“I’m sure, but I’ll pass.”
“Suit yourself.”
She took a seat on the side of me. “So, you just sit out here and watch the water?”
I nodded. “And think. Sometimes I just need to just think. Ever since I was a youngin’, I used to like nature. Something about it always puts everything into perspective for me.”
She nodded like she understood. “I get it. I’m that way about guns.”
I looked in her direction quick as fuck, completely taken aback. “Yo, what?”
She laughed at my reaction. “I can’t really explain it, something about putting them together and taking them apart has always calmed me. Maybe not only guns, but any type of ammunition.”
“Yo, you can’t be saying things like that. Put some cushion on it, sweetheart.”
Confusion swept her features. “Why?”
“’Cause it sounds borderline homicidal.”
She shrugged like it was no big deal.Maybe it wasn’t.
Another brief silence ensued as we stared at the water.
“So, what’s in the file?”
I glanced at her. She had yet to look at me but kept her focus on the water.If she wanted to know what was in the file, why didn’t she look at it while in transport?
“Where are you from?”
“Here,” she responded honestly.
“Nah, I mean, how come I’ve seen your sisters and not you? It’s like you just popped up.”
More silence. Just when I thought she wasn’t gonna answer, she began to speak.
“I enlisted when I was eighteen, been on the move ever since.”
“Army?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Marine intelligence.”
I nodded. “Then why did you come back?”
“You sure you wanna know or do you just not wanna tell me about who’s in the file?”
I took a sip from my carton of coconut water then looked at her. “A little of both, but you know enough about me and I don’t know a damn thing about you. Not even your name, shorty.”
She laughed. “Liora. My father told you that back at the shop days ago, and no, I don’t know much about you, which is why I’m intrigued. I didn’t know you were dead until you told me.”
I chuckled at how nonchalant she was. It was like she didn’t even try, like she was that way naturally. In the same breath she mentioned me telling her I was dead, she also laughed.
“You gonna answer my question or what, man?”
She was confused again before she finally nodded. “You mean why’d I come back? Easy, I was shot in my shoulder blade. The bullet fragmented and I had to get a bunch of bone repair. Couldn’t think of anywhere I’d rather recuperate than home.” She spoke like it was nothing.
“And how is it now?”
“Straight, I guess.” She shrugged then I felt her eyes. She was ready for me to answer her question.
