“No.”
She looks through the garbage some more. She picks out the empty brownie box. “This, too?”
I nod my head yes. It is good in milk.
“Without baking it? Did you get sick? Did you throw up, I mean?”
But that was three questions in a row.
Crystal with a C makes a breathing sound. “I don’t know if I should get you a laxative or worry about diarrhea. Look, tomorrow you have to eat what I tell you. I’ll even write it down. You can’t eat everything that’s in the refrigerator or you’ll make your tummy really upset. You could get constipated. Do you understand?”
I don’t know what constipated means so I say, “No.”
“Just eat what I put on the list, okay?”
“I like lists,” I say.
“Good. Now, why don’t you put these new groceries away for me while I get dressed? Then we’ll make supper together. I’ll show you how to make scrambled eggs.”
She drops the brownie box back in the garbage can.
“Wait,” I say.
She looks at me.
“What town do Gloria and my Baby Doll live in?” I say.
“They’re still in Harrington Falls. Now go get those groceries put away. I need to get changed out of these clothes.”
25
EXACTLY 6:50 AT NIGHT,
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20TH
I am standing with my toes on the crack at the edge of the doorway trying to figure how to get out of the Little White House without getting wet. Because it rained all day and my raincoat is back at the Blue House. And I don’t like to be wet. I like to be dry all the time unless I’m taking a bath or a shower or I’m in a pool. Not having a raincoat is making me very, very anxious. I am trapped.
Crystal with a C doesn’t have a raincoat either. I checked.
At seven o’clock it is still raining so I take my shower because Crystal with a C said that’s what I should do from now on if she’s not home yet. When I turn the water off and step out of the tub I find something hard and black on my leg. I can’t get it off and I can’t see what it is because I’m not wearing my glasses. Then I put them on but it’s too steamy to see. I hear noises on the other side of the door. I’m guessing it’s Crystal with a C so I walk out of the bathroom and into the kitchen and see her setting the table. “There’s something on my leg,” I say.
And she says, “Ginny, get a towel!”
So I go back into the bathroom and get a towel and put it around me. Then I come back out and say again, “There’s something on my leg.”
“Let me see it,” she says. She stands up and looks. Then she says, “I need to get some tweezers. Come with me into the bathroom, all right?”
We go into the bathroom. She finds some tweezers in the medicine cabinet and pulls the hard thing off. It hurts when she pulls it so I say, “Ow!” Then she shows it to me. She says it is a tick.
The tick is a small black bug. I know because it has legs.
“All right,” she says. “Let me check to see if you have any more. There are a ton of them out here.”
She takes the towel off and looks at my legs and arms and back. She checks my belly and my sides. She finds three more ticks and takes them all off. One is on my back where a belt goes. One is near my knee. And one is on my ankle.
Then I say, “Why were they holding on to me?”
And she says, “They weren’t holding on. They were biting. Ticks bite into people’s skin.”
“Why do they do that?”
“To drink their blood.”
Then I get really, really scared.
So I say, “Like a vampire?”
And she says, “Yes, sort of.”
The pictures in my head start moving faster. I remember the vampire movies Gloria used to watch on TV. When a vampire bites someone the person turns into a vampire. So I say, “Am I going to turn into a tick?”
“Of course not,” she says. “But how on earth did you get covered in ticks? Ginny, have you been outside?”
That was two questions at once so I don’t say anything.
“Ginny, I asked you if you’ve been outside.”
“It is raining,” I say.
“Yes, I know it is raining, and I know you don’t like to get wet unless you’re in the shower, but that’s not the answer to my question. Did you go outside?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you go?”
“Down the driveway.”
“Today?”
“No.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Ginny, you can’t do that. If someone sees you, you’ll get caught, and then you won’t be able to go with me to Canada. You won’t be able to see your Baby Doll.”
So I say, “But I have to make sure it’s safe. Gloria can’t take care of it.”
“Holy shit! Yes, she can! It’s only for a little while! Your Baby Doll isn’t even—”
Then she stops. “Look, I’m not a psychologist. I don’t know what you can process and what you can’t. But there’s something you’re just not seeing yet, and I’m seriously afraid to explain it. I don’t want you to blow a gasket or anything. So please, please, believe me that your Baby Doll is safe with Gloria for now. Maybe not forever, but for now. Just stay put, will you? It’s only for a few weeks!”
26
EXACTLY 6:22 IN THE MORNING,
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21ST
It isn’t raining anymore.
Before I was adopted I tried to run away three times from my different Forever Homes but the police always found me and brought me back. I ran away from Carla and Mike when I was still nine years old and then two times from Samantha and Bill when I was eleven. But this time is different because I’m not running away from Crystal with a C. She kidnapped me so she can’t call the police. Even if she wants to. She’ll get in trouble if she does.
I know it’s mostly an expression but sometimes I am a smart cookie.
Crystal with a C left for work five minutes ago. I am wearing my jacket and standing at the crack in front of the front door. I already put the unopened milk and the bread in my backpack with my flute and my quilt. So I go outside. It is a sunny day even though the trees and grass are still wet from the rain. And it is cold.
Now I know that Gloria and my Baby Doll live in Harrington Falls. Even though I don’t know where that is I can find it. I can stop at the library or ask a lady for directions when I find a sidewalk.
At the bottom of the driveway I look both ways. I look for hunters. I look for police. I see only the empty road with no cars or people or moose which are crazy this time of year.
I turn left and start walking. I’m guessing if I go to town no one will be looking for me because it’s been two whole days since I met the man with the gun who sometimes forgets how to walk the right way. The sand on the side of the road kicks up against the back of my legs and gets in my shoes but I have to be okay with that because I have a long way to go to Harrington Falls. And I know that if I walk in the woods I’ll get ticks that suck my blood.