By Girl Lover
Bonnie shivered and pulled her arms and legs in closer. Opening her eyes, she saw Raven beside her, smiled, and nuzzled against her.
That felt nice, but the dirt floor of the barn felt hard beneath her. Bonnie remembered the warm, soft bed back at her house. And she also remembered how empty and dead she’d felt there. How the pain was so bad, she wanted to die. She remembered holding the knife to her belly, feeling its sharp point against her skin…
Shivering in the cold air, she shook off the bad memories and pushed her face deeper into Raven’s warm and inviting chest.
Raven woke up to something pushing. She opened her eyes and saw Bonnie nestled against her. Smiling, she reached her arm around the girl, pulling them closer together, then slid her hand up into Bonnie’s long hair, strumming her fingers through it. Pressing her face onto the top of Bonnie’s head, Raven felt the soft, tickly feel of her hair against her lips and nose.
After a while, she noticed the morning light coming in through the wooden boards of the barn. Raven sat up, pulled out her phone, and looked at Google Maps.
“Whatcha doing?” Kala asked.
“Trying to figure out where we can go. Jadis knows all the roads in this area, and she has friends. She’ll have people watching for us on every highway. We need to find some small back road, like this dirt road here…” she pointed out the door “…till we get to… there.” She pointed at the map. “Highway 287. It’s a smaller highway going to Amarillo. From there we’ll head to Colorado.”
“Colorado?! You want to leave Texas??”
Turning to Kala, Raven said quietly, “We took over a hundred grand of the gang’s money. There’s no way Jadis is just gonna let us go. She has connections all over Texas. Bounty hunters, other gangs. She has this knack, this sixth sense for finding people. I’ve seen her locate people that I swore were impossible to find. If we stay in Texas, she will find us and when she does…”
She looked at the girls still sleeping, and shook her head. “We can’t take any chances.”
*****
Not long after the kids woke up, they were on their way. They took Route 51 heading toward the town of Decatur where they turned northeast onto Highway 287. A couple of hours later, about 10:30, they stopped for gas and breakfast. Raven and Kala urged the girls to eat quickly, and within fifteen minutes they were on the road again.
The drive was long. Every couple of hours, they had to pull over to stretch their legs. Small towns and empty pastures passed by under the hot Texas sun. Only when they finally pulled into Amarillo did Raven feel they could relax a bit instead of constantly rushing to put as much distance as possible between them and Weatherford.
It was late afternoon and they were eating dinner at a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store on I-40 in the middle of Amarillo. They had parked their bikes behind the restaurant so they couldn’t be seen from the highway. During the meal, Raven kept glancing out the window to see if there were any other bikes going by, but all she saw were cars racing down the highway.
“Let’s get a room at that hotel there,” said Kala, pointing across the parking lot. “The girls are tired.”
After thinking about it, Raven said, “I was hoping to get inside Colorado first, but I guess it’s okay here.”
Startled by the whine of a motorcycle speeding by, she reached for her gun and had pulled it halfway out — before realizing it was just some biker driving by, and not a Burning Angel.
Slowly letting out her breath, Raven slid the gun back inside its holster. She looked at Kala. “The farther away we get, the safer I’ll feel.”
As they were getting ready to leave the restaurant, Bonnie noticed the gift shop and she and Jennie whined about wanting to go in there until finally Raven sighed and nodded her head. The kids gleefully ran inside, looking at everything.
While Raven and Kala followed them around, the girls kept bringing candy and toys and souvenirs up to them. Unable to resist Jennie’s charm, Kala agreed to buy her a coloring book, crayons, a game, and several pieces of candy.
Frowning, Raven told Kala, “Jennie doesn’t need all that.”
“She grew up with nothing,” Kala reminded her.
Seeing all the stuff Jennie was getting, Bonnie started pestering Raven. Still feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt from everything that had happened to Bonnie, Raven gave in, feeling that she owed her.
After making all their purchases, they moved the bikes behind the hotel, then went in to get a room. In the lobby, the girls were looking at brochures in a rack by the counter until Bonnie walked around and saw the swimming pool outside.
“Jennie! They have a pool!”
Immediately, the pair began clamoring, “Can we go in the pool?! Can we go in the pool?!”
Chuckling at their cuteness, Kala told them, “None of us have suits.”
“Awww…” they collectively groaned.
They went up to their room on the fourth floor. The kids immediately raced to the window, looking down on the highway far below in amazement, while Raven stretched out on one of the beds, hands folded behind her head. Bonnie soon left the window and began jumping on the other bed. Jennie quickly joined in, the two little girls bouncing on it like a trampoline and giggling in wild abandonment.
Raven felt a moment of relief at seeing Bonnie’s joy. That terrible image of Bonnie lying hurt on the bed in Weatherford still troubled her. She felt consumed with guilt, certain it was all her fault.
“You okay?”
Raven turned toward Kala. She sat up with a sigh, pulling up one of her legs. “I still blame myself for what happened. I’d warned you about taking Jennie along, but I’m the one who left Bonnie alone. It’s… I don’t know. I’m still trying to come to grips with everything.”
Kala sat down on the bed beside her. “So, have you thought about what we’re gonna do now? It’s not like we can just keep on running, like a bunch of nomads. That’s no life for them. They need to go to school, and have some normalcy.”
“We’ll find some small town off the beaten path, and start over,” said Raven. “We’ve got plenty of money to last us several years. We’ll find some place to stay… get jobs…”
She looked the girls laughing and bouncing on the bed. “And… I guess we’ll be a family.”
After a minute, Kala asked, “What about Bonnie’s family?”
“You have to remind me about that?” Raven glared.
“She does have a family, you know.”
“Yeah… but she wants to be with me.”
The women sat quietly watching Bonnie and Jennie enjoy themselves. After they eventually tired of jumping on the bed, Jennie settled down with her new crayons and coloring book while Bonnie opened the jigsaw puzzle she got at the gift shop, dumping the pieces from the box onto a small table.
She called to Raven, “Come help me with my puzzle.”
Raven got up and went over to the table as Bonnie spread out the pieces. “You know,” Raven told her, “if we can’t finish this by tomorrow morning, we’ll have to take it all apart and put it back in the box when we leave.”
“Where are we going?” Bonnie asked.
“I don’t know. North.”
“Why can’t we go back to your house?”
“We’re going to get a new house, somewhere else.”
As Bonnie and Raven began studying the pieces, looking for matching ones, Kala got up and went to the other bed where Jennie lay stretched out on her stomach, happily coloring. Kala stretched out beside her.
“Here,” Jennie handed her a blue crayon. “You can do the sky.”
So Kala did just that, while silently laughing to herself at how she was actually coloring in a coloring book. ‘Just another way my life has changed,’ she thought.
*****
Mid-evening, as they were watching TV, Raven noticed Bonnie nodding off. “Come on, we need to get washed up and then go to bed,” she told her.
Going into the bathroom, Raven turned on the water in the tub, and they proceeded to get undressed. As she pulled her shirt off, the Burning Angels tattoo on Raven’s chest stared backed at her in the mirror. She stood transfixed by the fiery figure, thinking, ‘So much has changed.’ She still clearly remembered the day when she, Ash, and Zia were at Blue Tattoo where she got the emblem. She’d been so proud of it. So proud of her new family. And now… her family was hunting her…
“Come on, Raven!”
Her head snapped around at the sound of her name. She found Bonnie standing naked in the tub, waiting for her. Raven finished undressing and stepped in.
Bonnie, her hands already lathered with soap, started caressing the woman’s breasts, playing with the nipples, but Raven stopped her, saying gently, “Let’s just take a shower. No fooling around. You need to catch up on your sleep and… I’m not really in the mood for anything tonight.”
Surprised, Bonnie stared up at her. “I thought we could have sex.”
“Well, but… neither one of us got much sleep last night, and you…” Raven hesitated, unsure how to word it. “You had… a rough day yesterday. I think we should just take it easy tonight, and get a good night’s sleep.”
“Okay,” Bonnie mumbled, as she began washing her own body instead of Raven’s.
Raven silently sighed as she cleaned herself. It was obvious that Bonnie was disappointed, but Raven was not in the mood at all. From Bonnie’s rape to having to kill three of her friends to running for her life, Raven couldn’t see that she would ever be in the mood again.
Outside the bathroom, Jennie was standing at the window, looking out onto the night sky. Kala came up behind her, then put her arms around the girl. “Whatcha thinking?” Kala murmured.
“Nuthin. I was just looking at the lights.”
They stood quietly.
“Kala?”
“Hmmm?”
“Why can’t we go back home?”
Kala didn’t know how to answer. Finally she said, “Me and Raven are looking for a nice place for us all to live.”
“But I like your house.”
“I know you do, but we’re trying to find a better one.”
After a few minutes, Raven and Bonnie came out of the bathroom and got into bed. Bonnie stretched out her arms and legs, “This feels so much better than last night.”
Raven cringed. “I’m sorry we had to sleep in that dirty barn. It’s just that I didn’t know what else to do.”
Bonnie snuggled up to her, saying simply, “It’s okay. I was with you.”
Kala and Jennie went into the bathroom. Like Raven, Kala didn’t want Jennie staying up too late, so they simply took a quick shower, then came out and climbed into the second bed. For a while they lay there, listening to the silence while watching each other, then Jennie whispered, “Kala… can we do… Mommy-Baby again?”
Kala whispered back, “We really need to get some sleep.”
“But I’m not sleepy and I really want to,” the child implored.
Though Kala knew it could get out of control, she did enjoy doing that, and more importantly, Jennie did. ‘I’m just going to breastfeed her,’ she told herself. ‘No sex.’
“Okay,” Kala nodded.
Jennie’s eyes sparkled as she gazed at the full-looking breasts before her. Then she scooted closer, opened her mouth, and eagerly latched onto an erect nipple. Curling up into a little ball, she suckled while Kala tenderly held her head and stroked her back.
‘God! I love this,’ the woman thought as she watched Jennie mouth her breast.
Her hand continued running along Jennie’s body, down her back, across her butt crack, and down her legs, caressing the smooth skin. Kala could feel a stirring in her center, causing her to squeeze her legs together. Her hand moved from Jennie’s legs to her own slippery pussy. Slipping two fingers inside, she pistoned them in and out, faster and faster, while her thumb pressed against her clit. The excitement grew, and within a minute, she had to clench her teeth tightly together, trying to keep the moans from coming out.
Jennie heard the stifled noises escaping from Kala’s lips and pulled back, looking up at her. Seeing the intense look on her face, she realized what was happening and became spellbound as she watched.
Kala’s eyes were tightly closed so she didn’t know that Jennie was watching her until after the orgasm was over. When she saw the little girl looking up at her in awe, she smiled.
“Did you get the good feeling?” asked Jennie.
“Uh-huh. Did you like watching me get it?”
Jennie nodded. Kala kissed her and said, “Let’s go to sleep.” They nestled together, closed their eyes, and soon fell asleep.
*****
The next morning, Raven was awakened by the feeling of someone touching her. She opened her eyes to see Bonnie happily squeezing her boobs. Rather than stopping her, Raven decided to watch. Bonnie obviously enjoyed doing it, and it did feel pleasant. When Bonnie noticed Raven watching her, she pulled her hands away with an embarrassed smile.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to stop,” Raven whispered. “It feels nice.”
As Bonnie resumed playing with her breasts, Raven was genuinely surprised at how good this felt to her. For the past two days she had not felt any lust at all, just an icky feeling inside. Now, Bonnie was a pleasant distraction from that as well as from the constant state of alarm her mind seemed to be in.
Closing her eyes, Raven gently ran her hand ran along Bonnie’s back as she enjoyed the soothing touch. Then she felt Bonnie’s fingers leave her boobs and felt them on her pussy instead.
Raven’s eyes popped opened as her hand blocked Bonnie’s. “No, I — I don’t want to do that.”
“But we always do.”
“I know, but now… I just… don’t want to.”
“Never?” Bonnie asked sadly.
“No, not never… just not now. I’m still trying to work out some stuff. I think… I think we should probably wait a few days for you to heal.”
“But my missy doesn’t hurt anymore,” the girl protested.
“Yes, but Jadis hurt you very bad. I want to give yourself time to heal.”
“Okay,” said Bonnie in a small, disappointed voice.
‘I need to give myself time to heal too,’ Raven silently admitted to herself.
Over in the second bed, the other two were also awake, softly caressing beneath the covers.
Kala’s fingers brushed along Jennie’s sides which made the child giggle. The cuteness of this prompted Kala to keep sliding her fingers along her sides even more. Jennie exclaimed between giggles, “You’re tickling me!”
“I can’t help it. You’re just too cute.”
Then Jennie said, “Your hair doesn’t stick up the way it used to.”
“Yeah, the gel I put in there doesn’t last very long when I sleep on it. Come on now, let’s exercise your arm.”
Jennie perched on her knees. Reaching down and picking up one of her boots, Kala handed it to her. “Can you lift this?”
She slowly did.
“Good. Do it ten more times.”
After Jennie completed ten repetitions without trouble, Kala had her lift the heavy boot in a different way. When she finished, Kala told her, “I don’t think you’ll need that cast anymore. Your arm seems to be healed.”
She dropped the boot back on the floor, then Jennie stated, “I’m hungry.”
“Me too,” Kala echoed, then looked at Raven. “Hey, does this motel have a complimentary breakfast?”
“Yeah, it does.” Turning to Bonnie, Raven asked, “Are you hungry?”
“Yeah!”
They got dressed and went downstairs to get breakfast, then carried it back up to their room. As they ate, Raven and Kala planned out their route, gas stops, and where they might spend the next night. Just before 11:00, they had checked out, loaded up their bikes, and were heading north on Highway 87 towards Oklahoma.
*****
By early afternoon they had entered Colorado.
The highway was an arrow-straight two-lane strip through flat barren land as far as they could see. There were no trees, no hills, not even any fences. Nothing. It was as if they were the only people on Earth until the occasional oncoming car would remind them they were not entirely alone.
Eventually, several small buildings came into view up ahead. They stopped to gas up, then pulled into a McDonald’s to eat lunch. After they finished, they headed out again. Turning west on Route 160, they sped through more empty expanses that seemed to go on forever. Occasionally, they stopped for gas and to rest, but it was only a momentary respite from the boredom. After a few hours, they started noticing small hills and trees. It was a pleasant change from the drab scenery they’d been traveling through.
Late afternoon, as they were coming into another small town, Kala pointed at the dark clouds of a storm up the highway in front of them. Raven nodded. They pulled off into a motel parking lot and parked behind the building, away from the road. The town consisted of only a few dozen stores and houses. The motel was on the edge of town, backed by a forest and hiking trails that led up into the surrounding hills. They went into the lobby, and Raven got a room.
“Where can we eat around here?” Kala asked, looking around. There didn’t seem to be many choices.
Raven pointed across the road. “There’s a cafe over there.”
Leaving their bikes, they crossed the highway and went inside to get dinner. They ordered their meal to go, and brought it back to their room to eat. While the girls ate and watched TV, Kala asked Raven, out of earshot, “Where are we headed?”
“I don’t know. I’m just trying to get as far away as possible.”
“We’ve been riding now for hundreds of miles! Just how far away are you expecting to go? We need to pick somewhere and settle down.”
“Well, not here,” said Raven. “Too dismal.”
“I know, but I want to decide on a place tomorrow.”
After the kids were bored watching TV, Jennie spent the remainder of the evening with her coloring book while Bonnie sat on the floor and worked on her jigsaw puzzle with Raven. When it started getting dark outside, Kala and Jennie went into the bathroom to bathe.
As Bonnie was trying to fit a piece in, she suddenly blurted, “Can we have sex tonight?”
Raven looked at her peculiarly. “Bonnie, you know I want to. It’s just…”
Raven’s hesitation was Bonnie’s answer. “Why won’t you?”
“I… don’t want to remind you of Jadis.”
“But you’re not her. You’re nice, and you love me.”
“It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
“Well, it feels right to me.”
Raven leaned back against the bed, “Bonnie, I don’t want you to rush into it again, and then have bad memories of what happened. I want you to think about it.”
The nine-year-old was quiet for a few seconds. Then she announced, “Okay, I thought about it.”
Feeling slightly annoyed, Raven rolled her eyes. “C’mon, it’s…”
Bonnie stood up. “I’ve thought about it and I’m ready.” Before Raven could reply, she began taking off her clothes. Sighing, but nodding her head, Raven hoped this wouldn’t be a mistake.
As they climbed into bed naked, Raven said, “Now, let’s try and take it slow, okay? Let’s just kiss for now.” Bonnie lay down beside Raven, looking at her expectantly. Raven drew her closer, and slowly kissed the little girl as they intertwined their limbs. Bonnie, having almost no experience in kissing, simply gave Raven’s lips repeated pecks until Raven, smiling, pulled back and told her, “Here, just keep still, and I’ll kiss you. Then move your lips like mine.”
Raven placed her mouth over Bonnie’s and gently rolled her lips. At first Bonnie didn’t respond, then following Raven’s coaxing, she began moving her lips too, trying to mimic what the woman was doing. After a few minutes, Raven turned onto her back, pulling Bonnie on top of her. They continued kissing, with Bonnie gradually improving, or at least making an effort.
Then, without warning, Bonnie broke the kiss and pulled back. She’d had both hands on Raven’s breasts, holding and gently squeezing them while they kissed, but now she wanted to look at them. Raven’s boobs completely fascinated Bonnie. They were so big and soft and felt so good to touch.
“Go ahead,” said Raven, chuckling to herself. “Do whatever you want.”
As she’d done on their first night together, Bonnie spent the next little while just playing with Raven’s breasts, pulling and poking and squeezing and thoroughly enjoying herself, like a kid with a favorite toy — until again without warning, she changed course. She moved down on the bed, kneeling between Raven’s legs. Leaning in close, she slid her fingers all around, touching the woman’s pussy lips, feeling the warm, slick skin, and finally pushed a finger inside. Raven groaned in pleasure.
“Do you want me to lick it again?” Bonnie asked.
“Yeah, I do,” Raven answered, her voice husky with desire.
Bonnie stuck her tongue out and using just the end gave small licks here and there.
“Bonnie.” The girl stopped licking and looked up. “Don’t just lick a few spots,” Raven instructed. “Lick all over.”
“Okay,” Bonnie answered cheerfully before putting her head back down and continuing. Using long slow licks reminiscent of a cat, she started on one side and licked towards the other side, though somehow never quite managing to hit Raven’s clit.
Raven was observing all this while propped up on her elbows, holding her breasts in her hands and pinching the nipples. After a few minutes, she closed her eyes and laughed silently, thinking, ‘Shit, she is so bad at this. Well, at least compared to a grownup.’
However, although Bonnie was awkward and mostly ineffective at pussy licking, the sight of her doing it definitely was turning Raven on. She reached down and pulled back her labia, pointing to her clit, and told Bonnie to lick her right there.
Bonnie eagerly did, and despite the child’s inexperience, Raven soon reached climax. Her muscles tensed up as she let out a loud wail, “UUUUHHHHHHHHHHhhhhh…”
She was left a limp rag doll, panting for breath. After several seconds, she opened her eyes — and saw Kala and Jennie staring at her from the bathroom doorway.
“What?!” Raven exclaimed.
“Oh, nothing,” Kala replied with a chuckle, as she led Jennie, still goggling, to their bed.
“Did I do good?” Bonnie asked hopefully.
Raven raised up, pulling Bonnie to her and giving her a kiss. “You did great.”
“Now you do me!” Bonnie urged, bouncing on her knees.
Smiling at her enthusiasm, Raven said, “All right, lie down.”
Bonnie did, and Raven gazed at her lithe form. After drawing a finger slowly from her flat chest down to her bald mound, she starting teasing the little girl, tickling her sides and making her laugh. ‘God, I missed this!’ Raven thought to herself.
When they finished the tickle game with Bonnie red-cheeked and giggling, Raven slid her hands down along her slim, youthful legs. She felt the smooth supple skin beneath her fingers, then moved her hands underneath Bonnie’s knees. She raised her legs up high, pushing them back and causing Bonnie’s bottom to lift off the bed. Holding her legs back, she leaned over and gently kissed her tiny vulva.
Her tongue pushed its way past the closed outer lips, swirling around, coating Bonnie’s insides with saliva. Bonnie watched keenly at first, trying her best to learn from what Raven was doing, but before long her body began to stir and tremble. The child’s eyes glazed over as she found herself breathing harder. Her head fell back, “Ohhh, Raven… it’s… it’s… ooh… uuuuhhhhhhhhhh…”
On the other bed, Jennie was enthralled, watching all this wide-eyed, her mouth hanging open. Kala sat beside her, taking in Jennie’s reaction with an amused look.
Jennie watched as Bonnie’s eyes squeezed tightly shut and her hips began twitching uncontrollably. After grunting a few times, Bonnie let out a long, heavy groan, then almost seemed to faint, her arms and legs dropping flat on the bed.
“Woowww…” breathed Jennie.
Bonnie lay still, utterly exhausted, as she drank in air. It always amazed her how sex felt so good but tired her out so much. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes to find Raven lying beside her. Giving her a big smile, she threw her arms around the woman, nestling against her.
“You like that?” Raven asked.
Bonnie nodded, “It was the most awesomest thing ever.”
They lay in each other’s arms for a couple of minutes, warmly cuddling, then Bonnie said, “I wanna read my book.”
She jumped off the bed, ran naked to get her backpack and fished through it till she pulled out the novel. Getting back in bed, she curled up against Raven and showed the book to her.
“This is Meg Duncan. Her and her friend Kerry solve mysteries together. In this one, Kathleen Hannigan’s ghost is haunting her house, and Meg and Kerry are trying to solve it. Jennie doesn’t like this that much, but I love ghost stories.”
Raven could see the girl’s eyes twinkling as she opened to her bookmark and began reading aloud.
With Bonnie reading to Raven, Jennie asked Kala, “D’ya wanna play Connect Four with me?”
“Sure,” Kala smiled, so Jennie got off the bed and got the game out of her bag. They had already played it a few times earlier. Although Jennie was a fairly competent player, Kala found herself letting Jennie win most of the time anyway, which made her as happy as it did Jennie.
An hour or two passed. Bonnie finished her book, and she and Raven snuggled together in bed. When Jennie and Kala grew tired of Connect Four, they put the game away then turned out the bedside lamp, leaving a light on in the bathroom, and crawled underneath the covers.
Lying in the half-darkness, Kala grinned at Jennie. As the little girl grinned back at her bashfully, Kala took her breast in her hand and offered it to her. Jennie’s eyes widened with desire. She hungrily closed her mouth around the nipple. While Jennie suckled, Kala held her head in place, stroking her hair.
Soon Kala’s pussy began getting wet. As she watched Jennie, the itch between her legs grew stronger and stronger — until Kala was unable to ignore it anymore. Reaching down, she frantically rubbed herself, and moments later began to come. Trying not to move too much or disturb Jennie, she held her breath as the orgasm shook her body. Then it was over, leaving her breathless. Panting, she opened her eyes and looked down at Jennie, who was grinning up at her as she continued sucking. Kala grinned back and curled her arms around the child.
*****
Bonnie awoke. It was dark except for the faint light from the bathroom. Groggy, she looked at the clock. 11:37. Raven was beside her in bed, snoring softly.
It must have been a dream. She’d thought she was back at her parents’ house. They were all on the couch watching a movie, like they would do every Friday night. When Bonnie got up to go get a Coke, that was when she woke up.
She lay quietly, thinking about it. It seemed like an eternity since she last saw her parents and at that time, she had hated them so much. Locking her up and keeping her away from Raven like she was some kind of criminal. But the dream had reminded Bonnie of how much she missed her mom and dad. And she knew they missed her.
Moving slowly so she wouldn’t wake Raven, she reached down to her backpack beside her on the floor and pulled it up onto the bed. Searching through it, she found the framed photo of the three of them at McKinney Falls State Park. Seeing their faces brought tears to her eyes as she realized it had been three days since she ran away. She hadn’t cared then if she ever saw them again, but now she realized that she did miss them.
As she thought about being gone three days, she also realized that, in her parent’s eyes, she had simply disappeared. No phone call. No warning. She began feeling awful about doing that to them. At the time, it wasn’t like she had a choice though. She couldn’t say anything to them about it. But now she should. She should call them so they’d know she was all right. She remembered a phone booth at the corner of the motel.
Putting the picture back inside her backpack and setting it down on the floor, she slowly pushed the blanket aside and swung her legs off the bed, then stood up. She moved slowly and carefully so she wouldn’t disturb the others who were asleep. Finding her clothes and shoes, she silently pulled them on and went to the door. She opened it as quietly as she could, stepped through, and closed the door behind her.
Outside, as she walked toward the phone booth, she looked up at the night sky. Unlike in Austin, she could clearly see the stars here. Reaching the payphone, she read the directions and began feeding in quarters. She dialed her mother’s cell phone number and waited.
The phone rang and rang. Just when she thought no one was going to answer, she heard her mom’s sleepy voice, “Hello?”
For a second, Bonnie was speechless at hearing a voice she hadn’t heard in days. How would her mom react? Angry? Happy? Sad?
“Hello?” her mother repeated.
Her eyes filling with tears, the child spoke, her voice barely a whisper. “Mom? It’s me, Bonnie.”
There was no reply for a moment, then she heard her mother say, “Bonnie?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
On the other end, her mother shouted, “HENRY! IT’S BONNIE!”
“Mom…MOM! I’m okay! …I’m okay! …I can’t tell you where. I’m with Raven… yes, that woman… she didn’t kidnap me! I ran away to be with her… I don’t want you to come get me, I want to be with her. We’re in love…”
Bonnie’s voice became angry, “Yes, I do! … No, I won’t! You don’t understand! You’re wrong about her. She loves me and is good to me. You just think I’m some little kid who doesn’t know what they’re doing, but I DO know! I LOVE HER! … NO! YOU LISTEN! She’s not making me do anything. I want to be with her and if you can’t understand that, then — goodbye!!”
Bonnie slammed the receiver onto its base, disconnecting the call. For a long time she just stood there, wiping her eyes as she cried. Then she turned around… and saw Raven leaning against the wall about twenty feet away, waiting for her. She ran to the woman, throwing her arms around her.
“Th-they don’t know you. They think you’re a bad person,” she sobbed into Raven’s shirt.
“But I have screwed up your life.”
Bonnie looked up at Raven, “I don’t care. I’d rather sleep on the dirt floor of a barn with you, than alone in my bed at home. I love you.”
Raven picked the girl up, holding her close, tears coursing down her own cheeks. “I love you too, Bonnie.”
Continue on to Chapter 11