Page 66 of Creeping Beautiful

SESSION #87

DONOVAN: OK, Indie. Calm down and tell it to me again. How did you meet this girl?

INDIE: I told you. She came to me. She would meet Nate and I in the river town where we go to pick up supplies for his grandfather and eat ice cream.

How long has this been going on?

I dunno. Years. We’ve been going there for years.

And this girl? She met you there every time?

No. She was new last summer. Just popped up out of nowhere.

She’s a town kid?

No. I told you, Donovan. She’s like me. Only… from somewhere else.

I need you to start at the beginning and tell me everything. Do not leave one single thing out. Do you understand?

…

Indie!

I hear you. I’m just trying to sort out where the story starts, for fuck’s sake!

Don’t swear at me.

…

OK. So last summer Nate and I were in town getting supplies and ice cream—

How did you get there? Did you drive?

No. We take the boat. And don’t interrupt me.

…

OK. Like I said. Last summer Nate and I were in town getting supplies and ice cream and this girl was hanging out at a table and chairs near the ice cream parlor area. She was licking a cone. I think it was butter pecan but it could’ve been—

Indie.

You said tell you everything.

Unless the flavor of the ice cream is important to the story, leave that out.

Fine. She was just sitting there eating her ice cream while Nate and I were choosing our flavors. She was kinda messy. By that I mean her hair was wild and tangled. Like she’d been walking through the woods for too long and forgot who she was.

What did she look like?

I’m gettin’ there. She had blonde hair, like me. And blue eyes like me too. But she’s only twelve. And people were kinda side-eyeing her. Probably wonderin’ who the hell she belonged to. But it’s the swamp, and people come out of it at the weirdest times, and no townie people want to get involved with some random swamp child who turns up out of nowhere because you never knew who their daddy is. But I could not stop lookin’ at her. Because she was so obviously not of this world.

What do you mean?

She was a Company kid, Donovan. Even I could see that. Hell, even Nate noticed something was wrong with her. She looked like me, and she was young, and alone, and acting like this was no big deal. She wasn’t looking for her mama, and while she did have a fearful look on her face, it wasn’t the scaredy-cat fear you see in kids. It was the kind of mean fear you see in… men.

Did she approach you first? Did she try anything?

No. Nate and I sat down at our regular table to eat our cones in the air conditioning. And I took my chair, and he took his chair, and I was facing her. So she and I were looking at each other. And then she licked her cone and winked at me. Then she got up, threw it in the trash, and walked outside.