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“Yeah…” she whispers.
“That’s my girl,” I tell her and I give her a quick kiss. I am running toward the stairwell that leads topside when something occurs to me. I turn back around. “Hey Top!”
“Yeah, man?”
“Lock Cherry down. I want her away from my kids. She doesn’t breathe the same air as them and Toi. You hear me?”
“Got it,” he says, but he says it to my back because I’m already heading upstairs.65HarleyI made Toi cry. I was scared. Cherry said she was going to take Daddy away from me. She said they won’t need me no more because they’ll have new babies. She’s right too. My real mom didn’t want me or Desi. She gave us away. At least Toi likes Desi. I look over to where they’re curled up in the corner playing cards. Toi keeps hugging her and now they’re laughing. Desi will be fine, but not me.
Toi won’t want to keep me at all now, especially after I made her cry. She ran straight to Daddy and he’ll take her side, especially since they’re going to have a new family. Cherry’s not here. Topper said Dad wanted Cherry to stay in her room away from everyone. She got mad. I heard her yelling to Topper and blaming Toi. Topper didn’t deny it. Toi hates Cherry too. Cherry warned me that they’d get rid of her too and they are. She said all we had to count on was each other because once they got rid of her… I’d be next.
I thought maybe she was wrong. But I heard Topper and Babs talking and Topper said Daddy was going to send Cherry away after the lockdown. If Cherry goes, I have to go with her. She’s the only family I have left and she loves me. She told me she does.
Everyone is busy playing and talking. They don’t even know I’m around. I saw Toi look over at me a few times, but that’s it. I don’t want to stay here and watch her be nice to Desi. Desi’s mad at me now too, and all because I yelled at Toi. I don’t belong here anymore. Cherry’s right.
Unless we’re on lockdown, we’re not allowed down here. But, Desi and I sneak down here and play all the time. I walk over to Babs and I don’t really want to, but I don’t think I have a choice. It’s now or never.
“I gotta go to the bathroom.”
“I’ll get one of the prospects to go with you,” she says. I knew I’d have to have someone take me there. If I tried to go by myself, they’d never let me.
“Spence, can you take Harley to the bathroom?” Babs asks.
“I could take you,” Toi says coming to where we’re standing and surprising me. She reaches out like she’s going to touch me, but she takes her hand back before she does. I look down at the ground. For a minute, I wanted her to touch me. She used to hug me all the time. I kind of liked it—even if I said I didn’t.
“Whatever.”
Toi looks back at Desi and hugs her. “We’ll finish our game when I get back, okay, sweetheart?”
“Okay, Toi,” she says. Desi doesn’t look at me. She’s still mad at me. She won’t miss me when I’m gone either.
“Maybe your brother will join us when we get back,” Toi says.
My heart speeds up at first, but then I remember what Cherry said. Toi’s just trying to look nice in front of everyone else and make me and her the bad guys.
I start walking away and Toi follows me. We go down the hall from the big room everyone is staying in and there’s a restroom at the end of it. Toi opens the door and I stand there.
“You can’t go in with me.”
“I just want to make sure it’s safe,” she says and she walks in looking around. “Okay, sweetheart. I’ll just be right outside.”
“I can go to the bathroom by myself,” I mumble, annoyed she’s here. I won’t have as much time this way.
“I promised your dad that I’d keep you safe,” she says her voice strained. I was thinking she was worried about me, but she’s just making sure Daddy won’t be mad at her.
Figures.
I stomp into the bathroom and lock the door. Then I go straight to the back stall. There’s two stalls in here and one is really small. But, the other one is big. It also has a secret panel! Desi discovered it when we were playing hide and seek. For a girl, Desi is really good at that game. I go to the long mirror hanging on the wall beside the toilet, and reach under the frame at the bottom. There’s a button I push and it pops, causing the mirror to swing out and revealing a tunnel. It just goes back into Daddy’s bedroom down here, but that’s all I need. From there, I can get to Cherry’s room. She can get us out of here. She said she could. It’s really dark and I’m kind of scared, but I hurry. I don’t want Toi to discover I’m gone until me and Cherry get away. Cherry’s going to take me to live with her forever.
