Did you ever want to say, even to shout out loud, Hey, I'm smart, I have some talent?
I shouted those very words in the Square.
No problem. Nobody even noticed.
I fit right here in the rest of the lonely birds right there.
I went to pick up Alicia from her school.
I felt like absolute crap and hope I didn't look it. Sheesh! what a day.
"Let's celebrate", I said.
"Give your favorite mum a big hug, and we'll go to some fancy restaurant. Just the two of us. Where do you want to eat?", I asked her?
Alicia carefully taught the offer over, wrinkling her forehead and pulling on her chin as she always does when she has to make an important decision.
"How about McDonald's then we can go see a flick.", Alicia replied.
"My sweet bunny rabbit, you're what's important and you're like my songs.", I said rubbing her head.
"I love your songs, Mommy", she said.
The two of us began to bubble at each other just like always. We were "best friends", "girlfriends", "sisters".
We will never be alone because we'll always have each other.
"How was your day, Sweetie?", I asked.
"School was fun, I made another friend named Jane Robert. She's really funny. Miss Maggie said I'm smart."
"You're smart. You're also pretty, and you're a very nice person. You're short though", I kissed her.
"I'm going to be bigger than you, don't you think so?", she replied.
"Yes, I think so. I think you'll be around seven feet or so", I replied.
On and On like that.
Best friends.
We are doing pretty well, getting used to England, getting over Andrew as well as we could.
To hell with Raj Singh!
It was as dark as Andrews's heart by the time Alicia and I got home.
All my feelings of deviance had evaporated and I looked at the front of our house in complete dismay.
I guess we'll have to leave here a little longer or maybe for the rest of our lives.
The lights had gone out in the hall and on the first-floor landing.
All I could see was a pattern of light heading his way through the first-floor window from the lamp post in front of the house.
"Spooky", Alicia whispered.
"Scary and Spooky"
"No", I said.
I took her hand and we'll set up the dark stairs.
I stopped moving.
My body tensed. I tucked Alicia behind me to protect her.
Someone was sitting in the shadows on the landing.
The person was silent, unmoving. It was somebody too tall and well-built.
This wasn't good. This was scary and spooky.
I move towards the figure cautiously.
"Hello. Who is there? Hello up there", I called out thinking of the horror stories I had heard and about the terrors I had recently endured.
The person seemed to be wearing something on his head. A strange top hat?
Something weird as hell.
I thought the unthinkable, I knew better but the flashback came anyway.
Andrew loved to frighten me, jumping out from behind the Bush, from behind a closed door knowing he could scare me and thinking it was funny when he did.
"Andrew was dead," I told myself and there was no such thing as ghosts not even in England.
I itched closer still the figure didn't move.
"Hello", I called again.
"This isn't funny. Please talk to me. Just say hi", I took a step forward.
The sound of our footsteps on the stairs reminded me of Andrew's steps the way he stalked around the house.
Behind me, Alicia whispered, picking up my fear.
"Who is it, mummy?"
Not twice, I thought.
He won't hurt us twice, no damn way.
I launched at the threatening figure striking out at it with my heavy bag.
I hit the bastard had.
He toppled unresistingly, and I realized what I have done.
"Oh my God! I can't believe it!", I started to laugh.
Alicia hurried up the final stairs laughing with me.
It was a mammoth basket of what had to be a 'few hundred dollars' worths of long-stemmed roses.
I opened the note that came with them.
To Amanda Powers.
HERE IS TO THE FIRST DAY OF YOUR RETURN TO GRACE. IF YOU WANT THE JOB, YOU'RE CRAZY, BUT YOU'RE HIRED. YOU MADE 'MY PRECIOUS TIME' PASS LIKE IT WAS NOTHING TODAY. TRUST ME ON THAT.
RAJ.