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“We’re almost to the next town and I promise you pizza and chai tea. Oh, before I forget, what was the name of the game you like to play?”
“Roblox!” She enthusiastically answered.
“After lunch, I am going to have a surprise for you, how does that sound?”
She didn’t answer me, just gave me a melody of squeaks as she made her pink bunny dance. “Momma only let me play it for two hours. She was nice most of the time but mean sometimes.” Emilie sighed, “I miss my Momma… Ozzy… and I guess Selena.”
“Why did you say it like that?”
“She was really mean, Jessen. When she was mad, she’d kick me out of our bedroom, which was all the fucking time.”
I put on the father cap and replied to her use of the singular expletive. “Whoa, whoa, you will mind your tongue, Emi Bem. Never let me hear you swear like that again.” She countered my chiding until I cut her off. “I don’t care if Selena cursed. You’re a lady, you don’t use that kind of language.”
“I’m a lady?” She asked with a perplexed tone.
“You’re not only a lady, but you’re also a princess and princesses don’t curse like truck drivers.”
She giggled at my comment and stayed quiet until we got to Visalia. After lunch at some diner, she settled for a burger since there was no pizza. She also settled for orange soda, as the diner didn’t have chai tea either. On that note, I promised her some Starbucks to appease her chai tea craving.Was it bad that I was spoiling this child rotten?I had money to burn, and Emilie was too precious not to blow it on her. What was I going to do with the money in Heaven?
***
When we walked through the Wal-Mart, Emilie’s head was looking in every direction. She asked for everything under the sun, and I had to remind her that we had little time, not to mention, not a lot of space for a ton of purchases.
Back in the electronics section there was every laptop available and since I lacked any techy know-how, I had no idea which was the best one to get for Emilie. She repeated ‘Roblox’ then ‘Robux’. Roblox, I knew was the program, but had to ask what Robux was and Emilie explained, in full detail, that it was usedto get new clothes, accessories, and gear for their avatar, as well as special abilities, bonus in-game content, and access to certain user-created games.
It was hard to concentrate on what the employee was telling me when she was continuously asking for Robux, Jurassic World and Minions. I grabbed the dinosaur movie, well the entire series since I didn’t remember which one she asked for specifically. I juggled the laptop box and the movies in my hands on the way to the cash register wrap. When I thought of all the stuff I was buying for Emilie, I wondered if these were things my sons would have loved, but who knew what their interests were.
For a child I couldn’t get two words from her most of the time, she certainly had diarrhea of the mouth right now and I was certain it was from the exorbitant amount of sugar in her system. “Jessen, I gotta pee.” She whined while squeezing her legs together.
I smiled at the employee, “Sorry about that.” I kneeled to her level and asked, “Didn’t you just go to the bathroom at the restaurant?”
“Yes!” She cried. “But I gotta go again.”
Arching a brow, I smirked, “Do you really?”
Emilie shook her head, “No.” She answered, sticking a finger in her mouth. “I’m just bored.”
I rolled my eyes and went back to the laptop shopping. “I’m doing this for you, so you need to be patient.”
We settled for the Apple MacAir. Dude said it was the best, and I wanted Emilie to have the best, with the hopes she’d use it for more than a game. “Let’s go!” I said, assuming Emilie was still at my side. I grabbed the movies she wanted and the Robux and headed to the cash register, only to discover Emilie wasn’t beside me. “Emilie?” I called out, running down every aisle in the electronics department. “Here let me pay for this stuff and grab it. I need to find my daughter, or her mother will kill me for losing her again.” It seemed like an appropriate lie at the time, and it wasn’t like this young kid cared, anyway.
I grabbed the plastic bag from the roundabout and ran across the store, checking every aisle I sensed an eight-year-girl would go to. After running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I finally spotted her and rushed up to her, angry, yet afraid. Kneeling, I gripped her arms, “You cannot take off like that. What if something happened to you?”
Emilie refused to give me eye contact and threw her nose up, “I’m a big girl. I think I know the difference between a bad person and a good person. I woulda’ kicked the mean man in the shins and run away,” she explained with a proud grin, which disappeared immediately when she noticed how angry I was. “Am I in trouble, Jensen?”
She called me by the right name this time, which averted my anger to surprise. “Are you in trouble?” Emilie nodded at my question. “No, not at all. I need to always have you by my side or there will be trouble. You don’t seem to understand, and I don’t want to explain to you why. You’ve been through so much already that you don’t need to become paranoid while you’re still mourning.”
Emilie arched a brow, “That made no sense at all.” She laughed. “Can we go to Starbucks now?”
I stood up and took her hand. “You get your tea and go potty before we go. No funny business, is that clear?” She didn’t immediately answer my question, “Emilie, is that clear?”
“Yes, Jensen. It is.” There was a bit of silence between us that didn’t last long. “Is the man that killed you and my family coming after me?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“Is that why you’re taking me to Aunt Janiece and Uncle Jeff’s house?”
This girl noticed everything, and I learned that very moment never to underestimate her. She was too smart of her own good. “Yes, Emilie.”
