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“We can watch movies, eat junk food, and play with my Barbies!” Sadie squealed again. “My daddy bought me a giant house!” Her arms spread wide, but I didn’t believe it was as big as she made it out to be. No dollhouse was that big.
I nodded as I looked around my small room, wishing I had as many toys as my friend. Her new daddy liked to surprise her with stuff all the time. Lynx also told jokes, read her stories, and took her on adventures.
I wasn’t jealous.
Okay, I was lying. I was a little jealous, but no one would ever know how sad I was inside.
My dad wasn’t around. He wasn’t great like Sadie’s. If he was, he would’ve come to visit me or sent me gifts on my birthday and at Christmas. If he was half as fun as Lynx, he’d take me to the park and push me so high my feet could reach the clouds.
Okay, not really that high. It had only felt like my feet could kick a cloud when Lynx pushed me on the swing the last time Mommy and I had gone to the park with Sadie and her parents. I really liked feeling like I could fly. It put a tickle in my tummy. Someday I’d fly on an airplane, way high in the clouds.
Some of my friends in my class had good dads too. They would pick them up after school or eat lunch with them. My mom did all that stuff, but I wondered what it would be like to have my dad do them.
I just really wanted to see him. It hurt that he wasn’t around, especially when the mean kids teased me about not having a father. They told me to prove it, but I didn’t even have a picture to show them.
My mommy told me all we needed was each other. I believed her most of the time, then some nights, I’d go to bed thinking about him and crying myself to sleep.
“Oh! Bring some pretend tattoos.” Sadie went to the cubby next to my bed, where I kept them. “The ones with fire and lightning are my favorite.”
“Get whichever ones you like.” I had at least one hundred temporary tattoos, maybe more. They didn’t take up a lot of space. If Mommy said we needed to bolt again, I could fit the sheets in my backpack.
Before we came to Bastion Township, we moved a lot. Almost every month, sometimes two and three times in one month. Mommy had called us nomads because we didn’t have a permanent place to live after leaving Missouri. She had made a big deal about how free we were to do whatever we wanted, but I didn’t like staying in motels.
I looked around my room again. It wasn’t much, but I loved it. And I loved going to school. Mommy had homeschooled me until we got to this town. I hoped we never moved again.
“Yay! I’ll pick only three sheets.”
“Sure.”
My school family tree project was due next week. My mom and her parents were the only people on it, but I didn’t know them. She never let me call my dad. I wondered…
“Hey, Sadie?”
“Yeah?”
“Does your mom still let you play with her phone?”
“Mhm. All the time.”
“Think she’d let us play with it tonight?”
“Mhm.” Sadie grinned, bobbing her head.
“Great. I need to get my teddy bear. Be right back.” I couldn’t sleep without Murray. He was my best friend and knew all my secrets and dreams.
“Nova?” Mommy came out of the kitchen when she heard me skipping down the hallway. “So you know about the sleepover. I’ll help you pack in a little bit.”
“That’s okay, I got it.” I picked up Murray from the sofa and snuggled him tightly to my chest. “Who was that man?”
“No one.”
“But he had a vest like Sadie’s daddy. I never saw him before at the clubhouse.” He reminded me of a guy who’d made mommy and me leave our house one night and had taken us to the compound. Something awful was going on, and he had wanted us safe. I didn’t know his name and only got a glimpse of him because Mommy had kept me tucked into her side. But I’d seen his black hair and beard and heard his voice. He hadn’t sounded nice at all.
She sighed. “Let’s sit.”
“Am I in trouble?” She never told me to sit unless I had done something wrong or we were bolting to a new place. If she told me we were moving, I’d throw a big tantrum. I loved living in Minnesota. I had friends at school and at the Knight’s compound.
“No, baby, you’re not in trouble. I just wanted to lay down some rules.”
