Page 112 of Beast

Patrick

I STOPPED AT THE FLORIST near my house. I chose for Annie a bouquet of wild flowers, nothing too pure and pretty. Carefree, damaged, and finally free, just like her. Matt had rattled me. I didn’t want to end up like him. Annie was my perfect match: strong, loyal, and a survivor. I wanted her and Gabriel in my life forever. And her smoking body didn’t hurt either.

Before I went home, I made one more pit stop. I had a surprise for Annie.

After my errands, I opened the door and Annie was sitting out on my small balcony, Trigger at her feet, Gabriel coloring. She wasn’t reading, on her phone, or listening to music. Just staring outside. I admired her ability to enjoy each moment of freedom, without having to always be busy. I needed to learn to do that. Maybe she could teach me.

“Hey, babe.”

Her face lit up when she saw me. She bounded over to me and gave me a kiss. “These are gorgeous. Thank you. How was work?”

I winced. I hated lying to her. I vowed to be honest with her from now on, but I couldn’t tell her where I’d been. I didn’t want to hurt her. “Good. An old Team guy stopped by.” I turned to Gabriel. “Hey buddy, do you want to go to Disneyland? See the Monsters?”

“Monsters? I go see monsters?” Gabriel loved Monsters University.

“Let’s get out of here.” I had plenty of other suggestions, but they all seemed wrong. My first thought was a marine style park with killer whales but I doubted Annie wanted to spend the day watching animals kidnapped and forced into captivity to perform tricks for strangers.

“Disneyland? Yes. I’d love to.”

I hadn’t been to Disneyland since I was a kid. “Pack a bag. Let’s go.”

Her face brightened. I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed making her happy.

I sent Kyle a quick text.

An hour later, we were headed up the I-5 to Anaheim.

We pulled into the Downtown Disney parking lot and dropped Trigger off at the Disneyland Kennels just outside the gate. We headed straight over to Disney California Adventure Park, a first for me. Gabriel was having a blast. The first ride we hit was Monstropolis. He still didn’t talk much, but watching him run around, smiling and carefree, filled me with pride. He was a sweet boy. How could his grandfather want nothing to do with him? We used our fast pass for Soarin’ Over California, which I actually loved: seeing all the beautiful parks, lakes, and monuments of my home state made me happy to be back home. Normally when I was on leave, I was itching to return back to sea. For the first time in memory, I was finding joy in everyday life. Spending time with Annie and Gabriel made everything more enjoyable.

We hit some more rides, hopped over to Disneyland, and grabbed a quick bite to eat.

Annie was enjoying herself, but I knew this wasn’t really her scene, even though she was trying her best for Gabriel. She hated crowds, and was pretty jumpy with the loud noises from the rides.

“I’m ready to go, Pat. But I need to do something first.”

We walked to the main entrance of Disneyland, and Annie’s eyes were glued to the ground. There were hundreds of tiny memorial pavers. She paced up and down the rows and finally stopped. There was a small one which read: The Race Family. December 8, 2006.

Annie knelt down and traced the stone with her hands. Tears filled her eyes. I didn’t want to ruin her moment, so I stood back, unsure of what to say. She took out some Krazy Glue from her purse. She removed the necklace she’d worn in the brothel when I first met her, the rusty one with the key charm. She took the chain off, and glued it to Nicole’s paver.

Shit, it even made me want to cry.

Annie took a picture of the paver and sat down.

After around ten minutes, Annie stood up. “We can go now.”

“That was sweet, Annie.”

“Yeah. I wanted her to have it. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for her. She always talked about that vacation. How much fun they all had, and she was determined to come back here. One day, when I tell my story, I will go see her parents. Would you go with me to see them?”

“Of course.”

“That would be great. Thank you.”

This fake lie that Annie was living was preventing her from healing. She needed to tell the world what really happened. I put my arm around her, and pushed a tired Gabriel in the stroller. We picked up Trigger at the kennels, and headed back to the car.

“Where are we staying?”

“I have a surprise for you.”