Page 133 of The Me I Left Behind

“Max, stop. You’re waking the baby. Leave us alone.” She glanced in the corner at the crib where Leo was sleeping. He was standing up in the crib, holding onto the side, looking at her.

Sit down, Leo! You can’t stand yet. What are you doing?

“I will never leave you alone, Lilly. Get that through your skull. You have my son.”

She whipped around, looking at the closed door. Yelling through it. “You don’t deserve a child, Max. You’re too self-centered.”

“Don’t tell me what I deserve. I’m the one who tells you.”

“What a pig-headed ass you are!”

Mommy? Daddy.

Leo.She turned his way again, but now the crib was by the window. The breeze blew the curtains straight up until they almost touched the ceiling. The mosquitoes swept in, landing in droves on her arms and biting.

She batted at the pesky creatures.

Mommy!

Leo!Covered with mozzies! She tried to run to him. Her feet were stuck in the sand, sucking her back.Leo!

“Come on, baby. Come with me, Lilly. I’ll take care of you, and you and Leo will never want for anything.”

“But you still get to bloody fuck around. Right?”

“But you’ll have everything you need. Leo too.”

“You mean that really works on women?”

“Some women. Yes, it does. It worked on my ex.”

No. No!“No. Not on me. Go away!”

The pounding stopped. Lilly quickly rotated toward the door and the absence of sound. Then back to the crib when she heard Leo call out.

Max was in the window, reaching for Leo. Leo reached for him.Daddy!

Max tugged him toward the window, smiling at her. “See, I always get my way.”

“No!”

She reached for her legs, trying to pry her feet free, pounding her fists on her useless limbs. She was stuck.Goddamn it!

“Leo!”

Max pulled him all the way through the window. The wind and the mozzies carried them both away, tumbling with the twirling gale, like Almira Gulch carrying Toto off on her bicycle in the Wizard of Oz.

Lilly jolted up in bed and screamed. “No! Leo!”

Footsteps rushed down the hallway. “Lilly!” Poppy burst into the room with Freya on her heels. “What is it?”

She was breathing too hard, too fast. “Leo. Is he there?”

Freya went to the bed. “He’s sleeping. I don’t know how, but he is. Are you okay?”

Lilly tried to slow her breathing. She knew if she couldn’t, she’d hyperventilate soon and get lightheaded. “Fine. Dream.”

Poppy sat on the edge of the bed and put her arms around her. “Maybe a nightmare.”

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