by Jessie’s body. The bad news is, Jessie is still in a critical condition and she may never walk again. She used her body to protect her little sister from the gunfire, but she took two bullets in her spine. They had to call in a specialist to remove the second bullet, but it was the first bullet that damaged her nerves that allow her to feel her legs.”

“Where is she now Joe?”

“She’s in ICU, it’s still touch and go with her. She died four time, twice on the operating table.”

“My poor niece, she’s been through so much.” Mary squeezes her eyes trying to hold back the tears treating to leak out. Joe squeezes her
hand.

“Joe, he killed Charlie.”

Mary breaks down in tears, he has been her best friend for years.

“I know, I’m going to miss him, he was like a brother to me.”

“Did they get the people who did this to us?”

“Yes, two of them are dead and the other two are being watched by the Texas Rangers. Charles is still alive, but being watched by them. The
West Virginia State Police are working with the FBI and going after the club itself.”

“How can someone be so cruel to children? Adults I can see, but we’re talking about children.”

Mary cries as she holds Joe’s hand.

Joe holds his wife’s hand and let her cry. First, she loses her sister, then her best friend and now her niece won’t be able to walk again. Joe let
her get it out of her system. He was feeling the same way right now, angry and wanted to kill Charles himself for what he has done to his family.

Mary cries herself to sleep and Joe lets go her hand to go and check on Jessie. The nurses have gotten used to Joe being around as he goes to check on her, they had to put Jessie in a medically induce coma and was being watched.

Jessie’s doctor didn’t want to risk losing Jessie again, he had lost her twice on the operating table and didn’t want a repeat.

“Your aunt woke-up Jessie and expects you to pull through for her sweetheart, you’re special to her.”

Joe brushes some of Jessie’s hair aside.

“Also, you don’t want your little sister to grow up without her guardian angel, do you? You’re her guardian angel, Jessie, she’s going to need
you, I’m going to need you, to help keep an eye on her and protect her.” He leans down and places a kiss on her forehead.

“She’s going to pull through Mr. Harthworth, she’s young and from what I heard a strong kid.”

“I know, but she’s been through so much and her father is the one responsible for the condition she’s in. The bastard is still alive, but under
police watch.”

“Don’t worry, if he’s here under police custody, he’s not getting out.”

“I hope not.”

Joe looks down at Jessie and hopes she pulls through, he goes to get a cup of coffee looks out the windows as rain comes down and tears
leak from his eyes. The tears are for his niece and for his wife, they are also for his best friend, he was handling all the burial arrangements for Charlie till his family could show-up.

Three days go by and Jessie’s doctor wakes her from the coma. Jessie opens her eyes and tries to focus them, because everything looks so blurry to her. She turns her head to the side and sees her Uncle Joe standing next to her.

“Well, it looks like she’s going to be okay.”

Jessie turns her head to the other side and sees a doctor.

“Jessie, I’m going to check your vitals, okay?”

She nods her head.

Joe watches as Doctor Harrison checks her over. The doctor notes she is a little slow in her movements, but thinks it is the drugs they had
used to put Jessie in a coma.

“She is doing fine, but she is still waking up, give her some time before asking her any questions.”

“Alright, Doctor Harrison, thanks for taking care of Jessie.”

“Your welcome, Joe.”

The Doctor leaves the room. Joe looks down at Jessie, he could see she was still out of it some.

Jessie still felt like she was floating, she could see her uncle standing next to her, but her tongue didn’t want to respond, she concentrates a
little harder.

“Maggie?”

“She’s fine, Jessie, you protected her.” Joe sits down next to her bed.

“Where’s Aunt Mary?”

“She’s next to you, you two are sharing a room together.”

She turns her head to the other side and sees her aunt in the bed next to her.

She turns back to face her Uncle.

“I saw mom, she said it wasn’t my time yet.”

“Well, she was right, you have a little sister to help me and your aunt raise. She needs her big sister to help her and watch over her.”

“I can’t move my legs.”

“I know Jessie. One of the bullets you protected your sister from, damaged your nerves. The doctor said you might be able to get partial use
back.”

Tears stream down her cheeks as Joe holds her hand.

“It’s going to be fine Jessie, you have me and your aunt to help you.”

He squeezes her hand and grabs a few tissues to wipe her eyes, she falls asleep holding Joe’s hand.

Edited By: Dave

“MAGGIE!”
Jessie screams out in his sleep and tries to move in his hospital bed to protect Maggie, but she is unable to move. She fights against the restraints preventing her from reaching her sister. A nurse comes running in and Mary is woken-up from Jessie screaming and fighting against her restraints. They had to put them on because the first time she had a flashback to the day she got shot protecting her sister. She fell out of bed and tangle herself up in all the cords and hoses attached to her. On top of that she was unable to climb back in and she reopened some of her wounds.

Her doctor had to come in and re-closed the wounds she opened.

“JESSIE! Wake-up sweet heart. Maggie is home safe and sound.”

Nurse Lyall comes running in when her monitors detected Jessie having a nightmare.

Jessie wakes up when she hears her Aunt’s voice. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She thought she failed her little sister, that she didn’t protect her in time.

Nurse Lyall checks Jessie over carefully to make sure she didn’t reopen her wounds again like last time. She could see how frighten and scared Jessie was being bound like she was, but if they didn’t keep her like that while she slept. She would fall out of bed again and reopen her wounds on her back and legs.

The doctors discovered that she has some feeling below her waist. The damage they thought she sustain wasn’t too bad to her nerve endings. She may regain full use of her legs, but it was going to be a long path to recovery.

Nurse Lyall manages to give Jessie a sedative to put her back to sleep, but knew the poor child was going to have to talk to a doctor about her trauma.

“How is she Lyall?”

“She going to be alright, Mary. I gave her a sedative that should keep her out long enough for the two of you to get some sleep. Why don’t you
go back to sleep?”

Lyall comes over and checks Mary’s readings, before leaving Mary in the darken room.

Charles Room:
A young woman enters the room disguise as a nurse and walks over to the IV going into Charles right arm. She removes a needle from her pocket and sticks it into one of the nipples and inject the contents of the syringe into the saline drip.

“I hope you rot in hell you animal. You gang raped my sister and left me to die. You and your friends are going to pay for what you guys did to her and me.”

She makes her way out of the room without the police spotting her or anyone else. The next thing she hears as she opens the door to the stairs is a code blue and screams. She manages to make her way down the stairs and out the hospital door without being stopped. She ducks between some cars and takes off the scrubs and wig she had been wearing. She removes the make-up and tosses everything into a trash bag and dump the trash bag in the back of a pick-up truck.

She makes her way to a motorcycle she had hidden nearby and mounts it. Her short black hair tickles the back of her neck when she put her helmet on. She starts the motorcycle up and speeds off. Charles Harthworth could be marked off her list. She still needs to get to the president and vice president since they were the ones responsible for leading the gang rape and turning her from a him to a her. They were also the ones responsible for giving her the scar she has going down her right eye and the ones going across her belly. Charles had been the one to stick knives through her hand and twisted them. She was raped by him and a few others while her hands were held down by the knives to the wooden bench they had bent her over and took her in her ass forcefully.

She drives off as a smile appears on her face. She had five more to go, before her vengeance would be served.

Jessie’s and Mary’s hospital room:
Mary couldn’t sleep because she was to concern for Jessie right now. She wishes Joe was here, but he had to head back to the ranch to take care of a problem. Since he stayed the past few days all day long. Joe needed to go home and check on Maggie. She watches as Jessie slept.
Her poor niece has been through more than any pre-teen should ever have to go through. Sometimes she forgets how young Jessie really is because of how mature and responsible she acts.

Mary closes her eyes and say a little pray for her niece and for Charlie who she misses very much. She came really close to marrying Charlie, instead of Joe. However, Charlie was her best friend and will miss him dearly. She says a prayer for her little sister and mention how proud she should be of her daughter.

Mary finally manages to drift off to sleep.

The next time Mary opens her eyes she notices she has visitors. It was her sister-in-law and Maggie.

“It’s about time you woke-up, Mary. This little lady has been wanting to see her aunt.”

Debbie hands Maggie over to Mary.

“Well, good morning Maggie.”

Mary places a kiss on Maggie’s forehead.

Debbie looks over towards Jessie and notices she was still out.

“How is Jessie doing Mary?”

“Physically, her body is healing fine. Mentally, she’s not doing so good. I can’t say I blame her either. She is having nightmares of what
happened and not protecting Maggie.”

“Is the hospital going to get a doctor to help her with her PTSD?”

“I know someone that would be good for Jessie. She’s an old high school friend of mine that is good with children. I was going to have Joe call
her and see if she wouldn’t mind seeing Jessie.”

“I’ll tell the big lug of a brother of mine to do that. How are you holding up Mary?”

“To be honest with you. I’m worried that the son of bitch brother-in-law of mine is going to find some weasel of a lawyer to get a lighter
sentence.”

“Unless the lawyer wants to go to hell, someone made sure he wasn’t getting off. It’s been in the news all morning. Someone broke into the hospital last night and put an acid solution into his IV. The stuff ate him up from the inside out.”

“Oh my god. I wonder who would do such a thing.”

Mary couldn’t believe it. She wonders who did it and why, not that he didn’t deserve it, but that must have been a horrific way to die.

“I don’t know who did it, but you have to admit he had it coming for trying to kill you and the children. Plus, for killing Charlie.”

“I don’t deny that Debbie, but it’s just a horrific way to die. To be eaten from the inside out.”

“Well, I hope he rots in hell Mary. Here let me take Maggie over to her big sister so she can see that her guardian angel is still alive.”

Mary releases Maggie and watches as Debbie lays Maggie down next to Jessie.

Jessie wakes up when she feels someone put something near her. She turns her head and see her sweet little sister. Tears leak from her eyes
as she smiles at her sister. She thought she didn’t protect her in time.

Debbie frees Jessie's hands so she could hold her little sister.

Jessie wipes the tears away as she holds her sister in her arms.

“Hi Maggie.”

She holds her finger out to Maggie and watch as she holds onto it.

A smile appears on Maggie’s face as she giggles while holding her sisters finger.

More family members show up to check on Jessie and Mary. During the whole time they leave Maggie with her big sister.

Jessie was still recovering from her wounds. However, the doctor wasn’t ready to release her yet. She was still sharing the same room with her aunt. Her Aunt Mary was making progress with her recovery. Her doctor was thinking about releasing her in a few days. She was watching the news with her Aunt Mary yesterday afternoon, when the news caster spoke about the death of the President and Vice President of an MC under investigation in West Virginia were found dead.

Mary did more research and found the pictures that had been posted on the web by the killer with a warning. Saying if others wish to follow these people, then be prepared to die like them.

The story came with each pictured, explained how they died. The President of the MC that her father belonged to was beheaded traveling down the street near their club house. Pictures had been taken and posted on the web. The Vice President of the MC was founded hanging outside their club house. All their motorcycles had been crushed into itty bitty little squares. A small smile comes to Mary’s face. She couldn’t think of a better punishment for them.

Mary hobbles over towards her niece.

“How are you feeling, Jessie?”

Jessie looks up at her Aunt.

“I don’t know Aunt Mary. I’m worried that my father will come and try to kill us again.”

“You don’t have to worry about that happening Jessie. He’s dead and he won’t be coming back to hurt you or Maggie.”

“I hope so Aunt Mary, I really hope so.”

Jessie wipes the tears that had been leaking from his eyes.

Two Weeks Later:
A few weeks go by and Mary and Jessie are released to go home. Jessie is required to come in twice a week for physical therapy to help rebuild the strength in her legs. Her doctor wants her to use the crutches as much as she can to relearn how to walk. When it gets to be too much for her, she can use her wheel chair.

Jessie stands by the fence watching her Aunt Mary get back up in the saddle. Her Aunt has been wanting to ride her horse for the past few weeks. Charlie had wanted to be cremated and have his ashes placed in his daughters grave site. Charlie’s family handle all the details and All of them had attended the burial they had for him.

School was going to be starting in a few weeks and depending how she felt. Her aunt and uncle might delay enrolling her. She wanted to go, so she pleaded with them to let her go when school started. She got a chance to meet the other half of her family. She never had so many aunts, uncles or even cousins. Her little sister was spoiled a lot by everyone, just as she was. One of her older aunts was staying with them, till her Aunt Mary was doing better.

The child psychiatrist she was seeing for her nightmares and her Gender dysphoria. She was helping with the nightmares and allowing Jessie to find herself. The Doctor she had was good and was a friend of her Aunt Mary. The private school she was going to, didn’t mind her dressing and acting as a girl and expect it from her. Arrangements had been made for her to be able to use the girl’s locker room and bathroom.

Jessie waves as her Aunt Mary rides pass her. She could tell her Aunt was happy to be back in the saddle again. She couldn’t wait till she could use her legs completely, so she could go horseback riding with her aunt and uncle.

Betty saw her niece leaning against the fence watching her sister-in-law and her brother. She was happy that they had brought her and her little sister back here to the ranch. She felt sorry for what Jessie had to endure, she knows with time and with strong support from her family.

That Jessie will recover from what has happened to her.

“Your Aunt was born in the saddle.”

Betty walks up and stands next to Jessie.

“I wonder if I’ll have her talent in riding horses.”

Betty wraps her arm around Jessie.

“I think that whatever you decide to do, you’ll be very good at.”

She gives Jessie a gentle squeeze.

The two of them just stand there at the fence and watch as Joe and Mary ride around in the pasture. After an hour and a half. Mary dismounts
from her horse and had to readjust walking again.

Mary was feeling sore after she got down off her horse. She knew she was going to have to spend more time in the saddle again to get used to it. She spotted Jessie and her sister-in-law standing over at the fence watching her. It was nice seeing Jessie interact with other family members. When they came home from the hospital. Jessie was a little withdrawn from everyone, except her sister, her and Joe. Now, she was interacting more and not as jumpy she had been when she came home.

Mary walks over towards Betty and Jessie.

“So, how did I do?”

“I think you did good, Aunt Mary.”

Jessie was smiling at her Aunt.

“You still need some work. Your posture wasn’t right and you were riding kind of stiffly.”

“I think I like Jessie’s comment better.” Mary smiles at her niece.

“You asked. I think she’s going to follow in your footsteps.” Betty looks at Jessie and smile.

“Well, I’ll teach her everything she needs to know if she does.”

A Year Later:
Jessie couldn’t believe she had come in first place in all the events she had entered. She couldn’t believe it as she sat on top of her horse and looked at the crowd that had gather to watch the youths compete. Jessie and her partner had entered the calf wrangling competition and had the lowest time.

It had taken her almost half the year to get full use out of her legs again, but she had managed. Her Aunt had started teaching her how to ride. Once she had the basics down, her uncles took her out on horseback every day when she wasn’t in school. They taught her how to rope and ride even better. Her aunt taught her how to barrel race and how to ride a bucking horse.

Jessie had found she had a talent for riding. She wipes the tears out of her eyes as she rides over towards her Aunt, Uncle and little sister. For the first time in her life she was very happy with her life.