Reawaken

16.

I felt his fingers trace the skin of my back.

            Our bare bodies were still tangled in the eggshell sheets of the motel. It was such a gentle touch, I thought I had imagined it. But my eyelids fluttered open to the rising sun, and I felt Norris's hands gently caressing my skin. Almost instinctively, I tensed up. Remembering the blue and black bruises from Clay's wrath tracing my dark skin, the remnants of scars mapping across my spine. Norris must've seen them, his callused hand being oh so gentle as he traced over them.

            I turned to him, shame clouding my thoughts and I saw his whiskey orbs staring at me. I stared at him, ready for him to ask me what happened, preparing for this can of worms I dreaded to explain to another living soul. About my horrible awful I'd have to relive, about what I'd done to Clay to survive. I feared what he'd think of me.

            But Norris didn't ask, instead his hand reached for mine, leaving a kiss on my fingers and blessing me with a smirk.

            Terrified yet calm, a smile grew on my own lips.

            "Mornin'," he said simply, his voice rasping, "We should get a move on so we can make the bus."

❃

Neither one of us said anything the whole ride back to Eva. Norris was busy reading a morning paper, I watched the passing trees out the window. My mind kept wandering to our night, the love that we made. I ain't ever been a fast girl or even crushed on boys much when I was a young. And the only man I'd ever been with was my husband. But with Norris, something had ignited in me, something that left me feeling nervous and antsy around him but also drew me closer to him, like a moth to a flame. Like lightning bugs to the stars.

The bus slowed to a stop, right close to the Mayfair Motel. Deflated and worn out, I stood and followed Norris off. Celia stood on the steps of Mayfair, and once her eyes landed on her daddy a shrill filled the air, running up to us.

Norris smiled wide, scooping the girl in his arms and kissing her chubby brown cheeks. Celia giggled and giggled.

"How's my baby girl?" Norris asked her, swinging her around, "I missed you."

"You just saw me yesterday, Daddy." The girl laughed.

We walked in the lobby, where Ms. Eloise stood at the desk sorting her mail and next to her stood Bunny, who gave me a goofy look as I walked inside, almost as if she was a fly on the wall in that Cecily motel.

"Where have yall been creeping in here at the wee hours of the morning." Bunny instigated, causing Ms. Eloise to look up at us. The old woman smiled, naïve to Bunny's teasing.

"Happy to see you two made it back 'round this way safely," Eloise said, "Hope you enjoyed seeing more of Louisiana's countryside, Miss Demetria."

Both Norris and I exchanged a knowing glance and I almost saw the hint of a coy grin meet his lips.

"Cecily was beautiful, ma'am. Still, I think Eva has my heart." I told her, walking up to Bunny.

Bunny whispered to me then, "That ain't the only thing with your heart, huh?"

My cheeks burned at her remark, grateful Eloise nor Norris was paying her no mind. We walked up the steps back to my room her prying not ceasing.

Finally, as we walked through the door, I asked, "What are you even doing 'round this way?"

"I came to check on you after my cousin's tormenting. Eloise said you and Norris done got stuck in Cecily last night and I was finna leave until ya came prancing in. And that look on your face when yall came in I know something done happened." She was giving me a funny grin and sizing me up, sitting next to me on the rug.