Page 8 of Gideon

“Yeah. There was this couple who couldn’t have kids. They were so nice to me, I had a room of my own. I loved living with them. They bought me clothes, and she would take me to have apedicure and manicure. I was there for almost a year. I was ten, and they said they would adopt me. I was so happy, but she got pregnant. And they sent me back to the group home. My heart was broken for the longest time, and then I smartened up.”

“That pisses me off. Why didn’t they keep you?”

“I don’t know.”

“What happened when you turned eighteen and the money stopped?”

“I camped out at the lake and started participating in fishing contests for money. I knew the lake, where the fish were, and how deep in the water they went. I won some of the contests. But I didn’t have a boat. Eventually, the guys on foot would follow me and throw their line in where I went.”

“When I turned nineteen, an old fisherman I always fished with said he was too old to drive and gave me his truck and boat. That’s when the fishing contest became real. I picked that old man up every morning, so we fished together. When he died, I missed him. He was only the second person up to then that I missed when they were no longer in my life.

“When did you meet Gavin?”

“I had already met him, but we didn’t start dating until I was twenty. We married not long after that, and when I was twenty-four, we had Haley.

“Gavin told me he had no family, so when he was shot, he told me to get Haley and hide. I didn’t know what he was talking about until his father arrived at our house.”

“Wow, I’m glad I saw Haley running and screaming for help.”

“Yes, thank God. He beat me because I said we were staying at our home. He hit my baby. I hate him. He was ready to kill me. He was waiting until Haley was old enough to care for herself, and then he was going to kill me. One of the people who worked for him told me I needed to leave before it was too late.”

4

Gideon

I glanced at Laney.She sat cross-legged, her shoes off, wearing tight jeans and a pink T-shirt. She leaned over the back seat, chatting with Bear. Just that one glance had me hard.

“Tell me about your love of fishing,” I said to get my mind onto something besides how hot she was. She turned toward me with a smile, her head resting on the back of the seat.

“Okay, but then it’s your turn. What do you want to know?”

“What got you into fishing?”

“I used to go to the lake to swim and eat fruit I'd picked from neighbors' trees. They just let them go to waste, so I picked their fruit. This boy, also in the system,fished every day. He asked about my family, and I told him I had none.”

“What did he say?”

“He said I was lucky because when his mom sobered up, they made him go back to her. Most of the time, they lived on the streets. He said he would rather sleep in a bed at night than with all her drug-addicted friends. His grandparents wouldn’t even help him.”

“He stole the fishing pole for me after the nice couple sent me back. He taught me to fish and always told me never to take drugs or alcohol.”

“What happened to him?”

“It makes me cry every time I think about him. I walked down to the lake, and he was fishing. When I saw him, I knew something was horribly wrong. He couldn’t stand up straight. I walked in front of him, and someone had beaten the hell out of him. I ran and got help even though he didn’t want me to.”

“I helped him to sit down, and he told me what happened. His mom’s boyfriend took a bat to him while he was sleeping. Blood was everywhere. His clothes were soaked in blood. I think he had a lot of broken bones. All of his fingers were broken. They were so swollen.”

“I don’t know how he made it to the lake. He died before the ambulance got there. He told me he knew he was dying and wanted to be with me because I was his only friend.” She started crying, remembering her friend. I opened the console and gave her some napkins.

“I told the police what Fred said. When it went to court, they claimed my testimony was hearsay. They said I was a street kid who ran with a gang along with Fred. Everything they said was a lie. That lawyer lied about Fred and me. He wasn’t in a gang, and he never did anything wrong. He fished. That’s all he did.”

“How old was he when he died?”

“He was fourteen. I was twelve. I was waiting in the courthouse hallway to testify when I saw his Mom walk in. She stopped and thanked me for being her son’s friend. I saw her take a gun out of her purse; she walked into the courtroom and killed the boyfriend. Then she shot the lawyer, and the police shot her.”

“Damn, what did you do after that?”

“I went fishing. When I walked back to the people’s house where I was staying, they said I had to go back to the foster care center because I was bringing trouble to their home.”

---