Plausibility (22 page)

It took only 25 minutes and the flock was gone. Three days of camping outside was put to rest in 25 short minutes.

Aquilla stepped away from her mother’s hold and walked back to the house. She needed a moment. She needed to be alone and sort out the confusing feelings. Her dad smiled a reassuring smile as she passed. Reese patted her back as she stepped through the door.

Seri wanted to go to her, but didn’t want to step on her mother’s toes.

“Do you want to go to her?” she asked. Somebody needed to, whether it was her or Seri. Somebody needed to make sure she was okay.

“I don’t know what to say to her,” Liz admitted.

Seri smiled. “Just let her know that you are there for her,” she explained.

Aquilla tried. Where the hell were these tears coming from? They were really starting to piss her off. She quickly wiped them away when she heard the tap on the door. It wasn’t Seri. Seri wouldn’t knock. What the hell? Couldn’t they just leave her alone?

“What!?!” she yelled.

Liz opened the door and sat on Seri’s bed. She wasn’t sure what to say. She could tell that she was crying. She wished she could wrap her in her arms and tell her that it was all going to be okay. Had it been Reese, she would have done just that. She couldn’t do that with Aquilla. Aquilla would push her away.

“I am so proud of you. Where the hell did you learn to demand that much respect? I need you to come and help me with my second graders,” she decided.

Aquilla smiled a warm smile. She knew none of this was her fault. She knew that her mother felt as though all of her years were robbed from her. They were, and no matter how much Aquilla didn’t want to be there, none of it was the fault of her first family. They were the victims in this fucked up mess.

“I was raised around a lot of power,” she admitted.

Liz didn’t respond. No response was needed. She knew she was there for her and that was her main goal. She wasn’t going to push her. She was going to try her best to let her do the walking (baby steps) while she prayed that she would be okay. She stood, kissed Aquilla on top of the head and left her.

Seri too left her alone for almost an hour before going to talk to her.

“Hey,” she said, moving her feet from the foot of her bed.

“Geesh, sit on your own bed,” Aquilla demanded, sitting up

“Monica just c
alled. She’s running late. You’re going to head out with your mom and sister. Monica and I should be there by five,” Seri explained.

“No, I’m not. I will go with you and Monica.”

“Quill, please go with your mother. It’s only about an hour drive.”

Aquilla got off the bed and walked past her, down the stairs and to her mother. Seri could only shake her head. She knew where she was going and she knew what she was up to. Seri was sure she had never met a more obstinate person in her life. She rose to follow.

Seri stood behind Quill, trying to give Liz an apologetic smile.

“Is it okay if I wait and ride with Seri and Monica?” she asked her mother.

Liz wanted to demand that she ride with her and her sister. She didn’t. She couldn’t. She knew it would only push her away more.

“I really wish you would ride with us. There is this little trailer that sits beside Benson road with the best eggrolls ever.” Yeah, like she was going to bribe her with an eggroll.

“I’m not really that hungry. I’ll just ride with Seri.”

<>

Seri was thankful that Aquilla was still there once Liz headed out. She hadn’t thought about being left alone with Manny. That could have been bad, or really good. She needed away from her dad. She wanted to do dirty things with her dad. God, she needed to get laid. How much longer was she expected to stay there?

Manny wasn’t too happy about the situation either. He had let himself get a little excited about being left alone with her. He too needed away from Seri.

The three of them sat out on the front porch, waiting for Monica’s arrival. Emmanuel brought them out a cherry Popsicle, and within a couple of minutes, they all looked to be wearing red lipstick.

“What is that noise?” Aquilla asked, turning to her dad.

“Oh, that’s Powder Valley. It’s an old dirt track. That’s how this road got its name. When they race there on Saturday nights, there’s a blanket of dust for miles. Your mother hates that race track.”

“Where is it?” she wanted to know, turning her attention back to the noise in the distance.

Manny pointed down the street. “It’s the next road to your right.”

“Have you ever been there? Why are they racing during the day?”

“That’s not a race. It’s probably just some thug running circles around the track. It’s a lot louder than that when they’re racing, and no, I’ve never been there. You like racing?”

Aquilla shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve never seen one.”

“Well, maybe some weekend before the snow starts flying, I’ll come and go with you,” he smiled.

Snow?
She forgot about that, she had never seen snow in her life. Well, not that she could remember anyway. Snow meant cold. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that either. She liked the tropical atmosphere that she was raised in.

Manny loaded their things into the back of Monica’s SUV before heading out
himself. He kissed Aquilla on the head and told her to call him anytime she wanted, and he would see her in a couple of weeks.

She thanked him and climbed into the back seat with Julius’s laptop. She could read for an hour while pretending to play a game or something.

“You’re very pretty,” Monica said through the rearview mirror as they drove down her new neighborhood. “Powder Valley.”

“Thanks,” Aquilla replied as she adjusted her body to a leaned position against the door.

“We could spend this time talking if you want,” Monica offered.

“Or not,” Aquilla replied, logging onto her computer.

The look between the two women sitting next to each other in the front seat didn’t go unnoticed.

I’m not going to go into the details about the accident, Quill. I can’t. It was horrific. I knew something bad was going to happen. We were going so fast. I knew my mother had removed her seatbelt and slid over to hold scared, crying Quill on her lap. She shouldn’t have done that. She should have kept them both secured.

I crawled out the window of the overturned car first. I was dazed, but wasn’t hurt. I looked up the bank and saw the police cars sliding to stops up the hill. I turned and saw my mother’s legs hanging from beneath the car. I didn’t see Quill until my father grabbed my arm and pulled me away. Her feet were beneath my mother’s body, one shoe on, one shoe thirty feet from the car.

He just left them there, Quill. He never even tried to remove the car. I knew, even at the age of ten, that she had no identification on her. My father refused to let any of us take anything with us that day. Humph, I guess I learned to do the same thing as I got older. I never carried identification if I was working a deal. To this day, my mother and little sister are known by Jane and daughter Doe.

That is so fucked up, Quill. They are in a cemetery somewhere in New York with a marker that reads Jane and Daughter Doe. Do you want to know what her name was? Sure you do. Her name was Sarina, and she was so pretty, Quill.

We didn’t walk very far before we were back to civilization. I remember him pulling me into an alley once when we saw a police car creeping along the street, searching for us, I was sure. I’m sure he had gone crazy at that moment. He wasn’t talking. He never said one word to me.

Once we made it back to that warehouse to retrieve our bags, he made me go to the bathroom and we both changed clothes. He told the guy that we had gotten the car from to burn my mother and Quill’s things. I started crying. He was just throwing them away. I’ll never forget that look in his eyes when he grabbed both my shoulders and shook me. He was no doubt crazy.

He yelled and told me that I wasn’t allowed to cry. He told me that it was business and sometimes things happen that we can’t control. My mother and sister being crushed by a car was just business.

The man from the warehouse drove us to the busy streets and dropped us off. I didn’t understand what we were doing. Were we really going to the parade? His wife and daughter were dead, and we were going to a fucking parade.

I really don’t know if we went there for that reason or not. Maybe we were there because he promised. You know how we Chavez’s are when it comes to keeping our word. When we stood beside you and your mother, I watched you climb out of your stroller and then watched your mother place back in. I didn’t care about the parade anymore. I wanted to leave. I wanted my mother and my little sister. I wanted to cry and I sure as fuck didn’t want to watch the stupid parade.

The next time you climbed out of the stroller, your mother’s back was turned. She was waving down the elbow to elbow sidewalk for someone to see her. You knelt right in front of us to pick up an unnoticed piece of candy.

My father picked you up, took my hand and walked us through the crowd. Nobody stopped him, nobody paid attention. I heard your mother’s frantic screaming by the time we were at the end of the block. I wonder now how all of those people let you slip through the crack like that. I guess nobody was paying attention to a girl being kidnapped. They were all busy with their own agendas.

You should have cried and screamed, Quill. You didn’t. You were always too
, over zealous when it came to talking to strangers. You just wanted my balloon. My father gave it to you and you were as happy as could be.

Even at ten, I couldn’t believe what was happening. Forty minutes later, we were on a plane. Nobody asked questions. I remember my father giving you some kind of liquid in a plastic spoon. Something to make you sleep, I’m sure. You did sleep, and he covered your head with a blanket and handed over your passport. He walked you right through customs without one problem. You were Aquilla from that day forward. 

I wanted to hate you, Quill. My father brought you into our home as an imposter. You were not my little Quill. I avoided you for the first two days we were home. I was sad. I wanted my mother, my sister, and my father had lost his mind. Even as a boy, I knew this wasn’t right. He treated you as if you weren’t a fraudulent of the real Quill. I tried to treat you like you didn’t exist.

That changed on the third night. For three whole days, you danced around and played without a care in the world. On the third night, you realized something was amiss. You were playing with the real Quill’s toys while I ignored you. You looked up to me with those water blue eyes and said. “Where my
mommy go?” It broke my heart even as young as I was.

I realized then that you never asked for any of this. You were a victim as much as my mother and my sister. I held you in my arms that night while you cried yourself to sleep. I knew you were too young to understand, but I told you that I wanted my mommy too. I cried with you. I cried because I wanted you to go home to your mommy, and I wanted mine to come home to me.

After that night, you never let me ignore you. You followed me around like an instinctual orphaned lamb. I guess it was my instinctual habitat to adopt you, nurture you, and take care of you. I did. I became your protector. You became my responsibility. I wasn’t allowed to say the M word around you. My father wanted you to forget the “mommy” word. You did. It took a little while, but you finally forgot all about having a mommy that you were taken from.

Thinking about it infuriates me. I blame so many people. I blame your mother for not strapping you into that stroller. I blame the thousands of people that stood around while my
father walked you right out of the country. I blame your real father for not being there to protect you. I blame my mother for taking off her seatbelt to hold Quill. But, the only people to really blame here is my father, and maybe even me.

Although I couldn’t have done anything at the age of ten, I could have later on. I could have reported your whereabouts once I was older. I didn’t for my own selfish reasons. I loved you too much to ever let you go. You were the shine in my sun, and I didn’t want to live without you. I know it was self-centered, and I wish now that I would have. I know that if you are reading this, you are alone and scared. I’m with you, baby. My heart will always be with you. You are secure in my arms, always baby.

Aquilla slammed the laptop shut on that note. She had an aching in her chest that she had never felt before. And, of course, the tears had to surface. Fuck. She didn’t want to answer to Seri or this Monica bitch.

“Quill?” Seri said in a question, seeing her wipe her eyes and stare out the window, avoiding eye contact.

“Leave me alone,” she demanded.

Seri looked to Monica. She was the one with the PhD. She didn’t know what the hell to say to her. Monica shook her head, telling her to leave her alone.

Seri did leave her alone until they saw the little trailer that Liz had mentioned up ahead.

“Quill, do you want an eggroll?”

“No!”

“Come on, Monica and I are going to have one. Let’s get out and get lemonade and something to tie us over until supper.”

Monica pulled off the side of the road.

“You coming?” she asked, turning around to look at her, sitting slumped with crossed arms.

“No. Seri, stay here for a second,” Aquilla answered, wanting to be alone with Seri.

“Order us both a couple eggrolls and lemonade,” Seri requested.

“What’s going on, Quill?”
Seri asked, turning to her.

“Seri
, you’ve got to help me get out of here. I don’t belong here. I don’t want to be here. I have to find Julius. Please, Seri,” She pleaded.

Seri took a deep breath. She couldn’t imagine what she was going through, but what the hell was she supposed to do? Where did this even come from? She was fine when they left.

“Quill, please give this a chance. You’ve only been here for three days. Monica is going to help you work through these feelings.”

“I don’t want Monica. I want Julius. Can’t you understand that?”

“Quill, you can’t have Julius. You don’t even know where he is. Do you really think that he is somewhere sitting around waiting for you to find him? He’s probably already training someone else.”

“Fuck you, Seri. He’ll find me, you just wait. He’ll fine me.”

“Julius is not coming for you, Quill,” Seri assured her with the cold hearted truth.

Whatever, she would see. She didn’t need Seri or anyone else. She would find him, one way or another. She would.

“Everything okay?” Monica asked, as she entered with the greasy smelling food and tray full of drinks.

“Yup, just fucking great,” Aquilla replied, turning her attention back toward the window and away from bitch face Seri.

Monica looked over to Seri, wondering what the hell just happened. Seri shrugged her shoulders and took the drinks.

Aquilla, of course, didn’t want food or drinks and thought the eggrolls looked disgusting. Seri and Monica ate theirs and loved them. Liz was right. They were delicious.

The GPS coming from the dash informed them that they would turn right in 19 more miles. Seri looked back to Quill, still contemplating whatever was on her mind.

“Monica, Quill needs to get stoned before we get there,” Seri blurted out.

Aquilla perked up. Hell yeah. That was exactly what she needed. It relaxed her and the last time she did it, she had figured out how to break Julius’s code. Maybe something would come to her that would help her locate him. Talin sure wasn’t any help, her so-called friend never even texted her back. She knew why though. She knew that her father had picked up and moved them away as soon as he got word of the raid at her house. She didn’t have that cellphone anymore. Her father would have made sure of that.