Page 17 of Little Fury

“So, what now?”Beth asks him,“Shouldn’t she be more upset, crying, angry, scared?”

“I don’t know. She has amazing self-preservation skills. I see a lot of her mother in her. Her mother is highly intelligent and very good at her job. I’m starting to see that Ava is a lot like her,”Harry replies and then Beth says something that I can’t hear.

“I don't know, Beth, that’s all I can tell you about why I think Ava’s responding the way she is. Regardless, Enzo Rossi is sending Marcus here so there will be two of them. I spoke to the school in town, and they’re both good for the fall to start. Both of them are going into third grade.”

“Don’t even get me fucking started on this whole Marcus shit. What kind of monster tells people they either take his son and do something with him or he will put a bullet in his head and be done with it? What the hell kind of world is this?”She asks him, her voice shaky.

“This is my world. This is the world you are sitting in the kitchen of. It is ugly, and dark. It hurts people without any care of who they are. I’ll understand if it’s too much and I’ll make other arrangements for the kids. You do not have to be a part of this.”

“I may not be one of your graduates or have ties to any of the Mafia families you train for, but my father drove for Walter English and his father for years. So, I’m not completely ignorant to this life. But I don’t think what Enzo is doing has ever been done before.”

“It has not. Enzo Rossi has always been a piece of shit, but he's a powerful piece of shit. Liked or not, he has one of the biggest criminal organizations in the country, and that allows him a lot of leeway without consequences.”

“It’s still not right,”she sighs.

I hear him sigh.“I wish I had something for you Bethy, but lass I dinny know what else t’tell ye.”

“Fuck off, Harry, you and your Scottish accent,”she says to him, but I can hear her smile.

I open my door and walk in. Going to my bed I grab my two stuffies. Mr. Waffle is a very grumpy squirrel who only likes Miss Mushroom. Miss Mushroom is an incredibly happy goat. Miss Mushroom keeps Mr. Waffle in line. She doesn’t let him get away with being grumpy. She also always convinces him to have a tea party with us. Unfortunately, I don’t have our tea set here, but I can pretend. So, I do.

Unsure how long I play with the duo of grumpiness and sunshine. I hear Beth call that dinner is ready, so I head downstairs for. She grabs a plate and starts dishing out the food. She gives me a scoop of mac and cheese and a chicken drumstick. There is also salad and bread.

I wait until they have their food, and then I dig in. It's good! It's really good. We are all quiet as we eat, and I can hear my mom say,‘Well, it must be good if everyone is quiet.’I look at Harry and see him shovelling the food into his mouth, and that makes me giggle. Harry looks up at me and asks,“What’s so funny, little Ava?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s laughing at you for the speed at which you are filling your face,”Beth says with her own chuckle.

“Is that true, Little Ava? You laughing at me?”he asks with fake hurt.

“Um, well, she isn’t exactly wrong.”I giggle again.

Harry is just about to say something when a car pulls into the yard in front of the big house. He is instantly on his feet and heading for the door. I see him grab something from the drawer on the table by it.

I look at Beth, who shrugs her shoulders and goes back to her food, seemingly unbothered by any of it. I see a few morepeople heading towards the main house.“Ava don’t worry. Harry will deal with it. You should finish your dinner,”she tells me.

I go back to eating, and we hear raised voices. I look at Beth, asking if she knows what’s going on.“Harry’s dealing with it. Nothing to worry about.”

Not worried so much as curious.I nod and finish my food.

“It was really good Beth,”I tell her.

Istand up and take my plate to the sink when all of a sudden, the front door is thrown open and a very angry Harry comes inside.Wow! Yosemite Sam just walked in the door, anger smoke practically pouring from his ears.I giggle to myself but quickly swallow my laughter when I see a boy step from behind him.

“Marcus, welcome. This Is Beth and Ava. You will be staying with them while you’re here.”Harry tells the room. I see the look that passes between the adults, and so does the boy because he is instantly mad.

“Don’t fucking look at each other like I’m not in the room with you!”He yells at them. They gawk at him not expecting that to come out of his mouth.

“Sorry, Marcus,”Harry recovers quickly.“We just weren’t expecting you until next week, so we have been caught a little off guard.”

The boy doesn’t say anything else, just continues to glare at them. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t seen me yet.

Wow, his eyes are super green.I cock my head to the side as I study him. He has blonde hair, and I think he is a bit taller than me. He’s beautiful.Ha! Bet he’ll wanna be your friend if you tell him he’s beautiful.

He must feel my stare because his head shoots to me with lightning speed.

“Hi,”I say as I get closer to him.“I’m Ava.”I stick my hand out to him. He looks at my outstretched hand and back at me and slowly puts his hand in mine. I give it a large shake.“Pleased to meet you. Did you know we have a pool here? It's pretty awesome. And there are also a couple of horses. It's gonna be pretty fun here so I don’t think you should be mad. We can pet the horses and swim in the pool. Did you bring any toys? I didn’t get to bring much more than Miss Mushroom and Mr. Waffle but you can have Mr. Waffle. He’s really nice. He’s a squirrel. Miss Mushroom is a goat.”

I hear Harry and Beth make a choking noise behind me. Marcus is staring at me like he’s never seen another kid before.Maybe I shouldn't have said hello?

---