He Took Her

Ginger waited while Daniel sobbed. She bounced her knee for a while. She nodded her head, up and down, for a while.. She looked around her yard. Finally, when Daniel's tears started to let up a little, she leaned over and put her hands on his cheeks.

"You took her where?" Ginger asked.

Eddie had gone back inside and the streetlights came on. They were alone on the block. No one was witness to the slap she gave him when he took too long to answer. It startled him. He put his hand over the spot where it stung. Ginger took him by the shoulders and shook him.

"You took her where!?" she shouted.

"I didn't take her now," Daniel whispered. He glanced up at her door to make sure Eddie wasn't coming back outside at the sound of the slap.

"I took her and we came here," he said. After hearing himself say what he'd done, however vaguely, Daniel stood up quickly. Ginger rose with him.

"Maybe the police found her," he said. Ginger's head started to hurt.

"Or maybe she went home," he said. He seemed pretty excited at the second option.

"Where's home?" Ginger asked, suddenly aching. She was pretty sure that her property, that duplex, with the yard they were standing in - she was pretty sure that was home for the little girl.

"With her mother," Daniel said to his feet. "She's not gone. She came home one day and we were gone."

Ginger stepped away from him. She walked over to the bush, to the spot where she noticed the little girl on the day she and Daniel walked into Ginger's life. Ginger turned to look at the man, the father, her tenant. She thought of her own parents as she turned away from Daniel to look at her property. She spent a lot of time restoring it. She really loved it. She loved it so much she heard a deep, guttural groan escape from her lips.

She loved it. The only obvious remedy was to move far, far away from it.

But first, the little girl. And Daniel. She didn't know them, not really. She wasn't sure about their names, even. She shook her head.

"Let's go inside," she said. She took Daniel by the elbow and led him into his half of her house. She was fairly certain that if the police had picked up the little girl, they'd have arrested Daniel by now.

"We'll find her," Ginger said. Daniel didn't look very sure.

"I'll find her," Ginger said. She was good at finding things: tools, tenants, properties to own. She had a method. She simply drove around until she saw a sign.