Page 12
Zoe
“Girl, you okay?” a female voice called, making me jerk so hard Lainey giggled, thinking I was playing with her.
“You look about to faint. It’s hot as the devil’s buttcrack out here today,” the woman continued on.
“Your air not working again? I told the manager it’s been all wonky the past two weeks.
People are gonna pass flat out in this heat. ”
Turning, I saw a petite woman in a jean skirt and a green tank top that revealed yellow bathing suit straps. She had her bright red hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun and giant black sunglasses on her round face.
There was a male toddler on her hip and a set of what seemed like four or five-year-old female twins at her sides, all of them dressed for the pool and their skin sporting a white cast from sunblock.
“I, uh,” I said, shaking my head. “No, the air is working,” I told her, feeling the cool wafting out toward me, hoping it might dry the anxiety sweat beading up all over my body.
“You sure you’re okay? You don’t look so good. I got some of them sports drinks in my bag. You need one?”
“Thank you. No. No, it’s not the heat. I… did you happen to see anyone in my room last night? Or this morning?” I asked.
“Oh, no. Did you get robbed?” she asked, walking over, her flip-flops slapping against the cement. “Oh, look at that mess !”
It was a mess.
Every drawer had been pulled out. The clothes in the closet were strewn about. The bed stripped. Even the fridge was opened. Thankfully, there was nothing in there, save for two pears I was trying to keep from going ripe too quickly.
Even from where I was standing in the doorway, I could see a similar mess in the bathroom. Lainey’s little bath seat was in the middle of the floor next to her shampoo that had leaked halfway across the room.
“Girl, did they get anything?” the woman asked, stalking into my room, her two kids in tow.
“I don’t have anything to get,” I admitted.
“Been there,” she said with a snort. “Oh, shoot. Look at all the shampoo. You want some help cleaning all this up? You wanna help the nice lady clean up this mess, don’t you?” she asked her two girls. They very clearly would rather go to the pool but they were little dolls who gave their mom a nod.
“That’s so nice,” I said, giving the girls a smile I only had to half-force. “But I won’t keep you from the pool.”
“Snap, snap,” the mom said in a sweet but no-nonsense voice. “Put those clothes and toys right there in piles for Miss…”
“Zoe,” I supplied.
“For Miss Zoe. The faster we shake our tail feathers, the quicker we get to the pool,” she said.
The girls jumped into motion as their mom gave me a nod toward the balcony.
“You were out last night?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Baby daddy?” she asked, reaching out to boop Lainey’s nose. “No, we keep our hands to ourselves,” she told her son, who tried to reach out and snatch Lainey’s nose off her face.
“No. No, I was with some friends,” I said.
To that, she nodded.
“These locks on these doors, they ain’t worth s-h-i-t,” she told me, shaking her head. “Wouldn’t put it past one of these men out here to notice you were gone and just do a quick little hairpin unlock. Motel living, it ain’t for the weak,” she said. “I’m Brook, by the way.
“Sorry we had to meet like this.”
“Me too, girl. Me too. I didn’t see no one. But next time you think you’re gonna be out all night, you let me know and I’ll keep an eye. I’m up most of the night. I just got this one off the tit, so he’s punishing me by not sleeping through the night anymore,” she said, jiggling her son.
“I don’t plan on staying out. I just, ah, passed out. I don’t think I’ll be out again. Do you think I need to worry?”
“Well, me and mine,” she said, waving back toward her little girls, who got distracted by one of Lainey’s cute stuffed animals, “we’ve been living here, shoot, it’s coming on a year now.
Caught me a looky-loo outside my windows once.
Though, to be fair, I hadn’t closed the blinds and was spread eagle on the bed in my underwear.
My wash day underwear,” she added with a grimace.
I couldn’t help but smile at her animated nature, despite my concerns about my tossed room.
“And there was once a knock-down, drag-out domestic incident,” she added. “And by knock-down, drag-out, I mean she whacked him on the head with a whiskey bottle and dragged him outta the room by his rat tail while screaming at him about spending all their money at the titty bar. Again.”
“Oh, geez.”
“And someone once took my favorite sunglasses I’d accidentally left at the pool.
But, no. I haven’t seen anyone get robbed.
Hey, Tasha,” she called down to the pool where a woman was dipping a toe in the water, her bright orange bathing suit contrasting her flawless dark skin.
In the shallow end of the pool, a boy who looked about eight or so was riding a pool noodle like a horse.
“Yeah?” Tasha asked, shielding her eyes as she looked up.
“You see anyone shady outside Zoe’s room last night? She got robbed.”
“I had a kid’s birthday party yesterday. We were wiped after. Passed out early. You know how it is.”
“Heck yeah, I do.” Brooke looked tired at just the idea of a children’s birthday party. Something not to look forward to, it seemed.
“Did they get anything?”
“No, but Zoe’s worried about crime around here.”
“Only crime I’ve seen is the increase in room prices earlier this year,” Tasha called back.
“I know that’s right. Had to cut out our Sunday Sundaes at The Dip and start making ‘em at home,” Brooke called back.
“I’ll keep an eye out, though,” Tasha called up. “You need anything? We take care of one another around here.”
“They didn’t take nothing. Just made a big mess.
We’ll be down in a few,” she called, waving at Tasha, then moving away from the railing.
“That’s Tasha. She moved in three months back after catching her husband with some office w-h-o-r-e.
Know I’m not supposed to use that word. But she knew he was married with a little boy, so I call a spade a spade. ”
“Are there a lot of single moms here?”
“Just the three of us right now. Had Ava here until a few weeks back. She finally got her deadbeat ex to pay some child support, so between that and her checker-girl salary, she managed to get a nice little place. Don’t think any of us plan to be here forever.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It’s not ideal.”
“Definitely not. But it’s cheap. It’s got a pool.
And right now, my writing gig is just keeping us afloat.
And Lord knows, I can’t afford child care when school is out, so we do what we can.
My own deadbeat,” she said, pitching her voice lower, “is living with his mama and not working so he doesn’t have to pay us anything. ”
“Wow,” I said, shaking my head.
“I know. She was a real monster-in-law when we was together, too. That boy of hers never did no wrong. Not even when he brought the neighbor into our bed. Apparently, it was my fault for not hiding his gerken in my coin purse two weeks after popping this one out,” she said, jiggling her son.
“Sure you got your own horror story. And Tasha and I would love to hear it when you’re ready to tell it.
Now that school is out, we are down at the pool each morning by ten.
Hang there most of the day. Tire these little devils right out.
I still have the little infant float with the visor and a life vest that should fit your sweet one.
Come hang with us when you’re not busy. We gotta stick together, y’know? ”
“Yeah,” I agreed, giving her a genuine smile. “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.”
“Nothing to appreciate. We take care of our own. Come on, girls,” she called.
“Thank you so much, girls,” I said to them, getting matching twin smiles back.
“This is Scout and Soleil,” she said, petting her hand down the braid on one of their heads. “We keep this braid in to keep them straight,” she said, shooting me a wince.
I mean, not that I could blame her. The girls were identical down to the little clefts in their chins.
“And this is Joshua,” she added.
“This is Lainey.”
“Well, Zoe, Lainey, welcome to the building. I’m sorry your first week ended like this. But I promise it’s not a bad place. Come on, let’s go work off that sugar cereal,” she said, juggling her giant bag on one shoulder, her son on her hip, and managing to nudge her twins toward the steps.
I stood there, watching her go, feeling a kinship with her that I hadn’t felt with, well, anyone.
Sure, Brooke was juggling a couple more kids than me, but we both had bad fathers to our children, were trying to eke out an income, and were living in a motel with dreams of a more stable home someday.
I wasn’t sure how I could fit in much more in my busy days, but I wanted to take some time to go down to the pool with her and her kids—and Tasha with her son—and try to build a connection.
Maybe I wouldn’t be tearing up over some guy babysitting my daughter so I could shower if I had a support system around me to commiserate with.
It wasn’t until I moved fully into the room and looked around that I felt a churning in my stomach.
Because what if this wasn’t some random crime? What if those guys who’d chased me had come to… finish the job?
I reached back, locking the door, then the slide lock as I wondered if there was some way to make the room more secure even when I was gone. I knew there were things I could buy for when we were inside, but I clearly needed to worry about when we were out. Which was most of the time.
I righted Lainey’s overturned playard, then placed her in it so I could go systematically through the room, checking for any signs that might point to someone who wanted to do us harm, not just steal from us.
But by the time I had all the clothes, toys, blankets and towels put away and the mess cleaned up in the bathroom, I really could only conclude that someone was desperately looking for something.
And, well, I had nothing at all worth stealing.
I’d pawned my laptop and tablet to be able to buy Lainey her stroller and car seat combo. All my cash had gone to living expenses. And the tiny bit I had left over was sitting in a bank account.
Nothing I owned was worth anything to sell.
Chances were, this was just a random break-in. Brooke was probably right that someone noticed I hadn’t come home, then had tried to find something they could sell for drug money or something.
“It’s going to be alright,” I told Lainey, who was having a ball kicking the mesh on the side of her playard. “Sometimes, people do bad things to innocent people, but that doesn’t mean we should let the fear get the better of us. Plus, it looks like we made some new friends today!”
Lainey gave me a hoot.
“Exactly. I bet you and Joshua will have lots of fun playing together. He’s a little older, but that won’t matter as much once you’re just a teeny bit bigger. And the twins will probably coo at you. I thought babies were so fun when I was little like them.
“Plus, we can go swimming. You’re going to love the water. It’s like a great, big bath. Maybe we can go to the thrift store to buy you a little bathing suit after we get some work done today.”
So that was exactly what we did.
And despite deciding that I wasn’t going to worry about who tossed my room, I sat up the entire night, watching the door, jumping at sounds, coming to scarier conclusions with each passing moment.
But no one came in, guns blazing, ready to finish what they started on that street.
Not that night.
Or the next night.
But on that third night? Something even more terrifying happened.
“Lainey?” I yelped when I picked up my baby and she flopped like a rag doll. “Lainey?” I cried, finding her skin scalding hot. “Oh, God. Oh, God.”
I clutched her to my chest and ran down the balcony to kick Brooke’s door frantically.
“Well, keep your panties on, will ya? What could possibly—” Brooke cut off when she opened the door and saw my face. “What is it?”
“Lainey’s sick. She’s… I think she’s really sick.”
Brooke’s hand shot out, putting her hand to Lainey’s head.
“Oh, she’s burning right up. How long has she been like this?”
“She seemed fine when I put her down for her nap.”
Well, maybe that wasn’t true. She’d been restless all day. Whiny. And she hadn’t had her usual interest in her bottles.
But we were still in a wicked hot spell. I thought she was just miserable about that and all the dog-walking and delivery trips.
God, what was wrong with me?
I should have noticed sooner.
I should have…
“Okay. Alright. Well, we don’t have to panic.
But she’s really burning up good. I think you need to take her to see someone.
I know this really good clinic. They have some kind of funding where they work with mamas like us on a sliding scale, so it doesn’t break the bank to get care.
Hold on. Lemme get that name. No, you march your cute little butt right back inside,” she called to Scout.
Or Soleil. I still couldn’t tell them apart.
“Don’t need you or your siblings getting sick, now do we? ”
I watched, jiggling Lainey, heart gripped in a vice, as Brooke dug through her purse for what felt like forever before finding the business card she was looking for.
“Here it is! Now, you want me to come with you? I could get Tasha up here to watch mine.”
“No. No, thanks. I’ll be okay.”
I would be no such thing.
I was already very much not okay.
“Alright. Go get that baby some medicine. Give me a knock when you get home.”
“Thanks, Brooke. Really.”
I was already blinking back tears as I ran down to my car, strapping my weirdly listless infant into her car seat and plugging in the clinic to my GPS.
I wasn’t sure I noticed a single stop sign or red light on the drive in toward Miami. Then through a shady area of town that had me double-checking my locks and making sure the windows were all rolled up completely.
The clinic was situated in a well-lit strip mall—looking like a shining beacon of hope for a worried mom with a sick baby.
I grabbed Lainey, holding her hot body to my chest, then ran in the front doors of the clinic.
“Zo?” a voice called, making my belly flip-flop as I whipped around to see Coast walking toward me, blood trickling down his face.
“Coast?” I croaked, the dam breaking again and tears pouring down my face. “I need help.”