“It’s the best,” Quinn said.
We all walked in together. Her little blue eyes looked all around, taking in the large store filled with toys.
“What’s your favorite type of toy?” he asked.
“I like babydolls,” she said.
“I heard they have a lot of babies here,” I told her.
I stood between the two of them, one hand in Quinn’s and the other in Aspen’s.
I was free.
I wasn’t a prisoner.
I was home.
I held her hand.
Everything hit me in that moment. A single tear rolled down my cheek as we strolled through the store. Not only was I free, but Quinn and Aspen were too. All of us were hostages of something greater than us. Quinn and I had beenfreein Louisiana, but we weren’t really. I knew when we ventured out, he was always looking over his shoulder. There was always a sense of paranoia that followed us there.
I thought he slept well before, but the last few nights showed me that he could sleep even more peacefully. His body wasn’t as tense. He carried a smile on his face all day. I started to see that at the cabin, but now, he had peace.
His thumb gently swiped against my cheek. I looked over at him and smiled.
“Tears of joy,” I said.
“I know,” he said.
We walked into the aisle filled with baby dolls. Aspen dropped my hand and gasped. She studied each one as she walked over to it.
“You might need to give her some guidelines,” I whispered.
“That would take the fun out of it,” he said.
I shot him a look.
“Okay. Okay,” he said. He took a step closer to her. “Alright, kiddo, you can get up to four babydolls and an accessory for each one.”
My eyes widened. Somehow, the guidelines I was thinking of weren’t the same as the ones he was thinking of.
“What?” he mouthed.
“Four?” I mouthed back.
He nodded and gave me a big smile.
“Can I get this one?” she asked, grabbing one of them off the shelf.
“Why wouldn’t you be allowed?” Quinn asked.
“Well… It’s a brown babydoll, and my friend at school says we can’t get brown babydolls, but I want one that looks like you,” she said.
“You can have any babydoll that you want, brown or white,” he said.
“Okay!” she shouted. She grabbed the baby and placed it in the cart.
He flashed her a smile, then looked back at me. Neither of us said anything but we didn't have to. We both knew what that little girl had already been told about the world, and we both knew we were going to spend a long time undoing it.
