went out for a while. When she returned early in the afternoon, she announced that she had paid the motel for another two days’ stay.
“Wow,” Alessa marveled. “You made a hundred bucks today? I’m impressed.”
Crystal sat down on the edge of her bed. “Yeah,” she said, “thank God for horny men! I got me twenty-five bucks a guy today.”
Alessa knew that if Crystal could get twenty-five a client, she might get fifty. She was relieved to get two more days at the motel. The longer they stayed, the greater the chance of Lucy recuperating and regaining her strength. Over the first thirty-six hours in the motel, the child had become more alert and aware of her surroundings, and her appetite was improving by the day.
On the third day, Alessa motioned Crystal into the bathroom while Lucy was asleep and shut the bathroom door behind them.
“Here’s the deal,” Alessa said. “I can’t take Lucy back to that house where we were staying. She needs to live like a normal kid. I don’t think her tiny body can take much more of this kind of life. I need to go out for the day and make some money. If I can make enough, I’ll extend our stay here for a couple more days until I can find somewhere for Lucy and me to go.”
Crystal remembered a time when she had nurtured hopes for her own children. It was her desire for them to live like normal kids that had finally given her the strength to entrust their care to her boyfriend’s parents. She hadn’t seen them in six years. Her own alcoholism and drug addiction prevented her from doing all that Alessa planned for Lucy now.
“Okay, I can stay with her while you’re out,” Crystal agreed. “But you do know what you’re doing, right? I mean, even under all that dirt, you never did look like the type of girl who would screw someone for money.”
Alessa’s face suddenly wore a distant expression, as though a window had been slammed shut. “Things aren’t always what they seem,” she said noncommittally. “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, but at least this time, I’ll be doing it for a good reason.”
