By Girl Lover
Friday. The last day of school before the weekend. During recess, Bonnie and Jennie walked along by themselves while the other kids ran and shouted on the playground. Talking excitedly about everything that had happened the previous night, the girls eagerly discussed what they wanted to do later that evening and over the weekend.
“Do you really think we could go see them tomorrow, during the day?” Jennie asked Bonnie.
“Yeah, I think so. We’ll ask them about it tonight. What do you want to do tomorrow?”
Jennie shrugged, “I dunno.”
“We could go to Zilker Park… or maybe the mall…”
Jennie thought, then said, “I wanna go to the mall.”
“Okay.” Then Bonnie remembered something. “How are we going to go without our parents finding out?”
Jennie pondered this, then said, “My mom stays out late every night and sleeps till noon, and I think I can sneak out without my dad noticing.”
“I can tell my mom that I’m meeting you and Stacy and her mom at the mall. The mall’s so close to my house, my mom will let me walk over there.”
“What time should we meet?”
“Well, I think we should go sometime in the morning, maybe about ten. Is that good?”
“I think so.”
Bonnie grinned, “We’re going to have a lot of fun tomorrow.” Then she added, “We’re going to have a lot of fun tonight.”
*****
That night at Kala’s house, the two women and two girls were eating a pizza. Kala had ordered it earlier when they all met in the parking lot and she’d heard Jennie’s stomach growling.
“Where the fuck is the sauce?!” Raven scornfully asked Kala as she glared at the slice in her hand.
Kala told her, “It tastes better this way.”
“Bullshit.” Raven turned to Bonnie, “Do you think this tastes good?”
Bonnie nodded, “Mmm-hmm,” as she took another bite, to which Raven rolled her eyes. While still chewing, Bonnie went over to look at Kala’s CDs.
She pulled out a few, didn’t recognize any of them, and thought the covers seemed rather bizarre.
“What is this?!” Bonnie asked, looking appalled. She pulled out another CD. “EEWWW! This is gross!”
Curious, Raven came over to see, then started laughing at Bonnie’s reaction.
“Which one is it?” Kala asked.
“Gwar. Violence Has Arrived,” Raven answered, still laughing, to which Kala also laughed.
“What’s so funny?” demanded Bonnie. “This is guh-ross. Don’t you have anything good?”
“This is good,” Raven told her.
“Don’t you have Adele or Sia?” Bonnie quickly looked through all the CDs.
“Who?” Raven asked.
Bonnie’s mouth dropped in shock as she looked at Raven incredulously. “Hello! You don’t know who Adele is?”
Raven couldn’t help smirking at her cute reaction, “Should I?”
“She’s only like the best singer in the world,” Bonnie told her matter-of-factly as if everyone knew. Continuing to look at the CDs, she said, “All you have is weird stuff.” She picked one up, “Am… Am…”
Raven looked, “Amon Amarth.”
Throwing her hands up in exasperation, Bonnie said to Jennie, “Let’s go in the hot tub.”
Jennie took one last bite of pizza, then hurried into the bedroom to get undressed as Bonnie unashamedly stripped in the living room with Raven eying her hungrily. Once she was naked, she ran to the patio door, pulled it open and jumped in the hot tub. Jennie quickly followed, wrapped in a towel, which she discarded once she entered the water.
Staring at the hot tub with the naked little nymphs capering about, Raven and Kala pulled off all their clothes and joined them on the patio.
“Kala,” Raven called teasingly, “there’s a couple of naked little girls in the hot tub. What should we do with them?”
Bonnie and Jennie giggled gleefully.
“Should we spank ‘em?” Raven asked, to which Bonnie and Jennie looked at each other in pretend shock, with their eyes and mouths wide open.
Kala grinned, “Nah. Let’s just fuck ‘em silly.”
“Yeah, fuck us silly!” Bonnie exclaimed, cracking Raven and Kala up.
Jennie leaned close to Bonnie and whispered, “What’s that mean?”
Bonnie shrugged her shoulders, “I dunno.”
Raven and Kala climbed in. As Kala sat down, Raven lowered herself below the surface and Bonnie’s eyes gleamed playfully as she tried running away through the chest-deep water. Reaching the far end, she turned around to see where Raven was, but all she saw was Kala and Jennie. Trying to peer through the roiling water, she couldn’t locate her anywhere. Jennie, not wanting Raven to get her, went over to Kala and pressed close against her.
Suddenly, Bonnie felt her legs being grabbed under the water. She screeched and tried to get away, but Raven rose up in front of her. Bonnie backed away with Raven following until she ran into the bench. Raven rose up, placing her hands on her hips while grinning at Bonnie. Unable to resist the sexy little girl before her, Raven picked her up and planted kisses on her face and neck, then on her nipples.
Raven lightly patted Bonnie’s tiny butt, “I want to kiss this cute little ass.” Setting Bonnie down on her hands and knees on the deck surrounding the hot tub, Bonnie felt Raven’s hands on her butt cheeks and was shocked to see Raven actually kissing her butt.
“EEWWW! Jennie! She’s kissing my BUTT!”
Jennie’s mouth dropped at the sight of Raven’s face pushed up against Bonnie’s bottom. Turning to Kala, she asked, “What is she doing?!”
“Enjoying herself,” Kala chuckled at the girls’ reactions, thinking, Kids.
“That’s so guh-ross!” Bonnie continued protesting.
Raven continued loving Bonnie’s little butt with her mouth, then pulled away to ask, “Do you want to kiss mine?” knowing full well what Bonnie’s answer was going to be.
“NO WAY!”
Carefully rolling Bonnie over onto her back, Raven softly kissed her body all over till she got to her tiny sex. She placed her mouth upon it and held it there, using her tongue to push inside. Bonnie, propped up on her elbows, watched Raven’s face between her legs as she smiled back. Raven’s tongue tickled and her fingers slid along her chest, causing Bonnie to shiver from the little tremors they caused.
Jennie watched them, spellbound by how Bonnie seemed so deeply affected. For once, she was quiet, not her usual talkative self. She remembered how good it had felt when Kala kissed her own missy the night before. As she continued to watch, she felt Kala softly tracing her fingers up and down her chest. When she went across her ribs, it tickled, causing Jennie to squirm slightly. Feeling a finger in her butt crack, she looked at Kala in surprise as Kala grinned back at her.
Turning to face the woman and admiring her boobs, Jennie reached out and gently touched them. She looked up at Kala for approval, who didn’t say anything, only kept smiling at her. Smiling back, Jennie took a breast in her hand, feeling the softness between her fingers. They felt so much like pillows that she had to lay her head against one to see what it would feel like to use it like a pillow. Turning her head, she pressed her face into it and then rubbed the protruding nipple around in a circle by moving her head.
Kala stared at the little girl in astonishment. She had never seen such a reaction before, once again thinking, Kids. Such an endearing reaction to her body turned her on in a way no adult ever had. She reached around and cupped Jennie’s bottom, letting her finger slide into her crack again. Her other hand slowly rubbed up and down Jennie’s back as the girl nuzzled her nipple, reminding Kala of a nursing baby.
After a minute, she moved her hand around to caress Jennie’s sex, at first rubbing along the outside, then sliding along the middle, letting her finger sink between the smooth folds, drawing out little sighs of contentment from the young girl in her arms. Bending down, Kala pressed her lips against Jennie’s, but slowly and tenderly, knowing how fragile she was.
Feeling the sensations of pleasure coursing between her legs, Jennie welcomed Kala’s soft lips. The effect was like a massage, relaxing her completely, so much so that her legs began to feel weak and she would have fallen had Kala not been holding her up. Kala kept moving her finger inside her sex, making the erotic response even stronger while Jennie hung limply in her arms, quietly panting.
As Kala watched, Jennie’s body seemed to become rigid, an intense look on her face as she tried to speak, “Ka — Ka — Ka — ohhhhhhhh…!”
Giving Jennie an orgasm and watching her come never ceased to amaze Kala. It meant more to her than coming herself. She picked the child up and hugged her against her chest while she recovered, then glanced across at Raven and Bonnie.
Raven was on her back on the deck, propped up on her elbows, legs spread wide apart. Bonnie knelt before her, with one hand apparently moving inside Raven’s pussy while she licked her. Raven was watching her intensely, her face contorting in reaction to Bonnie’s tongue.
The nine-year-old raised up and asked Raven, “Does this feel good?”
“Oh yeah. Keep doing it,” Raven answered.
“It’s really weird, though.”
Raven rolled her eyes, “I know.”
Bonnie stuck her tongue out and continued licking Raven. At first, she thought it would taste gross, like pee, but actually it didn’t have any taste. Bonnie didn’t understand why something like this would feel so good, but she knew that when Raven did it to her, it was the most awesome feeling ever.
She felt Raven sit up all the way. “Bonnie.”
Bonnie glanced up.
“Lick right here.”
Bonnie looked at the fleshy protrusion that Raven was holding between her thumb and forefinger and said, “Um, okay.” She touched her tongue to it, licking, feeling it sort of grow a little bit. Then she noticed that Raven was moaning and squeezing her boobs, pinching the nipples. Bonnie giggled. It seemed so funny. She kept licking that spot and watched how Raven reacted more and more to it.
Raven was absolutely loving what this little girl was doing to her. The fire within her began to swell, growing larger and larger till suddenly it exploded. She fell back gasping, her back arching, as she shrieked, “Oooooohhhh shit! Oh fuck! Oh fuck! Oh fuck! OOHHH FUUUUUCCCKKKKK….!”
As the climax slowly ebbed, Raven panted, hands falling listlessly to her sides. Finally she sat up, and smiled, “Shit, you make me feel so good!” Slipping back into the hot tub, she was still breathing heavily as she continued to revel in her orgasm’s ecstasy.
Bonnie got in too and leaned against the woman, feeling happy. Then, as she looked over at Jennie, cuddling with Kala, she remembered that they were supposed to ask about the weekend. “Oh yeah,” she exclaimed aloud.
“What?” asked Raven.
“Tomorrow, me and Jennie were wondering if we could go to the mall with you.”
“But what about your parents? What will they say?”
“I’m gonna tell ‘em that me and Jennie and Stacy are going to the mall with Stacy’s mom.”
Kala looked down at Jennie, “Is that what you’re gonna tell your folks?”
Jennie squirmed uncomfortably, and mumbled, “Something like that.”
“What do you think?” Kala asked Raven.
Smiling, Raven said to Bonnie, “The mall?”
Bonnie, nestled against her, looked up and nodded excitedly.
“What time?”
“Ten?”
Kala said to Jennie, “Can you come at ten?”
Jennie was silent for a moment, then nodded.
Bonnie and Jennie played in the hot tub a while longer while Raven and Kala watched. When they noticed the kids starting to yawn, they knew they it was time to take them home.
Raven and Bonnie got out of the hot tub while Kala waited for them to leave so Jennie wouldn’t be embarrassed to get out naked. Then Kala and Jennie got dressed and went back to the parking lot. Kala kissed her goodnight. Seeing how Jennie looked sad, she asked, “You gonna miss me?”
Jennie nodded, then went through the trees with Kala watching her. After Jennie disappeared, Kala remained there, staring at the grove that she’d disappeared into. She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong with Jennie, something that didn’t make sense.
*****
“Well, it’s about time you got up,” Bonnie’s dad greeted her when she walked into the dining room on Saturday morning.
She already knew what time it was. 8:47. She was glad that there was no school so she could catch up on her sleep, and for the first time all week, she felt rested. She sat down at the table and picked up the box of Froot Loops that she always ate for breakfast and poured herself a bowl. Her mom brought her two pieces of buttered toast and a glass of orange juice, then headed to her daughter’s room to pick up the dirty clothes from yesterday that were invariably scattered on the floor.
After Bonnie finished eating, she went into the living room and flopped down on the couch and instinctively turned on the TV, changing the channel till she found a cartoon. As she stared blankly at the screen, only half-watching, she mulled over how she was going to tell her parents about going to the mall. She knew they were okay with her walking there by herself because it was so close, and they would think Stacy’s mom would be there, so that should work. And the mall with all its stores was a perfect place to keep her occupied for hours so her parents wouldn’t wonder why she was gone for so long.
On Cartoon Network, Sylvester was chasing Tweety through a clothing store and had fallen down the stairs into a bunch of mannequin parts which he was now wearing as he ran after Tweety. She had seen this one before and would’ve been laughing at it if she wasn’t so eager to go. She was watching the clock as usual. The same clock that told her when her parents would go to bed at night so she could rendezvous with Raven. It was only 9:23. Sighing, she tried to concentrate on watching the cartoon, but it was as futile as Sylvester’s efforts in catching Tweety.
Finally at about five minutes to ten, she turned off the TV and asked her mother if she could go to the mall with Stacy and her mom and Jennie. “How long will you be gone?” her mother asked.
“Till about two.” Bonnie didn’t know how long she would be out, but two sounded like a good answer. Not too early, not too late. “And we’ll eat lunch at the food court.”
“Okay, call me later.”
“I will,” Bonnie answered as she ran out the door.
Walking down the street, she called Raven and told her she was on her way to the parking lot. When Bonnie got there, she saw Jennie hadn’t arrived yet, so she waited. Several minutes later, Raven and Kala drove up on their bikes and together, they all waited on Jennie.
They waited, each of them checking the time every few minutes. Finally, seeing that it was 10:25, Bonnie exclaimed, “Where is she?”
Kala stood up from the rock she’d been sitting on and starting walking towards the trees. Raven called out, “What are you going to do? Check every house until you find her and then ask her parents if you can take their daughter out?”
Sighing, Kala halted mid-stride, then turned towards Raven. “Something must have happened to her. I need to see if she needs…” She paused, not sure what else to say.
“How will you even know what neighborhood she lives in?”
Kala scowled, shook her head, but came back and sat down again.
Several more minutes went by as Kala became more frustrated and more worried. Bonnie was worried herself, but like Kala, didn’t know what to do. Suddenly, Kala stood up and ran towards the trees. Bonnie started forward, eagerly searching for Jennie before seeing her running through the trees towards them.
Kala knelt down and hugged Jennie, but upon pulling away, noticed that the girl’s eyes seemed red. “Are you okay?”
Jennie nodded, “Yeah, um, I just got something in my eyes earlier.”
Kala took her hand, and they walked back to the parking lot. “What happened? Why are you late?”
“I wasn’t able to leave cuz my dad was in the living room and I had to wait for him to go back into his room.”
“I’m glad you were able to come.”
“Me too.”
Highland Mall was behind the theater. As they came through the doors, Bonnie saw a narrow ledge running alongside the wall a couple of inches off the floor and ran over, stepping onto it.
Looking back at Jennie, Bonnie called out, “Come on, Jennie! You’re in hot lava! Get out of the hot lava!”
Jennie excitedly ran over and together, they inched their way along the ledge as Raven and Kala stared at them confusedly.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Raven called to Bonnie.
“We have to stay out of the hot lava!”
“Yeah, the floor is hot lava!” Jennie piped up.
The girls slowly inched along the ledge, giggling, as Raven looked exasperatedly at them.
“Can you fucking believe this?!” Raven muttered to Kala. Kala suppressed a laugh at Raven’s frustration.
Finally, Raven couldn’t wait any more and strode over, picking Bonnie up, who squealed, “Don’t let me fall in the hot lava!”
Ignoring her plea, Raven set Bonnie down. Of course, the girl immediately began hopping from one foot to the other, squeaking, “Ow…ow…ow…ow…” before jumping back onto the ledge.
“Bonnie, come on,” Raven called.
“I can’t touch the hot lava!”
Kala reminded Raven, “They’re kids,” then went over to them and knelt down with her back facing Jennie. “Climb on.”
Jennie happily climbed on and Kala stood up, carrying her piggyback. Raven scowled as Bonnie slowly moved several more feet to the end of the ledge before at last hopping off.
They continued walking along, Kala still carrying Jennie on her back as they passed by various stores. Suddenly, Jennie squealed excitedly, “A puppy!” and patted Kala’s shoulder, exclaiming, “Put me down! Put me down!”
Kala squatted while Jennie slid off and ran with Bonnie into the pet store where a puppy was pouncing inside a little pen. Kala and Raven followed and hovered nearby as Bonnie and Jennie leaned over the side of the pen, petting the puppy. After walking around and looking at all the other animals, they left and went to Kay-Bee Toys.
As the girls picked up and examined various toys, Raven and Kala stood off to the side, watching them. Raven remarked, “You know, I could get used to this.”
“Hanging out at the mall?”
“Doing stuff with Bonnie, regular stuff, I mean. Being with her instead of just having sex with her.”
Kala gazed at Jennie as she picked up a Barbie doll. “Yeah, me too. Who’d’ve guess that I would fall for a kid.”
As Jennie studied the Barbie she was holding, she asked Bonnie, “What’s Raven like?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… what do you do with her…” Jennie glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then whispered, “…when you have sex?”
“Oh,” Bonnie smiled. “I like, um… playing with her boobs… and I like it when she chases me in the hot tub… oh and I love when she touches my missy. What do you like about Kala?”
“I like her boobs, but I think what I like most about her is when she holds me. It makes me feel safe. Does that sound dumb?”
“Uh-uh.”
Bonnie looked some more among the rack of dolls, then said, “I wanna go to the bookstore now. You wanna come?”
Jennie replied, “Nah, I’ll stay here a while,” so Bonnie went over to Raven and asked, “Can we go to the bookstore?”
“Sure.”
They went across to Barnes & Noble, and Bonnie headed for the children’s section. There, she perused the selection and picked out a Richard Scarry book, telling Raven, “I know this is supposed to be for little kids, but I love the pictures.”
After Bonnie finished leafing through the book, she put it back and bent over at the waist to search for another one. Raven felt her pussy began to stir as she stared at the child’s butt. She didn’t mean for it to happen, but watching Bonnie was getting to her.
Bonnie was counting all the wacky things in Dr Seuss’ Wacky Wednesday, pointing to each one as she whispered, “One… two… three…” when suddenly she felt Raven’s hands sliding around her sides and stroking her chest. “What are you doing?!”
Fondling the girl’s nipples through her shirt, Raven whispered in her ear, “I can’t help it. You’re turning me on too much.”
“Somebody’s going to see you!” Bonnie hissed.
“No, they won’t. There’s just some woman with her kid up at the front of the store.”
As Bonnie turned the page, she showed the picture to Raven, exclaiming with a laugh, “Look, you can see his butt!”
Raven nuzzled and kissed Bonnie’s neck, telling her, “I want to see your butt. Come on, let’s go to the fitting rooms over at JC Penney’s.”
Bonnie turned her head towards Raven, feigning a look of shock as she giggled, “You are so bad!”
Raven kissed her neck again. “And you are so sexy.”
*****
Back at Kay-Bee Toys, Kala stood beside Jennie as she continued looking at the dolls. Curious, Kala asked her, “Do you have any of these at home?”
“No.”
“What kind of toys do you have?”
“…um, I, uh… have…”
Jennie didn’t say any more than that, and Kala didn’t push her. Feeling hungry, she asked, ”D’ya wanna get something to eat?”
“Sure,” Jennie said happily.
They went to the food court and Kala got them both burgers and milkshakes. Kala carried their food to a booth and sat down. Jennie slid in beside her instead of across from her, and bit into her burger hungrily.
Still curious about the girl, Kala asked, “So, what do your parents do?”
In between bites, Jennie told her, “I don’t know what my dad does. He stays home a lot and makes these pretty blue crystals, but I’m not supposed to touch ‘em. People come by and he sells them the crystals. My mom works at night. I don’t know where. I once heard her telling my dad it was twelve street.”
“Twelve street?” Kala asked.
“Uh-huh. I remember that cuz my dad told my mom when I turn twelve I can work there with her.”
Suddenly realizing what was being said, Kala froze, then asked slowly, “You mean Twelfth Street?”
“Yeah. My mom says she meets John there and sometimes he gives her a lot of money and sometimes not so much.”
Her lips felt dry, and when she spoke, Kala’s voice sounded hollow and far away, “And your dad, who sells crystals to people, wants you to work there too?”
“Yeah. He says a lot of guys will pay good money for me to do tricks. But I don’t really know any tricks.”
Kala’s eyes flashed with anger as her hands clenched into fists beneath the table. She’d never felt such rage as she felt at this moment. And she doesn’t even know! she thought.
“Jennie,” Kala began as she slid an arm across her back.
The child flinched as she sucked her breath in.
Kala pulled back in alarm, “What?!”
“Nothing,” Jennie quickly said, “I… I…” then closed her mouth and looked down at the table.
Confused, Kala watched her closely, then slowly laid her hand on Jennie’s shoulder. Again, Jennie flinched. She tried not to, but couldn’t help it.
As Jennie remained sitting still, hands in her lap, staring nervously at her half-eaten burger, Kala carefully lifted the hem of her shirt and saw a large, ugly red bruise on the girl’s upper back. She also saw the other bruise she’d noticed three days earlier and finally understood what was going on.
For several seconds, Kala just stared at the injuries, shock and rage building within her, then lowered Jennie’s shirt. Being mindful not to touch the tender spots, she gently hugged the child as tears welled up in her eyes.
“Jennie…”
Jennie looked up. Kala’s voice failed her. She didn’t know what she should say. After a minute, she licked her lips, then spoke quietly, “Jennie… what your parents are doing to you is wrong. They’re hurting you. Do you have any other family?”
“My grandma, but I can’t remember where she lives. It’s some kind of tree in Colorado.”
“There’s no one else?”
Jennie shook her head.
Kala slowly breathed out. She couldn’t take Jennie to the police. That would likely cause more problems then it would solve, since they might recognize Kala and would probably stick Jennie in some foster home with a bunch of strangers.
Not knowing what else to do, and before she could stop herself, she blurted out, “Jennie, would you like to come live with me for a while?”
Jennie’s eyes brightened as her mouth slowly dropped, “You mean… with you… at your house?”
Kala nodded.
“Can I bring my school stuff and Betsy Bear?”
“Betsy Bear?”
Jennie mumbled, “My uh, teddy bear.”
“Sure, you can.”
Jennie’s face glowed with joy, convincing Kala that this was the right thing to do instead of taking her to the police.
“Come on, let’s go,” she said to the girl, giving her a wink and a smile. They slid out of the booth and headed towards the mall exit.
As they walked, Kala’s thoughts intruded, You’re just going to take her from her parents?
They’re not being her parents! she silently responded.
And you think you’re gonna be her new mom? her thoughts persisted.
Kala didn’t have an answer for that. She hadn’t got that far ahead yet and didn’t know for sure what she was going to do — only that she had to get Jennie out of the situation she was in.
Stepping outside, Kala saw that they were close enough to walk to the theater parking lot where they always met. As they headed toward the grove of trees, Kala asked, “Do you think you can grab your stuff and come back here without your parents noticing?”
Jennie answered, “I think so.”
Reaching the edge of the grove, Kala told her, “Just go inside, grab what you want to take, and come back here.” She watched as Jennie ran into the trees.
Several minutes passed with Kala pacing nervously. She stared into the vegetation, her nervousness growing until suddenly she couldn’t stand to wait any longer. She jogged into the trees, eyes scanning the unfamiliar territory. Seeing nothing but more trees, she continued forward until finally something appeared: a dilapidated old shack, leaning precariously, surrounded by piles of junk. As she cautiously approached, Kala heard a scream, then faint crying.
Breaking into a run, she quickly reached the small house and peered through a bedroom window. Inside, a disheveled, weary-eyed woman, looking as worn out as the house itself, sat on the bare mattress of a bed. The room was empty except for the bed and an old chest of drawers cluttered with beer bottles, discarded cigarettes, and a crack pipe.
The woman’s age was impossible to tell. She seemed young, but at the same time, fatigued and old. She was tying a tan rubber tube around her upper arm. She flicked a vein on the inside of her elbow a few times, then picked up a syringe from the bed and pushed it into her arm.
Reaching behind her back, Kala pulled out her Glock, flicking the safety off as she went along the side of the house towards the door. She could hear Jennie’s anguished tears clearly now, as well as a man furiously shouting at her to shut up. Creeping up to the back door of the shack, Kala braced herself for a second, then pushed it open and stepped inside.
Instantly, the filth and smell of the appalling living conditions hit her. She was in a kitchen, the sink filled with dishes encrusted with long-dried food and swarming with flies. Ahead of her, she saw an overflowing trash can in a dilapidated living room with scattered beer bottles on the filthy floor. Stepping into the room and seeing the apparatus, she knew what this was, a meth lab, with a plate of blue crystals scattered on a table, and a shotgun leaning against the corner.
Kala still hadn’t seen anyone, but she could heard Jennie’s sobbing nearby, along with the man’s angry voice farther away and the woman yelling back at him. Entering a narrow hall, she saw Jennie lying on the floor against the wall, cradling her arm and crying. Running to the girl, Kala started to lift her up, but the instant she touched her forearm, Jennie screamed in agony. Kala realized the arm was broken.
The man’s voice suddenly exploded from somewhere behind them, “JENNIE, IF YOU DON’T SHUT THE FUCK UP, I’M GONNA MAKE YOU SHUT UP!”
Kala stood, a look of pure rage crossing her face as she raised the Glock and slowly stepped in the direction the voice was coming from. A gaunt, haggard-looking man with a straggly, unkempt beard strode out into the hall from one of the rooms. Seeing Kala, he shouted, “WHAT THE FUCK?!”
The Glock in Kala’s hand was her answer, its report deafening and its justice immediate. The man screamed and fell backward, grabbing his right thigh with both hands. Sprawled on the floor, he stared down at the blood pooling under his leg.
Kala walked towards him, the gun pointing at his head, her eyes flashing with fury. She glared at the man cowering before her. He dragged himself backwards down the hall, leaving a trail of blood on the grimy, wooden floor.
Her voice was cold and distant as she snarled, “It was you… the bruises… the fear in her eyes every night, never wanting to come back here… all because of you.”
The man, still dragging himself back, reached the corner behind him and stopped. He raised his bloody hands to shield his face as Kala aimed the Glock at him.
Jennie’s crying came to her ears, piercing through her rage.
Still pointing her pistol at the man’s head, Kala briefly turned towards Jennie as the girl trembled in terror on the floor, watching.
Kala’s voice was cold and deadly, “Jennie, close your eyes and turn away.”
Jennie didn’t move. She remained staring wide-eyed at Kala and at her father, tears streaming down her face.
Kala raised her voice, scolding, “Jennie! Close your eyes!”
Jennie still didn’t make a move. Crying, she clutched her arm, staring at them. Kala, feeling exasperated, fixed her deadly gaze on the man again, wanting so badly to squeeze the trigger.
“What do you want?” he pleaded.
“Jennie,” she growled back menacingly.
“You can’t take her,” he told her. “She’s my daughter.”
She spat the words at him, “Not any more!”
Lowering the Glock, Kala went to Jennie. Carefully she knelt and raised the girl to her feet, holding her broken arm steady, then spoke quietly, “We’re leaving. Where’s your room?”
Jennie, barely managing to get the words out through her sobbing, said, “I don’t have one.”
“Then where do you sleep?”
Jennie looked at the far end of the hall, next to the kitchen. Kala followed her eyes.
There in a dark corner was an old, worn, threadbare blanket, lying on the floor with a small backpack next to it. On one end of the blanket was a faded blue dress, along with a pair of jeans and a shirt, which folded up served as her pillow.
Walking over, Kala saw some torn pieces of paper with pictures colored in crayon. A few discarded crayons lay next to the drawings. She picked up one of the pieces of paper. On it was a crudely drawn picture of a stick figure with a mohawk on a motorcycle with a smaller stick figure astride in front, both figures smiling. On another piece of paper, the two stick figures were holding hands and smiling with a heart drawn above them.
Tears ran down Kala’s cheek as the images burned into her. Rage began to fill her once again as her hand tightened around the grip of her Glock — but she pushed past that, focusing on Jennie’s backpack. She picked it up and stuffed the drawings inside, then went back to Jennie. Glaring at the man, who was still watching her from the other end of the hall, and with the backpack hanging in the crook of her elbow, Kala carefully picked up Jennie, gently cradling her broken arm.
“B-Betsy Bear,” Jennie reminded Kala, her crying mostly subsided. Pointed toward an open door, she said, “She’s in there.”
Kala carried Jennie along the hall in that direction, keeping her eyes on the man. Instead of walking into the room, she stood off to the side and peeked in. It was the bedroom she had seen earlier from outside. The woman was lying on her back on the mattress, her eyes staring blankly upward, not blinking, her arms akimbo, legs dangling off the edge. The syringe still stuck in her arm with a rivulet of blood trickling from it and pooling in the nook of her elbow. There, just under the bottom of the bed was a teddy bear, a dingy, pink Care Bear.
Looking at Jennie, Kala whispered, “Close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Please… just… just close them.”
Jennie did, and Kala gently pressed the girl’s head into her shoulder so she couldn’t see. Walking into the room, Kala used her free hand to feel for the woman’s carotid artery on her neck. There was no pulse. She was gone. Kala stared at her for a few seconds, then making sure Jennie still couldn’t see, she squatted down, grabbed the teddy bear and backed out of the room.
Taking one last look at the man in the corner and clutching Jennie tightly to her, she bolted. Out of the house, through the grove of woods, and towards her bike in the Highland Mall parking lot.
Upon reaching the Honda, she carefully set Jennie on the seat, then quickly stuffed the teddy bear and backpack in the tail bag strapped to the back of her bike, then pulled off her belt. Looping it around Jennie’s neck, she used the belt as a strap to keep Jennie’s arm suspended. Climbing on behind Jennie, she fired up her bike and slowly drove to an emergency clinic that was a few miles down the road.
*****
Kala opened the door for Jennie to walk inside the North Austin Urgent Care Clinic. After leading her to a chair, Kala stepped up to the receptionist, “My daughter broke her arm.”
The receptionist handed her a form on a clipboard. “Fill this out please.”
She took it and sat down beside Jennie. As Kala began completing the form, she said quietly, “I’m putting my last name on this so it will look like you’re my daughter.”
Kala continued filling out the paperwork, occasionally asking Jennie questions, such as her date of birth, until the nurse called them back. Jennie’s arm was X-rayed and then they were left alone in the examining room for the doctor to come see them. Kala turned to Jennie, “All those times that you didn’t want me to walk you home…”
Jennie looked down at the floor, sadly whispering, “I didn’t want him to hurt you.”
Kala hugged the child, kissing the top of her head, then tilting her chin up so Jennie could see her. “No one will ever hurt you again.”
Several minutes later, the doctor came in, explaining it was a only a slight fracture that should heal on its own in a week or two. He placed Jennie’s arm in a soft cast made of padded cloth that could easily be removed by unbuckling the strap, wrote a prescription for some pain relievers, and they left the clinic. Kala slowly drove to Walgreens to pick up the prescription, then to her house.
*****
Kala pulled into the garage and after getting off herself, carefully lifted Jennie down. Going inside, Kala led her to the couch. She went into the kitchen for a glass of water, then gave Jennie one of the pills and sat down with her, watching as she swallowed it. Her eyes were still red and swollen, though she wasn’t crying any more.
“Does it hurt much?” Kala asked.
Jennie nodded. Kala carefully hugged her, whispering, “I’m so sorry.”
After pulling back, Kala turned on the TV, flipping through the channels till Jennie said, “Can we watch this?”
Kala smiled. It was a cartoon channel with old cartoons from the seventies and eighties. They sat together for a minute, then Kala said, “I’m going to outside and call Raven, okay?”
“Okay,” Jennie mumbled.
Kala first went to the kitchen for a beer, then stepped out into the front yard and looked up at the clear, blue sky, shaking her head. It was hard to imagine how the world could look so beautiful when other people’s worlds were so fucked-up.
As she took a swig of beer, the implications of what she had done weighed on her. Jennie was actually staying with her. But could she keep her? How would that work? What about school? Let’s just take this one day at a time, she told herself.
*****
At Highland Mall, Raven and Bonnie were strolling hand-in-hand along one of the corridors after having their fun in JC Penney’s fitting room. Raven was listening to Bonnie ramble on about the kids at school.
“…so I said, ‘Why should I have to bring a present if Linda didn’t?’ See?! That’s what she does all the time She just thinks she’s sooo important because her mom is the principal. But I think she’s just full of it. And this one time, Steven forgot his math homework at home and…”
Raven rolled her eyes. Bonnie had been going on like this for a while, but despite the fact that Raven wasn’t really interested in any of it, she enjoyed listening to her.
Hearing her phone ring, she pulled it out and saw that it was Kala. “Yeah? … Fuck, is she all right? … What happened? … What are you going to do with her? … Yeah, okay… we’ll be right over.”
She put the phone away and just stood there for several seconds. Seeing the serious look on Raven’s face, Bonnie asked, “What’s wrong?”
The woman didn’t answer. Slowly she raised her arm and studied the scar on her wrist for a moment, then squatted down in front of Bonnie. “Something’s happened to Jennie.”
Bonnie grew quiet. “What?”
“Not everyone has a good home like you do. Do you remember a few days ago when you told me that Jennie would fall down a lot and hurt herself, and that she would forget her lunch, and that she kept wearing the same clothes every day?”
The girl nodded.
“Bonnie… Jennie never fell down. Her dad was hitting her. Her parents never gave her any lunch, or any new clothes.”
Bonnie’s face fell as she asked quietly, “But why would they do that?”
“They were bad people and didn’t love her.”
With tears coming to her eyes, Bonnie whispered, “You mean those bruises she had…” her voice cracked, “w-what happened?”
Raven quietly said, “Her father broke her arm.”
Bonnie couldn’t hold back the tears any more. They streamed down her face as she sobbed, words coming out in a jumble, “Why would he hurt her she’s my best friend why didn’t she tell me?”
Raven hugged the child, holding her close. “Because she was ashamed and thought it was her fault.”
“She didn’t want me to come over to her house,” Bonnie sobbed, “and, and I… t-teased her about how she was so clumsy… w-why did I have to tease her?”
“You didn’t know. No one did. She’s safe now. She’s away from her parents, and with Kala. And we’re going to see her.”
*****
As soon as Raven lifted Bonnie off her bike, Bonnie ran to the door and knocked on it urgently. When Kala opened the door, Bonnie rushed past her into the living room to Jennie on the couch, staring at her arm in the cast. Not knowing what to say, she asked, “Does it hurt?”
“Not any more. Kala gave me a pill.”
“I-I didn’t know, Jennie…” Bonnie’s guilt overwhelmed her, and she teared up again. “I’m sorry for calling you clumsy.” She wiped her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jennie’s voice was faint and forlorn, “I didn’t want anyone to know.”
Outside on the front porch, Kala peeked in at Jennie through the window, then took a sip of her beer. “I mean, it was unbelievable the shit-hole she was living in. Some backwoods shack. Filthy as hell. Mom’s a junkie. Dad’s making meth. No bed and no clothes.”
She took another swig, then looked at Raven, “It was worse than when you were a kid. Her dad was going to pimp her on Twelfth Street! I’ve never wanted to kill anybody so bad!”
Raven asked, “Why didn’t you?”
“I tried, but Jennie kept looking at me.”
“Why didn’t you just call the cops and let them deal with it instead of bringing her here?”
“You know what they’d do!” Kala snapped. “Stick her in some foster home! That didn’t help you, did it?”
“So what are you going to do with her now?”
“I’m keeping her!”
Raven spoke sternly, “You don’t know anything about kids, Kala. You think you’re going to be her mom?!”
“Better than a foster home full of strangers!” Kala peeked through the window again at Jennie on the couch. “I’m all she’s got.”
Raven’s tone softened, “Come on, give her to the police. You know you can’t keep her.”
Kala remained looking inside at Jennie, a hurt look on her face as she asked, “Why not?”
Raven replied quietly, “You know who we are… and what we do.”
Inside the house, Bonnie’s phone rang. Pulling it out of her pocket, she saw that it was her mom and hit the DECLINE button. Then, seeing that her mom had also called earlier, she told Jennie, “Sorry, I gotta go.”
After carefully hugging Jennie, she went out onto the front porch, “Raven, I gotta go back home now.”
“Okay,” the woman nodded. Then turning to Kala, out of sight of Bonnie, she said, “Kala…”
As Kala looked, Raven tapped the fiery Burning Angels figure tattooed on her upper chest. Kala stared at it for a few seconds, until Raven turned and took Bonnie’s hand, walking with her to the garage. A minute later, they drove out and away, leaving Kala deep in thought.
Continue on to Chapter 6