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Charlie wiggled out of his mother’s grip and ran up the stairs, popping into the first room he came across. “If there are bags inside, it’s not okay to take it, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. Good job, sweetheart.” She called up to him as she raced up the stairs after him. It was a good thing that she had Charlie around. Chasing after him for six years would be practice enough for returning to cheerleading, and even worse... gym class.
“You find one you like, baby?”
He giggled as her kisses peppered his little face. “No. He’s not good at that kinda stuff. But other stuff, he’s good at other stuff.” Charlie didn’t have much to say about the rest of their so called “family” because he had not met them yet, but if history repeated itself, the experience of living with them would be lackluster at best.
To the question of seeing his new room, Charlie simply shook his head and replied, “mhm, mama.”
“Your daddy is good at a lot of stuff. And he loves you more than anything, and that’s what’s most important.” Abigale hoped for her family’s sake that this new ‘family’ was better than the rest. Aiden and Charlie deserved to have the entire world at their fingertips. She squeezed his hand and looked around their new home. It was beautiful. She was thankful that finally they were in a home where she felt that her son and husband could be safe.
“Race me upstairs? You can pick whatever room you want, baby.”
“Yeah but we won’t be in the saaame PE,” he sighed and lazily folded up the information. “How come dad doesn’t have to take it if you take it?”
Charlie took comfort in burying his face into his mother’s side as she ruffled his hair. He could smell the faint, yet distinct, smell of her perfume in the fabric of her blouse. It was the little, oftentimes intangible things such as that, that were his stability. “Can we have spaghetti for dinner, or does the new family have to pick all together?”
“Dad’s older than me. Plus, do you really want to see your dad playing sports? He’s not very good at them, baby.” The memory of shared high school PE classes with Aiden caused a smile to tug at the corners of her lips. She wished that Charlie could have seen Aiden trying to climb a rope or run a mile.
She lifted him up to carry him in her arms, smothering him with kisses as she stepped inside. “Well, sometimes we’ll have to pick with the whole family, but we can still have spaghetti a lot, too. I’m sure the new family will love you just as much as dad and I do, so they’ll probably spoil you, sweetheart!” She set him down and took his hand in hers. “Want to go see your new room?”
It seemed like everyone had arrived and she was the last one. It already felt weird, having to pretend to be part of a family. It was like foster care all over again, except this time with an entirely new identity and the story had to work and be good otherwise there’d be consequences. She looked around and sighed. This would be the first time in a long a time, she’d move to another place and would be alone. She usually had a partner, someone she knew and it’s not that she minded being alone, it’s that, it was her fault that things were like this. “So how is this going to work?”
Abigale understood the confusion that came along with a brand new assignment. Witness protection was very good at helping people play hide and seek from their enemies, but not so good at helping people adjust. Once you were hidden, often times you were on your own. She surveyed the blue-haired girl, then looked back up at the outside of the house. With a box full of her son’s things cradled in her arms, she tried to offer a somewhat helpful explanation. “Well, we have to act like a family. I’m sure it’s going to be hard to force a group of mostly strangers to be a tight knit family, but maybe we can pull it off.” She shifted to carry the box in one hand and extend the other hand for her to shake. “I’m Melody Riley, but I’m usually Abigale Miller.”
And there it was. That all too familiar guilt that seemed to make a home within his ribcage and chose to make an appearance at only the most inconvenient of times. “I doubt it could make him any more upset than the move has him,” he grumbled. With a sigh, Aiden dropped the cigarette to the asphalt to stomp it out. “I guess so. You don’t think it’s too big, do you? The first few weren’t like this. They weren’t this fuckin’ flashy… I don’t know if I like it.”
“Stop that. He is upset about the move, yes. But you work so hard to give him the best life that he could have, Aiden. You’re a great father, and he loves you. You know that.” A firm believer in only ever speaking the truth, the words fell from her mouth before she could stop them. She understood all too well the feeling of disappointing their child; constantly uprooting his young life and expecting him to continue to grow. No one deserved to feel the heartbreak of letting their child down, least of all Aiden. In the 10 years that Abigale had loved him, she had seen him work himself to the bone in order to provide for their family. He deserved the world. She thought so, anyway. “You deserve a big house. The other ones were also just us, not an entire fuckin’ Brady Bunch,, babe.” She laughed, reaching for his hand.
Charlie Noah looked at the slip of paper in his hand, marking just some of the information regarding his new life. He was used to these things. What he refused to get used to, however, was the unholy regime of public school Physical Education courses. “They have me in PE again. It’s like they’re TRYING to get me beat up.”
“Well, sweetheart, does it help that I’ll be taking PE, too? We’ll be in different grades, of course, but I promise, no one will ever beat you up.” She smiled, ruffling her son’s hair. A pang of guilt hit her right in the chest. Every single part of her wished that he could have a normal life, with his normal name, in a normal family. But, she knew that he was a wonderful, special child, and they rarely live normal lives. “Plus, I can call you in sick to school sometimes and we can stay home with dad and eat spaghetti.”
In the shade of a garish moving truck, he hid from the others; all the while keeping an eye out for his young son. Ever since the kid took a D.A.R.E course in school, Nicotine had become a (very sacred and) rare thing. A quick smoke break before dealing with the the next big change in his life sounded like a minor escape, but with five new members of his family to take into account, it proved to be more difficult than looking our for the usual two.
“I hope for your sake that Charlie doesn’t see you doing that.” A sigh escaped her lips as she stared up at the new house, wondering if maybe she would finally feel at home. She took a moment to ponder whether or not she had ever known what home felt like. After a moment, Abigale realized that her home had been there all along -- Aiden and Charlie. “Sweetheart, do you want to go inside and look around? This house is so huge... I feel like we’re moving into a mansion or something.”
Oh, and you call yourself the Flaming Hoes? Yeah, that’s a bad choice.
