Page 27 of Minnie

I open my mouth and close it. At times like this, I wish the prison wasn’t warded and Formula M had my back.

“Like a what?” Natty says innocently.

“Um…” Alyssa for once looks like a cornered animal, slightly panicked. “Like a fish is into water?”

“Glub glub,” Natty says, doing his fish impression.

Zachariah grins at me, but he looks slightly embarrassed. “There isn’t much else to do around here. And I need to be strong so I can lift my little big boy way up high.” For a split second, his face falls, but then he smiles wide. “Tell me about everything you’ve been up to since I last saw you.”

“We went swimming on Monday,” I say.

“I’m a starfish,” Natty shouts.

He climbs out of his seat, and I remind him to sit down. “He can float on his back for a few seconds.” I describe how the swim teacher had the kids lie on the water on their backs with their arms and legs out so they’d float. “Natty did such an amazing job. He’s a natural.”

“That’s a good skill to have,” Alyssa says. “You never know when you need to heist someone who lives on an island. You’d be surprised how many rich bast… bass live on islands.”

Luckily, Natty doesn’t seem to be paying attention to Alyssa’s lecture on how to land in prison. He’s busy pretending his fingers are swimming back and forth across the table.

“And Natty learned to j-u-m-p,” I spell it out, “on one f-o-o-t.”

“Jump on one foot, huh?” Alyssa asks. “That’s a good start, but what you really need to know how to do is how to jump between buildings. But one-foot jumping might help you with balance until you’re tall enough to leap between roofs.”

“Don’t listen to anything she says, Natty,” I tell him, but he scrambles off his chair. He starts jumping on one foot, and a guard crosses the room toward us.

“You can’t do that,” he snaps. “Get the boy to sit back down, or you’ll have to leave.”

Natty bursts into tears.

I pick him up and settle him on my lap. I try to do my best to comfort him, and Zachariah looks like he’s trying to decide if he should pummel the guard or burst into tears himself. It must be hard, having to sit across the table from his crying son and not be able to do anything.

“He’ll be okay,” I tell him.

Zachariah purses his lips and nods.

“Sorry,” Alyssa adds. “I should have realized with the whole spelling thing.”

“It’s not your fault,” I tell her.

“That was some fantastic jumping, Natty,” Zachariah adds, trying to distract him. “Hey, why don’t you tell me more about swimming. Did you go underwater?”

Natty perks up again, but I can’t help glancing over at the guards. They’re a constant reminder that the best part of my life—and Natty’s—are brief monitored visits with a man who lives behind bars. It’s just not normal.

Then again, when have I ever been normal? No matter how many potions I take, I’ll always be messed up, and so will my life.

Chapter 15

Zachariah

My favorite two hours every week are spent right here, in the Silver Springs Penitentiary visitation room with my little family.

I lean forward in my seat—well, as forward as the guards will allow—and try to savor every minute.

A part of me knows that we’re not really family. The woman who birthed Natty abandoned him before he could talk, and said she never wanted to see either of us ever again. And the gorgeous redhead sitting across from me, smiling lovingly at my son, isn’t his biological mother. She also isn’t my wife, my fiancee, or even my girlfriend. Hell, before the day I was arrested, she wasn’t even my friend.

How can I expect her to see visiting me as anything but charity when I’ve been in orange from the day we met?

But I can’t think about any of that. Not right now, when I get to spend time with my two favorite people in the whole wide world.