Broken Like Glass by EJ McCay Page B

inclination to go searching for her.”
    They both seem to reel from the revelation. Uriah’s eyebrows raise and Bo just looks at me like I’ve eaten a worm. They asked, and I answered. What’s the big deal?
    “So your biological dad, he hung around?”
    “Do you remember seeing him?”
    “A few times.”
    “Well, there ya go. A few times. He came around, spent a couple of nights, and in a flash of false promises he was gone. He died about six years ago. Daddy called and told me.”
    “Wow. Why did you keep all this to yourself?” Uriah is genuine when he asks.
    I throw my hands up. “I don’t know. It never dawned on me to be something worth telling. Being taken wasn’t the worst of what’s happened to me and it’s just a way for people to talk about things they know nothing of. Can we just stop talking about it now? Please? Besides if I spill all my secrets here Chrissy might just feel useless.”
    They chuckle nervously and that seems to change the topic and the mood. Uriah and Bo start planning their trip to the drive-in and I sit quietly wondering how it’s going to be with a full weekend alone with myself.

Chapter Thirteen
    Uriah drives me home, but he doesn’t stay. His momma has a list of things for him and my mood doesn’t really make for a lot of room in my little cabin. I change clothes, grab a grape soda and take up my residence on the deck.
    It’s sunny and bright. The birds are dipping and diving. Woody is nowhere to be seen, but I’ve got a squirrel eyeing me. He’s got a buddy and they start playing in the trees; their little bushy tails swishing as they leap from tree to tree.
    My thoughts start to wander back to Tish’s. I am happy that all those bags of tacos Uriah bought weren’t for me. Apparently, there're a few families in town that he’s been dropping in and giving them food. He’s sweeter than sugar.
    I mentally whoop myself for telling either those two about being taken by Lucy. I try to picture Lucy’s face and I can’t. She’s been gone so long her face and memory are just faded and there’s no picture. The breeze picks up and whips through my clothes. The air has turned icy and goosebumps line my arms like a little army.
    My toes tingle from the bite of the wind, but I don’t want to move. I want to sit here on the deck with the frosty breeze and watch the sun as it moves across the sky.
    I take a sip of my soda, wiggle my toes, and then Papa decides to take a seat next to me. More than anything I wish He could take a vacation and leave me alone for a little while. I still need a band-aid from the last time He poked with His sharp finger.
    He sits quietly for a while, smiling in my direction, letting me stew. Then He pounces with the grace of an elephant. My heart itches and tingles and hurts and bleeds.
    “Why did you let this stuff happen to me?” I say out loud to my audience of birds, squirrels, and Papa. I feel Papa more than the birds and squirrels. “Why couldn’t you just let me be normal? What did I do to deserve all the crap that’s happened to me? I didn’t ask to be born. You put me on this earth and now look at me. I’m all warped and twisted.”
    Tears spring to my eyes. I feel the hurt all the way down into my soul. The kind of hurt that just rips and shreds and leaves nothing but tattered pieces laying all over.
    The cry slips between my teeth and out my lips. I jump out of the chair, walk to the corner of the deck and take in a new view. There’s a part of me that wants to fling myself off the railing, but I know I’d just end up with a few broken bones. Then I’d have to explain myself and that seems more trouble than the broken bones.
    My lips tremble and I brush my hand across the waterfall running down my face. “I’m alone you know. I’m all alone.”
    Papa cups my heart and blows cool air on it trying to put out the burning fire. It’s His way of saying I’m not alone.
    “But I am. I am alone. I got you, but no one on this earth.