"I'm not sure who they are. I just know I'm being followed."
"Where is Elizabeth's father?"
"He was a one night stand. I haven't seen him again."
"Can I drive you home or to a friend's house?"
"No. They will find me."
Why is this women so distraught and afraid? I can't make her leave, it is about to be dark outside. I wonder what kind of danger she is in.
"Mam, why don't you stay with me tonight, and we will figure things out in the morning?" It was getting late and it was about to be dark. I didn't won't her wandering the streets, besides, she looked exhausted.
Surprisingly she agreed.
"My name is Brandon. I'll put something to eat on the stove and show you around."
"I'm Lucy."
We had Mac and Cheese and I left her and Elizabeth to make themselves comfortable as I set up camp on the couch.
I was awakened to the sound of squeals and babbling coming from my bedroom and I pushed myself up from the couch trying to remember what happened the night before. Every thing came flooding back and I got up to start breakfast.
"Good morning, Sir. I'm so sorry about yesterday."
"Call me Brandon. What is going on?"
"Well it's a long story."
"I have all day."
She went on to tell me that she was a single mom. A drunken evening led to stupid decisions that landed her pregnant. She has always been poor but recently things have gotten worse. She lost her part time job as an editor for a small town author. Soon after that, the repo man took her car and she was evicted from her apartment. She had been living with her mom, but a horrible fire took her mother's life and landed Lucy in a psychiatric ward. The flashbacks became hallucinations. The hallucinations began her on a down hill spiral of paranoia. She was diagnoses with paranoid schizophrenia and was placed on expensive medications. She hasn't had the money to pay for the meds and she is worried that Child Protective Services are after her. She received an anonymous message that she had inherited a few hundred dollars. With her remaining funds she travelled to Bridgeport. After realizing it was a scam, she became afraid which led to a attack and when I met her, she was in the middle of a hallucination and CPS was trying to take Liz.
"How well can you write?" I had a brilliant idea.
"I'm fairly decent, but I can paint."
"Show me."
I bought Liz a crib and gave Lucy a job painting for my book that I was writing. Soon we had brought in enough money for her to see a shrink.
I took her to my doctor and we picked up her meds. On the way home, that day, we saw that the festival was in town and we stopped by for a while. I convinced her to call a baby sitter and we spent the evening eating junk and playing games.
She had a great time and we didn't make it back home until 2am. My favorite part of the evening was watching her skate. She was so beautiful and childlike, almost breakable. It was the first time I had convinced her to leave the house in months. That evening when we returned, the baby sitter met us at the door.
"Sir, there was an accident. Elizabeth is fine, but your kitchen isn't. I knew how to use the fire extinguisher and put out the flames, but the counters are ruined."
"Oh my God, they found me and tried burn Elizabeth." For the first time since the first day here, her personality shifted.
All I could do was hold her as I told the baby sitter to leave.
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