Star Bright (8 page)

“
And we’ll be
putting Jane and her family in danger.” Edna spoke harshly to
Maria. She needed her daughter to take back control of her life.
She couldn’t stay a scared little girl all her life.

Maria choked on the sob
in her throat. She let the tears flow freely down her cheeks, “Mama
I can’t...” She was tired of living this nightmare, but she wasn’t
going to live looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life,
only for him to catch up to her and take Michael away from her. She
would rather live with Ricky and try to appease him.

“
The sheriff
is on his way.” Tom walked back into the room.

“
So that he
can do what, arrest Ricky, only to let him out after a few hours
because Maria is too scared to press charges?” Edna yelled, her
rage making its way to the surface, “What are you waiting for that
animal to do to you before you do something?”

“
Edna.” Jane
said quietly pulling her back.

“
She needs to
realize its time she got out of his hold. Are you waiting for him
to kill you, or worse kill Michael?”

Maria gasped. She lowered
herself onto the seat, “he wouldn’t do that.” she whispered. She
knew better than to believe her own words. Ricky was capable of
anything especially now that he was out for revenge.

“
Why not,
hurting Michael is the best way to hurt you?”

“
Nate is here,
what’s it going to be Maria?” Tom asked gently.

Maria looked up at him,
then at Jane and her mother. She realized how stupid she was being
letting her fear decide her fate. She needed to be courageous, if
not for herself for Michael. Ricky would hurt Michael to get back
at her. He already hit him once, why wouldn’t he do worse? He
didn’t see Michael as a son, he saw him as his way to control
Maria, and it had worked for years. Edna was right, Ricky wouldn’t
stay behind bars for long, especially after he told the sheriff the
truth about the fire.

Without a word she jetted
off the seat and rushed to the room Michael was sleeping in. She
pulled out all of their things from the drawers and threw them onto
the bed. Jane appeared behind her with a suitcase. She threw all
the things already on the bed into the suitcase while Maria changed
her clothes.

Edna watched them from
the door for a while before she went back to the living room. Tom
was outside speaking to Nate. She picked up the phone and dialed a
number she had called for years, just for the sake of listening to
his voice, a few months ago for help, which she didn’t need anymore
and again that night, to request for something he wouldn’t find
impossible to give. He owed her, in more ways than one.

“
You need to
come as soon as possible.... well the SOB isn’t dead, he’s like a
roach.... no, she’s leaving tonight....she’s taking him with
her.... you do it or I will,” she wiped the tears from her cheeks
as she listened, “hurry, please.” her voice broke. She stayed on
the line, listening to the voice she’d missed so much before she
hung up.

Maria walked into the
living room holding her sleeping son against her chest. Tom walked
into the house with Nate in tow, with a large bag in his hand. He
was well built, his body toned by his daily farming.

She stood there and
waited for the plan she hoped they had come up with. She was sure
Ricky was outside and there was no way he was going to let them
walk out and drive away. She was finally on board with running
away, but she didn’t want to get shot trying. “So what’s the
plan?”

Nate put the bag on the
table and opened it wide, “We can’t just walk out of the house, I’m
sure that maniac is hiding in the bushes, so we are going to put
Michael in this bag and I’ll carry him out in it.” He spoke with a
smile. Maria held Michael closer to her and stared at Nate as if he
had completely lost his mind. There was no way she was putting her
baby in a bag that looked like a body bag. “You’ll walk out between
Tom and me. You are small enough to go unnoticed.” Maria stared at
Edna then at him, incredulously. She was still stuck on the part
they wanted to put Michael in a bag.

“
Just try it.”
Edna spoke as she wedged Michael out of Maria’s hands. She wrapped
him in a blanket and carefully put him in the bag. She then zipped
up the bag, but stopped at Michael’s head when she heard Maria
whimper. She understood her fear, she wasn’t too comfortable with
her grandson in a bag, but there was no other way.

“
What about
mama?” Maria spoke, her eyes glued on Michael’s sleeping
face.

“
I’m not
coming with you.” Edna said quietly.

Maria’s eyes shot to her,
“What, why not?” She asked, falling into a panic again.

“
I can’t come
if Ricky is to think you are still in the house, and I’m also
waiting for someone.”

“
Mama, Miguel
is never coming back.” Maria said annoyed. She had always hated
seeing her mother sit in one place and wait for her father to come.
She had been waiting for twenty-two years and she was still
waiting.

Edna hugged Maria then
kissed Michael. She wished she could tell Maria the truth, but she
couldn’t, not yet. “It’s time.”

Nate carefully picked up
the bag with Michael in it and walked to the door. He waited for
Tom to go out first with the suitcase, and Maria to go out after
him, moving very closely behind him before he came out, blocking
the shadow her body may make against the porch light. Tom opened
the back door to his truck and placed the suitcase in. They
pretended to talk and laugh for a while so that Maria could sneak
into the car, and then Nate put the bag in and closed the
door.

“
See you
tomorrow Tom.” Nate yelled joyously in pretence as he got into the
driver seat. He started the car and drove slowly, not wanting to
draw too much attention to himself. When they got to a reasonable
distance from the house and he was sure no one was following them,
he accelerated and sped to the train station.

Maria stayed down between
the seats. She pulled the bag open wider, the sight of Michael
sleeping in there like a corpse made her uncomfortable. She traced
the scar on his forehead with her finger, a permanent reminder of
Ricky, and then placed her face close to Michael’s, relieved he
didn’t wake up. She wasn’t going to tell him the truth, one of them
looking over their shoulder was enough. He was going to have the
childhood she almost denied him because of her teenage crush that
turned into years in hell.

Ricky drove back to his
hotel peeved that he hadn’t gotten the chance to storm into Tom’s
house before the sheriff arrived. He took out two beers from his
small refrigerator, one he placed on the bump on the back of his
head the other he drank. He had to move out of Jacksonville if he
didn’t want to get caught. He would move to the nearest town. He
didn’t want to miss his chance, tormenting Maria before he killed
her.

It felt like they had
spent a full day on the train on their way to New York. Michael
thought he was still dreaming when he woke up, but it was the
coolest dream ever. He didn’t even bother to ask how he got there,
he was just excited about being on a train. He kept looking out the
window and making zooming sounds whenever they passed something,
when he got bored with that he ran around. Maria was exhausted, but
she wasn’t about to let Michael wonder around alone. Children were
kidnapped in the strangest places, and knowing Michael, he might
just decide it would be cool jumping off a speeding train like he’d
seen in the western cowboy movies.

She was relived, but
still a little reserved when the conductor offered to baby sit
while she slept. Of course like a paranoid parent, she pinched his
wallet and copied all his details before she put it back in his
pocket- something she had to learn to get her money back from
Ricky. She was glad he was an old man, or he could have felt her
fingers. But Michael provided a good distraction, excitedly asking
questions about trains, the conductor was only too happy to answer,
he too loved trains and from what she’d gathered he had worked on
trains for close to thirty two years.

Out of the fifteen hour
train ride, she’d only managed to sleep for close to one or two
hours. She would wake up shaking and sweating, sometimes crying.
Ricky’s disfigured face constantly haunted her sleep. She worried
about her mother and Jane and her family. If Ricky found out the
trick they had played on him, none of them were safe. She kept
expecting him to walk into her cabin and throw her out the window
or worse yet throw Michael out the window.

But she was glad they had
left, and they were miles away from Ricky, it was a good thing he
wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but she was still sure he
would find them. It would take him a while to realize they weren’t
in Jacksonville anymore, and then he would try to find them,
through Edna, Jane, or anyone, he’d find a way to figure out where
they were. When he did, he’d come after her, more furious than he’d
ever been, but she’d be ready, not ready to fight, but to run. She
had her savings and that of Edna’s, if they had to, they would go
to Mexico maybe learn a thing or two about her father’s side of the
family, maybe some Spanish too.

Michael didn’t know Ricky
was alive, he couldn’t, and she wasn’t going to rob him of his
happiness. He hadn’t once asked where they were going or where Edna
was. He thought Maria was keeping her promise she was going to take
him on a train ride for his birthday, well, his present had come
early and she was making sure he had many more
birthdays.

When they got to New
York, Maria put her gloves back on she always had them on when
Michael was around, the kid was four, but very clever. She kept her
other cuts covered up too, and had her hair held up in a pony tail
over the wound on the back of her head. Edna had cut out the hair
on that spot to place a bandage over the deep cut. It wouldn’t have
been necessary if she just got stitches, but with a maniac after
Maria, no one suggested a hospital, the only suggestions made were
just the fastest way out of Jacksonville.

Michael ran into the
cabin and bumped into Maria, “Mama, are we getting off?” She held
onto the top railing to keep steady. The old conductor came behind
him, a huge grin on his face. He had really enjoyed spending time
with Michael, but who wouldn’t, he was a perfect little boy only
Ricky didn’t see that.

“
Yes. Help me
put your things back.” Maria put the small suitcase into the big
black bag that had once hosted Michael.

He picked up his toys and
threw them into the bag, “Aren’t we going back home?”

“
No, we are
going to live in New York for a while.” Maria spoke softly. She
kept her attention on packing, she could tell he was figuring out
something was wrong.

He stopped and turned to
her, carefully watching her, “Is grandma coming?” He was more
clever than Maria gave him credit for.

“
No,” she
turned to him and smiled, “She’s going to stay home while we stay
here, but she’s going to come visit us,” she got nervous when he
didn’t return the smile. She sat down and pulled him close to her,
“It’s going to be fun. Think of this as a new beginning for both of
us, we’ll have more opportunities here than we could ever have back
home.”

“
Why did we
move?” Maria looked up at the conductor who now had a glum look on
his face, and then back at Michael, she needed a full proof lie if
she was to convince him. “Where are we going to live?” his lips
parted into a smile, then he went back to packing his
toys.

She felt relieved once he
let her off the hook, “Nate, Uncle Tom’s friend, has a small
apartment in Brooklyn.” She wondered what happened to the days kids
still believed in Santa and the tooth fairy, but Michael was no
ordinary kid.

“
Okay, let’s
go.” He took off running, speeding past the conductor. The
conductor looked at Maria with knowing eyes. He could see what she
was hiding, he’d seen it before, in his own daughter’s
eyes.

Smiling, “I’ll go after
him.” then he disappeared. Maria stared after him. She’d seen the
pity in his eyes and she’d hated it. She loathed being pitied as
much as she loathed Ricky. She wished he had died, she wished she
had made sure he was dead.

Next time she
would.

Maria walked into the
studio apartment. It looked small, but yet quaint. It was an open
space, there wasn’t a boundary between the kitchen and the living
room, and the bedroom was closed off by a folding reed stand that
went completely around the bed and closet. There were only two
doors, that leading to the bathroom and that leading out of the
apartment. Maria was grateful it was furnished, there was nothing
fancy, just the essentials, all dark and bold, exactly what a
bachelor’s pad should look like. She was glad she didn’t need to
buy anything else for the place and that it was rent free, one less
worry as she went around looking for a job.

She set the bag down and
closed the door behind her, double bolting it. She chuckled at her
urge to wedge a chair against it. Ricky had really screwed her up.
She watched as Michael ran around the space, exploring their new
home. She hoped he would like it as it was their new home, “So what
do you think?”