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“Who, may I ask, is calling?”
“Uh, I’m her daughter. Echo.” She sucked in a deep breath and held it, afraid he would immediately hang up.
“Oh. Oh, wow,” he said. “Let me get her for you.”
Several moments passed before her mother got on the line. “Echo? Are you okay?”
The concerned tone in her mother’s voice stunned Rae. She steeled her rabbit-quick heart leaping away in her chest. “Yes, I’m okay.”
“Where are you?”
“Albuquerque.”
“Did you go back to that drug dealer?”
“No, I’m with a friend I met in California. I’m living with her, and she’s helped me a lot. Even helped me get a car. She’s really nice, and she doesn’t expect anything from me.”
Her mother seemed to read between the lines because her voice turned cooler. “I had no way to reach you.”
Rae ignored the implication because she knew her mother hadn’t planned on doing anything for her, but she could now. “I need my birth certificate and my social security card so I can get my driver’s license. Will you mail them to me?”
Her mother was dead silent for a full minute. “You’re not coming back here?”
“I don’t know. Maybe, but not until the baby’s born.”
“You’re keeping it?” She sounded surprised.
“Yeah. My friend’s been taking me to prenatal appointments, but I need ID so I can get my own place and get on Medicaid here before the baby’s born. So, will you mail them to me?”
“Why don’t you come back to Oklahoma?”
“Because there’s nothing there for me.”
The line went quiet, but Rae swore she heard her mother suck in a trembling breath. “Where do you need me to mail them?”
And a week later, a plain manila envelope arrived with her documents. Nothing else. No letter from her mother begging her to come home and live with her and her new family, the man with the high voice and the little girl. Not that Rae would’ve dropped everything to go back, but it would’ve been nice to know her mother felt something for her aside from disappointment for not being whatever it was she apparently needed.
She didn’t allow it to hurt her for too long. She had her driver’s license now. She had freedom. And the first thing she did was drive her Honda Civic along Central Avenue, windows down in the August heat since her A/C was junk, past the many restaurants and eclectic shops she wanted to visit as soon as she made more money. Most of everything she made now went toward her prenatal visits, car insurance, and thrifting for baby clothes, but she wanted to get Viv something to show her how much she appreciated everything she’d done for her. She took twenty dollars she’d saved and went to one of Viv’s favorite thrift stores, where she bought a jade-colored bangle she’d recently seen her friend eyeing. She had an ulterior motive with the gift, too; she wanted Viv to help her start up a camgirl account on MyFreeCams, a site she learned of when she heard some of her male coworkers at Subway talking about it.
After Viv got done with her last online client for the day, she helped Rae prepare a pasta dish and Caesar salad, which they ate at the dining table. They were almost done eating and chatting about their days when Rae pulled the bangle from her hoodie’s pocket. The thrift store had wrapped it in pink tissue paper, which made her feel better about not getting a box for it.
“What’s this?” Viv said when Rae pushed it across the table to her.
“A little present to say thank you.”
Viv unwrapped it and gasped in delight. “Oh, I love it! How did you know I wanted this?”
Rae shrugged and smiled.
Viv didn’t remove the silver watch she always wore and slid on the bangle next to it, her expression full of admiration as she waved her hand.
“Thank you, hon. That’s so sweet of you.”
“It feels small compared to what you’ve done for me.”
Viv removed the bangle and wrapped it back up in the tissue. “Don’t discount all the work you’ve done to help yourself and that little one growing in you.”
“Speaking of work,” Rae said, “I heard about a website from my coworkers called MyFreeCams, where people can make money online streaming videos. I’ve been thinking about doing it, but I’m not sure how to get started.”
