Candy Colored Sky by Ginger Scott

Author:Ginger Scott [Scott, Ginger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little Miss Write, LLC
Published: 2021-02-25T18:30:00+00:00

Thirteen

It takes me a few minutes to wrap my brain around where I actually am. Our sofa has never been the greatest place to nap, let alone attempt a full night’s sleep. I gave up my bed willingly last night, though, to someone who needed it a whole lot more than I did.

Mom helped me bring down some extra blankets when she got back from the Trombleys’ house. It was Morgan who came to the door, her torn-up eyes and defeated posture reminiscent of her sister’s. The entire family spent the day with a victim’s advocate, sitting in a board room at the Oak Forest police station while investigators descended on the first solid lead in Addy’s case.

Someone’s security camera picked up a white car driving down a nearby street around the right time. They were looking for vehicles that didn’t live in our area, and this particular license plate fit the profile. Police tracked it to a home owned by a single woman in her late forties who lived near the Missouri state line, almost four hundred miles away. When they got to her home, it was filled with cats, animal feces, stacks of old magazines and newspapers, and trash. The white car and the woman were gone, but they found one of Addy’s skates in the garage among a pile of random objects like tools and old children’s toys. According to neighbors, the woman hasn’t been home in more than a week.

Nobody saw a little girl.

The smell of coffee lifts me out of my haze and I turn to find my mom working in the kitchen.

“How was your sleep?” she asks.

I grunt through a stretch and get to my feet.

“Eh,” I say, shrugging a shoulder.

“Rough morning I guess, huh?” She pours me the first cup from the fresh brew and I take it from her.

“Yeah, pretty rough,” I say, running my hand along my side where the uneven couch cushions jacked up my sleeping position.

“Because of the couch or the beer Grandpa gave you last night?” she deadpans with pursed lips, then blows the steam from the top of her coffee cup.

I’m not a good liar. I’ve never had much reason to lie, so after a few seconds of stammering through false starts of an excuse, I give up.

“How’d you know?” In my head, I’m already blaming Gramps.

“Jonah, hon. Your grandpa buys the cheapest beer on the planet. I could smell it on you the moment you walked in from the garage.” She laughs at my expense.

I should have gone with the ‘Gary spilled a beer’ story. I probably wouldn’t have been able to pull the lie off longer than a minute anyhow.

“Sorry,” I say, bowing my head and staring at the brew in my cup. The weight of shame pushes down my shoulders.

Mom steps in close to me and kisses the top of my head.

“Don’t be. Your grandpa gave me my first beer, too.”

I breathe out a short laugh and look up at her.

“Really,” she continues, joining me at the table.

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