Now She's Gone: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

waiting for me after school. Kelsey and I had walked out together to get on the bus and there he was.
    ‘Cassandra?’ he called to me.
    I stopped in my tracks. It was him. It was really him! When I saw him, I just lit up inside. I always had this feeling he would try to find me and once he did, everything in my life would be right again. I wanted him home with me and Mom. I wanted us to be a family. All the other kids had a family and I wanted one, too.
    ‘Daddy?’
    He grinned and nodded. ‘How have you been, Dragon?’
    He always called me Dragon because when I was a baby, I would roar when I was hungry or upset. My roaring never bothered him, he said. He thought it was cute. ‘This big old sound coming from this little bitty baby.’
    We stayed there and talked to him for the longest time. The bus left us but we didn’t care. My daddy was such charming man that he made everything seem less important. And I hated riding the damn bus. All the boys would stick their hands between the seats so they could touch my ass. I once slapped the shit out of one of them for doing that and the little bastard never tried it again. It was almost funny. He looked so shocked and was like, How could you do that! And I was like, How could you do that!
    Back to Daddy. I’ll never forget this.
    He said, ‘And then I asked that man how much it was worth to him and he says to me, How about twenty dollars?’
    Using sleight of hand, he pulled a twenty out of my ear and handed it to me. I was so impressed.
    He continued, ‘So, I told him if it was worth one, it was worth two.’
    He then pulled a twenty out of Kelsey’s ear. We giggled. I just absolutely beamed at him. Then I heard her. I’d forgotten about her. I guess she got worried when I didn’t get off the bus and of course, the school was the first logical place to look for me.
    Our old, junky car pulled up and Mom got out and stomped over to us. My eyes were big as saucers. I just knew she was going to beat the shit out of me. She did that sometimes, especially when she was mad. And today, she was mad as a hornet. Or a wet hen. Where the hell do these sayings come from?
    Anyway.
    She screeched, ‘What did I tell you, Cassandra!’
    She grabbed for me, but I side-stepped her, which pissed her off even more.
    ‘Come here!’ she yelled as she grabbed for me.
    Daddy said, ‘Nice to see you again, Lizzie.’
    Boy that pissed her off even more. To have him speak to her after all the shit he put her through! How dare he?
    She got right in his face and yelled, ‘You bastard! I told you to stay away from her! How could you do this?’
    ‘Oh, come on, Liz! She’s my kid!’
    ‘She’s your kid? Huh? Well, why don’t you do something for her instead of living like a bum!’
    ‘Lizzie, come on—’
    He tried to put his hand on her shoulder. She jerked around and slapped him right across the face. It looked like it hurt. The imprint of her hand was on his right cheek.
    ‘That’s for all those nights I cried myself to sleep!’
    He looked so ashamed.
    She turned to me and pointed in my face, ‘You get your ass in that that car, young miss, and I mean right now! You too, Kelsey!’
    I defiantly stood by his side and refused to move. Mom grabbed for me but I grabbed onto his arm and wouldn’t let her tear me away from him. Daddy put his other arm around me as Mom tried to pull us apart.
    She finally gave up and hissed, ‘You still gambling?’
    ‘ Gotta eat.’
    ‘You still boozing?’
    He looked uncomfortable but refused to let her get the best of him and said, ‘What’s it to you?’
    She was so pissed off, she snorted. I winced. She looked so unattractive when she did that.
    ‘You still whoring around?’ she hissed. ‘Why don’t you tell your daughter about that?’
    He looked embarrassed.
    ‘You’re only here to cause trouble. I know you better than you think. We’re doing fine. A lot better without you here.’
    He looked at his shoes. And he moved away from me. I