Page 122 of Under Her Skin

“Not a problem,dude.”

My heart is melting inside me. The beats sound mushy and my head feels light and airy. She left. Why would sheleave?

Where would shego?

Why should I careanymore?

Rachelle

The tall trees cover the gravel road I run down as I call out over and over again for my mommy. She must be lost and I need to find her before anything bad happens toher.

“Mommy! Where are you, Mommy? I need you, please come out and seeme!”

The sound of footsteps running up behind me has me skidding to a stop and I turn to see the lady who has been taking care of me and all the other kids. She’s frowning at me. “Rachelle! Sweetheart, what are youdoing?”

She scoops me up in her arms and starts walking back to the place I ran from. I don’t want to go back. “I need to find my Mommy. She must be lost. She should be back by now. Please let me go find her, nicelady.”

“Honey, she won’t be back for quite some time. A long time, in fact. You have a new home here with us, Shelly.” She pushes my hair back, and a boy comes running up tous.

“Hey, good you found her. I was worried sick about her.” He runs his hand over my head and he smiles at me. “Don’t run off no more, Shelly. Promiseme.”

“Who are you?” I ask theboy.

“My name’s Randy, and I’m your big brother from now on, Shelly. If you think you have to do something then let me know and I’ll help you. That’s what big brothers are for afterall.”

The nice lady puts me down and the nice boy named Randy takes my hand and takes me in the house and makes me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk. He sits down with me and we eat oursandwiches.

“Where’s my Mommy,Randy?”

He messesup my hair and smiles. “Don’t worry about her or where she is. The thing you need to think about is how great it is that you’re here with us and safe. Really safe. No one will hurt you or leave you while you’re here,Shelly.”

“How do you know my Mommy used to hurt me?” Iask.

“Cause that’s what has happened to all of us kids here in this place we call home now. Our parents hurt us and left us, but at least we have this place and eachother.”

“Thanks, Randy. I like you and you have prettyeyes.”

“So do you squirt? I like you, too. You’re going to make a great littlesister.”

Something shakes me and I turn me head. “What? Who are you?” I ask inconfusion.

A short, dark haired man looks at me. “I’m the guy sitting next to you on the plane to Austin, Texas. You said hello to me before you fell asleep. Don’t you rememberthat?”

“Oh, yeah,” I say as I shake myhead.

“I woke you up because you were jerking around and murmuring the word, mommy, a lot. You okay?” he asks with a look of concern on hisface.

Am Iokay?

“Not really.Thanks for waking me up though. Old memories I try to keep away from keep popping up in my dreams. Don’t you just hate when thathappens?”

The expression on his face tells me he’s thinking I’m a little off. “You should probably try to deal with those memories rather than trying to keep them away. That’s very unhealthy. Have you seen someone aboutthat?”

My eyebrows shoot up and I just turn away from the man. I mean, what an asshole, asking such a question to a complete stranger. I guess no one taught him how to keep his opinions tohimself.

I look out the window, the sun is shining bright and I have a couple of weeks before school starts back up. I wonder if Blake will leave. I wonder if he’ll go back toLubbock.

I wonder if he hatesme.