Finding Danny by Linzi Glass

Author:Linzi Glass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-09-16T04:00:00+00:00

Rayleen put on some strange music and I asked her what it was.

“Monks chanting in a monastery in Tibet, sweet pea. The sound’s good for healing the soul, humans and animals both. I play it every night for the pack. It’s like their bedtime lullaby.”

My dad left me at Rayleen’s house for only two hours, but it felt like he was gone for days. Rayleen and I talked and talked, back and forth with such ease, like a river that flowed downward and deeper, while the dogs stirred and slept. It seemed like time had slunk away. It wasn’t important or wanted here. There was nothing pushing Rayleen to be somewhere else or hurrying her in any way. She focused all her attention on me as we sat cross-legged facing each other on the cushions.

“I grew up on a farm just outside of Savannah, Georgia. Lotsa goats an’ chickens an’ horses as well as dogs an’ cats roamin’ around. I loved it there.” She sighed. “But then when I was ten, everythin’ changed. Papa lost the farm and we moved to New Orleans. The only thing he did all day was play cards an’ smoke three packs of cigarettes.”

“How did you get money for food and clothes?” I asked.

“Mama cleaned rich people’s houses for a while, but then a massive heart attack killed Papa and Mama used the life insurance money to open the kinda store she’d always wanted.”

Rayleen told me about her mother’s homeopathic cures and the herb shop she opened on Bourbon Street. They lived above it, and in the morning Rayleen would have to step over men who had passed out on the sidewalk from drinking all night so she could get to the bus to school.

“Wow. That sounds so different,” I said.

“Oh, it certainly was that. I discovered my ever-lastin’ need to rescue animals around then. I took in the stray, skinny cats and an occasional dog from the streets. My mama didn’t mind much. She was always mixing something and giving a cure to someone. Busy, busy always an’ not mindin’ me much.”

“Sounds like my mom.” I stretched out long on the floor and looked up at the ceiling. It was painted deep turquoise, the color of a Caribbean sea.

“She’s doing the best that she knows how, sweet pea. And she loves you. You need to know that.”

“She loves her career more.”

Rayleen was quiet for a minute and then spoke.

“I have a feeling lots is about to change with your mama.”

The candles flickered and the monks chanted.

“That would be nice.” I sighed.

That night Rayleen and I talked about a hundred different things while the candles burned lower and lower and the incense dissolved into ashes.

“What’s school like?” she asked.

“Good mostly, but one of my best friends and I are kinda drifting apart.”

Rayleen stroked the top of Alfie’s head. He had fallen asleep beside her.

“That happens, sweet pea. Sometimes we just need a break from someone, and then when we get back together, it’s all good as new again.

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