Page 1 of Amy's Santa

Prologue

Drew

[Drew aged 17, Amy aged 7]

“Hey, squirt. Fancy escaping this joint?”

Amy’s little face snaps expectantly toward mine, her stillness suggesting she’s holding her breath.

“I’m going to visit the Desert Museum. Wanna tag along?”

Slowly she gets to her feet, her eyes wide. She glances around as if to check that it really is her I’m addressing. When she sees there’s no one else there, her eyes widen. “Go to the Desert Museum? With you?”

Fuck, but this little girl gets me in the feels. She’s a delight to be around, cheerful, friendly and helpful. So much so I’ve noticed that Marcia depends on her a lot. With three-year-old twins and a baby just a year old, her stepmom is run ragged. While I expect she’d be horrified if I pointed it out, and it’s certainly not my place to do so, Marcia takes advantage of Amy’s naturally sunny disposition. An ‘Amy can you help me,’ or ‘Amy, Jacob’s crying can you go see to him’, or ‘Amy, can you tidy the twins' toys up’, has Amy leaving what she’s doing and happily completing the task. She likes to help and seldom complains or refuses.

I’d first met her when my life changed dramatically two years back. Rather than living in a trailer, existing hand-to-mouth, often going hungry, my older sister and I had come to live among the bikers of the Satan’s Devils Motorcycle club. When Mariana married Mouse, all changes were for the better. Important to a growing lad, different to all my years prior, my stomach was always full.

Mariana had looked after me since our mom was taken away when I was just nine, and she only fourteen, but apparently no one knew about the two kids who were left to fend for themselves.

I was born in the United States, conceived as a result of the rape which had caused Mom to flee her home country. Mariana was just four when she had been smuggled over the border. After Mom had been deported, we’d lived under the radar, terrified the same fate was on the horizon for my sister. When Mom had arrived back in Colombia, she’d been dead within months at the hands of our father.

Mariana’s now well on the way to achieving her legal status, and that’s all thanks to Mouse and his MC brothers. I owe them a debt I doubt I can ever repay.

That I wanted to make restitution was a bone of contention between myself and my sister. I want to prospect next year when I become eighteen, but she doesn’t like the notion at all. To her, education is all important. We reached a compromise. Mouse is the technical guru of the MC, and I’d become fascinated with how he searches out information, finding it no matter how many layers it was buried. When he suggested I obtain a degree in computer science, just as he’d done himself, I saw a way to both satisfy Mariana’s desire for me to continue my studies, and to pay back the club. I knew I’d eventually end up working with Mouse.

With everything happening, I’d had little time to get out and explore. We’d never had money to go to the local attractions and couldn’t afford the school trips, so there are places I’ve always wanted to see. Now that I’m mobile with my own car, I can visit them myself, and as school’s broken up for the summer, I’ve got some spare time.

“Yeah, squirt. I want to go and would like some company.” And that’s the honest truth, even if it’s only that of a seven-year-old girl.

“She’s been before,” Heart, her father, says fondly. “She went with the school last year.” His lips press together. “She loved it. We should have taken her again, but the twins and Alexis are quite a handful.”

I appreciate that. The shit they have to get together before taking Jacob, Isabel and the baby out seems ridiculous, and a good reason they tend to stay on the compound.

“I want to go,” Amy cries with excitement, then adds, obviously remembering the lessons drummed into her, “Thank you.”

“Well alright then.” It’s good to bring some fun into her life.

“And get ice cream?”

“We’ll see.” I glance at Heart, he raises his chin.

Heart’s face shows his love for her as he says, “You be good for Drew, Amy.”

Amy tugs at my sleeve. “I want to seeallthe animals there. And play in the playhouse, oh, and can I hold a snake? Please, Drew?” Her little face framed by the gorgeous blond locks she got from Crystal, her birth mother, is lit with excitement.

A chuckle comes from my throat. “You want to be a packrat, do you? We’ll see what we can do.”

“You sure you’re ready for this?” Heart grins at me. I give him a lift of my chin to show that I am, conveying in that one gesture that he can trust me with her.

“And the monster?” I’m stumped for a moment, but then remember the Gila monster, the venomous lizard which is native around here.

“Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

With Amy chattering nonstop from the time we get into my car until we arrive at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, I know I made the right choice. Amy deserves some excitement, some dedicated time to her.

I admit to feeling like I’m back to being a kid myself as I let her lead me from exhibit to exhibit, sharing her delight in the animals and reptiles, seeing the wonder through her child’s eyes.

“Can I have a pig?” she asks, as we pause at an enclosure.

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