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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 11: First Ride

MEGAN SMILED AS she remembered how cute Ashley had looked as they arrived home last night. There was no way she could carry her daughter though, so she undid her harness and managed to prod her into walking upstairs. Once there she’d helped her sleepy daughter brush her teeth and put her pajamas on, certain she probably wouldn’t even remember it.

“Amber?” She heard, as she was finishing spraying the milking shed’s floor down.

“Yes Ashley?”

“I’m done with the birds, are you coming in soon?”

“Uh-huh, I just need to put a couple things away. Why don’t you go upstairs and take a shower, make sure you wash your hair, and then I’ll help you with it?”

Ashley pounced on her leg all of a sudden, said, “Thanks, and I love you,” before hurrying back to the house.

‘That was weird...’ she thought to herself. ‘The truth is she’s been amazing at handling this nightmare. I should never have stuck around as long as I did with that asshole... I had to be smart though.’ She paused, ‘And I really need to stop thinking of myself as Megan...’ She mentally slapped herself. It had been a rough session for her with Dr. Reynolds. There was a reason she was considered good, and a large part of it was how well she got to the root of the problems. For Amber it had to do as much with her guilt for sticking around as long as she could. Dr. Reynolds though had tempered that for her, ‘Normally I would one-hundred percent agree with you in most abuse cases, saying hind-sight says you should have... But this wasn’t an ordinary case, yours was a true monster.’

And that, more than anything she knew was the truth. Whoever said otherwise in the future she knew would be wrong... He would have found her too easily if she hadn’t played it smart. As it was, her only option had been to wait and bide her time. She just hoped she’d waited long enough and played her cards right! Amber hung up the hose, made one last check of the floor, and headed inside.

MOM... AMBER HAD told me to go ahead and get a shower, so that’s what I was heading upstairs to do. I wasn’t sure what we were doing today since she didn’t have to do much else. The ranch was sort of on autopilot on the extra tasks on the weekend. Taking care of the animals was a huge task, but it was the only task everyone had that day. That meant she would be free to hang out with me I hoped.

As I walked up the stairs I could see new signs hung on Mo... Ambers, Madison’s, and Marks doors that I hadn’t seen the night before. I walked up to each and saw that it said their names and that it was their room. Amber’s old friend Kaitlyn even had one on the front of one of the two mystery doors I had never opened. Gloria apparently had the other door.

‘That was smart... Maybe it won’t look like they went through so much trouble just for me. It’ll be less obvious that we were already planning on staying.’

I went back to my room, opened up the door and walked straight into the bathroom. The shower felt great, but I kind of wished I could take a bath sometime. First thing in the morning though it would be weird, ‘bath’s should be before bedtime’ I thought to myself. I hadn’t been awake enough for one in the last few days to even think about it.

I finished showering and walked out to my room with a towel wrapped around me. Mom had simply left the new clothes from yesterday in the bags next to my armoire. On impulse I started to dig through them and settled on this blindingly bright green sleeveless top that had seven large horizontal ruffles that were aligned going down the top. At the very top around the neckline were a lot of rhinestones that were attached and made it ‘blingy.’ In the bag next to it I found a pair of jeans that I had fallen in love with yesterday. They were dark at the top and washed out as they went down. But my favorite thing about them was the glitter!

I had decided after ten minutes in that store that it was my favorite place we had been. All of the clothes in there... They just cheered me up! I looked at myself in the mirror a moment later and said, “Yep, I’m definitely a girly girl!”

I heard a giggle from the doorway. “Yes, you most certainly are Princess.”

I walked over to... Amber and gave her a hug. Remembering that we were in my room, I closed the door and said, “I love you Mom. Can we go back to this store sometime?”

“Did you just ask me to... uh... go shopping!?!?”

I smiled, “Uh-huh.” I added, “but just there!”

She laughed and said, “Okay, maybe next week sometime. For now sit down over here so I can sort out this wet mop you call hair.” I stuck my tongue out at her and sat down on the chair in front of my vanity table. “Any preferences today?”

I shook my head, “You’re doing my hair.”

“Okay then, how about just a braid?”

I thought about that for a moment and nodded.

“Or maybe...” She thought to herself. I could see the wheels working in her head. The fact she now had a daughter seemed to be something that made her happy, but it also confused her sometimes. When they redid my room they added a plastic set of bins on top of the vanity table that she started digging through. “This’ll be cute,” I heard her say with glee quietly. She cut a long strip of the thin pink polka dotted ribbon and said, “Okay, let’s see if I’m smart enough to do this. I haven’t tried this in a really long time,” She told me as she peeked over my shoulder.

I felt her brush my hair back and then the pain of her pulling my hair really tight as she began the braid. At some point I felt her tying something before she began again. Ten minutes later I looked at the back of my head with her help and another mirror. It was awesome!

“How did you do that?” I asked her. She had braided the ribbon in my hair and you could see it going back and forth through the middle of the braid. It looked cute!

“It’s just a normal braid, you just add it in like a section of hair,” she said modestly.

I gave her a big hug, “You are the best Mommy ever!”

“Only in here though Princess,” she said, “remember that.”

I nodded.

With that the two of us walked downstairs to make our own breakfast since Consetta wasn’t there on most Saturdays at all. Apparently that still wasn’t necessary though, because Gloria was already at the griddle making pancakes. “Ready for breakfast?” She asked.

“Uh-huh, look at my hair!” I told her and turned so she could see.

“Oh my gosh, that’s adorable!” She said with a smile. “You’ll have to show me how you did that later,” she added to Amber.

“Sure, it’s easy,” she told her.

The three of us sat down at the dinner table and ate our breakfasts. “So does she want to do it?” Gloria asked Amber.

“Do what?” I asked, looking at both of them.

“I haven’t had a chance to ask yet.”

“Do what?” I asked again.

“Well, we could always not ask her?” Gloria suggested.

“Do what?!?” I asked.

They both smiled at me, “This is not pick on Princess Ashley day!” I told them and crossed my arms.

They both laughed hysterically at that and I felt like they somehow missed the point...

“Well, I think you’re ready to try riding outside of the corral,” Gloria said.

“Really?!?” I said excitedly.

“Uh-huh, and I thought maybe we could go ahead and go ride to a meadow that’s not too far from here and have a picnic lunch.” Mom said.

“That would be fun!” I squealed. “Can we please?!?” I begged.

“I don’t know...” Gloria said.

I gave her my most sugary sweet expression... At least I hoped that’s what it was...

“Alright.” She said.

“Yay!!!” I exclaimed.

“Well, if we’re going to do this you’re going to have to help me pack a picnic lunch,” Gloria told me.

“Okay!”

With that the three of us began packing some food into a bag that Gloria said she would put on her horse. I watched her pack sandwiches, potato chips, cookies, and water bottles. “Ashley, there are some blankets in the storage room that’s through the laundry room downstairs, would you please go get one of the big plaid ones?”

“Okay, I know exactly where they’re at!”

I was so excited to ride today, and the picnic with M... Amber and Aunt Gloria was going to be so neat!

STELLA LOOKED THROUGH the peephole on the door and sighed. For the last week she had been certain Megan would be coming home to their house. Megan knew no matter what that her parents would take her in, and she just couldn’t understand why she hadn’t turned to them... Or at least called them! Something about the whole conversation with Ray still had her suspicious. She and Tom had both discussed that if they didn’t hear from her by Monday they were going to call the cops and report her as a missing person.

She opened the door and was surprised to see a deliveryman with a large box. “Stella Dale?”

“Yes sir,” she said.

“Please sign here.” He said.

She finished signing the electronic tablet and she managed to drag the box into the kitchen.

“Who was that?” Tom asked, coming through the doorway.

“Just a delivery guy.”

“What did you order?”

“I didn’t order anything...” She said, “I thought you had.”

“Umm... No...” He said suspiciously and took the box cutter from her hand to open the box himself. Inside was a pretty gift basket with no card obviously there. “Who...?” He started to ask before noticing an envelope taped to the bottom of a big box of candy.

He pulled the envelope off and opened it, finding two sheets of paper.

Dear Mom and Dad,

By this point I figure you’re really freaked out by our disappearance. Please know that we are safe at the moment, but we can’t really contact you…

Tom and Stella both quickly read through the letter several times before Stella pointed at a number seemingly innocent at the bottom of the page. “Good girl,” Stella said aloud.

“I’m proud of her!” Tom said and gave her a hug.

“But this means...” Stella said.

“Yes, this means we can’t trust our phones, and we probably shouldn’t talk here until I use dad’s equipment...”

They moved to the other letter and saw it was from Tony,

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

I’m sorry that we won’t be able to see you in August for the camping trip like we planned. I was looking forward to you finally letting me put the tent up by myself like you promised. Please don’t be mad at Mom, she’s right I think in what we’re doing. Dad has been hitting both of us for a while now, and I’m afraid that if he finds us he’ll kill Mom. I think my other grandfather may keep me alive, but Mom... Well, he can’t find us.

Someday when I grow up at least I’ll come find you guys so you can see me. I’m sure you won’t recognize me to see me, but I’ll be the one that gives you a big hug and says I’m Tony.

Maybe we’ll be able to see each other sooner than that, but I doubt it. Dad holds grudges and will probably chase us until he dies. I sort of hope that’s soon, because it’s not fair that we have to hide out from him. We’re in a good safe place, please don’t try and find us because he’ll probably expect us to let you know where we’re at. I love you and miss you,

Love,

Tony

Stella and Tom had tears streaming down their faces as they took both letters to the sink. Tom lit the letters and envelope on fire and the two of them watched them burn while Tom held onto his wife from behind. When all that remained were ashes he stirred them up with a spoon and turned the faucet on, watching all that remained of a communication from their daughter - maybe their last, go down the drain.

‘Smart girl,’ Stella thought to herself. ‘She still remembered the codes that her grandfather taught her to use. Megan didn’t say where she was, but I’m pretty certain I know where she went. Her codes were enough to tell us we’re being bugged and in danger. We’ll leave the next move up to her, but I’ll call Gary and have dinner at his house Sunday. I can let him know to ask for some eyes on our place. The agency still owes us that much.’

The doorbell rang again, and she looked at Tom in fear.

“Grab my gun and yours,” she told him. “We both carry twenty-four, seven, from now on.” She breathed, “I’ll get the door for now.”

“Mrs. Dale?” She heard when she opened the door.

“Yes?”

“I’m Agent Taylor, I’m with the FBI. May I come in for a moment?”

‘What the hell?’ she asked herself.

“May I see your identification?” She hedged. Stella examined it for a moment and was pretty certain of its authenticity. “Come on in,” she said.

Her husband came into the room and set her purse down on the table behind her. “Thanks dear,” she said and picked it up, pretending to get some lipstick out of it and used it, while placing the purse on her lap. She gestured towards a seat on the sofa to the agent, “Please have a seat.”

“Thank you ma’am. Sir, I’m Agent Taylor, I’m with the FBI.”

“Tom Dale,” her husband said graciously. She could just see the outline of his gun through the unzipped sweat jacket he had put on.

“Mr. and Mrs. Dale, I’m here because it seems like your daughter and grandson have left her husband. We’re... concerned for their well being and were wondering if you have heard from her by chance.”

Stella put on her worried face very easily at the moment, “No, we haven’t heard from her either. I keep expecting her to show up here... She knows she can, but other than her husband Ray telling me she left a note saying she was leaving him, I don’t know anything more than you do.”

“Did he say what the note said?”

Stella shook her head, “Just that she was leaving him and taking Tony. He sounded pretty mad, but didn’t say anything else.”

“Did Megan ever tell you anything that made you think something was going on?”

“No, but she was good at hiding things.” Tom said.

“And she hasn’t contacted you at all?”

“No, and that has me worried,” Stella lied. She was very good at lying though, and it was obvious that the Agent bought it and was disappointed.

“Well, if she does, would you mind giving me or this Agent a call?”

She looked at the card and saw an Agent Kline listed and his info. ‘I’ll have Gary look into this guy...’

“Oh, and do you by chance have a recent photo of Tony and Stella?”

She nodded, that was probably what this entire visit was about. Stella was sure that two groups were probably listening into their conversations over the phone - knowing full well they hadn’t talked to her. Thankfully her daughter had been smart enough to get that message through the gift basket. Stella walked over to the shelf next to their big screen TV and lifted off the picture frame that held a picture from their last Christmas when they had stayed with her daughter. It was a great picture of Megan sitting on a stair above Tony and she had her arms around her son. ‘Classic picture,’ she thought to herself, ‘And if Megan remembered anything her grandfather and us taught her she shouldn’t look anything like this now.’

Stella pulled it out of the frame and handed him the picture.

Just as he started to walk towards the door she asked, “Why are you already looking for them? I know we haven’t reported her missing and I’m sure the family hasn’t reported her missing.”

He turned and looked at her suspiciously. “I thought you said you hadn’t had contact with her?”

“We haven’t, we figured she was being smart because of her family. We’re not stupid Agent Taylor, my wife and I figured out what her husband was into years ago. Stella and I made a decision long ago not to step in where we’re not asked though.” Tom said gravely. “We planned to give her until Monday before contacting you guys.” He added.

“So?” Stella asked.

“Sounds like you’ve got it figured out. We’re hoping we find her before Raimondo does. If he finds her first...” Agent Taylor turned and walked out the door. “Call us please if you hear from her.”

They closed the door behind the agent and Stella found herself hugging her husband. “She’s alive honey,” Tom said to her soothingly as she cried.

I LOOKED UP from Beauty as Amber and Aunt Gloria began mounting their own horses. Aunt Gloria’s preferred horse, Tink, was a beautiful palomino that seemed very eager to go for a ride. Mom was riding Bella, the appaloosa she seemed to like a lot after having ridden her the other day.

“Okay,” Gloria said when she was seated comfortably. “I want you to follow me, and Amber will follow behind you.”

“Okay,” I said, a little nervously. I patted Beauty on the side and said, “we’re ready.”

“Here we go then!” I gave Beauty a little kick and she began following Tink without me doing much of anything. I tugged to go left and right as the trail twisted, but I had a feeling I didn’t need to do that. She was a smart horse, and it was obvious to me that she was well trained.

After a half hour of a slow walking pace, Gloria held up for and motioned for me to come beside her. Amber came up beside me, putting me in the middle of the two. “What do you think Amber?”

“I think my little sister is a natural!” She said with a smile and a squeeze of my shoulder.

“Think she can handle a slow trot?” She asked her.

“Probably, her seat is right – I think she can handle it.”

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure you agreed with me.”

“Ashley, I want to see if you can go faster, if you want to of course...”

“Please!!!” I said and was joined by Beauty neighing too. “See, she agrees,” I added with a smile.

“Okay, I’m going to go faster and Beauty will probably follow me without too much work from you. If you start getting scared pull back on her reins to slow her down and Amber will stay with you.”

“Okay,” I said a bit nervously. With that I followed as she started slowly, but then led into a comfortable trot that had us moving over the wide trail much quicker. She pulled her horse to a stop after a while later at a small creek. I pulled alongside her as Bella took a drink and let Beauty do the same.

I smiled, “This is fun!!!”

Amber came from behind us and said, “You’re doing great Princess!”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Shall we keep moving?” Mom suggested, “I’m starting to feel ready for that sandwich!”

“Okay,” Gloria said.

The trail went back and forth over the creek a few times before it ran parallel and eventually opened up at a large pond.

“Wow!” I said as I looked across a twenty foot pool of water that was surrounded by tall grass a few feet from the edge and trees ten feet out from that. “Is this natural?” I asked.

“Yep, it’s a natural hot spring,” Gloria said.

“Can you like... Go swimming in it?” I asked.

She laughed at me, “Yes you can, but don’t stay in too long if you ever do. It’s cool enough to be safe, but it’s also hot enough you can get dehydrated if you stay in too long. That means for you little girl no more than ten minutes at a time!”

It was so clear you could see to the bottom and it was really pretty. Gloria came and picked me up off of Beauty and showed me where and how to picket the horses in the grassy area. I patted Beauty affectionately before joining both of them on the blanket. I noticed for the first time the backpack Amber had brought with her. “You want to go swimming first?” She asked me with a smile.

“I didn’t bring...” I started to say, but she passed me one of the one-piece suits, but no shorts.

“But what if someone sees me changing...?” I asked nervously, thinking more about the bulge I thought would be there.

“It’s just us here,” She said with a laugh, “but I’ll hold this blanket around you while you change.” Mom held up another blanket and I changed underneath it out of my panties, jeans, and top. She fussed with my suit for a moment before pulling her pants and shirt off, revealing her bikini already underneath. Gloria was pulling her own outfit off, also having hers already on.

“Come here Ashley, let’s get some sunscreen on you first!” She told me. After spraying and rubbing me liberally down with the smelly stuff I timidly touched the water with my toe. It really was hot!

Mom decided to show me by example and hopped into the hot spring herself; splashing me a little. She held her arms out to me inviting me to jump in too. ‘Here goes nothing!’ I said to myself and hopped in. The water was just on the verge of being too hot, but I adjusted quickly enough and swam around a little in the pool. At its’ deepest point that I could see it only looked to be five feet deep. I stayed near the edges though, those were only about three and a half feet deep.

“This is so cool!” I said floating on my back.

My ten minutes that Gloria said I could be in flew by quickly and I joined both of them on the blanket to eat our lunch.

AGENT KLINE PICKED up his cell phone. “Kline,” he said a little annoyed. He was actually taking his wife out to lunch for once.

“Sir, this is Agent Taylor.”

“Did you get by the Dale’s place yet?”

“Yes sir, and I scanned and e-mailed a photo to you that should be helpful.”

“Did they seem to have talked to her?” He was pretty sure she hadn’t contacted them, but Megan Franchino was a lot slipperier than he expected. “No, not from what I could tell. They mentioned they were going to be calling her in as a missing person on Monday if they hadn’t heard from her. Now that we’re on the case though, they obviously believe it’s taken care of as much as it can be.”

He breathed a moment into the phone and said, “We’ll start circulating the photos to people tomorrow. Thanks Agent Taylor,” he said and hung up.

As the best seafood alfredo dish he knew of was set in front of him he couldn’t help but think about the case. His wife knew that look and left him alone with his thoughts, ‘I can’t believe the rotten luck we had with the parking lot footage at the airport... A power surge?’ He snorted a bit, ‘We know she was there, but no matter how many times I look at that footage at the drop-off area I don’t see her and her son coming and going anywhere!’

“So, what do you want to do after lunch?” His wife asked him with a smile and he forced himself to remember it was the weekend and he needed a break.

GLORIA, AMBER, AND I ate our sandwiches and sunbathed on the blanket for a while. I was watching the white clouds float above me and picking out shapes in them. I had just found a duck when Gloria asked, “Well, one more dip before we go back?”

The three of us climbed back into the hot springs and I floated on my back once again. It felt so nice and relaxing I could have gone to sleep. Fear of drowning kept me nice and awake though!

“Come on Princess,” I heard as Gloria suddenly sat me upright and put me her shoulders.

“What?!?” I said a little startled.

She just laughed at me though and carried me over to the blanket. “Ashley, just put your pants and shirt over your swimsuit sweetie,” Mom said next to me.

I was all too happy to do it too, because I felt so naked on my lower body. Boys always had their chests uncovered, but girls basically went around in less than their panties to swim! I noticed Mom put away her new camera slyly a few minutes later, ‘When was she taking pictures of me?’

The three of us finished packing up the blanket and picnic supplies onto Gloria’s saddle before she picked me up and helped me onto Beauty. Mom took the camera out again and took another picture, “Hey, I’m onto you!” I told her.

She just stuck her tongue out at me. “Okay, you caught me.”

The three of us started back at a walk and eventually I thought we were trotting along faster than we had gone earlier. We came to the ranch much faster than we had left, so I had a feeling I was right. “Let’s get these ladies put away,” Gloria said as she helped me down in front of the barn. The three of us led the horses in and began taking care of their needs. I was able to give Beauty an apple that Gloria slipped me and I swore she was beginning to like me as much as I liked her.

When all of them were taken care of I found myself being pulled along by the hand to the house. “Ashley, let’s get you in the bath,” Mom insisted.

“It’s too early for a bath?” I tried to hedge.

“No it’s not, we’re all stinky and dusty from the ride.” Gloria piped in behind me.

“But...” I tried to whine some more, but I knew it would be of no use. “Does that mean I have to go to bed soon?” I asked, worriedly at my doorway.

“Of course not!” Mom told me with a giggle and gave me a hug. “But I do want you in your pajamas when we’re done,” she added.

“But...”

“But nothing, we’re going to enjoy being in pajamas, making dinner, cookies, and then we’re all going to go downstairs and watch a movie and eat those cookies!” She told me with a smile.

“You’re not going to make me go to bed early?” I asked.

“Nope, you can stay up as late as you want tonight.”

“Really?” I asked incredulously.

“Really.”

“Okay.” I said. As I turned to find my nightgown I saw her walk to her room, open her door, and then return back to my room in a flash. She went to the bathtub and started the water before adding bubble bath. “A bubble bath?” I asked.

“Uh-huh, and you are to stay in said bubble bath until I get back over here!”

“Okay...?” I said.

“Good girl,” Mom said and went to her own bedroom.

‘God, Mom acts weirder and weirder every day I think...’

I was about to close the door and pull my clothes off when she came right back in with a Rubbermaid tub. “Umm... I bought you some bath toys that I thought you might enjoy.”

I gave her a look like she was nuts.

“You don’t have to play with them...” Mom said, “but if you do it’s fine.”

“Okay,” I said.

She left the room again and I nearly locked the door until I remembered she wanted to wash my hair. I sighed, undressed, and waited for the rest of the tub to fill.

RAY LOOKED AT his cousin and said, “What?!?”

“The feds went to Megan’s parents house today.”

“What the hell for?” Ray asked.

“I don’t know, but if I had to guess it had to be Megan.”

Ray gritted his teeth, ‘This is the last thing we need... If the feds get hold of her we’re going to be in a world of hurt.’

“In a way it’s good news though Ray.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, they don’t know where she is obviously...”

“Where do you get that?” Ray asked.

“I figure if they did, and they knew everything, they wouldn’t have just paid a social call on her parents. I think they would have taken them into the same witness protection system to keep loose ends tied up.”

Ray thought about that for a moment and nodded, “The bad news is that means the feds probably figure the best way to bust us is through Megan.” He stood silently for a few minutes, “Any idea where they’re looking?”

“Not really, there have been a few inquiries in Dallas though.”

“What?” He asked.

“Well, they must have found something that led them to the same place as us.”

“They maybe figure out which car she bought?”

“That’s possible.”

“Keep your ears open, if you hear anymore about the car she was driving let me know. Maybe we can still find her before them. I’m definitely going to kill that bitch when I find her though, she’s way too much of a liability.”

“Done.”

I SAT IN the bathtub with the tub next to it for all of about two minutes before my curiosity got the best of me. I leaned over the tub’s edge to look inside the box. Mom had bought me a set of Disney Princess dolls that were apparently meant for the bathtub, some squirter toys that I remembered having boy versions until a year ago, and some Crayola bath markers.

I grabbed the markers first and decided to draw on the wall. I wasn’t a great artist... but you could usually tell what I was drawing at least. I didn’t really know what I was doing until I was done basically. I had drawn a bunch of flowers and a few birds around the walls. Not too high since I didn’t want to get out of the warm water, but still noticeable. I stared at the wall another moment and decided to write, “Hi Madison,” on the wall above them.

I didn’t even realize Mom had come in. “That’s just the type of thing an eight year old girl might think of doing!” She told me with a smile.

“Umm... Of course it is, because I’m eight!”

“Not yet!” She said with a grin.

The bubbles were starting to fade a bit, but there was enough I rearranged them to cover my lower body. “Ready for your hair?” she asked.

I nodded.

She used a cup thing from the same bin to get my hair wet first, and then she shampooed and conditioned it with some kids stuff. It smelled like strawberries and I really liked it. When she was done she said, “Okay Princess, let’s get you out of here!”

Mom was behaving kind of weird, but it was kind of nice too. She wrapped a blue bathrobe that had white stars around me and tied the sash. I gave her a funny look but decided not to say anything. “Sit down here,” Mom said and pointed towards the chair in front of my vanity.

I felt her comb through the hair and start using the blow dryer on it. Once she felt like it was dry enough she brushed it with the brush and it felt really good.

“Okay, what do you want to do with your hair?” Mom asked.

“I don’t know?” I said.

“Well, we need to get you to start caring, or you might end up in braided pigtails for the rest of your life!”

I giggled.

“Umm... I remember hearing some girls talk about another girl having a French Braid sometime? I think I remember that it looked pretty...”

Mom smiled at me, “Okay, French Braid it is!”

I watched as she dug through the hair stuff for a moment and cut some ribbon sections and set some hair bands on the table. Then she said, “Okay, would you like to have ribbons in it like earlier?”

I nodded, “That was pretty.”

Mom smiled at me, “Well then we’ll do it with this too.”

I watched her work as much as I could in the mirror as she tugged and pulled on my hair, tied sections off, and redid things occasionally. She acted like she had been doing this my whole life though, and before I knew it she said, “Ta-da!”

“I can’t really see the back,” I said as I turned a bunch of ways trying to see.

“Here,” she said and handed me a hand mirror. I turned around and used it to see the back on in the bigger mirror.

“Wow!” I said. “It’s really pretty!”

I put down the mirror and gave her a hug. “I love you Mommy,” I said quietly.

“I love you too.” She said and it looked like her eyes were a little teary. It was then that I noticed she was wearing a robe over her pajamas. The top was a blue spaghetti strap shirt with white polka dots and some ruffles along the bottom of it. Her bottoms were what I had learned were called capris that fit loosely and matched. She looked comfy, and definitely younger than her normal nightgowns she wore.

“Ready for your pajamas?” She asked me.

I nodded and she helped me pick out a t-shirt and short set that had Rapunzel on it. “If I had my real hair color I could pretend to be Rapunzel,” I said aloud as I got dressed.

Mom laughed, “Yes you could, but trust me, you wouldn’t want hair that long!”

“Could we...”

“What?”

“Could we maybe watch Tangled tonight?”

“Whatever her royal highness would like to watch I’m sure will be fine...” Mom paused and I was sure she was thinking back to the last time we’d tried to watch it, “Plus, we never did actually ever finish it, did we...?”

“No, Dad ruined it like everything else.”

Mom sighed and gave me a big hug. “I won’t let him ruin anything else from here on out!”
I hugged her back but didn’t say anything. I had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be able to keep that promise.

“Okay, so are you hungry yet?”

“Uh-huh, what’s for dinner?”

“Well, how about spaghetti and meatballs?” She asked.

“When did you make that?” I asked with my eyes wide. That was one of my favorite meals.

“Well, we have to go downstairs and make it now. But, I’m guessing with a helper like you, we’ll be able to get it done in no time!”

“Okay,” I said.

The two of us headed downstairs and I was surprised to not see Gloria. “Where’s Aunt Gloria?”

“She went to the store for a few things, she’s going to be back for dinner.”

“Oh, okay.”

MEGAN WATCHED AS her daughter rolled the mixture up into balls and placed them on the pan. She was actually doing a pretty good job of keeping uniform using a measuring cup to measure them out. She was sure that she could have done it herself twice as fast, but it was good for Ashley to learn how to cook.

Megan hated her husband to the core, but she had loved his mom a whole lot. Francesca Franchino had been a moderating influence on her husband and her son while she had been alive. She had also been an amazing Italian cook. Megan had spent untold hours in the kitchen with her over the years she was still alive learning the family recipes. The recipe book was actually one of the few things back home that tore her apart to leave. Luckily for her though, she had memorized most of them.

She lucked out that Consetta had a pasta roller and began making the dough and pasta completely from scratch. The first time she had ever had fresh pasta from Francesca she thought she had died and gone to Heaven! It was easy to do too, just a bit more time consuming than opening a bag up and throwing it in the pot. Megan wasn’t opposed to doing that a lot of the times, but we wanted tonight to be special.

This meal was Ashley’s favorite, but she was also doing it for Gloria too. She had taken them in without a single complaint... even insisting they stay for a couple years. Megan knew there was a lot of safety in staying with her and appreciated that beyond anything she could have said. Dinner was to be an attempt at an inadequate thank you. Another day this week she would have to make some cannoli as well. ‘Tuesday on Ashley’s ‘Birthday’ would be a good day for it,’ she thought

“I’m done sis,” Ashley said.

A pain went through her figurative heart at that moment.

“Okay, let me put them in the oven. You watch the timer and let me know when it gets half-way.” She told Ashley. “Do you think you can stir the sauce, carefully?”

Before she had finished the sentence she watched Ashley push a step stool in front of the stove and she started stirring. She worriedly watched for a moment, but she was careful and stirred thoroughly.

She looked at the ribbon in her hair and smiled. Megan knew she was most definitely overdoing the little girl treatment, but it was cathartic for her, and Ashley didn’t seem to mind. The worst part about the way they were hiding was that it meant she wasn’t able to have Ashley call her ‘Mommy’ or ‘Mom’ in public. Even just downstairs in the kitchen Ashley had said ‘sis’ to keep in character. She sighed. Her daughter was doing much better at keeping up the act than she was.

She wished her grandfather could be here to meet his great-granddaughter actually. Megan didn’t officially know what her grandfather had done his entire career, but she knew it was work for a three-letter government agency. Her father had grown up moving from place to place and being taught to be suspicious of everyone. He had spent his own ten-year stint doing things he wasn’t allowed to talk about and dragged her along to a couple of countries with her mother. One of those was Italy and she’d learned fluent Italian while she lived there... That was how she’d attracted Ray in the beginning.

Her dad had finally had enough of the work when she was in her freshman year of high school. They had made a final move to Colorado when she was twelve and the commute as needed to other places became too much she thought. Growing up he’d taught her special codes that would be innocuous to anyone else, but would be clear as day to either of her parents.

Megan had finished rolling out and cutting the pasta and made a makeshift drying rack when Ashley said, “They’re half-way!”

“Okay, let me through here,” she said. She found an oven mitt and turned the two trays of meatballs around. It was a huge batch for three people, but she had never made a small one before. With everyone around she was sure someone would eat it too!

Megan looked at her daughter and chose that moment to stir the sauce herself and taste it. ‘A little more salt...’ she thought and added it.

Her parents should have gotten the package today she figured, and she hoped that the letter was un-intercepted. While she’d spoken in code about the important things, there were a few details there that wouldn’t be good to have out. She’d let her parents know in the codes that she was safe, it was her writing freely of her own will, not to tell Feds, not to try and reverse contact, she was disguised, and which state she was in. At some point she needed to teach Ashley a similar system, although she’d always just hoped her parents were being paranoid!

The buzzer went off on the kitchen timer and she pulled the meatballs out. The sauce seemed done too, so all they were doing was waiting for the pasta to cook. Just at that moment Gloria walked in, “Am I too late?” She asked.

“Nope! We’re just getting ready to put the pasta in. It’ll be done in about 2-3 minutes.”

“Great! It smells wonderful!” She said.

She smiled and said, “Thanks!”

GLORIA COULDN’T BELIEVE how good the food she was eating tasted. Whoever taught Megan to cook was phenomenal! When she’d suggested she would cook tonight she had said yes, simply because she was sure Megan felt like she owed her something. That was completely silly to her as far as she was concerned though. Megan was an adopted family member to her - and you help family.

Her dad taught her that from a small child, and she could remember many times when a cousin that was having trouble at school, or home, would come out to the ranch to stay for a while. Often times they would arrive with attitudes, but her dad had this amazing way of working with people... In the end they just felt like they wanted to please him. The few times people received the look of disappointments from him shook them to the core. Her husband had been much the same until he passed away. She knew without a doubt that they both would be proud of her, and she was proud of that.

Gloria watched Ashley hungrily eat the spaghetti like she was possessed. It was the most she’d seen the beautiful little girl eat since they’d arrived. She thought she knew what it was too, this was comfort food for her. Much like steaks, tamales, and green chile were for her! Tomorrow night she planned to pull out some of the beef from a cow they’d slaughtered last month for a barbecue of steaks to welcome her niece and kids.

‘I just hope Kaitlyn accepts all of this…’

I CONSIDERED ASKING for seconds but there was no room to put it. Instead I stood up and went over to mom and hugged her tight. “Thank you.”

“Why? You cooked too?”

I stared at her, “You know why, you made my favorite dinner.”

“You’re welcome Princess.”

With that Mom started cleaning up and Gloria insisted on helping. I watched mostly as the big batch of sauce was poured into several smaller storage containers. “Would you mind if we used this sauce on Monday for lunch?” Gloria asked.

“Not at all, if you want I’ll make pasta tomorrow night and Consetta can throw it in real quick to cook it. We should have enough meatballs already too.”

With that I was afraid my dreams of having spaghetti for lunch the next day were dashed. Mom was good at mind reading though because she said, “And there should still be more than enough you can have it for lunch tomorrow too,” to me. That earned her another great big hug.

“I love your hair Ashley,” Gloria said as I helped put dishes in the dishwasher.

“Thanks!” I said, and pointed to Mom, “She did it!”

Gloria laughed at that and I joined in. The mess wasn’t too insurmountable, so by seven-thirty we had all of it cleaned up and put away. “So what do you two ladies have planned for the rest of the night?” She asked, “Obviously it’s pajama night,” she added with a wink.

“Well, the princess here wants to watch Tangled since she hasn’t seen all of it before. Then I figured we might watch something else if she’s still awake - I promised her there was no bedtime tonight.”

“Maybe I’ll come join you in a bit, I’ve only seen it once and I liked it.”

I smiled and gave a hug to her, “Okay.”

“Oh, and one other thing,” Mom looked at me, “Someone’s nails need redone.”

I blushed, “Sorry...”

She held her own up, “I was talking about mine, but we’ll do yours too,” with a wink too. “Why don’t you go use the potty and get the movie started and I’ll be right down with some nail polish,” she told me.

‘What’s with telling me to use the ‘potty’ like I’m two?!?’ I grumbled to myself. ‘Oh well...’

“Okay,” was what came out of my mouth though.

I did as instructed and found the DVD in her shelves. I still couldn’t believe just how many DVDs Gloria had. She even took the time to organize them by category. This one was in a Disney section of its own and there was another children and family section next to that. I saw categories for action, sci-fi, comedy, etc. and each section had a lot of titles. After turning everything on, and putting the DVD into the player, I sat down on the couch and waited for Mom. She didn’t take long though and began taking the nail polish off her fingers and then mine.

“Your toes still look pretty, let’s leave those alone,” she insisted to me. I hated that the pretty flowers on my fingernails were gone, but over the last few days I had managed to chip every nail so badly she didn’t think she could just touch it up. As bad as mine were though, hers were a thousand times worse!

I sat still as the movie played and she put the first coat on. While both of our first coats were drying I leaned into Mom and felt comfortable. By the end of the movie she had put the topcoats on and I was feeling tired. ‘I am not going to bed yet!!!’ I yelled at myself.

“What do you want to watch now?” She asked me.

I had just put Tangled back on the shelf and noticed TinkerBell right next to it. I picked it up and showed it to her and she nodded. Gloria came down a few minutes into the second movie and joined us on the couch. I actually stayed up for the entire movie and enjoyed ice cream when Gloria offered it.

“What do you want to do now Ash?” Mom asked.

I wanted to stay up later, but I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. Being carried up to bed was an okay thing every now and then, but I really didn’t want to do it again this week. “Bed.” I said simply.

“Okay,” Mom said and the three of us turned off the home theater equipment and went upstairs.

That night Mom decided to tell me a story like Gloria had the other night. This time though it was a typical fairytale, Beauty and the Beast from a Disney Book she found on the shelf.

“Once upon a time,” Mom read to me with a smile after she had tucked me in. Though I knew the story well she had my attention for almost all of it. At some point though I fell asleep and dreamed of being in my own castle with dancing teacups and a massive library.

Chapter 12: Old Friends

THE NEXT MORNING I found myself woken up early. “Isn’t Sunday for sleeping in?” I whined. Mom had just laughed though, pushed me to get dressed, and out the door to feed the birds. As soon as the morning chores were done Mom walked with me upstairs.

“Okay, first thing you need to do is take a shower. Go ahead and use a shower cap on your hair though - I think it still looks fine and I don’t want to redo it yet.”

I nodded, ‘It still looks pretty.’

“Then put on this dress,” she told me, pointing to a cute flowery sundress we had picked up.

“Okay,” I sleepily responded.

As I took the shower I woke up a bit more and wondered why we were up earlier. It had actually been just barely past dark this morning and I’d needed the lights they had around the pens to even be able to see. George didn’t even attack me that morning - he seemed to think it was too early for such foolishness too.

I turned the shower off and made sure that my ‘Hi Madison’ still looked good before wrapping myself in a towel and going out to my room. ‘This is the last morning I won’t have to fight for the shower...’ I thought a little glumly. Really even if I was my real age I would have worried about Madison, but being the kid five years younger than her I figured that she would want nothing to do with me. ‘That’s the way boys are at least...’

The dress Mom had picked out was by far the dressiest dress I’d worn yet. I held it up by the two, inch-wide straps. There was a white base to the dress, but it was covered with watercolor style flowers in a shade of blue, a shade of aqua, and black. The many blue flowers almost made the dress seem blue at places. At the bottom there were some weird gathers to the skirt so that it became tiered with three layers of skirt at the bottom that ruffled a bit. I untied the ribbon that made a bow at the back, unzipped it, and then pulled over my head.

I fought for several minutes to try and get the zipper up, but I just couldn’t do it!!! I finally had enough and went across the hall, opening Mom’s bedroom door. She was putting a pair of earrings in her ears, “Mommy, can you help me?” I said and turned around to show her the zipper.

“The zipper monster got you, huh?” She asked me. I could tell there was a smile on her face without even looking at her.

“Something like that.”

I felt her reach down, pull the fabric together and zip up the dress. She messed around at the top for a moment and then I felt her hands tug on the ribbon.

“I never would have gotten the bow like that,” I told her, as I turned sideways to see the bow that she tied in back.

“You will someday with practice,” she told me with a smile. “Turn back around for a moment,” she told me. I felt her tug a little on my hair.

“What are you doing?”

“Well your hair mostly stayed perfectly last night, but the bow in the back I tied at the end was lopsided.” She paused for a moment, “It was bugging me.”

I gave her a hug when she was done, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Why are we dressed up?” I asked her.

“Church,” was her answer.

“But we usually do mass on Saturdays…”

“We’re going to Gloria’s church.”

“Oh,” I said, “what kind of church is it?”

“Non-denominational.”

“What’s that?”

Mom proceeded to try and explain Gloria’s church, “I went there with her each week when I was here that summer. She kind of expects it,” she added.

“Oh.”

“Besides, I didn’t grow up Catholic, I became one when your Dad asked me to marry him.”

“I didn’t know that,” I told her honestly.

The two of us talked a bit more while she finished getting ready. “You haven’t put your shoes on yet!” Mom said with mock horror when she was done.”

“I didn’t know which ones I was supposed to wear,” I told her honestly.

While I didn’t have a full shoe collection yet, there were quite a few choices. In the end I ended up in a pair of sandals that buckled at the back with a little bit of Velcro and grabbed onto my toes in the front with some white bands that had leather flowers that I just kind of wanted to sit and play with.

Gloria had breakfast waiting for us downstairs when we arrived. “Good morning Princess,” she told me with a hug. “I love that dress!”

“Thanks!” I said. I felt in that moment like I should turn around and let her see the back too, so I went in a circle so she could see the whole thing.

“She is such a girl,” Mom giggled.

“Of course!” I said.

As I approached the table Mom said, “Don’t forget to smooth your dress underneath you!”

I sat carefully and began eating the bacon, eggs, and toast that Gloria had made that morning. All throughout the meal Mom and Gloria kept up a running conversation, but I just ate quietly trying to make sure I didn’t get food on my dress. After I finished Gloria cleared the dishes.

“You ready?” She asked us.

“I guess,” I said. I was nervous. Church was something that was obligatory back home with our family, but I had never liked the services. We attended a church that did the whole mass in Italian each week, which meant that while I understood a lot of it... I would have moments of not having a clue. I also seemed to always run into trouble with the other kids. If they were related to us they left me alone, but the other kids didn’t feel any sense of fear from me. I guess if I’d known that I had the family behind me I might have been able to be a little scarier. Nobody ever explained that to me though for some reason.

Mom grabbed her purse where she had left it on the counter and we all walked out to Gloria’s car. I was about to climb in the seat, but Gloria said, “Let me help you sweetie, that way we avoid messing up that pretty dress of yours.”

I smiled, “Okay.”

Once again demonstrating the strength that comes from working on a ranch she picked me up and sat me in the seat carefully. I managed to smooth my dress out as she did so and then she buckled me in. The harness still crushed the dress, but it wasn’t as bad as if I had tried to get in on my own. I kicked my feet back and forth lightly as Gloria drove for about twenty minutes. She pulled into a parking lot that was outside a metal building and Mom got out to help me out of the seat. Each of them took a hand as we went inside.

“Okay Ashley, we’re going to drop you off at your Sunday School room and they’ll bring you to the main hall afterwards.”

“Umm... Okay,” I said.

I was nervous as Gloria walked me into the room. “Hi Susan,” she said to the lady who apparently was teaching the class. I looked around and saw fifteen kids who looked to be from five to eight or so. “This is my niece Ashley.”

“Hi,” I said.

“It’s good to meet you!” She said happily to me and shook my hand. “That’s a very pretty dress you have on!”

“Thank you.” I said shyly.

“Why don’t you join Emma and Sarah over there,” she said pointing to two girls who looked to be closer to my new age.

“Okay,” I said.

I walked over to the two girls sitting in metal folding chairs and facing the front of the room.

“Hi, I’m Ashley,” I said nervously.

“I’m Emma!” A blonde girl four or five inches taller than me said first.

“And I’m Sarah,” the other girl with brown hair said. She was also an inch taller than me.

“So did you move here or something?” Emma asked.

“We’re staying with my aunt for a few weeks,” I kept to actual story and hoped I wasn’t going to have confession later to have to tell the priest.

“Who all are we?” Sarah asked.

“Oh, my older sister and I.”

“How old is your sister?” She asked me.

I smiled, “Old! She’s twenty-three.”

“Wow, that is old. How old are you?” Emma asked.

“Seven, I’ll be eight on Tuesday!”

“That’s so cool! We’re both eight too!” Sarah said.

The three of us were soon talking about everything they could think to ask me until Ms. Susan, as everyone called her, went to the front of the room. She had us pray to begin with and then introduced me. I blushed bright red when she asked me to stand, but that was the only time I was picked out of the class. The class sang a few songs that I didn’t know, but she held up a poster with the words so I was able to figure it out on the second verse of each song. After a while Ms. Susan told us a bible story about Jesus and Lazarus that day. She did a really great job with the story and I was enthralled the whole time.

When she was done we played a couple of games, sang another song, and then it was already time to go back to meet my Mom and Aunt. They were waiting in the lobby to go into the chapel. I took Mom’s hand and we sat in a pew mid-way from the front. The pastor, as I learned he was called in this church, began the service, there was some singing, some more scripture, some more singing, and before I knew it that was over too. I had understood every word of the language too for once!

We were walking out and I heard, “Mom, come meet the new girl!”

I blushed and knew they were referring to me. I turned around and saw Emma and a lady who I assumed had to be her mom. “Mom this is Ashley!” She said, “My new friend from Sunday School.”

“Pleased to meet you,” she said to me.

“Nice to meet you too.” I paused and said, “Umm... This is my big sister Amber, and I’m guessing you know my Aunt?”

“Yes I do,” she said. “Amber, have we met before?”

I froze, wondering if they had.

“This is the first time I’ve been here before, so I doubt it?” She said in response.

“Must just be a family resemblance thing I guess then.” She turned to Gloria, “Your niece and my daughter seem to have hit it off, maybe we could get them together sometime this next week?”

“I bet we could work something out,” she agreed. “Amber brought her out here while she does an internship with me. It lets her parents get a break from her too.”

I made it look like I was slightly hurt by that, but didn’t say anything.

“Well that’s neat, so she’ll be here a few weeks?”

“Two more.” Mom said.

“Okay then, we’ll make sure they get together. It’ll be good for Ashley to have someone her age to play with I’m guessing!”

I spent the next few minutes talking with Emma since the adults ignored us. She was excited when she found out I got to ride horses out there. I told her about the chickens I had to feed, as well as mean George the turkey. Before long we were being tugged away to go home and eat lunch at our houses.

MEGAN WATCHED AS Gloria picked her daughter up again to put her into the car seat. She was still little enough that most adults could have done that. Being as short as Megan was though she didn’t get that joy. Since about age five it had been too much for Megan to pick up her child. It really was one of the few things that she hated about being so short.

Seeing Ashley with her new friend had made her happy. She worried about how she would end up socializing with girls that were her ‘own age.’ Pretending to be a younger kid than she was had to be tough on her, but she couldn’t tell at all. She just wished she could proudly stand up and say that Ashley was her beautiful daughter! Back at the ranch she heated up leftovers for the three of them and enjoyed seeing Ashley happy. Once clean up was done she sent Ashley to go play and enjoy the afternoon. She in the meantime decided to go out for a ride.

Bella seemed to be bonding to her quickly, and she had a fun ride going through the countryside. She felt a bit guilty about not bringing Ashley with her, but she needed some time to think. ‘I hope Kaitlyn takes this okay...’ she thought for the hundredth time that day. ‘If we have to I’ll take Ashley and pack up the car tonight... We can go find another place to stay.’

Since middle school the two of them had been the best of friends. Neither went hardly anywhere without the other, and they had both planned out their weddings by the age of thirteen and having each other be the others maid of honor. Up through when they were sixteen, and they’d spent an amazing summer up here, she was certain that nothing could break their friendship apart.

The truth was that it only took one boy, Allen, to do that.

He was a new student to their school their junior year, and both immediately had a crush on him. Allen was muscular, but not too heavy or jock like. One day at school Allen asked Kaitlyn out and she agreed. Megan had been devastated, but happy for her friend at the same time. The two of them had a cry session one night and were right back to being best friends for a few months. That was until Megan noticed the bruises on Kaitlyn one day when they were trying on clothes in a store. She tried to shrug it off, but Megan had been adamant to figure out who it was.

When she told her it was Allen she went off the handle and told her to dump him! At that point she went right back off on Megan and said she was just jealous that he’d picked her instead of Megan...

And World War III began essentially. The two became catty towards each other anytime they were in the same room. Even on graduation day, a day when everyone hugs everyone else, she and Kaitlyn had actively avoided each other.

It wasn’t until after her sophomore year in college that the two of them ran into each other at a friends wedding that they’d finally talked. After an hour of talking, most of the hurts and such seemed to heal, especially as Kaitlyn admitted that Megan was right about Allen. They had dated up until the first break from college when she learned Allen had been cheating on her. The two of them had spent quite a bit of time together that summer, the last time she returned home on her own, and she told Kaitlyn about her new boyfriend Raimondo. They’d giggled endlessly about how romantic it was that she’d found her Italian boy-toy...

Megan did not miss the irony that she saw the abusive nature of the boy that broke up their friendship, but missed it on the monster she married. A look at her watch and she realized she needed to head back if she was going to get a shower before dealing with the coming evening. Kaitlyn was supposed to get there about five...

I WAS PLAYING downstairs after Mom sent me off. I’d brought Kaitlyn, Saige, and Kristin down with some of their other outfits. We were having a tea party at a small kids table that I’d found in the room. Well, I was trying to have a tea party. I knew little girls played tea parties... But I didn’t really know how. I had found a plastic tea set that I had set out and had all of my dolls setup around the corner. There had even been a toy highchair that I was able to fit Kristin into.

I was just making it up as I went along though.

There was a camera flash and I looked up to see a smiling mom. I jumped up and hugged her, “Where did you go?” I had gone looking for her to ask her how you play like this but couldn’t find her.

“I went for a ride to clear my head,” was all she said.

“Oh.”

“Did you need me?” She asked.

“Well, I was going to ask how you play this,” I said with a blush.

“It seemed to me you were having a great tea party without me!”

I blushed even more, “I don’t really know what I’m doing though...” I admitted.

Mom smiled at me, “Okay, tea party lesson number one...” She proceeded to teach me how to properly drink tea like a lady and we had fun playing together for a while. She looked at her watch after a while and sighed, “We need to get all of this put up sweetie, Kaitlyn will be here with Madison and Mark soon.”

“Okay,” I said and the two of us cleaned up everything I had brought out. Mom grabbed Kristin and her bag for me while I carried all of Kaitlyn (the doll) and Saige’s stuff upstairs with them in their tote.

“We’re going to have major problems seeing who you’re talking about this week!” Mom told me with a smile as I put my dolls back away.

I gave her a big hug, “Thank you for playing with me.”

“You’re very welcome Ashley.”

After a while she said, “Come on, let’s go sit in Gloria’s office and wait for Kaitlyn.”

STELLA WATCHED THE driveway approach as her husband parked the car at Gary’s. Gary Lancer was an old friend of Tom’s dad’s, coming into the agency at the middle of his dad’s career. He’d become like a favorite uncle of hers over the years and had doted on Megan when she was little.

“Hi Stella!” He said as he opened the door. The two of them hugged and he shook Tom’s hand. “Tom!” They walked in and repeated the hugs with Annette, Gary’s wife.

“Glad you guys made it, I just put the steaks on!” Gary said with a smile.

Stella watched Tom and Gary go out to the grill to hangout and sat down at the table to talk to Annette. The topic of Megan came up at one point, but she shifted to something else in a hurry. Gary was the one they needed to talk to and Annette definitely wasn’t cleared for some of their conversation.

She bided her time for the moment, hoping to get a chance for she, Tom, and Gary to talk after dinner. Annette would inevitably tell Stella she didn’t want help with the dishes, she was always forceful about it, and that would be a good thing that evening.

MOM AND I sat in Gloria’s office as we heard the front doors open and Gloria said, “I’ve moved your room Madison so I could make it a little more mature for you, you’re in Mark’s old room now.” I could hear running footsteps as she pounded upstairs in glee to see what her aunt had done. I hoped she liked the posters of the bands that Gloria had put up for her!

“Kaitlyn come to my office first, I need to talk to you about something,” she said nearing the door.

She opened the door and a lady that looked to be a little bit older than Mom normally looked came in. “Oh, hi, I didn’t realize you had someone in here already Aunt Gloria...”

Gloria closed the door and waited for the fireworks to start it seemed. “Hi Kaitlyn,” Mom said simply.

I watched her eyes seem to compute what she saw for several moments. “Megan?” She asked tentatively.

“Yes,” Mom said simply and nodded.

“It’s great to see you!!!” Kaitlyn said and hugged Mom.

At that I watched my mom burst into tears the like I had never seen. Kaitlyn actually held onto mom and soothed her for a long while, “What’s going on Gloria?”

“I’ll let her tell you all of it Kaitlyn, but they ran away from her husband... And are hiding from him.”

“What?” She asked and then looked at me with her eyes narrowing a bit. I thought maybe she would get mad, but she just said, “Sounds like quite a story.”

Mom sniffled at that point and managed to get her voice back. “It is that.”

Gloria handed my mom a tissue and she took a few moments to get herself under control. “Sorry abut that... I don’t know why it suddenly came out.”

“Umm... Duh!” Kaitlyn said. “You’re running away from your husband? That could be why!” She had a small smile in her face and I suddenly realized they had been really good friends at one point, because Mom smiled back.

She gave Mom another squeeze and came over to me, “I’m guessing this is part of the story... but I’m guessing you’re not going by Tony anymore?”

I nervously said, “No... Ashley.”

“Well come here and give me a hug, I haven’t seen you but once before!”

I went over and hugged her and she said, “So, what’s going on...?”

THEY HAD JUST finished eating a fantastic early evening dinner. Gary was the best person she knew at grilling steaks, and his wife Annette cooked everything else about as well. The two of them said they were retiring to the office and Annette shooed her off with them too.

Once inside the door of the home office Gary shut the door and said, “We can talk in here.” He sat down in a chair opposite a couch in the large room. “What’s going on?”

Stella filled Gary in with all of the details she knew, including where she figured her daughter was hiding out. “Damn, I always knew that little girl was smart!” Gary said with a smile.

“Thank God for that... When I saw her letter I wanted to go find him immediately and beat the shit out of him myself. I didn’t realize that things had deteriorated so bad,” Tom said sadly.

“I wondered...” Stella said.

Gary nodded, “Well, I told you what I thought of him when I met him at the wedding. Totally in love though, couldn’t have told Megan any different unless you wanted to drive her away.”

They both nodded.

“So what is it you’re looking for?”

“Well... First of all can you keep an eye on her? See if she is where we think she is? I’m pretty sure she ran to Kaitlyn’s aunt... It’s the only place in New Mexico I can think of she’d go to. I’m pretty sure she never talked about Kaitlyn or her time in New Mexico to Ray either. It was kind of opposite of the things he expected from her.”

Gary nodded, “I’ll do that. I’ll also see if I can get someone to keep a general eye out for anything suspicious from the Franchino’s. I’d be willing to bet their New Mexico stores are a front for Mexican drug traffic, so it’ll serve my friends interests as well.”

“Just don’t let the FBI find her yet,” Stella said.

“Is she afraid of the program or something?”

“She must be, otherwise she wouldn’t have coded the message the way she did. Megan is in a better position than us to know if the FBI has been compromised.”

Gary nodded, “We’ll also have a protection detail called in for you two.”

“You don’t have...”

“Yes I do, you both know more than enough state secrets to justify it. For all you know you very well may have a hit out on you! I’ll also see if I can’t get into Raimondo’s information and keep track of him. If he suddenly decides to go to New Mexico or something we may want to consider moving more in then too.”

They both nodded and the three of them talked for a while until Annette knocked and came in, “Dessert?”

“SO YOU ARE really hiding out from him?” Kaitlyn asked.

I watched Mom nod, “I have new identity information and everything. I’m one of your distant cousins staying here with my baby sister for a few weeks on an internship.”

“So you’re not pretending to be your age, are you?” She asked. Mom hadn’t included that part in the story. “No, I’m going by Amber, I’m only twenty-three, and Ashley here is seven, she’ll be eight on Tuesday.”

I watched Kaitlyn stare at both of us for a few minutes. “Well, you both should be able to pull that off without any problems. You always did look younger than you were. I know you hated it when we were teenagers, but now you look that age easily. I don’t think Ashley will have any problem for now either... At least until she hits puberty.”

Mom nodded, “We’ve taken care of that though, she’s on some pills to stop block her hormones from starting that.”

She looked a little bit stunned by that, “Is this why you’re running?”

“No, I’d never even thought about this with Tony...” Mom said honestly.

The conversation carried on for a long while before Gloria said, “I’m guessing your two kids are going to want something to eat, I’m going to go get the steaks on the grill. Ashley, why don’t you come help me sweetie.”

I gave Mom a quick hug and followed Gloria out. The two of them remained in the office to talk. Gloria and I had just gotten into the kitchen when I heard, “Oh, hi, are you Ashley?”

I looked up into the face of a girl who was significantly taller than me, ‘She’s only thirteen?’ She had long brown hair and a pretty face. Her ears had some cute little music note earrings in them. I guessed she had to be about six-feet tall, and I felt like I definitely was a little kid compared to her. “Umm... Yes, are you Madison?”

“Uh-huh,” she said with a smile. “So you got my old room?”

“I guess so.” I said timidly.

She looked up at Gloria and gave her a big hug, “I love what you did with my room!!! You didn’t have to do that for just two weeks though,” she said.

“I know I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. Besides, I’m hoping I can convince your mother to come out here for Thanksgiving this year.”

Madison smiled at that. “So where are you from Ashley?” She asked me.

“Near Dallas,” I said.

“Her older sister is doing an internship with me. She’s one of your cousins on my husband’s side of the family,” she told her. “They’ll be here for another two weeks too.”

“Cool! I finally have another girl to play with here!” She said with a smile. “How old are you?”

I bit my lip, this was a bit more embarrassing with her for some reason, “I’m seven, my birthday’s Tuesday though and I’ll be eight!”

Madison kept asking me questions, and I asked plenty back, as we watched the steaks cook on Gloria’s huge barbecue outside. She told me she hated gas, so she only used charcoal to cook with. By the time Gloria pronounced the steaks done, I had pronounced Madison as a friend in my mind.

MEGAN GAVE KAITLYN another hug, “Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome, but this is something that I’m more proud of you Megan! The fact you got away is amazing. I’ll play along with this and help you out any way I can for the next two weeks before I take the kids back home.”

“Thanks Kate.” Was her response. “Now please don’t forget I’m Amber from here on out. We just met each other for the first time since I was a baby at a family reunion and you were babysitting me.”

Kaitlyn laughed, “Are you trying to make me feel old?!?”

They walked out of the office together and into the kitchen where most of the food was already on the informal dining table. Ashley was taking an apron off then moved to take a chair next to where Madison had already sat down. Somehow she could sense the two of them were already friends. She just hoped that not filling Madison in didn’t end up being a problem... If she found out Ashley had boy parts for instance she was a little worried about how she would react. Kate seemed to think that it would be okay if she did, and that she would accept it even though it was a bit weird.

“Mark,” Kaitlyn said to her son as he walked in the door, “come sit down and eat.” Mark had his cell phone out and looked a little bit frustrated. “Honey, these are your cousins Amber and Ashley.” She introduced them.

“Nice to meet you,” he said politely.

Megan suspected he was having issues with his cell phone working, “Can’t get a message to your girlfriend?” She asked slyly as she passed him the mashed potatoes.

He stared at her incredulously but nodded, “The reception is terrible. She’s going to think I’m just blowing her off and dump me.”

Madison looked at Ashley and the two of them giggled for a moment. Megan looked at them a little reprovingly but said, “I’m sure we’ll go into town at some point this week Mark, you can always text her then and tell her you have no service where you’re at.”

“Or,” Gloria said, “you could ask me politely to borrow the landline and you could actually talk to her over the phone.”

Megan just about wanted to die laughing as she watched Mark’s reaction to actually talking on the phone. “Aunt Gloria, you don’t use phones for talking anymore,” Megan said seriously.

That made Madison laugh and Kaitlyn did as well. Dinner went well and she was grateful that Ashley and Madison seemed to bond more over it. She could see that Madison would be playing the big sister role, and watched as she insisted on helping her with some little things every now and then. Megan wasn’t sure that Ashley even noticed when it happened.

By the time dinner was over she was stuffed and happy to have her best friend back.

I FINISHED EATING and started to help out with the dishes like I normally did, but Kaitlyn said, “Amber and I will take care of those sweetie. You helped cook, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“Then we do dishes. Why don’t you and Madison go play,” she suggested.

“Okay,” I said and looked at Madison.

“Well come on Ashley!” She said with a smile. “You want to play with dolls?” She asked.

“You play with dolls still?” I asked nervously.

“Of course I do!” She laughed, “Most of my friends still do too, even if they lie and say they don’t.”

I smiled at her, “Cool.”

“Why don’t you show me who you brought and I’ll go grab mine then too?” She suggested.

I nodded.

The two of us went up the stairs and opened my bedroom door. “Wow, Aunt Gloria was up to her tricks in here too, wasn’t she?”

She looked at the bedspread, “I take it you must be into Princesses?”

I nodded bashfully, afraid that would be something to make fun of me for. “Cool, I was when I was your age too! I still love all of those movies though! They’re my favorites! Especially Tangled!”

I laughed and introduced her to my dolls.

“Wow! You have three American Girl dolls already?”

“Uh-huh,” I said more proudly.

“That’s just one less than I have, and I’m older than you. That’s not fair,” she said with a wink to let me know she wasn’t serious. “I love their dolls. Mom and Dad actually let me have my tenth birthday party there!”

“Cool!” I said.

“It was,” she told me all about it as she held Saige for a moment. “So what are their names?”

“That’s Saige that you’re holding, I didn’t rename her, the baby is Kristin, and this is Kaitlyn,” I said as I held her up.

She smiled, “That’s my mom’s name.”

“I heard at dinner, it might get a bit confusing this week, I take Kaitlyn almost everywhere!”

Madison laughed and said, “Hold on, let me go get mine and we can play downstairs!”

She ran through the bathroom to her room and came back carrying two totes like I had for Saige and Kaitlyn. Inside she had a doll that looked like her, the same kind as Kaitlyn, a girl with brown hair, a historical doll that I thought was named Kitt, and another one I didn’t know. We walked downstairs together carrying our dolls and ran into Mark in the hallway in the basement.

“I take it you two are going to the playroom?” He asked a little insultingly.

“Of course! Ashley here is cool, I’m looking forward to not having to be around only my lame brother all week!” I got the feeling the two of them couldn’t stand each other.

“Whatever,” he said. I watched him go past the playroom into the arcade and just shook my head. ‘I think my dad would actually like him...’

“Come on,” Madison said as she moved forward but I stayed frozen. The two of us sat down on the floor in the playroom and I carefully spread my skirt around.

“That’s a really pretty dress!”

“Thanks, we went to church earlier and M... Amber and Aunt Gloria wanted me to dress up.” ‘Oh no, I haven’t known her for two hours and I almost messed up!!!!’ I thought angrily. Madison’s eyes looked confused for a moment but brushed past it.

“It goes really well with your hair too, who did that?”

“Amber did it.” I said.

“Can I see,” She asked and indicated for me to turn my head down. She looked at for a moment and said, “That’s really cool, I had a friend show up with a ribbon in her hair once like that, but yours is prettier.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Think she would do mine like that sometime?”

I gaped, but said, “I’m sure she would if you asked her to.”

“Why do you look so surprised?” She smiled at me, “Just cause I’m a really tall thirteen year old doesn’t mean I’m not a little girl at heart. I’m a girly girl too, I love dresses and everything girl.”

I laughed, “You’re way cooler than I thought you would be! What are your dolls names?”

“Well, this is Mackenzie,” she said holding up the one like her, “This is Kitt, I didn’t rename her either. This is Chrissa, she’s an older girl of the year doll who you may not remember... I got her for my eighth birthday, and this is Caroline.”

“They’re all pretty,” I told her.

With that the two of us played with dolls for the next hour or so before Mom came down and said, “Ashley, it’s time for your bath and bedtime.”

“Do I have to?” I whined. “We’re playing...”

“Uh-uh, I let you stay up way too late last night. If Mom knew how late you were up last night she’d probably spank me.” She said with a smile. ‘I’m impressed with her acting,’ I admitted to myself.

“Okay...” I pouted. “Sorry Madison.”

“It’s okay Ashley, I probably should go to bed here soon too. Aunt Gloria will have us all up doing chores before any human being should be awake!” All three of us giggled about that and Mom helped me carry Kristin up the stairs.

“Okay, bath time Princess,” she ordered me. I noticed she went into the bathroom and locked the other side’s door before turning the water on. “Come sit down here,” she told me and began pulling out the braids from my hair.

“I wish I could keep it...” I whined a little.

“If you really want I’ll do it for you again tomorrow after breakfast.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Really.”

“Umm... Would you mind doing Madison’s too...? She seemed to want her hair like that.”

Mom smiled at me, “You have made a friend, haven’t you?”

I nodded, “I don’t know why she wants to be friends with a little kid like me, but we had fun tonight.”

Mom hugged me, “Probably because you’re the most adorable little kid on the ranch!”

“But I’m the only one...” I said.

“Duh!” She said as she was pulling the last ribbon out of my hair. She began tickling me without warning a second later. “What’s not to love about the little princess?”

“Stop...” I cried out and she finally let up.

“Come on, in the bath!”

“Do you think Madison has seen this yet?” I asked as I pointed to my drawing and the ‘Hi Madison.’

Mom shook her head, “Probably not, you’ve had her downstairs most of the time talking her ear off.”

I stuck my tongue out at her.

Quietly she said, “While Madison is here I’m going to wash your hair out in the bath each night. That’s pretty normal for a seven-year old. If she asks I’ll just say you haven’t figured out how to get all of the soap out of your hair.”

I nodded. She handed a loofa with some body soap on it that I used everywhere myself before she began washing my hair. It felt good as she washed it, but it seemed to take forever. Finally she said, “Okay Ash, bedtime.”

“I don’t get time to play?” I asked.

“Maybe tomorrow if we get an earlier start to bed, right now it’s time for bed.”

“Alright,” I said. “Can I at least get a bedtime story?” I asked as Mom unlocked the door to Madison’s room after I had put on a nightgown and panties.

“I guess,” she said in mock exasperation.

She picked out a version of Rapunzel from a classic storybook and began the tale. Mom had barely reached the third page of the story when I noticed movement from the corner of my eye and saw Madison in a cute short set and tank top. “May I join you?” She asked with a smile.

“Sure!” I said. Madison sat down on the floor next to the bed and Mom continued.

When mom reached the end of the story I was basically asleep, but I remember hearing, “She’s so cute, and it’s neat that you tell your little sister bedtime stories!”

I grinned to myself.

They talked quietly as they left the room and I fell asleep.

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