Dean walks back to his yard and he turns around and looks at me. I bury my head back into my arm and try to stop crying. I know they probably want to play hide-n-seek again before I have to go back inside, so I need to stop being sad so we can play.
“Hope!”
I look up at Dean and he isn’t looking at me anymore. I thought he called my name, but he’s looking at a car. It’s parked in front of my house and the window is rolled down.
“Come here, Hope,”the lady says. She’s smiling and asking me to come to her window. I feel like I know her, but I can’t remember her name. I stand up so I can go see what she wants. I wipe the dirt off my shorts and walk to the car. She’s still smiling and she looks really nice. When I walk up to the car, she hits the button that unlocks the doors.
“Are you ready to go, sweetie? Your daddy wants us to hurry.”
I didn’t know I was supposed to go anywhere. Daddy didn’t say we were going anywhere today.
“Where are we going?” I ask her.
She smiles and reaches over to the handle, then opens the door for me. “I’ll tell you when we’re on our way. Get in and put your seatbelt on, we can’t be late.”
She really doesn’t want to be late to where we’re going. I don’t want her to be late, so I climb into the front seat and shut my door. She rolls up the window and starts driving away from my house.
She looks at me and smiles, then reaches into the backseat. She hands me a juice box, so I take it out of her hand and open the straw.
“I’m Karen,” she says. “And you get to stay with me for a little while. I’ll tell you all about it when we get there.”
I take a sip from my juice. It’s apple juice. I love apple juice.
“But what about my daddy? Is he coming, too?”
Karen shakes her head. “No, sweetie. It’ll just be you and me when we get there.”
I put the straw back in my mouth because I don’t want her to see me smile. I don’t want her to know that I’m happy my daddy isn’t coming with us.
